Month seven

It is hard to believe that another month has come and gone. The summer is almost over, and we will be going back to school soon. E-man now weighs fifteen pounds and three ounces. He is starting to get chunkier cheeks. It is pretty cute. Each night as I put him to sleep I always check for incoming teeth. He is showing all the signs—and finally TONIGHT one day before he is 7 months old, there is a little hint of a tooth coming in on the bottom—I know what you are thinking…just in time for the airplane...it was our first thought, too.

Here are some more highlights from the month…

Took his first road trip to Oklahoma and I know I am biased, but he did an amazing job in the car. I have such a good baby.
Celebrated his first Fourth of July, including fireworks and sparklers…such a good boy, never got scared and then slept right through all the booms.
Starting eating fruits and veggies…and loves them all, except green beans.
Had meat for the first time the other night, wasn’t the biggest fan—we’ll continue to work on it.
Is ready to crawl, moving more and more each day, we know it is only a matter of when now.
Can pull himself up to the standing position, if he is holding on to one of us, we may skip the whole crawling thing altogether.
Went swimming in a big pool at Uncle Michael’s house and LOVED it
Went to summer “camp” while mommy taught fine arts camp at a local church. It was actually just the nursery for the teacher’s kids, but everyone there loved him, of course.
His absolute favorite toy is the TV remote, Chris and I continually losing the remote, because we have to hide it from him.
And, Chris and I are falling in love with him more and more everyday!

First OK experience

A long car ride…Meeting Great-Grandparents, Great Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins…A craft show…Casa Bonita…and a long car ride home. It has been a jammed packed weekend, because we drove up to Oklahoma to visit family. E-man did pretty good in the car on the way up there, but we drove mostly after his bed time, so he slept most of the way. He also slept most of the way home also. It was a pretty good first traveling experience.

On Saturday, E-man went to his first craft show. We went with his Great Aunt Carol and Grandma M., he pretty much had the VIP treatment, about thirty minutes into the whole thing, and he ditched me and the stroller to sit on Carol’s lap in her wheelchair. She broke her leg a few weeks ago, and this was her first trip outside of the house that wasn’t a doctor’s office. We only spent a few hours there, because it was starting to get to be nap time, and we were going over to Ethan’s Great Aunt Linda and Great Uncle Brad’s house to have lunch with the McDonald family. We had a great time—thank you Brad and Linda for having us! Ethan got to meet his second cousins Braxton and James.

That evening, after a long nap (both Ethan and me) we went to Casa Bonita. This is a place that Chris and his cousins grew up going to and I guess it is a tradition that has moved to the next generation. We all enjoyed the Mexican food, while Ethan had pears, but he didn’t seem to mind, and even got to raise the flag to let the waitress we wanted more food. We then went to the arcade, and E-man got to watch all the lights, and once again got the VIP treatment on Carol’s lap.

We all had a great time spending time with family. It was a great trip!

The infamous Casa Bonita...Uncle Tim, sorry you couldn't make it, I raised the flag for you.

Ethan and his Great Grandparents

Ethan and Me, Megan and Braxton, Jennifer and James

Great-Grandpa McDonald and Ethan

Great-Grandma McDonald and Ethan

Braxton reading to Ethan...too precious!

Shopping at the Tulsa Craft show
Tickel Monster Great Uncle James...Ethan looks concerned, but he was really enjoying it!

It sure does taste good, Great Aunt Carol.

This is how Ethan spent most of the car ride. What a good baby!

Maggie and Katie deciding who was going to drive home.

Fireworks!

What a wonderful Fourth of July. E-man went swimming in a big pool for the first time. I am proud to say that he loved it, and wasn't ready to get out, but Mommy and Daddy thought 30 minutes was plenty of time. He then proceeded to take a really long nap, we finally had to wake him up about 7:00, I never thought he would sleep that night. But, he did actually right through all the fireworks. About 8:30, we went out to play with the sparklers. He was mesmerized by the sparklers and loved them. Then some of the neighbors started to shoot fireworks off. Surprisingly it didn't seem to bother him. He even followed some of them into the air as they exploded. He actually loved it, he was laughing and jumping all around in my arms. The only part he squirmed at was when I would cover his ears right before the explosion.

Grandpa L's little boy, going to love fireworks. :)

Month Six

E-man is a half year old today. WOW! I can’t believe that in six months my little guy will be a year old. Over the past six months, and I guess before that, everyone kept telling me that the six month mark is the best, because he can ‘do’ stuff. It is true, he is sitting up, grabbing at toys, rolling everywhere and when Chris and I walk in the room he gets a great big smile on his face—it is priceless. Today we went to the doctor and got shots. Once again, he did good. I am so blessed with a wonderful baby.

Here are some highlights from the past month.
Weighs 14 pounds 9 ounces and length is 25 inches (both in the 8 percentile) a little small, but I promise he eats (check out the pictures). Head circumference 17 ¾ inches, 85 percentile—now wonder his clothes don’t go around his head easily.
Bedtime is about 7:30-8:00 and he usually wakes up at 6-6:30 (sometimes earlier, sometimes later--ahhh, summertime)
He ate rice cereal for the first time…now he is starting to enjoy it. For his half birthday he ate strained peas.
Went to his first Astros game
Went swimming in his froggy pool
Rolling everywhere, we had to put up a barricade of pillows around the living room
We went to Mother Goose time at the library that just opened down the street from our house
He can sit up without assistance, although he still falls to the side sometimes, it doesn’t seem to faze him.
We hung out with our friend Leila at her family’s new house. They used to live on our street, but moved away a few months ago, we miss going on walks with you guys.
We watched the United States soccer team in the world cup, the picture below was from the game against England.
Loves my Ipod, especially when I play the Elmo's World that I downloaded. He holds it like a little TV.

Thank you for reading me books, Daddy!

Watcha looking at, seeing who can get into more trouble? It is a toss up.
Leila and Ethan

Yummy, strained peas!

Look at me, next step crawling.

USA! USA! All set for the Fourth of July.

Go 'Stros..

Yesterday,we went to the Astros game for Chris's first Father's Day and E-man's first 'Stros game. I have to say, my baby did really well. The first time the crowd cheered, he kind of froze--it is a lot of new noises and a lot of loud noises to process. He was a big hit with the people sitting around us, they all thought he was super cute...good to know that it isn't just me that thinks he is a cutie pie. He slept from the third inning to the middle of the sixth inning, which I was impressed with, because it was loud. He never really got fussy, which I was also impressed with, but by the time the Astros lost the lead in the ninth inning and the tenth inning started, we knew that our time was about up and we left the ballpark. The Astros just couldn't keep the lead that they held the ENTIRE game....I guess that is the story of this season.

Even with our rally caps on...they couldn't make it happen. Astros 4 Rangers 5 in 10innings.

A Father's love never ends....

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

We had a great father's day. First, we went to breakfast and then to the Astros game with Grandpa M. and Uncle Michael (more pictures later). Then we came home and Chriswatered the lawn. E-man and I went out to "help" and I ended up stripping him down to the diaper and we went running through the sprinklers. He was a little shocked the first time, but the next time he gave a full belly laugh.

Yummy!

Last night was a big night at our house. E-man ate rice cereal for the first time. I actually did pretty good. I don't know you look at the pictures and tell me if he enjoyed it...

Licking the bowl clean!!!