9 Months of Our Lil' Busy Body

It amazes me how much these babies change from month-to-month. And all those parents who say, "It goes by fast..before you know it they're a year old and walking and talking, and graduating high school and going to college." ...well, they aren't lying. I never quite understood just how fast it goes until I had one of my own. 

 This little boy is about 28.5" long (we think longer) and 21lbs 6oz. He checked off a couple milestones in the last month. He got his two (bottom) front teeth for Christmas, and has started crawling (it's more of an army crawl and he kicks his feet like he's swimming). He gets around though!

 We had a group date before Christmas with some of our friends. We all went bowling and then had dinner at Laurel and Ranzy's house. It was fun to get together with friends and do something other than work or watch TV at home. We of course brought Kobe because our two main babysitters were part of the date, and he's just pleasant to have around so far.

 Christmas morning, Lane woke me up at 6...of course the one day Kobe decided to sleep in. We got Kobe up and started opening presents. I was actually impressed at how interested he was in gifts and the process of opening gifts. Everyone always said, "Oh he'll just be trying to eat the paper and be more interested in the boxes." He was, but he actually tried opening presents and got excited to play with his new toys...and eat ours. Lane spoiled me again! We went up to Blake and Kim's for breakfast and gift exchanging, and then we did a late lunch up at Curt's with the rest of the family. It was a nice day spending time with family.

 Santa got Kobe this walker, and he has such a thrill in it. You can tell he feels like one of us when he's running around in it because he can grab things and maneuver around the house. We finally had to put up a gate at the top of the stairs. Before that, we were using all 8 chairs from the dining room table  to block off areas. Now that he's walking around in his walker and crawling, it's definitely time to baby-proof!

More Seahawks gear at our house!

 Soda Stream! ....just what we needed

Precious moments with Gran and Popo

 When Lane was younger, he would be at church and pass down a menu to his family to Restaurant X and fix something from the menu after church. So his gift to his parents this year was a coupon to Restaurant X for a dinner for two, including an appetizer, dinner, dessert and a movie rental. He went all out and made salmon crustinies, lobster, steak, salmon, potatoes, fresh green beans, and caramel cheesecake. It was the most fancy dinner I'd ever had! Restaurant X should become a real restaurant someday.

 

I love looking at this face every day!

 And those teeth! A-d-o-r-a-b-l-e! He has two visible, one more on the bottom and one on the top starting to cut through.

He loves to follow us around the house in his walker. It's hilarious because we'll be sitting or standing somewhere and feel a tug on our clothes, or a little hand on our leg and look down and he will just get so excited, start panting and squealing and run away. If you're walking behind him he thinks you're chasing him so he'll start running and giggle. So. Dang. Cute.

 And here's the gate.

 

You may think I'm a bad mom for allowing this to happen, but think away. I sanitized it, but even so, he's going to get germs somewhere else. He just likes to chew on everything! And it was funny.

 And at the end of the day we have bath time where he splashes and giggles those germs away!

He is definitely a boy. He has already learned how to make motor noises when playing with his trucks and cars. It amazes me that this is a trait that develops so early on.

 I stopped being lazy for a couple hours this year and decided to make Christmas cards. I thought they turned out cute. I can thank Pinterest for some of the ideas!

Aunt Britt and Uncle Mike got him this little walker. He can't quite walk with it but he is so into all the songs, lights and noises. He plays with it for hours throughout the day! 

 He has also learned how to throw temper tantrums. It's so entertaining, but I'm a little worried about where his attitude is headed. He barks, growls, bites, grabs, grunts, and stiffens his body when he's mad. Sometimes, I have no idea what he's mad about. He gets jealous of where peoples' attention is. Uh oh! (At least he's cute) Lane says he gets his dirty looks from his mama. I can't say I disagree...

 Ranzy spoiled him and bought him his 2nd pair of Jordan's. I always thought I'd be the mom that would buy all these cute miniature real people shoes, but the prices are outrageous for how long they wear them. He's lucky Ranzy is a sucker for them because they're pretty dang cute on him and mom won't buy them for him!

He loves playing 'pass the ball' with anyone who will sit by him and retrieve. It's also pretty cute. Who am I kidding, everything is cute that he does-- well maybe not the poop so much anymore.

 He got his first toothbrush in his stocking. Gotta brush those two teeth!

 He loves being read to. I need to do it more because he is fascinated with books.

 I think I've about covered it all for now. He learns something new every day and is just turning into a little functioning human! He hasn't said any real words yet but he seems to say "mama/mumum" when he's upset and "dada/dehdeh" when he's happy and content (is that a sign of something?). He's such a blessing to us and a joy in our home. I love my little family so much! 

8 Months of Our Little Booger

Sometimes it is still just so surreal that I am a mom. It is the most amazing experience in the world, in my opinion. Watching him learn and grow, kissing those chubby cheeks, touching his soft skin, looking at those crystal eyes, hearing him giggle and blabber, all completely outweigh the stinky poops 4-5 times a day that are usually blowouts resulting in loads of laundry and going through lots of diapers and wipes. Yaaaa, this kid poops a lot. It's ok though, he's cute.

I can't rant and rave about Kobe Dale enough. He is just so perfect and lovable. I am getting sad at the rate he is growing, and the fact that he'll be a year old in 4 months. I love each new thing he learns to do and am so excited for when he walks and talks and entertains us even more, but at the same time I want him to stop. And this is where the baby hunger begins I guess. No, I'm not completely ready for round 2 but I'm getting close. I'm so curious how baby #2's demeanor will be and how they'll look compared to this kid. Can you imagine having two Kobes? Neither can I, but that would be awesome.

 

Anyway, so we don't have another appointment for him until January, but I kind of tried to measure and weigh him and from my measurements he is about 20lbs and 29" long. At 6 months he weighed 18lbs 4oz and was 27.25" long...does that seem right? He is just a little boy now-- he doesn't seem like a baby anymore. The other morning I was sitting with him and giving him cereal, and I was trying to practice waving, blowing kisses, and saying "Mama" and "Dada" with him, I started to feel a little overwhelmed at the responsibility of being a mom and teaching him so many things. I started to feel like I was expecting too much of him, like he should be crawling by now, or repeating more things. I know it all comes when it comes and he'll do everything when he's ready, but that's just how I felt. We just need to take it day-by-day and be surprised each time he does something! He is starting to feed himself with the bottle (I kind of forced it), and is only nursing when he first wakes up in the morning (yay for Mama!). His motor skills are improving every day-- picking things up and putting them in his mouth. He loves pulling his socks off and chewing on them. He is a little lazy when it comes to scooting and crawling; which could be a good thing so I can be lazy a little longer, not having to chase him around or baby-proof quite yet. He gets held too much I think. There are no teeth yet but he sure does have a firm bite. He is on the verge of waving "hi" and has very recently started his own version of blowing kisses; which is the cutest thing in the world. He is obsessed with sweatshirt strings. His favorite noises to make are "blah-ba" (repeated over and over and over and over) and "da-da." Lane is convinced that he is calling him, but Kobe hasn't quite made the connection. I'm not in denial. It won't bother me if he says "Da-da" first, but he doesn't know yet. Overall he is just the happiest baby still and I'm pretty sure he knows he's cute. He is such a joy to have in our home.

I absolutely love this picture of Oma reading to Kobe.

Oma bought him this Snoopy. It was cute when they were here visiting-- she was barking and holding Snoopy, and Kobe thought it was the funniest thing. He loves eating Snoopy's nose.

There he is playing with a sweatshirt string, of course.

And there. This is when he was sick. I forgot to mention last month that he got his first cold. Since then he has had two colds and the flu once. It's the saddest thing ever when your baby is sick. I love how cuddly he gets but I just feel so helpless. Doesn't help that every time he's been sick, I've been sick too with the same thing. He's a trooper though and still manages to smile and giggle even when he feels like poo.

Oma and Epop helped buy this beyond cute baby recliner for Kobe that matches the rest of our furniture. We all thought that he wouldn't appreciate it yet, but he seems to love it. Although, he's pretty entertained with anything. He survived his first fall, and it was out of his chair because his mom didn't have her brain one morning and left him unattended to fix a bottle :/ He only cried when he fell, I think mostly because it scared him-- that's what I'm telling myself anyway.

This picture is perfection. It needs to be in a contest or something.

Just chillin' by the Christmas Tree

I can't believe Christmas is already here. Where has this year gone?! Are the rest of the years with kids going to go by this fast? That's not fair. I am excited for what 2014 has in store for us though!

New Year's resolution complete/ Coopers/ Thanksgiving

At the beginning of this year I decided to set some realistic resolutions for 2013--one of them being to sew some stockings for our family of three (I was preggers at the time). Well, come November, I realized I only had a month left, so I either needed to commit or just add it to the list of all my other resolutions I scrapped the last 25 years. I had the sewing machine (bought a few years ago on Black Friday and have used it once to fix a seam on my apron), so I just needed to figure out how to sew, and get the fabric. I started "YouTubing" and found one that seemed reasonable and cute so I committed and bought fabric.

I haven't sewn since I was probably 12 years old in YW's, when I sewed a pair of pajama pants...with a lot of help, I'm sure. I drew out the pattern I wanted and went at it. It all looked cute laid out but I was hesitant to touch the machine. I figured, if all else failed I could just hang the patterns and pretend they had a place to stock stuff.

No, the number of stockings is not an announcement. I am just being prepared for when baby #2 does come around.

I finally went to the machine. I was pretty proud of the outcome! They are a little smaller than I wanted (I even drew out big patterns to avoid that problem, but obviously didn't go big enough), and each one has its own mishaps but I think they're cute! I feel so crafty and domesticated.

This is one reason I know Lane loves me. He hates and has no desire to hang lights, but he does it for me anyway. How can you not when we have those beautiful pillars to wrap?!

I think it's lovely.

Coopers

Britt and Mike decided to come up for Thanksgiving and found an awesome deal on flights so they booked them. A few hours later Britt realized they were for the week before Thanksgiving! After deciding to still come up then, their little family was hit with the flu. I felt like the universe was out to stop them from coming! We didn't know until they got to the airport whether or not they were coming. I'm glad they did!

 

These babies are so so adorable! Reagan cracks me up-- every time you take out the camera/phone, she automatically smiles. Already. I love it!

Britt spent her birthday here, and I racked my brain trying to think of something to do. Outside of the usual Leavenworth, just eating places or recreational activities, I was having a hard time thinking of something to do in Wenatchee.

We ended up doing Leavenworth. It was same ol', same ol' but the company made it entertaining. We also ate at Country Boys and went and saw "Catching Fire," so hopefully we made her birthday somewhat entertaining! I had fun just hanging out with them.

Goodness, I love her!

Britt had never been to Seattle so we made an overnight trip over there. Lane and I didn't really want to spend money doing all the attractions so we probably made it boring, but we hit up Pike Place (a must), ate at Ivars, found a yummy pizza place and walked around downtown. The flu hit me the next morning so I had a hard time mustering up the energy to do anything, but we went over to the Seattle Center so we could see the Space Needle and stuff. They at least got to go up and mark that off their list, but we split ways after that because I just felt miserable. I felt bad leaving like that. I wish I lived closer to my sister!

Thanksgiving

My parents actually booked tickets for the right week to come up for Thanksgiving. We are on rotation for holidays so this year Thanksgiving was with Lane's family, Christmas with mine, and then next year would be opposite. My parents decided to come up though so we had Thanksgiving dinner at our house with Lane's whole family and also our friends the Riddles. All together it was 33 people and plenty of yummy food!

I am so very thankful for my family. I am so blessed to have them and be so close to them still, and have wonderful in-laws. I am grateful to have such an amazing husband who is so loving, funny, talented, helpful, compassionate, handsome, and just truly my best friend. He is such a great daddy to Kobe, and I thank my Heavenly Father for him every day. I am so grateful for the blessed privilege of being a mother; especially to the best baby in the world. He is perfect. I love my family so much!