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]

1st Mother's Day...

Can I just brag a little bit?  Ya'll, I am SO proud of my husband and how he planned to make this mother's day -- my very first mother's day -- such a special event.  One I'll never forget.  Outstanding job, babe!

This past weekend was so nice.  Saturday we spent around the house for part of the day, getting some things checked off the to-do list.  Then after lunch, and naps all around, we headed into Wilmington to do some shopping and check off more things on the to-do list.  :)

While we were in town, Jeff (and Deacon :) took me to a local place downtown, The Front Street Brewery, for dinner as a Mother's Day dinner.  This was the 2nd time we'd been there and both times the food has been phenomenal.  LOVE it.  And the atmosphere is pretty neat-o, too.  It was loud enough that Deacon's squealing part-way through the meal didn't really disturb too many.  We were seated beside a table of 4 young girls who all thought Deacon was "the cutest thing" so I don't think we could have disturbed them anyway.  :)

Sunday was sooo special.  I went to get Deacon up to get ready for church and found a card in the corner of his crib addressed to "mommy".  There was a sticky note on the card that said "wake up daddy".  :)  Fortunately, I'd already done that before I went to get Deacon so Daddy had followed me into the nursery.  I opened my card and found 2 photos, one of which was THIS:

The other one is just.as.cute.

I had NO IDEA that Jeff was going to do this so I got pretty emotional over the photos.  Then I had to read the card from my baby boy, through my tears.  So precious.  Also inside the card was a gift card for a 1 hour massage!  Way to go, Dadd--er, I mean, Deacon!  :)

We all got ready for church and Jeff pulled out a beautiful corsage for me to wear -- what a really thoughtful thing to do.  It made me feel so special.  When we got home from church, Jeff had gotten sushi for lunch so I didn't have to cook.  Awesome!

The rest of the day was spent just relaxing and doing whatever.  We all took a nap after lunch.  We went for a walk.  We were able to skype with both my parents and Jeff's parents so that was nice.  We grilled out for dinner that night.

It was a perfect 1st Mother's Day -- my boys made my day and I love them both to pieces!

[6 mos]

6 months...

Alright, I'm a little late with this post, sorry.  I just can hardly believe that my baby boy is already 6 months old -- a HALF a year old.  Seriously...where do I turn the speed down?

Our boy is officially in size 2 diapers now.  I told you it wouldn't be long.  We're still using diapers that folks have given us which is such a blessing.  But we're to the point now that the size he happens to be wearing, whatever that is at the time, we only have maybe a box or something, so depending on how long he stays in that size, we may or may not find ourselves buying more of that size.

At this point, I think I prefer Huggies brand.  They seem to fit Deacon the best and give us the best results regarding leaks/blowouts (sorry if that's TMI).  We have tried some store brands like Costco's Kirkland brand and they're okay, too.  I have heard that Luvs is a really great brand and they're cheap, too, so when we get to a point that we need more, I think I'd like to try some Luvs to see how we do with those.

[24.5 weeks]

About midway through April, we saw Deacon roll over from his tummy to his back a couple of times.  We figured it was just lucky and we were right cuz we haven't seen him do it since.  That's not something he's rushing to do and though I'm surprised, I'm not rushing it either.  :)

He's really been playing a lot with his feet since he found them last month.  He likes to throw them in the air and then grab onto them.  He does that wherever he is, whether he's laying on the floor, in his bouncy seat, in his car seat or on the changing table, even.  As a matter of fact, I saw him stick one of his feet in his mouth on the changing table one morning.  All by himself!  :)

[25 weeks]

As you saw from my last post, Deacon had his first Easter at 6 mos old.  That was really special -- I'm glad it worked out that he turned 6 mos old right around Easter this year.  He went to his first Easter egg hunt and did really good.

The night before Deacon turned 6 months, we tried giving him some solid food to see what he would do.  We started with some warmed green beans (Gerber 1st Foods) and boy, the faces he made!  I knew he was an expressive child but holy cow, he had some faces that night!  Poor baby -- some of his faces were hilarious and pitiful at the same time.  :\  We quit with the green beans that night and moved on to some warmed bananas and I thought for sure he'd like those better.

Nope.

The faces he made with those were even worse, it seemed like.  We tried again the next night and still got the same reactions/faces, only that night he just stopped closing his mouth.  Yeah.  So the food would just fall right out.

We're still in the trying phase of solids...

When I took Deacon for his 6 month well-check at the pediatrician's office, I was really curious to know what he weighed.  That's a question I get asked a lot.  At his 4 month appt, he weighed 13 lbs 13 oz and was 24 in long.  At his 6 month appt, he weighed 16 lbs 7 oz and was 25.5 in long.

A perfectly normal healthy 6 month old.  Who is uh-dorable.

Deacon's 1st Easter...

Every year our church has a big Spring Fling for the kiddos for Easter -- everything from egg hunts for all ages, pony rides, bounce houses and food, of course.  We usually participate by serving somewhere but this year we just attended as parents.  :)  And any good parent would take their child to an egg hunt, right?

So that's what we did.  We took Deacon to his first ever egg hunt.  It was at 10:30am last Saturday morning and I thought we were going to get rained on but it turned out to be a pretty day.  Basically, we have this huge field that we just throw a bunch of eggs on and then when the horn blows, all the kids run onto the field to gather as many eggs in their baskets as they can.  No hunting, really.  Just gathering.  For Deacon's egg hunt, the ages were from babies to 1 year olds.  So, pretty much we just sat down somewhere with Deacon and took photos of him chewing on the eggs.

Cuz that's what he does.

But he's dang cute when he's doing it.  :)

And then Easter Sunday, we awoke to a beautiful morning that turned into a gorgeous day.  Exactly what I would order to celebrate the day my Lord Jesus rose from the dead, praise His name!  We dressed Deacon in a cute overalls outfit (I had been told that boys get robbed when it comes to finding cute little outfits for Easter and that was pretty much it -- I ended up going with something he already had that was just as cute as what I found in the stores).

We gave Deacon a little Easter basket with a few things -- some books, a pack of pacifiers and an inflatable beach ball (which he can't play with now, but soon...).  He also got some bubbles, a fuzzy, cuddly stuffed bunny and a little outfit from family.

We had a nice day -- awesome service at church, good lunch with friends and then just relaxing the rest of the day.  Jeff's younger brother, Tim, and his wife, Leslie, were here for the weekend so it was nice to visit with them.  We took a walk around the neighborhood...it was just a really nice day.

[hard to see his eyes with his cool sunglasses on,

but I think he was watching the bubbles...]

Hope you all had a blessed Easter, too!

[6 mos]

my beautiful boy...

Hi there.  :)  Don't have much news to report as of right now -- just wanted to show off my boy...

[22.5 weeks]

[ready for a walk]

[oh, look -- here's my foot!  23.5 weeks]

[my beautiful 5.5 month old]

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]