Carson is 7 Months old

OK- 7 Months is for sure better than 6 months. Even though it makes me sad that we’re over half way through his first year, it’s so great that he can sit up BY HIMSELF, which he’s just started to do in the last week or so. Sitting up unassisted and not being able to crawl does have to make this one of the best ages. Making some noises, but not being too noisy is another reason 7 months is so great. Carson can say “Ma, Ma, Ma” and “Ba, Ba, Ba”. I am inferring that “Ma Ma” is of course for me and “Ba Ba” means Big Brother. He may not attach any meaning to his babbles yet, but he does seem to say “Ma Ma” when he’s hungry or if he’s missing me (which is pretty much any time I’m not in his eyesight or holding him). Carson is definitely a mamma’s boy. Since I’ve barely left him (he STILL won’t take a bottle), I am afraid it will be even harder as we move into the stranger anxiety stage. He’s friendly and smiley to others, but he still does best with mom. I have started having our neighbor across the street and her daughter come over to babysit for our near-by tennis matches on Thursdays. One of these days Mike & I will make it out alone for an evening also.

Even though I’ve barely been away from him, I really don’t feel the need to be, which is sorta strange. Sure, I like to be able to have my time on my bike & to be able to play tennis but I think it’s since Carson is such a happy baby I want even MORE time with him rather than less. I’m attributing most of it to temperament, but also understanding him better since I’m home with him, the differences in a 2nd time mom of being more relaxed and having already given up your kid-free freedom, which is a HUGE adjustment the first time around.

We had expanded Carson’s diet to include carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, peas, applesauce and oatmeal cereal until he had trouble with constipation (I guess I can talk about this since he’s a baby and the purpose of my blog is to keep family and friends updated on our lives). He hadn’t gone but a few times since we started solids, (fairly common when introducing solids to babies), and went 8 days without going until he was really uncomfortable last Sunday. Since he barely ever cries or is fussy we knew something was wrong. He woke at midnight and I fed him and was very warm. He fell asleep in the car on the way to take Collin to school, and when he woke around 11 AM, he still hadn’t gone and had a 102 fever. I took him right to the doctor so we had to do all the yucky stuff to get him to go. The doctor gave orders to cut out all cereal and applesauce from his diet and feed him only prunes, apricots and pears, and we were to give him Miralax at every meal. We’re starting to get things under control a bit but he was sleeping through the night fine until we stopped cereal for dinner. Oh well, hopefully we’ll get there again!

He’s a pretty messy eater as you can see and wants to feed himself even though he doesn’t have the skills to do so neatly. I usually provide him his own spoon and since we go straight to bath after dinner I’m not so concerned with keeping the food away from him. He still doesn’t enjoy being on his tummy too much, but he’s able to push himself a little farther. We enjoy spending time together on the back porch and practice our tummy time together. When Carson’s had enough exercise I let him sit up while I do my yoga. Rossi is a welcomed visitor since Carson loves to watch the cats!

Brothers' Bath Time

Now that Carson is almost able to sit up on his own the boys can begin to take a bath together. We still have Carson in a blow-up tub, but he's way too big for the infant bath tub.

This looks like the beginning of many fun bath times together.

Collin's 4th Birthday Party

Per Collin’s request we had his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. We moved it a week later since many of his friends were traveling on his birthday for Labor Day weekend. It was probably not the most relaxing of settings, since it was busier than I had EVER seen it and there were several other parties there, but Collin had a good time and that’s all that matters. It was great to have so many good friends there!

Age four is exhausting, but a fun age. It’s amazing how much he synthesizes and can tell us about his day or what happened. We still get “Daddy, play with me” or “Mommy, play with me” so we’re hoping he begins to play more independently. He is a very social child and always wants a friend to come over. He has an imaginary friend, Max who often plays with us but he’d prefer another
Collin loves to pretend, play chase or Star Wars with daddy and play games with mommy. He is very interested in magic, enjoys riding his bike and playing baseball and likes to watch TV or movies – Calliou, Franklin, Dora and The Backyardigans are some of his favorite shows we see “On Demand”.

Collin’s Birthday Weekend

Our great start to Collin’s birthday start was a call from Aunt Laura after midnight on Friday night informing us that they were headed to the hospital with contractions. We were headed downtown Saturday morning to Mike’s office and a parade when we got a call from Aunt Karen with news that we had a new nephew!

Drew William was born August 30th at at 7:26 in the morning weighing 8 pounds and measuring 21 inches. Collin is excited to have a boy cousin since all his St. Louis cousins are girls and we think it’s neat that Carson will have a cousin with the same middle name just six months younger. The Atlanta zoo has a panda (Yang Yang) born on the same day as little Drew. It's amazing how little pandas are when they're born and how fast they grow. You can see on Webcam here.

It was a Star Wars weekend for Mike & Collin. Mike had some work to do on his new office space before the painters can start so we all went downtown to see the place and then to view the Dragon Con parade. It’s not exactly the crowd I could see myself hanging with, but we knew Collin would be excited to see the Storm Troopers. Personally, I would have rather seen more Disney & Sesame Street characters (Donald & Cookie Monster were there) all of the other crazy characters we saw, but it was somewhat entertaining and definitely something different to do on a Saturday morning. We went out to lunch, then to church Saturday night since Collin didn’t want to go on his birthday, which fell on a Sunday this year.

For his birthday breakfast he had a Cinnamon Roll with a candle to blow out, we opened gifts and then he and Mike spent most of the day playing with his new Star Wars figures, ships and Transformers. I wasn’t sure who was enjoying it more – Mike or Collin, but by the end of the weekend Mike had enough and Collin still wants to play Star Wars non-stop. Collin is super excited to have his OWN Star Wars figures since he can only play with dad’s toys with Dad. It will be interesting to see how I’ll be roped into playing Star Wars since I used to have an excuse that I wasn’t allowed to play with daddy’s toys. After lunch Mike took Collin to see the Clone Wars movie, and then after Carson woke from his nap we went to the playground to play soccer and for Collin to ride his bike. We went to dinner at Cheescake Factory. We’ll do his friend party next weekend, since many people were traveling this weekend for the Labor Day holiday.

Collin’s first week of school and soccer

It seems we’ve catapulted into fall right away. The weather is cooler and some leaves are falling already (probably because of the drought), school started for Collin & myself and Collin is playing his first organized sport – SOCCER. I guess that makes me a soccer mom – wow, now all I need is a mini van. I never thought I’d say this but I could certainly see great use for one now that I have two car seats in the back seat and friends to carpool with but no room for another car seat.

Anyway, Collin loves school and even his new teachers, especially Ms. April. When I picked him up after his first week on Thursday he said, “Mom, I wish I could go to school everyday.” He’s going four days this year (Mon-Thurs) which gives us Friday to get together with friends or do something together. There are days he wants to stay home and not have to go (especially having new birthday toys at home, but overall he really likes it).

Wednesdays at 4:00 we have soccer practice (before the East Cobb Park concert in the park), and Saturday, Sept.13th will be his first game. Last week we searched for shin guards and cleats. Daddy even surprised Collin by coming to his first practice and was able to witness his first goal. He did pretty well, but seemed to fall down quite a bit as you can see on this video clip.
The Friday before school started we went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens with friends from the neighborhood, Julia, Katherine & their mom Lauren as you can see in the photos.

Carson is Six Months Old

What a great age! I think this has to be one of my very favorites!! I remember with Collin I kept saying that because things seemed to get better and better, and in many ways they do, but the second time you have a different perspective. To be able to be so easily entertained and smiling at everything, not asking for much, not moving, not talking back and SOOO cute! Check out these cute videos of Carson being entertained by his big brother...

Carson has gotten so much more interactive recently, and smiles and laughs at everything. He wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth, and is definItely teething since he wants to gnaw on everything but hasn't had any teeth break through yet. He's still a super big boy, taller than more than 95% of the population of six-month olds at 28.5 inches. He ways just over 18 pounds (75th percentile, down from 85th at 4 months) and his head measures 18 cm (90th percentile). He still has most of his hair, but it has thinned even more and is much lighter.

We started solid foods this month after we returned from Texas. He had been watching us eat from his Bumbo chair for the last two months so he was ready. He seemed to really like his first meal, but doesn't consistently love it. We need to increase his meals to twice a day, but have just been doing once - he's eaten Rice cereal, bananas and carrots.







At night he is sleeping quite a bit better now that we stopped traveling and implemented the "cry it out" two weeks ago. The first night was really hard because he cried for two hours, but the second night he didn't wake up. He woke about half the time for the first week but I didn't feed him. Now most nights he sleeps until 5 or 6 when I bring him in bed with us so. He'll usually sleep until we want to get up which is pretty cool.

Trying to work out his schedule with Collin returning to school has been a little bit of an adjustment, since he's usually tired by 9 AM but Collin's school doesn't start until 9:30. Sometimes he falls asleep on the way home, otherwise I'll put him to bed and he'll sleep until 11 or even later. He usually takes an afternoon nap too, and if he doesn’t get a good one he’s really tired by the time we are eating dinner after Mike gets home around 7. While it will take a little getting used to, it's nice to have a routine again.

Click here to see our 4-yr, 6-mo photo shoot from Portrait Innovations.

Trip to Texas - Part Plano

We traveled to Texas for my friend Jenny's wedding in Austin. We flew into Dallas on Wednesday and stayed with my parents for a few days before Carson, Mike & I drove to Austin while Collin enjoyed a special weekend visit with his Nana & PaPa. It was a great trip except for my mom’s back injury, and mine hurting a bit as well. While in Plano we didn’t do a whole lot since we needed to rest our backs, but we did get to the Rec Center pool, a few favorite stores, visit with good friends, plenty of pool time in the back yard, and a Mary Kay training meeting. Collin's swimming really improved the week we were in Texas. His confidence increased having pool area all "3 year old section", as he calls the areas that are 3 FT deep.

Mike DROVE a NEW CAR home on Sunday, while the boys and I stayed until Wednesday. I flew home with both boys by myself and despite my back troubles, things went pretty smoothly. Dad got a gate pass to help me on which was a big help. Dad did so much all week helping mom & me. He even gave Carson two baths while we were there. Either mom or dad tried to give Carson a bottle each day, but no luck so he pretty much came with me everywhere.

Carson enjoyed seeing his girlfriend Addison again, as Laura came over to help with lunch Monday. Collin’s FAVORITE part of the whole week was playing golf at the golf course that Nana & PaPa live on. When he tells people about his trip he says “Playing golf” was his favorite part “…but we only got to play one hole because it was getting dark”. He so wants to be a golf player.