6 Month Dr Appt

Max had his 6 month appointment with Dr Kleber this morning. He did so good showing her everything he's learned and all of his new tricks! Like.......

sitting up....and

playing with Laney!

She was a little disappointed in his weight again at this visit. The once "big baby" we had, is now following in his sister's footsteps when it comes to the curve on growing!
Max's 6 month stats are:
Weight: 15 lbs, 6 oz (10%)
Length: 27 1/4 in (75%)-much higher than Laney
HC: 16 in

Max is eating his cereal in the morning, which consists of oatmeal with prunes and apple juice with it. We did the rice cereal for awhile, but the poor guy was getting all "bound up" and switched over to oatmeal since it's a little higher in fiber. That's what we did with Laney too. He gets nursed after his cereal, and then naps for about 2 hours. He then nurses (or gets a bottle when I work) at lunchtime, then naps again for about 2-2 1/2 hours. He gets another bottle (or nurses) after his afternoon nap and then gets to be up and play for awhile! He gets a container of baby food at dinner (usually around 6pm), then nurses again around 7. We have added a little bit of formula to his diet to get him used to that. My gut feeling is he will be completely done nursing by his 9 month appointment, but who knows! Old Momma can't keep up with how much the little guy needs!

Dr Courtney said we can now add a container of food at lunchtime, which he'll LOVE that! We are also moving him to Stage 2 babyfoods. Maybe there will be more of a variety for him, since he's not a fan of the green veggies!

Max got 4 shots today and a dose of oral medicine. He took the oral med like a champ...shots, not so much! I will be taking both of the kids back for the flu shot before we head to Mexico in 3 weeks (per Dr's orders!). Can't wait for Mexico!!

Happy 30th Birthday Erin!

OK, well it's official....I'm now 30 years young! :) When I woke up this morning at 5:45 to workout, I thought to myself, "Why do people get so bent out of shape by turning 30 (or any age!)." Having a birthday should be exactly the opposite...celebrating another wonderful year that God has given you. That's exactly what I did today....I got a great workout in, spent some quality time with the kiddos before work, had an awesome day making people beautiful, then spent the evening with my FAVORITE people, at my FAVORITE Mexican restaurant, El Nopal!

For those of you who know me really well, you know that I like to celebrate my birthday all week long (sometimes all month long too!). "It's my birthday month" is what you might hear come out of my mouth during the month of October. Anyways, my mom and Pat had family and friends over on Friday for a cookout and kept the kids overnight for us. After the cookout, we hit up a couple "hot spots" in Seymour (AKA....K of C & Bubba's!). Thank you everyone who came out with us to celebrate! We all had a great time! My wonderful family gave me a new camera! I cannot wait to have some extra time during naptime tomorrow to play around with it. A couple of my friends have the same camera and the pictures always turn out great! It'll be nice taking a picture of a moving target (kids) without a delay and without red eye! Stay tuned for pics this weekend!!

Happy 6 Months Max! (a day late!)

He's 1/2 a year old now....WOW!! Every single day, we enjoy the smiles, the laughs, and the talking from this little man. His 6 month check up is on Thursday, so I will post more then...until now, eat your heart out ladies!!

Fall Is In the Air

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall! As much as I love the warm summer months, I was very much ready for the cooler fall weather. Fall is probably my favorite season...wearing jeans and sweatshirts, the smell of leaves burning, my birthday, but most of all.....OKTOBERFEST! Benji and I grew up going to the Oktoberfest every year on Thursday-Saturday. As kids, I seriously think we lived up there. As much as we love it, we don't spend as much time up there as we used to. We both volunteered to work the Beer Garden, like we do every year. And, of course, I worked the Tri Kappa cake walk. We didn't get to go to the parade this year because of the rain and cold weather. Maybe next year!

This year, Nana bought Laney a ride bracelet, which was good for 3 days. We took her up there 2 of the days to let her ride whatever she was able to ride. Of course, she wanted to ride the roller coaster, but she wasn't tall enough...maybe next year, Laney Bug! Max just hung out in the stroller while his big sis rode as much as she could. We went up there one day with Tiffany, Charlo, & Betsy. Laney enjoyed riding the rides with her buddy!

Havin fun on the motorcycle!

Merry-Go-Round with Tiff and Charlo!

Max can't wait until he and Betsy can ride together!

She LOVED the slide!

Fun in Goshen

We made a roadtrip this past weekend to visit some friends up in Goshen, IN. Sarah, my best friend from ISU, and her family live up there and we try to get together several times a year. She has a little boy, Jake, who is a few weeks older than Laney, and is expecting baby #2 in November! We had so much fun hanging out while the kiddos played and visiting Shipshewana, and Amish village. It was interesting seeing all of the Amish and their lifestyle. We even got to ride in a buggy! Laney enjoyed that!

Laney and Jake playing with the trains. The blonde girl is their neighbor, and her name is Laney too! We called her "Big Laney" and our Laney was "Little Laney"!
Drivin' the Escalade

They were dancing and singing to the radio

On our buggy ride!

Sarah snuggling with Max

5 Months

Max is 5 months old today! He is getting to be such a BIG boy! He is, by far, one of the happiest babies ever! It's so easy to get a cute little smile on that face!

He doesn't have a Dr appt this month, but I took him in to get weighed just for his baby book and he was 15 lbs, 4 oz. I don't think that's 100% accurate since he had clothes & his diaper on, and that means he also gained 1 lb, 5 oz in a month. Who knows, though! He's a growin' boy!

We have started him on solids and he LOVES it! We're giving him his cereal in the morning after he eats. We just started giving him baby food in the evening before his last feeding. He hasn't found anything he doesn't like yet. So far, he's had sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, & apples. Sweet potatoes and apples are his favorite, so far! He actually threw a fit tonight when we stopped giving him the apples and I tried nursing him. I think he would have rather had more apples and not Mom! Made me kinda sad! :(

He's getting stronger and stronger every day. He is rolling over, but still doesn't do it a lot. He is now working on sitting up. He loves sitting in his Bumbo seat and laying on his tummy!

Happy 5 months, Max! We love you!

First Day of School

Laney had her first day of preschool today! She goes to Zion Lutheran School on Friday's from 8:15-11:00. We have all been talking about school these past few weeks with Laney, just to get her used to what might happen there. Earlier this week, I told her she would be playing with London & Anna Fish (London's mom works with me, so they know each other well). Laney didn't know Anna Fish, but I do her mom's hair. When I saw Anna a few weeks ago, we talked about preschool and I told her Laney would be in her class. So, of course, I came home to tell Laney she would be in school with Anna. She looked at me like I was nuts because we have a cousin named Anna (who is much older than Laney!), so I'm sure Laney was thinking, "Why would she be in my class!?!" So then, I proceeded to say, it wasn't our cousin, Ashe's mommy, it was Anna Fish, a different Anna. So now, when you ask Laney who she plays with at school, her reply is, "Anna Fish, London, & Mrs. Sutherland." Laney also got a phone call on her first day of school from Mamaw Dee, who sang her "School Days" to her. Every year, Grandma Dee sang to me on the first day of school. She did this with all 4 of her children, all 7 of her grandchildren, and now she's moving on to her great-grandchildren. It just brought tears to my eyes hearing her sing to Laney...so special!

The famous first day of school shot that my mom made me do EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR.....I had to stand by the front door on the first day of school with my bag. I mean, really....even my senior year in high school!! Makes me laugh that I'm doing it now too!

A little nervous at first...when we first walked in, she looked around and said, "I want Mommy." I said, "Laney, Mommy's right here." Still looking around, she said, "I want Teddy." I gave her Teddy, and off she went.....

Playing with the trains (notice Teddy sitting on the table watching her!) :)

Sitting at her spot at the table doing a puzzle

Overall, Laney did wonderful on her first day of school! Mommy was worried about 2 things...

1. She would cry and scream when I started leaving. She didn't. Although, I did get a little teary eyed walking to my car! :)
2. She would have an accident during school because of being so preoccupied playing. She didn't!

Mrs. Southerland said Laney really did a great job. She said that she got sad a couple times and asked for Mommy, but that was it. When we got in the car, she showed me her apple paper and told me that the number was a one on it! Hey, I guess she paid attention in class!

What a great day for Miss Laney. After school, Mommy & Daddy took she and Max to lunch. Laney said she wanted a quesadilla, so El Nopal it was!