7 months

Where does the time go?  

I blinked and somehow we have a 7 month old already!  

Travis is doing GREAT.

He's chewing on everything...

he's having a lot of fun learning how to crawl everywhere... 

he's pulling himself up and we officially got rid of the binky last month... 

and still no teeth! 

I love him to pieces...

Happy 7 months, little man of mine. 

xoxo, mama

A Run for the Money.

Kid is giving me a run for my money.

I honestly feel like I just starred in an episode of "Super Nanny."  Remember the one where there is a SCREAMING child and the parent is sitting outside the room cowering and hoping that they will just give in and fall asleep?  That was me.  10 minutes ago.  And you know what, he gave in.

*Can you see me doing my little happy dance now?*

Travis is obviously going through a big change in his little world now - he is crawling and is SO freaking strong... he planks, not just crawls, but he plank crawls.  This means he has man-arms of steel.  Which means he can pull himself up at a freakishly far distance.  Exhibit A.

What I'm trying to say is that now, he wants to stand and look around at night, and last night he fell backwards nearly giving me a heart attack with worry that he would break his skull.  Luckily, after much reading, prompted by my amazing husband, I have come to learn that there really shouldn't be enough inertia to have him do too much damage if he's only falling down (versus falling off, say, a table).

So tonight, I toughed it out.  I did not give in. I did not take him out of his crib to rock him. I sat in a chair next to him and I didn't say a word except "it's time to go nite-nite."  After 5 minutes of monitored whaling (and by the way, it felt like an hour), I would take his little hands and work them down the side of the crib rails and then help him bend his knees so he could learn how to get himself down.

Repeat.
Repeat.  

Repeat.   

Then I left the room and sat in the hallway as he cried.  If I ever thought I was a good mom, this really made me think twice.  Who lets their kid cry like that? But, I stuck to my guns and peeked around the corner of his door to check to make sure he was okay and after about 10 minutes of being alone he finally widdled himself down and slinked into a peaceful sleep.

I'm a little baffled it worked.

I have read oodles and oodles of parenting books and many of them say "you just have to let them cry" - not ignore or neglect them, but let them figure it out.  It is the hardest thing to do - that's your baby and hearing them that upset... well, it's difficult not to swoop in and save the day with a little mommy sugar.

Are the books right?  Who knows, but I'll let you know if he's still mad at me in the morning ;)

xoxo, cb.  

Holy shit.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Travis' first fight

Travis got in his first fight tonight...
With the bathtub.

The bathtub won.

Poor kid was trying to stand up during bath time and went tumbling down the side of the tub. I was holding one of his arms, but he managed to swing around and clipped his little right eye on the edge of the tub. A couple very loud huffing screams later, some baby tylenol, a soapy wet kid, a bag of frozen peas and all is well. We'll see if he's got a shiner (or worse, a swollen shut eye!) tomorrow.

Poor little guy. I promise I don't beat my kid.

Jason was reassuring and said:
"Well, get used to it, he's a boy and he's mobile."

(Did I mention he's crawling!?)

He bonked his forehead in the tile floor this morning. It was a bit of a rough day.

Ugh. My heart. I just held and rocked him until he fell asleep and even now I just want to snuggle with him. And its just his first bump.

How do parents do this?

Trying not to drive myself crazy with worry... Its just a bump.

Bon nuit - cb.

happiest hippies on the block

What? Hippies you say? Jason - absolutely not.  Me, well maybe a little.  But we're embracing our hippie side (at least when it comes to our kid!) WHY?? We cloth diaper (yup, not as bad as you'd think... though sometimes, it is JUST as bad as you think) and I just started making our own baby food.  

I love both.  

Healthy non-preservative food for my kid (oh and the colors of mush... avocado, carrots, green peas... are so pretty!) and I can't help but smile when I put those cloth diapers on.  Not only are they super cute, but I'm not putting more trash into this small earth.  I love it.  

My boys are in the bathtub now splashing like crazy... and I'm typing as fast as I can so I don't miss too much.  Travis is just giddy in the water.  He shrieks with little man laughter.  

Life is delightful and we are blessed. 

xoxo, cyndy

6 months

No matter how hard I try, this kid keeps on growing...

I made a "half cake" for his "half-birthday!" 

(because I just-can't-help-myself)

It was a yummmmy carrot cake (my favorite!) - he had a tiny little taste of the icing... but since he still doesn't have teeth, he'll just have to wait to have the cake on his whole-birthday!

Keri, Ashley, Shannon, Chris, Kyle, Kaylee, Jennie, Jonathan, Koralie and Max all came over for a super fancy frozen lasagne, salad and bread half-birthday dinner.  It was loud and full of silly-ness... Travis even had his first bath with a GIRL! Kaylee and he got all bubbly in the bath before everyone tucked away to bed. 

I love you little mister!

xoxo, your mama.