8 Months!

 I can't believe Bryson is already 8 months old! He is growing up way too fast. Since I had to go back to work, I haven't had a ton of time to spend with him but thankfully he is right down the hall from me so I get to see him on my lunchbreak everyday. I will say though that I am not a fan of his teachers. The afternoon teacher is not too bad but the morning teacher is terrible! There are so many days that I leave him and go cry because I don't feel like he is loved on, talked to, or played with. Since he is so far ahead though, the school wants to move him up next month so hopefully things will get better then. We don't go back for a check up until December so I don't have all his stats but he did get weighed at one of his ear check appointments and my oh my is he a big boy. Here's what he's doing at 8 months:

-He weighs 19 pounds 5 ounces (or by now probably 20+ pounds)
-He is crawling everywhere, and is super fast! The child cannot be still!
-He can pull to standing and can also stand by himself for a little bit. It won't be long before he's walking.
-Now that he has tried table food, he now hates baby food and it's so hard to get him to eat it. He does love yogurt though.
-He has officially moved into his own room! I was a little sad about this but he is doing great, and so am I!
-He still sleeps through the night, but doesn't sleep as late. He usually goes to bed somewhere between 8:30 and 10 pm and will wake up anywhere between 4:30 am or 6am. If he wakes up at 4:30, he usually goes back to sleep. If he wakes up at 6am, it's usually because I have to wake him up so we can get to school.
-He still eats every 3 hours but he eats so weird now. Since they can't save his bottles at school if he doesn't finish them, I have to pack them all weird. His 1st bottle is 4oz and he will have that with applesauce or yogurt. His 2nd bottle is usually 6 ounces and he will have baby food not too long after that. I usually feed him on my break because for some reason he doesn't eat good for his teachers. His 3rd bottle is 8 oz and then he eats dinner with us.
-He is still on the same Similac formula but it's now called Similac for spit up. This formula recall has totally messed us up. Since they aren't making the big things of formula, we are spending a ton of  money on formula because the pre-mixed and small containers don't make anywhere near as many bottles as the big containers did. Hopefully he will either be off formula soon or the recall will be over.
-He loves puffs! He does so well eating them. We don't have to feed him at all!
-He still has blue eyes! Shocking isn't it?

I'm sure there is so much more because he is such a little busy body, but that's all I can think of right now. Here are his 8 month pictures. Now they are impossible to take since he wiggles so much. He just wants to move and cannot be still! But we did get a few good ones.

7 months!

Well a whole lot has happened since my last post which is part of the reason it's late. I decided to go back to work but luckily Bryson is there with me. I enjoy my new job, but not as much as I used to but I think that's just because I would really rather be home with him. I work 7-4 and get to spend my entire lunch break with him. There are also cameras in the room so I usually get my mom to check on him for me during the day. The crazy thing is, he is the second youngest in his class of 9 kids, but he is the biggest one and is the 3rd crawler. The director wants him to move up but because of his age, he has to stay in his current room until December.
It is so hard to believe that he is already 7 months old! Here are a few things he is doing at 7 months

-He had his first ear infection, we think. The pediatrician couldn't tell 100% because he has so much ear wax but we are treating like one anyway. He gets an antibiotic twice a day until it runs out and we are using a little peroxide in his ears to break the wax up. So far it hasn't fazed him. The only reason I knew something was wrong was because he stopped eating as much and quit sleeping through the night. So since he stopped eating, it's like we are starting over again with the baby food.
-He doesn't go back for a well visit until December but when we went for his ear check he weighed 19 pounds 2 ounces with his clothes on. I'm curious if he has lost any weight since he is not eating as much.
-He is crawling like crazy! He went from army crawling to full force crawling right after he turned 6 months. Then about a week after that he started pulling up and now he's trying to climb. I have a feeling we will have a walker on our hands before we go to NYC for Thanksgiving.
-We have officially tried all of the basic baby foods. Once I can get him eating some more, I'm going to give him some mixed fruits and veggies and also introduce a few uncommon foods like mango and pumpkin. I will also start to introduce spices to him too.
-Prior to the ear infection he would drink about 6-8 oz of formula every 3 hours and eat a baby food 3 times a day. Now we are back to 8 oz every 3 hours and are slowly getting back to eating baby food again.
-He is talking up a storm! He says things like "da-da" and "ni-ni" (sounds like night night) all day long.
-He still doesn't take a paci but now when he is sleepy he will chew on some kind of fabric. He was chewing his shirt which would make it pretty nasty so I bought him a few small blankets that he could chew on.
-He still has blue eyes, and it looks like they may stay that way. Our pediatrician said the latest she's seen them change was 8 months and I have read it can take more than a year, so while it appears they are staying blue, they could still change.
-He is still sleeping in our room, but we are making the transition to his room either tonight or tomorrow night. Its going to be hard not having him beside me every night but it's not a habit that I want him to have. I know at first I won't sleep well, but in time, I will get more sleep.
-I have bought him a few new toys but he refuses to play with them. Instead, his favorite thing to do is crawl to the coffee table, pull himself up and just bang on it for hours. He will also try to reach whatever is on the table too. We have only had a few falls while doing this.

Bryson is such an amazing little guy. He makes us so happy and has the best personality. We definitely got lucky to have the best baby in the world. We were a few days late taking his monthly pictures since I am trying to get into a good work routine and they are also getting harder to take. We only got a few because all he wants to do is crawl off the blanket. That child is such a wiggle worm! Here are the few that we got.

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!