Update!!

Wow, I've been the worst blogger! Between the holidays, a new book release, and trying to get our routine back on track, I have really been ignoring my blog.

We're definitely overdue for an update on precious baby Andrew! He turned 7 months old on January 12th.

He had an appointment with his new pediatrician early this month and weighed in at 18 pounds 5 ounces and 27 inches tall. He's about 50th percentile all around and is a very healthy little guy. We've been doing a somewhat modified vaccine schedule, but even with reduced number of vaccines at this visit, Andrew still got a terrible fever of about 102.9. It was a scary few days, but he came out fine, thank goodness!

He's getting better and better at his coordination. He's using his thumb and forefinger perfectly now and is eating finger foods.

Concentrating so hard to pick up the Puff!

Success!!!

He's also crawling!! Here's a video of the very beginnings of the crawling a little over a week ago.



 Now, he's getting up more on all fours and crawling, which is so exciting to see.

  

We even had to install a baby gate on the door of his bedroom so he can play safely in there without crawling out and falling down the stairs.

We created a little play area in our living room with foam letters so he can play there with all his great toys he got for Christmas. Right now, our house is pretty small, so we have to make due with the space we have. So far, this is working really well!

Andrew is also using his potty more and more often! He is always so proud of himself when he pees or poops in the potty. Mainly, we just place him on there when he wakes up and during transition times like bath-time, after meals, when we get home from being out, etc.

Our day-to-day life is such a joy. Andrew is a happy baby almost all the time. He's such a flirt, too. Whenever we go out, people are always stopping to say hello to him and to tell us how cute he is. It's so funny because he stares at people and waits for them to make eye contact. As soon as they do, he breaks out in this huge smile. He's too smart and charming for his own good!!

I love watching him grow and learn new things. He'll be 8 months old next week, which is so bittersweet. He's growing up so fast. His first birthday seems like it's right around the corner. Every single time I put him to bed, I hold him in my arms a little longer than he really needs, just because I know there will come a time (all too soon) when he doesn't need me to rock him to sleep. I want to enjoy every moment.

Our happy family on Super Bowl Sunday

5 Months!

Happy 5 months old Sweet baby Andrew!!!!

Andrew turned 5 months old on Monday!! I thought I would take a few minutes and document his growth and milestones so far!

He's growing so much. He's very alert and always looking around, wanting to be a part of everything. He can grab toys so easily now. Of course, they go straight to his mouth! He's drooling like crazy, and we're thinking about putting bibs on him all the time because he just ends up with this ring of drool on his clothes, haha. He's sitting up tripod style, but can't quite hold himself up without the use of his hands.

He still isn't sleeping through the night most nights. Well, unless you go by the 5 hours stretch thing. I personally don't consider sleeping from 8:30 to 1:30 sleeping through the night! Especially not when he's sometimes up for hours at a time in the middle of the night. Eek! We are doing the best we can though, and hoping the sleep will continue to get better and better.

Food! Andrew loves to eat and is doing such a great job with solid foods. So far he's tried: Pear, Avocado, Apples, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes and Butternut Squash. He's also had oatmeal and rice cereal. I think his favorite is the butternut squash, so I made LOTS of it and froze it into little cubes. I bought a Ninja food processor (which I'm loving) and make his food in big batches, then freeze it in ice cube trays. When it's frozen, I take it out and put the cubes into labeled ziplock bags in the freezer. Easy peasy! It's been a lot of fun to make Andrew's food, and I can't wait to try more variety and start mixing things in fun combinations. It won't be long until he's done with purees and on to finger foods!

We didn't make it to his 4 month well child visit/vaccinations, so we went yesterday instead. He is 16lbs, 9oz. (50th percentile) and 26.5 inches tall (75th percentile), so he is tall and just a little skinny, which she said is normal for breastfed babies at this stage. He's very healthy and did a great job with his shots. Again, we declined polio, hepB and rotavirus, but went ahead with DTaP, Hib and the pneumonia one. They didn't seem to bother him too much, so that's great! I love that he's so healthy and strong.

He's spending a lot of time in his exersaucer lately. He loves it! It's his favorite place to play, so he's in it at least an hour every day. He loves going for walks either in the Baby Bjorn or in the stroller. He also loves music. Every time I start to sing to him, he gets this big cheesy grin on his face. It's so adorable! Andrew is such a happy baby, smiling all the time! It melts my heart!

Cheesy Grin!

It's hard to believe he's almost halfway to a year. The six month mark will be here before we know it, I'm sure. Life with baby is still an adjustment, but I'm loving being a mom to the cutest baby boy on the planet.

Sitting Up!

Just over the past couple of days, Andrew has started propping himself up! He's not quite sitting up all the way on his own, but it's a step in that direction. So exciting to see him gaining more control over his body. He's getting closer and closer to crawling too, but I know it could still be a while before he's really got it figured out.

Here's a cute video from today with him sitting up on his own! He has to use his hands to stay up.