Holden {7 months}

Holden turned 7 months old on April 27th!

I think this was the fastest month ever.  I feel like he JUST turned six months old. 

Holden, at 7 months...

• You weigh approximately 18 lbs. 10 oz.  I say approximately because you will not hold still on the scale anymore when we try to weigh you!
• You are between a size 2 and a size 3 in shoes.  You wear a size 3 disposable diaper and are mostly in 6-9 month clothes now.  You still wear a few 3-6 month things but I recently packed away most of your clothes in that size.  *tear*
• Your eating is about the same.  You have 4-5 6 oz. bottles a day + oatmeal & fruit in the morning and a veggie & fruit in the evening.  You pretty much like whatever we feed you and there isn't much you haven't tried. We do think that pears are one of your new favorites.
• You are still swaddled at night and we have been putting you to bed a little earlier - usually somewhere between 7:30-9:00.  Maybe we will establish a routine bedtime soon?!  You sleep pretty well, although you have been crying out a couple of times not long after we put you to bed.  Not sure what that's about.  Then you usually sleep soundly until somewhere around 5:30-6:00 when you need your paci replaced...and you wake up for good sometime between 7:30-8:30.
• You still take a longer nap in the morning - about 2 hours - and a couple shorter naps during the day.
• You have gotten much better at sitting!  You love to sit and play with toys.
• Your new favorite thing to say is, "Da da da da."  You don't seem to associate it with daddy yet though.  You rarely say "ma ma" anymore.  Stinker.  We don't count anything as your first word yet because you haven't used any with meaning/in context.
• You have learned to put your pacifier back into your mouth like a pro!  
• You are kind of over your activity gym.  It and the bouncy seat probably need to go into storage at this point.
• You are quite rough with your toys.  You like to bang them and beat them on things and throw them down.  Kind of a wild-man!
• You love music and your favorite song for us to sing is definitely, "If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops...."  If you are upset, you calm down when we sing this and it always makes you smile.
• Still no signs of teeth.  I keep thinking maybe you are teething but never can see any coming through.
• You seem to have found your feet better than ever before.  You have never really grabbed at your feet until this month.
• You've also taken a liking to peeing when we change your diaper.  You do this to Daddy the most.  You are also becoming a wild man on the changing table.
• Still no rolling from back to belly.  You just are not a fan of being on your belly.  So, you are still pretty stationary.  You love to "stand" and "jump" in your bounce-about and you like to stand on our laps or anywhere with us holding onto you.  Maybe you will just skip crawling and go straight to walking!
• You have shown signs of "separation anxiety" a few times this month... but other times you have been happy to go to anyone.

I really can't believe you are 7 months old.  It is almost scary how fast this month flew by.  It is so fun to watch you grow and learn new things.  Every day, I think about how blessed and lucky I feel to be your mommy.  You're awesome, Bubbas.  :)

To see Holden's previous monthly posts, click here.

Weekend Recap

It's time for a little weekend recap...

Friday = Holden turned seven months old, WHAT?!  Daddy got off work early, yay!  Waited forever in Wal-Mart while car got an oil change, boo.  Got flowers to plant in pots, yay!  Ate supper at Fazzoli's, yum!

Saturday = Stayed home all day, which rarely happens!  During Holden's morning nap, I planted flowers in two pots for the porch while the husband finished mulching our landscaping.  Hung out, lounged around, played.  I made chili rellenos casserole (thanks to Pinterest) for supper. We put Holden to bed at 7:30 and we were in bed by 10:30.  Old. ;)

Sunday = Mommy's day out! Outlet mall shopping with my friend, Megan.  We bought some goodies for ourselves and husbands and nothing for our babies!  Willpower, folks!  Their closets are full enough.  Gap was our biggest success.  So fun.  I've concluded that I'm going to wear dresses all summer.  They are far more forgiving/flattering than shorts and capris... and trust me, I need forgiving and flattering...but let's not get me started on the depressing-post-baby-bod subject.

Failed to get any pictures of our shopping trip...this is the one and only picture I took on Sunday!
"Standing" to look out the window.

Tuesday starts a new month which means a new schedule for my hubby... and it is going to be a good month as far as that goes!  Lots more time off.  Yay!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. :)


I'm linking this post up with Tami this week!  She is hosting this new link-up .... so if you like to recap your weekends... click below to go link up with her!

pictures pictures everywhere....

Okay.  I have a problem.  I take too many pictures.  Some would argue that there is no such thing.  I might have to agree with that sentiment.  It is so easy and convenient to take pictures...with cell phone cameras and apps like instagram...not to mention facebook and blogs to share the pictures on.  I was bad enough about taking a lot of pictures before I had a kid.  I took too many pictures of myself, myself + my husband, and Doug the Pug then.  But now that I have a kid?  I mean, I practice no restraint.  I always have my iphone and I always have my adorable kid.  Every other moment is a kodak moment, folks.  When he looks cute...my reaction is to take his picture.  And he looks cute all.the.stinking.time of course.  Thus, pictures in excess.

For example, yesterday, I took about fifteen pictures of Holden.  Now, some of these are practically the same and I can (and will) narrow them down to only keeping a handful on my phone.  But still....

So, I don't lack in the picture taking department.  What I do lack in is the picture developing/storing department....as in... I rarely develop any...and when I do....they sit in the hall closet because I don't know what to do with them.  This brings me to my point of this post....and that is, to ask you all (because I know some of you are picture takin' fools, too!) what you do with all the pictures you take?  Are you good about getting pictures developed?  If so, do you put them in albums?  Do you make photo books on a site like Shutterfly?  (If you make photo books, do you also get regular prints made or do you not feel the need to actually have the physical prints in your ownership?  This is kind of a hang-up for me.)  What about phone pictures specifically?  Do you get them developed/photo booked?  I currently have 1,376 photos on my phone.... and they are stressing me out. ;)

Holden's Nicknames...

I often joke that Holden will not know what his real name is.  We have formed a lot of nicknames in his almost-seven months of life.  I wanted to post them here so that we can remember them just in case they don't stick forever. ;)

Bubbas (I started this one soon after we brought him home from the hospital.)
Bubs
Bubsikins
Bubbers (This is the one I say the most right now.)
Bubarooski (This was all Shon - didn't last long because it was soon replaced with...)
Bubatooski
Tooski (This is the one Shon says the most right now.)
Toosk
Holdy
Boogie/Booger Bear (all me)


Of course, we should not be surprised that we have given him nicknames since we call our pug, Douglas, Bud(s) about 98% of the time.  His full name is Douglas Sweet Pea Smoochie Poochie...just in case you didn't know.

Oddly enough, Shon and I do not have nicknames for each other.  We don't even call each other pet names like, "Honey, Sweetie, Babe, etc."  In fact, trying to picture one of those coming out of Shon's mouth seems very awkward and makes me laugh!

Do you have nicknames for your kids or other family members?!

2 Years Ago Today....

Two years ago today we lost a tiny, precious life. Our first pregnancy ended abruptly at ten weeks gestation. It breaks my heart to think back to that day. It causes so many different emotions that I don't even know which to focus on. I really can't believe it has been two years....in some ways it feels like it was a long time ago, but mostly, it feels like it was yesterday. Sometimes I feel silly because I wonder if others are thinking, "My gosh, she was only ten weeks pregnant....it's not that big of a deal"...or something along those lines. All I know is that there is literally not a day that goes by that I don't think about the fact that we had a miscarriage. 10 weeks was more than enough time for me to love and want and never forget my child.

I believe that our first baby is with Jesus in Heaven. The Bible says that God knew my baby before he was even in my womb. (I say "he" even though we did not know the sex... it was our feeling that he was a boy.) He was a child of God... a tiny soul who only knows the comfort of my belly and his heavenly father's loving arms.

On this two year "Heaven birthday" of our beloved first baby, my heart is full. I have a son here on Earth. God has blessed us with a perfect, sweet, adorable, happy baby boy that we absolutely could not love more. I thank God for him every night. When I look at Holden, all of my being cries out, "God is faithful."

My heart is full...but there will always be a place in my heart for our first baby. Always. I will never forget. A mother's love is not confined to a certain amount of time, it is not confined to whether or not you physically met your baby, and it does not die with death...it knows no boundaries.

I look forward to the day that I am reunited with you, sweet baby. I hope that somehow you knew how much we loved you while you were here with us....and how much we still love you.


Until then -
Mommy

You & Me

Baby Essentials (3-6 Months)

Well, I thought making an amazon list would be an easier way to list our baby essentials for 3-6 months.  It was super easy and kind of fun...however, I could not find a way to embed it directly to the blog.  Soooo...you will have to follow the link below to check it out!  Each item is pictured and I wrote a little about each item next to it.

Baby Essentials (3-6 Months)

Of course, these are just the things we loved and feel are necessities for this age range.  All babies are different and your list may look totally different than ours!  I do think these lists can be helpful to expectant moms or moms of babies who are about to enter this age range.  I always like to see what worked for others and what others liked!

We also still use a lot of the things from our Baby Essentials (0-3 Months) list - the swing, mam pacifiers, and the swaddleme sacks (in a bigger size!) are still necessities for us!

I can't believe we are even past this age range already.  Crazytown!

A little photo dump....

Happy Monday!  (Oxymoron?)

We had a nice weekend spent with family...

Ready to go visit the grandparents!

Aunt Sophia & Holden modeling the sleeper she bought for him
on a school related shopping trip.  She knows we love sleepers from The Children's Place.
 How sweet, huh?!

Sleepy pug...

Holden wore pink to church on Sunday!

Sleepy boys.

The pictures below are a few randoms from last week...

Holden and Emery taking a walk with their mommies.

A Few Things I Believe In...

I believe in... taking a nap with my baby whenever he will allow it (rarely).... and leaving the laundry and filthy floors behind.

I believe in... giving my husband a kiss and telling him I love him every night.

I believe in... allowing myself some "me time" every once in a while and not feeling guilty about it.

I believe in... acting extremely and embarrassingly silly to get my baby to giggle outrageously.  (I have a great iphone video of this very thing if I can ever figure out how to post it...)

I believe in... pushing myself to accomplish a goal that I never thought I would accomplish.

I believe in... being kind and conscious of other's feelings.

I believe in... indulging in a latte when the mood strikes.

I believe in... encouraging others.

I believe in... getting together with friends often.

I believe in... taking lots of pictures of the people you love...even if you aren't a great photographer.

I believe in... making time for family.

I believe in... dressing my baby like a baby... because he will be wearing big boy clothes way too soon.

I believe in... not washing my hair every day.

I believe in... listening to and singing Christian music.

I believe in... the power of prayer.

I believe in... kissing baby cheeks.

I believe in... beach vacations.

I believe in... drinking Diet Dr. Pepper in any form and McDonald's fountain Diet Coke.

I believe in... greeting cards.

I believe in... pets.

I believe in... true LOVE.

I believe in... gift giving.

I believe in... retail therapy.

I believe in... clearance racks.

I believe in... eliminating negativity.

I believe in... blogging. 

I believe in... God's faithfulness.

Holden's 6 Month Photos!

It seems I am not the best blogger these days.  My sweet boy is getting more difficult to entertain and taking shorter naps. ;)  Thus, I'm a busy mommy and computer time gets sacrificed.  I hope to actually write something of substance soon instead of mainly posting pictures.

For now, enjoy Holden's six month photos!  There are many more....I painstakingly narrowed them down for this post.  We are so happy with how they turned out!  Thanks to Emily Kay Studio...and to God for giving us such a perfect baby boy! :)

{This one may be my favorite!}

The Zoo!

A few weeks ago, Holden went on his first trip to the zoo!  

Mommy, Daddy, Gigi, and Aunt Sophia all accompanied him. 

 It was a really fun day.  

Of course, Holden doesn't pay much attention to the exhibits...

but he loves being outside and strolled around so he was a happy camper.  

Yesterday, we went to the zoo again!  

Only this time we went with my three best friends (and Holden's best little (girl)friends).

It was another great day at the zoo.

There will be many more zoo days in our future...

considering we all purchased zoo memberships today.

It's something fun to do that isn't my normal hobby (shopping) and the babies love being outside.

Basically, it's cool animals, cute entertained babies, and girl talk.

And exercise.  We'll count the walking as exercise.

Killing four birds with one stone right there.

Boo-yah.