We have a scooter

Over the weekend, Nolan scooted/slithered his way across the floor.  I am not sure I am ready for him to be so big and grown up.  Heck, he will hardly keep himself up just sitting.  He started doing this on Friday at his sitter’s house. (thank goodness she does not tell me these milestones unless I ask her after I see him do something.)  I think it is easier for him to army crawl on her carpet because it is a modern day shag (freizae) so that he is able to dig in with his hands and toes to help pull himself along.  Ours is short carpet and harder for him to grab.  Also, he watches the other kids over at her house and, well, monkey see, monkey do! 

I guess this means we need to start baby proofing the house but putting those covers on all the electrical sockets.  I know it will not be long before he is fully crawling and getting into more and more things.  He already puts everything into his mouth.  He for some odd reason, has a fascination with my shoes.  More so, fascination with chewing on my shoes like a dog.   And with all of this moving and rolling, he is spitting up more.  We are seriously going to be in need of a carpet cleaning soon.  Those darn baby foods are impossible to get out of carpet and clothes.  I have to shout and zout all his stuff and make sure it came out before throwing something in the dryer.  Last night, I even rewashed stuff after re shouting and zouting to see if I could get the stains out.  Seriously, white anything for babies is difficult!

Half Birthday Party

Birthdays have always been a pretty big deal to me. I me, come on, I would celebrate my entire birth month.  I think this started on my own 6 month birthday.  My mom  served half of a cake with a half of a candle.  So of course, we had to do the same for Nolan.   My Mama flew into St. Louis for a visit on August 19^th,which just happened to be Nolan’s half birthday.  We made a funfetti cake, J’s favorite with blue icing to have after dinner.  We did not cut it in half, but I did press the candle very far down so it was only half as tall as a normal candle.  

We even sang Happy Birthday, but sang it as:Hap Birth to you, Hap Birth to you, Hap Birth to Nol, Hap Birth to you…..basically half of each work.  I know my husband thinks my mother and I are nuts.   Nolan totally stuck his hand in the icing and we had to make sure he didn’t put his blue iced fingers in his mouth.    So he is really going to be ready come his first birthday party with his own cake.

6 months old

I cannot believe how fast time has gone by since I gave birth to Nolan.  It seems like just yesterday I was scared out of my mind bringing home this tiny 6 pound 14 ounce baby. Now he is weighing in at a husky 18 pounds of pure love.  I am amazed by how much he has developed.  He is now able to roll over from his back to his stomach and vice versa from his stomach to his back.  This is his means of transportation around the house.  He just rolls across the floor to where he wants to go.  Pretty soon I am going to need to gate the stairs down to the basement and the staircase upstairs when we are playing in the loft.  We have been working on his sitting.  For some reason, Nolan has no desire to sit.  He wants to stand.  Even after his bath time when I try and sit him up to lotion his back and get his arms in his jammies, he fights me to stand instead.    Jumping and bouncing are some of his favorite things.  His legs are always moving, so I know he is going to be one ball of energy running around the house in no time.  I am hoping when this happens he lets mommy and daddy sleep more!

Our child never misses a meal either.  Right after he turned 5 months , I really started him eating both breakfast and dinner and now we have added lunch in the mix. Breakfast consists of oatmeal cereal mixed with formula and prunes.  We had to skip the rice cereal because they say rice is binding and boy do we not need any help in the binding of poop.  For dinner, Nolan has tried peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, and squash for vegetables and pears, peaches, apples, avocado, and bananas for fruit.  For most of the vegetables, I have made my own purees. I must say I am pretty impressed with myself for doing this.  Nolan actually likes my food better, which makes me even happier.  Plus, I know we are saving money with me prepping and freezing in ice cube trays. 

Sleeping is the biggest issue we have had.  I swear, Nolan slept better at 12 weeks than he was doing at 5-6  months.  It was like we had had a total regression and he was waking up ever 1.5 hours to cry or eat.  We tried to let him cry it out but neither J or I were sleeping either, so it was just easier to get up and put a pacifier in his mouth or make a bottle.  He had been coughing and wheezing a lot and I had taken him in to the doctor at 5 months. His lungs were clear and it was all upper respiratory, but had an ear infection. That was number 2 and did a round of amoxicillin.    We went for our 6 month check up and low and behold he had another double ear infection.  Dr. Hartman decided we should try a stronger penicillin, augmentin and we would have to come back for shots when they cleared up.  5 days later (and no sleep for Grand C and me) he was still tugging on his ears, so we went back.  They were still infected so Nolan was put on a baby Z pack.  I think the sleep regression was totally due to his ear infections.  We have now for the most part successfully made it to at least 5am before having a bottle!  J and I wake up and go check on him in the middle of the night because we haven’t heard a peep out of him.  If we have 3 more ear infections we will be getting tubes. 

Nolan still loves bath time.  He has discovered his penis so immediately upon getting in the bath tub his hand is on his penis. I am told it will pretty much stay there  for the rest of his life.  It just humors me and  my poor mother is beside herself.  She is still getting used to the extra appendage that comes with little boys.  He just pulls and tugs on it and smacks it as he splashes.   He also still loves going on out boat and swimming.  I have a little water bug on my hands and I love it. 

We have 2 bottom teeth and I know that he is working on others because the drool is non stop.  Poor little guy, I know it has to be so painful to cut teeth.  Those suckers are sharp too.  I made the mistake of sticking my finger in his mouth to feel his gums and he chomped down on me.  It actually cut my finger and drew blood.

I love watching him learn new things and smile.  Nolan has the most amazing laugh.  It melts my heart and it good for the soul.  I honestly do not think I could love him anymore, but each day I do.  He is pure joy and I cannot imagine life without him.