6 Months Old

Photo Shoot 1: Too Cool for School (or Mommy's Stupid Photo Shoot)

Boring! Even Froggy is still asleep. . .
Snore!

Hey, I can't catch my toes from here!

Photo Shoot 2: Yes, Mommy, the Afghan Makes all the Difference

Oh, you wanted me to sit up and look adorable?

You just needed to ask (and give me my favorite blanket)!

Photo Shoot 3: Hey, Look! It's My Ball!

I got it!

Ah, the many faces of Will. All of three of these "shoots" took place over the course of less than 10 minutes this morning, which is the funnier part. Will loves his handmade baby blanket, which was a gift from my sorority housemother. (I love it, too; it keeps me warm on all of those early mornings and late nights when Will wants to nurse again.)

In the last series, Will is sitting up himself, but the bear is protection for falling backwards. He tends to get excited when he's playing and it's game over if he falls and hits his head. This morning was a new feat: he caught the ball on his legs and picked it up with both arms each time I rolled it to him!

What we've experienced over the last month:

• Huge leaps in motor skills: Will can sit unassisted and move himself from sitting to "crawling" and back. He can motor backwards quickly and looks like he wants to go forwards.
• Poor sleeping, especially overnight: Boo! Some nights he wakes up every hour screaming hysterically. We're hoping more food will help, although we aren't sure if it's hunger or teething or nightmares. This has been a tough one for us, since he had been sleeping 7-8 hours each night.
• Food: we started rice cereal one week ago, and he is eating it well. He shared Lexi's sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving as his first vegetable. I had great visions of making his baby food, but I haven't bought any supplies. Nor have I bought any jars of baby food. Nikki gave us a bunch at our August baby shower, so it seemed easiest to start through those first. I guess I'd better make some additions to my next grocery list.
• Lots of giggles and smiles when he sees us or Rachel. For all the lack of sleep, he's sure a happy baby in the morning! Go figure! :-)

The First Thanksgiving

What do you get when you put 8 adults, 5 children, and 4 dogs in a house for 3 days?! Thanksgiving fun on the farm! We had a great time with all of Jason's family this week in Indiana. In addition to Thanksgiving, we also celebrated Jason's birthday and an early Christmas. And, no surprise, except for the 2 hours that we were all riveted on the turkey frying, most of our attention was on the babies: Lexi and Will.

Grandpa Ed with two grandbabies
Unwrapping his first present on "Christmas morning" (aka Thanksgiving evening) -
a big boy outfit from Aunt Kelly, Uncle Pat and Cousin Lily

And tissue paper! Yeah!

Early Christmas part 2: a piano from Grandma and Grandpa!

All the cool gadgets, and the babies most loved Grandma's stacking cups!

(Don't worry, no babies were harmed in the taking of this picture. . . )

See?!

6 Month Stats

Well, what do we have here?
Where's that page I like so much?

Ah, yes, here it is.

Will wanted to demonstrate that his 94 percentile head circumference means he's a smarty pants (sans pants)! All I did was sit him on his bottom with his worm and fabric book. The rest was all him. He's getting good at moving from bottom to knees/tummy and sometimes the opposite.

Will's height and weight percentiles both decreased, but his head percentile was the same. I was surprised how little he weighed, but I think he's going to start packing it on now that he's devouring rice cereal and taking bigger bottles. The doctor said his size was good. His comment was, "As long as he's growing out of his clothes, he's on target." Done!

Weight: 16 lbs, 2 oz (29%)

Height: 26 inches (40%)

Head: 18 inches (94%)

Prior percentages at his 4 month check were 41%, 70%, and 94%, respectively, which were pretty steady with his 1 month and 2 months stats.

I'm happy to report that he had an excellent night sleeping last night. I attribute it to lots of milk, rice cereal, and total exhaustion from getting 4 shots in one day. Yes, four shots. Two were his regular immunizations plus he got the seasonal flu and H1N1 shots. Whew! But I really wanted him to have his flu shots sooner rather than later, so we did them all since they were available.

Catch 35

Since we had the services of a top-notch babysitter on Saturday night, we went to the nicest restaurant in town: Catch 35. We were celebrating Jason's birthday, which is on Thanksgiving this year.

I tremendously enjoyed the following:

• Organic Baby Greens & Maytag Blue Cheese, spiced walnuts, grape tomato, pear, tomato basil vinaigrette


• Block Island Swordfish with warm poblano fingerling potato salad


• Key Lime Pie

Jason's dinner was just as delicious:

• Alaskan Halibut with lump crab meat and portobello mushrooms


• Bourbon Pecan Pie ala Mode

And some yummy cocktails. What a great date night! Thanks again Mom!!! Here's another picture of Will, since I don't have any pictures of my dinner.

Let's Eat!

It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes four adults and one dog to feed one! Grandma Joni and Uncle Ryan were here this weekend, so they got in on the fun of Will's first bowl of rice cereal. Ryan even took a few turns with the feeding at the end.

Hmmm, this doesn't seem too bad. . . .
Hey look! Here's some more!

Wait. . .you mean you're taping this?

Hurry, Ryan! Rachel wants some.

We tried another bowl this evening, and Will seemed to really "get" it. Mommy still need to work on her aim with the spoon and keeping the full bowl away from baby hands!

Bath Time

Yet another way we're negligent parents: Will only gets a bath twice a week (if we can remember even that. . . ). There are several good reasons: I worry about sensitive skin; we don't have a good baby bath tub, so bath tub involves me getting into the tub with him; and lack of time during the week. Oh, and he doesn't really ever get dirty unless he has one of his explosive poos, so I don't always think about it.

Tonight I figured since his report card noted "bm" three times and his clothes came home in a plastic bag that it was the perfect day for his mid-week bath! And then I remembered that most babies get their baths in the kitchen sink! Since he has been sitting so well, we decided to test this out. He's now practiced for his special babysitter to give him a bath on Saturday night!

A Tale of Two Babies

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . .

Will finally got back on a good nap schedule on Friday at daycare and the reward was sleeping ALL NIGHT! It was a new record: 7:45 p.m. to 6:15 a.m! As a reward (well, I already had it planned), I bought him his Christmas present on Saturday. :-) I had been wanting to start with Christmas carols, so his gift from us is a CD clock radio and a Christmas carols CD. We've already listened to it 3 times!

Don't sing along, Mommy!

But, Will had such a nice time shopping with Mommy at Target on Saturday that he didn't take a nap. And then he didn't take an afternoon nap either. Oooh, Saturday night was rough! And Sunday (and Sunday night) weren't much better. Tired, tired baby, who has to be teething considering the ferocity with which he chews on his hands.

Must. . .chew. . .

I've got my fingers crossed that he naps today! BTW, this sweater is 12-18 months size. It was a gift from Jason's boss's wife, so we wanted to get a picture as a thank you. I can't wait until he's big enough to wear it. It's so cute!

Eww! Gross!

While trying to catch some pictures of this "new" outfit (Grandma Joni gave it to us when Will was a newborn, but it didn't fit during the summer so he wore it for the first time on Sunday around the house), I happened to get a shot of Will spitting up. It's not too uncommon these days, but I've never photographed it. . . .

So, that's the first ewww. The second is far worse, and I shouldn't even post it, but, hey, this is my baby's baby book, so I need to document it for posterity: Will's every other diaper poo switched to a daily poo a few months back (and it was usually at daycare, so that was a bonus!). Well, this past week, he seems to have switched to a bi-weekly poo, and wow, is it pooey!! On Saturday, we got quite a wake-up call (and a quick trip to the shower and to the laundry room)! Well, yesterday he did a repeat of that, but it was for the "closer," Ms. Rita, at daycare. Ooooh, she wasn't happy! She wrote "explosion/changed clothes" on his daily log and highlighted it in yellow! Ha! The changed clothes comment is fairly common (uh, and obvious), but we had never received the highlighter! Will got a bath once he got home. . . .

I think we may have waited too long to wear this outfit! It's not supposed to be that short, and wow, look at those chubby thighs!

Maclaren Stroller Recall

In case you've got a Maclaren, I just spotted this on CNN:

Maclaren recalls 1 million strollers
Stroller maker says its umbrella strollers have resulted in the amputation of 12 children's fingertips.
By Hibah Yousuf, CNNMoney.com staff reporter
Last Updated: November 9, 2009: 12:08 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stroller maker Maclaren announced a recall on Monday that affects about 1 million umbrella strollers that can reportedly amputate or lacerate children's fingertips.
So far, the company said there have been 12 amputations across the country. This happens when children get their fingers stuck in between the stroller's side hinges while it is being opened or closed.
The South Norwalk, Conn.-based company announced the voluntary recall in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and advises customers to stop using the products manufactured in China sold since 1999 at stores including Babies R Us and Target.
Consumers can contact Maclaren at 877-688-2326 or visit www.maclaren.us/recall to receive a free repair kit.
Maclaren said the kit includes hinge covers designed to fit all Maclaren strollers.
The recall affects the following models, which range in price from $100 to $400: Volo, Triumph, Quest Sport, Quest Mod, Techno XT, TechnoXLR, Twin Triumph, Twin Techno, and Easy Traveller.
First Published: November 9, 2009: 11:51 AM ET

Happy Anniversary!

Congratulations to my parents on their 35th wedding anniversary!

November 9, 1974: Wedding Day

July 24, 2009: Our family today

Ryan and I planned that we would take family pictures this summer as an anniversary present, but we weren't clever enough to figure out the auto-timer and no one was around to take a picture of all six of us. So, here's a picture of five of us that Ryan took.

October 11, 2009: My mom's favorite two boys.

K-S-U Wildcats!

Wildcat Will brought the team another victory! Yesterday's win against Kansas was the first game we got this season, so Will's first chance to see the team and stadium (remember, we live in Big Ten country). What a great one to start with!

The weather has been nice here, so we took BOB for a ride without the carseat. Will seemed to enjoy his new view!

Sit. Stay.

The past week or so we have noticed that Will's sitting has gone from a mostly slouched over tripod to a relatively steady sit. He must practice his crawling and sitting a lot at daycare all day. He's always eager to show off for us in the evenings at home. As evidenced by these pictures from last night, he can sit upright for a few seconds without being propped against a pillow or me (assuming I put him in a seated position first).

Scary-faced sitting baby.

Not sure why he had so much drool dripping right then. . .

Look, Mom! No hands (or your legs)!

Since we had the camera out, we got a picture of the crawling attempt, too. He's got quite a process of backwards crawling from the family room back into the living room, then doing a spin on his belly and backing back into the family room. Here he is in full push-up mode; notice his entire body is off the ground. Only the toes and hands are holding him up!

Eye Update

To update on Will's tear duct procedure, it appears that we've had success! The eyelid looked a little puffy on Wednesday night when he went to bed, and then he had a little bit of blood in the corners on Thursday morning when he woke up. It looked fine on Thursday night and was totally clear on Friday morning. It has been clear ever since! Now if only I could do something about his stuffy nose. . . .

Will (and Mom and Dad) had three bad nights of sleeping this weekend. Could be a cold or teething. Or both. He seems to be doing ok during the days and for short naps, but he has been waking up screaming every few hours and is generally inconsolable except for nursing. He won't take his pacifier, which is usually an easy answer. I think I slept through a least one of his wake-ups, so I need to ask Jason what happened. I just know the TV and lights were on in the basement this morning. I hope for all of our sakes that this passes quickly!

Photoshop Pumpkin

I was disappointed that we didn't have a better picture of Will in his pumpkin costume, so I took one of him and Jason and cropped Jason out (he'll never know. . .he doesn't read the blog!) and zoomed in on the little pumpkin! I think he's awfully cute!

Will wore a super cute outfit to daycare today. No time for a picture though, so you'll just have to trust me that his orange and white striped football onesie, gray Carter's roomy comfy pants (they're really called that), and his navy fleece pullover hoodie were fraternity boy adorable!

Halloween Fashion Show

We can't have just one costume/outfit to celebrate Will's first Halloween, can we? We were given all of these holiday appropriate items, so we had to find opportunities to wear them all!

Sleepy Pumpkin at daycare Friday morning

Will the Friendly Ghost on Friday evening

Baby's First Halloween onesie

(This picture was last Sunday when Nikki and Lindsay were here, but he also wore it on Halloween day. I just didn't get a picture before I spilled a bottle on him while we were out shopping. This is why he doesn't get bottles from me very often!)

Action shot: dressing for daycare on Friday morning!

Will seems to have another cold. His nose is a faucet and he has a sad little cough. Oh, and he isn't eating or sleeping well, and is instead screaming all the time. Boo! :-( He seems to be getting better by the hour, so let's hope that extra hour we got today makes all the difference!