Thanksgiving Day

I took close to 200 pictures while we were in Dothan over Thanksgiving (I know that's ridiculous), so I'm going to break up our Thanksgiving trip into a couple of posts ;) We had the best time in Dothan just enjoying being with family and doing a whole lot of nothing! Grant, Julie, William, and I left Birmingham Wednesday night around 6 and got to Dothan that night at 9:30. Julie insisted on sitting in the backseat with William but he started getting fussy 5 minutes after our departure so Julie and I switched places at the first red light we came to. Thankfully, William was out like a light about 10 miles outside of Birmingham and slept the majority of the way. It would have been miserable if he stayed awake! When we got to Dothan, he woke up and visited with Juju and Daddy Steve and went back to sleep around 10:30. He didn't sleep well all weekend and I'm attributing it to a new environment and getting a little off schedule. Needless to say, Grant and I were having deja vu of the newborn days. He woke up at least 2 times/night while we were in Dothan. He's also teething but I'll save that for his 7 month post.

Breakfast time for William on Thanksgiving morning!

We had Thanksgiving lunch at my grandparents house, and my grandmother outdid herself as always! She and my mom prepared a delicious feast and my grandmother's decorations were outstanding as well. We also had some special guests this year. Douglas's fiance, Kayla, and her family joined us for lunch. I think there were 18 of us total! One day I'll want to remember our family's Thanksgiving meal. We had turkey, sweet potato casserole, squash casserole, oyster casserole, rice, dressing, some type of sherbert/strawberry salad, rolls, carrot cake, and pecan pie. 

 William's favorite part of the weekend was hanging out with his best friend, his great-grandfather, Sam. These two seriously love each other. This rocking chair William is sitting in was my grandmother's as a child, and I have many childhood pictures sitting in this same chair. 

I hate that this is the ONLY picture I got of my fabulous Aunt Lee, but she was in Dothan for Thanksgiving. My Uncle Paul was visiting my cousin Lane in London, and Paul (my other cousin) spent Thanksgiving with his fiance so we got Big Lee in Dothan. 

 Our chunky monkey also got to spend some quality time with his future Aunt Kayla and Uncle Doug. 

 Uncle Doug!

Are they a gorgeous couple or what?!

 Most of our weekend looked like the picture above. We literally spent hours just staring at William roll around on the floor :) 

 It was such a treat having my great uncle Quin join us for Thanksgiving lunch. He usually flees the country on holidays but he decided to stay in Dothan this year. 

 Future sisters :)

 Sibling picture! 

 Beautiful table after plates had been cleared. Thankfully William went down for a 2 hour nap while we ate so we didn't have to take turns eating. 

 Starting to get worn out

William's new trick

 He gets a little help from Juju!

 We cant' seem to get a good family picture. I look like a freak in this photo, but I thought I should include one family picture of William's first Thanksgiving!

It was such a wonderful day thanks to my grandmother and mom! They worked so hard planning and preparing for several weeks and all of their hard work was definitely worth it! I've got some serious training to do if I ever plan to host Thanksgiving at our house...yikes.

iLately...Again

Life according to the iPhone...

 The Nap Nanny days are clearly over. 

 A little pre-Halloween fun :)

 This was before school one morning. He looked like such a big boy!

 My blue-eyed baby boy

 SILLY BOY

 More Halloween fun

 Love this face!

 Swingin'

 William voted with Mommy!

 First time sitting up in the buggy. He LOVES the grocery store!

 I love chunky baby hands!

 Just doing a little reading outside

 Pumpkin patch

 Kisses from Granny

 Strolling to lunch with his great- grandfather, Sam

 Out and about on a Saturday

 Sleeping on Daddy at the carwash

 Big boy loves his highchair!

6 month check-up

Snoozin' after church

6 Month Check-Up

The pictures below were taken at Overton Park this past Sunday. He wasn't nearly as terrified on the swing as he was the first time ;) William and I headed to the doctor this morning for his six month check-up. He was hoot in the office and was giggling the entire time until he got FIVE shots.

He weighed 21 lbs. 6 oz. (90th %ile) and was 29 in. (97th %ile). I can't remember his head circumference but it was in the 90th %ile.

 He looks slightly terrified in the picture above. He really did have fun though!

His pediatrician was very pleased with his developmental gains since his last appointment and said he looks great! We go back in 1 month to get the second flu vaccine and then again when he is 9 months old.

 Still drooling a TON. He officially has 2 bottom teeth and one coming in on the top. Ever since that first one came in, he hasn't seem bothered by the others. 

As I mentioned earlier, poor baby got 5 shots today. Thankfully, he only cried for a bit and hasn't seem phased by them since we got home.

Since I did his 6 month post, he is LOVING some banana oatmeal/cereal. I can't shovel it in his mouth fast enough...now if we can just get him to eat some veggies, we'll be rockin' and rollin.'

He will be crawling just in time to pull all of the Christmas ornaments off the tree!

Baby's 1st Halloween

Even though William didn't have a clue what was going on with Halloween festivities, I couldn't help but torture him a little by dressing him up in a couple of costumes. The pumpkin one is the only one I purchased. Two of the nurses I work with let me borrow the sea otter and tiger costume :)

 Baby Sea Otter

 Baby Tiger

 Our punkin with his pumpkins before BOO at the ZOO!

Like I said, William was clueless about what was going on but we fully embraced the holiday, so we did what all parents with children in Birmingham do, and we went to "Boo at the Zoo." We convinced Julie and Lee to go with us so we wouldn't look totally lame.

 It was freezing, so we had William all bundled up in a blanket the entire time. He didn't exactly smile one single time but I think it was because he was in shock from the cold weather...poor baby. 

 Those CHEEKS :)

 My whole world in one picture. Gosh, I love my boys!!!

 William and Aunt Birdie

 Watching the Scooby Doo skit in the freezing cold. William was seriously wondering what was going on by this point! 

Next year I think William will have a little more fun!

SIX Months Old

It happened. My baby is half a year old. I don't know how this is possible. It seems like we just brought him home from the hospital. On Monday, he'll be transitioning to the Infant 2 classroom at school. His teachers were very "gentle" and "sensitive" in how they shared this news with me because I'm pretty sure they think I'm emotionally unstable since that terrible day 4 months ago when I cried through the entire tour at the center. All 3 of his teachers pulled me aside at different times over the past week to share this news with me. Yes, I'm sad about it because I truly love his teachers and I'm SO thankful that God put special people like them in this world because there is NO WAY I could do what they do on a daily basis. They are truly special people.

William has finally started tolerating rice cereal. I usually give it to him everyday around 4pm. He will take around 10 bites and he spits out about 1/4 of it. I had to get really creative to get him to like it. The trick is banana rice cereal, a little bit of formula and apple juice. RANDOM but it's working. Fingers crossed. This week I plan to try mixing fruit with rice cereal. He's still drinking 5 bottles a day, consisting of 5 ounces of breast milk and 2 oz. of formula. My goal for nursing/pumping was 6 months but I'm going to keep it up because it has become a part of my daily routine and really isn't too much of a hassle.

 He has become quite verbal over the past couple of weeks. Some of his sounds include: "bwa," "guh," "boo." and "ahh-goo." We haven't heard any "mama's" or "dada's" yet. Grant and I can't wait for that!

Another big milestone this month is sitting up. He can sit unassisted now. He still topples over every now and then but he loves to sit up and play with his toys. He also pushes up on all fours and rocks back and forth. I think he'll be crawling very soon.

The biggest news this month is we have a TOOTH! That little pearly white started poking out about 2 weeks ago. He was fussy for about 2 days straight and hasn't seemed phased by it since. It's pretty darn cute. It's one of his bottom teeth and we see the one next to it coming in as well.

He's still wearing size 3 diapers but the next box we buy will be size 4. He's wearing mostly 12-18 month clothes :) His 6 month check-up is not for 2 more weeks so I don't have any new stats to report. I can't wait to see how much he weighs. My guess is about 21 pounds.

William, you have brought more joy, laughter and fun to our lives in the last 6 moths than I could have ever imagined. Your Daddy and I love you more than you will ever know.