Aaron - 6 Months

On August 11 Aaron was 6 months old. At 6 months Aaron is in the 72nd percentile for both weight and height. He weighs 18 lbs. 10 oz. and is 27" long. He's eating fruits and veggies. Prunes and peaches are his least favorite. He is practicing with a sippie cup and holds it really well. Can't tip it up of course, but he will occasionally accidentally suck on it the right way if I tip it for him. He is playing with puffs, but not putting them in his mouth. Aaron is also starting to hold his own bottle.

This month Aaron is scooting all over the place and is almost good enough at sitting by himself that I don't think I'll have to keep padding around him much longer. I think he might be teething because he chews on his fingers all the time, but I don't see or feel any teeth yet, so I could be wrong.

He continues to be the happiest baby, but unfortunately he's not sleeping well at all. He cries for his paci too many times a night to count. I don't know whether to just let him cry and work it out or keep catering to him until he figures out how to put it in his mouth by himself - he's SO close. If I choose the crying method I risk him waking Logan up.


first ride in his big-boy seat in the stroller. He loves it, but Logan complains a lot that Aaron is kicking him. And so it begins!

First Swim

Hard to believe Aaron hasn't been in the pool all summer. He loves being in the water and splashing. We had him out there a few times this weekend and had so much fun. If I had 4 arms we'd do it more often!

The Wards

Saturday afternoon, the Wards came for dinner and a swim. Hannah's thinking about playing in the sand


Lexie and Logan cool off in the pool.

Circus

Tonight we took Logan to his first circus. (Believe it or not, it was my first circus,too!) We joined Logan's BFF Owen and his family, and again, left Aaron with a sitter. Sorry kiddo - we'll make it up to you! Meredyth was so smart to make a run to the dollar store and put together goodie bags for the boys. We didn't have to buy a thing! Thank for the bags Meredyth and for teaching me your tricks!!!

I didn't get many good pictures and despite what story some of the pictures may tell, we had a great time!


Owen and Logan mesmerized by tigers or acrobats or motorcycles - I don't remember.


No, it's our first circus and we're going to take a picture whether you like it or not!


The Haller Family


Watching the elephants during the pre-show.


AND this marks the night that Logan first tinkled in a bottle! We were in the parking garage leaving the circus - 5th floor and it was taking forever to unwind. Just as we started moving Logan announces that he has to potty. I confirmed that it was just #1, then chugged a bottle of water I had in the car and climbed into the back of the car to assist. Fortunately for us he doesn't seem to remember this. I don't know if he was too tired or what, but I was just so worried that he'd never want to go in the toilet again. Whew!

Tennis - if that's what you want to call it!

Andrew and I joined a tennis league last night. Neither of us has played in years and you would have guessed it by the way we played. It's not like riding a bike. We were doing much better by the end of our match, but it was too late for a come back. We were beat by a couple twice our age. Or maybe I should keep that to myself. I'm sore in places I forgot I had.

We are glad to have a weekly date night in place and I'm so excited to be playing again!!!

The Tookes

Our neighbors the Tookes came over for dinner on Saturday. Logan and Olivia had so much fun running around the house squealing.

Aaron's Dedication

On Father's Day, we dedicated to raise Aaron in a Godly home in front of our church. Bob and Judy were in town for the dedication service.

Aaron was great (of course!) for pastor Chris and Logan enjoyed being in big church. He kept a close eye on all the guitars during the service. We are so blessed to have two happy, healthy, sweet boys. God has been so good to us and we look forward to all the times we get to share God's love and grace and mercy with our boys. What a big responsibility! God, as I write, give us wisdom and patience. Help us to be mindful of all the opportunities to teach our boys your love and kindness.



Cousin Derek, Wendi, Raleigh, Kennedy and Wendi's dad Earl joined us for lunch afterward at Joe T's.

Raleigh and Logan were throwing pennies into the fountain and then the wind shifted and they started to get splashed. . . .

. . .so they just started pushing their piles of pennies into the water. It is so fun to watch these two silly cousins!

Texas Wild Party

We joined our friends (and old neighbors) Travis, Liz and Katie last night at the Fort Worth Zoo to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Texas Wild exhibit. It was 106 degrees out, so we left Aaron home with a sitter. Our normal sitter is on vacation, so we tried a new gal from Omaha who just finished at TCU. She's a pediatric nurse at Cook Children's. Do sitters get any more qualified than that?!

(Boys, for the record, this is the hottest summer since 1980 and we're just days away from breaking that record, too. Just so you know when you're looking at this book years from now. . .)

We enjoyed two train rides, a carousel ride, a bbq dinner and a stroll through Texas Wild. We saw wolves, a huge alligator, river otters, black bears, coyote, jaguars, mountain lions, and several other Texas animals. The alligator was was very close to the glass and was probably our favorite until they fed him and he made a big SNAP in the water which freaked Logan out. River otters were busy, so they were pretty entertaining swimming around, too.

At the end of the night they had a live animal show, so we got to see vultures, opossums , snakes, baby alligators. . . .and penguins all up close. We stopped for ice cream on the way out and Logan played in the water for a bit.

It was a fun night with great friends!



We had a hard time getting him out of this carriage. Pretty sure he would've been happy sitting in it all night.


Being roped by a cowboy


The Spratts



ghetto dad. wassuuuup? Logan picked the bench seat on the carousel at Sea World too. Don't know what he has against horses with a pole gouged through their middle.


Glad he didn't get as wet as those kids.




Awwwww

Aaron Eating

Footage of my eager eater.

Goofball and Cheeks

Wearing infant sunglasses and watching himself play guitar and dance in the mirror

enjoying the entertainment

Big Boy Bed

Tonight is Logan's first night in his real bed. He watched Andrew assemble it and watched me make it. He was way excited to go to bed tonight. I could get used to this! I put him down a little later than normal because it took us a while to get organized. We went over the rules : 1) Don't get out of bed 2) Don't stand up in bed 3) Don't touch the pictures or the balls. Then we read a book and said our goodnights. Less than 30 minutes later he was passed out. I didn't have to go in to enforce any rules. I really hope it goes this well every night!


just plain silly




After seeing how he fell asleep, I added several more pillows to the ground.

I'll get to it eventually!

The further behind I get on blogging the easier it is to move it to the back of my list. I'm so frustrated with myself. I have so much to share and just no time right now, or at least no time to share it with as much detail as I would like. Here is the brief version. Hopefully I will get in here soon to break it all up into separate posts for my 2011 blog book.

Logan is potty trained - poop, pee, dry pull-ups in the morning. We have arrived. Don't get me wrong - there is the occasional accident. Mostly he just gets to playing too hard that he doesn't make it to the potty in enough time to get his pants down before it's too late. He started pooping really consistently on our trip. He told Nonny the first time she took him, "I pooped Nonny. Wanna see it?" While I'm on the subject I want to be sure to document that a few weeks ago when Ms. Tabby asked him if he needed to poop he told her he was saving it for the car. Thanks Buddy! And, no, he didn't go in the car!

Logan's full size mattress will be delivered on Wednesday and we will likely have him in his big boy bed by Friday. My mom got him a Cars air mattress a few weeks ago that he slept on at my parents house and he did okay at staying put. We are hopeful that he will do great. He still shows no interest in getting out of his crib, and we are putting him in a bed against the advice of so many of our friends, but I just feel so strange putting my little boy in a crib. I can't even call him a toddler anymore really. He just seems so big to me lately. It is breaking my heart that he's growing so fast. Luckily for me, he is still very much a momma's boy. Andrew gets a little sad, but still jokes about it afterward, when Logan says, "how 'bout not Daddy?" when we're talking about who is going to take him to bed. Love you goofball!

We went to San Antonio a few weekends ago. Andrew and I left the boys with my parents and headed to the river for our 10th annual float with our college friends. 10 years? That went quick! We headed back to my parent's house on Sunday and took Logan to Sea World on Monday. It was so much fun watching him take it all in. We go over all of the shows we saw on a regular basis now - Sea Lion noises and all : ) A new favorite toy is the killer whale Aaron is chewing on in a previous post that he got in the "gip" shop. Logan went on at least two lengthy golf cart rides a day - he was in heaven.
watching Shamu

We emailed a picture of him in and they put it on the screen at the end of the show. He's on the far left - hat backwards.




Aaron is growing up way too quickly too. I feel like I just wrote that he had stopped rolling over. I think he started rolling over again the day after I wrote that. He continues to be a happy guy and is absolutely taken with Lucy and my parent's dog Jake. He just laughs and squeals when they lick his hands and legs. I usually put a quick stop to it, but it really is cute.
And that tooth I swore I saw - others saw it too - is gone. Weeeeird. I moved Aaron to a 4 bottle schedule and he didn't seem to notice the loss of a bottle. He still is just eating veggies and eats them very passionately. If I hold the spoon up in the air he reeeeaaaaches for it with both hands. Very cute. Aaron is only fussy when he is tired. Give him a dry diaper and a sleep sack and his eyes close instantly and he's out! Easy breezy! He is such a squishable, kissable baby. I love having him in my arms while watching big brother play. Doesn't get any better!

Logan and Aaron's relationship is super cute. Aaron just thinks the world of Logan and Logan is very respectful of what is Aaron's. He even shares his toys sometimes. The other day in the car I was saying, "Mama, Aaron, say Mama." Logan jumped in and said, "Baby Aaron say Logan." Several times a week Logan will ask to go see Aaron sleeping before he goes to bed, so we take him in there to peek. Could be a stall tactic, but I think he sincerely loves his little bro.

Story time in Aaron's class

A little outside playtime. Notice the 2 fans.

Shamu makes a great teether

Pooping in the potty pays off for Logan