Visit from Nana

This weekend, we had a very special visitor at our house. Nana!! My mother had a few days off from school for winter break and drove all the way up here to hang out with us. Andrew loved seeing his Nana, and I know we will all miss having her here. I wish we lived just a little bit closer to my family so I could see them more often, but I'll definitely take advantage of any chance we get to be together.

 

It was so hard to see her go this morning, but hopefully we'll be able to make plans to see her again before summer. 

8 Months!

As of the 12th, Andrew is 8 months old. It's so hard to believe how fast he's growing up. On one hand, it makes my heart so happy to see him so healthy and growing and developing new skills. On the other hand, I feel like it's just passing by in a flash and my tiny little baby is getting so big and so mature. It's hard!! But truly, every day is a blessing with this little guy. I love him so much and am so grateful to have him in our lives.

A few fun things about where he is in his development:

• He makes this super cute little clicking/clucking sound with his tongue. When we do it, he does it back to us. I got it on video the other day, so I'll have to try to find some time to post that this week.
• He is crawling up a storm! Usually, it's a fast military crawl where he's pulling himself forward with his hands, but sometimes he does get up on his hands and knees and get his belly off the ground.
• Andrew has just started to get up on his knees and make motions of pulling himself up, but he still hasn't tried to pull up to standing yet.
• Because of the crawling, we put a baby gate on his bedroom door so he can play in there safely without danger of falling down the stairs. Yesterday he crawled up to the gate and George was sitting on the other side of it. Andrew took a little plastic ball and passed it through the gate. George passed it back. Andrew passed it back and so on. It was his first real game of "catch". So cute!
• Solid foods are becoming more and more a part of his diet. He is able to grasp things and pull them to his mouth easily, so we've been giving him bananas, toast, eggs and puffs. We're hoping to try avocado, pasta and other soft foods soon! I think he'll be eating the same foods we are soon!! He's such a great eater!!
• As for our EC (Elimination Communication), things have really been going great. Andrew mostly poops in the potty now instead of in a diaper, which is unreal. He pees in the potty at least three or four times a day, so we're down to only changing diapers maybe four times a day max, and that's only because we're out of the house and haven't started carrying a portable potty or anything when we go out.
• He is such a little charmer. When we go out, Andrew actually stares at people and wait for them to make eye contact. As soon as they do, he breaks out in this huge smile! Everyone has to stop by to tell us how cute he is, hehe.
• He's been getting more and more interested in his tablet. I know it's way too early for him to really understand how to use it, but he's been entertaining himself and trying hard to figure it out, which is really cool to see.

Happy 1st Valentine's Day Andrew!

Wow, just thinking back to this time last year. George and I had gone to see a movie together and sometime in the middle of it, I started to feel Andrew kick really hard. I had been feeling him move around a lot, but George hadn't been able to feel him from the outside yet. About halfway through the movie, I picked up my husband's hand and laid it gently on my stomach. He looked confused and I whispered, "Just wait." It took about 10 minutes, but then suddenly, KICK! There it was! Our little Valentine's Day hello from the sweetest little boy in the universe!

And here we are a year later, loving life with our little boy. He's such a joy to us every single day. I have never known a baby with such a fun and happy disposition. He smiles ALL the time. He's actually gotten to where he waits for people to make eye contact before he breaks out in his huge charmer smile. I think he's going to be some kind of charismatic leader someday. :)

Happy 1st Valentine's Day to my sweet Little Cupid! We love you so much!

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

First Time in a High Chair!

Andrew is such a great eater! We started him on solid foods at 4 months and since then, he has tried butternut squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, avocado, pears, apples, mango, and peaches. He loved everything except the green beans! Oh, he's also had rice cereal and oatmeal with cinnamon. We are feeding him solid foods twice a day, once around 1:00 and again around 7:00.

So far, we've been sitting him in his little green chair. We call it the "babyman chair", but it's really a little Safety First copy of a bumbo. He loves the chair, but for me, it means sitting on the floor every time I go to feed him. It's not the best thing for my back! We decided it was time to graduate our big boy to a real high chair!

Last night, we ran out to Buy Buy Baby since I had a 20% off coupon. We found a really nice Chicco high chair that folds up for storage really nicely. (Space is at a premium in our townhome these days!) The second we sat him in it, you could tell he loved it. He feels like a real big boy!

Our little Andrew is growing up so fast. Six months old already! Oops, I just realized I never did a 6 month post, so that will have to come tomorrow. Poor Andrew had a raised temp last night and wasn't feeling well, but he slept great once he finally went down and seems to be feeling better today. He's napping now, but hopefully when he wakes up, he will be back to his normal happy self!

Date Night

George and I haven't been out on a date in a very long time! Unfortunately, we don't have family nearby who are willing/capable of watching Andrew, and we haven't found a good baby sitter. We have great friends and neighbors, but it would feel like we were inconveniencing them to ask them to watch him in the evenings. So basically that leaves us without a chance to go out and have a date night.

In the interest of trying to still be somewhat romantic and have a good time together out of the house, we decided to do a fun date night today. In the afternoon, haha. With the baby. It might not be a traditional "date", but it was still fun to get all dressed up and go out together. We went to Olive Garden, which isn't super fancy or anything, but was still amazing food.

Andrew even got dressed up with a tie!

How can you resist this cuteness?

He was a little bit fussy on the car ride over, so I was terrified he was going to be fussy at the restaurant. I hate those restaurant trips where you can't even carry on a conversation or enjoy the meal because you're constantly trying to distract the baby or figure out why he isn't feeling well or whatever. In those instances, I'd just rather be at home where I can soothe him better and he can be more comfortable and we don't have to deal with stares from strangers wondering why you can't make your baby be quiet!

Amazingly, however, the moment we put Andrew in the high chair, he was PERFECT! In the past, he's usually had to stay in his car seat (which he hates), or we have to hold him. He wasn't able to sit up enough or balance himself enough to be in a high chair. Today, though, we gave it a shot. I brought along our new little high chair/shopping cart cover and he LOVED it! I think he felt like a big boy sitting on his own! Plus, the cover has a loop so we could attach toys. We put his turtle on there and he played with it throughout most of the meal.

Our entire dinner took almost 2 hours. We talked, laughed, enjoyed each other's company, and ate some amazing food (4 courses!). We had a table on a corner, so everyone who passed by got a big smile from Andrew. Lots of people stopped by to tell us that he was just the cutest baby they'd ever seen :). I have to agree! He was such a perfect little man, so happy and smiley and content. Then, when we got home, he took a 2 1/2 hour nap!!! It was just about the perfect day.


I love my little family with all of my heart. Today is definitely one of those days where I feel so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing husband and baby boy. My heart is overflowing with joy and thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving in Georgia

Andrew's first visit to Georgia went well, all things considered. The drive down there took over 11 hours! YUCK! It was not the most pleasant day of my life, but we got there in one piece, thank goodness. :) The trip home went much smoother as we decided to leave the night before instead of in the morning. We left right as Andrew got sleepy for his bedtime (around 8:00) and he slept almost the entire way home! That trip only took about 8 hours, which was much more manageable.

The best part was getting to introduce Andrew to the rest of my family. He'd already met my brother and sister's family and my Mom and Dad, but he got to meet my cousins and aunts and uncle, which was great!

Unfortunately, we all three came home with some kind of yuck. I'm not feeling well tonight, so I'm calling it and heading to bed. Wanted to get a few pics up first though! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Can't believe Christmas is just right around the corner...

One of my faves. My sister took this of Andrew sitting up in the leaves!

My family!

Andrew and his Nana

First Thanksgiving!

My cousin's little girl (13 mos.) pointing to Andrew's turkey, hehe.

 

 

Andrew sleeping on his Uncle Doug's shoulder.

Family portrait!

My parents, us and my brother's family. It was a beautiful day.