Veggies

It's hard to believe that Bryson is already 6 months old, which means, time to start baby food! I plan on making all of his food myself. For one, it's a whole lot cheaper; and two, it's a whole lot better for him. So far I have made him squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, and pears. He has loved them all so far except for the peas. I think part of that could have been a texture thing so I decided to remake them and we will try those again tomorrow. We started with fruit yesterday and at first he didn't really seem to like the pears, but today, he gobbled them up. The fruits I plan on making are peaches, plums, nectarines, avocado, apples and pumpkin. After I have given him all of those, I'm going to get him one of those mesh feeders and introduce bananas. At his 6 month appointment, the pediatrician suggested that we up his food feedings to 3 times a day so for now I'm doing a baby food in the morning, oatmeal for lunch and a baby food at night. Once he has been introduced to everything and he shows no signs of allergies, I will make him some combo foods and also give him a fruit and a vegetable at one meal. Here are some funny pictures of him trying out his first foods.

Squash

He loved it!

Sweet Potatoes

Carrots

These have been his favorite

Peas (he seemed to like them at first)

But then it was all down hill.

Bryson's 1st Labor Day and 6 month appointment.

For Bryson's 1st Labor Day, we went to Oak Mountain to cook out with Robert's family. After eating, they went kayaking and paddle boating while I sat with Bryson in the truck because he fell asleep. Here are some pictures.

We had Bryson's 6 month appointment on Monday and she was very impressed with how he was doing. She had a medical student with her so she asked a lot of questions about his development. She was most impressed with him crawling and even said "ok, he's not supposed to be doing that." He weighed 18 pounds 5 ounces (which is the 75th percentile), he is 26 inches long (which is between the 50-75th percentile) and I believe she said his head circumference was 17 (which is in the 50th percentile). She asked about baby food and was very excited that we were making our own. She told us to keep doing what we were doing with that. He got 4 shots and an oral vaccine, one of those shots was the flu shot, and he goes back in a month to get the flu shot booster. I'm so glad they were able to go ahead and give it to him so it has time to kick in before we head to NYC for Thanksgiving. After we go back for the booster, we don't go back until he is 9 months in December, but honestly, I'm not sure we will be going back to that office. I love our pediatrician but the staff there is horrible. They harass us about his bill even though we pay something every month and when they do harrass about it, its either the day before or the day of his appointment and they demand that we pay an outrageous amount or they won't see him. Then 2 weeks ago, we went in for his poops. (he was having major poop issues but wasn't sick). We get there, sign in, and go sit in the same waiting room we always sit in and like always, its empty. (its the children's well room). When they call his name for me to pay his co-pay, the lady rudely says "you have to sit in the sick waiting room". I said "but he's not sick" she said "too bad, he's here for poops so I say he's sick". I then said "ma'am, there is no way I'm sitting my perfectly healthy child in a waiting room full of coughing, snotty, nasty school aged kids. He doesn't go to daycare so he's not around germs." She then said "well I'm sorry but that's the rule". I told her again that I wouldn't sit there since he wasn't sick and asked where we could go since we were allowed to sit in a waiting room and she said "well, i guess you could just stand by the fish tank" I was shocked. So what did we do, we stood by the fish tank. On the way out, it was everything I could do to keep myself from going to that lady and saying "oh, by the way, he's not sick, and if he does get sick, you can pay for his doctor bill." But I was the better person and kept my mouth shut.

Bryson's 1st Auburn Game

September 4 was Bryson's first time to watch an Auburn game. We went over to our friends Carl and Joanna's house to watch it. (That seems to have somehow become the tradition). We went all out and what he wore and what toys we took to their house. He wore his orange Auburn polo, blue jeans and orange and blue shoes. For his toys, we took his Auburn blanket, giant football pillow, tiger, and his Auburn bear. Of course Bryson didn't watch the game but I think he enjoyed all the excitement of everybody watching it. Every time we would cheer, he would freak out. It was hilarious. Thank God we have such a good baby that we can take everywhere with us. Here are some pictures of Bryson's 1st Auburn game.

3 Year Anniversary!

I can't believe that we have already been married for 3 years! It seems like our wedding was so long ago, but then again it also seems just like yesterday. We had a beautiful wedding ceremony where I got almost everything I wanted thanks to my wonderful parents. (of course there would have been more but the stupid lady from Gabrella Manor wouldn't allow some things.) I was also fortunate enough to have my brother, who is an ordained minister, perform the ceremony. This was a great solution since I am Baptist and Robert is Catholic. I had always had my wedding picked out for as long as I can remember. I believe I began chosing what I wanted in the 6th grade! I always wanted yellow dresses and daisies. I got my yellow dresses and for the most part my daisies. My bouquet was not what I asked for at all, but what can you do the day before your wedding. I specifically said no roses anywhere at my wedding and of course, there were roses in my bouquet, my bridesmaids bouquets and a big vase of them at the sign in table. What part of I hate roses did that lady not understand?! Oh well, it was still a pretty bouquet and just as big as I had wanted it. We had a string quartet at our ceremony which is also something that I had always wanted. The original guy we had chosen backed out at the last minute but luckily my mom was able to find another group that was willing to do it and they were great! We also had the perfect cakes. I wanted mine a little traditional but also a little non-traditional. I chose to have each tier a different flavor and shape. I was also determined to have a traditional/non-traditional topper. I think a wedding cake should have the bride and groom on top. Nowadays people use flowers or initials and I just don't like it. But of course I had to be a little non-traditional about it. The best part of the ceremony was the end because we released doves and they were so beautiful! Besides the flowers, I was really upset with the owner of Gabrella not letting us use sparklers when we were leaving. We found a pretty good alternative with some shiny pop streamers that turned out great in our pictures. After we left the reception, we headed to a honeymoon suite that our bridal party had gotten for us. It was a little smaller then I had thought it would be but two of my bridesmaids had it all decorated for us (even though one of them caused me to be an hour late because of it). They also had champagne and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us. The next day, we headed to Gatlinburg to stay the week in a cabin in the mountains. It was perfect.
So a lot changes in 3 years. For one, Robert has lost over 100 pounds! and I have unfortunately gained (most of that thanks to Bryson). But the best thing that has happened to us over the past 3 years has been bringing Bryson into this world. I had no idea that it was possible to love somebody the way I love him. Here' s some pictures that I finally scanned of our big day!

6 Months!

I can't believe that Bryson is already 6 months old! Time has flown by way too fast. We don't go for his 6 month well visit until September 13 so I do not know all of his stats yet, but we did have to go for a sick visit on Monday and then he weighed 17 pounds 15 ounces! Thankfully he wasn't really sick, but I'm glad I took him. He had been having really bad diapers for several days and since he had no other symptoms, our pedi decided to swap him to a lactose free formula for a few days until it cleared up. Of course that put starting baby food on hold. We were going to start him on baby food Monday night, but our pedi told us to hold off until things cleared up. So here's what Mr. Bryson is doing at 6 months!

-He is now eating oatmeal once a day instead of rice cereal. Hopefully we will start baby food this weekend.
-He is now getting only formula, no more breast milk. I'm kind of sad that we couldn't make it to a year but I really think that 6 months of only pumping is great!
-He is sitting up on his own great!
-He is on all 4's all the time and is trying so hard to crawl.
-He will scoot on his belly to go after what he wants. I would consider him mobile because he doesn't stay in 1 place for very long. He is constantly moving.
-He is still sleeping through the night.
-He is still sleeping in his pack n play next to our bed. I plan on moving him to his crib this weekend if his poops clear up and we can get a baby monitor. (yes, we don't have a monitor. It was taken off of our registry but we never got it)
-He talks all the time and tries to repeat things we say, especially "da-da" and "ma-ma".
-He is officially in size 6 months clothes. He can still squeeze into some 3-6 months clothes, but mostly he wears either 6 months or 6-9 months.
-He still has no teeth
-He still has blue eyes

Here are his monthly pictures that we took last night. He is such a happy baby.