8 months!

Well, here we are again! It was another wonderful month for our little family of three! Watching Reid grow is the greatest joy! I still get kind of sad every month knowing that he is growing up so quickly and for some reason this month I am especially sad about it! I also try so hard to just take in every stage and soak it up. It really does keep getting more and more fun!

As soon as I got him dressed, put him on the chair, and took out the camera, he knew it was time for pictures! Little ham...

At least once a day someone tells me that Reid is "such a big baby". He doesn't seem that big to me. He is wearing size 4 diapers and 12-18 month clothes though! I just love getting him dressed every day. It's so much more fun to dress someone that ways twenty something pounds than someone that weighs *** pounds! ;) I'm excited to start building his spring and summer wardrobe! Bring on the seersucker! :)

I am feeding Reid 4 times a day (first thing in the morning, after each nap, and before bed) and he is also eating 3 meals a day of solids! He now has a pretty good variety of fruits and vegetables that he likes and he also loves yogurt! Sometimes I will give him a "snack" in the afternoon consisting of puffs or yogurt bites so he can practice with finger foods. He is still having a hard time mastering this skill. His sixth tooth just popped through, so I am planning to transition him to finger foods once he gets the hang of it a little more! We've also tried giving him a sippy cup with a little bit of water in it, but he usually just throws it around like a toy.

Our biggest change from 7-8 months has definitely been sleep!!! Sweet boy is now an amazing sleeper! I am not sure where it came from or how we got to this point so quickly, but it is SO nice! He takes two good naps a day and sleeps 12 hours at night! YAY!!

A few more things about Reid at 8 months...

*He loves his grandparents! We are so, so lucky that Reid gets to see all of his grandparents at least once a week, usually a few times a week. He also loves his Auntie Alli and Uncle Thomas of course!

*He loves the dogs and is so much more aware of them! They can just walk by him and he laughs! It's precious! He also loves to pet them when he first wakes up!

*He gives hugs. :)

*He makes the silliest guppy/old man face! We don't know what else to call it!

*He is "talking" up a storm! He says mamama, dadada, bababa, and yayaya. I am not counting any of these as his "first word" because I don't think he is associating them with anything yet!

*Log rolling is still his mode of transportation and he seems pretty fine with that! He pulled up once last week and has tried a few times since then.

*He is still happy, happy, happy! He hardly ever cries.

*Just last week he has started fussing when I take something away that he wants, such as my phone.

*He loves when we blow on his face! He gasps and then gets the biggest grin!

*We got him an inflatable duck tub that goes inside the bathtub. He was getting too big for the baby tub, but I don't think he's quite ready for the big tub. He loves his new duck and reclines with his legs up on the side like he is at the beach.

*He is kind of starting to copy us a little bit.

*This is random, but his feet seem so much bigger all of a sudden! He is wearing a size 3 shoe. I am obsessed with his feet! :)

*He LOVES books. His name is Reid. ;) If there are several toys in front of him, he almost always grabs a book. He mostly just tosses them around and chews on them, but I still love that he loves them. :)

What an incredible 8 months it has been! We absolutely adore you, Reid!

Fun Day!

Well, our little non-sleeper has turned into quite the hibernating baby bear! :) He didn't wake up until 8:45 this morning! We had a fun playdate with some sweet friends this morning and then hung out at home the rest of the day. My mom, Chris, and dear friend Sharon all have birthdays today! Mumsie stopped by so she could get a birthday hug from Reid. We are doing our annual January 19th birthday group get together tomorrow night.

Just a few minutes after my mom left, Reid decided he was going to pull up for the first time! He will stand himself up if we are sitting and holding his hands, but this was his first time to pull up on something completely by himself! It took about 5 minutes for him to do it, but he was very determined.

He needed to do a little taste test first...

He had to decide what he was going after in our very fancy toy box...

He knew this was a photo op and posed before the big event!

"Are you ready Mommy?"

He was a little surprised that he actually did it! :)

Tonight we went to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa at Babin's.

I am kind of obsessed with this picture of my boys...LOVE.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Mealtime just got a whole lot messier! :)

Reid's new thing is that he presses his lips together and blows to make what I like to call his elephant sound. :) He also loves to stick out his tongue and blow to make bubbles. It's pretty funny and he does it all day long. Today he decided that it would be fun to try his new trick while he was eating! He had just gotten the hang of eating from a spoon and finishing a meal without making too big of a mess. Not anymore! By the time he was finished with dinner we were BOTH covered in carrots and squash. He spit them all over me! I was laughing so hard and totally egging him on! ;) As I was cleaning up the big mess with carrots all over my face, arms, and shirt, I couldn't help but think, "This is the life." Cheesy? Yes, but so true. :)

Target

Anytime I am out in public with Reid and he makes even the slightest little sound I start to panic! Anxiety starts welling up inside me and I feel like I need to leave immediately in case he decides to get really loud! I feel like there is a spotlight on me and everyone is going to stare at us and get upset. It's SO silly, but I just can't help it. Reid is not really a fan of sitting in the shopping cart and he let me know about it at Target today. Even though the population inside the store was about 90% moms and babies, I still got so anxious! I tried to carry him with one arm and push the cart with the other. When that didn't work, I decided to prop him up sideways instead of putting his legs through the holes. I'm sure that's not very safe. I had about 10 toys, pacifiers, and teethers in there with him (which kept falling out all over the store), but all he wanted was my dirty, gross keys. A mom's got to do what a mom's got to do! :)
I also feel like I need to confess that I never put my shopping cart back in the designated location anymore. I used to always try to do this, but having a baby changes things! I will try to do it again when he is older to set a good example. :)

Easy as 1, 2, 3...

Well, at 7 months and 20 days, Reid finally SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! Honestly, it was so easy that I feel really silly for not figuring this out sooner. Last week I reached the point when I knew that we needed to make some changes. He was still waking up 5-6 times a night. I was feeding him almost every time because it was the only thing that would calm him down. We were both worn out. Chris and I came up with a game plan and on Friday night we were geared up and ready to go! From Friday night to Monday night he decreased the number of times he got up by about one time each night and then finally last night he slept from 8 - 7! I am doing a dream feed at 10:30, but he pretty much sleeps right through that. Here is what worked for us...
1. Adjusted the Environment - We put a night light in his room (actually a Scentsy plug in) which created the perfect amount of light. I would really recommend Scentsy plug ins for nursery night lights! It also smells great which is a bonus. I used to keep the room pitch black thinking that was what babies needed to sleep. It occurred to me that maybe he was scared when he woke up. Hello! Why didn't I think of this sooner? Such a rookie... :) We also got a different sound machine. We had been using the sleep sheep, but it turns off after about 45 minutes. We decided that maybe he needed something that would stay on all night. We turned the volume up really high too! We put about 6 pacifiers in his crib in addition to the one that he falls asleep with in his mouth.

2. Ferber Method (kind of) - I used to go into his room the second he made a peep. Chris and I decided together that we would let him fuss for about 3 minutes each time before we would go in.

3. DADDY WENT IN! - I am convinced that this is what really made the difference. For the last 4 nights, I sent Chris in instead of me. Normally, when I would go in, his crying would escalate and escalate until I fed him. Well, wouldn't you know, Chris went in, rubbed his tummy, put his pacifier back in if it had fallen out, and walked out of the room. He went right to sleep every single time.

It is amazing what a full night of sleep can do! It was SO much easier than I ever thought it would be. I got myself so worked up over this and now I can't believe we didn't try these things sooner. Reid is such an easy baby, so I should have known that this wouldn't have been very hard. I realize that it may not happen every night, but I will take a few nights here and there! :)

He was a little grumpy when I started taking his picture this morning to document the occasion! I don't blame him. I wouldn't want a camera in my face right when I woke up either! :)

a few thoughts...

While I am typing this, I can hear Chris singing some old school George Strait to Reid while he is giving him a bottle...so precious. :)

1. We lowered Reid's crib last weekend. It was quite the ordeal! We decided to just lower it all the way to the bottom and skip the middle because we have heard that it won't stay there for long anyway. Good advice! He isn't pulling up on furniture yet (although he just started to pull up while we are holding his hands on the floor), but we decided to just go ahead and do it. I really wonder how extremely short people get their baby in and out when it's that low! My back actually hurt the first few days and I'm on the taller side!

2. I am struggling with Reid's nighttime sleeping situation. It really hasn't bothered me until recently, but I have felt so defeated all day. Why can't I figure this out? I've read books, asked friends, looked at different websites. I can't help but feel like I've done something majorly wrong. I know it won't be the only time I do something majorly wrong in my journey through motherhood, but UGH. There are so many theories and so much advice out there. I don't think there is a right or wrong way. I just need to figure out what is best for us.

3. "Mommy Brain" is not a joke. If something isn't written down, it doesn't happen.

4. Reid is now eating three solid meals a day! He had bananas and yogurt for breakfast and loved it!

5. Reid and Annabelle can sort of play together now! It's pretty cute. He will grab her toy and she will tug at it.

6. This is crazy to me, but we just noticed yesterday that Reid has two top teeth that have popped through! They are barely out, but they are definitely there. It's a middle one and the one next to it on the outside. He may look a little lopsided for a while! :) This is not the reason he isn't sleeping. Sleeping has always been an issue, not just recently.

7. We are transitioning Reid to two naps. Today was his first day taking two naps and it actually went pretty well. We dropped the late afternoon/evening nap. He was a little cranky by the end of the day though.

Just a couple of quotes I've been thinking about recently...

"Don't wait for everything to be perfect. You have everything you need right now." ~Pinterest :)

"Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter." ~Francis Chan

Welcome 2012!

2011 was definitely the best year of our lives so far! Last night didn't really feel like New Year's Eve! We didn't watch a single New Year's Eve show on TV and we were all asleep by 11:00 (Reid was asleep by 8:30). This is quite a contrast to our usual wild and crazy New Year's Eve plans! :) I did get a New Year's Eve kiss from my baby boy around 12:30 though! ;)

Welcome 2012!