Nine Months!

I had to go out of town Monday through Wednesday of last week (UA in DC event, my fifth or sixth year of it and I'm about over it).

That Tuesday was when Collins turned 9 months old! No, I didn't cry. But I did miss him. I received a text message that said: "Mama, this is Collins. Just wanted to let you know I slept all night without a peep and I am 9 whole months old today! I love you."

Jake had to make his sign this month. Notice the Alabama script A's all over it!

At nine months, he is crawling like a speed demon and pulling up all over the place. He still says "Da Da" a lot and still no "Ma Ma." From what I hear, once they learn "Ma Ma" they never stop saying it ;) He also just started saying "uh-uh" this past weekend. He's trying to say "uh-oh" but can't quite get that "oh" part.

Collins eats from the table quite regularly. This weekend he had blueberries, cantaloupe, sliced turkey breast, Nilla wafers, cucumbers, mac n' cheese, and who knows what else. I feed him all kinds of stuff! I think he's going to have a good appetite. One could never tell from his size ;)

Sleeping is still about the same. He wakes up most nights. Saturday night we were up from 10:30pm-1:30am. Eventually, he cried himself to sleep after 45 minutes. It was the only thing to do. Last night was different. He only woke up once, but it was whole different kind of cry. This one was painful b/c of a tooth (I guess). Bless his heart.

Some favorites of Collins' right now are his paci (Playtex Ortho Pro), Stretch the giraffe, books, Hank, and balls. He loves balls. Oh, and door stops. Mama and Daddy's favorites are anything Collins likes or does!

Mississippi

First bite of cole slaw at Long's Fish Camp in Enterprise!

In MawMaw and PawPaw's Sunday School class on Father's Day.

Playing with MawMaw in the nursery.

My childhood friend, Angie, and her little boy, Kyler. Angie and I used to play together in that nursery. I'm only 25 days older than her.

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day was June 19th . We went to visit our parents and grandparents, so we celebrated a day or two earlier at our house. By celebrated I mean we gave Jake his present :) It's a good present, though. Alabama tumblers.

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy! (and PawPaw and Poppa!)

Naked Baby!!!!!

That's what we say after bath time. I grab the towel and hold it ready while Jake lifts up Collins and we both say (very excitedly), "Naked baby!!!"

Usually he grins really big, but of course I didn't catch that. Is that the sweetest little naked thing you've ever seen or what??

Around the House

June 2011

Ya Know What's Great?

Decadron and Amoxicillin.

Collins is much better.

He woke up once last night, which is normal. Pretty easy to get back down.

His nose is runny today and he's still coughing some, but not that seal barking stuff.

Sweet baby :)

Playing Hooky

I took a mental health day yesterday to be with my husband. It was the first time since Collins was born that we had the day to ourselves. We both thought it was necessary...we've been missing each other.

We got up with Collins and did our normal routine, then Jake took him to Mrs. Wilda's while I took a shower. Jake brought home breakfast from Hardee's. Yum!

The plan was to get in the dark guest room bed and take a nap. But Collins happened to sleep all night Tuesday night so even after an hour of trying to sleep, neither of us could. Boo.

So, we got dressed and went to eat at Bento's on the Strip. We had the lunch boxes and a couple of sushi rolls.

Then we went to T.J. Maxx because I requested it :) Shopping relaxes me. We bought a few things for Collins and some more note cards b/c I was out.

Target was next. We finally bought a dvd player for the car! (Tested it on Collins on the ride home. Jake selected a Looney Toons dvd and Collins yelled at Porky the Pig! Seemed to like it though :)

I've been wanting a peaches n cream snow cone for over a year now (tried to track one down on my due date and after CDG was born to no avail. Only found one in Meridian. The ironic thing is that THIS summer there's a snow cone stand in the same parking lot as the baby store I was in all. the. time.) Anyway, I GOT A SNOW CONE yesterday!! And it was delicious. I'll be back there.

Jake decided on Dairy Queen instead. I would normally prefer ice cream, but the year long hunt made the snow cone priceless.

We were headed home around 3pm and still had some time before we picked up the little one. We talked about trying for a nap again, but instead decided to go to the pool. That was a mistake. The pool is always nice, but a little too crowded for our taste yesterday. We didn't stay long. And I wish we'd have taken a nap instead. Because...

Collins has croup. I think. He slept hardly none last night.

I put him down at 7:30pm. Easy peasy. He woke up at 10:30pm. And didn't sleep again except while I was rocking him. Bless his heart, he sounds so pitiful. Just like a seal barking, which is what I've always heard about croup. His nose is runny, but the cough is the main waking up culprit.

Finally around 3:30am I decided to get in the guest bed with him. He stayed asleep about....five minutes. Then just sat up and looked around and talked, talked, talked. Even at that hour, he was so sweet and cute! Jake came in and sat with us for a while and was about to go make a bottle at 4:30am, when Collins started rubbing his face into the sheets and climbing on top of me. He settled down on my chest and we both fell asleep for about an hour and a half. Jake and I were so exhausted at that point...before Collins fell asleep Jake tried to give me his paci!! He stuck it in my face then said, '...oh...' Hahaha!

He's at Mrs. Wilda's today...sounds much better, but I'm sure night will be a different story. Jake is going to take him to the doctor this afternoon. I hope he feels better soon...we can barely stand hearing him struggle like that.

So, back to the title of this post. I guess the moral of this story is if you play hooky and skip work, you will inevitably have a sleepless night, followed by a work day powered only by caffeine. Murphy's Law, is it? Or is that just parenthood? ;)

Little Fish

Jake and I took Collins swimming this afternoon at the pool in our subdivision. He loved it! This is going to be fun :)

Got Our Ears Lowered!

Collins and I both got our ears lowered today! Not much...you can't really tell on either of us. We just asked Ms. Morgan to trim the hair over his ears before she started on my hair. He was starting to look like Bozo sometimes :) Collins was so good and especially enjoyed the hair dryer afterward.





Actually, today was a day of many firsts for him. This morning he had his daddy's pancakes for the first time. He liked them, then Jake and I both panicked that they had egg in them and you're not supposed to give eggs yet. Of course, it was fine. That was just one of those new parent moments.

Before getting our hair cut we went into Mattress Firm to 'try on' some mattresses. Jake and I really, really want a new mattress. We wake up in pain every day. We found one we like and I hope we'll make a purchase soon. Collins thought it was funny that we would lie down on a bunch of beds in a store. This side story really has no relevance to the post...other than it was his first time in Mattress Firm. There we go.

Moving on, today was also the first time Collins went to the grocery store. Yes, he's over eight months old. This wasn't an intentional thing (the whole time). It started out as a precaution b/c he was so young and it was flu season. Then we just avoided grocery shopping with an infant for obvious reasons. He's been to Wal-Mart once with Maw Maw, but never with us to the grocery store. He did VERY good...not one whimper. We were only there about 15 minutes, but still managed to spend over $100. Pathetic.

We had such a good day with the little one today. He is a really sweet baby! Before our big Winn Dixie adventure, our friends Sara and Katie came over. We love these two :)

Spoiled. Very Spoiled.

Mr. Joe and Mrs. Wilda told us in the very beginning that they spoil the kids they keep. It's not that we didn't believe them. We just had no idea it would be to this extent:




Can you even imagine?? He does not have such luxuries at his own house. We just do the crib thing.


Mrs. Wilda had Mr. Joe buy a blow-up pool so the kids could enjoy a little wading this summer. I love this picture of Collins giving some sugar to Meri Davis:

Current Favorite Toy

"Stretch" the giraffe is currently most popular. This was taken one morning this week. Stretch has started going to Mrs. Wilda's with us some days.


What's funny to me is that someone gave this to Collins before he was born even though it clearly says on the tag "pet toy." All four limbs have squeakies in them. So naturally, Hank is VERY interested in Stretch.

Got a Bite!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Collins finally was successful at feeding himself a puff! He's been trying for months, but finally actually got a bite.

YAY, Collins!!!

For the Birds!

This cry-it-out stuff is for the birds. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. At all. Like last night.

Collins woke up around 11:30pm. Jake rocked him, put him down, he cried. We let him cry. For 55 minutes.

Then I rocked him. Never during that 55 minutes did he wear down or get sleepy. I had to rock him for almost an hour because he kept sniffing. It was pitiful.

They say to be consistent or you'll confuse your child. Well, the same thing goes for parents!!

Collins, if you're gonna put yourself to sleep one night, you ought to do the next! We're easily confused when you toy with us like this. ;)

Maybe we'll figure out what the heck we're doing eventually. I think now we'll make 45 minutes the max time since he's never fallen asleep when we've gone longer than that.

Ugh...

UAnniversary

Before I hit the sack, I think it's worth noting that I've been working at The University of Alabama Career Center for 5 years today!! Tasha and I started on the same day....6/6/06. We blame Mary Loyd for any bad things that have or will happen to us at work because she chose that date ;) I love, love, love my job and my co-worker friends!

Ferber Method

That's the technical term for the 'cry it out' method when you can't get your baby to sleep. Or stay asleep, which is our problem. Collins falls asleep just fine. He even lets us put him down in the crib initially. But he's been waking up in the middle of the night once or twice a night and will fall back asleep just fine when we rock, but wakes up the second his head hits the mattress. I know this is normal and I assume it's a part of separation anxiety.

We've been going in and rocking him back to sleep when he wakes up, which was pretty easy back when he'd let us put him back down. Saturday night I rocked him twice. Then Jake rocked him twice. Same thing all four tries. He pretends to be asleep until he's no longer snuggled up next to one of us. Little trickster!

So, Saturday night after all that happened we decided to let him cry it out. We knew there was nothing wrong with him, so we stuck with it. This was the second time we've done this. First time took 45 minutes. This time took only 30. Yay, it worked! He was full force till the bitter end. It makes us feel horrible for letting him scream, but it makes it worth it when it's successful.

We tried to let him cry Friday night, but Maw Maw was there to help keep him while we got ready for the baby shower and she couldn't help it. She sneaked in. Her excuse was that she thought he might need a sip of water. That Maw Maw!! :)

Last night the plan was to rock Collins once, then proceed to the Ferber method. Somehow, he fell back to sleep after crying for only 5 minutes. Amazing. I'm no fool...I don't expect this to happen ever again. But it was pretty sweet this time!

I wanted to record this little issue we're having right now because I know I'll read this one day and wonder why I ever complained about getting to hold my sweet baby during the night. I'll probably try to wake him up when he's a teenager and BEG him to let me hug and snuggle with him.

And now I'm crying on my lunch hour.

VBS Kick Off!

Yesterday was our church-wide summer kick-off for Vacation Bible School. They have this every year for the kids (and 'adult kids'!) to play on water slides, pools, etc.

We had not planned on going, but Ben mentioned in church that there would be things even for babies, so we gave it a shot. It started at 4pm and lasted till 7pm. We, however, lasted till 4:15pm :)

Collins didn't cry, there just isn't a whole lot he can do right now so instead of staying we went and got some Dairy Queen. Mom and Dad needed a treat, too!

This was the second time Collins had been in a 'pool.' He played with Weston in one last week when Mrs. Jimmie Ann kept him. He seems to like it! Eventually, we'll venture out the real pool and see how that goes.

Katie and Meri Davis were there! They love their baby :)