6 Month Pics

We had some 6 month pics made last week - our friend Courtney is SOOOOO talented. I mean, look, she got a pic with all three of us not only looking at the camera, but all smiling! This is just a sample of the pics she took but we are so happy with them. And we aren't sure how we'll decide which ones to get!

Date Night!

Last night N and I had our first "official" date night since Milo was born. I say "official" because we've been out without him twice, once to a wedding and once to an awards dinner but those weren't really considered dates. At least not in my book. So we got all gussied up:

and took the little man off to have a play date with his friend Izzy (whose parents have agreed to swap one night a month with us so we can each have one date night per month). This is what went on while we were gone...

Some hand holding (and later some crying by both babies) but they did OK and our little guy was glad to see his Mama when we got there (and I'm not gonna lie - I loved that part!). And we had a good dinner (even though it wasn't the one we planned) and a nice talk (that did include talking about our little guy but also other things). I'm already looking forward to next month's date night. This is one way that I can work towards my goal of living with purpose this year - I am being intentional to invest time into my relationship with my husband.

Prunes!

We've tried cereal and bananas so far. Those were having some, shall we say, adverse effects on diaper production. So, prunes moved up in the line-up! Here's how it went:

Really Mom? What is this brown stuff? I don't think so...

Hang on a second....let me try that again...

OK, maybe they're not so bad!

So far (knock on wood) I have not had anything spit back at me. I'm sure it's just a matter of time however, my hope is that since the whole time I was pregnant and since he's been born my diet has been made up of quite a variety of foods/flavors, he'll enjoy lots of different foods and not be a super picky eater. Or he might take after his daddy...

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Six Months!

I really can't believe I have a six month old baby! We took a few pictures on the actual day but we have a big deal photo shoot with Courtney this weekend. A couple of things to note. First, no he's not standing in his crib unassisted. If you'll look closely, you'll see my arm. Second, if you look even more closely in that fourth picture, you'll see A TOOTH! We didn't notice it was actually showing up until we were looking at pics later. So far it's been hard to get a look at because it isn't showing all that much and he doesn't let you look at it for long without sticking out his tongue. Such a big boy!

Cereal!

Big day at our house. We tried some rice cereal! He was super excited for about three bites and then he was over it. More of it went on his face than in his mouth, which of course I expected. We will try it a few more times probably, but then we're moving on to bananas! I've been waiting for months for someone who would eat the ripe bananas around here (I only eat them with green on them but can never eat them all before they get too ripe for me).

Milo is also getting to see his first snow today. We haven't taken any pics of that yet - I'm not sure they'd come out. The snow isn't sticking and it's kind of sporadic. If there's enough of it, we'll take some and post them later but for now, here's our cereal adventure.

P.S. I hardly see how something of this consistency can be called "cereal" but whatever.

Too Tired to Think of a Catchy Title

I'm not really sure of my purpose (see how I used that word again?) in writing this post. Maybe just to put my thoughts down and organize them, maybe just to waste time that I should be spending doing something productive around the house.

I am tired. I mean, I am T I R E D. A little bit of history. From about the third day we were home from the hospital with Milo, he slept through the night, waking only once to eat. We did not realize how good we had it. When he reached four months old, he started waking a minimum of three times each night. Did I say minimum? It was usually more. We finally figured out that he's teething. There will be nights that he will just scream and arch his back and there's nothing that will console him, except to eat. About two weeks ago, it got better for a few nights and we realized one of his teeth had FINALLY broken through his gums. And now, it appears he is working on the one next to it because we're back to the same routine. Oh, and did I mention when this is going on he's also not napping? Naps will be 30-45 minutes MAX and he'll take four or five of them a day.

IN ADDITION, it appears the last day or so he's also having a growth spurt and eating every two hours. ALL. DAY. LONG. This has made for one tired mama.

Then we get to this morning. I want nothing but to sleep in (and by that I mean sleep until 7:45) but I need to go get my allergy shots so I get up and take a shower while Milo is still sleeping and get myself ready. And the whole time I'm aggravated because this was so much easier when I didn't have to load up toys and burp rags and pacifiers and carseats, when I could just "run get my shots". And then I'm sad because I don't want to feel resentful that I have this sweet baby (and truly, 99.9% of the time I don't, I just have these rare moments when everything hits all at once). So I put on my happy face, take him from his Daddy so I can feed him and what happens? He bites me. Twice. The second time he draws blood. And I'm aggravated again. I tell him no, and just look at him and he just smiles at me but I can't smile back because I don't want him to think I'm encouraging that behavior. So then for the next hour, he will barely look at me and I feel like a big jerk. And now, this thing that's supposed to be so amazing and such a bonding experience is suddenly something that I know I still want to do but every time it's time, I start to tense up and I'm on edge the whole time he's eating wondering if he's going to bite me again instead of enjoying snuggle time with him.

I'm reading a book right now, Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow. I just read a chapter where she talks about being content with our roles. It's something I already was conscious of trying to do but this kind of re-focused me. I AM content with my role as a mommy. I certainly can't imagine doing this when I was any younger than I am now - I'm still too selfish for it I think but I'm more unselfish now than I have been before. And I'm very lucky to have a healthy baby who, if I'm honest, really is happy most of the time (in spite of the fact that he NEVER SLEEPS). If I'm honest with myself, I don't wish I was still single or wish we still didn't have any kids. But days like this I have to REALLY remind myself that I'm happy with the place I am, with where God has me.

A little disclaimer here. I'm not necessarily looking for advice here. If you have something helpful, feel free to share it in the comments. If you have something that worked for you, I'm happy to read those comments and consider.

And now, it has been 25 minutes since he went to sleep and he's awake again and VERY upset about something so I'm going to go investigate.