7 months old!

Henry turned seven months old yesterday! I can't believe it. This past month has been SO much fun, and we are trying to enjoy each minute of his babyhood. He is such a sweet guy, and getting to know his personality is just a neat experience. Below are some highlights of what is up in his life right now. In no particular order....
Henry is noticing lots of stuff outside. He cranks his neck to see an airplane in the sky and the contrast of a big tree outlined against the blue of the sky. He also notices cars passing by on our street when he is sitting in the Bumbo on the dining room table (yes, I do that) and will turn his head as it goes by. He bounces/dances and "grooves" all the time now...while he is sitting up playing with toys or when he is on our hip he is constantly moving and babbling at the same time. He also bounces a lot in the jump-a-roo! Henry also makes lots of eye contact and will stare you down-sometimes it's like he is trying his best to figure you out. Several people have commented that they don't see many babies so young doing that. Squealing and talking are a regular occurrence around here; Henry seems to be quite verbal and the nursery workers at school have confirmed this. He knows Steven and lights up when he sees him. Yesterday when Steven walked in from work, Henry saw him from the living room, gave him a big grin, and let out a big squeal as if to say, "Hey, Dad! I'm glad you're home!!"
Henry loves toys, but Maggie is still his favorite entertainment, and he will ALWAYS give her a big grin, even if he is upset or crying (she's a great diversion!). He grabs at EVERYTHING and just in the past few weeks starts to cry if I take away something he was holding (like chew beads). The funny thing is that I can give it right back, but it does not help. He is upset and just has to fuss it out. While driving, I can now smile at him in his mirror while I am sitting in the driver's seat and he smiles back. Henry is still super ticklish...feet, inner legs, ribs, back, armpits, chest. It is pretty funny and always gets a reaction. He will squeal and giggle. He is a big fan of "pee-pie" and "where's Henry?" When the TV is on he is majorly attracted to it, so we have to watch that. He is mesmerized. He does NOT like us to wipe his nose or have clothes pulled over his head. Henry now sits up like a pro and also love to be on his belly. He does pushups all the time and kind of does the "plank" move, too. I know this is precursor to crawling, but I try not to think about that! When he is on his belly or sitting, he somehow moves himself all around to that he can get to what he wants. I always put him on a nice clean blanket, and he somehow always gets OFF the nice clean blanket in no time. Oh, well! I try.
I used to never rock him to sleep, but since I have seen just how very fast these past months have gone, I have broken that policy as of late. I sometimes rock him to sleep for his nap in the sunroom and he is so sweet to snuggle with that I love doing it. It hasn't seemed to ruin him as he can still be laid down to sleep easily for nap or at night and go to sleep on his own. Daytime sleep is still great, but we have regressed a bit in the nights unfortunately. Not sure what his deal is, but he now wakes up around 3 or 4 in the morning. We were patting him back to sleep, but found it was easier for everyone if I just fed him. I am okay with this, but hope it does not last! Maybe it's a growth spurt? He has also started fussing around 12 or 1, but can be easily patted back to sleep that time. I think this has happened due to a lingering cough that woke him up in the night for over a week, so now he is kind of in that routine. 
He still nurses every 3-4 hours and has added in some cereal and baby food. As of this post, he is eating cereal with breast milk and banana in the morning and a veggie at night. He has liked peas and bananas, but hasn't loved zucchini. Next month will be an adventure as we add in lots more flavors and textures. Below is a general schedule for him, although it changes a bit daily because my school schedule is a bit different, but this is pretty much it. Sometimes there is an extra feeding thrown in there or he naps longer or shorter...I am not a super rigid Mom and try to be somewhat flexible. He is a super happy guy, so this seems to work for him.

7:00-wakes up (he would have woken and nursed that earlier time...like around 4:00)
8:45-cereal with milk/banana
9:30-nurses and naps for 1.5 to 2.5 hours
1:00ish-nurses
2:30ish-naps for about 1.5 hours, nurses when wakes up
6:00-vegetable baby food
7:00-bath, nurses
7:30-lay him down for the night

Well, that is all the random stuff I can think of off the top of my head about my baby boy! Daddy and I love you, Henry, and love watching you grow and change. Can't wait to see what next month holds for you!

last week

 See below for last week's events!

Steven had a birthday on Thursday (the big 3-1), so we went to dinner at Rosie's and he opened our gift...a few shirts and a CD. His big gift was a weekend golf trip with small group guys to Atlanta.

I took this to show how I put Henry in a nice clean spot, but he quickly gets off of it and gets on my dirty rug...oh, well! He is fast as lightning, too!

This was a big deal! Now that Henry is sitting up so well, I thought it was time to try him out sitting in the cart. I have one of those cart covers and debated on whether to use it or not...am I going to be one of those moms who lugs it around everywhere with her? While I would like to be, I am not. I have resigned myself to wipe down the cart with an antibacterial wipe each time and call that enough. But am I the kind of mom who would take a picture of her kid in the cart? Totally. After a moment of fussing, Henry got comfy in the cart and loved it (as you can see). He got WAY too much attention from everyone at the store, too.

Since Steven was out of town for the weekend, I had a great day Saturday around the house with Henry. Then Saturday night, the small group girls had a girls' night. We went to dinner and the Melting Pot for dessert (YUM), so Henry had his first experience with a babysitter and did great! Then on Sunday, I drove to TN for a day with my family. We went to church together and afterward hung out...above is Aunt Marie who hadn't seen Henry since he was 6 wks old along with cousins Mary Ellen and Emma. I hate that this pic was blurry, but that's what I get for not checking whether or not it turned out.

Cousin Emma is getting SO tall....she is almost eleven!

Henry would not take his eyes off of George...he found him fascinating for some reason! He just kept staring him down.

My good friend Abby came by for a few hours to see Henry and visit. It was great to see her! Although next time she'd better bring her 2 kiddos along, too!

We took advantage of the beautiful late September weather.

Henry kept grabbing for Papa. His glasses? His big schnoz? No...his stash. Got it!

We got Henry all ready for bed before the drive back to AL...having fun in Manar's sink!

Where's Henry?

Where'd he go? (love the smile under the washcloth)

There he is!!

What a cutie pie.

I took this picture to attempt to show Henry's busy hands...he constantly has something in them and is always moving them. He holds out his arms and twists whatever he has in them, rotating his wrists over and over and watches it move. Busy body, anyone?

Letting the right hand rest and giving the left hand a workout now:)

P.S.

I forgot to add some pictures from the past 2 weeks that my friend Sarah sent us. We went to the driving range with them one evening and I did not have my camera, but she did. She took some really cute pictures that I want to include!  Enjoy!

A look at the past 2 weeks...

The past few weeks have been busy but good! We have had lots going on, & I am learning that being a working mom means prioritizing my time all the more. Vacuum or play with Henry on the floor? Play, please! I am getting the hang of balancing everything, but it is a daily challenge! This age is so much fun that I don't want to miss even a minute of it. Everything is new and exciting. Henry is SO sweet right now and smiles constantly. He is really a happy guy.

Here is Henry being a big helper while I was pulling weeds a few weekends ago. My neighbor came out and took our picture because she said we (and when I say we, I mean Henry) were looking so cute:) He was literally yanking out the weeds with me. He is grabbing at EVERYTHING now! And he is fast, too. I don't know how he does it!

I love going to a contemporary church service and participating in contemporary worship, but since Henry has come along I have wanted to make sure Henry gets exposure to all those classic old hymns of our faith. I asked Steven's mom if she had an extra hymnal we could have, and she sent us one of hers.

When it came in the mail Steven opened it up and started singing some to Henry. He just listened and listened, as you can see here:) So cute.

He has also gotten super active in his walker lately. He does not stay very still, but moves all over the kitchen, to the sunroom, and even the living room. He is mostly pushing backward, but will sometimes make his way forward. He will also just stand straight up sometimes in it. He has always been a big stander.

He's pretty proud of himself about it, too.

We have finally moved from the infant sink tub to the "real" tub! He loves it and just plays and plays.

Smiling about his duck as you can see.

Henry had his 6 month check up on the 12th, and he did great! He weighs just under 17lbs (50th percentile) and was 90th percentile for height and 85th percentile for head circumference. Dr. D said he is long and lean and looking great!

Checking out his doc....she always wears the fanciest sequined sweaters that are SO fun to look at:)

Hey, mom, what's this lady doing to me?

He was SO happy at the doctors the whole time....smiling and talking. He LOVED playing with the paper and messing it all up.

This is fun.....until....

It turned bad. Very bad. No one told me I was going to get shots! And I thought you guys were my friends! I feel betrayed.

That evening my mom came to spend the night and have some Henry time at home the next day. I left him with her and headed to school solo on Thursday. When I got back he was ready for his second nap, pictured above.

I forgot to get a pic of mom with Henry (grrr), but sounded like they had a good day. I finally did take the camera into his room while he was sleeping, though, because he was in this position. I have a picture of him like this with his hands behind his head when he was like a week old. Now he does not do it that often since he mostly sleeps on his belly, but sometimes he will stay on his back, and his arms usually end up like this:) A picture of total relaxation.

We had a great intro to cereal with the rice version, but it slowly went down hill as I introduced oatmeal (so so reaction) and then wheat (no thank you-lots of crying!). I decided to switch back to rice to see if he'd be ok with it again, but now I think he kind of just has a bad taste in his mouth (literally) for cereal.

On Friday we headed to TN to see family. On our way to Joelton, we stopped to see Steven's dad and Peggy. We ate dinner together so they could see Henry.

Grandpa with his youngest grandson.

Looking good!

Next we headed to Steven's mom's house for the weekend and met up with Heather and her crew. Heathers b-day is the 13th and Steven's is the 20th, so it was the perfect timing to celebrate with some yummy cakes! This is the weekend of her church's annual BBQ festival and they have inflatables and games, auctions, a bake sale and a country store all set up. Since she lives at the parsonage, it is just outside our door and very entertaining!

I brought Camden this shirt that says "I love bacon" because the boy truly does love all things meat, and I happened to find this bacon and eggs one for Henry, too! I got them both plenty big so they can last a long time:)

Henry was mesmerized by uncle Jimmy's beard. He kept feeling of it.

He was also taken with Steven's hat....they dressed in TN gear for the big game (which turned out to have a disappointing ending). What is that on you head, Dad?

Let me at it!

Pretty good family photo!!

We went to some folks' house for the game, and evidently the guy was a hunter in Oregon. There were several animals on the wall including this HUGE elk. Henry was very unsure at first, then he looked at it again and started crying! Don't worry, Hank. Tough aunt Heather will take care of you.

We hadn't been to Diana's church since Henry was born, so it was great to see everyone.

He was a super happy baby and loved him some Kaia, too.

Grandma and Henry in front of the church.

And the whole gang...inside

and outside.

He thought these glasses were great, but every time he finally got a hold of them they got take away which made him quite sad. This is a new thing (crying when something is taken away). Just the beginning I am sure:)

I just thought this was a funny shot of his chubby face!:)

So when we got home I figured it was time to start some real baby food. I had never really cared about making homemade baby food until a few of my friends started telling me about it. One friend let me borrow her baby bullet, so that made it even more appealing to do. It is suppose to be cheaper, which was another draw. I figured how hard can it be to bake a sweet potato or mash up an avocado anyway? So, I decided to try it.

I have read so many differing things on what to feed them when, and his pediatrician said it really doesn't matter, so I decided to go with what the baby bullet said...the foods to start with (gentle, low allergen foods) are: peas, avocado, zucchini, squash, sweet potato, apples, pears, and banana.

So I steamed 1 cup of peas in 1 cup of water, then reserved the water and let the peas cool.

I put the peas in the bullet along with about half of the reserved water and pureed. It was SO green when I was done! It definitely looked fresh!

And it made a ton! I put a lot in the freezer and kept out enough for him to have 4 days worth (the allotted time before introducing another food). I will have to admit I had fun with it and went ahead the next day and made ALL the foods on list 1 so that I could freeze them and have them ready when the time comes to give them to him.

But now....for the moment of truth. Will we have another crying fit like with cereal?

Oh, the look of dread!

Testing out the electric green concoction...

Weird!

I'm not sure about this...

Whoa, peas taste crazy.

Well, maybe I will try another bite (reluctantly)...

I might not love it, but I will tolerate it. (so far, no crying and we are on day 4! tomorrow starts zucchini. zu-what??)