Naamen 6 month old pictures

We took Naamen's 6 month old pictures with Johnny Bear and I must say, he is quite the handsome lad, even if I do say so myself.  I did wet his hair before the photo shoot, otherwise it'd be anything but flattering. 

Naamen and Johnny Bear

Naamen with Johnny Bear at his one month birthday.

8 and 9-month old pictures

I finally got around to BB's 8-month old Johnny Bear pictures four days before his 9-month old birthday :(  So I am just lumping them together.

He finally got a bottom tooth pop out on Easter Sunday (we called it the "resurrection tooth"), and his second bottom tooth is making it's way through.  I tried to picture his teeth in this picture, but was not very successful at it.

Yup, this picture pretty much captures his sweet little personality.

Emma's 8-month and 9-month JB picture.

7 month pic

This picture was taken about a week after he turned 7 months.  

As always, better late than never.

Emma's 7 month picture

Even now, a little over a week before turning 8 months-old, he still has not teeth.  They are coming in!  I can see them!  And poor Little Man, I can tell they itch like crazy.  He gnaws on just about anything he can get his hands on.

He has finally started to eat a little more (this whole exclusively breastfeeding an almost 8 month-old is no fun).  I got some rice cereal at church last week that somebody was giving away.  I don't know if he finally "got it" or what, but he has started eating it.  Halleluiah!  He'll eat a little banana or pear chunks as well.

He is sleeping better.  I only feed him once during the night, but still wakes up crying about one additional time.  We just let him cry.  Right now I think it is mostly because he is flipping to his stomach, but he hates being on his stomach, so a lot of times I'll just go in and flip him over.  Just like with Emma, at 9 months old is when we are going to "pull the plug" and be done with night feedings.  And just like with Emma, still plan on breastfeeding him until he turns one.

6 months

Once again, better late than never--

Baby Byron's six-month Johnny Bear picture.

My handsome boy!

Six-month check-up numbers:

Weight:  17 lbs 10 oz (55%)

Length:  26 5/8 inches (50%)

Head size:  17.5 in (80%)

As you can tell, we make very average-size children (Emma is very average as well).

Emma's Johnny Bear pic

Emma's numbers

5 month

This post is long overdue, but our JB 5 month picture is finally up.  We took it yesterday, 10 days past LB's 5 month birthday.  Oh well... it is what it is.

 Emma's 5 month picture

And just like with every photo shoot we have these days, Emma wants to get a hold of the camera and take her own pictures.  If you were wondering what my lovely self looks like in the morning, the following picture is courtesy of our little toddler.  Enjoy!

 

Byron's 4 month

Baby Byron is 4 months old!

We had a little difficulty getting a good picture of him this month.  A almost-crying snapshot will have to do.

Bunny needed a picture as well.

And let's not leave Emma out!

His numbers:

Head size:  16.5 inches 50%

Length:  25 inches 50%

Weight:  15 lbs 11 oz 50%

My question is:   

How do two above-average parents make such average children?

Emma at 4 months.

Emma with JB.

Three months

This is almost half a month late, but here it is... Little Byron's three month picture.  I didn't get a good one of his whole body, so this one will have to do.

Emma thought this looked like fun and wanted to take a picture with JB as well. 

 

Emma's three month picture.

Two months

Little Byron is two months old... and he is a little giant!

He has gone from wearing newborn/0-3 months clothes to 6 months old clothes overnight!  It's like he completely skipped size 3 months.  One day all his clothes fit him, then the next nothing. 

He will have his two month checkup this week, and we'll really see where he falls on the charts regarding size.  In the meantime, all we can do is speculate. 

Two-month picture with Johnny Bear.

Oh, how they love each other!

Compare to Emma's two month picture.

He is a sweet, sweet baby.  His hair is starting to grow back, and thus his cowlick at the top of his forehead is returning.  For almost 2 weeks now, he is only waking up once during the night, which is a huge improvement from Emma at this age.  

Emma never spit up (okay, I lie -- she maybe spit up a total of 20 times), but Little Byron spits up constantly.  I cannot keep up with burp clothes fast enough.  Today he threw up straight at me.  He got my hair, shirt and all over the floor (thankfully he missed the furniture). 

One month

Little Byron turned 1 month last week, so it's time to bust out Johnny Bear once again (Emma's JB 1 month picture).

A few recent things about him:

-  He has started to loose his hair.

-  He has started sleeping 7 hour sleep stretches at night... yeah!

-  He has started smiling and cooing.

12 months

We have come to the end of an era -- this is our last pictures with Johnny Bear.  We have taken a total of 13 pictures like this -- newborn through 12 months.  You can find all of those pictures under "Johnny Bear" on the bottom right of this page.

Emma had her 12 month check up yesterday and here are her numbers:

Weight:  21 lbs 6 oz -- 55%

Length:  29.5 in -- 50%

Head size:  18 1/8 in -- 70%

A few happenings:

*  Emma was weaned from breast milk completely last week.  She was on formula for a few days before switching completely to whole milk.  This has been a bit of a hassle since she is not too fond of it, but oh well.

*  She can sign for "milk", "more", "all done" and "bye bye" (she waved bye bye to Dr. Miller yesterday after her appointment.  I guess she was ready for him to leave the room, haha!).  We are working on "eat," "water," and "please."

*  Through the course of this past week, Emma has discovered temper tantrums.  Today she rolled around the floor screaming bloody murder because I had taken a bag filled with clothes away from her.  Needless to say, I am doing lots of praying and breathing during this time, making sure to stay calm and stick to my guns while at it.

11 months old

Ladies and gentleman, my baby girl is 11 months old!  

Do you remember this picture?  She was only one month old.

On July 21, 2012 my Emma girl became one month from becoming a one year old.  We were at Illinois at the time, so her monthly picture with Johnny Bear had to wait until we got back.

She is becoming less of a baby and more of a little girl.  Tears form in my eyes as I type this.  She understands what I say -- she knows what shaking the head "no" means.  She is very obedient.  She will not touch an outlet but instead look at it, look at me, then shake head "no."  If she approaches something she should not get into, all I say is:  "AH-AH."  She then looks at me and shakes her head. 

Last Friday she also did her first sing language.  She signs for milk.  It was as clear as day.  The only problem with that is that now she asks for milk all the time.  The first day I saw her do this I nursed her each time she did it just to reinforce it, but then after that I went back to nursing normally.  Which leads me to the following:

I have started the process of weaning her.  So sad!  I know I don't have to, but there are a number of conveniences that I am wanting to get back to that need me to stop breastfeeding.  I will drop one feeding a week until we are all done by the time she turns one.

She is also very vocal.  In particular, when she is with a book or a phone.  She will start "talking."  I guess she has started to associate talking with both of them.  So cute!  She has also started to put the cell phone to her ear.

She has 6 teeth -- four at bottom, two at top.

A few no-nos that took place this month that I was too ashamed to blog about are (1) she fell off her crib, and (2) she was accidentally given some cookies at the church nursery I had made and mistakenly put in her diaper bag.  They had pecans, lots of butter and sugar, chocolate chips, oatmeal.  It's a mystery how she didn't choke to death eating them.  Anyway, that was her first time eating sweets and of course, she loved it!   

10 months

Emma is 10 months old today!  

Emma and Johnny Bear <3

Posing with JB is becoming harder and harder to capture.  This month, instead of chewing on him like she has in the recent past, she decided to hug and snuggle with him.

What has she been up to this past month, you ask?

* She points at things with her index finger.  I am not sure how or where she learned this, unless I do it without realizing it.  

* She claps her hands.  So sweet!  I have somehow translated "Patty Cake" into Spanish and I sing it with her when she begins to clap:

Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Panadero

Preparame un pan lo mas rapido que puedas

Aplanalo, moldealo, y ponle una E

Y metelo al horno para Emma girl y mami

* Aunt Amber has introduced me to smoothies to help me get my fruits and vegetables for the day.  To my amazement, Emma cannot get enough of it!  She is always wanting to sip out of my cup when I am having one.

* She is just now starting to get into animal noises.  She'll say "hoo, hoo" when she sees her toy Doggie. 

* I use to have her wear hair bows all.the.time.  She'd even wear them while she napped.  Now, each time I try to put a bow in her hair she immediately pulls it off and hands it back to me as if saying: "Mama, I think you forgot something."

* She is getting two more bottom teeth.

* She is no longer eating baby food.  She'll still eat it once in a while, but not often.  She would much rather eat what mommy and daddy are having than enjoying her own special food.  Hey, as long as she keeps this up, I don't see a reason to complain :) (I dread a picky eater)

And on to some more pictures of today...

Emma only gets her pacifier when she is in her crib, which has turned out to be a wonderful blessing!  Having said that, she has discovered where I hide it when she is not using it - under her changing table.  So if I loose sight of her for just one second, she'll go straight to her room, pull this little basket and find her paci.  And straight to her mouth it goes!  Today was no exception.

 

Cousin Levi loves Emma.  He came over today and played with her for a few hours in the morning.  His greatest compliment: "I love her round face."  Hmmm... They are good buddies.  We went to the park near our house and each time he would go down the slide Emma would giggle and giggle at him.

9 months old

My baby girl is 9 months old.  *sigh*  Where has time gone?  She is as sweet and as pretty as they come, and is always smiling.  I would say that her most distinct characteristic so far is how much she loves to be around people.  She'll wave and smile and babble to anyone willing to give her a few seconds of their attention.

What has taken place this past month?  Oh goodness, where to begin...

*  She crawls, and crawls fast!  I love to move from room to room around the house and have her follow me.  So much easier on me.

*  For most of the past month, she was still waking once a night to nurse.  A few nights ago, days shy of her 9 month birthday, we decided to cut out that last feeding.  This went much smoother than the fist time we did it a few months ago (when we went from two feedings a night to one feeding a night).  The first night she cried for about an hour from 5:30 - 6:30 am, then fell back asleep till 7:30 am.  Second night she cried herself to sleep, heard a few peeps here and there throughout the night, but didn't see her again till 7 am the next morning.  Third night - nothing.  Score!  Twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep.  My body still does not know what to do with itself.  Though I slept 9 uninterrupted hours last night, I still woke up more tired than normally.  Odd!

*  She can pull herself up.  She still wobbles a bit when she does it, but pulling up she is.

*  She seems to be more responsive of her name.  I believe she is finally recognizing it.

*  She can go up the steps.  ACK! 

*  Her favorite things to babble are:  ma ma ma, ba ba ba, and da da da.

8 months old

Y'all, my baby girl is 8 months old!  

Saturday, April 21, 2012

I think she thinks she is a queen at a parade or something.  She loves to wave.  She'll be in the buggy at the grocery store and spend her entire time there waving at everyone. 

She is still waking up once during the night.  I am going to give her one more month before we put an end to it (aka, boot camp part 2).  Night time waking is not something I necessarily hate.  I actually enjoy it.  It just has to end at some point.  I love spending sweet cuddle time with her at that hour of the night.  

Nursing five times a day.  Much, much, MUCH better than just a month ago when she was still nursing 7 - 8 times a day. 

7 months old

Emma is 7 months old.
*Sigh*
So big, so fast.

Decided to take this picture with her two best pals -- Bunny and Monkey. Faithful companions in the crib.


A few things that have taken place over the past month:
* Bottom two teeth are coming in, which also means unhappy baby girl.
* She can roll from back to front, and as of earlier this week, from front to back.
* She can sit up by herself.
* Still waking up twice during the night *sigh*
* Has developed a love for lovies and stuffed animals, especially Bunny and Monkey (see first picture).

To see older pictures of her with Johnny Bear, click on "Johnny Bear" on the right side of the blog under labels.

Six month pictures with Johnny Bear

Onto our monthly picture with Johnny Bear.

Taken on February 21, 2012 on Emma's half birthday.

I am not pleased with any of the pictures with JB, so I am adding a few others I took that day that I liked better.


Saying her "prayers" -- "Now I lay me down to sleep..." <3


Six month old happenings:
* Emma is now only waking up once during the night, normally at around 4 or 5 am.
* Her naps are scheduled and quite predictable -- 8:30 am, 12 pm and 4 pm.
* Unless her doctor recommends otherwise, I plan to continue exclusively breastfeeding her (no solids) for another full month.
* She now seems to be the most content sitting up. She is still unable to sit up on her own or remain like that unless we hold her or use the Bumbo seat.

5 months old

On to Emma's monthly picture with Johnny Bear.

January 21, 2012 -- 5 months old.

Emma is grabbing just about anything and everything these days.
She loves to explore things by sticking them in her mouth.
She continues to be exclusively breastfed. No plans of introducing solids for at least one more month.

Four month picture

Because we were in Mexico on December 21 -- Emma's four month birthday -- the official birthday picture with Johnny Bear was taken two days later, on December 23.

The biggest changes we've noticed with Emma this past month are:
- She grew out of her 0-3 month old clothes.
- She can hold her head up.
- She can stand on her legs for a long time if we hold her.
- She is very social - smiles a lot in response.
- She has been out of her baby swing for two weeks now... yeah!

One month old picture.

3 month old!

Happy 3 months old to my sweet little Emma girl!

Not the most exciting picture of Emma, but it'll have to do.


Newborn picture

1 month old picture

2 month old picture