March Re-Cap

Here are some fun things that we've been up to this month: 

--We discovered the happiness that is playing with paint in the bathtub. If Lydia had her way we would do this every. single. day. 

-Austin is darling. The end. 

-Our friends who are way cooler (and way more talented) than us hosted a three-part cookie tasting experiment. Amy is an incredible baker, a Bakeaholic - if you will, and she wanted to determine which of all the many many chocolate chip cookie recipes was the best. We met together the first three Mondays in March. Part 1 and 2 had about 16-20 cookie recipes each, and then part 3 we took the top five recipes from the previous weeks. We've never eaten so many delicious cookies! We rated the cookies and cookie dough on Look, Taste, and Mouthfeel, then entered our scores into an excel spreadsheet. It was all very professional. It was so much fun to get together with several couples and eat cookies (followed by chips and salsa) and chat and hang out. We are so glad that we have such great friends in our area. Also, it must be said - by the end we were certifiable cookie snobs. "This cookie has a much better texture, and I like there is just enough salt to enhance the flavor but not so much that it is salty." Haha. However, as we ate the leftover cookies over the following days, we realized that they are all pretty much delicious and that it's a miracle that we ever narrowed it down.  

Leftovers. Yum. 

-Lydia is still sleeping in the crib, but Austin was more than ready to move out of the pack and play, so the Coopers helped us out and connected us with an extra crib that was hanging out in Scott's parents storage. We are so grateful because we didn't want to buy another crib, but we didn't want to force Lydia out if she wasn't ready. 

--Lydia, Austin, and I spent a weekend in Idaho Falls playing with Jenna and the rest of the family (and going to the wedding of Chris and Tara Rae). We missed David, but it was a lot of fun. 

-St. Patricks Day was fairly low-key, but still super fun. We had a "green" breakfast in the morning and went to a St. Patricks party at the Middletons in the afternoon. We certainly felt very lucky to have such a nice day. 

--We love the Farm, and Lydia makes for a darling cowgirl and loves riding the horses. 

--We went to an indoor soccer game for Lydia's cousin, Zachary. Go team! 

 -Hanging out before bedtime. 

 --Oh. The smiles on this little boy make my heart just melt! 

-Swinging at the park. 

--Sleeping. 

--Not sleeping. 

--We went the the Museum of Natural Curiosity several times this month. I love my baby carriers (I have an Ergo and a Beco) and I love that Austin loves them. Lydia loves that I can follow her around pretty much anywhere without having to battle a stroller. Also, Lydia learned how to go down the small slide face first. She's quite the adventurer, that one. 

Happy March! 

Austin 5-6 Months

Our baby boy is six months old! Up to this point all I could think when I looked at him was how little he looked to me, but just in the past couple of days I look at him and think about how big he looks and how obvious it is that he is growing up! 

Official Stats: 

Weight - 15 lbs 8 oz (14th percentile) 

Height - 26in (45th percentile) 

Head Cir. - 43cm (40th percentile)

Unofficial stats: 

Size 6 month clothes (some are still a tiny bit big, but most fit well.) Size 2 diapers. No teeth. Very little hair. 

Some things I want to remember from this month: 

--He is SO ticklish. It's so funny and his giggles are contagious. If you tickle his ribs, he squirms and laughs and I have to really restrain myself from tickling him all day long. 

-He started out the month by starting to sit while I held him up, then started sitting up unassisted for 30 seconds or so at a time, and now he is sitting up like a pro! It's amazing how quickly he went from only sitting when I was holding him up to sitting all by himself for extended periods of time. 

--So, he's sitting up like a pro but he has only rolled over once. I'm confident that he's strong enough to do it, but I honestly think that he just doesn't want to do it.  If he's laying on his back he'll have his arms by his chest happy-happy-happy, but if I start to help him roll over he will fling his arms to the floor and twist his head to make it almost impossible to roll him over. If you try to roll him the other way, he'll do the same thing but throw all his weight to the other side. 

-He still sleeps swaddled. I've halfheartedly attempted to transition him to our Zipadeezip, but it takes him forever to fall asleep and he always wakes up within just a few minutes. But I realize it's probably time to unswaddle him. Also, we have to strap him into the swing now. 

-He laughs all the time. Lydia especially loves making him laugh. Everything from running around him in circles to waving a spare balloon by his face - he loves it and so does she.

-He's started pursing his lips and blowing air through his lips. It's not a raspberry, it sounds more like a wheeze, but it's fun to know he's learning how to work that little mouth of his. 

--Everything goes in his mouth. If he sees something that he wants, he looks at it intently and reeeeaaaches his arms out. You can almost hear him thinking "That. I need that in my mouth, right now." He's got a much wider reach than I usually expect and I'm always surprised at how many things he can grasp and bring to that gummy mouth of his. 

--Because he's so interested in grabbing everything, especially food. We've started feeding him some food here and there. I played with the idea of doing a hardcore "Baby-led Weaning" diet for him, but have decided that I'm happy with him doing some puree, some handheld food. We took the obligatory first-food experience pictures. I love them. He absolutely loved all of the food, but he especially loved sucking on the piece of apple we gave him. He couldn't get enough.  

--He's still not the best of sleepers out there. However, we have gotten much better at napping during the day. He usually takes a nap at 9, 12, and 3 for at least an hour (sometimes more), and 5 for at least a half hour.  It's wonderful. However, his first stretch at night is getting less reliable. Sometimes 7-10:30. Sometimes 8:30-10. Almost never longer than 3.5 hours. Then the rest of the night we are "up" every 1-2 hours-ish. "Up" meaning: he cries, I nurse him, we both fall asleep within a few minutes. We have gotten a few stretches of me sleeping in my bed lately, so I have hope for the future. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention how much of a help David is. Most nights he takes Austin at least once so I can sleep, often at that 4 or 5 timeframe when I am the most tired. However, now that we've gotten the okay from the doctor that he's growing well and really doesn't need to eat all night we are going to start working on getting into a better routine. (This picture is taken after Austin's totally rocked me in our bedtime routine and I gave up and brought him downstairs while David was working. #futureaccountant.)

--He loves his family. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. He's lucky to have so many people who love him back! 

-Austin has always been stiff as a board. He doesn't like to pull his legs up to his chest, but he likes them to be straight down. I think this is one of the reasons that he hasn't started rolling, he is so straight that he can't get any momentum going. But, because of this - he loves to stand! He can bear all of his weight on his legs and can stand just holding onto our fingers. He loves the jumparoo and is super happy to stand on his own and jump around. 

Some more pictures from this month: 

We love you Austin-darling!