Chicago

At the end of July we embarked on our very first vacation as a family of three, to Chicago!

We had the.best.time in the world.

All summer long I tried to plan a family vacation, but I just couldn’t land on a destination.  So many things sounded like fun, but not fun with a baby.  I wanted to find something that would be better with Beckett along, not worse.  Example: renting a house on a lake.  Relaxing, right?  Unless you were trying to keep a 7-month old entertained.  Then a friend (shout out, Erin!) suggested Chicago.  The idea kept sounding better and better.  I found a last-minute KILLER deal on Priceline, and BAM—we were off!  With Chicago being a walking city and Beckett loving riding in a stroller, plus the long list of fun things to do and places to see—I definitely give it an A+ for a baby-friendly vacation destination.

All credit for the fun we had on the trip goes to Beckett for being such a stinkin’ easy baby.  He did great on his first flight (hello 5am!) and continued to be a total dream with naps, flexibility, mood, etc. as we toted him all.over the city and back.  A second shout out goes to our CityMini Elite stroller.  We were basically a walking infomercial for that thing.  I won’t bore you with the details, but that thing scored some major points as we folded/unfolded it about a million times and rolled it 10+ miles down the streets of Chicago and onto dozens of trains, buses and subways.

OK, on to the trip…..

Day 1:  Travel + Cubs game

Beckett's first flight.  Very early flight = baby in pjs :)

Wrigley Field!

 

Day 2:  Aquarium + Wheaton

Chicago has a great aquarium.  I think it was Beckett's highlight of the trip.

We took the train out to Wheaton, Kolby's Alma Mater.  Kolby had such a fun time showing Beckett all around the beautiful campus, and the weather was absolutely perfect.

We met up with six of Kolby's best friends from college-- who happen to live in the area-- for a long dinner and ice cream.  It was such a fun evening, but I don't have any pictures.

Day 3:  Sears Tower + Lincoln Park/Zoo + Gino’s East Pizza + John Hancock Observatory

Sears Tower now has these lookouts on the 103rd floor that stick out 4 ft from the building and have glass on all sides, including the floor.  Beckett had no idea there was anything different about it, but it was a cool experience that we'll get to tell him about when he's older and can show him these fun pictures!

 (All the sunlight really shows how reddish his hair is, huh?)

Here's a street view of the Sears Tower and at the very top you can barely see the four lookouts sticking out. 

We spent midday at the free zoo at Lincoln Park, but I guess I didn't get any pictures.

For almost all of our meals we just grabbed take-out and ate in the hotel room while Beckett napped/slept, but we did manage a fun family dinner at Gino's East pizza on the Magnificent Mile.  The pizza was awesome and Beckett was a champ (thanks mostly  to a big screen tv) and we all had a great time.

We ended the day by going to the top of the John Hancock Building for a night view of the city.  Apparently I don't have the skills to take a skyline picture at night.  This cell phone shot of Beckett is the best I could do.  His zoned out look is courtesy of it being almost 3 hours past his bedtime.

Day 4:  Playtime at the hotel + The Bean + Travel

The king-size hotel bed may have been the best part of the whole trip for this guy.

We visited Millennium Park, which is famous for a sculpture called Cloud Gate, better known as "The Bean."

I was SO SAD it was already time for the trip to be over.  But after being in the 70s all week (GLORIOUS!) it got really hot on our last day, plus it was the opening day of a huge rock concert right across from our hotel so there were thousands of cool people everywhere--not really our crowd (side note: mom jeans and 80s clothes are back in?!?)-- so it was good timing for heading home.

I am so thankful that we had such a successful first family vacation.  Chicago was the perfect destination for us, and it was very nostalgic to be back in the same city and doing the same things that Kolby and I used to do when I visited him at college.  It was actually in Chicago 8.5 years ago that I knew I would marry Kolby (we weren't technically even dating at the time).  Would never have guessed that we'd be back there so many years later, happily married and with our precious bouncing baby boy in tow!

Photo Shoot

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 4^th 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

Summer

A few pictures that capture the essence of our summer :)

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

-It’s so fun to share him with others because he always smiles and plays with them

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!