6 Months

I find it so hard to believe that I have a 6 month baby boy. sometimes when people ask me how old you are, I have to count on my fingers "January, February, March" etc and it always shocks me when I get to the second hand. Ricidulous.

As for stats, he's a biggin'. He's in the 99th percentile in height at 28 1/2 in and a shrimp in weight at 96th%- 19lb7oz. HA, he's my big baby boy. Measuring exactly like his daddy did at the same age.

Six months has been one of my favorites with Little Man. His personality is coming out so strong these days. He is my little lover. He's a snuggler that loves attention and smiles all day long. He's a flirt and its one of my favorites of his qualities. Remind me of that when he's in high school please.

His best friends are his sister and his dog. He is obsessed with both of them. He beams when he sees either of them. He cracks up at pretty much everything his sister does, whether she is aware of it or not. She knows how to get him going though and when she starts cuttin' up for him, its quite a laughing fest.   He adores our pup Lola too. He will get himself to her any ways necessary for a snuggle. She is so great with him. Gentle and loving, they are pretty cute.

Its been a big month for J. Not only has he been a traveling boy, seeing lots of family members that we don't see often, he's had some new experiences and learned some exciting new skills. His 6 months has been a nonstop adventure, one new thing after another. I think it might just be easier to list the main ones.
-crawling. That's the biggest one by far. The army crawl started last month but the actual mobile at warp speed crawling started this month. He's a quick learner and an even more determined one at that.
-talking. He says "dada" all the time. He says it to everything so I know its not his first "word" but its a recognizable sound so it counts. "baba" and "bla" and "bra" are all other sounds we hear a lot too right now. I love the early stages of babbling.
-Daddy obsessed. I feel like the word obsessed doesn't do it justice. Jameson is ob.sess.ed with his Daddy. He wiggles and squirms right out of my arms to get to him when he is reachable. Mommy's sloppy seconds when Daddy is around.
-Starting solid foods. I just started him on any solid foods. He's still a momma's milk kind of kid which I love. I don't rush the solids on my kids because let's face it, I thankfully have healthy fast growing babies that seem to thrive on whatever liquid gold I seem to produce for them. And really, food is so much more difficult than breastmilk.

Newest on-goings

I feel like I should really have more to show for what's been going on here and why I feel like I've been losing my sanity.

The List of excuses of things going on here…

1. First, Cheyanne woke up with a cold two days before her birthday. I thought I had escaped the germs with as much Lysol as I had spraying around this house. Wrong. Three days after her birthday, guess who woke up sick too. I'm still battling this cold a week later.

2. The day before Chey's birthday, her Daddy left for a few months so, you know, things got pretty crazy at that point.

Here she is opening presents with Daddy right before he had to get on the road.

3. The night before her second birthday, I started her on night time prayers. Its not something I've ever been good at doing on a regular basis, but at age 2, I think she's old enough to work it into our nightly routine. She is so cute during prayers. We fold our hands to say a quick prayer first then we go through the list of "God bless"es. "God bless Daddy. God bless Mommy. God bless Nana and Skipper." Etc. The list is long, especially when I think we're done and we say amen, then she folds her hands again and says "More Mom." Who can say no to that? So, we keep going. She doesn't really add names yet, but she repeats everyone that I say and gives a little giggle after each. Baby prayers are so precious, especially when we say "Thank you Jesus" at the end.

4. Before Giant left, we installed chair rails in the front living room. I've been slowly finishing those the last week, filling nail holes, sanding, caulking, and up next priming and painting. Chair railing makes such a difference in a room.

Before: I believe in real before pictures, so you get to see all the junk that was really there during prep.

 After: So far. By the end of this week, the rails will be painted white to match and look fantastic.

5. Potty training has begun. My little girl is a potty going machine… most days… if naked. If not naked, its fair game. I have even introduced her to big girl panties hoping that will help with the idea of clothes on still means we need to pee on the potty. Not much luck yet with any clothes on, but we're working on it. Ah, the dream of no more diapers!

This is how we spent a lot of time on day one. Movies, juice, and pottying.

 Sometimes things got silly and she found other uses for her potty.

6. I finally got around to doing something I've been wanting to do for a while. I painted the inside of our front door. The Giant doesn't even know exactly what I did yet. I love it. It makes the front room look really good! I can't wait until that part of the house is finished. At some point I'll get around to putting up drapes and pictures. One day.

Before: I didn't think to take a complete before picture, so I this is a minute into the project.

After: Love. Soon that blue wall will be repainted to something other than blue- anything other than blue. I loathe that blue.

7. The dog decided to quit listening to me whatsoever the minute that the Giant left the house. She normally is a pretty good pup. The last few weeks have been less than stellar. I'm not sure whats going on besides the fact that she is missing her Pa, but there have been days that between cleaning up from a toddler and chasing around a dog, I thought I might actually lose it. We'll be starting Obedience 101 classes at the end of the month- or someone/something might lose their sanity or life.

She seems to be spending more time in her bed than normal. Here she is not too happy with me, but you know what, that's what you get when you chew on my rug!

AND

8. Cheyanne's picked up a few new winning words that I hear all day. I'll share the most winning ones.
Nope!
Nope Mom!
Uh uh!
Nah!
Uhhhhhh nope!
More M&Ms peeez!
What are you doing Mom?
Oopsy!
and my personal favorites…
No way!
or even better…
No way Mom!

At least its not "No way Molly" this week. Where did she learn this stuff? I cringe every time I hear no way come out of my sweet little angel's mouth. So, yes, things are still on going here.

I've got projects going all the time, but I wish I had more to show you than I do. On the list this week is to start decorating for fall. It may still be in the 80s each day but Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte is a weekly treat of mine which means it must be fall. I look forward to this time of year all year. I've been pinterest'ing all the pumpkin recipes I can find these last few weeks to start prepping for fall. Up this week, I'm thinking some pumpkin banana bread. How good does that sound?

I've got more to update you on, but for now that give you an idea of where we've been lately.

Turn your volume up

Because somebody has something important to say. Somebody that is only 7.5 months old and has had a very busy last week.



You heard it too right?!! MOMMA!!! I don't even care that she isn't saying it to me. The fact that she is saying it at all, AHH! She skipped all the other things that they say babies say first like "Gaga" or "Baba" or "Dada" and moved straight on to Momma!! And now she says it all day long. My kid rocks! I guess it doesn't really count as her first word, but I'd say that that is a huge step leap towards it. It is still going down in her baby book, for sure.

Not only has she become a talking girl but she has become more mobil by rolling to wherever she wants to go too. Of course, she multitasks by talking and moving at the same time. My smart girl :). She started the crawling stance last week and we're now working on moving arms and legs at the same time. For now, sometimes she gets in the position then rolls to wherever she wants and other times she just rolls.



There is still a lot of *flopping* into the down position, very graceful my little one. She fusses out of frustration until she gets herself back up into a good position. She has scooted backwards a few times but no forward motions yet. For a girl that HATED tummy time just a few short weeks ago, she sure is putting herself on her belly a lot these days. I think crawling is right around the corner. Oh Lordy, what am I in for?! I don't know if I'm quite ready for this one yet. Hopefully just in time to see Daddy (if he gets a short visit to come home *FINGERS CROSSED!) Wouldn't that be a fantastic welcome home present?



On that note, I am constantly in this mental debate of whether to share things like this, not because I don't want you to see. I TOTALLY do! I am more concerned with Hubs and how he feels seeing this. Its a fine line between excitedly sharing making someone happy and unintentionally making someone sad to miss out. I never completely know what to do. He loves seeing her and her accomplishments. But, I know its hard to see her growing up on a screen without actually being here to see it as it happens. However, I think missing out completely would be the worst, so until he tells me its too hard or I feel like its better to show him later, I will continue to post the milestones. Obviously, I can't just ignore the fact that my baby girl is growing up so fast and everything she does is new and exciting. Right?

The Talker

She has been very talkative today. Finally I capture some good babble on camera! She started at 5am this morning and hasn't stopped yet.