...month 10

Feeding myself!




William's First Thanksgiving


First trip to the zoo with the cousins!


Being silly in the bath!

The last few months in a wrap!

Getting ready for winter!


First Auburn Game!


I'm a Duck!


Hangin out with Drew Sanders in our costumes


Getting Ready for Halloween time!


First Dove Hunt!

And He's Off!

Crawling!!



William and Chapman at the St. James Homecoming game

Daddy put up my swing!

William and Cousin Emily Kate

Picking out his first pumpkin

First Hayride at MCC Fall Festival

Baby William at his Children's Hospital apt last week

Well, William is crawling, pulling up and climbing like a monkey! William is doing great! We went for his 2nd Children's Hospital apt last week, and the doctor said he is doing fine! We will go back in December for another check-up. We did have our first little runny nose and sniffles the other day, but I think it is about out of here! No stats yet for 9months...we go to the regular dr. next week so I will update. I'm thinking he is about 18lbs.or close to it.

p.s. for the moms out there...check out the article...My mom was watching about this on the show the Doctors the other day! Crazy!

Lead found in popular baby food and juice products
This week the Environmental Law Foundation, a nonprofit based in the Bay Area, filed Notices of Violation of California Proposition 65 Toxics Right to Know law, alleging that lead, a highly toxic chemical for children, was found in a variety of foods and drinks for children and babies (pdf).

The specific food categories included apple juice, grape juice, packaged pears and peaches (including baby food), and fruit cocktail. ELF purchased dozens of brands of juices and fruit products around California and sent them to an EPA-certified lab in Berkeley and testing results showed that many individual servings of apple juice, grape juice, packaged peaches and pears and fruit cocktail contained lead above the federal daily limit established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for young kids.

Which foods contain too much lead?

•Beech Nut 100% Apple Juice
•Del Monte 100% Juice Fruit Cocktail
•Del Monte Freestone Peach Slices in 100 % Juice
•Del Monte Sliced Yellow Cling Peaches in 100 % Juice
•Dole Mixed Fruit in Light Syrup
•Earth’s Best Organics Apple Juice
•Gerber 100% Juice – White Grape Juice
•Gerber 100% Juice Apple Juice
•Gerber 3rd Foods Peaches
•Gerber 3rd Foods Pears
•Hansen’s Natural Apple Juice
•Langers Apple Juice 100% Juice
•Minute Maid Juice Apple – 100% Apple Juice
•Motts 100% Apple Juice
•O Organics Organic Unfiltered Apple Juice Not From Concentrate
•Old Orchard 100% Apple Juice
•R.W. Knudsen Just Concord Grape Juice
•S&W Natural Style Fruit Cocktail in Lightly Sweetened Juice
•Safeway 100% Juice Apple Cider
•Safeway Organic Grape Juice
•Santa Cruz Organic Concord Grape Juice
•Trader Joe’s Certified Organic Apple Juice, pasteurized
•Trader Joe’s Pear Halves in white grape juice
•Tree Top 100% Juice Apple Cider
•Tree Top 100% Juice, Grape
•Walgreens Apple Juice from concentrate 100% juice
•Welch’s 100% Grape Juice (from Welch’s Concord Grapes)
•Welch’s 100% Red Grape Juice from Concentrate
Above is just a sample. Many other products contained lead exceeding the federal standard. For a full list of all companies and products involved see the ELF notice letter (pdf).

Lead is not safe for your baby or young child:

As we’ve discussed before here at P&B, lead is a major danger for young children. Like BPA, lead has been shown to even affect babies in the womb.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that there is no safe level of exposure to lead when it comes to children.

OSHA notes that lead exposure can lead to loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, constipation, difficulty in sleeping, fatigue, moodiness, headache, joint or muscle aches, anemia, and decreased sexual drive to more extreme symptoms like severe damage to the blood-forming, nervous, urinary, and reproductive systems.

The EPA has a long list of lead related health problems that are connected directly to babies and young children.

What to do?

The problem here is that while many foods were tested, many were not. It might be smart to stick to homemade baby food – especially when it comes to apples, pears and peaches and avoid the brands contaminated (pdf) until the companies fix this situation.

7 Months!

Wow! Time has surely flown by! I can't believe my baby is 7 months old! He loves to sit outside, ride in the jogging stroller, play with his toys, pet the dogs and eat the baby food my mom has been making for him! He has very little hair but the hair that is coming in is blonde. Baby William is still a tiny thing only weighing in at a whoping 14lbs.7oz! He has definately gotten good use out of all his clothes so far! He can sit up by himself and hold his bottle by himself! He is still a wonderful sleeper- he takes a bath, bottle and you can just lay him in his bed with his lamb on the ocean sound and not a peep he will make. I really couldn't have asked for a more content and easy baby. We did have a little scare this past month. Baby William went for his 6 month checkup, and the dr. was worried he could possibly have hydrocephalus(water in the brain) b/c his head was measuring faster than his body. We were sent to Jackson Imaging Center two days later for a CAT scan. Luckily Will and I were able to be in there with him, and they didn't have to put him asleep to get the scans. The scans came back free of hydrocephalus which was great, but they did find some extra fluid on the outside of his brain. We were referred to Children's Hospital in Birmingham and went for out first appointment last Thursday. I little medical background...some babies are born with extra fluid and eventually the body will absorb it as they grow older. If it didn't, they would have to put a shunt in the head to drain it. He could have it because he was premature, but the dr. said babies that were born full term have it too. The doctor visit was great! William was right on track developmentally and passed all the sensory tests. The dr. is pretty sure he will be just fine and eventually his body will catch up with his head. He said we would really know if something was wrong b/c he would be acting sick and would probably cry alot, and William does none of that!They measured me and Will's heads as a part of the visit and said ours were above average too! We will go back in two months for a check up. Please say a little prayer for William and thanks to all of you that have been thinking of us!

Baby Baptism

William was baptized on June 13th at First United Methodist! It was a very special day for all of us! To start, we arrived at the church to get dressed, meet with the preacher, take a few pics and set the wreath on the baptismal font. I was really excited about the wreath because I made it myself the day before all for less than $40. On to the dress, which was beautiful...Will's mom made the bottom which was from his sister Hollister's graduation dress and her friend Kim made the top portion. We can't wait to pass it down for all the fam babies to wear on their special day! Afterwards, we had the fam and some very close friends over for lunch. Will, William and I left with about 5 min. remaining in the service so we could get back to the house before everyone came over. I think there ended up being about 26 of us which is definately a tight squeeze in my house, but we did it! I had lunch catered by Eastside Grille with a ham from the HoneyBaked Ham store...it all turned out so yummy!! We finished lunch off with a beautiful cake that Meredith's mom made.

We're back!!

Sorry! I have been on a blog vacation! I just haven't seem to make the time to upload pictures and write since I started back to work so here goes! Baby William will turn 5 months old this Saturday! Wow...time flies, but this age has been so fun watching his personality just blosseum! He is still a little thing...weighing in at 4.5 months at 12lbs and 14 oz. and 25" long. The doctor said he is doing great! Knock on wood...he has not been sick at all, but we think he is trying to teeth...he has been drooling, blowing bubbles and putting everything in his mouth lately. I stopped pumping a couple of weeks ago so we are strictly on formula now. We are going to start rice cearel next week...I think! We are still in Size 1 diapers and mostly wear 3 month old outfits. William is such a wonderful baby! He has been sleeping through the night for a little over a month now. He gets a bath, drinks a bottle and then I can lay him in the bed, turn on his sleep sheep and he will fall to sleep without a peep! Since my last post Baby William has been to the beach, the river, church nursery, to visit his new cousin Emily Kate in the Opelika hospital, baby showers, wedding showers, a wedding, and on his first 4-wheeler ride with daddy.

The Weekends

The past few weekends have been busy for Baby William. Three weekends ago we went to the beach with our neighbors! The weather was still cool, but it was great to get away! We got Baby William his first life jacket which by the way cost about the same as Will and I's but not even half the size!!!Geez! Baby William enjoyed his first boat ride to Tacky Jacks.


The next weekend was our cousin, Edward's 2nd birthday party in Auburn! William got to ride the train with Aunt Hollister. I don't think I have uploaded the birthday pics yet!
This past weekend started with The Montgomery Country Club Easter Egg Hunt/Party. It was fun to see everybody's kids all excited about Easter. We invited cousin Edward to come, and he was so cute playing on all the blow up toys! I can't wait for them to be able to play together!




And the Easter Bunny...he arrived in a real fire truck!!






Chapman Baker was there too! He was showing Baby William and Mr. Will the fire truck.



Saturday was fun except that afternoon Will got a case of the stomach bug and was sick all late afternoon, night and all day Sunday! So we were not able to make it to church which I was disappointed, but we had to take care of Daddy! William still wore his Easter outfit over to Bizzie and Granddaddy's house. Mrs. Hardwich made it and it was beautiful!!!