6 months!

Yesterday was Will's half year birthday! I CAN believe he's already 6 months! It's a strange thing to say, but I feel like he's been here forever already, much longer than only 6 months. They have been the most wonderful, rewarding, and difficult 6 months of our lives. To celebrate half a year of life (and half a year of survival for me and Steven), I had a tiny little half birthday celebration for Will. I put up streamers and balloons on half of the "dining room" the night before and baked half a cake. I got him a little present and Steven bought him one too that I didn't even know about, very sweet! My parents decided to come by too and brought Will's Grandma Dink (she's my Grandma and we are going to tell Will to call her that- if you know her then you know how perfect a name it is!). It was a nice little party... until we tried to put the party hat on him and the elastic band popped on his poor little chin. Here are a couple pics

Grandma Dink wearing a party hat.

Looking at Will's pitiful little half cake. I forgot the gel writing stuff and candles so we stuck a lit match in it. Hey, it is a half party- it got half effort for sure.

Will just loved the balloons on his chair!

Good morning Mr. 6 Month Old!

This is from a few days before. We stopped at a nursery and took some pics with pumpkins.

My pumpkin

"My Mom and Dad are weird"

How appropriate... did I mention that at his 6 month check up he weighed in at 23 lbs and

11 oz!!! Obviously the 100th percentile, height is 28 inches- 93rd %ile. What a BIG GUY!

Just love this boy!

The Many Faces of Will

D.J. Jazzy Will

Casanova Will

Clown Will

Cop Will

These are the days!

We have just been having the best time with our boy! He is at such a fun age and is growing up so much! (quite literally, if you've seen him lately you understand)

Will is really doing better at night too. We have started to let him cry it out- not scream for hours unsupervised, but cry for short intervals before going to comfort him. I really hated the idea and it went against every motherly instinct I have, but we tried everything else and nothing worked. So now I am a believer! He went from waking 10-15 times a night to sleeping all the way and sometimes still only waking once or twice! Praise God! Seriously- it is a huge answer to prayer! We were at a breaking point, but are so thankful he figured it out.

He is laughing so much more and we think trying to talk to us. He just yells at Dex, trying to get his attention, but Dex wants nothing to do with him. We've been introducing him to purees lately-avacado, banana, sweet potato, and pears. I know a lot of people say not to do sweet fruits until much later, but the book I'm using suggests them first and the author claims her kids still ate the veggies. I guess we'll see. Hmmm... what else is doing this week....He is not sitting up on his own or moving around the floor yet, besides rolling. I think he will probably do things late and I will have to relax about it. He smiled late, coo'd late, rolled late, pushed up late (according to books and other babies I know) . He'll do things when he's ready I guess. He has started sucking his fingers more, taking out and putting the paci back in, pulling on his ears (pretty sure just b/c he's found them), and likes shuffling his shoes together to make sounds.- I know it's all very fascinating!

Anyway, here are a few pics of some recent events and just random things:

Mimi and Pa came for a visit! I think they both were spared from a shower in Will's spit up this time! A miracle!

Little newsie!

Time with Uncle Jason

Playing with Aunt Johanna and Uncle Jason

This is too funny! After the zoo, we found him like this, looking through the crib bars. Only it was better at first b/c his hair was hanging out through the bars and he was holding onto a bar with his hand. It was hilarious!

We took Will to the Fort Worth Zoo for the first time. He really didn't look at any animals, except for one swimming turtle, but Steven and I love the zoo, so we had a good time anyway.

In front of the monkeys

He just loves his baths! He laughs and kicks and splashes! The entire bathroom and whoever is bathing him ends up completely soaked, but it's too great to make him stop.

I got his five month pics back from Target and will post those soon. They are really cute and he just looks like the chubbiest baby on the planet. I got a little worried yesterday when I saw a story on the news about a family who was denied insurance on their 4 month old b/c he was too fat. Yikes! I believe his weight was the same as Will's... I mean look at that tub pic ... at least he's happy and healthy!

5 Months

This is the official 5 month post. Our boy is just growing so fast... and so big I might add. Everywhere we go (and I mean everywhere), people ask how old he is and then follow that with, "Oh my, he's a big boy!" Yes, we know, he is very big. I'm sure he's over 20 lbs by now and probably still over 95% for length. He's our chubby bunny and we love him more with every ounce! Everyday he is learning and changing so much. Of course I wish one of those changes would be learning to sleep.. at night.. during the day.. just sleep! Nevertheless, we are thankful that we have a happy, healthy boy.

His most recent accomplishments include:

sort of sitting of by himself

drinking from a sippy cup

eating avacado (sweet potato is next)

reaching for Momma

transferring objects from one hand to the other

a deeper sounding "aahh" and "waa" (we still have the soprano squeal though!)

First camping trip

Out-takes

Outside the tent at our church family camping trip Will's first morning after sleeping in a tent!