What a time he's having!

Jack started cutting teeth last week. His bottom right middle tooth (that makes tons of sense, right?) popped through Wednesday last week. Then he got a runny nose. Then we noticed he felt warm Saturday. That was a fever. Poor babe. After waiting 24 hours and giving him Motrin like the peditrician instructed, he still had the fever and sounded much worse. His squeal had turned into a growl because he was hoarse. We took him in Monday morning and he has an ear infection on top of teething. He's pretty darn cruddy still. His other bottom tooth still hasn't made its appearance, so that has to be causing lots of the fussiness and the gobs of snot. And why must separation anxiety kick in with all of this?

On the way to the pediatrician...the whole way there. Then half the way back. I'm glad it's not that far of a drive!





Back to last week....We had lunch with Daddy. I must say, Jack sure does look like Daddy. (After posting this, I realized I had already blogged about it. Oh well, here it is again.)








Look what was waiting for us when we got home:

It's the pumpkin hat I ordered off etsy at http://www.mymarketstall.etsy.com/ . Love the hat! It looks great on our little punkin' seed (that's what Marty calls him).

Saturday was family day on base. Jack didn't have the fever yet, so we went for some lunch. It's been raining a ton, so the softball game was cancelled. There wasn't much for us to do there besides eat, so that's all we did. They had water balloons, jump houses, face painting, etc. for the kids, so there was plenty to do, just not for a 7 month old. He nom-nomed on a bag (unopened) of cookies after he had his lunch. The highlight of his day.

You read that right, 7 months!







Look at him! So much has changed since that picture in the frame was taken.

And he's off!

Jack has been getting better and better at pulling himself around for about two weeks. If I leave the room, he follows me. Once we put him down on his back, it only takes a second for him to flip over and take off. He's in enhanced discovery mode, seriously. Who knew smacking one's hand on the wall could be so entertaining? Or that finding the stack of magazines under the end table Mom forgot about could cause a puddle of drool? He'll be chasing the dogs around soon too, I'm sure.



Oh, and he's getting teeth! The baby I brought home from the hospital, oh...almost 7 MONTHS AGO, is getting teeth. Two of them. It didn't seem to bother him until today. He's been clingy and cranky all day.

Lunch with Daddy

We woke up too late to make it to story time at the library Wednesday, so we took our time and went on base to pick up Daddy for some lunch. Chick-fil-a's waffle fries are his weakness! I couldn't pass up snapping this picture. He turns me to mush. I love this little man so much.

Well, they both tend to have that effect on me.

We have a crib napper!

Jack has not been the best at napping. He was a big cat napper. 20 minutes here and there, whenever, mostly in his swing, or in my arms. That's right, I held my itty bitty baby for nap. *gasp* How could I ever do such a thing? Well, because it was the only way he would nap. Was I expected to let my precious baby scream in his crib because he wanted to snuggle?

For about a week he's been waking up at 7:30, playing, having breakfast, playing, nursing, and down for a nap at 10:30. IN HIS CRIB! It didn't take any crying it out to do it either. I just put him in there when he was tired one day, turned on a lullaby CD, shut the door and he was out when I checked on him 10 minutes later. I'm digging the schedule he put himself on too. Obviously, I didn't ruin him with holding him for his naps before. He's a tummy sleeper, like Mom and Dad too. He's been asleep for over an hour today. Yay!

Such a great eater!

Jack has been eating cereal mixed with milk for over a month. We wanted to wait on purees until we were home for good from vacation. I made some purees over a week ago and he LOVED them. We got the okay from the pediatrician to give him whatever we want and however much he wants. She said to stay away from the usual until he's a year old (peanut butter, honey, fish, etc.). So, I picked up more fruits and veggies.

Look at all that yummy stuff! Plums, peaches, sweet potatoes, sweet peas, carrots, beets, and apples. He'll eat anything we give him, so far. The dogs know when there are puffs on his tray too.

I love love love our new highchair. It's the Graco Blossom. It's a 4-in-1 chair. What you can't see in the picture is that the bulky upper tray is snapped onto a smaller "snack" tray. The seat also snaps out of the frame so you can strap it to a regular chair as a space saver, plus the frame is left to use as a youth chair. AND it comes with a toddler booster seat. So, you can seat 3 kids at once. Have I sold it yet? I doubt we would ever use the chair as a youth seat, but I'm sure it would be handy for some people.

Back to Jack being a wonderful eater. So far, he's eaten avocado, apples, plums, peaches, bananas, sweet peas, sweet potatoes, and carrots. And loved them all! He works hard with his little hands to eat puffs, but does great.

6 Months!

People are so right when they say time goes by so fast when you have a baby. I don't want him to grow up, but I sure do enjoy seeing all the changes. Jack finally started rolling over the night before we left for San Diego (that post is being edited and is picture heavy). He is a big talker. He'll squeal and make serious faces at anyone that will take a few minutes to "talk." He's recently turned into a Momma's Boy. He's doing wonderful on solids. He's had rice cereal, avocado, sweet potatoes, apples, and tiny bite of banana just this morning. Sweet potatoes are his favorite so far. I can't blame him, Momma's a good cook!

Making his food was so much easier than I expected. Peel, cube, steam, throw it in the food processor/blender/use an immersion blender, add cooking water until it's the right consistency, and done! I make it in batches so I freeze in ice cube trays, and then transfer them to freezer bags and date them. Easy. I did most of my research (very little, really) here about baby food making.

We had his 6 month checkup yesterday. I can't say enough good things about our pediatrician. She's so laidback, I love her! I asked about how much grains and fruits/veggies he's supposed to get daily. I told her he ate two tablespoons of sweet potatoes, she said since he was a great eater, to just give him what he wants. And none of that waiting four days until moving on to the next food either. Woo hoo!

Jack screamed for about a minute with his shots. Those nurses are pros at giving shots super fast! She was done with all FOUR shots before he got a breath from the first scream. He's been a tad more clingy today than usual, but no side effects from the shots at all. Yay!

Jack weighs 16 lbs. and is 26 1/2 inches long. 30th% (approximately) for both. His length must have been measured wrong last time, because he was 26 1/2 inches long two months ago. Ha!

Cutting back on electricity

With temperatures reaching 100 degrees already, I am trying very hard to cut back on our electricity. Last summer, we had a bill for $300! The rates for DFW are pretty high, we pay around $0.13 per kWh. I laughed when my dad complained about paying $75 one month. I know it's high for them, but they don't have to pay property taxes either!

I've been making myself get serious about it. Since we have Jack, I can't really cut back on the a/c. Plus, Marty and I hate being hot. There are zero clouds in the sky and we have no trees, so no shade for our house to give the a/c a break either. I turn off the TV when I'm not watching it, turn off lights when I don't need them. I crack open the blinds as needed for light. We change the a/c filter monthly, but we could probably do it more often since it seems like it's constantly running.

Something I'm really proud of...I started hanging our clothes on the clothesline. I've been hanging sheets, towels, and Jack's diapers for a while, but I figured I would dry our clothes for free since it's blazing hot out. I run them in the dryer for about 10 minutes to fluff them when I bring them in. I'm quite satisfied when I tote the basket full of clothes inside I dried for free. Love it!

Got any other ideas for cutting back?

Grandma's Hobby

My mom has been cross stitching for years. She taught me when I was 8. I remember sitting in the waiting room of a hospital while a friend of hers was having surgery and whining about being bored. She was working on a gift for another friend of hers that was pregnant. Mom has always loved making things as gifts. I think she has given away more things than she has made for herself. Anyhow, I asked if she would show me how to cross stitch something. Ever since then, I've made things here and there. Mom always has a project going. She can complete one in a matter of days. She made the following items in what seemed like a single day each!

I was talking to her when Jack was about 6 weeks or so. I told her I felt like cleaning, but just didn't have the time to do it. I didn't want anyone to think I was a slob if they stopped by and there was a sink full of dirty dishes. Marty could only do so much to help with the housework after a fully day's work. This is what she made me:

In case you can't read it:
"Cleaning and scrubbing can wait til tomorrow. For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust, go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep."

It's very fitting that I haven't framed it yet either. Ha!

Here is something from long ago that she made me. She made one for all of us, actually.

Jack doesn't even have teeth yet, but he's ready for that tooth fairy!

4 Months

13 lbs. 14 ozs., just under 50th percentile

26.5 inches long, right about 90th percentile

Whoa!

First Father's Day

Marty was put on this earth to be a Daddy. He is so amazing with Jack. They adore each other. I can see it in their eyes. I am one lucky girl to have such a wonderful husband. I knew without a doubt he would be an amazing father.

I framed the D-A-D pictures in black and white for Marty to take to put on his desk at work. I couldn't stand waiting, so we gave him the catch-all platter the day we got it in the mail. It says "No matter how tall I get I will always look up to my Daddy." I know this is so true. Life was pretty close to perfect before Jack. Now it is absolutely perfect.

How many men will sit in a patch of flowers so baby can get a picture for the Grandmas???

ExerSaucer is a hit!

I realized last week that Jack doesn't have many toys. He doesn't need a lot, but all he had was the little thing he is looking up at in the first picture. He LOVES it, but it's really the only toy he's interested in. I searched craigslist, but didn't find anything I wanted that was in good enough condition. To Babies R Us we went after my haircut. I desperately needed that haircut too! With all these parts, I'm glad he liked it. I love putting things together though. When we were checking out at BRU, the cashier told us it takes 12 batteries. Twelve??? That's what I asked too. The lady behind us got a chuckle out of it.




Sensory overload!

I hope he continues to enjoy it. He was a little wobbly, but we're working on that. Marty had to dig around a couple different draweres to find 12 AAA batteries. We need more batteries now.