Six Months

Six months.  Six months!  How is this even possible?  I could never have imagined how much my world would change in just half a year.

Erik is the most incredible child I could ever ask for.  He's growing like a weed and does something new and fascinating every day.  He is so smart and so chatty already.  He is trying so hard to crawl, but he is already mobile by rolling and scooting around.  His smile just slays me.  I am so blessed.

He is so fascinated with everything.  It's such a wonderful thing to watch him learn and explore the world.  It's also amazing to watch him do even simple things like balance when he sits up--who knew watching someone sit up would be so fascinating!

I am also very lucky to be able to take him to work almost every day with me.  What a delight!

Erik is running a slight fever today (to be expected--he had immunizations yesterday and is teething), and still managed to smile almost all day.  It is amazing!

Check out the link to my Instagram page on the side for more pictures, but here are a few (and a video!) from today (well, actually, the last two pictures are from last week).  :)

5 months

This week has been crazy!  Finally glad to sit down and write this post.

Speaking of sitting, Erik is now sitting up a lot (with a little help), pulling himself up, and even sitting by himself for longer and longer bits of time.

Erik loves to inch his way around.  He is getting very mobile, between the rolling and inching.  I see crawling coming up very soon.

Erik is absolutely in love with his "cuddle monkey".  Every time he sees it, he reaches out for it, then gives it a cuddle and a kiss after it is given to him.

Erik loves squash and bananas best of the foods he has so far tried.

Erik loves playing with his toys and is becoming quite dexterous.  He has an incredible grip.  So far, he doesn't yank (much) on hair, but once he gets a hold of it, it's hard to get it back!  He loves to hold everything, especially when in his car seat or swing or some other such thing--he's always holding onto the side with at least one hand.

Erik is growing like a weed--over 15lbs and 25"+ long now.  It's amazing!  He's about to out-grow (length-wise) his rear-facing car seat.

Erik has become a fairly consistent sleeper, going down about 10 at night and up at 5 in the morning (this morning he slept in until 6:30--score!).

Erik is so chatty.  He has such a good tempered personality, but he definitely likes to let everyone know what he is thinking!  I just wish we could understand more of it...

I can't even believe it's already been 5 months.  Where does the time go?

<3

Little dude just hangin' out at work.  So cute!

Five months--coming soon!

Today was a crazy, busy, wonderful day.  I haven't had the time to write up Erik's five month post yet, but I am hopeful to do it tomorrow or Tuesday. 

In the mean time, here are a few pictures from Erik's baptismal recognition at church today.  He was baptized on 10 April while we were at the hospital, but today was the public acknowledgment of that baptism in the church. 

I have lots of pictures from the family gathering today to go through, and I'll tell the story of Erik's little baptismal cap in my longer post.  I just wanted to share something briefly before the end of his 5 month birthday. 

Also, happy grandparents day to all his grandparents!  I am so glad we got to spend the day with them and my own Grandfather.  What a blessing.

I love this little guy so much.  He melts my heart every single day and I couldn't be more proud.

Four months

It is so hard to believe my sweet baby boy is already four months old!  It seems like so much has changed in the last month.
 
Erik jabbers constantly, with facial expressions to match so it feels like a real conversation!

As it turns out, my little dude is a morning person (my husband and I are not).  He is so sweet, smiley, and cuddly in the morning, however, it's hard to be mad about that.

Erik scoots all over the place, doing the G.I. Joe crawl and pulling himself around.

Little dude is very strong, and can pull himself up to a seated position.  He is doing great at holding his head up, and will sit up all on his own for short periods of time now (he is learning balance quickly).  Still a ways to go yet for unassisted sitting for long periods, but we are getting there!

Erik sleeps for long stretches at a time now, although not always all through the night.

Baby boy is teething, with his bottom two teeth already poking through.

My sweet Erik surprised us recently when he demonstrated his ability to roll from his back to his tummy... off the couch and onto the floor!

Little guy is enjoying trying a bite or two of orange yogurt and banana baby food.  Not going nuts with it yet, but he is the best behaved baby I've ever seen with food: it all stays in his mouth.  I can't believe it.  He really likes his rice cereal, too.  He gets that sometimes in his bottle.

He continues to love baths and water.  He just figured out this past week or two how to splash.  I see swimming in his future!

Bottom line, my baby Erik is so sweet, so precious, and so stinkin' cute that I still have no idea how Matt and I get anything done around here.  Like right now, I'm trying to type this and he is just staring at me with his big blue eyes and it just makes me melt.  :)

My little jabberwocky!

Happy 4 months, baby boy!

A bear butt!

Three months!

It's hard to believe my baby boy is already three months old (also, as of today, exactly 13 weeks).  He laughs and smiles and giggles.  He's already teething, and his first two bottom teeth are finally peeking through.  For over a week now, he has been sleeping 7-8 hours a night (unfortunately for me, when he goes down at 9 or 10, 7-8 hours of sleep still comes too early...).  He is starting to mimic other people (i.e. if I smile, he smiles).  He is starting to push himself up, and getting closer and closer to rolling over.  He still loves his baths, and has learned to kick in the water.  He got his first set of shots two weeks ago, and took it like a champ.

He is an absolute doll.  I love this baby boy so much.  My little dude.  My chub-chub. <3

Follow my Instagram (@cologirl27) for your daily dose of baby boy cuteness!  You can usually find pictures on my Facebook and Twitter (@smarnold89) as well if you aren't on Instagram.

2 months

My little dude is two months old today!  He holds his head up very well now, loves tummy time, and laughs as he punches the cat rattle on his play mat.  He likes his swing, and is starting to babble non-stop (not that this should surprise anyone who knows his father and I)  He smiles a lot, and likes to flirt by smiling and winking.  He now weighs 11 1/2lbs, and is 22 1/2" long.  He went on his first trip to the mountains in the last month, and definitely enjoys father-son time when momma is busy.

I can't believe how much and how quickly he has grown and changed!

See more pictures on Facebook (although I've not been on my computer much to upload them lately--hopefully I can get to that soon) and Instagram.

One Month

It is hard to fathom that, as of 11:55pm tonight, my sweet little dude is already a month old.  Where did the time go?  The whole idea of being a mom is still somewhat surreal, and here it has already been a month since my Erik made my world a much better place.  Actually, he's made a lot of worlds better--first time grandparents (on both sides!), a first-time great-grandfather, aunts (and aunties) and uncles--some for the first time, cousins, extended family, friends... it is incredible to me the love with which this baby is surrounded--and I am so grateful for that.

The other day, someone made a very interesting observation to me.  She said I never complain about having a baby.  I suppose there is a lot I could complain about... I mean, who wants to change stinky diapers and run the risk of being peed on?  Who wants to be sleep deprived (despite Erik being a pretty good sleeper, I'd say it's safe to say my husband and I are pretty well exhausted)?  Who wants to spend all day getting nothing done (okay, maybe some people would like that, but it drives me crazy)?  Who wants to be spit up on?  Who wants to have to recover from pregnancy (and a c-section) while doing all of that?  The list is endless, but I keep coming back to one thing... how on earth can I complain when I have such a perfect, wonderful little man?

I couldn't be happier or more proud.  I didn't think it was possible to fall in love so often, but it is.  I didn't think I could love my husband any more than I did before our child was born, but I do.  I had no idea how much more I would adore and appreciate my momma after becoming a momma myself.  The last month has been such a learning curve--and not really on baby stuff (I was almost 11 when my now 13 year old sister was born, so bottles and diapers and clothing changes were second nature before my little dude was born).  I feel like I have grown significantly as a person.  I feel like my husband has, too.  And I feel like the two of us have grown together in a way we never could have before.  It's quite wonderful.

Erik has grown and changed so much the last few weeks.  He's finally gained enough weight that he doesn't swim in his newborn sized clothes.  He is much more alert and awake for longer periods of time (which means I get to see those beautiful blue eyes!).  He is quite the squirmer--he can scoot all over the place with a lot more proficiency than I'd like for him to at this point.  He's starting to hold his head up for several seconds at a time.  He's a great car traveller, and seems to really like going for walks.  He adores all his family--smiling at them all and knowing who to have "stranger danger" with and who not to already.  He seems to already know how to get me--he will lock eyes with me, cry a little, and stick his little pouty lip out, then smile to himself.  He makes the most adorable sounds, from his cry to his coo to his snorts to his squeaks.  What an amazing, amazing little boy.

I could go crazy posting pictures, but instead I'll just direct you to my Facebook Album for Erik.  I've had to refrain from posting all the pictures I take, I think everyone would get bored of them.  When I take his "one month" picture later today, I'll post that here.