6 months

I can not believe that you are half a year old!!!  It seems like you were in my belly just last week.  Someone told me when you were brand new that being a mom only gets better as you get older.   That even though I loved the newborn stage and snuggling with my tiny precious little bean, you would actually become more and more fun as you got older.  She could not have been more right!!  I love the stage you are in right now so much.  I love being able to make you smile and belly laugh.  I love watching you sit up all by yourself.  I love your wonderful grin with your precious tiny two bottom teeth.  I love to watch you eat food!  I love to watch you roll like crazy.   It is amazing how mobile you are using only the roll.  I will turn around for a minute and you will be at least 3 feet from where I laid you down.   At this rate, you may never need to crawl.

Christmas with you was the absolute best!!  I didn't think you would be into Christmas this year since you are so tiny, but boy was I wrong.  Granted, you could not open your presents by yourself, but once they were open you LOVED them.  I would hold you in my lap and open a present and as soon as you saw that it was a toy you would reach for it.  When I opened the next toy (because you got a ridiculous amount), you would drop the old toy and reach for the new one.  This went on for a very, very long time.

 

Christmas was such a fun time for you.  We got to spend some great time with all of your cousins!!  We celebrated Christmas day with the family in Dallas and then drove overnight to Nashville to visit the Ferguson clan.  You were amazing on the car ride there and back.  You slept the whole 10 hour trip there, except for the 10 minutes you were awake to eat.  On the way home, you slept 8 hours and played happily in your carseat the other two.  Even if the car ride had not gone well, the trip would have been worth it.  It was the first time for the newest group of great grandbabies to all be together.  You loved watching Elin and Cooper. The three of you together completely transformed our time in Tennessee.  We used to stay up late, play games, and go to movies, but this year we had afternoon sing-a-longs, group bath time, shared chew toys, and early bed times. You loved taking baths with Coopie!!  You just smiled and laughed at him.  

My cousin-in-law Kayce took some really fun family pics of us on Nate's grandparent's farm.  Here is a small sampling...

Little monster, you are gonna be a little baller!  You love to play toss.  I know I sound like the crazy momma who thinks her child is doing things way beyond his developmental ability, but it is true!!!  I swear!!  You throw the ball.   We have a light little ball that is gummy and easy for little man to grip and he loves to throw it!   It sometimes takes a couple wild arm swings for you to remember how to let go, but you always figure it out and send the ball sailing.  Next up, catching.  I am sure by nine months you will have the game of catch all figured out and be ready for something more sophisticated like shooting baskets or batting.


Also this month, we had our first injury.  You were obviously as shocked about it as we were.  After lots of stress and worry by this momma, I came to the realization that you would survive and probably be able to keep your eye.  In all reality, I think you cried for maybe a minute and then it didn't bother you again, but I may have had a flair for the dramatic in my reaction.  I am still learning to trust God with you.  You are such a precious gift and I want to do everything in my power to love you and protect you from any pain both physical and emotional.  Having a child really is like watching your heart walk (or roll in your case) around outside your body.  I have to remind myself 100 times a day that you are gift from the Lord and that He has a plan for your life that I can not understand.  You are a gift that your father and I have been given for a time to treasure, love, cherish, grow and learn from.  What a blessing.

As far as stats go, you are 16 lbs 11 oz (40%), 26.25 in (45%) and your head is 17 (30%).  You sleep a total of 12 hours at night and usually wake up twice to eat.  You typically nap twice a day for around 30 minutes each.

5 months

LITTLE MONSTER, WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE!?!?!  The monthly picture taking process has become a bit more complicated!  But, my goodness, you are too cute!!!  My heart melts at those big blue eyes!!!

You are such a happy little bean and you love to have your picture taken.  You actually love pretty much everything about life, except for sleeping.  You smile and laugh all the time.  You especially love church, where you get a lot of attention.  You are such a flirt.  You actually reached for a person for the first time this month at church.  I have seen you reach for toys and rice cereal, but never a person.  Unfortunately, it was not your mother or father.  No, you reached for the nursery worker.  I was there waiting to hold you and give you kisses and you reached for the nursery worker.  In all fairness, she was holding your bottle which may have been the true object of your desire, but I still felt the sting.

You love to read books!

Little monster finally got his own room this month.  I think you love it.  The first night you slept in your crib, you slept a solid 8 hours with out waking up.  We thought we had solved the sleeping problems forever, that maybe all you needed was your own very quiet bed room.  Unfortunately that was not the case.  You still end up missing me every few hours and cry until I come and visit you.  I love you too little man, but feel free to sleep longer, please.  It is not like you are making up for lost sleep during nap time.  You still take 2 thirty minute naps on average.  I keep expecting you to crash one of these days and sleep for 72 hours straight to make up for all of the lost time.  Maybe when you are a teenager...

You can almost sit up by yourself!

You finally learned to roll over!!!!  It is actually pretty comedic.  You can roll from your back to your stomach like a champ and are very quick to do it as soon as we put you down on your back.  But once you get there, you... are... MAD!!!   You hate tummy time, but have not figured out how to roll back.  You roll on to your belly with this look of "hey, look what I can do!  I'm rolling."  Then when you realize where it got you, your face changes to a...."What the what?!?!  How the heck did I get here?!?!"  This little trick of yours is especially enjoyable in the middle of the night when you repetitively wake up on your stomach furious until daddy or I comes to roll you back over.

We started rice cereal this month and you LOVE IT!!

You truly are a joyful little fella which was one of my specific prayers for you while you were in my tummy.  I love to watch you smile and laugh and will do almost anything in that effort.  Your favorite things right now are watching daddy or I dance, jump, or shake our hair.  My favorite is when we dance for you, because not only do you laugh but you kick and move your arms like you can not wait to join in on the fun.

You are a wonderful blessing to our family and we thank God every day for giving us you.  He has used you to teach us both so much about His unconditional love for us and the extent of His sacrifice through Christ.  He has also used you to reveal our selfish natures and make us more dependent on Him for love and contentment.  We love you tiny monster.

4 months

Little monster has had quite a full month!!  He went on his first airplane ride and got to meet his cousin Cooper.  He did fantastic on the plane.  I brought ear plugs for the people sitting around us just in case, but they were not needed.

We flew Southwest to North Carolina, so we had a quick layover both ways.  Huddy slept one flight and played one flight on the way there and on the way back.  It was amazing.  He was absolutely fantastic on vacation as well.  He LOVES his grammy and papa!!  They took him on walks, showed him the cotton, bounced him, sang to him, talked to him and loved on him non-stop for three days.  He was exhausted from all of the love.  He actually slept better on the trip than he ever has at home.  He made it a whole 8 hour stretch one night.  He also took incredible hour plus naps every day, granted he was snuggled up in some family member's arms the entire nap.  All in all, we had a wonderful vacation and are so thankful that Grammy and Papa blessed us with this fun family time.

For Halloween, our little munchkin went as superman.  He looked fantastic with his cousin Oliver, who channeled Batman.

On the home-front, little man still wakes up every four-ish hours to eat at night and typically takes 2 thirty minute naps a day.  He just loves life so much and doesn't want to miss a thing while sleeping.

Little boy got his four month shots just the other day.  He did not do well.  Poor little guy was a champ while he got the actual injection, but then when he came home he got a fever that got up to 102.  The fever stayed for 48 hours and made him pretty miserable.  We did a LOT of rocking, walking and snuggling these days.  The nurse loved his man leggings (even though daddy doesn't) because they were easy access to the shot location.

While on vacation, we saw a little "tooth" pop through where little monster's incisor should be in the future.  That is definitely not a typical first tooth location and we were worried studson might be part vampire.  After a few days, however, the "tooth" fell out and we learned that it was probably a "teething blister" and not a tooth.  So all that hype for nothing.

Little mister loves to read books with daddy!!

We are also so blessed by having lots of friends with babies close to monster's age.  We really look forward to the time when he can actually play with these little munchkins!!   I couldn't resist the pic in the carseat, because studson is just so dang cute!!

  

stats:  weight 15lbs (50), length 25 7/8 (75%) and head 16 3/4 (50%)

3 months!!

THREE MONTHS!!!!  Where has the time gone?  I can NOT believe you are a quarter of a year old.  You are almost too much fun these days.  You finally gave us a belly laugh about two days before you turned three months.  We were outside on your play-mat and you let out the sweetest sound my ears have ever heard.  We now spend most of our awake time with you trying to get you to laugh again.  It is quite the workout.  You only reward us for our very best efforts which usually include jumping, shaking our heads and making silly noises.  Sometimes, I think you purposefully hold out on laughing just to see how ridiculous we will act.


Let's see.  What are your other three month milestones?  You love to grab on to things now.  We got you a special pacifier that has a stuffed animal attached to it, hoping that the weight of the animal would keep the paci in place, but boy did that plan backfire.  You love the animal so much that you constantly pull the paci out of your mouth to play with the animal.  So now, whenever we take you somewhere, we are armed with two pacis.  The regular one in your mouth and the animal one in your hand.    You also love to grab hair.  Since I have had you, my hair is going through a shedding much like I remember our dog doing in the spring growing up.  This issue combined with your new passion for grabbing my hair may create some fairly serious bald spots on my head.  Best case scenario, I will have enough hair left to keep my head warm for winter and you, little man, can have a nice hairy insulation around your fingers as well.

World's cutest Pumpkin butt!!!

You are also getting some pretty serious neck muscles.  You love to sit facing out in the baby bjiorn, so daddy and I try to take you on a walk everyday to get some fresh air and develop those neck muscles.  Even when you aren't in the bjiorn, you ALWAYS want to face out when being held.  It seems like you are afraid you might miss out on something if you are facing backwards.  This is a common theme in your life, because you hate to take naps for what I can only assume is the same reason.  You average about three twenty minutes naps a day.

Little Munchkin,  you LOVE bath time.  You kick like it is your job.  A job that you take very seriously.  Dad and I love the faces you make while you kick away.  Here is the proof... (p.s.  this video does not contain nakedness.  We have videos where he kicks more, but they would not meet the g-rating standard)

2 months

Tiny monster, I can not believe you are already two months old.  You are getting more fun every day.  Just this week you started smiling at us.  It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  For about a week or  two, you didn't really know how to make your mouth smile. You would just open it really wide, similar to an intense yawn, and the edges would barely curl up when you got excited but now you have mastered the perfect gummy grin.  We haven't been able to catch a picture of it yet, because you get distracted and super intense whenever you see the camera.

We took you to get your two month check up and you were much better than at your first visit.  When you were just three days old you showed mom and dad who was in charge at the doctor's office.  You decided you were starving in the waiting room and you wanted the whole office (and all of the other offices in the entire building and potentially across the street) to know about it.  So I had my first nursing in public under the cover experience.   I was still really new to motherhood and forgot your burp cloth, which provided the perfect opportunity for you to spit up all over yourself, me, the chair, and the floor just as your name was being called for us to see your doctor.  One mess was just not enough for you though, so you decided to poop everywhere once we got back to our little room.  Then as I am trying to have a conversation with your doctor and dad is trying to clean up your dirty diaper and change your outfit (yes, it was that bad), you decided to pee..............everywhere.  So, now your second outfit is also wet along with the table, daddy and probably the doctor.  We put it on anyway and decided we had lots and lots to learn about parenting.

You, little mister, have become quite the mover and shaker.  You LOVE to kick.  When you get upset, you typically settle down if we put you on your back on our bed and let you just kick and kick.   Gammy noticed that when you look to the right, you exclusively kick your right leg and when you look to the left, you only kick your left leg. It is just one of your wonderfully unique quirks.

You still haven't mastered the sleeping through the night skill yet.  I try not to be jealous of all of my friends that post on facebook about their six week old sleeping 9 hours at night.  You generally sleep three hours at a time, four on good nights and only two on the tough ones.  9 hours seems like a fairy-tale,  a really good fairy-tale, one I would like to star in.  You also tend to get really restless between 5 and 7:30 ish, so I put you in bed next to me and you settle right in for another hour or two.  I LOVE this time with you.  My favorite time of the week is Saturday morning when Daddy gets to snuggle in bed with us as well.

You are so much fun little monster and we are so excited to watch your little personality develop!!
Stats:  weight- 11lbs 7 oz (55%), Length 22.5 (50%), Head 15.5 (45%)

Favorite Things

If you had asked me a year ago about my favorite things, the list would have included snuggling with  Nate, icecream in mass quantities, coke slurpees, sleeping late, and drinking a frozen margarita while eating delicious Mexican food with friends.  These were the simple joys of my life.  Things I probably enjoyed too often for the well being of my body (definitely too often with the icecream).   Now, just 365 days later, my old list of favorite things has become the list of things I can only dream about doing.  Slowly, but surely, each thing has been crossed off my activities list.

Nate reading to Hudson and his best friend, William

I gave up snuggling with my husband during pregnancy.  Mostly because I was too large for anyone else to fit next to me on the couch, but also because the heat my body produced was rivaled only by the sun.  We had some scares during pregnancy that resulted in giving up caffeine, so there went the delicious coke slurpees.  The sleeping late (really just sleep in general) went out the window when little man arrived and brought colic with him.  The colic also inspired the dairy free diet.  I did try some dairy free chocolate icecream and it was weird.  It didn't taste bad, but it had the texture of dirt.  

So with the eviction of all of my old favorite things came a vacancy that was filled with new, much more incredible favorite things.  Nothing makes me happier now than seeing my baby smile (even if it is only prompted by gas).  My heart melts when I see Nate snuggle with the little guy or read him Dr. Seuss.  I can barely contain my love when I smell his sweet breath and hear him coo as I hold him against my chest.  Parenting is far better than any combination of my old favorite things.  It is absolutely exhausting and makes me feel completely helpless at times, but it is by far the most rewarding experience.  

1 month

Well, little monster, you have managed to change our lives in incredible ways!!  You are the most wonderful and exhausting thing that we have ever been able to call ours.  You started out as the perfect baby.   You slept four hours at a time all day and night and you ate like a champ.  You loved to snuggle with anyone who would hold you and you only cried when you wanted to eat.  We called you our little prodigy baby because at six days old you rolled over for the first time.  Here is the video for proof....

You also lost your umbilical chord after three days.  (It usually takes the "average child" :) one to two weeks to accomplish this feat).  Not our little overachiever, you pushed that sucker out of your belly button after just three days.  We decided not to keep the umbilical chord in your scrap book since right now your scrapbook is a blog (and momma thought it was disgusting).

My very favorite thing that you do right now is how you smile and laugh in your sleep.  We have yet to see an intentional smile when you are awake (aside from when you toot), but when you sleep you have the best time.  It usually happens as you fall asleep.  You start with a little smirk, which turns into a big ear to ear gummy grin, then you just let out a big belly chuckle.  Your little shoulders move up and down as you laugh at your dream world.

After giving us two weeks with the perfect baby, you decided to step up your baby game and put us to a more intensive parenting test.  I believe this is around the same time, you picked up your endearing nickname of our precious little monster.  Instead of sleeping at night, you decided screaming was much more up your alley.  Screaming and lots of it.  Your daddy and I would take turns holding you, walking outside with you, bouncing you, putting you in the vibrating chair, swaddling you, un-swaddling you, bathing you, and driving you around until 2, 3, 4, or even 5 in the morning.  Many nights, we thanked 75 for lulling you to sleep.  Fortunately, you would reward our extreme efforts with a sweet smile and giggle once you had finally reached your destination in lala land.


Little boy,  you are such a blessing in our lives.  You have already changed us both for the better and we could not imagine a more wonderful gift from the Lord to us.  We love you.

Stats: Weight 9 lbs (50%), Length 21.25 in (50%), Head 14.75 (45%)