7 Months

Sweet Baby Grayson is now 7 months old!  Our sweet little man grew so much over the last month!  We started out G's 6th month in Utah where we celebrated Christmas followed by celebrating a quiet New Year's in California.  We then settled back in to our routine at home and we finished out the month with a visit from J's parents and his brother G during which we were able to have a Dedication for baby Grayson.

Such a happy baby!

I have decided to write a separate post about Christmas because I have too many cute pictures to cram in to this post. :)  We were very happy to be reunited with J before Christmas after not seeing him for three weeks.  He flew up to Utah so that we could spend the week with my family.  We had an awesome holiday filled with good food, great company, and our first night away from our sweet boy.  My parents offered to keep G at their house overnight while we went out for dinner, a movie and a night in a hotel.  We love our little man SO much but it was great to have a night as just adults and also to have a night where I knew for certain I would not be woken up at all!  We were very grateful to my family for taking such good care of him!  Our flight home involved my first time changing G in an airplane bathroom which was actually a lot easier than I expected so that's one fear I don't have to worry about while flying in the future.  We had an awesome time in Utah but it was also nice to get back home and get back into our normal routine.

G loved seeing his Grandparents!

So happy to have Daddy back!

Cutie!

I don't know what this face is but I think it's adorable :)

We had a nice quiet New Year's at home with just our little family.  G fell asleep way before midnight and then J and I had a netflix marathon which is something that we really enjoy! We spent some time at the beach since we are lucky enough to live in nice sunny SoCal where it is 70 degrees for the holidays.  About a week later it was 85 degrees so I put G in his swimsuit and we met J at the beach for lunch.  We stuck G's little feet in the ocean for the first time and he didn't seem to mind it when it wasn't rushing in from behind him.  He was really interested in the sand so it was a bit of a challenge to keep his hands out of it so that he wouldn't shove it in his mouth.  We had a lot of fun and we are so grateful for our remaining time in California!

G got Babiators for Christmas!

We finished out Gray's 6th month with a visit from J's parents and his brother G.  We were able to have a pastor from our church, North Coast Calvary Chapel, come to our house to perform a private baby dedication while we had family here.  It was really great to be able to share the moment with Grayson's grandparents!  Our church doesn't believe in baptizing a person until they are old enough to accept Jesus as their Savior so instead we pray over the baby together.  It was so nice of our church to send someone over so that we could do this in our home since they only perform dedications during the service every other month and the dates just didn't work for us.  We plan on raising Grayson to be a Christian and we hope he will grow into a Godly man.  We spent the rest of the weekend going for walks to the park, enjoying the beach, and having fun family time.

Lunch at Beach Break

Trying to get the Bible from Pastor Adam

Chewing on the lamb from Pastor Adam

Love our little family!

Glad we had some of the Mueller clan with us!

At 7 months Grayson:
- weighs about 18 lbs.  He definitely went through a growth spurt!
- is about 28 inches- I think that is about how long he is but he is a squirmy kiddo so it's tough to get an accurate measure!
- Is still wearing mostly size 3-6 months but some of it is starting to get too short.  He has also developed a little bit more of a belly so he is filling things out a little more.
- sleeps all the way through the night about half the time and the other half I have to get up to put the bink back in his mouth and sometimes sing "Twinkle, twinkle" to get him back to sleep.  I am very grateful to have a baby that is easy to get back to sleep when he wakes up!  We still usually sleep in until 8 or 9.
- is constantly trying to move and always wants to see everything around him.  He is a big fan of craning his neck around so that he sees every direction.  He seems to get extra curious when I have him in his carrier since he has to face me.
- has started pushing up to all 4's and rocking back and forth.  Since we have hardwood floors I finally ordered a floor mat for G to play on and within 5 minutes of me putting it together he had already pushed up to all 4's.  I'm not really in a hurry to have him crawling since I think it will make life a lot more crazy :)
- loves dancing with his mama!  He really likes being thrown in the air and flipped upside down.  He also likes spinning and bouncing and when I have enough energy he loves it when I jump with him.
- loves "reading" books by which I mostly mean chewing on them or looking at the pictures with me.
- loves jumping in his jumperoo and exploring lots of different toys.  I usually put several toys near him and he wiggles around until he gets to the one that he wants.
- eats sweet potatoes, avocado, carrots and bananas.  I puree everything and freeze it in ice cube trays so that I don't have to prep it every day.  He is pretty messy while eating but he has been improving.
- says "bababa", "lalala", "dadada", "t,t,t" and "mamama".  He really only whines "mamama" but he always says "dadada" in the cutest little voice.  :)
- can squeak Sophie the giraffe, loves Pete the Peacock, Mort the Moose, anything that makes the crinkle sound, and his stacking rings.
- can sit up for about ten minutes at a time though sometimes he topples with no warning.

G trying to wiggle himself off the couch to get his toys :)

Loves his jumperoo!

It has been so fun to watch him grow and improve what he can do on a daily basis!

6 Months

I cannot believe it has already been six months since Grayson came into the world!  This last month was pretty busy with a trip to Scottsdale for Thanksgiving followed by J going into the field for a few weeks and then a trip to Salt Lake to see my family for the Christmas season.  We had a lot of fun visiting everyone and watching G grow as he approached the half year mark.

First up was driving to Scottsdale so that we could celebrate Thanksgiving with J's family.  It is awesome to be within fairly easy driving distance but over six hours in the car is still a pretty long time with a squirmy 5 month old.  G was good for most of the drive but he was definitely more fussy than when we made the same drive at 2 months.  We were able to have a very pleasant Thanksgiving with J's parents, two of his brothers and some of their family friends.  The weather was as nice as it always is for the holidays in Arizona so we were able to spend some time outside which is still something I haven't totally gotten used to after spending so many cold holidays in Wyoming and Utah growing up.  Grayson was a pretty good trooper and we dragged him around to visit a lot of people.  We were able to introduce G to some close family friends of my in-laws, visit some of my extended family, and see my best friend J and her mom M.  G decided to sit by himself (when propped there, he still isn't moving to the sitting position on his own) for the first time while we were there which was fun to see.  It was a short trip but we loved hanging out by the fire, playing at the park and of course stuffing ourselves for Thanksgiving!

J holding Grayson :)

Our family on Thanksgiving

P, J, Grayson and Grandma M

J with Grayson and B

Love his funny faces :)

G's first time sitting on his own!

G watching football with his Grandpa M

We drove back to California and then J took off the next day to go to 29 Palms (a training area in the middle of the dessert) for a few weeks.  Before he left we decided to give Grayson his first taste of food so I mashed up an avocado and he made some pretty funny faces.  The first try wasn't very successful but he is improving quickly.  G and I spent a week together at home by ourselves and he was an awesome baby!  I was a little worried about not having anyone to take a turn every once in a while but he seemed to be on extra good behavior for me. :)  We worked on him sitting up which he is getting more solid at though I'm still not willing to move away from him.  We also got a jumperoo for Grayson which he absolutely loves!  His feet didn't reach the floor so I had to put a pillow under him but he thought it was loads of fun.  After a week of just the two of us, we packed up all of our stuff and flew up to visit my family in Utah.

Daddy tried to pack him :)

Not too sure about avocado!

But he is sure he loves his jumparoo!

Our trip to Utah was a ton of fun!  G and I spent over two weeks there with Julian joining us for the last week.  G hit 6 months while we were in Utah so that is where this post will end.  He had a lot of fun hanging out with his aunts and uncles and his grandparents and we were lucky enough to get to hang out with my grandma too.  My parents got an exersaucer for G to use at their house and he really seemed to like it a lot.  Since G is an only grandchild he gets pretty spoiled whenever we are around family.  Everyone likes to hold him and play with him.  I have to say that one of my favorite things about being home is being able to take a nice long shower without needing to rush because I'm trying to finish before he gets mad :)  We are so grateful to be able to spend so much time with such supportive loving family!

At 6 months Grayson:
-weighs 16.2 lbs which puts him in the 20th percentile.  I feel like he has filled out a ton so I was surprised that he was so low on the weight chart.
-is 27 inches long which means our tall little man is in the 75th percentile for height.
-wears size 3-6 months and his clothes are fitting much better now that he has a bit of a belly :)
- has been sleeping through the night a lot though in Utah he decided to start waking up a lot more which left me a bit tired.  He has also settled into a regular nap routine where almost like clockwork he is ready for a nap two hours after he wakes up from his last nap.
- is a total wiggle worm!  This kiddo likes to wiggle around and kick his legs and swing his arms all over the place.  He is getting better at using his hands together and actually getting his bink to his mouth or picking up toys that he wants to play with.
- loves it when we are super animated with songs or books.  He also likes to dance around with mama or get thrown in the air or flipped upside down.
- loves Mort the Moose, his jumperoo, the toys on the top of his playmat, his Aunt C's hair and chewing on anyone's face.
- makes a spitting noise that is pretty funny, smiles and laughs a lot, says babababa and loves to shriek just for the fun of it.  It is seriously ear slitting!
- has added small amounts of pureed food to his diet.   Sadly my milk supply has dried up so we made the switch to mostly formula which was a little tough since I wanted to breastfeed as long as I could but he got about 6 months of breastmilk which is what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends so I'm grateful for that.