10 Months

Bubbs,

Another month has flown by.  As usual, I can't believe how fast it has flown by.  You are such a happy baby these days.  I think you are a happy guy in general, but I also think that this is because you get lots of one on one attention all day long from your daddy.  We are blessed that we have the financial means for him to stay home with you!



You keep hitting your milestones like a champ.  I read other mommy blogs and you seem to be a bit ahead on some things and a big behind on others, so probably a good middle of the road balance there.  Lets start with food.  You LOVE your food now!  Your favorite things are probably sweet potatoes, bananas, and macaroni and cheese.  You also eat peas, beans, corn, lima beans (yes, you like them... at least for now!) applesauce, pears, peaches, etc. We like to give you small pieces of what we are eating so you sometimes get french fries, bits of chicken, bits of hamburger.  You pretty much eat whatever we put in front of you, which is nice.



You really respond well to being on a routine.  Here is your typical day:  wake up around 7-8 am, then have your first bottle.  Play for an hour and a half or two, then down for your first nap.  When you wake up, you have fruit and cereal.  Then play for a few hours, then down for nap # 2.  Wake up and have some lunch.  Play for a few more hours, and if you are cranky, you go down for nap #3.  Then wake up and have some dinner.  Then play for a few more hours, have a bottle and/or a tubby, and then bedtime.  You are a really great sleeper and usually sleep all night once we get you to bed.



We went on two trips this month.  First, we went to FL to visit Grandma Mindy and Pappy Keith.  You did great on the trip!  You took your first dip in the ocean (The Gulf of Mexico) and you seemed pretty happy about it.  You got to visit with lots of family and you especially liked your cousin Madison.  We spent some time at the Sponge Docks where there are lots of Greek restaurants.  ALL of the old Greek ladies were in love with you and complimenting us on how beautiful you are.  That never gets old :)



We also took a trip to Madison to visit Nana and Grandpa Larry.  Everybody there was so happy to see you and we had a really great visit.  You got to play naked in the kiddie pool that Nana bought you and you were pretty happy about that because it was very hot while we were there, over 100 degrees.  We had an adventure on the way home travel wise and ended up getting diverted to Dayton, OH.  As usual, you charmed everybody around us on the airplane and really took all of the travel really well considering that we were breaking up your routine, making you sleep in strange beds, etc.  We are lucky that you are such a good little traveler!



Most of your words still sound like da da da da.  When you are really mad, they sound like ba ba ba ba, and when you are upset, its ma ma ma ma.  We are hoping you start saying some real words soon, but we also love your baby babble.  We are making an effort to take the nuk nuk away during the day so that you can talk a lot.  For now, you just use the nuk at night, during naps, and sometimes when you finish your bottle (you are usually upset that it is finished.)



Speaking of bottles, you hold your own bottle now!  This was really nice on our trips because it frees up a hand for mommy and daddy.  Sometimes you need help tipping the bottle up all the way, or holding it with the top facing up, but you have the general idea.  You have also taken to the sippy cup now that we found you one with a straw.  This has been nice because with the extreme heat, we have been giving you water while we are out and about to make sure you stay hydrated, and a straw and sippy cup makes that much easier.



You seem to love life more every day.  You love to play games with Mommy and Daddy, and you love to try and pet Mason, although he seems to be loving you less these days, now that you have learned how to tug on his tail and ears.  We are moving to our new house next week and I can't wait to see you explore your new surroundings there.  Moving also means that Daisy will be joining us (she has been with Josh's dad in Pittsburgh for the past 2 months so that she didn't have to stay at the apartment.)  I'm sure that she is going to be very excited to see you, and you her.



Every day with you is a joy, and we are so lucky to be your Mommy and Daddy!  I love you Nicholas Jason :)

9 Months

My little love,

You are now 9 months old.  Mommy can't believe that you have been on the outside for as long as you were on the inside!!!  I sort of miss having you all to myself, but at the same time I love seeing the relationship you have with your Daddy, and with all of the rest of our family!



We have had a VERY busy month!  We packed up our whole house in Indiana and moved!  You and Daddy spent a week in Pittsburgh visiting with the family and then the three of us (and Mason) made the long drive from Pittsburgh to Boston.  You handled it like a champ!



You have a new room now (although it is temporary-- we are in an apartment until we move into our house next month) but you are pretty much back into your routine and sleeping through the night.  You are tearing the place up by crawling all over- you have pretty much mastered the art of crawling.  You are also pulling yourself up on everything including the couch, pillows, chairs, Mommy, Daddy, and even Mason!  You are really good at standing while holding onto something but don't seem too interested in walking yet.



We did your 9 month checkup a few weeks early so we could do it before we moved and the doctor said you were "perfect."  You were 18 lbs, 6 oz and 27 3/4 inches long.  Everybody says you are a "big boy" when they see you, but really you are still kind of a peanut- you are about at the 25th percentile for weight and 40th for height.



You LOVE your food, especially things that you can eat on your own.  You love feeding yourself cheerios, all kinds of puffs, bananas, peas, etc.  We are slowly introducing you to new foods and letting you feed yourself when we are eating something you can easily mush in your mouth :)  You are eating 3 meals a day now and still taking about 3 bottles.  We have been giving you a sippy cup from time to time but you are not terribly interested in it.  We will have to work on that because you are supposed to be weaned from the bottle (and formula) by the time you are a year old.



You are such a happy baby.  You love to laugh and smile, and you are sooooo ticklish.  You love to play games with Me and Daddy.  You love to hold things that are not toys like the Desitin or the baby wipes container, or our keys.  You definitely know what you want and will purposefully reach for things that you are interested in.  You also really, really love Mason and Dasiy.  You light up whenever either of them come into the room and you love to pet them.  We are working on making sure you are gentle with them, but they honestly don't seem to care.  They love you too and are happy for the attention :)

   

You love to "talk."  You are always chatting and right now it sounds a lot like "ba ba ba ga go ga da da da."  The other day I handed you to Daddy and you said "da da."  Not sure if that was your first word or a mere coincidence, lol.  You also love to squeal and make vibrations with your mouth.  Oh, and spit bubbles too.  You LOVE to make spit bubbles.



We love watching you learn about your new surroundings.  You are very curious and spend a lot of time looking around when we go to a new place or see new people.  It is such an honor to watch you figure the world out.  The best part of my day is still getting home after a long day and seeing that big baby smile that you save just for me.  I love it so much, and I love you to bits!  You are such a blessing Nicholas and Daddy and I love you to the moon!

8 Months

NickNick,

You are now 8 months old!  We had a very busy month and you handled it pretty well.  We went to visit Nana and Grandpa in Wisconsin for Easter and then we went to MA to househunt for our new home and you were such a trooper.  As usual, you made friends everywhere we went.  People have literally stopped us in the street to tell us what a beautiful baby you are.  It starts to get kind of funny after awhile, because people tend to gush and gush about you, but we just happily agree and thank them.



Biggest developmental thing this month is that you are CRAWLING.  You started out a bit slow at it but you are now a champ.  You can get from one end of the room to the other in just a few seconds and you love to look back behind you to make sure me and Daddy are watching.  We have taken to making you a play area in the living room by blocking you in with the couch cushions to keep you safe.



You are also now sitting up by yourself which makes you seem like such a big boy!  When you wake up in the morning, you usually sit up in your crib and babble to yourself for a few minutes until we are ready to get up.  You are also learning that crawling and sitting up like a big boy leads to falling over and getting big boy boo boo's like bumps on your head.  You hit your head on the bottom of the jumperoo this weekend and you were soooooo upset.  Just a few cuddles from Mommy had you calmed down though :)



You are still eating everything we give you.  You are now on to the 2nd foods so are enjoying combinations of things like apple blueberry and apple cherry.  We have also been starting to give you some finger food like banana puffs, small pieces of banana, and puffs.  Took you a little while to figure out how to stick food in your mouth (which is funny because you stick everything else in there just fine!) but now you are getting pretty good at it.  Sometimes its nice to be able to give you a few puffs to play with eat so that Mommy and Daddy can finish their dinner.



You are totally in love with our dog Daisy and she is totally in love with you.  She is very good with you and sits at a distance for the most part, until she just can't take it anymore.  Then she inches her way over closer and closer at which point you get curious and stick your hands in her face.  She happily licks your hands, your feet, your face (gross) until Mommy and Daddy make her stop.  You are also getting good at petting our cat Mason and being gentile with him.



You went swimming for the first time at our hotel in MA a few weeks ago.  YOU LOVED IT.  You had a huge smile on your face and you and Daddy had so much fun playing in the water.  We intend to get you into swimming lessons soon after we get settled in MA and we are sure you are going to love that as well.



You still only have the two bottom teeth, but are definitely drooling up a storm so we are thinking there are more coming soon.  Your sleep got really messed up while we were in MA because we got you out of your routine but we also think that teething may be playing a part in you waking up a few times a night.  At first we were getting up and giving you bottles to calm you down but we have been trying to let you sooth yourself back to sleep which usually works.



This will sound like a broken record, but we love you so much Nicholas.  Literally the best part of our days are getting to watch you learn, smile, grow, and just be you.  You are the best thing that has ever happened to us, baby.  We love you!

Seven Months

I'm a few weeks late on this, but still wanted to get it in.... Nicholas, you are now 7 months old!  Mommy can't believe it.  I can't even imagine a time when we didn't have you in our lives.  It has been a great month.



You are becoming such a big boy.  It seems like every time we put one of your older outfits on you (6 months size) that seemed to fit just fine the last time you wore it, its too short!  You seem to have really caught up with your height and weight but we won't know for sure how you measure up until your 9 month appt.



You definitely know your own mind and like to do your own thing.  You are still not really crawling, but you get the job done pretty well with your combination of rolling and pulling yourself around with your arms to get to where you want to go.  You don't stay put for very long when we put you down so we have to watch you like a hawk, little one!



If we sit you up on your own, you can stay up for a while, but still tend to fall to the side.  You can't sit up on your own yet, but you are sure giving it the old college try!  I'm sure you will be doing it all by yourself in the next few weeks.  You are also initiating much more social contact.  You love to blow spit bubbles and do just about anything to get peoples attention.  You love when people (especially pretty ladies) give you attention and tell you how adorable you are.  You are quite the ham.



You love to hold your toys now, and everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) goes in your mouth.  As your doctor said at your last checkup, you are "tasting the world" right now.  That would probably be OK except you tend to stick whatever you are tasting half way down your throat and then you choke on it.  Your favorite toy seems to be your doggie Scout and probably your jumperoo.  A REALLY good time is to jump in the jumperoo while playing with Scout.  Thats just how you roll.



You have pretty much made your way through the 1st foods like beans, peas, carrots, squash, apples, bananas, pears, peaches and prunes (yes, prunes.)  We will be starting you on the 2nd foods soon which I'm sure you will love.  You are such a good eater and have not turned anything that we have tried to give you down.  Hopefully you stay this flexible.  Daddy and I are going to try to set a good example for you!



You have become a really good napper.  Dr Amy told us at your last checkup that we needed to start putting you in your crib, awake, for bedtime and naps.  This was VERY hard on Mommy the first few nights because you screamed your little head off for over 35 minutes one night.  BUT after a few nights, it started working.  When we notice you are getting tired, we put you in your crib, and you might fuss/cry for a few minutes, but then you are out for the count.  Once we got this routine done at night, it became much easier to put you down for naps during the day (before this you only wanted to nap while being held.  While we love spending this much time with you, it makes it hard to get anything done!)  So, you have come a long way this month, sleep wise.  You get up around 7 am and go to bed around 8 pm with 3 or so naps a day.



You have two little teeth starting to poke through on your bottom gum.  They are sooooo cute.  While I am going to miss your toothless grins, I am excited that you will soon be able to eat more big boy food.



You are a really, really happy baby.  People tell us all the time how well behaved you are.  Granted, you let the world know when you are hungry or tired, but generally you are just happy to be you.  We love to make you laugh, and you are pretty easy in that department as you are very ticklish and 90% of what we say or do seems to make you laugh.    We love you so much Nicholas, seeing you is just the best part of our day :)

Six Months

Time for another month milestone blog post :)




Nicholas is now 6 months old!  Time is literally FLYING by.  Can't believe it!  We had another great month.  Nicholas is now a master of rolling from his back to his belly and back again.  Since he isn't crawling yet, he uses this rolling method to get from point A to B.  He is getting pretty good at it!  He also figured out that if he is on a blanket on the floor and there is a toy on the blanket that he can't reach, he can pull the blanket toward himself to get the toy.  My son is a GENIUS people.



He is very interested in his surroundings lately.  When he hears a new noise, he looks toward whatever it is.  Sometimes he gets scared and cries if he doesn't understand.  He is also starting to exhibit some "Stranger Danger" and cries when new people or people he hasn't seen in awhile try to hold him.  After a few minutes, he loves new people and flashes them lots of smiles.



We took an impromptu trip to Florida this month.  Just like last time, Nick did great on the flight.  He also made friends wherever we went, including (but not limited to) the airport, the plane, the rental car place, restaurants {Hooters girls love him} and hotels.  He even got us an upgrade on our room to a King suite.  At least the kid is finally starting to earn his keep :)  He also got to visit Grandma Mindy and Pappy Keith and meet his Aunt, Uncle, and cousins.  Oh, and he got to see the ocean for the first time.  We woke him up from a nap to take him on the beach so he wasn't too thrilled.


 
Nick is becoming quite the talker.  He babbles all day long!  He also lets us know when he is not pleased about something by HOLLERING at us.  Can't imagine where he got that from :)  Usually he stops crying/carrying on if you just get up and give him a change of scenery.  He can definitely have a bit of an attitude, which is so cute.  It looks something like this:



He still sleeps pretty well, but we are struggling a little bit with trying to break him from sleeping in the swaddle blanket.  We want him to be able to move freely around his crib, which is hard for him to do when he is wrapped like a mummy.  If we put him down unswaddled though, he doesn't seem to feel secure enough and he wakes up crying after a short time.  So, we went back to swaddling him.  Trying to do naps during the day with no swaddle and also putting him down with one arm unswaddled at night to ease him into the feeling of being totally unswaddled.  Hopefully he is feeling better about it within a few weeks.



He got pretty good at eating oatmeal and continued to show interest in our food, so we started him on vegetables the week of his 6 month birthday.  His first vegetable was green beans, which he really likes.  He tries something new every 3 days (to make sure he isn't allergic.)  To date he has tried green beans, peaches, peas, and bananas.  Tomorrow we are switching the vegetable to carrots.  We really hope to teach him good eating habits so that he likes vegetables more than mom and dad.



We decided this month that we are going to take a bit of a leap and move to the Boston area.  I was offered a promotion at work, and its a great opportunity, so we are going for it.  Nick has been great about letting us work on the house.  We have about 1 more weekend worth of work to get done before we can get the house listed and on the market.  Hopefully we can find a buyer for it!  This will be an exciting new adventure for our family!  We will be a bit sad to leave Fort Wayne- this is the place where Nicholas had so many firsts.... but we are looking forward to new challenges too.



He is generally a really happy baby.  It is pretty easy to get him to smile and laugh, which we do all the time.  There is nothing better than his laugh.  He is just under 17 lbs and is now up into the 50th percentile for weight and height.  He had been on the short side the last few checkups, so we were glad to see he got a bit taller.  No teeth yet, but he drools up a storm all the time so we keep thinking we will see one soon.  Every day with him is so rewarding.  Josh and I feel very lucky to be his Mommy and Daddy!

Test

Test post with my fancy new phone.

5 Months

Now that I am sitting down to do Nick's 5 month post, I realize that I never did the 4 month one.  BAD MOMMY!  Hopefully I can find time to do it this weekend :)



Anyway, NickNick, you are now 5 months old!!!  Still feels like yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital- I simply can't believe that 5 months have passed!



Since your last "birthday" you have been making lots of progress developmentally!  The first big change is that you are eating solids now.  We started pretty slow but you liked your oatmeal from the first bite!  We are working up to making it a regular part of your diet.  After your six month birthday you can start having fruits and veggies.  You seem to be taking a real interest in what Daddy and I are eating now, so thats a good sign that you are ready for big boy food.

 

You are such a good baby, and you love to laugh and smile.  Mommy and Daddy are getting pretty good at finding your tickle spots and it lights up our whole day to hear your little squeals and giggles.  You continue to sleep through the night on most nights and we made it past the "4 month wakeful" period without much change to your sleep pattern other than maybe needing the nuk popped back in during the early morning.  You have been regularly breaking out of your swaddle sleep sacks by morning time, but if we try to put you down unswaddled, you usually wake up within an hour or so, so we are going to keep swaddling for now.  You have been able to rotate yourself around in your crib a few times!



You rolled over from your tummy to your back for the first time this month!!!  You still hate tummy time so this one was kind of hard for you to figure out, but now you are a champ at it.  If we put you on your tummy, you roll to your back almost immediately.  Guess you have a way to get out of tummy time now!



We took our first few road trips this month, and you did GREAT!  We were worried that you would not like sitting in your carseat for the 6 hour ride to PA but you slept most of the way, basically just waking up for your bottles and to play for a few minutes before the road lulled you back to sleep.  We had a nice visit with all of your relatives that live in PA and you even got to go to Lily's birthday party!  It was nice for everybody there to finally meet and hold you!  We took a second road trip to WI later in the month which was also a good trip for you.  You spent more of the time in the car awake but were content to play with your toys or have one of us entertaining you.



Another big first this month-- the first time BOTH of your teams (The Packers and the Steelers) made it to the  Superbowl!  You had a fun time rooting for both teams, but in the end the Packers won and you were so happy!  GO PACK :)



It seems like you do something new everyday.  You are very curious about your surroundings and like to hold toys and whatever else you can get your hands on.  You love to touch everything and learn about different textures.  You have taken an interest in our pets and love to pet our kitty Ariel.  She is very patient with you and lets you pet her even though you are not very gentle yet.



You are completely in love with your feet and toes.  You hold onto them all the time and love it when you don't have socks on so you can get a good grip.  You especially love to do this while in the bath tub.  You continue to love tubby time and we are looking forward to when you can sit up on your own consistently so that we can have you play in the big boy tub with toys.  The way you love water, we are sure you are going to love swimming lessons, which you should be able to start in a few months.



You are such a joy to us Nicholas.  We love you more and more every single day!

365 Days of Nick

Happy New Year!

I thought it might be fun to commit to taking a picture of my favorite subject every single day of 2011.  I will do my best to document this journey here, feel free to click over and follow if you are interested!