Blog BlogLovin Instagram Pinterest

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Craft: 8 (almost 9, oops) Months Old

Me again!  And twice in one week!  A miracle, surely.  I am so back-logged on the blog that I don't even know where to start, but I figure that since my littlest chicken is almost 9 months old, maybe I should blog about him being 8 months old.  I would like to state for the record that I actually did manage to take his monthly photos at close to the 8-month mark (8 months + 11 days counts as close, right?!).  Go me.


I decided that for this post I'm going to skip the normal categories and just hit the highlights since I'll be back with an official report from Dr. V including weight and length next year week.  Also because we are almost at 9 months and I can't keep track of what has happened when, ha!

C has followed in big sister's footstpes and maintained his champion sleeping status.  He goes to bed around 8 and sleeps until sometime between 7:30-8:00.  He takes two naps - one around 10am which usually lasts 45 minutes or 1 hour, and one around 2pm which lasts anywere from 2-3 hours.  I should also note that this child is (thankfully) SO flexible and will cat nap pretty much anywhere, which big sister Lilly would never do.  I am not saying he is taking a 3-hour nap in the Ergo, but he'll conk out just about anywhere for 30 minutes just to get a little re-charge nap in and then he's good to go. 

I glanced back at Lilly's 8-month update and chuckled at what she was eating: nursing and homemade baby food cubes.  Craft honestly eats more than any child I have ever seen (and rivals some adults at most meals as well).  I'll post an "eating day in the life" at some point for your entertainment, but as an example, last night for dinner he ate chopped up roasted turkey (I am not sure how much but it was a lot), roasted butternut squash and about 1/2-cup (although it could have been more [or less but probably not] since I'm terrible at guessing amounts) of raspberries and blueberries.  And a graham cracker for dessert.  C has been feeding himself for as long as I can remember, and prefers that to being fed.  He is right on track with where his big sister was in terms of nursing at this point as well: he nurses by far the most when he wakes up, then again 30 minutes - 1 hour before lunch and the same amount of time before dinner and then really briefly before bed.  He is super efficient and rarely nurses longer than five minutes, even first thing in the morning.  We pretty much totally gave up on rice cereal/oatmeal after his last doctor appointment and have been using an iron supplement, and Craft has been a champion with water out of the sippy cup for several months now. 

MOBILE is the word of the day for this kid - he does not sit still.  He can be sitting in my lap, laying in his bed, sitting in the high chair, you name it but those little legs are always kick-kick-kickin'.  Craft is still doing the army crawl/roll around combination but man is he fast!  He has been attempting a "real" crawl but more often than not ends up in the downward dog position trying to stand up.  More on that in the next post.  He pulls up on everything, all the time, and loves to "stand" and "walk" (assisted, of course).  Craft makes lots of noises - he calls pretty much everything "dada" and says something that resembles "Lilly" a lot (although I'm not sure if that's what he's trying to say, it's what it sounds like).  He also says what sounds like "hey" whenever someone new comes into a room.  Again, I'm not sure whether that's actually what he's trying to say but that's what it sounds like and it's consistent.

There are lots of likes and dislikes, but I'll save the list for next week's post.  I will just mention that we were very fortunate that Lilly was a happy baby, but if Lilly was happy I would say that Craft is ecstatic.  We are so lucky because he is so laid-back and flexible and honestly just really happy.  He's not been himself this week because we are all battling some kind of plague that Lills brought home from school, but even so he has been so content, just hasn't cackled as much as usual.  Love this nugget.

I'll leave you with some photos.  It's getting really hard to get this little stinker to sit still - he is into EVERYTHING and I am here to tell y'all we are gonna be in trouble!  I realize that all of these photos are basically the same, but (1) I am too lazy to make a collage tonight and (2) his facial expressions kill me, so I decided to post them all.  Sorry, not sorry.

"I'm so happy to be here!"


"No really!  So happy to be here."

"You didn't really think I was gonna sit stil, did you?!"

"Oooooohhhhhh!  Lookie!  A table!"

"I think I shall climb atop it."

"Who, me?"




"Oh, you don't want me to climb on the table?  That's cool, I'll just stand up in the glider."


"You didn't really think a simple 'no no, Craft' was gonna stop me, did ya?"

Try to reprimand this face.  I dare ya.

"I'm so happy to be climbing on the table!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"









"Oh LOOk!  The floor!"







"I'm so happy you let me hold this elephant!!!"

"Oh wow, there's a whole other side of this glider just waiting to be discovered..."






And that, my friends, is a small look into what the boy child has been up to.  Big sister had her first "dance recital" this week, so I hope to get to that post and many others as soon as there are more hours in a day soon.

Happy 8 months, chicken nugget!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Lilly Says

The other night, Dan had a work function so I had the kids by myself.  I did not know it at the time, but both were beginning to come down with a cold so while they weren't terrible, they also weren't in the greatest moods they've ever been in either.  It was bath time, the time of night when bed time is in sight, and I was utterly exhausted from the work week (and on that particular night, I was exhausted from my two little angels, too!).  Dan walked in to both Lilly and Craft laying on their backs squealing and kicking and splashing water EVERYWHERE and giggling at each other.  We let them play for a few minutes while we caught up on each others' days when out of nowhere, Lills abruptly stopped splashing (thank The Lord), sat straight up and said, "Oh. My. Goodness.  You guys are KILLING me tonight!"  Dan and I looked at each other and burst into a for of giggles and then he pointed to me and said, "busted!"  Touché. 



The child doesn't forget anything, ever. I need to remember that I guess!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Craft: 7 Months (+1.5 weeks!) Old

Blah blah blah I'm so busy blah blah blah.  There, I said it!  Now that we got that out of the way, we can get to the good stuff before 2 more years pass without updates.  :-)

Weight/Length:  No idea on length, but for once I have an idea on weight because Craft was weighed at the doctor last week (more on that later)!  He's somewhere around (a little over) 22 pounds.  Chunker!


Sleep:  No changes here.  Craft goes to bed around 8pm and sleeps until sometime between 7-8am.  It NEVER FAILS that he wakes up with a poop, though. His morning poop is like a human alarm clock (that was Dan's description and it's spot on).  Seriously some mornings I will hear C in his room at 6:30 just chatting away and I know he's working on a good one.  When that happens, I change him (or kick Dan and tell him it's his turn...so stinky) and nurse him and he normally goes back to sleep until 8 or 8:30.  Other mornings he will sleep through the poop and I'll change and feed him when he wakes up and then he's up for the day.  Morning naps are around 10am (sometimes later depending on how late he slept) and last anywhere from 45 minutes - 2 hours.  Afternoon naps are around 2pm and last anywhere from 2-3 hours.  We got lucky twice, I am aware (and thankful!).


Feeding:  It's so funny because looking back at Lilly's 7-month update, I wrote that she was mostly nursing but that we were adding more and more solids (and they were still purees).  I'm sure it will not shock anyone to learn that once Craft started eating, he did not look back!  He nurses four times each day: when he wakes up/before breakfast (between 7a-8a), before lunch (12p), when he gets up from his afternoon nap/before dinner (5p) and before bed (7:45p-ish).  He gets solid foods normally about an hour after each feeding (with the exception of the bedtime feed).  A sample menu is as follows:

Breakfast: Egg with cheese, mini pancakes, kiwi, Greek yogurt
Lunch: Oven-roasted turkey, string cheese, broccoli sprinkled with parm, pears
Dinner: Black beans, tomato, avocado, peaches

Dinner is much more delicious when it is smeared all over your face!
Craft definitely prefers to be able to feed himself (and in fact gets frustrated if there isn't anything that he can pick up and put in his own mouth), which basically consists of grabbing fistfuls of whatever is on his tray and shoveling whatever he can get into his mouth.  I need to get a video, but this kid's eating is unlike anything I have ever seen.  He is hilarious.

Firsts This Month:  Lots of these, many of which I am positive I have forgotten about, but the main "first" I can think of is that Craft experienced his first time riding in a "big boy" (read: convertible) car seat!  Craft still had plenty of leg room (and at least 10 lbs at the time we switched him) left in the infant car seat, but we went ahead and transitioned Lilly to a high-backed booster and homeboy was getting heavy in that infant seat so we went ahead and transitioned him to Lilly's "old" convertible seat.  He seemed confused the first couple of times, but we reclined it and he's been good to go.  The only thing I miss about that infant seat is how much easier it is to move between cars, but I figure I can go ahead and sell it since there are a few years left before it expires.  I may be able to make a decent amount off of a car seat in great condition with no accidents + 2 bases!  C also went to his first tailgate and football game (NCSU v. Georgia Southern).  Finally, we had our first "emergency" trip to the doctor because he rolled off the table at the pool while his diaper was being changed (I will not name names here but would like to state for the record that I was not changing the diaper.  I would also like the record to show that he's fine.).  He's a wiggly little thing...and he's fast.

Developments:  So many!  I swear everything is happening so much more quickly this time around and I hate it (that is not actually true as I just read through Lilly's 7-month post and noted that developmentally Craft is doing the same things that she was doing at his age, but it just seems like it's all happening so much more quickly!).  My big boy is sitting up all by himself, unassisted.  Also he is drinking water out of a sippy cup.  Stop it!


Do you spy my two toofies?!
Craft's primary mode of transportation is to roll all over the place.  I can turn my back for five seconds and he will have rolled all the way to the opposite side of the room from where he was before.  When he's on his belly, he pushes up on all fours and does this funny scooting motion but only goes backwards.  I think we might be close to crawling, and I'm not ready!  He also still loves to "stand" and is starting to learn that if he holds on to something, he can stand on his own (but not for very long at all and I always make sure I'm right there).  

C has also really started to talk A LOT over the past month.  I am not sure whether this can be considered Craft's first word, but he says "hey" a lot.  If I (or anyone) walk(s) into a room, or walk in to get him out of his crib, or really just see him after having not seen him his whole little face will light up and he says "hey!"  I'll have to try to get it on video, it is the cutest.  Again, I'm not sure he knows what he's saying but that is one word that he's very consistent with.  Much to my dismay, his favorite sounds are "da da" and "la la."  I keep telling Dan that "dada" doesn't count as his first word unless he actually associates it with Dan.  So there.  No sign of mama, even though I've been working on it.  Sometimes I swear he is trying to say "Lilly."  

He also got his first two teeth within a few days of each other this month (see above)!  I think that a third is probably on its way based on the current drool situation, but no sign of it yet.

This is not really a "development" but since I don't have a good category to put it in I'll just write it here - I swear to y'all that this is the happiest baby I have ever encountered (and I promise that I'm not just saying that because he's mine).  Craft always has this huge goofy grin on his face and laughs all the time.  It is the best sound.  I have plenty of videos that I should post (I won't tonight because I'm too lazy), but I can demonstrate this point with the following: last week one night Craft cried out for a minute or so when Dan and I were going to bed.  It didn't sound like hysterical crying, more like calling out in his sleep, so when I listened for a minute and he had stopped and stilled and evidently gone back to sleep, I didn't think anything else about it.  The next morning when I went in to get him, I discovered that the poor guy had spit up and slept in it.  And by "spit up" let me be clear that I am talking huge chunks of food caked in his hair.  I went ahead and nursed him and then stripped him down to hop in the shower with me (which he LOVED by the way).  But really...would you be this happy with dried chunky food throw up in your hair?!?!?!







I do remember thinking that Lilly was a happy baby, and she really was but this guy is ecstatic, and the comment we probably get the most is about Craft's happy demeanor.  He is so go-with-the-flow, too, which I am so thankful for.

Likes:  By far his most favorite thing in the whole world is his big sister.  You have never seen a baby belly laugh so hard and so much as when Lilly is even just walking by him.  He LOVES her.  He also loves: Bath time.  Laughing.  Giggling.  Talking.  Squealing.  Eating.  Layla.  Mommy & Daddy.  Singing/songs/music.  Snuggling (only when really tired).  Books.  Sleeping.  Sitting up.  Rolling.  Scooting.  People watching.  Paci.  Lovey.  Being outside.  Walks.  Swimming.  Being worn in the ergo.

Dislikes:  The main thing I can think of here is that it really really hurts Craft's feelings when he thinks he's alone.  Even if he is playing and not paying anyone any attention, if you walk out of the room his little face falls and he gets so sad and cries.  The minute he sees you again, though, he's laughing and happy as a lark.  I don't like to be lonely either, little guy!

What I'm Thankful For:  Two great babies and a rockstar husband.  I have been absolutely swamped at work - last week I don't think I saw the kids for more than 20 minutes a day if that, and Dan has picked up all of the slack at home and kept the house running seamlessly.  I'm thankful that he is supportive of my career and that he is so good with our babies as well and has no problem stepping up to keep things running at home on his own when I can't be home to help.

What I'm Looking Forward To:  A low-key upcoming weekend!  We have had so much going on that I am looking forward to a break.  Although it never turns out that way and we always end up finding things to busy ourselves with!  Also Halloween costume shopping!  AND, Lills is getting her first "pedi" this weekend (really  just getting her toes painted at a nail salon) for a friend's birthday party, so of course I'm ecstatic about that.  We also still haven't gotten C's 6-month photos taken so I'm looking forward to that as well.

Next Pediatrician Appointment:  Our 9-month appointment is on November 3rd, and I'm sure it will be here before we know it.  

I got a really great series of photos this month that I am not even going to attempt to narrow down, so have fun gazing at the same 75 photos below.  :-)  I think we have hit the time when it is going to start getting harder to get good monthly photos, because this stinker is into everything (and has discovered that he can get the sticker off of his onesie).









I know this one is blurry but I can't stand it, he's so excited!











Plenty of updates in the queue that I will hopefully have time someday to share with you all.  Hope your week is great!

More from The Baum Squad:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...