Month 11!

 

Age: 11 Months!  February 11, 2014.

Fun & Exciting Events: I took my FIRST STEPS when we were in Gatlinburg, TN for the Kivett Family Vacation.  I can walk about 8-10 steps on my own when I am distracted with toys in my hand or when Mom and Dad are encouraging me to walk.  I haven't taken off yet, though.  Mom and Dad get so excited when I take a few steps and they cheer and yell for me!

     Mom and Dad LOVE IT when people are so positive about milestones that children achieve and they get REALLY PISSED (can an 11 month old use the word, pissed?) when people are so negative about things that their precious baby boy is achieving.  Mom is constantly shocked when she tells people about how I am growing and what fun things I'm learning and their response is "oh you're going to wish that he didn't learn to walk" ; "just wait until they start walking then you're going to wish you never taught him" ; "you think crawling is hard? just wait until he walks, you're life will be over chasing him around." The same thing happened when I started crawling and pulling up on things.  It amazes Mom how negative people can be.  Well listen up people, having a healthy baby who can crawl and pull up and walk is EXACTLY what my Mom and Dad wanted.  They didn't want to have a baby to look at all day.  They wanted a baby that they could hold as much as possible, chase around, wake up with in the middle of the night to feed or cuddle.  They wanted a baby that would take up ALL of their time and attention.  That was their intent and I'm doing just that.  They're happier than they ever were before me and they understand that they will get to have a time when it is just the two of them again but don't want that anytime soon.  They constantly thank God for giving them a healthy baby that is energetic and loud and an absolute maniac who is growing and learning to do all of the things he's supposed to be learning.  They're also sick of the negative comments that they get from people.  If you are going to say something to someone who has a baby or who is pregnant, you better be nothing but positive.  The just wait comments are not helpful and should just be kept to yourself. 

Meal Time: I am a fantastic eater! I eat almost everything that mom and dad put in front of me.  Mom is getting less and less anxious about me choking!  I usually eat mostly fruits and vegetables.  I love yogurt with granola, oatmeal, and fruit for breakfast.  I am not a huge meat eater.  Mom and Dad keep trying every time they eat meat and I usually take one or two bites and that's about all.  I love fish and Mom makes that a lot.  Mom and Dad usually give me exactly what they are having for dinner.  Mom has adjusted her cooking so that dinner isn't prepared as spicy and she and Dada like it.  Now, they just add some hot sauce to their meals once it's prepared!

Sleep Time: I am a terrific sleeper, according to Mom and Dad.  I usually wake up three or four times in the hour or two after they put me in my crib.  They usually just pat my back and hand me my binky as soon as I start crying and I fall right back to sleep.  I still take two naps each day.  One nap is usually from 12:30-2:30 and my second nap is from 4:30/5:00-6:00pm.  People are sometimes stunned that I still take two naps, however, when I am awake I NEVER stop moving!  I crawl and cruise and pull-up EVERYWHERE!  Mom and Dada love my high energy personality and get very excited when they think about me walking! So soon guys, just wait! 

Mom is my 1st Valentine!

Valentine's Day date with mom and Dad!

Happy 2nd Birthday John Weston! 

Eating lunch naked as usual!

Family time in Gatlinburg, TN!

Almost all of my cousins on Dada's side (we miss you Brighid)!

1 year old school pics!

My 1st Burger!

A day with my 2nd cousins!

Getting a bird's eye view of the fish in the pond at Edwin Warner Park!

 

Month 10!

Age: 10 Months! January 11, 2014

Height & Weight: When I had my "9 month" check up I weighed 17.8# and was 27.5inches tall!  Getting bigger and bigger!  I am holding strong to my 5% growth curve.  My pediatrician isn't worried at all about my growth and she was very excited when mom told her that she was still nursing!

Fun & Exciting Events:   I have also started crawling up the stairs.  My puppy brother will sometimes stand on the second step and block me from going up further.  Mom always gives him treats when he does this.  We have a baby gate to block me from tumbling down the stairs when playing in the Sabre Room with Dad.  He is working on teaching me to go down "feet first".  Peering over the top of the stairs head first is so much more fun though.  Hopefully Ill learn soon so that Mom and Dad can have a little bit of peace about that!

 I am getting so good at playing by myself.  Mom and Dad both thought it would be helpful when I was able to do that but now they just stand there and watch me play with all of my toys and books! I have a little nook area in the living room between the couch and piano that I love to sit in.  I like to stand up at the window and watch Linus run around outside.  I'm starting to love my room more and more.  I move and crawl from one room to another when Dad and I play upstairs at night. 

Meal Times: I LOVE to eat!  Mom and Dad are letting me try lots of new foods.  I am still a fruit and veggie guy and haven't taken to all of the meat that they offer me.  I like fish a lot and that makes Mom happy.  Mom and Dad eat fish 1-2 times a week so she was a little worried when I didn't eat it all when she first made it for me. 

I still love my smoothies and it's an easy way for Mom and Dad to get some veggies and leftover baby food Mom made into me quickly! I had my first hamburger and it was pretty good.  I enjoyed finger-painting with the ketchup and eating the avocado the most! I love using my utensils and I'm getting better at using the spoon correctly!
Sleep Times:I am sleeping extremely well.  I sleep in my own crib, in my own room each night.  There have been many nights and mornings that Mom and Dad want me to lay with them and cuddle but I just want to play in their bed.  Maybe when I'm older, I'll enjoy that more.  Our nightly routine consists of waving to Daddy and giving him a kiss.  Then, Mommy and I go upstairs and read 3 books, sometimes less if I rip them out of her hands and throw them on the ground with one hand and slap her in the face simultaneously with the other hand.  I'm getting better at listening to the whole story and turning the pages from left to right! Then, after stories we say a lil' prayer and talk about things that we are thankful for.  After our prayer, Mommy nurses me and then I snuggle on her chest and she sings me two songs: Dixie Chicks, Godspeed, and Natalie Grant, When I Leave the Room.  Then she lays me down in my crib and turns on my CD player that plays for about 40minutes and I roll over with my binky and lovey and go to sleep!

Dixie Chicks: Godspeed
 
Dragon tales and the "water is wide"
Pirate's sail and lost boys fly
Fish bite moonbeams every night
And I love you

Godspeed, little man
Sweet dreams, little man
Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings
Godspeed
Sweet dreams

The rocket racer's all tuckered out
Superman's in pajamas on the couch
Goodnight moon, we'll find the mouse
And I love you

Godspeed, little man
Sweet dreams, little man
Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings
Godspeed
Sweet dreams

God bless mommy and match box cars
God bless dad and thanks for the stars
God hears "amen" wherever we are
And I love you

Godspeed, little man
Sweet dreams, little man
Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings
Godspeed
Godspeed
Godspeed
Sweet dreams

Natalie Grant When I Leave the Room

 Good night,
Looks like we made it through the day

The moon sighs and I know that we're okay
Sleep tight,
I love to watch you drift away
I would come with you but on my knees I'll stay
Good night
Five little fingers holding mine
Take flight
Into your dreams and lullabyes
There's nothing more that I can do
But just fall more in love with you
And ask the angel armies to stand by
When I leave the room
I'm gonna fail you
I already have
Ten thousand times
I will fall down flat
You'll have a seat in the front row
of everything I don't know
And all I'm trying to be
You'll see
Good night
There will be storms that we come through
In time
We will slay dragons me and you
I'll always wanna hold you tight
Keep you safe with all my might
So I will leave Jesus next to you
When I leave the room
And you will run ahead
As if you know the way
And I will pray more
Then once you'd have to pray
There will be words we can't take back
Silences too
And I'll be on my knees
You'll see
One night
When I am old and unsteady
You'll want me to fight
But I'll tell you that I'm ready
When there's nothing left to do
I will still be loving you
Then you'll fold your fingers into mine
And I will let Jesus hold you tight
When I leave the room

...my baby boy is ONE YEAR OLD now and it's making me cry catching up on the past two months!

 

Month 8 & 9!

Age: 8 months, November 11, 2013.  

Fun & Exciting Events:  I STARTED CRAWLING (November 24th, 2013 8:30pm!)  We drove to Buffalo to stay with my Grandma and Grandpa for Thanksgiving.  While we were visiting my Uncle Nate's house I crawled for the 1st time!  I really really wanted to play with a computer cord that Mommy was waving around on the floor to make it look like a snake.  I rocked back and forth a few times on my hands and knees and then just went for it!  It was great.  I was still a little wobbly but after a few days I got the hang of it and was a master by the time we arrived back in Nashville.  I had so much fun visiting my family in Buffalo.  I have a lot of cousins up there and my Grandma and Grandpa pay attention to me every single second!  Grandpa bounces me on his knee while making funny noises and I love it so much.  And he wears glasses that I like to look at and pull on.  Grandma always whispers to me how much she loves me and misses me being so far away.  

 Meal Times:  I love sitting in my high chair and being a part of family dinners each night.  I "drink" water from my sippy cup and throw my plastic bowls on the floor for Mommy to pick up!  I eat all the pureed food that Mommy and Daddy give me.  I am pretty picky when it comes to texture and Mommy has to make sure that my food is perfectly pureed.  Mom is somewhat worried about my texture issues and I have overheard her asking our neighbor who is a pediatric occupational therapist about my sensory issues! She reassured Mom that I was fine and to just keep offering different choices at mealtimes. 

Sleep Times:  I am giving my parents a real hard time at bedtime!  I am making them work to get me to sleep.  They get frustrated sometimes.  But, Mom read an article that was written by another mother explaining that the 8-13 months that some parents have to snuggle a few hours extra each night with their child isn't that long in the grand scheme of their time with you.  Mom was so glad that she read the article and was a little more patient with me at bedtime.  Right now, I am waking up about 3-4 times between 8:30-12:30am.  Mom and Dad take turns snuggling with me.  If it's Mom's turn, she nurses because I will not just lay with her.  Dad rocks me and hums be back to sleep and then gently lays me back in the crib.  I sleep until about 7:30am each morning so they do get about 7-8 hours of good sleep each night.  Mom was telling a friend how weird it is that you really can function only running on 3-4 hour sleep blocks.  Dad acts like he is never tired and is always doing things around the house.  I still take about an hour and a half nap when I get home from school so sometimes Mom lays down for about 30 minutes after she finishes cleaning all of the bottles and pump parts and washing my diapers.  She keeps reminding herself that I won't be this little forever and then she doesn't get as stressed out about being tired or doing some extra chores!

Age: 9 Months.  December 11, 2013.

Fun & Exciting Events: Mom and I have already posted about my awesome 1st Christmas which occurred during my 9th month of life.  

Mom and I like to have "Target Time" together.  Aunt Suzy mentioned this fun activity  to my Mom and she thought it was the greatest.  The two of us go to Target and Mommy treats herself to a tall decaf  coffee with a pump of caramel.  We walk around the store for about an hour.  It's very hard for Mommy not to buy everything that she sees! She usually leaves buy at least one item (usually it's something for me or Daddy!) 

Another activity that I enjoy in the house is playing on my alphabet mat that Mimi bought me.  I love ripping all of the edges off and chewing on them while crawling around the house! Mom and Dad have made me a little play nook between the green couch and piano, right under the window that looks into the backyard.  I have a few toys that I play with everyday, a musical egg shaker, plastic water bottles filled with items (jingle bells, buttons, puff balls, & beads), plastic shape sorters, and duplo legos.

Mom and Dad are having a lot of fun with me during this stage.  Everyone said, you don't want him to crawl, you think you're busy now just wait until he crawls, ugh, just wait until they start crawling;  well, guess what, Mom and Dad have LOVED watching me crawl and explore and discover all sorts of things in our house.  It makes evenings more entertaining and weekend mornings a lot more fun!  

Cheers to month 10!

My 1st Christmas!

     My 1st Christmas was everything that I hoped it would be.  Mom started off the season by decorating our house with LOTS of decorations and taking me to visit Santa Claus for the 1st time!  I loved looking at the tree and playing with a plastic Santa Claus ornament that hung on the very bottom branch.  I didn't enjoy the feel of the fake tree branches so I mostly left it alone and played with my fabric nativity scene and Christmas books that Mom has been collecting for me this past year!

 

     One day, it was very warm outside, 71*, and Mom and Linus and I all went to the playground to take some pictures for a Christmas card.  Linus was not cooperating and Mom was  getting pretty angry at him.  He and I both thought it was hilarious as Mom would wrestle Linus in place and then quickly grab the phone to snap a picture, just as I fell over and tried to grab Linus' paw as he tried to eat my Santa hat and I tried pulling on his reindeer antlers.  Needless to say, I was the only one on the Christmas card this year.  Mimi said that people don't care about when my Mom and Dad look like and they really only want to see me anyway so, I guess it works out. This is what Mom ended up with for our Christmas card! Mom LOVES my little curled toes and drool and tummy rolls.

     For Christmas this year we went to Grayson, Georgia and stayed with my Mimi and Pop Pop!  My Great Nana was there almost the entire time and I was so excited about that.  We played at Mimi and Pop Pop's house the whole time we were there.  Mom was planning on meeting up with lots of her friends, but we were having so much fun having family time that it didn't work out.
     We got to be there for a whole week which was so much fun.  My Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Eric stayed at the house for several days and even my Nashville McKay family was there for a few of the days.
    On Christmas Eve we all went to eat at Mah Jong, a Chinese restaurant.  Mom told me that they go every year on Christmas Eve.  I was excited for my first time.  I sat at the table like a big boy and ate my food and Mom shared her rice with me for the 1st time.  It was delicious! I sat and watched my family and talked and waved to people the entire meal.  I was a little angel baby and Mom and Dad were so happy about that!

    On Christmas morning Mom was the first one awake.  My Aunt Lindsay told me that Mom is always the 1st one awake.  They said that we couldn't wake anyone up until 8:00am.  Mom felt like that was too late and woke up about 6:30am.  She laid in bed with Dad looking at the video monitor waiting for me to make the tinniest twitch so that she could come scoop me up and wake the rest of the family.  We went and got Aunt Lindsay and my puppy cousin Avery first and then ran upstairs with Linus and jumped on Mimi and Pop Pop's bed.  I was so excited because my Mom was so happy!  We all went downstairs and opened presents.  My Mom told Mimi and Pop Pop not to buy me any toys because I already had so many.  They actually listened and bought me a fun wooden stool with my name on it and a coat hook with my name on it.  I love my stool so much; the letter "e" is my favorite! I enjoyed opening presents and trying to sneak some wrapping paper for a snack every now and then.  At one point I got a little overwhelmed and needed a nursing break, right in the middle of all of the chaos!

    After opening presents at Mimi and Pop Pop's we went over to my Aunt Kristen and Uncle Mike's house.  My sweet sweet cousins, Madelyne and Lily, were so excited to see me.  Uncle Mike cooked a HUGE breakfast and we opened a few more presents!  Madelyne and Lily gave me a little walking toy that I absolutely LOVE.  I immediately pulled up on it and walked across the living room.  I felt so free and proud of myself!

   My favorite present is the Learning Tower that Dada built for me.  He surprised Mommy and me on Saturday morning before we left for Atlanta.  Each year my Dada (with the help of Mom's emotional support and craftiness) is going to DIY me a Christmas present!  Mom has a lot of ideas that she send Dada from Pinterest! They better get pretty creative if they want to top this year's gift.  I love it already and I know that I am going to like it even more when I am able to actually help Mommy cook and bake each night! Here is where Daddy got the plans to build my tower!

    While at Mimi and Pop Pop's house, I had my 1st spaghetti!  It was delicious.  I loved the way it felt in my hands and they way that it tasted.  Linus kept licking my legs through the high chair and I thought it was hilarious.  During the actual meal, I was very serious about eating the noodles.  All of my cousins were watching and people kept trying to take pictures!  It was a lot of fun.  Dada loves spaghetti a lot and Mommy likes to make the sauce at home so they were both glad that I enjoyed it.

    One extra special event  that happens each year at Mimi and Pop Pop's house is the McKay Family Christmas.  All of Mimi's brothers and their families come over and brings a little dish and we eat together and hang out.  This is one event that we all get to be together and for most of the people, it is the only time of the year that we get to see each other.  This year we were missing three cousins out of 20 isn't too shabby.  We have added a couple of significant others to the group as well which makes it 23 and then I make 24!   I'm the 1st great grandchild!

    It was a wonderful Christmas filled with LOTS of family time.  Next year we will be in Buffalo for Christmas and I will be old enough to sled with my cousins.  Mom is already feeling a little sad about not being able to be at home for Christmas each year but she loves Dada's family so much.  I have a lot of cousins on Dada's side of the family as well.  There are 9 of us so far and we will all be together next Christmas for the 1st time! Mom LOVES the snow so much and I got to see a lot of it when we were in Buffalo visiting for Thanksgiving but I wasn't able to play in it.  Dada can't wait until I am old enough to teach me how to snow board on the same mountains that he would snowboard in high school!

Thanksgiving recap in pictures:

Nursing Update!

    The last time I posed about nursing, Leland was only 9 weeks old.  I can't even believe that he is 46 weeks old now.  It doesn't even seem possible.  In my last breastfeeding post Leland had just began nursing without the nipple shield and I closed the post with, "maybe one day I will be able to nurse in the ERGO!"  To update, we definitely nurse in the ERGO, meal times, pumpkin patches, walks, shopping, blueberry picking.   I guess I can check that off of my wish list of things I hope to be able to do with Leland! We are still a great nursing team.  We have our ups and downs with nursing and I still ask my LLL leader friend about 10 questions a week about breastfeeding; I still think that maybe "my supply is getting low"; I still worry about how much milk I have frozen; I still feel like I can't be away from him for longer than three hours without having my pump so I don't miss a feeding, and I still pray that he is gaining weight and getting enough milk each time he nurses.
     We are going on 10 and a half months of being exclusively breastfed (except for the wonderful formula that he had in the hospital when his blood sugar dropped scary low).  I figured when I had Leland that I would nurse for a year, if I could make it that long.  Well, after a 3 day nursing strike and my mother being diagnosed with breast cancer when Leland was 4 weeks old (she has gone through radiation and as far as they can see, she is cancer free and healthy! Thank the LORD!), I can't imagine stopping anytime soon.  I have read countless articles that state how "women who breastfeed reduce their risk of developing breast cancer by as much as 25 percent. The reduction in cancer risk comes in proportion to the cumulative lifetime duration of breastfeeding. That is, the more months or years a mother breastfeeds, the lower her risk of breast cancer."  After receiving some of the scariest news a daughter could ever hear, i am going to nurse as long as possible to lower my risk as much as possible.  As for the nursing strike, he decided one Thursday afternoon when he was just 7 months old that he was NOT going to nurse.
    This nursing strike was so painful both emotionally and physically.  He was teething at the time and had a double ear infection and was on antibiotics.  He had bitten me for the 1st time and I took the advice that I had heard from countless people, "yell NO in a stern voice and put him on the floor so he knows he can't do that to you.  He needs to learn that he can't bite.  Flick him in the cheek or bite him back so he knows what it feels like." When he bit me the first time, it hurt! I yelled "No!" and placed him on the floor in his nursery.  I can only imagine how much hurt he felt from having his Mama yell at him like I did and turn him away from the one constant thing that comforts him most.  He began sobbing and never took his eyes off of me.  I scooped him up and cuddled him and tried to nurse him again.  He wouldn't nurse for me.  This went on until Monday morning.  It was devastating.  Everyone kept telling me that it wasn't my fault and yelling like that wouldn't cause a nursing strike.  Well, in my heart I know it did.  When I called the LLL leader she gave me the best advise for a biting infant.  She told to me talk to him.  Explain to him that biting hurts Mommy and that Mommy can't nurse if he is biting.  Speak in a calm voice and use my words.  Funny how I remind my students that every single day and now I was the one who needed the reminder.  Each time we tried nursing I would try to use a positive voice and act like it was ok if he wasn't ready to nurse.  Nate would help me talk to Leland when he didn't want to nurse.  I was feeling so sad and like such a failure that often times I would just cry.  I know many people are thinking, it was only three days get over yourself but when you nurse your baby 10-12 times a day, that is 30-36 times of trying and failing.  The emotional aspect of this strike was horrible but I was in so much physical pain as well.  People kept saying, can't you just pump, pumping isn't that bad. I know pumping isn't bad, I do it 2-3 times a day, everyday, in addition to nursing 6-8 times a day.  I usually respond really well to a pump but that is when I have a little nursling helping things along in between pumping sessions.  I was engorged during the nursing strike and NOTHING would come out when I would pump.  Wearing a shirt would be painful as well as lying down.  I would try to pump after each nursing try, I did warm compresses, cold compresses, massages, power pumping (10 minutes on, 10 minutes off for an hour), I even got really great at hand expression but the milk just wouldn't flow out.  Thankfully, I had a neighbor who was renting a hospital grade pump that she was willing to loan me.  It is a closed system and I had my own tubing and parts that I had kept from the hospital. I used that pump about 4 times and on the fourth time, the clogs came out and the milk was flowing.  It felt so good.  I finally was able to take a deep breath.  I used the pump for another 12 hours and then on Monday morning, Leland woke up, Nate brought him downstairs for me and laid him on my lap.  He rolled towards me and began to nurse.  He looked up and smiled while nursing and acted like the last three days had never happened.  I was about to start crying tears of joy, but Nate was in the kitchen mouthing to me, don't cry, don't cry! We didn't want to scare him away again!  And that is how the nursing strike began and ended.
    We are still nursing on demand these days.  He is still eating a lot of solid foods.  I bet it is about 60% breast milk, 40% solids.  I nurse him before each snack and meal to make sure that my supply stays up.  If I was home with him each day, I wouldn't be as worried about my supply.  But being away from him for 7 hours a day, Monday-Friday, I try to nurse as much as possible when we are together.  It is still hard for me to be away from him for more than a couple of hours on the weekends.  We nurse about 6 times a day on the weekdays and about 8-10 times on the weekends.
     I have a lot of frozen milk in the freezer and I freeze the fresh milk each day and use the oldest frozen milk to send to school with him.  Our plan is for me to continue pumping until the end of school, May 16th, and then just nurse until he is ready to wean and continue to feed him the breast milk at meal times in sippy cups.  That's the plan.  However, Nathan and I have learned these last 10 and a half months that babies do not always stick to the parent's plan!

Month 6 & 7

     Mom has realized these past few months how freaking hard it is to update a blog while working full time and taking care of me! I am actually 10 and a half months old now and Mom and I are just now catching up on my 6,7,8 & 9 month posts.  She still needs to write about my 1st Thanksgiving and Christmas; my first snow; update her breastfeeding and cloth diapering adventures.  She's very grateful that I still take really great naps so that she can get all of the daily household chores finished each night before Daddy gets home from work. 
     Now, to update you with how much I have been changing and growing and EATING these last few months.....

Age: 6 & 7months!

Weight & Height: I had an appointment and had to get some more shots on October 8, 2013.  I was such a brave boy.  I only cried for a second and then immediately nursed when the nurse finished!  I am still a petite guy.  I weigh 16 pounds 2 ounces and I am 25.5inches tall!  That puts me in the 5%!  Oh yeah!  I am developing just fine and I am growing, just on my own little curve! 

Things I enjoy: I am LOVING food.  Mom has made me so many different types of food.  Some of my favorites are pumpkin with banana, peas (like my daddy), green beans with some garlic powder, apples-carrots-cinnamon, sweet potato - pear, broccoli-apple, and sweet potatoes with cinnamon.  Mom spends about 3 hours on the weekend and makes about 80-90 ounces of baby food.  She steams or roasts everything and then uses the immersion blender to mix and puree everything.  Then, she freezes it all in ice cube trays and when it's all frozen, she separates them into Tupperware containers that have been labeled with sharpie marker on painters tape.  Painters tape is moms new favorite took.  She has notes all over the pantry door for meal planning, pics on the fridge, and has everything labeled in the fridge and freezer with painters tape.  Its easy to remove and doesn't leave any sticky residue behind! She also uses painters tape to label all of the frozen breast milk!

What I have been up to: Things have been busy around here.  I am still loving school and my teachers are amazing.  I have never cried at school and Mom is so happy about that! I don't know what she would do if I was a sad baby at school.  We celebrated Halloween and I dressed up as a cheeseburger!  My puppy brother was a hot dog and mom and dad were mustard and ketchup.  We had some friends and family over to the house and ate pizza and just hung out on Halloween.  It was very stormy and people were not trick-or-treating. One weekend, mom, dad, and I all went to Birmingham for a fun weekend with all of moms friends.  We went to a pumpkin patch and I loved playing with the small pumpkins and touching the stems.  I tried chewing on the rough stems several times, but Mom snatched them away from me.  My friends all brought their Halloween costumes and we dressed up for about 30 minutes, just long enough for my mom and all of my aunts to take some pictures!  I was a pretty adorable cheeseburger!

 

In September, I went to my first hockey game!  I loved it so much.  The noise and lights and people were so entertaining.  I was so good because I was occupied with all of the action.  Dad was so excited that I liked it.  Mom was excited that I looked absolutely adorable.  I wore a Nashville Predators shirt, my croched hockey skates, skinny jeans, and my Buffalo Sabres winter hat.  All of the people sitting around us wanted to take my picture and just kept telling my Dad that he is going to love to watch me play hockey one day! 

 

One morning, Dad, Linus, and I met Mommy downtown and watcher her "run" in the Color Run with her co-teachers!   It was fun and there was so much excitement that I enjoyed it.  Mommy ran the Color Run last year too when she was 20 weeks pregnant and wore a pink sock and a blue sock because she and daddy didn't know what I was going to be! How the times have changed!  After this race, she went to lunch and had to excuse herself to go pump in the car! I know that she does that a lot.  She brings her pump everywhere, just in case she will be away from me for longer than about three hours.  When it is longer than that she gets pretty uncomfortable so she just pumps and freezes it and Dada gives me a bottle.  

I also got to meet my Great Aunt Judy!  I went to Atlanta with my Mommy and got to hang out with Great Aunt Judy for three whole days.  It was so much fun.  She fed me a lot and played with me every second.  She even wakes up as early as me so we got to play together each morning! 

We had a little bit of breastfeeding DRAMA at the beginning of October.  I went on a Nursing Strike for 3 and a half days and oooohhhhh was Mommy sad.  I am pretty sure that we will tell you all about in in a separate post! It started with an ear infection and I had to be on my first set of antibiotics.  I was also getting my top two teeth in so it made for a VERY interesting weekend.  My Grandma and Grandpa from Buffalo were here and I was not the happiest of babies.  Thankfully they were mostly here to visit my brand new cousin, baby Gray, who was born on September 28th.  I am so excited that he and I are just 6 months apart and living just a few minutes away from each other.  I just know that he and I will be the best of friends!

The next few months got even busier as I became even more active than I already was.  Hopefully we can catch all the way to month 10!