9 months and First Dance Preview

Tommy turned 9 months yesterday.  His latest:

-Crawling everywhere - under, over, etc. its a mess lol

-Pulling himself to standing off of everything - people, kids, dog, etc.

-Beginning to understand how to wave hi (or its always a good coincidence, but I really think he's getting it)

-Baby babbles alot

He's good. Just getting teeth so having some uncomfortable days. Havent been into the well check yet for stats. I'm guessing he's around 25lbs. Yes, I know, enormous.

Brooklyn had dress rehearsal for her first dance recital this morning.  To make sure I have room on the SD card for the actual recital tonight, I downloaded the photos today.  Here's a sneak peak from this morning...

Getting ready - curls!!

Waiting at the wrong location! lol

Friends :)

8.5 months

"Eating" dinner  

Fantasy Football Draft - kid party

Our peacock friends down Creelman 

Johnny Hawk and Tommy Lee hanging out during tumbling

I dont think I have captured it yet on video, but this week Tommy has basically started crawling.  He definitely did a lot of forward scooting yesterday, and the latest new trick is pulling himself up to the standing position. Yikes! Gotta baby proof the house - either that or the kid is gonna have to wear a helmet, elbow & knee pads. LOL

Stay cool!!!

8 months

8 months old on 4/30!

Finally, started to get a tooth at 7.5 months old. This is MUCH earlier than the other 2 kids. Wonder if this is an indicator he will do other things early too.

Nothing else new really. He can do the pincher grasp now, I let him drink from a cup (like my cup) to let him get used to it. Its a mess, but he likes it.

Derek coached Brooklyn yesterday. He did great. Our current coach promotes slide tackling - I dont like that at all. Hes nice but that is not right.

Other than that all is well over here. Have a great week.

Mr. and Mrs. Wedding Duo (Formerly Photography by Shayna)

After 2 reschedules, we finally did our family portraits last night with Shayna San Nicolas now known as Mr. & Mrs. Wedding Duo. (And for clarification, they do families too. Not just weddings, its that Peter does video for weddings etc...)

First, can I just say the timing was excellent. We met her at 6:30pm. Tommy had an EXCELLENT DAY FOR NAPS!  Despite coming down with a cold he slept 9-11:30am, then 2:30pm-4:30pm nap. Kids ate at 5:15. Got dressed and left. Everyone was in a good mood, fed, and well rested. Man. It was just, perfect timing. As mothers out there, you guys know what I'm talking about when EVERYONE in the family is fed, rested and happy. Makes for an ENJOYABLE TIME!!!

This special session was 20-30 minutes long. It was asked a $250 donation be made to support the widow of Pastor Charlie from Mountain View Community church. In addition to the 20/30 min with Shayna, included is 5 pictures on disc. Too bad I like more than 5 pictures, but I'm hoping the cost to get more of the pictures on disc wont be too bad.  This mini session was perfect with the kids, at the end of the 30 min they were done!

I am in love with these few pictures I've seen. The rest should be available within a week to see.

Can I just say, since this is my blog and all, our kids are cute. Our kids are CUTE!!!! :)

7 Months

Thomas turned 7 months on Sunday.  Here's what our little guy has been up to lately:

- Improving on scooting backwards
- Can sit up without fear he will topple over
- Is trying to go from sitting up to laying down (to grab objects)
- Can hold his bottle with 2 hands and suck on it but cannot hold it so the fluid trickles down to drink (so I still have to help him)
- Squeals alot more lately, usually he's pretty quiet and just observant of the world around him
- Loves the dog (alot)
- Loves to be with Bobby & Brooklyn and watches them closely at what they do
- No teeth yet (my kids usually dont start to receive teeth until 9/10 months)

Thomas' sleep was so predictable, then a few days before he turned 7 months old he began to wake up every 3 hours at night! AH! So at first I thought, ok its a cold. Gave him some tylenol. No relief. Then I thought ok, maybe its teeth like everyone in the world tells me. Nope. Not teeth. So, I blamed it on development. We have finally broke the pattern, he wakes up around 3-4am for a bottle. Bed time has been about 6pm. Our day of late has been this:

Wake up at 6am - eat breakfast.
Bottle around 8am
Nap around 9am
Wake up around 11am - eat lunch
Bottle around 12pm
Nap around 1pm
Awake around 330-4pm - eat snack
A little bottle of whole milk around 5pm and/or some dinner with the family
Bath between 530-6pm
Bottle & Bed between 6pm-630pm

Its not perfectly on that schedule but it is close (especially when the big kids are home and are loud, they wake him up earlier than I'd like grrrr!!!).  Sometimes Tommy wakes up from his afternoon nap early, so then I have to hope he gets a cat nap in between the early wake time and bed time. Sometimes he does (because we are usually out & about for Bobby & Brooklyn) sometimes he doesnt. He's settling into a somewhat predictable routine which has made planning for trips and errands much easier.

Tommy can munch on cheerios, peanut butter banana pancakes and pretty much anything that is somewhat soft I give to him, either in small pieces or the whole thing and he takes a little bite off.  I've been making my own baby food, and any kind of food I make for the family that I can mash up I'll feed him. Ive started to give him some whole milk during the day instead of all just formula; he is eating a lot of regular food now so I kind of feel like he doesnt need as much formula. I make sure his baby food has lots of good stuff - like spinach and kale mixed in - to make sure he still gets the vitamins he needs.

Overall little man is doing good, learning and changing everyday.

Happy April Fools Day friends!