I apologize for the late post, as we have had a rough week!  Our past week consisted of a broken air conditioner and all of us being sick with a stomach bug.  Poor Ethan spent his 10 month birthday with a fever.  Luckily, the rest of the month was great.  Here is what our little guy is up to.

Sleep – Ethan continues to sleep great!  It is so nice for his sleeping to be predictable and for him to fall asleep on his own.  I really never thought this day would come!

Eating – Ethan is still nursing 4 times a day, but I think we might be getting close to dropping one.  I’m not quite sure how we’re going to adjust our schedule, but we’ll figure it out.  He still isn’t always loving solid food but is slowly figuring it out.  Some days he eats with no problems and others he sits in his high chair and arches his back and whines like I’m feeding him poison.  He looooooves “snack” food such as puffs, mum mums, and lil crunchies.  He gets so excited when he sees the cans.  But, I tell him he cannot live on those things and we try others.  He still isn’t a big fan of feeding himself pieces of food (other than the snacks) but we are trying.  He still loves yogurt and eats it every day.  The funny thing about all of this is at daycare they claim he is starving all day long and always finishes all his food.  We think it is because every time he sees other babies eating he wants to eat too!  He has mastered the sippy cup and actually prefers a straw sippy to a regular sippy.

Activity – Ethan is still loving to crawl and pull up on things.  He has just started cruising on furniture the past few days.  He loves to open and close things, especially the kitchen cabinets.  We have had to put child proof locks on all of our kitchen cabinets.

He is making lots of noises – apparently he is the most vocal of his daycare class.  His favorite is still dadada but he has been making a really loud “eeeeeeeeeeeeee” shreak when he gets excited.  He also likes to smack his tongue and blow raspberries.  He is constantly talking and moving.  If he is quite he is likely getting into trouble.

Ethan loves music these days.  He is starting to recognize songs and gets excited when he hears something familiar.  He especially loves the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  He will stop whatever he is doing is try to do the hand motions.  He also loves anything that he can shake that makes noise.  His two favorite “shakeys” are some plastic containers with beans inside and some cat toys with bells.  There is also a commercial on TV that he watches intently every time it comes on and sways back and forth to the music.  I’m hoping to find some new ways to incorporate his love for music into our playtime.

Ethan also loves to read.  A book will always keep him quiet and keep his attention.  He loves to turn the pages.  His favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and he loves any book about animals.  He also loves books that have “peekaboo” flaps.

Ethan is getting so big, we can’t believe how much older he looks every day.  I haven’t weighed him in a while but I’m guessing he is close to 20lbs.  He has grown out of his Carter’s 9 month outfits so we are trying to get by on his 6-12 month clothes until the fall.

Here are some pictures of our big boy.

Happy boy

He will eat cookies, of course.

Playing with his books.

Reading with Daddy.

He loves to swing!

Getting into everything!

My sweet boy is 3/4 of a year old – how did that happen?  Ethan has changed so much in the past month!  Here are the basics:

Eating – Ethan is down to nursing 4 times a day (wakeup, after both naps, before bed) and eating 3 meals a day.  He has really taken off over the past few weeks!  He usually has fruit and oatmeal for breakfast, yogurt for lunch, and sweet potatoes and/or rice for dinner.  He is starting to really enjoy feeding himself lately.  Just within the past few days he has been doing great with crackers, mum mums, and his favorite, lil crunchies (which look like cheetos to me).  I try my hardest to feed him the healthiest foods possible, and of course his favorite are the dorito smelling baby cheetos.  Oh well.  He loves those darn things.  I think he would eat an entire container if I would let him.  It is pretty cute to watch him shove them in his mouth, one after the other.  He even kicks his feet with excitement as soon as he sees the can.  I offer him some “real food” (pasta, chunks of sweet potato, etc) once a day but so far he isn’t interested.  He is also not interested in any vegetable besides sweet potatoes.  He refuses to eat carrots, peas, and green beans.  But he likes most fruits, rice and oatmeal, and he LOVES yogurt.  He will eat a whole container of yobaby, and also likes the Trader’s Point Creamery yogurt.  It is very thin so he enjoys drinking it out of his sippy cup.  It’s hard to believe that in a few months he will be getting almost all of his nutrition from solid food.  He still has a long ways to go but it is pretty amazing how far he has come.

Ethan enjoying aspragus – he actually gummed it up pretty good!

Sleeping – Ethan is still sleeping really well.  Most nights he sleeps from 7:30 or 8 until 6 or 7.  He is taking 2 good naps a day as long as we are home and he can be in his bed.  He usually falls asleep on his own with his blankie and paci.  He also falls asleep in some pretty funny positions.  It’s amazing to me that he has turned into such a great sleeper!  He does not nap very well at daycare, there is just too much going on!

He fell asleep with his blankie over his face – don’t worry, I moved it!

Activity – Ethan is quite the active little guy.  He is crawling with ease these days and is able to get to pretty much whatever he wants.  He loves pulling up on whatever will support his weight – baby gates, the warming drawer of the oven, the dishwasher, his toys.  He is also clapping and waving.  His vocabulary is starting to develop a bit more and he is saying mamamama.  I don’t think he understand what it means, but it is still pretty cute to hear him say it!  He will only say it on his own, and usually when he is being whiney.  Usually if I say to him, “Ethan, can you say mamama?” he will smile and say “dadadada!”  He is still a very happy little guy and is constantly smiling.  He really only fusses when he is tired or doesn’t feel well.

How is he big enough to do this?

Ethan loves to read these days.  He sits quitely and listens or sometimes tries to help me turn the page.  We have enjoyed several trips to the library and he has even enrolled in the summer book club.  So far he has received a certificate for an ice cream cone and a free book.  The Zionsville library is amazing – I’m so glad we are able to take advantage of it.

We are still going to Gymboree classes once a week.  Ethan loves the classes and especially loves Gymbo, the stuffed clown that demonstrates all the activities.  He enjoys all of the songs and the bubbles.  I have learned a lot of songs and activities that we can do at home!

Climbing a mountain of mats.

Ethan is still doing great at daycare.  He recently moved up to the “older infant room” which made mama very sad.  But he is loving being in a bigger room with other babies that are crawling too.  And he gets to go outside and swing now.  Like I mentioned earlier he does not nap well at daycare, but he does eat well!  They always comment on how much he eats!

Ethan did great at his 9 month check up.  He weighs 19lbs 2oz (28th %) and is 28 inches long (43%).  He had another ear infection 2 weeks ago and it still hasn’t completely cleared in one ear so we will have to keep our eye on him.  Dr. Wheeler was amazed by his lack of stranger anxiety.  She thinks he is doing great.  He has one shot but got over it pretty quickly.

Ethan is such a sweetheart and we feel so blessed to have such a precious, happy boy!

To see lots more pictures check out: http://mobleyweb.com/photos/8-months/

The thing I have been dreading for a long time.  Wednesday morning I heard Ethan moving around in his crib, checked the video monitor, grabbed my phone (like any good mom) and saw this:

“Oh hai mommy!”

He is way too big.  And I don’t like it one bit!

(sorry the pictures are so blurry!)

Ethan has been a very busy little guy this past month.  He is amazing us every day with how much he is changing!  This is what our days are looking like lately:

6-7am – wake up, nurse, snuggle in bed with mommy and daddy.  8am – breakfast, usually oatmeal and fruit.  9:30am – nurse, then nap.  His morning nap has been anywhere from 1-2 hours lately.  12pm – Lunch.  Fruit or yogurt.  We usually run around after lunch.  1pm – Nurse  2:30pm – Afternoon nap.  If he had a good morning nap he will sleep about an hour.  If he had a short morning nap he will sleep longer.  4pm – Nurse.  5:30pm – Dinner.  7:30pm – Nurse then bed

Eating – Ethan has really taken off on solid food over the past few weeks.  He is eating 2-4oz three times a day.  He loves yogurt and peaches.  He is starting to learn to feed himself as well.  This is going very slowly, as he does not like the feeling of food on the back of his throat.  He frequently gags on things like puffs and crackers, but he is getting much better.  It is pretty cute to watch him pick up a cracker, crunch into it, then get a look on his face like “why did this toy turn into a million pieces in my mouth?”  He is learning to move the food in his mouth, moosh it up and swallow it.  He still does not have any teeth but he is learning to mash with his gums.  He is getting more proficient with the sippy cup but still thinks it is mainly a toy.  He actually does pretty well drinking out of a regular cup when I help him.

Sleeping – Ethan is sleeping great!  Most nights he is sleeping from 8pm until 6 or 7am.  He is taking great naps.  Of course he occasionally still has a bad night, wakes up really early or takes bad naps.  But overall I am amazed at how well he is doing now.  It is great to put him in bed at night and not have to worry him waking up.  One negative (which I anticipated) is that he only really sleeps well in his crib now.  He does not sleep well in the car.  Sometimes I can transfer him from the car to his bed, but he usually doesn’t sleep for much longer.  I feel like we have to be home for all of his naps, but it is ok with me!

Activity – Ethan is on the move!  He has been “mobile” for a few weeks now – going from sitting, to belly, back to sitting.  Over the past few days he has been moving forward on his hands and knees.  His crawling is still very course, but I have a feeling he is going to be quite graceful soon!  He is also loving to stand.  Though it is very exciting, it makes me nervous now that I have to constantly keep my eye on him so he doesn’t get into something dangerous.  I have also found him sitting up in his crib playing when he should be napping.  I dread the day when I go to get him in the morning and he is standing in his crib!  He is not able to pull up on his own yet, but he sure is trying.  He is loving all of his toys, especially his vtech sit to stand, his jumperoo and anything he can chew on.  He is also recently interested in books.  He will actually sit and let me read to him.  We have signed him up for the summer reading program at our library, but I’m not sure how far we will get.  It is difficult to keep him entertained for too long with books!  He is still mbabbling and making funny noises, but contains to prefer saying “dadadadada” or making a deep “heeeeeeeeaaahh” sound.

Ethan is such a happy, funny little guy.  He is such a joy and makes Jason and I so happy.  He is developing quite the personality.  I love the way his face lights up when I pick him up from daycare or get him after a nap.  I love how he “talks” to his pacifier.  He loves getting kisses and loves to give them back (more like slobbering/licking, but close enough).  As much as I would love for him to stay this age forever, I can’t wait to see what he will do next!

 

I have been waiting for his hair to get long enough for me to faux-hawk it!  His necklace is an amber teething necklace.

He loves spinning the wheels on his toys!

Watch out cats – the baby is mobile!

Giving daddy lovins on Father’s Day!

Hanging out with Grampy.

 

I can’t believe another month has passed – Ethan is 7 months old!  Ethan is so much fun these days, I can hardly stand it.  I would be just fine if he would stay this age forever.  Here is what is going on with our little man.

Eating – Ethan is still eating every 3 hours and seems to be past his very distracted stage.  When we are out and about, sometimes he isn’t interested, but he does great at home.  He is still a little unsure about solid food.  So far he has tried: Oatmeal and rice cereal, apples, pears, prunes, bananas, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, peas and most recently yogurt.  I tried to give him plain whole milk yogurt sweetened with fruit, but he wanted nothing to do with it.  But he is doing pretty well with Yo baby (of course, because it is sweetened with sugar!).  He is also very into letting us know when he does not want something in his mouth (spoon, bottle, paci) by batting it away.  Some days he does really well and others he just eats a few bites (and does lots of angry grunting).  I think it has much more to do with his mood than whether or not he is hungry.  I’m trying not to push him too hard, since he is still little.  I think once he decides he wants it he will take off!  I also give him table food on occasion (crackers, toast, puffs) and he is much more interested in throwing it on the floor than eating it.  But he is still gaining weight and that’s what is important!

Sleeping – I am happy to report to Ethan is sleeping much better!  A few weeks ago we decided it was time to do sleep training and he did very well.  As long as we put him down with a fully belly and very drowsy, he rolls over and goes right to sleep and stays asleep!  Sometimes he sleeps until the morning (5:30 or 6) and some nights he wakes up between 2-3 to eat and then goes back down until 6 or so.  He is an early riser, but I will take it.  His naps are still very short during the day.  Occasionally he will nap for an hour, but it is usually 30-45 minutes.  The good part is we can be out and about during the day and he will sleep just fine in his carseat, so I don’t have to worry about being home for naptime.  Maybe one of these days he will start taking longer naps, but I really don’t care as long as he is sleeping at night!  Jason and I are also really enjoying our evenings together instead of putting Ethan back to sleep every 30 minutes.

Activity – Ethan is an active little man.  He loves being out and about and gets quite bored at home with me all day.  He still loves daycare.  He is sitting up like a champ and starting to reach for things while sitting up and sometimes falling forward.  He is starting to make some crawling motions, but still isn’t very happy on his belly.  He loves banging on things like the table and throwing toys on the floor or across the room, and just being destructive.  He is all boy already!  He is such a happy little guy.  He is constantly smiling and laughing.  He is also constantly drooling up a storm, but we have yet to see any teeth.  He can roll back to front and front to back very well, but would prefer to be sitting up.  This week Ethan went to his first Gymboree class and loved it!  It is still hilarious to us that we have a little social butterfly that hates sleep – the completely opposite of Jason and me!

Work has been very difficult for me lately.  We have a lot of very sick babies and I am reminded daily how lucky I am to have a healthy baby.  I’ve also had a really hard time leaving him all day long when I work evening shift on Tuesdays.  But I am so thankful I get to be home with him as much as I am!

Ethan is such a happy precious little boy.  I am trying to soak up every second as I know how quickly he changes!

Here are a few pictures from this week.  Since I take so many pictures, I will be posting more at mobleyweb.com/photos.

Not thrilled with tummy time.

Holding his bottle like a big boy.

Ethan LOVES bathtime.  He would stay in the bath all night long.

Playing with his new blocks.

 

Well, this isn’t a very fun milestone, but Ethan has his first ear infection.  He has been snotty and coughing for several weeks but seemed ok otherwise.  Thursday I got a call from daycare that he had a fever.  We went to the doctor and he got antibiotics and seems to be getting better.  He was quite pitiful on Friday and Saturday and pretty much slept all day, which is very unlike him!  He has been tugging on his ear the past few days so it must still be bothering him.

In other news, despite his ear infection, he has been sleeping much better at night.  We decided to try sleep training again and he is doing much better!  He has slept through the entire night several times (about 11 hours) but also wakes up to eat once sometimes.  It is hard to know why he is waking up since he probably doesn’t feel well.  But it is still nice to not spend the entire evening trying to get him to go to sleep.  He still isn’t napping very long (about 30 mins), but I’m hoping that will improve over time!

Here are some pictures of our poor little sick boy.  The poor kid didn’t care where he was sleeping.

Ethan is half a year old!  I cannot believe it!  It is so crazy to think about how much he has changed since he was born.  His 6 month stats are: weight 16lbs 6oz (31%), height 26 inches (36%), head circumference 43.5 (44%).  He handled his shots like a champ per usual!

Here is what our little man is up to these days:

Eating: Ethan is still a great eater, though sometimes he is much more interested in the world around him than his meal.  He is still nursing every 3 hours during the day and eating two meals – usually breakfast and dinner.  About two weeks ago he started showing signs that he was really ready.  He gets oatmeal and fruit for breakfast and rice and vegetables for dinner.  His favorites are sweet potatoes and rice cereal.  I know a lot of people skip rice cereal these days, but I talked to my lactation consultant and she said the protein content starts to decrease in breastmilk around 6 months, so I wanted to make sure he was getting protein.  Luckily he loves brown rice cereal!  It is so cute to watch him eat.  He opens his mouth and lunges toward the spoon.  He still doesn’t eat very much at each meal (about 1 TBSP rice or oatmeal and 1 oz fruit or veggie) and some meals he wants nothing to do with it, but I’m pleased with how well he is doing so far.

Sleeping:  Ethan still really struggles to sleep!  Pretty much the only way he sleeps well is in bed with us.  He will also take a nice long morning nap if I lay down with him, but only nap for 30 or 40 minutes on his own.  Right now we are just trying to make do until we find the right time to do sleep training.

Activity:  Ethan is such a happy baby!  Unless he is tired, he is always smiling.  He is doing so much now, it is hard to list it all here.  I will make some separate posts on all his “skills.”  He is sitting up on his own and loves that view of the world!

His new favorite game with daddy!

Playing with his new favorite toy (thanks Julie!)

He loves sweet potatoes!

Hanging out with Oma

Ethan loves his sippy cup and his high chair!

He is much more interested in chewing on it and playing with it than drinking out of it!

Comparison: my sweet little boy at 5 days old:

Ethan had his 6 month pictures taken last week.  Grammy and Oma went with me.  Ethan was such an angel all day – except when he had his pictures taken!  He wasn’t upset, but he wouldn’t smile.  He just kept looking at us like “why are none of you holding me?  What is going on?”  He also spit up in the middle of the pictures, so we had to resort to some naked baby time.  Luckily we still got several great pictures!

I cannot believe our little boy is 5 months old.  I am officially ready for him to stop getting bigger.  He is such a sweet, happy baby.  He has changed so much in the past month, here is a rundown of what is going on with our sweet boy.

Activity – Ethan is now developing a new “skill” every few days.  He has mastered grabbing toys and putting them in his mouth.  He loves sucking on his fingers (and frequently gags himself by shoving his fingers too far back in his mouth).  He has learned to blow raspberries and is constantly babbling and cooing.  He loves to smile and giggle.  Within the past few days he has also started to roll from his back to his stomach.  It is quite funny, because he rolls to his belly, gets mad, puts his face down on the floor and starts crying until we put him on his back, then he rolls over again and starts all over!  It is crazy to see how coordinated he is and how much effort he puts into this new trick.  He is also becoming more steady sitting up, but I think it will still be a while before he is sitting up on his own.

Sleeping – Ethan continues to struggle to sleep well.  Though his sleep habits change every few weeks, they are constantly bad!  Lately, he has been waking up every 45 minutes after we put him down for the night.  We have tried everything we can think of to get him to stay asleep.  We finally decided it was not worth the effort (especially since nothing was working) and he is now back in our room at night.  He is much happier and sleeps much longer when he knows we are close.  And when he does wake up we can calm him down without getting out of bed instead of getting up 10 times at night.  He still takes 30-45 minute naps unless we lay down with him, then he sleeps for 1-2 hours.  Though we look forward to the day when he sleeps all night in his room, we are all much more well rested this way!

Eating – Ethan has decided that life is far too interesting to focus on eating.  He would rather talk to me or practice squirming around than eat for very long.  His weight gain has slowed down a bit, but he is still healthy and chunky, so I’m trying not to worry too much.  We have tried giving him some solid food (rice cereal, apples, and bananas).  I thought he would love it since he likes to eat so much, but doesn’t seem interested yet, so we will wait another few weeks and try again.

In other news, Ethan is now in daycare at Primrose School.  They had a 2 day a week opening and we decided to try it out.  It is walking distance from our house, so it has been very convenient.  So far he seems to be really enjoying it.  After I pick him up, he is very loud and very active, so I can tell he is “learning” from the other babies!

Ethan’s likes are: being naked, baths, grabbing and pulling hair, stroller rides, being out and about

Dislikes: getting pajamas on after bath time, playing alone, anything related to sleep!

Here are some pictures of our sweet 5 month old – I can’t believe he is almost half a year old!

 

Yes, our baby boy has cleavage!

A very drowsy, cuddly, happy boy before bedtime.

Hanging out with Oma.

He loves watching the mobile.

Watching the Butler game with daddy.

The cats still haven’t figured out that the baby stuff isn’t for them.

This is a bad pictures, but this is how Ethan usually sleeps.  Comfy, huh?

Hanging out in his new jumperoo.

Ginger supervising a nap.

Handsome little man.