7 months!!

I can't believe my baby boy is 7 months old today!!  I love you, Aaden!

Can you guess what he's doing in this last picture?? ;)

• Aaden loves to play peek-a-boo now.  He and Pappy play all the time with burp rags. 
• He gets more independent everyday.  I can't believe how fast it's going!
• He is very ticklish on the back of his neck and laughs the biggest belly laugh when Aaron kisses it.
• He is starting to babble more and more.  He spits out his paci so he can "talk".  He's also started this funny growling thing.
• I can tell he's starting to understand the concept of object permanence...if I'm holding him and I move to where something is out of sight for him, he'll bend/lean forward and turn his little head to try to see whatever it was he was looking at.  Usually it's the dogs or a bottle.  He also remembers that during bath time, he likes to play with his rubber ducky, he grabs for it as soon as we set him down in the bath.
• He is starting to self-soothe a lot more when he's tired.  He started doing the groaning thing a long time ago when he was tired but now he does it more consistently.  As soon as he starts doing it, we know he's tired.  He also does it when we're rocking him to sleep, when he's in his crib trying to put himself to sleep, and on car rides when he's trying to go to sleep.  It's actually a nice cue since we know that he only does it when he's tired so if he's fussy and he starts doing that, we know why he's fussy. 
• No teeth and no crawling but he loves to sit and play
• He weighs about 17 pounds and wears 6 month clothes.  He is in size 3 diapers (Pampers)

Dear Aaden~

I can't believe you are already 7 months old!  Where has the time gone?  It's gone by so quickly!  7 months ago you changed our lives forever.  In these last 7 months you have brought us so much joy!  You are so amazing.  You are happy, determined, curious, energetic, expressive, and funny.  You make us laugh all the time.  Our hearts burst with joy and happiness just by looking at you.  Sometimes we are so taken back by how adorable you are and we still can't believe that we made you.  You have the cutest expressions ever, I really wish I could capture all of them and memorize them forever.  Your laugh makes my heart skip a beat.  You are super ticklish on the back of your neck and when Daddy kisses it you let out the most adorable laugh.  It's one of those baby laughs that you hear on commercials.  You amaze us everyday.  You are growing so fast and learning new things all the time.  In everyway possible, you make me so proud to be your mom.  How did we get so lucky?  We can't tell you how much we love you, Aaden.  You have made our lives better than we could have ever imagined.
I love you soooo much, Bubby.♥
Love, Mommy   

New Hobby

I started a new hobby thanks to my friend, Katie.  For my shower, she had given me a hooded towel that she had made and we absolutely love it and it's the only one we use now!  I had her teach me a few weeks ago because I would love to give them out as gifts.  Here are a few that I've made so far...

They are a lot of fun because you can really personalize them.  Lots of practice ahead of me...just have to find the time to do them!

A Random Update

Aaden is getting into the mimicking.  He's been doing the fake cough thing for a while but last night I was on the floor with him and he coughed so I coughed back at him.  He thought it was pretty funny and then he coughed again so I did back.  We went back and forth doing this for a while, it was so funny because he would crack up afterwards.  It was so cute to see him concentrating while trying to mimic.  He's also started doing a little fake laugh and it's just a quick little "he-he" and so we did that back and forth too.  It was so much fun.
Aaden is sleeping so well in his crib.  I am so happy that it's going so well!  He's actually sleeping better in there than he did in the bassinet in our room.  Maybe we would wake him up when we would move or something?  He sleeps from about 9 or 10pm til about 7am or so.  Sometimes even later.  On some mornings when I'm getting ready for work I don't even have time to nurse him because he sleeps so late.

Aaden and Alivia

So Alivia Muenzer (my good friend Katie's daughter) was born exactly 6 weeks before Aaden.  It's been so fun getting the kids together.  And now that they are older it's even more fun!  I'm looking forward to many years of playing :)
Here are pics from a few of their playdates:

Aaden 4 days, Alivia 6 weeks 

Aaden 3 1/2 weeks, Alivia 9 1/2 weeks

Aaden 4 weeks, Alivia 10 weeks

Aaden 6 weeks, Alivia 12 weeks

Aaden 2 months, Alivia 3 1/2 months

Aaden 2 months, Alivia 3 1/2 months

Alivia 5 1/2 months, Aaden 4 months

Professional Pics - 6 months - Erin Balbas

We were lucky to get Aaden in with Erin again for his 6 month pictures on March 3rd.  He was such a ham this time!!  It was so much fun and Aaden looked adorable!!

 I absolutely love how these turned out!

These are my two favorite:

St Patrick's Day Photo Shoot - FAIL!

Aaden is into EVERYTHING now which is a bit worrisome for when he's mobile.  Here's a little snapshot of what I went through trying to get a cute St. Patrick's Day picture...

We managed to get ONE picture with a smile....

Crib

Aaden started sleeping in his crib over the weekend.  He slept in there on Saturday night and again last night.  He's sleeping great but I am not.  I keep checking the monitor to make sure it's working and to make sure it's turned up loud enough and if I don't hear him for a few hours I kind of freak out.  This is kind of a hard transition...it feels so weird having him so far away.  He's just a tiny baby in a huge crib and room all by himself.  I know that moving him to his own room is something that needs to be done, I just didn't expect it to be so hard.  I know it will get easier and in the long run I'll be happy that we're tranistioning him now and not later but I think it will just take some time to get used to him not being in our room.
Both nights he went to bed around 10 or so and only woke up once each night for his pacifier.  He slept until about 6:00 both mornings when he woke up to eat.  At that time we just brought him into bed with us and he nursed and then went back to sleep for a while.
It is actually going better than I hoped and I hope tonight goes just as well.  And hopefully it will start getting easier for me because Aaden doesn't seem to have too big of a problem with sleeping in his crib!

Butterball

Aaden had his 6 month well baby check today.  He weighs 18 pounds and is 25 1/2 inches long.  He is in the 65th percentile for weight and 15th percentile for height.  He's definitely taking after me!

He tried prunes tonight and I think he liked them.  He also tried drinking a little bit of water out of a sippy cup.  I need to buy him a more age appropriate sippy because we just used the one that we had bought a long time ago for Chase.  He kept trying to bite the sippy mouth part and I don't think he was getting much water and he wasn't able to hold it.  I think I will buy him a sippy cup of his own this weekend and we'll try again.

Everything is going well...definitely need to try to transition him to his crib, he is definitely getting too big for his bassinet and when he wakes up he tries to pull himself to sitting so it's a little scary.  It's so hard to transition him though, I admit I'm totally not ready but I know it needs to be done.

Lovejoys

The Lovejoys had a little baby girl, Claire, on the 5th of March.  We went over to meet her and take them some gifts and dinner.  She is so small and cute and has a ton of hair!  It's amazing to see how much they change in just 6 short month because Aaden seemed gigantor next to her!  Aaden mostly had fun playing with Eli.
We didn't get any pictures tonight because Claire was sleeping most of the time but we definitely will next time! 
We are so super happy and excited for the Lovejoys!  Eli and Aaden already go to daycare together and in a couple months, Claire will join them too.  Very exciting!

One of the Cutest Things

Something that Aaden has started doing lately is touching people's faces.  He'll just be sitting on your lap and he'll reach over and  stroke your face.  Or if he's standing on your lap facing you he'll grab your face with his hands on either side and pull his face into yours.  He also does it while he's eating his bottle now, he'll look up at you while he's eating and reach up to touch your face.  It's so cute and sweet!
Aaden is also getting a little bashful.  If you're holding him and someone is talking to him, he gets totally excited, does his little excited inhale noise, smiles, turns his head and buries it into your shoulder or chest and then quickly pulls back and looks back at the person who was talking to him with a big ol smile on his face.  So adorable.
I just love this stage!

Baby Food

Tonight Aaden tried pears for the first time.  I think he really liked them!  I mixed them with oatmeal to thicken them up a little.  I have nixed the idea of making his baby food, with Aaron and I on opposite schedules, it's just too hard to find the time.  I may revisit the idea later but for now we are just going to stick with buying him organic jar baby food (which actually may be better since we don't always buy organic vegetables for ourselves).  And, the convenience of jar food is a plus too. 

I am getting better at feeding him solids more consistently.  I have realized that one of the reasons I've been inconsistent with them is because it's just so messy.  I think part of the reason it's so messy is because the food is too thin which is why I've decided to mix it with cereal or oatmeal to make it a little thicker and hopefully not so messy!

Here's the food we are using now:



All About Toys...

Lately when Aaden is sitting he is starting to reach for things that are further and further away.  Sometimes it makes him fall over but he's trying.   Most of the time he's reaching for a toy or a paci.  I love that he'll see something and can now deliberately pick it up.  It's so cute to see him concentrate so hard on something while trying to pick it up or figure it out.  Some of his favorite toys right now are...

   

       

            

and he loves his blankie/lovie (Grandma gave him the original and I ordered him an extra one)



The bear came with it but so far he has no regard towards it.  We are constantly finding more and more toys in his closet that he is now old enough to play with and enjoy.  Our living room is already starting to overflow with toys!!