Emily and Kolby

Nine Months Old

NINE months old!?!? Holy moly.

By far the biggest change this month has been the crawling. He is FULLY mobile. Our life changed drastically in just a matter of days. He went from his first real crawl to being able to crawl all over the house--fast--in less than a week. He continued to get more coordinated and pick up more speed as the month went on.

The other big news is TEETH! He sprouted his first tooth on August 13, and another one broke through two weeks later. They are his bottom middle teeth. Teething really hasn't been bad so far, except that it has affected his sleep some. I was shocked when we found the tooth... I had no idea he was even close. We did realize that his fussiness in the car lately was probably teething. He gets bored in the car, and I think that meant there was nothing to distract him from the discomfort. Other than that though, he has still been the 24/7 happy baby he has always been.

He has started developing preferences, and it's so much fun to learn what his favorite things are. He LOVES to open and close doors. He even has a little toy house that has a refrigerator door on the side that he'll open and close for 10 minutes straight. He prefers Itsy Bitsy Spider over all other nursery rhymes. Kolby has invented a lot of games with him and some of them have become big hits--like putting Beckett on his head and doing this bit where he asks me, "Hey have you seen Beckett? Is he over heeeeere? Or over heeeeeere?" while spinning back and forth to check different sides of the room, which sends Beckett into fits of laughter. He also loves horsey rides. And maybe most of all, he loves for us to crawl on the ground with him. Oh man, talk about the most rewarding thing you could ever do with your time. If you get down and crawl toward him he get so excited that he squeals and laughs and tries to crawl faster than he's really able to. It makes him so stinkin' happy. He also likes to wrestle. (Beckett would argue his favorites list also includes outlets, dog food, and shoes.)

He is understanding a lot more. In addition to the tomahawk trick from last month, we can say "jump" or "bounce" when he's in his exersaucer or Jumparoo and he'll immediately start going to town. We have sort of been using a couple of signs-- "more", "milk", and "all done." I think he may understand milk sometimes, and the other day Kolby was giving him banana and gave him the "all done" sign when he had run out and Beckett protested loudly. Could be a coincidence. We'll see!

One funny thing from this month is we have been teaching him how to clap, naturally by holding his hands and making him clap. Apparently he's quite literal, because when we'd tell him it's his turn to try he'd grab our hands and make us clap. Ha! He eventually figured it out and by the end of the month he mastered clapping on cue, and is working hard on waving.

Another change this month is how much he laughs now. I didn't really notice it on a day to day basis, but then one day realized that he laughs A LOT more now than he did a month or two ago. It's much easier to get him to giggle, and he'll also squeal with joy sometimes or even give a good hearty belly laugh.

He's an eating machine. He's eaten everything he's ever tried and has loved it all, with the exception of peaches. He ate them but they were not a favorite. I'm going to try to get a little more adventuresome with his food choices. So far I've just made things that are pretty standard-- sweet potatoes, green veggies, squash, bananas, etc. I want to try some beans, meat, and maybe a smoothie or something.

His trick of shaking his head no when you shake your head at him has become rather interesting now that we are often now having to actually tell him "no." Example: He crawls to an outlet. I say, "Beckett, no sir. No touch." while inadvertently shaking my head a little bit. He gives this half-stunned look and then shakes his head no back at me. Then I have to turn away to hide the fact that I'm laughing really hard. Not so effective.

For my own memory's sake, here is his schedule at nine months old. He's still really flexible, but this is at least a guideline of what we usually do on a normal day at home.
6am wake up, nurse
7:30-9am nap
10am nurse
lunchtime eat solids
12:30-2pm nap
2pm nurse
6pm nurse
7pm start bedtime routine

Our bedtime routine is new this month. We moved it up half an hour, and I don't nurse him again because it's too close to his 6pm feeding that I didn't have enough milk to make it worth it. So instead I pump when I go to bed and use that milk for a bedtime bottle the next night. Our routine now starts with a bath, then we get him in his pjs and have family story time on the couch. One of us gives him his bottle and the other reads the book we wrote for him followed by a story from the Jesus Storybook Bible. Then we pray and give goodnight kisses, then one of us puts him to bed.

His sleep is a bit of a sore subject this month. We had made a lot of progress early in the summer teaching him how to fall asleep on his own. But between summer travel and the long weekend he spent with my parents, we got back in the habit of rocking him to sleep. And by rocking I really mean bouncing him on the exercise ball. He soon got addicted to the bouncing and could not fall asleep without it. It was really nice for traveling because although it was COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS to bring a huge exercise ball everywhere you go, we could get him to fall asleep in less than 5 minutes and he'd stay asleep for a long nap or all night, regardless of where we were. But when half of your suitcase for Chicago is occupied by a deflated exercise ball and pump, you know you've landed yourself in a bad place. We committed to sleep training him again, and this time addressing naps too. Then up jumped a rabbit, whose name was teething. Kolby and I already struggle with letting him cry, but then you throw in the fact that he might be in pain and it's all over for us. Within seconds of lying him down sleepy but awake (like the books say) he'll be sitting up in the corner of the crib with his shoulders slumped forward crying while chewing on his fingers. My heart can't take that. We've tried a lot of teething pain remedies, and even Motrin or Tylenol don't make a difference. So I'm fairly certian he is not in pain at all--espeically since he is 100% fine during the day--but I just can't be sure. He may indeed be pulling a fast one on us. In which case, kudos. It's totally working. So--we are back at square one and regrouping our strategy.

Things we did this month:
-Went to our annual Webb family reunion at the ranch over Labor Day weekend

-Spent a weekend in Houston with Kason and Sarah and cousin Kyndall

-Went to a Houston Astros game (vs. the Rangers, of course)
-Had Grams come stay with us for three days to take care of Beckett while I had to work extra time on an annual project

Things Beckett loves:

-Crawling everywhere

-In case I haven't mentioned this in awhile, this kid LOVES tags.

-His Astros souvenir bat

-Watching older kids play
-Books! He really took an interest in independently "reading" books this month

-Opening and closing doors

-Jumping in his Jumparoo/exercauser

-His see-through ball maze toy

-Playing with other babies
-Clapping our hands

Things I love about Beckett:

-When I've been gone for awhile and he sees me, he lights up and crawls toward me. Melts my heart!
-His hair gets more amazing every day. It's so cute. And we still really have no idea what color it is!
-I love watching him interact with Kolby. They are two peas in a pod.

Catching Up

I know what’s new with Beckett is well documented here already, but I figure it’s about time to give an update on what else is going on around here!

We had a great summer! Kolby was off work and I took a lot of time off as well. We spent A LOT of time as a family, which was just as awesome as I expected it to be. Kolby and I took a little mini-vacation to Wimberley with our good friends Tyler & Erin (without Beckett!), which was a blast. We took a family trip to Wimberley earlier in the summer with Kolby’s parents, and we also road tripped to Houston for a weekend with Kason & Sarah and cousin Kyndall. Plus our family vacation to Chicago. We spent Memorial Day at my parents’ ranch with my mom’s entire side of the family, and did the same for Labor Day with my dad’s side. We spent a fun and relaxing July 4^th at Brad & Remy’s new house… swimming at the neighborhood pool then watching a movie in their media room while the babies slept. Other than that we just hung out all summer—playing inside, playing in the backyard, playing in other people’s pools.

Then summer had to end, which meant goodbye to Summer Kolby :(. But his school year is off to a great start. One big and exciting change this year is one of his best friends was hired over the summer at his school. I’m super jealous that he gets to work with a friend—that would be so fun. Just in case I haven’t mentioned these specifics in a while, Kolby teaches senior English, mostly AP Literature. He also teaches a creative writing class. This is his 4^th year at his school, and he’s the head of the English department. He loves teaching and is great at it. Makes me really proud!

Work is going well for me. I work three days a week—two at the office and one from home. I don’t like being apart from Beckett those two days but I’m content with our decision for me to continue working. I’m grateful for the opportunity to keep my job and bring in an income, which is what is best for our family right now. It allows Kolby to focus solely on teaching—rather than also doing contract writing or other work to make ends meet—which means Beckett gets to have tons of time with him. Kolby gets home at 4:45pm every day and doesn’t work on weekends or travel and very rarely brings work home. The blessing of his job and awesome schedule is not lost on me, and it won’t be long before Beckett is really able to appreciate it as well!

Our babysitter who comes two days a week has worked out great. And, some friends of ours were also in need of a babysitter for their little boy who is just a few months younger than Beckett, so starting a few months ago he is at our house those two days too and our babysitter keeps them both. It’s so great for Beckett to have a playmate! It’ll only get more fun for them as they both get older and can interact more.

We're now in the middle of the fall season of our church’s Bible study groups, and Kolby and I stepped back into a host/leader role. We chose Simply Christian by N.T. Wright as our study, and I'm really enjoying it. We had a kickoff dinner at our house and had 16 adults, 2 kids, and 5 babies come. Which, for anyone who has been to our house, begs the question of how on earth everyone fit. But there is little I love more than having a full and chaotic house. It was a great night.

Oh, big news (that most of you probably already know)—Brad & Remy are expecting a baby, due on December 17^th! And it’s a girl! :) Tucker is going to be such a wonderful big brother, especially if he’s even half as sweet to his new baby sister as he has been to Beckett. We can't wait to meet baby Sadie!

Eight Months Old

Eight months old already! Such a fun age, with a little bit of personality starting to show through.

Beckett started making a lot of new sounds this month. His favorite right now is thu-thu-thu. I guess he could surprise us with a first word at some point, but right now it seems he’s a long way from connecting a sound with anything in particular. Although he can identify certain things—like when we say, “Where’s Maya?” he’ll look around on the floor for her.

He is not as easy of a car passenger this month. Falling asleep in the car is sooooo last month, apparently. He fusses quite a bit in the car, which is unusual.

I’m sad to say that the age of him being able to do no wrong is slipping away. Until now he hasn’t had the capacity to do anything “wrong”—if he threw food or scratched someone or pulled my hair, it was totally inadvertent. But I think we’re teetering on the verge of some of that behavior being intentional. It makes me so sad that disciplining is right around the corner. I’ve already had to say, “No, sir.” several times, typically when he scratches my face really hard over and over again like a Velociraptor while I'm nursing him. We call that move the “Love Claw.”

On the other hand, I’m really enjoying watching him learn. If he’s on a blanket and wants a toy that is far away, he figured out that he can just pull on the blanket and it’ll come to him. If I’m holding him he’ll often reach for someone else (which they find completely endearing), only to grab their shirt with one hand to pull them close enough to grab their necklace/glasses/hat/etc. with the other. Tricky, tricky!

He has a new "trick." One day he started clasping his hands together and then raising them over his head and doing this move like he's chopping wood. We nicknamed it his tomahawk move and started chanting "tomahawk, tomahawk, tomahawk" when he'd do it. Then at some point we realized that if we say "tomahawk!" then he'll do his move on command. It's pretty funny.

In other news, he’s mobile!! He showed no interest in trying to crawl or move around much until pretty much exactly his seven-month birthday. Then he really took off. He quickly learned to go from sitting to on his belly, where he could then turn and scoot backwards pretty well. He can flip to his back but doesn’t do it much since he’s more mobile on his stomach. About halfway through the month he started going from a sitting position to sort of a crawling position, where he would rock and then eventually slide down to his belly. Toward the end of the month he was VERY close to crawling and at first glance it seemed like he is crawling because he spent a lot of time on his knees, but he wasn't quite moving them forward. Then two days before his eight-month birthday, he took his first real crawl!

His sleep is the same, if anything it’s a little worse than before. He is more likely to wake up closer to 5:30am than 6am it seems. Oh well. We traveled some this month and slipped back into the habit of rocking him to sleep. We keep talking about teaching him to fall asleep on his own again (at bedtime and also for naps), but we’ll see if we can follow through.

He continues to try new food every week. His main foods are still traditional veggies and fruit, but we let him taste a lot of other foods that we eat—like refried beans, mashed potatoes, guacamole, a pickle, etc. So far he hasn't met a single food that he hasn't loved! Eating out with him has become quite an adventure. And I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg. Sigh.

Things we did this month:

-Spent our first extended time apart; Beckett spent a long weekend with Grams and Grandpops while Kolby and I had a mini-vacation to Wimberley with our friends Tyler and Erin

-Beckett and I road-tripped to Houston for a baby shower

-First family vacation-- to Chicago!

-Had a play date with baby Caroline and another with baby Declan and baby Lilly
-Beckett participated in his first talent show, at Kolby's grandparents' retirement community

Things Beckett loves:
-MOVING!
-Learning to play catch with a ball
-Scooting backwards, which often lands him backed into a corner or stuck under the couch

-Tomahawk move
-Trying pickles (and other plate food) in his mesh teether
-Playing on beds
-Riding around in a stroller

-Shaking his head no
-Being bounced to sleep (he's seriously addicted to the exercise ball)

Things I love about Beckett:

-His head is impossibly fuzzy. I could recognize the feeling of his hair out of 1,000 babies in a blind test (you know, if such tests existed).
-It's fun to watch him work really hard to learn/do new things

-Brushing his hair (and parting it, like a big boy)
-When he stays up too late that when I feed him he flashes back to the milk drunk newborn phase
-How he's happy and in a good mood all the time (well, except for the car...)

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