John 6-7 months

I realized I forgot to post anything about John's 6-month appointment with Dr. Dawson. He passed with flying colors. Here are his stats: Height 25.5 in (25%), Weight 18 lbs 3 oz (50-75%), and Head 25% percentile. He got three shots and hardly cried. Even the nurse was amazed.

Right now we are giving him 2 solid meals - usually morning and bedtime. He loves eating solids and usually eats them without any problems. He is not too sure about peaches - I think they may be too tart for him. We are still going strong with nursing and he usually nurses 7am, 11 am, 2-3 pm, 7 pm and 11 pm. He has given us the gift of uninterrupted sleep twice this past week (it was heaven!) but most of the time he gets up once or twice and Matt has to go put his pasci in. I have at least stopped feeding him at night after his twilight feed at 11 pm.

He is the happiest baby I know. My other kids were happy, but he is even happier if that is possible. Even when I awaken him from a dead sleep, the moment he opens his eyes he will great me with the most gorgeous smile. We just let him start using the johnny jump-up and he loves it. He is incredibly strong and always tries to "buck" backwards when you are holding him or trying to burp him. He is so hard to burp! Some of the few times he cries is when he has gas because I was not able to burp him a few hours before.

He watches Alivia and Will with such adoration and longs to join them already. He is starting to get up on all fours as he prepares to start crawling. I am definitely NOT ready for that and if we can get him through this period without having a few scary close calls with choking I will be so happy. I have already told Alivia and Will about the importance of keeping small objects off the carpet, but I still find random objects scattered all over the place.

I still wonder if he will be keeping those beautiful baby blue eyes that he has. I hope I never forget the glorious way he smells. I can just kiss his sweet cheeks and smell his hair all day long. I love you John. You are a blessing to my life and to our family.

I also posted pics of Alivia (2nd to last pic) and Will (last pic) at about 7 months for comparison!

Halloween 2010

Halloween was on a Sunday night this year which was kinda nice. We went over to PT/Em's for pizza with Mimi and Grandpa. PRip and KRip also joined us. They are about 7 months preggo with their baby boy.

Alivia decided she wanted to be "Word Girl." She is a character on a PBS show of the same name. But what is so funny is that she has never watched that show with me. Maybe she watches it with Nanny Alva? Anyway, she was adament that she wanted to be Word Girl. But she kept telling everyone she was "Super Girl." So maybe even she was a little confused about it all.

Will told me he wanted to be a pumpkin. I got him an adorable and simple costume knowing that he might balk at the last minute - which he did. Oh well, at least I got him to wear the pumpkin t-shirt. This is probably the last year that he won't want to be some sort of shoot-em-up character.

And John. Well, John was just along for the ride. We went to about 5 houses before he pooped out and fell asleep in the stroller and we headed home.

I managed to carve a kitty pumpkin. Matt took a cool shot of our front door. While we were out trick or treating I just left a bowl of candy.

Visit from Mama T

Mama T (my Grandmother) came to visit my parents before they head out to the lake to celebrate Aunt Jerry's 60th birthday. The kids just love seeing her and I think she enjoys the chaos from the children - at least for short periods of time! She rode the train here which always fascinates Will. I can't believe she is 92!

Pretty Picture

I thought this was such a beautiful picture of Alivia. This was at the pumpkin patch after she got her face painted. Matt took this picture. I just love it. Alivia is 3 months away from being 5 years old!

TCU Lake Weekend - October 2010

We usually have our annual lake weekends over the summer. But the lakehouse was still under construction in May when we had originally planned our reunion, so we went to the Burkes instead (see prior post on that trip). This weekend, we all met at the newly remodeled lakehouse and had a blast. We still longed to have a night without the kids and definitely will have to work that into our future weekends. And it was hard that we all had to leave on Sunday - we all wished we could have stayed another day together.

The highlight of this year was Baby Elle who was 8 weeks old.

It was fun to experience a different time of year out at the lake with my friends. The lake was eerily calm. We took several boat rides and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. The kids even swam a little - brrrr!

On Saturday we visited a nearby pumpkin patch called Sweetberry Farm. It turned out to be more fun than I expected. The kids got their faces painted, picked out pumpkins, pet some goats, walked a corn maze and made sand art pumpkins.

The lowlight of the weekend was losing Will at the pumpkin patch. It has been awhile since I have been that terrified, but for about 10 minutes when I could not find Will, I was absolutely terrified. Here is the story: I was waiting off to the side holding some seats in the shade while Matt waited in line with Will and Alivia getting ice cream and paying for our pumpkins. Sam, Anna and Shane were with the rest of the kids (Birdie, Catherine and Samuel). All that to say there were plenty of adults. . . it is amazing how quickly kids can get lost. When they all came over with their ice cream, about 5 minutes later, I asked "Where's Will?" When he did not suddenly appear, I began to panic. I instantly thought about how I was going to describe him to the police: "A 2 1/2 year old boy with blonde hair, hazel eyes, wearing a neon green shirt and black shorts." I began to run back to where I had last seen him while scanning the large crowd. When I did not see him, I began to scream his name over and over. John started crying in the Baby Bjorn - I'm sure he could sense my panic. A woman came over to me and asked "Are you looking for Will?" I said "YES!!!" And she said, "A man in a red car in the parking lot called out his name and put him in his car." My heart dropped. I started running into the parking lot and found the car that she was pointing to - it was SAM! He had gone to get their car and saw Will wandering in the parking lot about 20-30 yards away and picked him up. Whew. . .

Praise God that He provided protection (once again) to my sweet son. Once again I am reminded that I am simply not in control. I never had a chance to thank that sweet lady either. Supposedly she could tell something was not right and was following behind Will while he was wandering in the parking lot calling out for Daddy.

All in all, the weekend was great. The kids got along so well. Catherine, Birdie and Alivia slept in one room, and Samuel and Will slept in another room. It was so nice to have more space to put everyone, too. We missed having the Brawners there for entertainment purposes and hope they can come next year. I love you Anna, Red, and Mandy! Thanks for a fun weekend.

I Can't Believe. . .

John is almost 6 months old. He is such a joy and never ceases to woo me with his constant smiles and coos. We tried Peas for the first time tonight. I gagged at the smell - I had forgotten that smell - but he seemed to think it was pretty interesting and ate every bite. These are some pictures we took after church this past Sunday. The outfit John has on was given to us by Nana and Pop Pop.

Another day at the Ranch

I am loving Bertram lately. It is just a great place to get away and get the kids out into nature and help them realize that it is much more interesting than TV. We all accompanied Matt out there this past weekend while he put up his deer stand - bow season started this past week. My mom also joined us for the day.