6 Months!!

Happy 1/2 Birthday to my sweet little man!! My babydoll turned 6 months old on Wednesday, March 21st and I cannot grasp the fact that Stafford is already halfway to turning 1...time needs to SLOW DOWN! I waited to post this because we had his six month checkup this morning and I wanted to give you all of the stats! Stafford has grown so much and is such a constant joy to Reed and me. In fact, I think that everyone is crazy about our little flirt! So, here we go:

Feeding: Stafford is taking four bottles a day, wavering between 8-10 ounces with each feeding. He's still using Nutramigen, ready-to-feed and even though it's expensive, we don't want to switch him and mess anything up! Currently, he's still eating the Level 1 (Supported Sitter) baby food. He has a fruit in the morning and a vegetable at night. He pretty much takes them down within a matter of minutes too! I think I reported in my last post that he doesn't have any dislikes - that has changed! Stafford is not a fan of green beans at all...hates them! But, he does love sweet potatoes, carrots, peas and squash so I guess we're good on veggies! Of course, he loves all of the sweet fruits...I think he gets his sweet tooth from his momma! We are still taking the Prevacid once day but I know that won't last forever!

Sleeping: Stafford is sleeping wonderfully for the most part! He definitely sleeps through the night but every now and then, he will wake up and cry out or twist around a little. I think this is attributed to teething but it's almost like he's still asleep when doing it so no getting up for us! Because of the acid reflux, he is still sleeping in the rock-and-play sleeper and STILL in our room. I'm not ready for him to be in his own room yet...that means he way to big! :) No, we'll get him there soon...we bought a wedge to put under his crib mattress to elevate it so maybe that will work and the rock-and-play sleeper can be put away for good. I will say, that little item SAVED my "sleeping life." As far as naps, Stafford is not a great napper but he will take two short ones during the day. I usually let him fall asleep (at bedtime) when he wants but it's usually between 8:00-9:00.

Weight & Height: My big boy weighs 15 pounds & 5 ounces!!! Actually, he's not very big but his doctor said that he's doing great and this has been his biggest growth spurt to date. Stafford's height is 2 feet & 1.75 inches. I have a feeling he's going to be tall and thin just like his daddy!

Clothes: Stafford is wearing mostly 6 month clothing now. He does have a few big 3-6 month cotton pj's/footies that he can wear and he's been wearing a few 9 month bubbles (it's HOT HOT HOT here already!) but all around, he's in 6 month. We haven't started wearing shoes yet but I think that is coming soon.

Personality: In two words - LAID BACK. This is the calmest, most "chill" baby I've ever been around. It is so funny to see him just sit back and observe. He is taking it all in, that's for sure! He still never cries and will only fuss when he's hungry and we aren't quick enough with that bottle. He loves a bath and has recently found a love for sucking on washcloths. Stafford is still not a big fan of getting lotion put on him but he tolerates it with minimal squirming now. He smiles and laughs a lot but will make you work for it at first. He's precious and adorable and has the sweetest disposition...hard to imagine me saying that? :) We have gotten into watching cartoons in the mornings and he loves it...Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is a favorite!

Fitness: We are working on it every single day! I certainly do not want to rush his development BUT we are working on sitting up on our own and rolling over a little more. Stafford can sit up for a few seconds before he falls over but he's getting to where he can do it for longer each time. He hasn't mastered rolling over from his stomach to his back yet but he is close. Rolling over from his back to his tummy is easier for him and he does it some. I think he just likes staring at the fan so much that he doesn't want to move!

Routine: I thought I'd add this little section about our daily routine...this is just about every day of the week! Stafford wakes up around 6:30/6:45 every morning (even the weekends!). Since he takes a bottle four times a day, we usually do it at 7 am, 11 am, 3 pm and 7 pm. He has his baby food (twice a day) mixed in between those bottle feedings. He also takes two short naps during his day but when I say short, I mean short...like 45 minutes short. Not a napper! When we get home, we have our veggie, bath and last bottle of the night. Stafford usually gets some quality play time in with daddy and then, I get to snuggle with my little man until he falls asleep!

big smiles!!

cute cute cute (even in squash stained pjs!)

Patycake Kids

Just a little shoutout regarding the CUTEST smocked kids clothes EVER!! This weekend, I'm heading to Dyersburg to do a Patycake Kids spring and summer clothing show. Patycake was founded by a good friend of mine and I'm taking it to Dburg!! Not only do I get to go "home" for a few days BUT I get to show off the cutest clothes! Shannon has created a precious spring/summer line for infants, toddlers and "big" kiddos. Her girl line is so cute it kinda makes me want to have another child...not kidding! Of course, I plan on buying EVERYTHING in the boy line that is offered in a size 12 month. Cute stuff that you can check out here: http://www.patycakekids.com/. If you're in Dyersburg, please stop by Tempe's (this Saturday) from 1:00 - 4:00 pm. If you're not from Dyersburg and want to order something, please let me know and I can place that order for you. Happy Shopping!!!!

P.S. Two of those adorable girl models are my nieces...I think they're born to walk a runway!!

Get You One!!

How cute are these?!! OMG...I fell in love with this as soon as I saw it! One of my super-talented friends recently started making these precious burlap door hangers. She is doing all sorts of designs (her Easter ones are precious!) but of course I HAD TO HAVE the Colonel. So dang cute and an absolute necessity if you're an Ole Miss Rebel!

Big Runner

So, in my last post I indicated that St. Paddy's day would get its due...unfortunately, I took absolutely zero pictures of my little nugget in his shamrock gear BUT I did run (the whole way!!) and complete a 5K last Saturday! I made it a goal to train for a 5K about 7 weeks ago so I found a training calendar online and got to it. I decided the St. Paddy's Day 5K would be my best bet because it was FLAT! :) I am not a runner so I was a little worried about completing this race without walking...especially since I hadn't actually run 3.1 miles yet. But, I did it! I was super slow but finished without walking so I was happy. Sweet Reed gave up the opportunity to actually race it and he ran with me. It was great having him run beside me and encourage me to keep going. With all that being said, I finished in 36:06 with a pace of 11:39 per mile....told you I was SLOW! Now, on to working on getting faster so hopefully sweet Reed won't have to be bored when he's running with me next time! :) See the race results below:
http://msracetiming.com/Race_Calendar___2012.php

Getting Ready for the Easter Bunny

I know that I'm rushing the holidays a little (St. Patrick's Day will get its own post next!) but I couldn't help but post these CUTE items that I aka EB (Easter Bunny) found for Stafford. After much debate (it's always the little things that get me hung up) I decided on Stafford's Easter basket. I knew that I wanted him to have something hand-painted but I couldn't decide if I wanted a pail or a basket for him. I looked around several places in town and online before settling on the most precious pail ever! I absolutely fell in love with this hand-painted pail from SassyfrasDesignz on Etsy:

This particular pail came in two different sizes, which caused more debate, but I aka EB eventually settled on the largest size (10 Quart) figuring that Stafford would "grow into it" over the next 10 years. Plus, we can't have little man's eggs falling out of a too shallow pail now can we?!!

While searching for the perfect Easter basket, I stumbled across these adorable hand-painted wooden eggs from Old Tyme Commissary, here in Highland Village. This store is absolutely adorable and I love an old fashioned toy store. They have such cute things and I love all of the painted stuff they do. I thought these wooden eggs would be a perfect addition to Stafford's Easter basket!! The plan is for the Easter Bunny to add one egg each year so by the time he is grown, he'll have a collection of them to keep! These are really the cutest things because they paint all kinds of different bunnies in various scenes. Since this is Stafford's first Easter, I settled on this baby boy bunny:



They are even painting Stafford's name and the year on the back so he'll be able to keep track of all of his eggs through the years! Needless to say, Stafford's Easter basket goodies have been piling up over these past few weeks so I have a feeling EB will need some

help putting them out come the night before Easter!

A Fly By...

It seems that weekends fly by these days...in fact, time in general flies by, but weekends especially! We had a fabulous weekend that didn't have too much on the agenda. Friday, my sister and 3 of her friends stopped through Jackson (on the way to Destin for their Spring Break) and stayed with us. They also graciously kept Stafford for an hour while Reed and I attended a 30th birthday party at Onyx for our good friend, Sidney Allen. Saturday, the girls got up early to hit the road and I attended a baby shower for my friend, Elisa, who is having a sweet little boy next month. I can't wait for Stafford and Fin to be friends! Stafford got a visit from his Mimi and Pop-Pop on Saturday afternoon, we watched a little Ole Miss basketball and Stafford experienced his first Disney movie - The Sword and the Stone. He loved it!! Sunday was errands, cleaning and sleeping-in since we lost an hour! Not too much to report but we are LOVING this warm, Spring weather that has popped in and we're hoping it is here to stay! Big weekend for me coming up...I'll report back soon with details!! Have a great week!

saturday morning cartoons and pallets on the floor are so much fun

hee hee...cool just like dad!!

Run Reedy Run

A few weekends ago, the fam (Reed, Stafford, Ace and myself) headed north to Oxford for the Run for Hope 5K/Half Marathon that Reed was running in. I may have posted earlier that Reed was going to concentrate on running shorter distances this year in hopes of getting faster. Therefore, Reed decided to do the 5K portion of this particular race. And...HE WON...as in the ENTIRE race! OMG - I was so proud of him! The course was extremely hilly, starting at the Oxford Convention Center and running around the Oxford High School area. His official time was 19 minutes and 58 seconds (whoa!) which put him as the first place finisher. See here for his stats: http://www.racesonline.com/uploads/result/5K%20Cleanup%201.pdf. AMAZING and so proud of my man!

We had a great weekend hanging out with my family (my parents drove down to see the little man) and I was able to get in some quality "Square time" which is always a plus. We lunched at Boure (after a year of waiting to have one, I had 2 of their bloody marys!), shopped and dined at AJAX for dinner. GREAT GREAT weekend capped off with a win!

here he comes, setting the pace

rounding the corner towards the finish line

Happy Monday!!

Happy Monday Everyone! Not sure how you feel about Mondays but this is how Stafford feels:

(that's him sticking out his tongue, btw!!)

5 MONTHS!!!

5 MONTHS = CRAZY!! I really cannot believe that our sweet boy is already 5 months old! Stafford turned 5 months on February 21st so I'm a little late in making this post...oops! He is growing so much and is such a blessing to us every single day. Since we haven't had a doctors appointment since his 4 month check-up, I'm going to have to guess on a few of his "stats" so here we go:

1. Feeding: Stafford has officially entered the baby food phase and it is a MESS (as you can see from my earlier post) but so much fun. Right now we are doing one vegetable at night and four 8 ounce (sometimes 9 or 10 ounce!) bottles of his Nutramigen. On the weekends, we are trying to incorporate a fruit in the mornings to get him adjusted to eating baby food twice a day. Right now, we are eating the Gerber "Supported Sitter" foods and he seems to really like them all. No favorites or least favorites yet although I tend to think he's not a huge bananas fan and he seems to really like carrots and sweet potatoes. To be so little, this dude can EAT! I have a feeling he'll be catching up very quickly with his weight! Stafford is STILL taking the Prevacid once a day but I think we are just about done with that...WOOHOO!

2. Sleeping: Ok, so apparently Momma has a hard time letting go (bad news for Stafford in the future) and he is still sleeping in his newborn rock-n-play sleeper in our room. He sleeps the entire night, usually from 8:30/9:00 pm until 6:30/7:00 am so I cannot complain one bit. I do think it's time to start the transition to his crib, though, because he will soon outgrow the sleeper AND lately, he's been a little restless. I'm guessing he's just not as comfortable in it as he used to be because he's growing and it's becoming a little cramped. We've started putting him down for naps in his crib to help transition him. Speaking of naps, he still takes two a day at day care but they are usually little short ones so he's tuckered out by 9:00 pm.

3. Weight: Not 100% sure on this since we haven't been to the doctor in a month but I'm guessing he weighs around 13 pounds. He's growing, though, because he's developed a fat roll or two on his little thighs...LOVE IT!!

4. Clothes: Stafford is now wearing 3-6 month clothes (pjs, gowns, cottony separates, playsuits) and some 6 month outfits (mostly Polo rompers or something to that effect). He can still wear a few 3 month things, like his smocked/dressy stuff but for the most part, I've had to put those tiny things away...sniff! We haven't ventured into the shoes yet but I'm guessing I'll start that here in the next month or so.

5. Personality: Boy, does this kiddo have a personality!! Of course he's mine so I'm a tad bit partial but he really does have the sweetest, calmest disposition. He will sit there and smile at you all day long. He's very content just hanging out and we literally can take him ANYWHERE without the slightest issue. He's super happy in the mornings (that didn't come from me), can stare you down in an instant and does have his serious moments. He loves to ride in the car and/or stroller, loves playing with his wubbanub and Sophie la Giraffe and loves being tickled. He has recently gotten into "squealing" and he TALKS TALKS TALKS all of the time (that he did get from me)!! He still only gets fussy when he's hungry and we aren't quick enough with that bottle. Other than that, Stafford is a very chilled out kiddo.

6. Fitness: This category is not aptly named but it makes me laugh to call it fitness so I guess I'll keep it! Stafford is still not on the triathlon circuit but he's getting there! :) He hasn't really rolled over much since the first time I posted about that...maybe twice since then. He still hates tummy time but not as bad as he used to...it helps for me to get on the floor with him and show him toys. We are "working" on his sitting up and he's doing pretty well. The Bumbo seat helps a lot with this I think. Pretty soon he'll be sitting up all by himself!! He is a strong little thing and loves to push off against the edge of his bathtub.

stafford and mr. lamb

so happy to be 5 months old!!

a little more serious about turning 5 months old!!