Happy Together: 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.