10 Months

Check out my mad photoshop skills!  I taught myself how to hide the circle and text
behind his hands and feet by layering images and working with layer masks in Photoshop.
What do you think...is it believable?  I'll admit it's not perfect, but for my first time
doing that, I was pretty happy with it.  :)

Eeks!  I'm verrrrrrrrrry late in posting this monthly update.  Shame on me!  But, summer time is busy...add in a week long vacation, a couple of photo shoots and sprinkle in a thousand-or-so pictures to edit, and that's what you call my excuse, people!  Forgive me?

So....since I never posted Brody's stats from his 9 month doctor visit, I thought I'd add them to this post. 

Height: 28.5" - 50%
Weight: 22.4 lbs. - 71%
Head - 46 cm - 65%

That said, I know that Brody actually weighs just over 24 lbs. now, though.  I know that because while we were on vacation the other week, Brody got another ear infection.  So, I found an in-network doctors office in the area (in Spencer, IA) and took him in to get checked out.  Of course, while there, they weighed him.  What a big boy!

Ok, what are we up to this month?  Hmmm...

• Brody is wearing all 12 month size clothing now.  And we've moved on to size 4 diapers. 
• No more army crawling, this boy can MOVE!  He crawls everywhere.  And he's fast, let me tell you.  People keep asking if he can walk yet, or if he's getting close.  He's not.  He will cruise really well around furniture, and can even stand unassisted for a couple of seconds, but he's very cautious and actually doesn't even seem to want to try to walk.  Even when we hold his hands, he either turns around and wants to be picked up, or he sits down and crawls to what he wants.  And you know what...I'm actually OK with this.  I think most new parents are so anxious for their babes to take those first few steps, and I'm not saying I won't be SO PROUD when he does finally walk for the first time, but he's already such a busy boy crawling all around...  I guess I'm just saying that I'm in no rush to chase after a little toddler...yet!

• Brody can pull himself up with ease now and is (and has been for a while) frequently found in his crib standing up looking over the railing at us.  It is quite possibly the cutest thing to see in the mornings and after naps.  We are ALWAYS greeted with the biggest smile you could ever imagine.  It's the best.
• B still eats like a champ.  Pretty sure there is nothing this boy won't eat.  A couple of times I've had to throw out his baby food dinners though because it made ME want to vomit.  Seriously...some of those things look and smell like the nastiest cat food in the world.  SICK.  I cannot subject my child  to such disgustingness.  I can't and I wont. 

• Brody is still on the same eating schedule as last month...3 bottles a day, 2 meals, and 1 snack.
• He's also still on the same nap schedule.  One around 9:00 AM and the other around 1:30 PM.  The length of his naps seems to vary.  Usually his afternoon nap is the longer of the two though, but he totals about 4 hours of nap sleep a day.
• He's still going to bed around 7:30 and sleeps 11 hours till 6:30 AM on weekdays, and will sleep in a bit on weekends till 7:15 or so.  Thanks, B!

• Still no words yet.  We get Dada, Mama, and Baba sounds a lot, but I don't think he knows what they mean yet, so I don't count them as actual words.  He sometimes says Hi after we say Hi to him, but I'm not sure if he is repeating us or if it's just a coincidence. 
• Brody knows how to wave bye bye and hello now!!  This is so cute to see.  He started doing it early on vacation and we got such a kick out of having him do it all week.  Sometimes he does it more easily than others, but he definitely knows what it means when we say bye bye to him and he waves back at us.  Awwww.

• Brody now has 7 teeth and I think he's working on the 8th.  Four up top, and now 3 on bottom. 
• Brody is getting quite the little personality.  He is still such a good boy.  Always giving smiles to everyone and always very friendly.  He will pretty much go to anyone who holds their arms out for him and generally isn't scare of anyone yet.  The only person we've notice him being slightly scare of is our friend A-Rob.  Twice when he's seen him he clung to me and one time even cried a little.  Otherwise he shows no stranger fear.  Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing....hmmm...
• He has learned to cry and pout when he doesn't get what he wants...which is really only when he doesn't get food when he thinks he should be getting some.  I swear...the kid is a tank and wants to eat all the time.  If we aren't quick when it's bottle or snack time, he cries and pouts and kicks his legs.  We do our best to ignore the behavior, and 9 times out of 10 he will settle down within a couple minutes.  He's learning how to express himself and communicate his needs...I wish he would choose another way to do it, but since he can't talk, I guess it makes sense that he cries to tell us what he wants.  I attempt teaching him sign language, but I don't think it's taught at daycare, and I am not consistent with it at home, so, I'm pretty sure he's not picking it up.  I will try to make myself be better at it.  They (random things I read on the Internet) say that right now is the best time to teach sign language.

• He loves to play, crawl all over the house, play peak-a-boo, pat-a-cake, itsy-bitsy-spider, read books, and roll a ball around.  He's such a trooper and we can easily take him along with us just about anywhere. 

I'll try to do a separate post about our vacation soon, but don't hold me to this.  I've got lots of photo shoots and editing I'm working on in my spare time, and I also need to work on planning Brody's first birthday party in the coming weeks (OMG...how can he already almost be ONE?!?!).  Life is flying by way too fast....does anyone know how to slow down time?  I'm savoring every minute of it, but sometimes it feels like I blink and a whole month has gone by!

9 Months

Brody is 9 Months Old!

(sorry for the godawful color/picture quality of this months photo.  this was probably my least favorite monthly photo shoot to date.  see below for more details).

Here is what he is up to these days:

-Wearing mostly 12 month clothing, with the exception of some 9 month size shorts.  Still in size 3 diapers.

- He is crawling all over the place and can now move around on all fours, although he seems to prefer his army crawl.

- He sits up on his own with ease and we frequently find him sitting in his crib playing with his doggy stuffed animal when he wakes up in the morning and from naps.

- He learned how to pull himself up using the ottoman that houses all his toys.  He tries pulling up on other things (random furniture and our legs), but he still hasn't quite mastered that yet.



This is my newest most favoritest (that's a word...look it up) photo of him.
I love that I didn't do a lot of editing to it either, with the exception of
some cheetos face removal...he's just THAT cute.  :)



- He also grabs for your hands to pull himself up but still can't stand on his own.  We think his head is too big and that makes him too wobbly.  :)

- He is eating all kinds of food and loves to try new things.  Such as green beans, bananas, watermelon, cheese, noodles, cooked carrots, yogurt, ground beef, and all his favorite random Gerber foods like puffs, crunchies (which we call cheetos), yogurt bites, dried fruits, and baby cookies.  He so far seems to like everything and eats like a champ. 

- He is now only getting 3 bottles a day...one in the morning when he wakes up, one after his morning nap, and the last right before bed.  He eats two meals (lunch and dinner), with a small snack after his afternoon nap.

- He takes 2 naps a day, one around 8:30 AM and another around 1:30 PM.  He generally sleeps for 1.5 to 2 hours each time.

- He babbles and screams and squeals and squawks, but still no actual words.  He said dada a few times but really doesn't say it much anymore.  He doesn't seem interested in repeating any words we say even when we try to get him to, either.

- He started making silly little noises with his mouth by using his toungue and teeth.  I can't even explain it, but it's Cuuuuute!

- He loves his little stuffed doggy that Pam got him when he was born.  But also likes pretty much any toy.  And he loves to roll a ball back and forth with us.

- He simply LOVES Gus.  I don't think I posted about this, but I'm an awful dog momma and Gus went to live with my parents for a while.  He is just happier over there and I'll leave it at that.  However, Gus has been back home with us more recently and Brody just thinks he is hilarious.  They like to play together and Brody will almost always giggle at him.  It's very cute to see Gus playing with his little brother so well.

-Brody still sleeps very well and for approximately 11 hours a night - from 7:30PM to 6:30AM.

- When Brody started sitting on his own (getting up from laying down), we decided to drop the mattress in his crib.  This milestone made me a little sad for some reason...he's growing up so fast!

- We also finally put in the big car seat and stopped using his carrier.  He had looooong outgrown that thing so this was way overdue on our part, but it's all good and he's much safer now. 

- He has two more teeth!  On his 8 Month post he had just recently gotten his front top two teeth, but he now also has the two on either side of those too!  6 teeth!  Sheesh!

- I think Brody had his first temper tantrum with me the other day.  I don't know if that's really what I would call it but I can't think of what else it would be called.  I had set him down on the floor to play after his afternoon nap.  I turned around to go get him a snack ready from the kitchen and he starting crying.  Bottom lip out, face all scrunched up, turning red, tears in his eyes, full-on CRY.  He has not ever done this before.  I know some other moms probably want to throw things at my face for saying that, but he has honestly not ever cried like that before.  Since I know that is not his normal behavior, and I know he was perfectly fine...maybe just a little hungry...I let him cry for a bit while I continued to prepare his snack all the while talking and smiling at him like nothing was even happening.  I'm sure I have no idea what I'm in for once he gets a bit older and starts having more temper tantrums, but I figure it's best to not react to that behavior from the get-go, to help him understand that acting that way is not going to make me react any differently.  Is that absurd to think my 9 month old might actually understand this??  All you moms of older children can laugh in my face now if you want...I can take it. 

- On a lighter note, one of my favorite new Brody things this month is that I started noticing a few days ago that whenever I play music, or one of his musical toys turns on, or even sometimes when I sing to him, he will stop what he is doing and look at the musical source and start rocking side to side.  He is DANCING!  I think it's especially cute.  Before Jeff and I started dating we used to dance together at the bars.  And we still continue to dance together (at weddings and even at home).  I also used to dance around the house when I was pregnant too.  And danced A LOT with him when he was a little baby.  Heck, we even still dance together at home sometimes.  Plus Jeff and I like to goofy-dance in front of Brody a lot to try and get him to laugh.  So I think it's so cute that he has taken a liking to dance as well.  Or at least that's what I am going to tell myself.  :)

_________________

Well, as a side note, Brody (as I'm sure most 9 month olds are) is into EVERYTHING.  These monthly photo shoots are getting extremely difficult for me to pull off anymore.  He just doesn't want to lay still for even a second.  This is what he would rather do instead...



Found your toes, Mommy!




Oooh tape!  This is new. It's crinkly and sticky and different!




I think I'll pull it off.




Working hard at destroying my makeshift "set".



 Another reason this shoot was disappointing for me was because this was the first time in 9 months that I wasn't able to do his picture on his actual monthly birthday.  :(  Tear.  I don't know why that matters because it's not like anyone but me would even know, but it just disappoints me.  I didn't have anyone home with me on Tuesday, but I attempted to do his picture anyway.  The four photos above show just what I was dealing with, and I decided it's just too dang hard for me to do these on my own. So, I tried again on Wednesday at my mom's house with the help of my mom and sister, but I still wasn't crazy about the results.  Ugh.  Here are some others from that session that were sorta cute...

Not too bad, but they are all a bit overexposed and it's really difficult to fix an overexposed photo.  Boo.

My camera has been on Fiiiyah lately (use your Arnold impression to say that...it's hilarious)and I've been one busy little amateur photog.  I'm hoping to get a Fourth of July post out on here soon with all the fun things we did over the long weekend!  But, I've been thinking about starting a separate photography blog....anyone have any opinions on that?  I kinda hope some day in the future I might be able to become a photographer and I was thinking it would be nice to have a separate site I can direct possible clients to for examples of my work.  Is this dumb?  I'm kinda embarrassed to even say any of this...

7 Months

No doctor appointment this month, so no stats to report.

As previously mentioned, I took a TON of photos of him today so I'll scatter them throughout this post since I don't have a lot to update on this month.

Brody is getting so big!  Wearing mostly 6 - 9 month clothes and a few 6-12 month sizes too.  Still in size 3 diapers and just recently started wearing the over-night diapers at night.  He was waking up smelling a little like urine, so it was time...yuck!

He has 4 bottles a day now and we are 100% on formula.  :(  I actually stopped breastfeeding him at 6 months but I think I forgot to mention it in my last monthly post.  I nursed him for the last time on his actual 6 month birthday.  He does just fine with formula, except he now spits up a bit about half an hour after a bottle. 

He's also eating two meals a day.  One he gets at Pam's (Oatmeal and fruit) and one at home around dinner time (Rice and Veggie and sometimes some meat puree's). 

By the way...they aren't kidding when they say baby's poop changes once on solid foods.  Sheesh!  TMI?  HAHAHA

He still rolls and rolls and rolls around, but not crawling yet.  He tries to sit up sometimes (from laying down) but I don't think he'll be able to do that for a while.  He definitely tries, but I imagine that's harder to do than it looks.  Gotta work on that core strength, Brobo! 

Since he rolls around so much, the play-time mat that we have is rather pointless.  He ends up somewhere else in the room, like pinned up next to the couch where he will peek under the skirt to explore (that's what she said...HAHAHA).   Or rolled up next to the entertainment center where he kicks or grabs at the picture frames and reaches up to push the buttons on the DVD player.  Guess it's time to baby-proof the Petersen Pad!  Gotta look out for the little monster.

He hasn't started talking yet.  We try to get him to say momma and dada, but he prefers to squeal and scream instead.

No new teeth to report on either.  The bottom two are pretty much all the way through.  I thought he was maybe going to sprout some new ones up top too, but none yet.

Brody continues to be a champ at sleeping during the night.  We bumped up his bed time to 7:30(ish) because he seemed to be really sleepy in the evenings.  It's working out well for us.  He gets up at 6:30 AM, which is perfect for Jeff's schedule in the mornings with him.

He takes 3 naps a day, unless we have a particularly busy day out and about.  He never wants to miss out on anything so he typically won't fall asleep in his car seat anymore like he did when he was really little.

He is SOOOOOO good to be out with.  Never cries or whines and smiles at everyone, wherever we go.

I remember a time not long ago that I wished for the days that Brody did not require my arms or the swing to fall asleep for naps.  Now, even if we wanted him to, he probably would not sleep in our arms.  Like I said...he never wants to miss out on anything!  But lay him in his crib and give him a pacifier and he'll fall asleep fairly fast.  He plays a little bit, talks a little bit more, then falls asleep on his own..

Brody.  Is.  Awesome.

5 Months



About two weeks ago I thought to myself...hmm...what will I write about on Brody's 5 month blog post?  It just seemed that not too much had happened since his 4 month post.  HOLY COW!  Did he ever prove me wrong!  There is lots to catch you all up on.  So, if you are interested...grab a cup of coffee and a comfy chair, because this might take a while.  :D

• I went in to check on Brody one morning and I could have sworn I was losing it.  Brody was flipped around 180 degrees in his crib.  I kept thinking...did I put him down a different way last night?  I generally always put him down in the same direction...not always...but usually.  I was pretty confident that I had put him down that night the "normal" way, so I just couldn't understand why he was turned around.  Oh well, I thought, and eventually convinced myself that I had simply just lost it, and I must have put him down differently.  But then the next day when I went in to get him from his nap I figured it out.  HE did it!  That time he was only turned 90 degrees and I KNEW I didn't put him in there like that.  Little monkey likes to do circles in his crib apparently.  He kicks his feet up in the air, twists at the hips so his legs fall to the side, pushes his feet off the sides of the crib, and scoots himself around.  What a funny little boy!  And sometimes now he even just lays there on his side and falls asleep like that. 

• This past month Brody has also gotten really good at picking things up.  He's been able to grasp items when put into his hands for a while now, and he'd even kind of grab for things in front of him.  But it always sort of seemed like by accident he would actually get them.  Once in his hand he always puts everything into his mouth, of course...he's mastered that skill.  But it seems like this past month he's actually caught on to the fact that HE can put things into his hands by himself.  He reaches for the toys on his exersaucer now, and actually plays with them, which is so fun to watch.  He stares at this clear ball that spins and little beads inside of it dance around.  He watches it so intently, then gently puts his hand on the ball and starts pushing or pulling it to watch the beads move.  It's so neat to see that little brain working.  He also reaches out for his bottles now.  And if you put the bottle near him, he'll put both hands on either side and stick it right into his mouth.  We are so impressed that our 5 month old can now feed himself.  Heck...what does he even need us for?!  hehehe
• Brody continues to be a screamer.  This is his favorite way to communicate with us.  It's quite hilarious and we love it. 
• Brody also started his first taste of solid foods the other day.  I've posted about this progress here, and not much has changed since then.  He still seems disinterested in the rice cereal.  Just the other night though, he was in his exersaucer while Jeff and I ate dinner at the table, and Brody was SO interested in what were doing.  He was staring at us just watching each time we'd stick the fork full of food into our mouths.  I kept saying to Jeff..."Look!  He wants to eat with us!".  So last night I tried to feed him rice cereal while we ate dinner again, thinking he's be more interested.  It actually worked for the first couple of bites, but then once he figured out it was nasty ole rice cereal, he went back to his usual turning away from the spoon.  Hmmph.



Flippin' Burgers with Daddy



Go Hawks!

• As of last Saturday (February 26th), Brody officially rolled over for the first time!  Well...for the first time from back-to-tummy, anyway.  I am most excited about this milestone!  He rolled over from tummy-to-back a long time ago, but that's easy peasy baby stuff.  haha.  My big boy is rolly polly olly now.  He does what I described earlier and kicks his legs up in the air, lets 'em flop to the side, then pushes himself to roll onto his stomach.  From there he has even pushed himself back onto his back!  We couldn't be more impressed with our son!



That's it for the new exciting stuff, but here are some more things to mention...

• Sleep schedule is still the same with a bedtime between 8 and 8:30 PM, and awake at 6:45-7:00 AM. 
• Still getting 5 feedings a day, with 6-7 oz. of milk.  We have added one cereal feeding a day, which right now is minuscule.
• As far as pumping goes, I've officially decided it's time to call it quits.  :(  This makes me sad, but I am just not producing enough milk to satisfy Brody at feedings anymore.  When I pump throughout the day,  I only get between 4 and 5 ounces each time, and since he takes 6 oz bottles, this just wasn't working.  So, a few weeks ago I stopped nursing him altogether (except for his first morning feedings on days that I'm with him, because I seem to have enough milk to satisfy him then), and feed him bottles during the day even when I'm with him.  So, basically I only nurse him 3 times a week (Wed, Sat, and Sun mornings).  For a while I was still pumping 4 times a day (down from 5 about a month ago), but now I'm down to three times.  Once at 5:00 AM, again on my lunch break - usually around 12:30 PM, and again after B goes down to bed for the night - around 9:00 PM.  I'll continue to do this until I feel like my supply has gone down again.  So...all that being said, we were giving B one bottle of formula for his night feeding, and I was able to produce enough to make 4 other bottles for him for the day.  That is not the case now, and I'm only able to produce enough for 3 bottles, so I've started tapping into my frozen milk supply.  Man does it go quickly!  Since this bullet is already a mile long, and many of you have probably already stopped reading this, I'll make it even longer with a side-story about frozen milk!  The other night I grabbed one of my 6 oz. frozen bags of milk, placed it in a cup of water to thaw and get ready for the next days bottles, and I left it there.  I went to  bed and didn't notice till the next morning that it was still sitting in the cup of water.  I could have cried.  There is nothing quite like having to throw away 30 minutes of your life (that particular 6 oz happened to take me two pumping sessions at 15 minutes each to get).  Ugh!  What a waste, and all because I was forgetful and probably too sleepy to remember to put it in the fridge.  Mmeh!  (that's my pouty noise).   Ok 'nough talking about "the girls"...if I even still have your attention.  :)
• Brody loves to play in his exersaucer, roll around on the floor, watch Gussy, scream at his parents (in a good way), and smile smile smile.  He's a very happy little guy, and we just love him to pieces.  



I make a handsome fireman!



Playin' with my Auntie Rae





Brody's view of his momma about 70% of the time now.  Haha



I love when he grabs his feet like this.



This isn't a great pic, but I had to post so you can see those chunky thighs!!