(6 months since his) Birthday Boy!

Today Baby Beck is 6 months old! Half a year, where did it go? And in another half a year he'll be one! Half a year of diapers, half a year of breastfeeding, half a year of not sleeeeepppinnnngggggg.

At 6 months old, Beck weighs 17 lbs 15 ozs, is 27 inches long and has a pretty decent sized noggin.

He no longer likes to sit on my lap and read. Instead, he prefers to flip over and play with things on the side table next to the glider. Particularly the lamp and especially the beaded lamp shade. Said lamp now resides on the floor behind the glider.

At his doctor's appointment he got 5 more immunizations. He cried some but immediately stopped when I picked him up. And immediately resumed when I put him down. It was so sweet, it was the first time I've been able to console him with just cuddling after shots.

He has such a personalitly now too. He is happy allll the time and thinks his dad is the funniest person ever (I have not brought out my best material yet).

He's eaten green beans, carrots, bananas, pears, apples... and that's all I can remember. He loved apples but everything else he sometimes loved sometimes didn't but never refused anything.

We are still in a sleeping dilemma. On one hand, he has a hard time sleeping when he's not swaddled. He always knocks his paci out of his mouth and then wakes up. On the other hand, I think he wants to sleep on his stomach. I don't want to swaddle him and have him roll over and then not be able to flip back over or push him self up on his hands. There have been 1 or 2... or 10... arguments over how we should put him to sleep. Any suggestions on transitioning from swaddle to stomach?

And lastly, at the tender age of 6 months, Beck has met the girl of his dreams.... Sophie. More on her to come...

Out the Window

I am beat.

I needed to finish a couple prereqs before I apply to PA school so I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet. Since I have to leave work in the middle of the day to go to class, I have to make up my hours doing airport pickups at night. Last week I got home at midnight...

Oh and did I mention Beck has decided he doesn't like to sleep through the night now? Yes, he likes to visit 3 and 4 times a night.

Yes, I am tired and so blogging has gone out the window.

So has supporting Beck when he sits up... he is now able to sit up unassisted! He topples occasionally, but I think many of the times he topples intentionally.

Another thing that has gone out the window... the swaddling blanket (I still can't believe I don't have one picture of our BOYrito, I need to get one). Since Beck hasn't been sleeping well, I thought maybe it was because he didn't want to be swaddled anymore. So for a couple nights we experimented only to wake up to find him laying on his tummy!! The past several nights we've tried swaddling him again and he's been sleeping better so maybe it's not quite out the window yet.

Maybe not out the window but definitely on his crib sheet is Beck's hair. He's been sporting the back side bald spot followed by a Kentucky Waterfall.

Conan O'Brien's career- out the window. The DVRed Tonight Show was a staple at our house, and some of the funniest stuff I've ever seen in the last week it was on. Poor guy, out of a job and only 33 million to show for it... Beck feels his pain.

And last but not least... the Viking's season flew out the window last night. 5 turnovers and 1 broken lamp later, they've lost the NFC Championship. We were all devastated (ok, I wasn't) (ok, neither was Beck) but we at least still have our undefeated C.A.T.S!

Boogey

I've been thinking about this guy a lot lately.

I really hate people talking bad about him, calling him a butt*hole and trash among other choice words. True, the man has a temper and true he sometimes does act out but also true he's an 18 year old kid. Who wasn't an idiot at 18 and how many of us were on the big stage like he is? We can't all be perfect like John Wall. Not to mention, he's some woman's baby, which I don't think you can appreciate until you have a baby yourself. Most importantly, however, I think my son, who has also been given the nickname "Boogey," may be him in 18 years.

Big and black? Probably not.

An AWFUL sport? Absolutely.

Seth and I play Scrabble, rummy and the Wii a lot. And by "play" I mean curse, scream, fight, throw boards, quit and stop speaking to each other. I can't speak for Seth but nothing makes me more mad than when I lose, especially when I've got 7 vowels infront of me!!! What good is a triple word score when my word is "it" and Seth's are "jolly" and "zero." I rarely cuss but if I need a good cathartic melt down just put a board game infront of me. Even more irritating is how giddy with delight the other person is upon seeing the loser "lose it."

That being said, what chance does Beck have? I will try my hardest to keep my cool infront of him, but I'll be damned if I'm not gonna kick his ass a time or two in Memory. Welcome to the real world, kiddo. I think I'll be fine with Chutes and Ladders and CandyLand, those games require no skill and "I wasn't really trying anyway." But genetically, yikes... he's in trouble... and if someone calls my baby a butt*hole and trash among other choice words I'll be in a world of trouble too...

Also, listen up and listen good, because this doesn't happen often.

I am an idiot.

I wrote about Beck meeting his "first baby" at Christmas and talked about how much he liked her and how I wished I knew more moms with babies. My stupidness dawned on me this week as I picked up Beck from KinderCare in a room full of snot nosed babies. First baby indeed.

Duh.

ExerSaucer

On Christmas morning Beck woke up to find this beauty under his Christmas tree.

After going back and forth about whether or not to put it together, and if so how we'd get it home from Henderson, we decided to go ahead and try it out. Surely it wouldn't be that hard to put together and I wanted to see how Beck did in it. 3 screwdrivers, 9 AA batteries, 15 GD's and one break up later, wa-la! We have an ExerSaucer!!!

I thought Beck would really like it. He loves standing up and he's getting in to playing with toys so it seemed like it would be the perfect fit.

Well, he doesn't really like it. He LOVES it! He goes crazy in it! He loves all the toys with the exception of the alligator- in his defense, it does suck. He'll slam himself back and forth with excitement, he is so funny to watch in it. He just smiles and laughs and gives himself whiplash.

Oh and sometimes the butterfly pictured below slams into his head. Like I've said before, we're not raising a wuss.

According to EvenFlo, all the toys and stimulation helps babies achieve 10 developmental milestones. For instance, reaching for the toys helps hand eye coordination, being able to stretch out his legs helps when beginning to stand, not being held by me or Seth helps his independence, being surrounded by animals will acclimate him to any future trips to the Amazon rain forest and peaks his interest in environmental issues...

putting a dragonfly in your mouth helps hand mouth coordination when eating, the fun he has in it puts him in a good mood and I'm pretty sure all the exercise will drop his 40 time significantly. Who needs Harvard when you've got a EvenFlo ExerSaucer Triple Fun

Jungle??

Here's a picture of my sister 27 years ago in her ExerSaucer. Which developmental milestones do you think she missed out on???

.... clearly not Harvard bound...

Want More Pics?

Here are all the pictures from my camera uploaded at Walgreens. Click here to view pictures and/or order prints from my blog as well as the ones that didn't make the cut!

(5 Months Since His) Birthday Boy!

Beck is 5 months old today! At the risk of sounding redundant, where did the past month go? (Oh and this is the best month yet!) I think Beck weighs about 16 lbs now and is officially out of all his 3 month clothes. 6 months fits him perfect but he'll probably outgrow it soon and 9 months fits but is a little big.

Beck had his first taste of rice, oatmeal and carrots... oh and pickle. Ok, so I know I always said Beck loves his food, then I admitted that he just liked it but now, after this amazing revelation, he really does like it. What changed his ways, you ask? Just a little thing I call Rule #1- Don't Be an Idiot. It hit me one day that maybe I should warm up his food instead of just adding hot water. Wa-la, he enjoys solid food! Shocking, I know- who doesn't love cold rice and oatmeal?? Warm carrots went well also, that is, the warm carrots that actually made it into Beck's mouth... They went on the floor, on me, on Beck and the majority (naturally) landed on Seth's cell phone. Shhhiiiooooooot. Thank the Lord it still worked afterwards. And now, if Seth gets hungry, he has some dried carrot in between his number key cracks he can snack on. Blessing in disguise, right?

Beck is beginning to sit up on his own but still topples over easily. He really prefers sitting up to laying on his back, and gets really fussy trying to get up on his own.

He is really liking standing up too (pro athlete anyone?), which makes the ExerSaucer a perfect toy for him right now. Beck also likes to suck on his inner lips like he has an imaginary paci- kinda weird, kinda cute!

But most of all he loves kisses. And especially kisses from daddy... what am I? Chopped liver?

1/2 year, here we come! Ahh!

I want to be formal, but I'm here to party!

Thank God Seth and I have off until the 4th.

We are both still exhausted from all our Christmas celebrations and travels and mostly because of Beck's mysterious turn to full time fussiness.

It started like this...

We opened presents from each other the night of the 23rd. This is definitely a tradition we won't continue next year. Santa has always delivered my presents on Christmas Eve morning and that's the earliest I'd like him to deliver Beck's too. Beck wasn't even wearing any Christmas jammies!

AuntiEP came over too and brought Beck his favorite Christmas gift yet. "Beck and EP's 1st Christmas" ornament. This is a tradition we'd like to keep! Definitely worth her overstaying her welcome...

After EP finally left, we went to bed, woke up the next morning, headed to my parents and opened presents there. Santa had left Beck TONS of presents!

Especially his high chair! Bye Bye Bumbo seat. Speaking of... what a waste. We LOVED it for the 2 or so months we used it but now it's kinda obsolete. Baby stuff is such a rip off! At least I can pass it on to someone else and get some moneys worth!

After Milly and Poppy Don's house we headed to Louisville for my grandma's Christmas. Believe it or not Beck got sooo much there too! In fact, I'm embarrassed to say it, but he got so much from so many people I don't know who got him what. Sooo instead of a thank you note here's a big thank you blog! I know it's not very good etiquette but neither is pooping on your mom. So I'm hoping we can bend the rules when a baby is involved. Next year.... Also, I didn't take any pictures! This is one after we had left and had already made it to Henderson around 11:00. Beck wore his tuxedo tshirt and Santa costume the entire day- it was a true Christmas miracle!

So we finally made it to Henderson where we head over to Seth's grandma's. Can you believe this is still the same day?? No pics there either... we're counting on you, Stephanie. Beck got more and more presents there too!! I am still amazed at all the presents one 16 lb boy can rake in!

Finally, Christmas day we woke up at Seth's parents and Santa did not bring Beck one single gift. Ha... Beck got his favorite toy to date and the funniest to watch him in, his Exersaucer!!! It could be a whole post on it's own!

Actually, it will be a whole post on it's own...

Last but not least, after breakfast, we drove to Corydon, to my cousin's house to have our last Christmas party. I shot my first gun and Beck met his first baby. He loved her! I wish I knew more people with babies in Lexington! Poor guy is missing out!

As exhausting as it all was, we had sooo much fun! Maybe even worth the fact that my child hasn't gone to bed before 12:00 am since.... again, a whole new post.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!