7 months old! (In October)

Once again, I am dreadfully late with the monthly update, but I finally got around to creating Miles' 7 month picture!  Here's how he looked in mid-October:

We love our happy little guy so much, and 7 months was a fun time at our house.  He started to become (a bit) mobile, cut both of his top front teeth, and continued to eat pretty much every food we put in front of him - both pureed and soft solids.  He mastered the sippy cup, figured out some of his more advanced toys, and continues to laugh at us and himself.

I took my first work trip away from Miles in mid-October, and he had a great few days with Grandma while Nick attended a company conference at the same time (of course, that's how things work out for us).  I missed him, but I have had some great opportunities at work this year and was glad that he got to spend some quality time with Nick's mom, Diane.

We also enjoyed a food festival in Irving, and a visit from my parents.  Miles took his first trip to Cabela's, and will be camping with Dad in no time.

Halloween was pretty uneventful - we thought it would be tacky to show up with a baby who can't walk or eat candy, so Miles helped us hand out candy to our meager stream of trick or treaters and wore his skeleton sleeper to school.  Then he promptly outgrew it.

The next day, we had our annual Fry-Day party, and had a great time with our friends.  We were able to get almost all of the little boys in our friend group on the same sofa at the same time for a photo - we hope they'll be able to recreate it every year.

I'll be writing up Miles' 8 month post soon, I promise.  We have the picture and everything! 

6 months old!

Our big, happy, boy is 6 months old!  It feels like the fastest half year of my life, and sometimes I get sad that babyhood is whizzing by.  Miles has turned into a jolly, smiley baby and we love him so much!

At his 6 month appointment (pre-shots)

He sits up steadily, and is really interested in toys, what Nick and I are doing, and his best bud Maggie.  He has great mobility for his age, rolls all over the place, and tries real hard to crawl.  He doesn't quite have the coordination to be on his knees and his hands at the same time, but will probably get there soon. (Yay?  Not looking forward to babyproofing.)

 She came to lay by him, and decided to stay... he's learning not to grab ears, I promise.

This week Miles learned to wave bye, but only if he's in the mood to do it.  He's also eating lots of different purees, and we're looking forward to sharing our food with him soon.  So far, he doesn't seem to have any allergies, and just needs practice with different textures.

Not a broccoli and carrot fan.

Unfortunately, sleep has been inconsistent lately.  Sometimes he'll go all night long without waking up, other nights we'll get up twice and reposition him and put the pacifier back in his mouth.  Hopefully he'll get more uninterrupted rest when we install his padded crib bumpers and he can't hit the bars anymore (we have a mesh bumper right now).

We tried taking Miles to his first Texas Rangers game this month, but there was a pretty lengthy rain delay and we gave up until next season.

We're looking forward to move time with family this month, and will keep everyone posted as our guy keeps getting bigger!

School picture proofs that we did not purchase for $55

Gim em, Aggies!

Meeting Miles' new friend, Hudson - I could not believe my baby used to be so tiny, too!

5 Months Old!

I'm on a roll - here's the five month update too!

Miles turned 5 months old on August 18th and I forgot to take a picture for a few days, but I assure you he still looked like this:

I thought about changing his onesie, but then I left it because drool stains are part of our life these days.  Miles has two teeth, and seems to be working on some more because saliva pours from his mouth all day.  He goes through all 15 of his bibs each week!

At 5 months, Miles is a lot more confident and capable in his movements - he holds his own bottles now, rolls around happily in his pack n play (but only to the left - our son, Derek Zoolander, hasn't figured out the other direction yet), and is starting to work on sitting up. 

He's grown a lot, and weighs 16 lbs 13 oz as of a doctor visit for a hacking cough on September 1st.  I just packed up an alarming amount of outgrown clothes, and can't believe my little baby is so tall and chunky!

He's still cheerful and giggly, too  :)

August also brought my first attempt at single parenting, when Nick ended up being away for a week while attending a conference and his grandma's funeral.  I want to personally award medals to the ladies who do this all the time - it was very hard!  However, we made it through and welcomed him home along with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Andrea and Uncle Max.  And toys!

This month Miles also attended his first birthday party for his friend Emilia (hence the sharp overalls outfit above) and took another trip to St. Louis since we'd pre-paid for the trip long ago and couldn't get a refund. We were glad to spend more time with Grandpa Jones, and meet up with my sweet friend Tiffany and her husband Chris for brunch.

[Side note: I highly recommend a sling like ours for flying and general errand running.  It lets me have free hands, and the dude feels safe and happily looks around while we get stuff done. This is where I got mine.]

At 5 months Miles also got cleared to eat stage 1 baby foods, and it's been a hit!  So far he's eaten green beans, pears, yellow squash, sweet potato, and apples.  Sometimes we combine it with rice cereal, sometimes not, and he's been filling up on formula bottles and food to the degree that he has begun sleeping through the night most nights.  It has been GLORIOUS!  He goes to bed around 8:00-8:30 and wakes up around 7:00.  We've also been working on putting him to bed while still awake so he can learn to fall asleep on his own, and he seems to be capable, since he sometimes puts himself back to sleep at night unless he's stuck in a corner of his crib.  Fingers crossed he keeps this up and we can avoid any cry it out situations.

That's all, folks!  Hopefully I can get back on schedule and bring you a 6 month update sometime in September.  We'll see.

4 Months Old!

I think "better late than never" is becoming my new motto.  It applies to birthday gifts, house projects, and now blogging.  We've had a very busy month, and I'm sure this post won't do it justice, but here we go:

Miles turned 4 months old on July 18th, and on that weekend we went to visit my parents in Bryan to celebrate my dad's birthday, take some family photos at the A&M campus, and introduce Miles to his great grandmother.  He was already rolling over by then, albeit unsteadily, and has since become a pro. 

Dr. Tran said we could start him on rice cereal, and little pig loves it, and almost immediately began sleeping for longer stretches at night!  Hallelujah!

I think Miles' little personality really started to take shape in his fourth month - once his colic cleared up and he was able to sleep better (on his side and tummy) he became a different kid.  He's now the jolliest little boy I know - usually smiling, laughing at me and Nick, and happily rolling around on the floor with his toys.  He's clearly one of the favorites at daycare - we walk down the hall and people I don't know all stop to greet him.

Miles also ended up taking his first airplane trip to St. Louis during his fourth month.  It wasn't a happy reason, but we ended up having a wonderful weekend saying goodbye to Nick's grandmother before she passed away and we are so glad that Miles was a bright spot in her final days.  He laid in her hospital bed and laughed and kicked and made the circumstances a bit more cheerful.  We will miss Grandma Jones very much.

Finally, just before he turned 5 months old, Mr. Miles got his first tooth on August 9th!  His second one appeared a few days later, and now he has a set on the bottom and it's adorable.  But they're sharp!  (I don't have a good tooth picture so you'll just need to believe me)

3 Months Old!

Yeah, yeah... this post is a few weeks late.  But the picture is from Miles' three month birthday!

As you might guess from the tardiness of this post, we've been busy.  Our little dude is more and more animated each week, and returning to work means that our evenings are a bit more hectic and any free time is spent playing with him before bedtime or trying to catch up on our shows and lives in general.

Miles ended up having a 3 month-ish doctor appointment because Nick and I noticed that he suddenly lost weight at the beginning of June.  He went from filling out his pants and onesies to swimming in them, and we had to increase the amount of milk in his bottles and begin supplementing with formula.  A week later, he'd gained back most of what he lost and weighed in at 12 lbs 4 oz (25th percentile) and grew another half inch to be 25 inches long (77th percentile!)  It appears we have a tall, skinny baby who was going through a growth spurt and not getting enough calories.  Now that he drinks 35+ oz per day (!!!) he seems to be growing just fine!

This month has also brought so many developmental changes:

• Miles now enjoys playing with toys, and goes to town batting and grabbing the animals that hang from his activity gym or bouncer seat.  He also loves kicking a little piano that we're borrowing from his friend John, and I purchased a jumperoo from Craigslist that is a huge hit.  So basically, our house is starting to have the sort of gaudy, loud plastic things that make my stomach turn but they make him happy so I am dealing with it. 
• As much as it scared me at first, it's evident that Miles is turning out to be a side/tummy sleeper and flops all over his bed like a little fish.  He has no trouble returning to his back (and often does at some point during the night) or keeping his face uncovered, so we're just going to go with it.  We successfully weaned him from his swaddle blankets, as well as his transitional sleep suit, and he now goes down with just his jammies and a little blanket or sleep sack.  This was not fun.
• Our little guy is also pretty proficient at rolling around on the floor, and easily goes from front to back while covering some ground in the process.  Earlier this week I went to get a glass of water in the kitchen and came back to find him under our coffee table next to a very concerned dog.
• He smiles when he sees us, and it's the best thing ever.  He's also starting to really laugh, which only cracks him up more.

I started back to work on June 3rd, and fell right back into my job as though I never left, except that now I have to walk away at 5:00ish and not check email on my phone or figure out ways to extend my day.  It's pretty nice, but hard to get everything done!  I definitely miss Miles, and sometimes the evenings fly by and I feel like we didn't get much time together, but we really like his daycare and he has a good time there with the other babies and his sweet teachers.  He gives them big smiles in the morning, and gets to experience so many fun activities while I'm at work.  Right now we're pleased with our choice, but will keep evaluating things as he gets older.

And now, some pictures:

 "Reading" with Maggie

4th of July with Papa

Neesie was there, too

Musical toys are his favorite

Loves this ball, but hates that it won't fit in his mouth

Sleepy little Ranger

Our restaurant champ!

His usual expression, since his first week of life

Chilling with Maggie

Selfie at the mall

The Dillon Men

 

  Father's Day Artwork