{seven} months old...

As I look at my "recent" posts, this blog has turned into a monthly update on Grayson... Hopefully that will change this fall but who knows... In the meantime, my baby boy turns 7 months old today... I really can't get enough of this kid, I don't just post pictures of him smiling, that is all he does. He is such a happy baby still... This kid is officially moving and shaking. He has been "crawling" for the past week, just going a few "steps" forward and testing the waters. But I woke up this morning and he is really crawling... Which is crazy and I am so not ready for. And neither are Audrey or Chase but they will see soon enough what I have been telling them ("you are in trouble once Grayson starts crawling" :)... He is a major busy body and is constantly moving and looking around. No more cuddling unless he is really tired which is sad but the way it goes... He is loving solid foods and will eat anything that I give him which is a nice change of pace from his siblings though I think they weren't picky at this age either... He is enjoying finger food and I am trying to introduce things that he can actually eat without choking. Right now we are limited to puffs, Ritz crackers, graham crackers, and occasionally a green bean or whatever veggie we happen to be eating. Hopefully we will expand this list sooner than later... He is very good at getting things in his mouth which is impressive at this age and it makes like much easier on me (you all know how much I LOVE to spoon feed baby food, blah).

He has turned into a great beach baby as you can see, but is quite a challenge now as he wants to be in the sand no matter how hard we try to keep him out of it. So he eats it and gets it all over him, which is part of being at the beach I guess right?

{six} months...

So my baby hit the big 6 month mark this past week... Here goes the broken record, I CAN NOT BELIEVE HE IS SIX MONTHS OLD! It is unbelievable how fast time is flying with him. I'm trying to enjoy this time but I feel like I blink and he is on to the next stage. I am more and more in love with this kid every day. He is seriously the happiest baby and his giggle is so contagious. He has turned that corner in the past month from being content in one place to being crazy man that wants to see and touch everything. You put him on the ground in one spot you turn your back and has rolled to the other side of the room. It will be interesting to see when he crawls. He seems interested, and is super strong on his stomach, but who knows. Seems like they are in that "about the crawl" stage for a long time. He has started sitting in the past week or so which I love. It is so much easier to be able to plop them anywhere and put some toys in front of them to keep them occupied, at least for a couple of minutes. We have not done so great with the solid foods but I've tried to step it up in the past week (since I got yelled at by our pediatrician, oops...). He definitely likes to eat and I am dying to start with finger food with him. I bought some puffs the other day and we will try those soon. Why not right? He has been annoying feeding him a bottle as he gets distracted super easy (way too much going on). He almost needs to go into a separate room, which is pretty difficult to do. We went to his 6 month appointment last week. He is staying on his curve, 19 lbs 4 oz (90th percentile) and 95th percentile height (don't remember how long). As you can see here, he is smaller than his big brother, but definitely holding his own... He is still in his bucket seat but not for much longer I would think. He is slowly growing out of all the baby gear which is bitter sweet. I am thrilled to be able to get rid of all of it finally but also sad that this is the last baby stage we will go thru...

If You Need us this Summer...

We are at the beach... We have spent every spare minute we have at the beach this summer and are absolutely loving it. Our house is a mess and we scramble to get errands done every week but it is so worth it. We have been lucky to have pretty awesome weather most weekends so far and have headed down at least 1 if not 2 days of each weekend... The kids are having a blast this year which is so good to see. They have always enjoyed it, but they really like the water this year which is nice. Audrey has really enjoyed boogy boarding and has been much braver on how far she ventures out. Chase has come a long way as well but it pretty content close to land jumping over waves. Grayson has finally found his inner beach bum thank goodness... We discovered if we bring the Exersaucer that he is pretty much good to go, though his time in it varies per day we will take what we can get...

the start of solid food...

I thoroughly enjoy most of the baby stages and have not tired of them thru the three kids. But there is one stage I really dislike, that has also stayed consistent thru out the three kids (see Chase's first food post here). The start of solid foods, yuck... There are many reasons I don't like it, but I find it more of an annoyance than enjoyable and the thought that it provides really no nutritional value doesn't help. It is hard fitting in another feeding in our busy schedules, it is hard doing one food at a time to make sure that they aren't allergic to anything... I really wish they could just jump to eating real food, bring on the cheerios and puffs! But they have to start somewhere and Grayson has been eyeing our food every night at dinner so Charlie finally said enough is enough and fed the kid the other night. Can't say he loved it, but as Aunt Diane commented, I can't imagine it tastes that great!

I also found another disturbing fact about rice cereal which makes me dislike it more. I'm not a huge label reader, but have been trying to be better at it, especially for the kids food. So I look at the side of his Gerber Rice Cereal that I of course fed both other kids, and how many ingredients do you think were on there? At least 15 and I of course couldn't pronounce any of them! Really, in baby food, that has plastered all over it "good for you"??? I promptly went and got his some oatmeal from a crunchy organic brand, much better...

I bet that is why my other 2 are terrible eaters, right????  

American Girl...

I decided a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to get Audrey an American Girl Doll for her birthday. Charlie thought I was crazy since she has never asked for one, but I envisioned this special trip with just Audrey and I and thought it would be something she would love. Making it happen with just the 2 of us proved to be a little challenging logistically, but my wonderful neighbor Kara stepped in a watched the boys while Audrey and I went.

Audrey had no idea where we were going (I actually told her we were going to a doctors appointment so Chase didn't want to come) and guessed the entire car ride. We walked up to the store and I wasn't sure she would recognize it but boy was I wrong... "American Girl"!!! I told her she could pick out any doll she wanted which was fun but also a little overwhelming for her. Talk about eye candy for a 5 year old... She ran around for awhile and we finally ended up with one of the My American Girls with long curly blonde hair and brown eyes. I wanted to grab something to eat at the cafe but we didn't have time for lunch so we sat down at the bar which turned out to be way better. We ordered a milkshake and banana strawberry sundae and they sang Happy Birthday to her so Audrey was in heaven. It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we did it. I really enjoyed hanging out with her one on one and Audrey said several times on the way home that "this was the best day ever" which made my heart melt... Doesn't get much better than that...

Pre-School Graduation...

Audrey had quite the week this week. Not only was it birthday week but she graduated from pre-school too! She came home for weeks talking about how they had been practicing for graduation and singing the songs so it was awesome to finally see what they put together. Her school did a great job, it was a very sweet program with lots of singing and then each kid walking across stage to get their "diploma". It was bittersweet watching her, it is sad for to leave her school but so exciting for her to be starting kindergarten in the fall! Chase will be taking her place at Lollipop in the fall which he is so excited about too...

Congrats to our grad, we are SO proud of you! 

5 years old...

Well, Audrey turned 5 this week and let me tell you it has been quite the birthday week! We have celebrated her birthday 4 separate times (yes 4) and she has loved every minute of it. We were lucky enough to celebrate with family and friends which does not usually happen. I just re-read her birthday post from last year and I laughed because she hasn't changed a bit. This girl LOVES her birthday and literally talks about it for months beforehand. I think I can say with confidence that she enjoyed the week, though I am going to need to break it to her tomorrow that we are all done celebrating... 

This was a big birthday, 5 seems to be the start of them really growing up which is sad and exciting at the same time. She is headed to kindergarten in the fall which just blows my mind. She is the sweetest girl and I hope that she continues to be. She loves her family and friends dearly, loves to dance and sing and if you haven't guessed by now she loves pink and all things girly (more on her party to come)...

Happy Birthday to my sweet sweet baby girl! May all your birthday wishes come true!