wonderfully made

Saturday, March 10, 2018

beau andrew | 2.5 years old


I can't believe how much Beau has changed since my last post on him 6 months ago. Gone is the baby fat and chunkiness and suddenly there is a tall, bony boy in my house. His vocabulary has exploded and he is speaking in full sentences daily. The questions of 'where is it?' and 'what is that?' have arrived and I selfishly love them (for now). His love for puzzles was reignited (he loves the Melissa & Doug 4 pack of puzzles in the wooden box) and he silently works them all at the same time. Right now I have no less than 16 puzzles scattered around the playroom. He's obsessed! Also on his radar right now are all types of trucks. Construction trucks, tow trucks, car transport trucks. We talk about trucks for at least 2 hours a day. He has acquired quite the truck collection and turns anything that he can into a tow truck. I think that stemmed from learning who Tow Mater from Cars is, but it also could have come from watching Mighty Machines. 

We FINALLY bit the bullet and said 'bye-bye' to pacifiers. I had wanted to do it at 18 months but when that didn't work out, I stopped thinking about it. I decided on the eve of his 'half' birthday that it was time. He had a hard time falling asleep and in the many trips in to console him I promised him he could pick out a new car toy the next day if he could sleep without his paci. Of course he remembered (that's another thing, he's got the memory of an elephant). He lucked out when Marshall's had a Lightning McQueen car and he chose that over the John Deere. Cars is the only movie he has watched all the way through and clearly, he's a fan. ;)

He's also starting to show interest in going potty. I don't think we are QUITE ready but we are planting the seed and he has a little potty that he likes. He can tell me when he's gone in his diaper and he's now gone on the toilet twice, at our insistence. I think I'll wait a little longer to see if he shows more interest and then maybe we'll take the plunge closer to his third birthday. 

The next step in this whole charade will be moving him to a big-boy bed. We attempted to do that before Davis was born but Beau was only about 20 months old. Needless to say, it didn't work out. He's probably ready now but he doesn't seem to want to very badly and he's fine in his crib. He has climbed out twice, right when Davis was born, but then he stopped. I think he knows that he can but he is a rule follower first born and he knows that he isn't supposed to. 

Rule-follower? Oh yes. He is slightly OCD in that he will tell me that certain toys belong in the playroom or his room. I don't have a preference either way but apparently he does! He's also quick to correct us when we call a group of his hot wheels 'cars'. "No, mama, not car. Truck". Mark says he gets that from me. I do like accuracy, so I can't blame him! His bossy tendencies extend to his baby brother and I'm thinking they will be a struggle as Davis grows. Before, we would have told Beau that Davis can't have certain toys or foods but now that he's getting bigger, eating more, and crawling, of course those things change! Beau hasn't quite grasped that yet. That change, along with Beau's unwillingness to share his toys (typical 2 year old), means I hear "NO, bubba!!!" at least 15 times per day. Otherwise, Beau is generally sweet with Davis. He's had a few issues where he likes to push Davis over now that he is sitting. He is always happy to see him after nap and in the morning. He'll ask me "where'd bubba go?" if they're ever not in the same room together. I can already tell they are going to be fast friends once Davis can keep up with Beau!

Beau is just the light of my life and as much as I loved the squishy baby version, I'm enjoying this version so much. He's so smart, so loving, and almost always happy. He is overly cautious around animals and loud things but makes an exception for thrill rides at Six Flags with his aunt Gigi. He is a helper and his tool box is always close by. He loves his people, like Memaw and Pawpaw (my mom's parents), his grandparents, his cousins, his friends, and of course us. I CAN wait to see who he will become, but I know he will be a wonderful person. I just love him so much!

Get ready for a photo DUMP! 6 months is a long time!


the infamous puzzles













always ready to go to Nana's house!











try-ons of the halloween costume before I made his hat :)















his bedtime collection



his first bruise from falling down stairs




deep conversations with Memaw


Kleenex-box-unloading runs in our family ;)


waiting for Haha


FINALLY rode the carousel (he was scared every time before this) once Dada was along for the ride.





















































Saturday, February 17, 2018

davis jeffrey | seven months




GROWTH
WEIGHT: Unsure...but guessing 18.5 lbs
CLOTHING: Solidly in 6-12 months and 9 months!
DIAPERS: 4! I think we used one box of 3's. He's still sleeping in size 6's and needs every bit of them!


LOVES
  • people watching
  • drinking milk
  • sitting up
  • attention
  • face grabbing
  • kisses on his face and belly
  • being held up or thrown up in the air
  • jumping/running in place in his bouncer
  • being on his tummy
  • spinning in circles
  • apples
  • pears
  • watching/laughing at Beau
  • watching the cat and dog



FIRSTS
  • time in the highchair at a restaurant
  • first fruit (pear)
  • sitting up
  • sleeping on his stomach
  • snow! it snowed for about 5 minutes the other day. It didn't stick. It doesn't look like we will get snow this year :(
  • fort worth stock show visit
  • museum visit
  • birthday party (for someone else)
  • olympics!
  • Valentine's Day


EATING
He's making big strides in eating. We have done lots of pureed fruits and vegetables and he still has rice cereal every few days. I'm going to start trying more solid foods like bananas and such and work our way up. I'm super nervous about foods based on what we dealt with during his first few months of life but I know that now is the time to push ahead so he doesn't 'miss the bus' on all of these food related developmental milestones. Lately he's been taking more bottles and eating more purees so I think we will up how much he is eating so he can go longer stretches. I can't believe he's already at this point, it's so crazy! My brain needs to catch up.


SLEEP
Sleep has gotten slightly better...He did a 10 hour stretch (7-5) at one point but is pretty consistently doing 6-7 hours. I can't complain, it's better than it was a few months ago! He is liking to roll onto his stomach to sleep and most recently he's been circling his crib and I'll find him facing the complete opposite direction. I've been working hard on laying him down awake for naps and about 70% of the time he will put himself to sleep. If he's upset, though, he is pretty stubborn about not giving up crying and I end up having to spend 20 minutes soothing, rocking, and mission-impossible-style laying him down. At night he is almost always ready to go to bed so depending on what his eating schedule looked like that day he will either eat or not but he's pretty content to go into his crib in any state of consciousness. He's always in bed before 8, usually before 7, and occasionally before 6. He's pretty much up for the day by 8am. 


HEALTH
Things have been super chill on this front! No sicknesses so far. He's now had both of his flu shots and we are just praying that all of us are in the clear for this flu season. 


SOCIAL/PLAYING
Beau and Davis are starting to interact even more and it's just the best. Davis is finally sitting up (!!!) so he can reach for more and Beau and he are about equal when it comes to playing with whatever toy is in front of them. We were at the doctor for Davis' second shot and Beau always plays with the train table. I realized I could finally set Davis down to play with the infant activity center and as soon as Beau saw that he left his trains and came over to play with Davis. SO CUTE!

Davis is all over the place and spins in circles constantly. He gets frustrated when a toy is out of reach and he is SO CLOSE to crawling. I wouldn't be surprised if he makes his first move in the next week. Ah! I'm not ready!


(here's a peek at his room...which of course I haven't gotten around to blogging yet!)


PARENTING
Ahhhh....this was the moment I've been waiting for. 7 months was one of my favorite stages with Beau and I'm so glad we are here with Davis! He is happy 98% of the time, he's sitting up and becoming more mobile. He's starting to eat with us and be a part of dinner time. He is getting on a better nap schedule (one in the morning and typically one long nap in the afternoon - he napped for 3.5 hours a few days ago!!!). Nighttime sleep is getting better. I felt like Beau really started turning into 'himself' (if that makes any sense) right about now. And Beau has been great too! We are actually thinking about things other than babies now. Mark painted a wall I've had on the list for 8 months, we're getting quotes for some work we want done outside, and life has really settled into a groove. I actually feel like I can handle life now! 


Here's Davis' monthly updates so far:
five months
six months



And for comparison, here's Beau at 6 months:

Of course, here's the photo dump!





























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