15 mos old...

Deacon had his 15 month well-check yesterday at the pediatrician's office.  He did great, as always, charming the nurses with his sweet smile and adorable face.  :)  In fact, they were fighting over who was NOT going to give him his shots.  No one wants that job, especially for the cute ones.  :)

The nurse who "lost the bet" did a fine job, though -- very fast & efficient -- and Deacon was over it in 10 seconds or less.  And I'm sure he doesn't hold it against her.  :)

Here's what we discovered his stats are now:

Weight = 22 lbs, 10 oz (24%)

Height = 31 in (46%)

So still a little guy in comparison, but none of the docs or nurses show any concern about his diet or health.  And he's average for his height.  Jeff and I are, too, so that's not surprising.

In other news, he's pretty much eating whatever we eat for lunches and dinners.  He's somewhat picky (does that make you happy, momma? :), but I think it's more that we just have to keep trying things with him before he decides that he likes it.  He was like that with baby food, so it makes sense that he's like that with table food.  His favorite snack is Teddy Grahams, but he likes Kix cereal and Cheerios, and goldfish, too.

He's walking all over the place and has recently discovered how to get up to standing by himself, without the help of a wall or piece of furniture.  I was so proud of him the first time I saw him do that; I kinda made a big deal about it.  And still do.  :)

He is still such a chatterbox!  I'm so surprised that he's not saying words, other than mama and da (daddy), just because of how much he jibber-jabbers.  But he is starting to mimick things that we say, like "ahcky" for when he gets into the trash can (ew.) -- he says "ah", and I say, "That's right, ahcky."  He also will copy us when we say "up" for help onto the couch.  He makes the same sound.  And he's been saying "bay" for baby, when he sees himself in the mirror, or when he sees pictures of a baby.

And he's still getting so many teeth!  The boy already has 3 molars!  I haven't counted recently (cuz he knows how to use'em, too :) but I would guess he probably has 11 or 12 teeth now. 

Alright, so I don't know how this happened, but we haven't taken too many photos since Christmas.  I must've just been taking the month of January off, I don't know.  So since I don't have many of him at THIS point in time, I'll share a few from the past couple of months...

[13 mos]

[sweet scrunchy face.  14 mos]

[15 mos]

8 months...

8 months...gone like THAT.  Craaaaazy.

So Deacon now has 5 teeth.  Yes, that is FIVE.  Teeth.  In his mouth.  He has both bottom center teeth, both top center teeth and then one over on the side, top left that popped through but not much else.  And that happened probably 3 or so months ago.  Nothing much is happening with that one.

He also moved up to size 3 diapers around 7.5 months.

He is growing SO fast...

[handsome little fella, all ready for church]

Around the middle of June Deacon got in his first big pool.  My sweet friend who keeps him for me Mon-Wed each week has a really nice above-ground pool and one night we went over to grill out, hang out and swim.  Deacon loved the pool!  He was so relaxed in it, whether one of us was holding him or he was just floating by himself in the little floaty that the Squires' family had.  I'm so glad he likes the water.  :)

[7.5 mos]

That same week, we had friends over to do the same (in our itty-bitty pool :).  Deacon's buddy, Grady, came to play so that was fun to see them interact together.  Grady is just about one month older than Deacon.

We've still been trying to give Deacon solid foods here and there.  We're not super-diligent with it but we try different things here and there.  So far there's still a lot of frustration as he just doesn't seem to be interested in solids, only taking a few bites each time we try.  We've given him green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, apples and most recently peaches.

The peaches were not a hit to begin with -- I'm thinking they may have been a little on the tart side -- but the 2nd time we tried them, he actually started leaning in with an open mouth for more by the time we were done.  That was VERY encouraging for this mama...

You've never seen someone get so excited about their kid eating some peaches!  :)

This kid loves his pacifier. 

We try to limit how much he has it but there are definitely certain times of the day that he wants/needs it and we don't mind letting him have it if it calms him (which it does) and helps him to fall asleep (which it also does).

He's pretty funny with it now because he can "do it himself".  If it falls out, he just picks it up and pops it right back in.  If he wants to play with it a little bit, he just takes it out of his mouth and plays some and then pops it back in at will.  That's kinda nice.

I distinctly remember a recurring thought in the early days...

"How can I strap this pacifer around his head so it won't keep falling out?!"

Aaaanywho, I don't think I've included enough photos in this post, do you?

Here.  Here's a few more for you... :)

[yes, he gives kisses now!  I LIVE for those.]

[8 mos]

7 months...

Seriously?  Over a month since I posted?  Ridiculous.  You can't just go an entire month without posting something on a baby blog -- too much happens in a month!

Yes, I know.

But things have been busy around here!  These days are just racing by me and before I know it, my child is 7 months old!

Well, now he's almost 8 months old, but let's just leave that for now.

We've had some busy weeks/weekends since I last posted.  The day after Mother's Day, Jeff left for a business trip in VA so it was just me and Deacon for a few days.  We did great but it gave me a whole new appreciation for moms who do it on their own -- whether they're single or their husbands are deployed or whatever the reason that they end up raising their child(ren) on their own.  It's tough.

[27 weeks]

At the beginning of May, Deacon popped his 3rd tooth out.  It's over to the left on the top -- kind of coming in at a weird angle but we'll see.  Not much more has happened with that one.  It's popped through but hasn't really progressed any further than that, that we can see.

[27.5 weeks]

We've tried some more solids here and there throughout the month -- he's just not into it.  We tried sweet potatoes and I really thought he would like those or at least not spit them out.  He did do better with those than the green beans and bananas, but still made faces and stuff.  Later we tried carrots and I guess they were a little less offensive but he's still not gobbling anything up.

Except cheese puffs.

Yes, we took Deacon to another birthday party the middle of May (one of his "brothers" that he stays with Mon-Wed had his 2nd birthday party at the park in Surf City) and Jeff decided to try giving him a taste of cheese puff.  No offense there!  We made sure he didn't bite anything off but he liked the taste of the cheese.  Well, who wouldn't??

[29 weeks]

We've been going to lots of Jeff's softball games.  Deacon loves to be outside so he usually enjoys the games.  And the girls that come out to cheer their men on enjoy seeing him.  :)  The boy doesn't get any attention at all, you know?  Totally ignored and unloved... :)

Right around 7 months, Deacon really started making more and more noises.  Different sounds like "blah" and "bah", long "a" sounds.  He's really becoming more vocal, to the point that we have to shush him sometimes if we're in a public place.  He can get pretty loud...where could he have gotten that from??  :)

Like I said, we've had lots going on so there are more posts to come on those happenings.  Check back soon!

[this cracks me up -- yoga, anyone?]

[7 mos]

5 months...

Good gracious, another month of this boy's life has gone by!  We had kind of an exciting month, experiencing several "firsts", but mostly, we just take one day at a time and see what life brings us.  We're still "wingin' it" in this thing called parenting, doing the best we can with what we know and learn.  :)

We still try to make sure he gets tummy time, for the brief moment that he'll lay on his tummy.  He's still not a big fan but every once in a while you can catch him in a good mood where he'll lay there for a little while before he gets frustrated.  He's still not rolling over yet but we've caught him rolling on to his side a time or two.

[18 weeks]

And when he gets frustrated, we just flip over onto our back and chill for a bit.  :)

At the beginning of March, Deacon started sleeping through the night!  It was a gradual process, though, and you can read about that here.  Now, he's most definitely sleeping through the night without waking at all.  If he does, it's only for a second or two and he puts himself back to sleep.  I can't tell you how nice it is to know that when we put him down for the night, he's down until the morning.

Deacon got his first TOOTH at 4.5 months old!  You can read more about that here, but I'll just go ahead and tell you, he's cut his SECOND tooth already!  Yep, it popped out this past Monday.  He had a little fever with this one and a little more chewing & fussing, but he trudged through and got it done.  Such a trooper.  I hope we'll have a few months before the next ones start showing up...

[first tooth @ 4.5 mos]

We finally got some warmer weather so I was dressing Deacon in just onesies...

[20.5 weeks]

[love his chunky little legs!]

Around 21 weeks, I started putting size 2 diapers on Deacon overnight and after his morning feeding to try to avoid some of the messes (aka "blowouts") he was making in his clothes.  That seems to be working pretty well and I don't think it will be long before he's officially wearing size 2 diapers all the time. 

Deacon also found his feet this month.  :)  This is what we ocassionally catch him rolling on his side for:

[just relaxin', watching TV]

At 21 weeks, Deacon started sitting in a bumbo seat!  Have you heard of these?  We had and several of our friends told us we "had" to have one -- those things are expensive, though!  But Daddy ordered one for his boy and we promptly put him in it.  He seems to like it pretty well...

[21 weeks]

On the night that Deacon turned 5 months, we tried giving him rice cereal for the first time.  The box said we could mix it in his bottle or spoon-feed him.  So we mixed up what we'd normally put in his bottle (so it was very watery) and tried giving it to him in a spoon, just to see what he'd do...

Needless to say, it was kind of a bust.  But we were pleased with how he did with the spoon, having never had one of those in his mouth before.  He figured out what was happening pretty early on and would open his mouth when I held the spoon up to him.  But as I said, it was pretty watery, so he wasn't getting much.  We chalked it up to experience and got his bottle ready.

We gave him 6.5 oz (instead of the standard 4 oz) w/a tbsp of rice cereal mixed in.  He drank it down with no trouble and slept great that night.  The next night we mixed in 2 tbsp of rice cereal in the 6.5 oz bottle.  He did great with that, too, so that's kind of become the standard.  He gets a 6.5-7 oz bottle with a couple tbsp of rice cereal in it at night and he's good to go until morning.  :)  So proud of him for how he's handling all these changes as he grows up.

[5 mos]

first tooth!

What did I JUST say about Deacon reaching milestones way too quickly for this mama??  Well, he's done it again!  Deacon has his first tooth!  It popped out yesterday -- at exactly 4.5 months old.

This boy's tough, ya'll.  Aside from the ridiculous drooling and chewing on everything in sight, he never showed signs that he was teething.  He was never overly fussy, never had a fever that we knew about.  He just popped that tooth out like it was nothing.  I hope the rest will be like that.  :)

So he wouldn't let me get a photo of the actual tooth (which you can feel more than see, though there is a specific white tooth in there to see on the bottom) but this is pretty representative:

[4.5 mos]