I realized I hadn't taken pictures of Beckett with my nice camera in awhile, so we had a little photo shoot the other day. Here are some (ok, a lot) of my favorite shots of Beckett at 7.5 months old!
Seven Months Old
(The quality of these pictures is going downhill as Beckett becomes more mobile. He crawled off the chair twice, Kolby (barely) catching him both times. We'll take what we can get!)
Well just
about as soon as I decided that I’m going to embrace Beckett growing up, I have
to eat my words. My baby grew up too
much for me this month. He changed more
in just a couple weeks than he had in the past couple months. The big thing is that he’s gotten so active
that he doesn’t want to sit still with us anymore. Y’all... it breaks my heart. He’s squirmy in our laps now and just wants
to get on the floor and play and move. At
church we had to start dropping him off in the nursery during the sermon. I feel like it’s the ending of an era
(overdramatic, much?).
On the
bright side, he’s laughing a lot more now and learned this fun “trick” where if
you shake your head at him he’ll shake his head back, usually accompanied by a
silly scream. He’s getting more
interactive every day and it’s a ton of fun.
But the independence he’s developing—it’s not my favorite.
He’s still
Grabby McGrabberson. I’m constantly
having to adjust because every day it seems he can reach further and faster and
knock something onto the floor, get something that’s not his, etc. Kolby and I joke that we could set 10 things
in front of him and he would grab the one thing that does not belong to him. It’s so funny how he’ll look right past a pile
of his toys (even new, fun ones) and go for the shoe, phone, remote, etc. We had a little honeymoon phase when he
learned to sit up on his own, where we could eat dinner or sit and chat with
someone and it was super easy because he would just sit on our laps and be
totally content. Now he’s lunging for
anything within eyesight and gets frustrated if he can’t have it.
A big new
thing this month is food! We gave
Beckett his first solid food a couple days after his six-month birthday. We started with pureed avocado, then moved on
to pureed peas, then gave him some hard-boiled egg yolk (which he LOVED), then
pureed green beans. He’s learning
quickly what this eating thing is all about, and seems to enjoy everything he’s
tried so far. Our doctor suggested
starting with green veggies then moving on to orange/yellow veggies, then
fruit. So next on the menu was sweet
potatoes and roasted yellow bell peppers, and he also tried banana (and ate
half a banana in one sitting!). He still
gets all his sustenance from breastmilk; the solids at this point are just to
help him learn how to eat food and also provide some extra vitamins and
minerals.
Also,
Beckett is now rolling over! He took his
time deciding it was worth it, but he now rolls over when he wants to, usually
back to front. He scoots a little bit
too, mostly backwards, and he can turn (counterclockwise only!). He’s also gotten a lot more consistent lately
with liking to stand. For the longest
time he had no interest in locking his legs.
And just this past week he learned how to maneuver from sitting to lying
on his belly.
His sleeping
isn’t much changed from my last update.
He typically sleeps from 9pm-6am, although it’s still not uncommon for
him to wake up closer to 5 or 5:30am, and every now and then he’ll wake up once
in the middle of the night. We’re happy
with his sleeping and are all enjoying the full night of rest!
He naps from
about 7:30-9am, again for another hour or so around lunch, and usually a
shorter nap later in the afternoon. He
seems to have become more sensitive to getting tired now—if he’s been awake for
too long and gets bored he’ll sometimes start to get a little fussy, whereas
“fussy” wasn’t really in our vocabulary the past couple of months. He also protests loudly now when he’s hungry
and I set him down while I get ready to nurse him. Just in the half a minute it takes for me to
get a glass of water he’ll break out into this really high-pitched whiny cry. Apparently when it’s time to eat, it’s time
to eat!
Things we
did this month:
-Beckett
tried food for the first time
-Celebrated
Kolby’s first Father’s Day
-Beckett
laughed REALLY hard at Kolby tossing a ball in the air and catching it
-Had a play
date with Maximilian, Collin, and Declan
-Swam at
Chip & Sherry’s house and at Becky’s house
-Spent a
long weekend in Wimberley with Poppa and CeeCee
-Beckett’s
first trip to the river in Wimberley
-Visited
Gran and Daddy Monk in Athens, TX
-Splashed
around in our tiny inflatable pool
-Had lunch
with Mimi and Grandfather at their community center
-Celebrated
July 4th with Brad/Remy/cousin Tucker and Chris/Ashley/cousin Liam
Things
Beckett loves:
-Loves
grabbing his feet and holding on to them, especially during diaper changes or
in his car seat
-Rolling
over
-When Kolby
tries to make him laugh
-Standing
-Looking at
Maya
-Playing
with other kids and babies
-Being
tickled
-Tags—he
LOVES to play with and suck on the tags of his toys, bibs, etc.
Things I
love about Beckett:
-How easy it
is to make him smile
-How
precious his smile is (and how gummy it is… not sure how long that will last!)
-His hair
getting longer
-Swimming
with him
-I feel like
I’ve hit a really good groove with nursing him—I’ve
always loved it so much, but now that he goes longer between feedings (4 hours)
we can do more things without me having to game plan where I can find a spot to
feed him. And it’s been a long time
since I’ve thought, “Man, it’s time to feed him AGAIN?!?” (moms of young
babies, you know what I mean!) or been inconvenienced at all by the logistics
of being a nursing mom.
-His sweet and silly sounds
Beckett's First Trip to Wimberley
In mid-June we took a family trip to Wimberley for a long weekend with Poppa and CeeCee at their ranch there.
We all had such a fun time! Here are a few pictures.
Picnic at the river park:
Beckett's first trip to the river:
Beckett's first rodeo:
Can't wait to go again!
Six Months Old
Beckett is so much fun these days that
I’ve decided to accept and celebrate the fact that I have a six month old
rather than totally falling apart. I
loved every second of his newborn phase but I don’t wish for it back like I
thought I would because he seriously gets more fun every day. Plus, he turned six months old on Kolby’s
first day of summer…. and that is definitely worth celebrating!!!
Cheers to two months of tons and tons of
time as a family together!
So, what’s the latest with our little
guy? He is still such a dream. If I had to sum him up in a word this month
it’d be content. He’s still an insanely cheery and smiley
baby, but the change that stands out the most lately is how he’s happy
whenever, wherever. Life with a baby has
never been easier than it is now. I can
barely remember what it was like when I couldn’t take a shower or eat because
there just wasn’t a good option for what to do with him. There are so many options now—he loves his
exersaucer, his playmat (still!), his Johnny Jump-Up, his swing (which he never
really cared for before), his Bumbo chair, or just hanging out on the couch, a
blanket, wherever. He doesn’t get
bored. He also can sit all by himself
now! Such a big boy! Over a one-week period early this month he
went from sitting for about a minute before toppling over to sitting very
steadily for as long as he wants. He
still doesn’t really roll over, mainly because he doesn’t give it a try
often. Too content to make the effort, I
think!
I thought he was grabby last month, but
this kid has upped his game. He is
obsessed with reaching for and grabbing onto anything that catches his
eye. No more eating with him in our
laps… he grabs on to EVERYTHING faster than I ever think possible. He is very coordinated with his hands. He loves to pretend drink out of cups and
soda cans (funny how he learned exactly how to hold it and bring it to his
mouth the right way) and he can hold his own bottle now.
Beckett loves to play peek-a-boo but he
plays it backwards and it’s hilarious.
He is much more thrilled when the blanket is on his face. When we take it off we can see that he’d been
grinning and giggling away behind it, but once it’s gone he just looks at us
like “excuse me, I was playing under there.” He also plays it himself, putting a blanket or
burp cloth or even his bib over his face and then going crazy with excitement.
He also discovered his feet this
month. That’s been a big score. He also has sucked on his thumb a few times,
but it’s not clear yet whether it’ll be a thing or not.
In addition to all these developmental
changes, he’s also had some big changes to his schedule and sleep. Last month his morning nap came together and
this month he started taking a long mid-day nap. Our eat, play, nap routine that we’d had for
a few months (and worked so well!) is no more.
He’s older now and needed fewer, longer naps and he doesn’t need to eat
quite as often. We now have a daily
schedule, for the first time. I wasn’t
pushing for this at all, but it just sort of happened on its own and it’s working
really well. He’s still really flexible
though.
6am—wake up, eat
8-10am—nap
10am—eat, play
12:30-2pm—nap
2pm—eat, play
45 minute cat nap sometime in the
afternoon
6pm—eat, play
7:30pm—eat, bedtime routine
9—asleep
He can take all of his naps alone in his
crib. If you had told me a month or two
ago that this would be the case, I would have called you crazy. He has always had trouble napping well
outside of our arms (I’ll admit we were enablers there, but we don’t have any
regrets!). And I do still hold him or
nap with him in our bed probably once a day—I’m just not ready to give that up!
The other big news is we started sleep
training. Yes, the definition of “big
news” has really hit an all-time low around here. Our doctor advised us at four months to start
teaching him to sleep through the night (aka sleep training). We weren’t really ready, and Beckett didn’t
seem to be either. Then a few weeks ago
(Mother’s Day to be exact) his sleep just totally fell apart. He would not sleep for more than 30 minutes
at a time in his crib. We tried
everything, to no avail. After a couple
weeks of sleepless nights, we decided it was as good of time as any to take the
plunge.
Full disclosure: we have rocked (or for Kolby, bounced)
Beckett to sleep for every nap, bedtime and nighttime waking since the day he
was born. Then we hold him for 5, 10,
sometimes 30 minutes to get him into a nice deep sleep before transferring him
into his crib. And I loved every second
of it. There is nothing in the world
sweeter than a sleeping baby. But, for
his sake, it was time for him to learn to fall asleep and stay asleep on his
own.
We knew it would be difficult. The idea of putting him down awake in his
crib, saying goodnight, and then walking away was laughable to me. There is NO WAY he would fall asleep. But I knew we could get there over time. There are a million different philosophies
for sleep training and I had perused several but couldn’t really land on
one. Then I happened upon this old hardcover book at our library’s book sale that caught my attention. I read it and it immediately felt like a
great fit for us. It’s a balanced
approach—letting them fuss/cry some but with a parent there in the room to
reassure and comfort them, starting with lots of help (patting, singing, etc.)
and phasing it out over the course of a few weeks.
We jumped in with both feet a couple
weeks before Beckett’s six-month birthday.
At the same time we also switched from swaddling him and placing him to
sleep on his back to putting him down on his tummy, unswaddled, now that he’s
out of the heightened SIDS-risk age. He started
sleeping through the night after six days.
SIX DAYS! He often still fusses
on and off for a while when we put him in his crib at bedtime, but we are
seeing slow progress there. We’ll see if
he keeps up the good sleep (teething, growth spurts, travel, etc. could easily
throw him off), but right now he often sleeps from 9pm-6am and it is wonderful. Of course there are times when he wakes up
once in the middle of the night or only sleeps until 5 or 5:30am, but overall
he’s doing great and we’re really proud of him!
Things we did this month:
-Celebrated my first Mother's Day
-Tried a pool for the first time and discovered Beckett doesn't like cold water
-Beckett's first Webb family ranch work weekend
-Welcomed the return of Summer Kolby
-Got back into a routine of going on walks every evening after dinner
-Started putting Beckett sitting up in the front of shopping carts and in high chairs at restaurants
-Beckett's first Gordon Family Reunion
-Went to more Rangers games (Beckett has been to six now!)
Beckett’s favorite things:
-His feet
-Stealing an empty drink cup and playing
with it
-Touching everyone’s face (we joke that
it’s like he’s blind and that’s his way of identifying who it is)
-Being rocked to sleep on my shoulder
-Kicking his legs really hard when laying
on his back
-Grabbing people’s lips with his slobbery
hands
-Being outside, particularly looking up at
the trees
-Holding his own bottle, with a death grip
-Seeing Kolby or I for the first time in a
while (even 5 minutes!)
My favorite things about Beckett:
-He’s still a great nap buddy
-He started making this hilarious “mmmmmm”
sound when he nurses
-He is so stinkin’ easy—it makes
motherhood such a joy!
-He makes a soft, repetitive cooing sound
as he’s falling asleep
-He’s such a great little passenger on my
hip
First Food!
A few days after Beckett's six month birthday we gave him his first taste of food---avocado!
We had the best time with it. I think Beckett was indifferent about the food and seemed far more interested in Kolby and I making fools of ourselves smiling at him and taking video and making smacking sounds to try to teach him what to do with what we'd just shoveled into his gummy little mouth.
YUM!
Bluebonnets 2013
I was so excited to take bluebonnet pictures because Beckett was able to sit on his own and I know next year he'll be way too busy running around to pose for a picture.
We tried twice, and both times Beckett was comically uncooperative. This kid is ALWAYS smiling and hamming it up for the camera. But we'd set him among the bluebonnets and he'd get this totally spaced-out look and would not smile for the life of him. It was so funny.
Exhibit A:
Anyway, here are a few of my favorites from our first attempt, in a field near my parents' ranch:
On round two near our library, he finally gave a little grin:
Such a handsome little boy!
Five Months Old
*This
post is way late. I wrote it forever ago
but never got around to taking/editing the pics. Whoops.*
Someone please tell me how it’s possible
that my baby is now five months old?
Heavens I can’t even imagine what will become of me next month, when I’m
forced to acknowledge that half a year
has passed.
You are probably tired of my wailing
about how fast time is passing but you might as well just go ahead and get used
to it :)
Anyway, what’s new with our five month
old? Nothing and everything at the same
time. He’s still the happiest and
easiest baby ever (seriously). I keep
thinking it’s just a great phase he’s in, but he’s still going strong with it
so maybe it really is just his nature?
That would be a major score. This
month his physical growth hasn’t been too striking but his development has been
in full swing. Most notably is how he
grabs on to EVERYTHING. And faster than
you ever thought possible. He’s gotten a
lot more coordinated with his hands.
Also, he is incredibly vocal. He
doesn’t really have a belly laugh, but he laughs/squeals quite a bit and has a
happy cooing sound that he makes along with his smile. He also has a happy scream that I think he
makes because he likes the way it feels in his throat.
He is close to sitting up on his
own. He can do it for almost a minute at
a time, so I know it won’t be long.
There is something so sweet and funny about a baby tipping over to me,
so I’m in no hurry. He doesn’t roll over
yet but he never really tries to and I don’t care to make him try because I’m
not afraid that he’ll be leaving for college and still not know how to roll
over. He’ll do it when he’s good and
ready.
One big thing we’ve noticed this month is
how much this kid has become a daddy’s boy.
He LOVES his dad. It makes me
think back to when I was pregnant and Beckett would always move like crazy when
he heard Kolby’s voice. Now, if Kolby
opens his mouth anywhere in the house Beckett stops whatever he is doing to try
and find where he is. If Kolby is in
another room I’ll have him come in or I’ll take Beckett to him because it gets
really sad in a hurry—he never gives up.
When he finds him he just looks at him and waits for him to look his way
and then slowly flashes a big gummy grin.
You can’t even imagine what it does to Kolby.
If you think I’m struggling with Beckett
growing up, you should hear from Kolby.
The other day he said, “If I could choose between Beckett being a normal
child or staying this age forever, I’d really have to think about it.” Ha! The
thing that gets him lately is how much Beckett shows that he loves him. Kolby seems to be convinced that there won’t
be another time where Beckett will show his love like he does now. Right now all Beckett wants to do with Kolby
is smile at him, coo at him, be carried around by him, and just be with
him. No rebelling, no choosing friends
or video games instead, no wanting anything in return—just pure unadulterated
affection.
For the sake of documenting details for
myself, Beckett started taking a longer morning nap this month—from about
8-10am. He usually takes a quick nap
mid-day and another long nap in the late afternoon. This is the first time we’ve attempted to
structure his nap schedule a little bit, and it’s going pretty well. He eats six times during the day and wakes up
in the middle of the night—usually around 3am—to eat again. He usually wakes up one other time as well
and just wants to be rocked back to sleep.
So no, he’s not sleeping through the night. He did sleep through the night three times
this month (he hasn’t done that since he was two months old, when he also did
it a few random times), from about 10-5:30.
We’ve just moved his bedtime up to 9:00, which I think is still pretty
late, and we’re planning to work with him on sleeping through the night in a
few weeks, then hopefully move his bedtime up again to closer to 8. Overall his sleep has come a long way,
although when I hear of babies his age sleeping from 7-7 it completely blows my
mind!
What we did this month:
-Beckett was baptized
-We ate out successfully several times
-First family trip to the neighborhood
library
-Hung a swing for Beckett from a tree in
our front yard and started using it
-Went to several Rangers games
Beckett’s favorite things:
-Grabbing hair, shirts, necklaces, food,
everything
-Reaching out to pet Maya when she walks
by
-Going for family walks in his carrier
and listening to the Rangers’ game
-His little fox stuffed animal
-Attending Rangers games (he’s been to 5
so far)
-He still loves everyone—he lights up
more for people he knows, but he doesn’t have any stranger anxiety whatsoever
yet
-“Favorite” may be a little strong, but
he’s generally happy to have his picture taken and is SUPER cooperative, which
makes things really fun for me
My favorite things about Beckett:
-I totally melt at all the sweet sounds
he makes
-Carrying him on my hip. He’s a great little passenger
-His personable demeanor—he is so fun to
share with other people
-How he smiles so big and often laughs
when I gobble his neck
Beckett's Baptism
We had Beckett baptized on April 21. Our church baptizes infants, as well as believers. Infant baptism is obviously not a part of our church heritage (growing up Baptist and all), so we talked to our
pastor and read several articles and book excerpts about it and ultimately
decided that while we respect both traditions, we want to have Beckett
baptized, following in the tradition of this church that is such a big part of
our lives right now.
As a Christian sacrament alongside the Lord’s
Supper, baptism is “an earthly sign accompanied by a divine promise.” Sacraments celebrate God’s specific action for us, that in every moment of our lives it is God who is relentlessly
pursuing us no matter where we may be.
Infant baptism is not a substitute for a child’s eventual individual
expression of faith in God and decision to turn from sin and put their trust in
Jesus Christ. But by baptizing Beckett,
we are affirming that even before Beckett has any idea about Jesus or His love
for him, Jesus is already at work in his life.
Beckett with his Godparents, Brad and Kassidy:
Our families and a few friends were there too and we had a little reception afterward to celebrate together.
I made my first cake for my baby:
Beckett with his grandparents:
Motherhood
In
honor of Mother’s Day, I feel like it’s as good of time as any to
write down some thoughts that have been stirring in my mind lately.
I was meant to be a mom. I’ve
felt that way for long time. Really,
since I was 5 years old and had to start kindergarten just two months after
Russell was born and I cried and cried because how on earth was my mom going to
take care of him without my help? I
mean, I was in charge of keeping socks on his feet AND brushing is hair.
I have to say, motherhood is everything I imagined it would be. Far more, in fact. And it suits me well.
I had the unexpected opportunity to wait quite a while before getting
to be a mom. It gave me a lot of extra
time to think about what kind of mom I wanted to be. And it gave me a chance to hear from other
moms. Hands down I’d say the most common
thing I heard was how moms were able to enjoy their second, third, and so-on
babies more than their first, because with the first baby you are stressed and
anxious and insecure and have to learn a lot of lessons about what really
matters.
I made it a point to really take these lessons to heart. I’m not promised a second, third, or so-on
baby. So I will for sure be enjoying my first to the fullest. That was my commitment and goal. And I have had the.best.time.in.the.world
fulfilling it.
Beckett is growing up too fast.
At the end of the day when I’m rocking him to sleep I can’t help but
think ahead to when he’s grown and what I’ll think of when I look back. I want to be a good steward of this time with
him and do my darnedest to not to have the regret, “I wish I had cherished it
more.”
I know I won’t look back and wonder whether his bed time was too
late. Whether I ever let more than three
hours pass without feeding him. Whether
he sat in a poopy diaper for more than ten minutes. Whether I totally dropped the ball by not
sleep training him at four months old.
Whether I did enough tummy time with him. Whether he could fall asleep without being
held and rocked. Whether he could roll
over by his five month birthday.
So I don’t care about those things.
He is clearly thriving. That’s
all I need to know.
But I know I’ll wonder whether I kissed his fuzzy head enough. Whether I gave him my full attention. Whether I held him enough. Whether I spoke sweetly to him. Whether I squeezed him hard enough. Whether I smooched his sweet lips despite the
constant drool and risk of him spitting up straight into my mouth. Whether I told him from an early age that
he’s my boy, that I wanted him so badly.
So I do all those things, all day long.
This time is so sweet, I can barely stand it.
And this boy:
He’s so much more than I could have ever imagined in my wildest dreams.
Thanks you, Jesus.
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