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.

5 Months!

Sweet Baby Grayson is 5 months old!  I can't believe how much he is growing and how quickly time seems to be passing!  Our big events over the past month were celebrating G's first Halloween and taking a trip to Vegas to celebrate the Marine Corps' 238th birthday.  It was so fun to dress Grayson up and celebrate his first fun holiday!

I ended up going a little overboard with Halloween outfits for G so we ended up celebrating Halloween for a few weeks around here.  I decided to have Grayson dress up as Robin as in Batman's sidekick this year.  I am a bit of a nerd and in the comics Dick Grayson is Robin so it seemed fitting to have our little Grayson dress up as him.  He was the cutest little sidekick ever!  We celebrated Halloween by visiting J at work and taking him lunch.  J is lucky enough to work right next to the ocean so it was a beautiful lunch.  We didn't try to take G trick or treating as he is way too small to have any clue what is happening so we stayed home and handed out candy.  I love seeing all of the little trick or treaters in their cute costumes!

Even superheroes need their sleep!

Our other big adventure during G's 4th month was a road trip to Vegas for J's Marine Corps Ball.  We hit a few long pockets of traffic on our way out so a drive that should have taken around four hours took us over six but G tolerated it pretty well.  My mom was kind enough to meet us in Vegas so that she could babysit G while we went out.  It was great to see her and it was really nice to have two nights of adult time where I didn't have to worry since I knew my mom would be great with G!  I am so grateful to have an awesome supportive family that is more than willing to help us out!  Our first night in Vegas we went out with some friends and saw Love which is the Beatles themed Cirque du Soleil show.  It was a little crazy but I really enjoyed the show!  The acrobatics are so much fun to watch.  J didn't really appreciate the lack of a linear storyline so he didn't enjoy it as much as I did. 

 

G had so much fun with Grandma!

Our second night in Vegas was the night of the Marine Corps Ball.  I got G a little tuxedo onesie so that he could celebrate with us. :)  We took a few pictures with him and then J and I went downstairs so that we could enjoy the ball without worrying about our little one.  This year I decided to rent my dress from Rent the Runway instead of buying another dress to add to the pile in my closet.  I was nervous because the dress didn't arrive until the day before we left for Vegas.  I ended up loving it and would definitely recommend Rent the Runway to anyone who has a formal event!

We had a good time but J and I are definitely not Vegas people.  I think it will be quite a while before we go back.  We left with our wallets a little lighter but we grateful for the time with my mom.  She is totally in love with our little man and she had a great time seeing him.  Thanks mom!

At 5 months G:
- weighs about 14.5 lbs.  Last month at the doctors office they told us he weighed over 16 lbs but I think their scale must not have been calibrated because he definitely hasn't lost any weight and this month he is only 14.5 lbs.
- is about 25.5 inches long
- wears size 3-6 months.  He is still on the skinny side but he is starting to fill out his 3-6 stuff better.  He looks like quite a little chunk because of his cheeks but he is actually pretty skinny.
-sleeps mostly through the night.  normally he wakes up around 6 but after eating we both go back to sleep until 9ish.  He had a few rough nights this month where he was up every two hours but most of the time he is a great sleeper.
- laughs at us when we "get him" with kisses, sing songs with actions, play peek a boo or whenever else the mood strikes him to laugh.  It is the most adorable sound ever!
- is starting to work on sitting up but for now he still just rolls.
- His favorite toy is still Mortimer the Moose.  He reaches up and grabs toys above his head a lot more than he used to so he enjoys his play mat more.  He likes toys that make noise and also anything he can chew on.
- can pass toys from hand to hand and use them in more coordinated movements. 
- is still exclusively breastfed but he is a very hungry little man who can't get enough so I think we are going to supplement with formula to keep our little guy growing!

Family Beach Day

Really focusing on locking his hands together

 

4 Months Old!

Sweet Baby Grayson is now 4 months old!  Our little man is growing like a weed.  We were grateful to have a pretty quiet month around here with no traveling after our busy month the month before.  It was so nice to be able to have our family together  after missing J for half of last month!  J and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary and we left G with a babysitter for the first time (he has only stayed with my parents and I don't count the gym daycare since I am in the building)  so that we could go out to a nice dinner at Ruth's Chris.  We really enjoyed having a night out with just the two of us but we were also very happy to come home to our sweet little guy. :)  I am so incredibly grateful to be married to my best friend and I am so glad that G gets such an awesome dad for a role model.  Over the last year J and I bought and moved into a new house, found out that we were expecting, experienced my first pregnancy, had our sweet baby boy join our family, and watched him start to grow and develop.  I don't think I could be happier with how our lives are going!

I introduced G to my favorite football team.  Go Pats!

J is trying to turn the poor boy into a Cardinals fan :)

Eating Daddy's Nose

Love snuggling with him :)

G is developing very rapidly and seems to do new little things every day!  He continued to roll over both from his back to his tummy and also his tummy to his back.  He seems to do tummy to back on purpose but generally seems surprised when he gets himself from his back to his stomach.  He has very good head control which seems to make him more happy during tummy time.  He has started to play more intentionally than he used to and with more coordination.  He laughs a lot in response to things that we do which is so adorable!  There are few things I love more than his adorable giggle!

G laughing at his Daddy

We took G to a pumpkin patch with some friends and to be honest it was more for me than for the little dude :)  G was fine with being there but he was definitely too young to appreciate what the pumpkin patch had to offer.  At least we all got some nice fresh air!  I am a big fan of photo ops :)

Yes I put a pumpkin hat on the poor little dude

Love our family!

At 4 months old G:
- weighs 16.2 lbs which puts him in the 77th percentile.  He jumped up significantly from his last doctor's appointment when he was only in the 47th percentile.  He is getting to be a quite an adorable chunk!
- is 25.25 inches long which puts him in the 68th percentile for height.  The first time the nurse measured him she said 24 inches which would have been the 25th percentile.  When she remeasured because the doctor asked her to since that number didn't make sense she said he was 25.25 inches but looking at the same measurement I'm pretty sure it was 25.5 inches which means he should be in about the 75th percentile so his height and weight pretty much match up.
- wears some size 0-3 clothes and some 3-6 month clothes.  It really just depends on if I can stretch the 0-3 clothes long enough to cover him.  He is still fairly thin but he is also very long.
- is sleeping for about 6 hour stretches at night! I am SO grateful to have a good sleeper!  He still sleeps in until 9ish most mornings which is awesome :)
- laughs more in response to things that we do.  He really likes it when Julian says Boo!  to him or when I sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider or the Wheels on the Bus.
- his favorite toy is Mortimer the Moose which is a Lamaze toy that has lots of different textures on it for him to play with.  Mostly he just likes to chew on Mort :)  He also likes his teething giraffe, cloth books, and Adan + Anais swaddle blankets which he shoves into his mouth and knots around his hands.
- uses his hands in a much more coordinated manner than he used to.  He will stare at a toy that he wants like he is really concentrating on it and then very deliberately use his hands to reach out and get it.
- everything goes straight to his mouth at this point.  This boy wants to chew on and slobber all over everything!

Discovering his hands

Roar!

Using his feet to play with his favorite rattle

Very focused on Mort the Moose

Such a sweet face!

Nom, nom, nom!

Such a strong neck!