Six Months

Well, I’m a little late updating on Lee’s sixth month, but at least I’m getting this all down before he turns seven months this week!  As I’m sure I will say over and over, TIME FLIES!  I can’t believe half a year has already passed us by in the blink of an eye.  Lee turned 6 months old on Christmas day.  It was such a special time of year, celebrating Christ’s birth with our sweet boy and our families.  I love this six month pic of Lee – he really is our happy boy!

Weight:  We went to the doctor for Lee’s six month appointment and got his official stats.  He weighed 18 lbs. 11 oz. (75%). 

Length:  Lee was 27 3/4 in. (97%).  We could definitely tell he had a growth spurt in length because his pants were all getting too short. 

Head Circumference:  Still in the 10th percentile!

Clothing: Lee is wearing mostly9 month clothing.   He is still wearing a size 3 diaper.

Feeding: Lee is still breastfeeding – about four times a day.  During this month, we started trying rice cereal/oatmeal and slowly started adding a few other baby foods.  He seems to like oatmeal better than rice cereal.  We just gave him carrots and sweet potatoes this month.  He likes the carrots the best – just like daddy!   

Sleep: Lee is sleeping great  - still 11-12 hours a night.  He is still taking 3 naps a day for the most part (sometimes 2).  Lee got another cold this month but luckily this cold didn’t interfere with his sleeping.  Of course I freaked out about his cold because I saw him grabbing at his ears a couple of times so I just knew he had an ear infection even though the nurse on the phone told me it didn’t sound like he did.  I took him to the doctor anyways since it was a couple days before Christmas – I was worried he would be sick and we wouldn’t be able to take him to his doctor over the holidays.  Luckily, he was fine and luckily the doctor didn’t make me feel like a crazy paranoid mom! 

Activities: Lee started sitting up so much better about a week before Christmas.  He is stable enough now where he can hold onto his toys while he is sitting.  Lee is so happy and just our laid back, carefree baby boy.  He gives us the biggest smiles and laughs.  This is such a fun stage to see his little personality start coming out!

Holidays in Review

Well since I have failed to write anything about some of Lee’s first holiday experiences, I’m going to do a quick recap starting all the way back with Halloween. 

For Halloween this year, Lee was a little monkey.  We thought this was appropriate since all of Cole’s guy friends refer to themselves as the monkeys.  Whenever they are around each other, although they are all over 30, they tend to act like a bunch of monkeys.

We had fun taking Lee to a few of the neighbor’s houses to “trick or treat”.  Lee did fall asleep in Cole’s arms while visiting with some of the neighbors.  I guess he was just cozy in his monkey suit and could only take so much Halloween fun.  We also went over to Rance and Kayla’s house and then down to Chris and Kimi’s house.  Lee slept through most of that too!

For Thanksgiving, our plans got changed up a little bit from past years because Duke had to have surgery unexpectedly the week of Thanksgiving.  We were thankful that he was ok and got to go home without having to spend Thanksgiving in the hospital.  So, on Wednesday, we went to Baytown and spent Wednesday and Thursday night there.  We had Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday and then Cole, Cody, Casey and I went to the A&M vs. tu game on Thursday night.  Since it was the last one ever, it was really exciting to be there.  G-Mom and Duke graciously watched Lee so that we could go to the game.  I think we all had a great time despite an Aggie loss!  On Friday, we drove to Arlington and spent Friday and Saturday night with my family.  We had a great time just hanging out and on Saturday we went to the Gaylord Texan to look at all the Christmas decorations. 

Now onto Christmas…we started off on Christmas Eve Eve going to my Aunt Susan and Uncle Larry’s house in Denton.  We spent the night there and celebrated Christmas Eve at their house.  There were about 35-40 people there for Christmas Eve dinner.  My dad and Aunt Susan did most of the cooking for the big dinner.  It was delicious as always!  Since the celebration was going way past Lee’s bedtime, we left early and headed back to Arlington.  We did Christmas morning at my parent's house and it was so much fun this year watching Lee with his presents.  He got lots of new toys to play with.  It was great timing for some new toys because he is sitting up now and really grabbing for toys. 

On Christmas day, we packed up and went to Fort Worth to Cole’s PawPaw’s house.  We had a great time celebrating with G-Mom, Duke, Casey, Cody, Polly, Sam, Samuel and PawPaw.  We missed getting to be with Chris and Kimi though!  On Christmas night, Mary Kay, Barry, Corky, Jan and Adam came over to meet Lee since we didn’t get to see them Christmas Eve night.  We stayed in Fort Worth until Tuesday and had fun just hanging out and playing with Lee.  We had a great first Christmas with Lee!  This Christmas was so much fun and I know that it will get even more fun in the years to come when Lee really knows more about what is going on.  Also, along with celebrating Christ’s birth, we got to celebrate Lee turning 6 months on Christmas day!  What a big boy!

Lee’s Baptism

Sunday, December 18 was a very special day for our family.  Lee was baptized and our family was there to witness this wonderful day.  We took vows as Lee’s parents and the congregation took a vow as well. 

Parental Vows:

1.  Do you acknowledge your child’s need of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, and the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit?

2.  Do you claim God’s covenant promises on their behalf, and do you look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation, as you do for your own?

3.  Do you now unreservedly dedicate your child to God, and promise, in humble reliance upon divine grace, that you will endeavor to set before them a godly example, that you will pray with and for them, that you will teach them the doctrines of our holy religion, and that you will strive, by all the means of God’s appointment, to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?

Congregational Vow:

Do you as a congregation undertake the responsibility of assisting the parents in the Christian nurture of these children?

As I write out these vows, I am reflecting on how beautiful they are and I pray that Cole and I will reflect on them often.  Lee’s baptism meant so much to us as we stood in front of the Church body and accepted the Lord’s covenant promises on behalf of our son.  We are thankful and praise the Lord for His faithfulness and we pray that Lee will know Christ as his Savior one day and have a personal relationship with Him.

 

Pastor Bill Lamberth baptized Lee

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”  And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”  Acts 2: 37-39

We had everyone over to our house after Church for a lunch to celebrate!

Five Months

Weight:  I’m thinking Lee probably weighs about 17-18 pounds by now.  He is really growing and getting longer.  He is getting heavy to carry and he’s helping me get a good arm workout in everyday!

Clothing: Lee is wearing mostly 6 month clothing.  He can still wear a few of his 3-6 month outfits and we have gotten him in a few 9 month outfits too.  He is wearing a size 3 diaper.

Feeding: Lee is still breastfeeding.  Not much has changed here this month.  He still eats 5 times a day and is a good eater.  Although, I have noticed that he gets much more distracted now when he eats. 

Sleep: Lee is still sleeping great for the most part – about 11 hours at night.  He is taking three naps a day.  His morning nap is always his best nap.  We had a couple of rough patches with Lee’s sleep schedule this month due to his first cold and daylight savings – both happened at the same time – ugh!  Lee’s cold wasn’t bad enough to go to the doctor, he didn’t have a fever or anything.  But, it did take a toll on all of the family’s sleeping schedule.  Poor thing was waking up at all hours of the night.  I knew he didn’t feel well because that hasn’t happened in a long time!

Activities: Lee is so happy and “talking” (babbling) all the time.  He also started sitting up this month.  He’s still pretty wobbly, but he can hold himself up while seated by using his hands (we call this the tripod).  Lee loves his jumperoo and laying on his blanket playing with his toys.  What a sweet little boy we have!

Four Months

 

Weight:  When we went to Lee’s 4 month check up, he weighed in at 16 lbs 5 oz (75%).  The doctor was really impressed with how much he has caught up and reminded us that the percentiles are being calculated based on babies that were full term.  Just imagine if he wasn’t born 5 weeks early! 

Length:  Lee measured at 25 3/4 inches (75%).  He has grown half a foot since birth – wow!

Head Circumference:  I haven’t mentioned Lee’s head circumference from his previous appointments, but it’s kind of funny.  At his four month appointment, his head measured in the 10th percentile.  Yep, we’re in the double digits now.  At his 2 week appointment it was in the 3rd percentile and at his 8 week appointment it was in the 4th percentile.  I was worried about it since the measurements are so different than his height and weight, but the doctor assured me it was fine because they just look at the rate of growth.  Also, when the doctor adjusted it for his actual due date, it was more in line with his height and weight percentiles so it could have something to do with him being early.  

Clothing: Lee is wearing mostly 6 month clothing.  He can still wear a few of his 3-6 month outfits too.  He is wearing a size 2 diaper.

Feeding: Lee is still breastfeeding.  We changed our schedule a little this month to spread out the feedings.  He can make it about 3 – 4 hours in between feedings.  I also dropped one of the feedings, so he is just eating 5 times a day now.  As you can tell from his cute chubby cheeks, he did not suffer from dropping a feeding!  At his four month check up, the doctor said he would normally tell us we can start rice cereal and some other baby foods at four months, but he wants us to wait to start introducing these until he is at four months from his actual due date.  So, we will at least wait until the beginning of December to do that. 

Sleep: Lee sleeps about 11 hours at night now.  We usually start getting him ready for bed at 8:00 and he goes down by 9:00.  He sleeps until 8:00 in the morning and a lot of times I have to wake him up.  Yes, we do realize how lucky we are to have such a great little sleeper!  Lee is also napping well too.  He takes a morning nap and a couple of afternoon naps.  He is still good about sleeping in his infant carrier if we are out and about, but I do try to get him to nap in his bed because he gets a better nap that way.  Lee is also a very hard sleeper and not a high maintenance sleeper.  Generally the door to his room is open while he sleeps and I can go in and out of his room without waking him.  This child just likes to sleep.  We don’t use sound machines, blackout shades or anything fancy.  We noticed this month during his naps and at night he discovered his thumb and he is now officially a thumb sucker.  It’s always the left thumb and the other four fingers stick straight up and cover his face.  As cute as it is, I was really hoping that he would be more attached to the paci versus his thumb.  It doesn’t look like there is any stopping him though.  The good thing is that it calms him down and if he wakes up in the middle of the night, he will find his thumb and put himself right back to sleep.  We also stopped swaddling him this month.  He was getting strong enough to break out of the miracle blanket and he was doing it to get to his thumb.  So, now he sleeps in his sleep sack and we have put all of the swaddle blanket contraptions away.

Activities: Lee is such a happy baby!  He smiles and coos and even started to laugh right about the time he turned four months.  We discovered his laugh when we started to tickle him.  It is the cutest thing!  He loves it when we talk, sing and interact with him.  Whenever Lee smiles you will usually see his tongue sticking out – it cracks us up!  We are having so much fun being Lee’s mommy and daddy.  We thank God every day for our little blessing!

San Antonio

We took Lee on his first vacation to San Antonio at the end of October.  We went with Josh, Laura and Elle and we all had a great time relaxing and hanging out.  Laura and I decided that we needed to take the guys somewhere fun where they could play golf together for their birthdays (Cole turned 30 in May and Josh turned 31 in April).  We decided on the J W Marriott Resort and it was great!  It is a beautiful resort and it has all kinds of fun things to do from the water park, pools and lazy river (all were heated), golf, spa, sports bar and restaurants.  We didn’t even leave the resort – it was much easier just to stay there with the kids and we had everything there we needed. 

The guys played golf one afternoon and Laura and I watched the kiddos.  Apparently the PGA tour had been at the resort golf course the weekend before so the course was in tournament condition – the guys said it was a great course!  The next day Laura and I went to the spa and the guys watched the kids while also watching the Aggie game.  We thought it was pretty funny that Lee took a 3 hour afternoon nap for me when I was watching him but he only took a 20 minute nap for Cole while he was watching him.  I guess Lee wanted to stay up and watch the Aggie game with the guys!

Since the water was heated and it was sunny and in the mid 80’s, we spent a little time in the pool and lazy river.  This was Lee’s first time to “swim.”  He looked so cute in his little bathing suit and hat.  The water was a little cool for him, so he didn’t really get in the water.  His favorite thing to do was float in the lazy river while laying on mom. 

We had a great time with our sweet friends and we made a lot of great memories!

Cute little boy in his bathing suit!

Snoozing by the pool

Daddy and Lee

Lee smiling at Daddy – LOVE!

Just taking it all in

The view from our room

Josh and Cole enjoying a beverage on the balcony

Lee and Elle – cuties!

The group before dinner one night

Family pic

Playing in the pool with my boys!

We refer to this pic as sumo baby – ha!

State Fair Livestock Auction

At the beginning of October we went to the State Fair Livestock Auction. Cole volunteered on the Livestock Auction committee to raise money for scholarships for youth in FFA and in some of the schools surrounding Fair Park. It was a really fun day and we got to spend some time looking around the fair also. It was Cole’s first time in the fair – hard to believe since we have been in Dallas about 7 years now! Lee was a little trouper and did so well hanging out at the fair all day with mom and dad. Lee and I also went to the fair one day with Gramma, so Lee had a great introduction to the fair at only 3 months old.

Here are some pictures of the Livestock Auction. I had never been to a real auction before so it was fun to see the auctioneer in action and all the cute kids showing their animals. The kids work really hard and are very proud of the animals that they show. Cole actually got to bid on some animals and we “bought” a goat and a pig. The girls that showed the goat and pig were so polite and sweet. You will see from the pictures that Cole thought it would be funny to use Lee to bid. So, whenever he wanted to bid, he would lift Lee up. The auctioneer got a big kick out of it and said it was the first time in 30 years that he’s ever seen anyone bid with a baby. Then when he was doing his auction calls he kept asking Cole to raise the baby! It was a fun day and we will definitely be there next year too.

Cole and his Lil' Buckaroo

Cole bidding with Lee

Lee was exhausted!