Busy Busy Busy

Life is going at full speed for us lately.  I have had a very full plate at work and my little man makes getting any work done at home IMPOSSIBLE.  He is on the move now....crawling like a maniac.  He has even mastered the one step between my living room and dining room.  He gets this adorable look of accomplishment when he gets over the step and it melts my heart every time.  Here he is trying to climb over daddy.

I wish the weather was warmer, although it is the end of January and in the high 40s to low 50s.   I guess I shouldn't complain.  But I wish I could take Dominic outside for walks.  Even when it is a little warmer than normal I am nervous to take him out because he has been trying to kick a cold for a week or longer.  His coughing wakes him up several times at night....well I should rephrase that.  His coughing wakes ME up several times a night.  He seems to sleep right through it.  


Speaking of sleeping, he is still doing great.  He has pushed his wake time back to 7:00 am and I am really happy about it.  I would like to drop a nap during the day, but he needs to be getting more sleep at night I think.


No other exciting news in our world.  Just a growing little weed.  

Could it be....

Dominic is growing like a weed and getting more and more mobile every day.  Last night were sat him in the living room in front of his favorite toy and when we can back in this is what we found....

Are you kidding me!  I think he might be WAY ahead of schedule on this one.  He can also get over a step and go from laying down to sitting.....all in less than a week.  I always knew he would be a big boy before I knew it, but you can never be prepared for how fast they grow.  Here are some more shots of this sweetness.

New Blog

I mentioned in the last post that my New Years Resolution is to improve my photography skills.  I have thought long and hard and think that I am going to include starting my own photography business in my 5 year plan.  This would of course be a side business, as I can not imagine myself not teaching.....for the insurance and pension if for no other reason.  :)


I talked with an old friend from high school who has a similar plan, only she is far more talented than I am at this point.  She gave me some great advice.....and I took it.  I have started a 365 project....or a photo a day project.  I have created another blog to post these pictures on.  I hope you will follow that blog as well and leave your feedback as I progress through this year...in pictures.

www.readbetweenthelenses.blogspot.com

In little man news...he is officially a crawler.  He has been trying for awhile now, but just yesterday he crawled all the way across his room.  It was amazing!  Now he is unstoppable.

7 Months....and Happy New Year

So the little man is 7 months and growing like a weed.  He is babbling more now, and it almost sounds like talking.  He has gotten really good and "dadadadada" which my husband LOVES of course.  I keep telling him that it doesn't count as a word until he MEANS it.  Anyhow, it is evidence that that mouth is going to start running nonstop very soon.  


He is starting to pick up speed with crawling.  He has figured out how to go from a seated position to laying on his belly, but he hasn't mastered the sitting back up yet.  I am sure that is in the days to come.  He can go about 4 solid knees before he topples, but I think he is just giving up.


He is 18 pounds now - which seems huge to me!  But I guess it is time to accept that he won't be a tiny little man forever.  Here is a current picture of my little angel.

In other news, it is 2012!!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!  We survived.....but I'm not really sure if the world is supposed to end at the beginning or the end of 2012, so maybe we have 12 more months.  I bought myself a new camera after Christmas and my New Year's resolution is to use it more than my first one.  I am pretty good about using it to document life, but my goal is to get better technically and learn to take more professional looking pictures.  I bought a Canon EOS 60D.  Here is a picture of it.

My goal is to teach myself rather than take any classes.  I will be sure to share the trials and tribulations of learning my new camera with you all.  

Success on the Road

So Christmas is behind us, and so is the two 6 hour trips with a six month old that we have been dreading.  It was actually much easier than I had expected.  We started the trip to and from at around 3:30 in the morning.  We of course had to wake Dominic up, but once we hit the road he fell right back to sleep.  We were probably 2/3 of the way through the trip before he woke up.  I would call it a fluke, but it worked 4 different times!  We were thrilled!


Dominic was spoiled rotten this year, just as we expected he would be.  He had three holiday celebrations and made out like a bandit at each one.  Here are a couple of pictures to show you just what I mean.

He is going to start crawling any day now.  He has pretty much mastered the backward crawl, and I am confident that the forward motion will be coming along soon.  We have been researching baby gates and will have them up all over the house by the end of the week.  


He is still sleeping through the night, which is making Mommy a really happy camper.  I have loosened up a bit on the schedule, but I try to keep it as consistent as I can.  As long as he takes at least 2 long naps during the day and eats at his scheduled feeding times I am happy.  I have noticed that he really needs his morning nap, which starts roughly 1 1/2 after he wakes up.  He usually takes two more naps, one long and one shorter one.  


We have officially decided to start a 529 college savings plan.  It is time to starting thinking about this little man heading off to college.  I did a little research and it is estimated that by the time Dominic goes to college it will cost roughly $250,000.  YIKES!!

6 Months

Dominic has finally hit the magic six month mark.  It is like they instantly go from being a tiny infant to a kid over night.  We have already started him on baby food, but have been very cautious about what we give him.  At his six month doctor's appointment the doctor told us that we could pretty much give him whatever baby food we wanted and even start him on teething foods like unsalted saltines and plain graham crackers.  We can also start him on water and some juice.  I think we will skip the juice for now, he can't miss what he has never had, and he certainly doesn't need all of that sugar right now.


At his appointment he was a wapping 28" long....in the 90th percentile and in the 50th percentile in weight at 17.6 lbs.  This is all right on track....he is a healthy, happy little man.


We recently let him try the water and he is a big fan!  He is taking it from a sippy cup like a champ.  Here is a picture of him trying it.

It is getting so close to Christmas and we are so anxious to start our own Christmas traditions.  Because we will be traveling for the holidays we had a small Christmas celebration early to celebrate with my husbands family.  Here is Dominic after opening his first Christmas gift.

We went to visit my family this past weekend to see my little brother graduate from college.  While we were there we took Dominic to have his picture taken.  Here are some of my favorites.

Our New Plan

So, after a good month and a half of inconsistent sleeping at night I finally decided that something had to change.  Several people, including some well respected family members, recommended the book On Becoming Baby Wise. 


I decided to give it a try.  I ordered the book on my kindle and read the whole thing in one night.  Needless to say, I bought into the philosophy 100%.  I read the book with an open mind as I have heard that the message is somewhat controversial.  After reading it, I can see why it may not be the right philosophy for all mothers, but it sounded good to me.


I was anxious to get started.  We started the process last Sunday, so we are just about 1 week in to our trial period.  Within a day or so Dominic had fallen into a nice routine that wasn't far off from the path we were on before starting the Baby Wise way of life.  I think this is why I was so comfortable with the philosophy.  


The book stresses the importance of setting the schedule for your baby rather than letting them be the one making all the decisions.  It suggests starting the process just one week after birth, but I am not sure I agree with that.  I do wish I had started sooner than 6 months though.  I think it would have been best to begin around the 2 month mark.  


Long story short, we have designed a schedule that works for our family.  Dominic eats, plays and naps at roughly the same time every day and has been sleeping for 9 to 11 hours since the first night on the program.  We are thrilled!


In other news, we went to pick out our Christmas tree today and had a blast!  Here are a few pictures of Dominic at Cox Farms. (I guess I forgot to take any of the trees ) :)