6 Months (6/18/2015)

Happy 1/2 birthday to my sweet little Joshy!  This has to have been the fastest 6 months of my life.  And the best 6 months!  Only half of a year til Christmas!  I feel like it was just last week that my mom and I went to Breakfast with Santa/Jesus.  I can't wait to bring 2 boys this year!  I'm going to add a few videos this post, because they are so fun and I recently decided I need to start taking more of them.  If only the memory on my phone didn't fill up so quickly! ;)

GENERAL:  Josh is still the happiest baby in town.  I don't think he will lose that title until he is no longer a baby.  I love him to pieces.  I kiss him approximately one million times/day.  It's hard not to.  My boys are the best.  All 3 of them!  Josh had another great doctor appointment for his 6 month check up.  Perfect little love bug.  He tipped the scale at 13#2oz and he is 24.5 inches.

SLEEP:  I'm writing this post after he slept from 8:00-5:45 last night!!  His best night yet.  This past month was ROUGH in the sleep department.  I attribute most of this to his bilateral ear infections.  Poor guy!  He was still happy, but I finally brought him to the pediatrician after he ate a whole 3 oz one day when I was at work.  After a 10 day course of high-dose amoxicillin, he seemed to be on the mend.  Poor baby!  He was getting up every 1-2 hours most nights, probably because his ears were bothering him!  He seems to be on a better schedule now.  He isn't wiggling all over the place when I'm trying to put him down anymore.  We have been letting him cry for a few minutes if he wakes up, but that kind of breaks my (our) heart(s), so we usually go snuggle him right away.  Fingers crossed the sleep is back on track!  We are still working on naps.  They still tend to be little power naps, but some days we will get lucky with an hour or 2.

EATING: We just started him on baby food, and he loves it!  I now feel bad that I waited this long.  I am wondering if it is part of the reason that he has been sleeping better at night too.   I still nurse him in the morning and before bed, and any time he wakes up during the night.  He usually has 2-3, 4-5 ounce bottles when I'm at work.  We started with breast milk and rice cereal, which as you can see below, was a success, and he has also had sweet potatoes (he likes the ones daddy made!), green beans, and mangos.  We are introducing a new one every few days.  He gets a little bit angry at times if we do not feed him quickly enough!  He also likes mum-mums, so we give him one of those if we need to refill the bowl or something so he doesn't get too feisty!

COMMUNICATION/COGNITION: He still talks and talks and talks.  He usually wakes up in the morning talking, not crying.  He definitely notices when we leave the room, so this makes it hard to get ready in the morning.  We will put him in his exersaucer, which he usually likes, but when he sees us leave the room, even if it is only for a second, he lets us know he is not happy about it.  He still makes friends wherever he goes.  Gosh, I love this boy.  (And his big bro!)

Big brothers do not get better than Benji!  He is the sweetest.  These boys love each other SO much.  

FINE/GROSS MOTOR: He is army crawling like it is his job!  He is so fast!  I think Ben bypassed the army crawl stage due to his tummy, so it is fun to watch Josh explore! You can't leave him alone for a millisecond.  He loves to bounce, roll, scoot, and do whatever he needs to do to get what/where he wants.  He is putting everything in his mouth, including tufts of dog hair.  (UGH!)  Ben wasn't one to put things in his mouth at all, but I think Josh is going to be quite the opposite!  He is also sitting now too, though he really prefers to be on the go.

Josh doesn't really have time for pictures.  

Look at him go!!

Another video:  (Thanks, Nana, for keeping them alert!)  And then my memory was full on my phone again.

Looking forward to another fun month with my little family!

Life Lately!

These weeks and months sure seem to get away from me!  Life has been busy!  Good, but busy!  My dear boss/co-worker/friend Maya is leaving us for warmer weather.  Friday was her last day at work and she moves to California at the end of the month.  We have all become so close with her family and we are so sad to see them go.  We have been soaking up our last days with them here!  We had our final farewell with our little section last week.  We will miss her so much!  She is truly one of the kindest, most brilliant, hardworking, generous, and thoughtful people I know.

We are so excited about summer over here.  Ben LOVES being outside.  He puts up a big stink every time it's time to head inside.  "Ride my bike one more time!"  "Kick the ball one more time!"  "Shoot the basketball one more time!"  You get the idea.  We went to the beer garden to play trivia with some friends last week, so Ben got to play with the big kids.  He totally kept up with them and they were impressed with his throwing and kicking skills.  We stayed out until close to 9:00 (waaaaay past the boys' bedtime) and they were so good!

I love these boys!

We went to our old church festival last weekend and Ben had a blast!  Ben didn't win a fish this year (OH DARN) but he had fun nonetheless!

He was so funny with his pitcher of ping pong balls.  Some of them were dented so he would just throw those on the ground.  They weren't good enough for him.  ;)

But, of course, he only wanted to play basketball.

Look at that form!  Of course it was something ridiculous like 3 shots for $5.00

The guy kept telling him to stand on the ledge so he could shoot it better, but Ben thought that was too easy and he wanted to be on the ground.  He won some dumb piece of garbage prize that has already found a new home in the garbage.  Shhhh….

Ben also went fishing.

That was too easy for him.  He caught 2 fish at once!  (So he won more garbage!)

Josh didn't get to play, but that didn't stop him from having fun!

It wasn't until we already spent like a million dollars that we realized there was another area of games that were run by the kids from the church and the money probably actually went to the church.  Now we know for next year.  There were tons of sports-related games so you-know-who was one happy camper.   First up: kicking a soccer ball.  He kicked it at 13 miles per hour…or something like that. :)

I wish I had video of him throwing the football because it was SO cute!  Note the sign--3 shots for $1.  Such a good deal, especially compared to the other games.  He threw the first ball right through the tire.  The crowd (the line) went crazy!  And then he almost got the 2nd one through and the 3rd try landed right on the tire.  It was so fun.  And he won….

A 2 liter of soda!  We made him exchange the Mountain Dew for Sierra Mist. :)  This wasn't the first 2 liter he won.  Good thing we had the stroller!

Although we try to pack our weekends with fun, we still have a good time during the week too.  Ben signed up for round 2 of gymnastics, and Maddie joined him this time!  They could not be cuter.  

And Josh is a trooper for going along for the ride.  Soon enough, big guy!

This past weekend was Hannah and Emily's birthday party.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the boys with the birthday girls!  Today is their actual birthday.  Happy birthday, girls!!

I did get a group picture at Emily's soccer game last weekend though.  Ben was in heaven!

Andy ran a half marathon on Saturday and ROCKED IT!  Seriously!  I was supposed to run it but the training just didn't happen.  Next time!  After the run, we went to Fido Fest.  It was so hot!  I thought it was going to be cold so I made Ben wear pants.  He was not excited about this and it probably explains his facial expression.  He loves to wear shorts!

He wasn't actually pouting the whole time.  Just when the camera came around. 

In between work, we try to spend as much time as possible with our boys.  There's no place like home!!  I've decided there is nothing sweeter than watching the boys play together.  It makes my heart soooo happy!

And then something like this happens…

And it's still sweet.  Minus the choke hold.  

Ben is growing up so fast lately I can hardly stand it.  He talks like a 5 year old and it is so funny.  I just want to write down everything he says because it is just the cutest.  Luckily for me, he is still only 2 and he will be under my few for a few more years.  ;)  Even if he acts like a teenager.  "Auntie I want to get buckled in your car…And drive in the street just for 1 minute."  Sorry, bud!

Love, love, love these 3.

This guy… permanent smile on his face.

This made it hard to tell that he had an ear infection.  A double ear infection at that!  :(  I was soooo sad.  

Fingers crossed he is on the mend!  He isn't 100% but at least he is eating and sleeping a little bit better. He has his 6 month (!!!) check up on Thursday so hopefully the doctor will say that his ears are looking better!  I'll (hopefully) be back soon for Josh's half birthday update!