Weight: 17.4 lbs.

Height: 27.5 in. (Although I’m probably measuring wrong… since that’s what the doc measured him at last month)

General Observations:  This little boy is so much fun!  He’s also very smart.  I love watching him observe the world around him!  This month it’s been fun to watch him entertain himself with the simplest things… bubble wrap, paper (he loves paper), plastic bags, the remote, keys, ribbons… He is both fascinated and entertained by them, which makes this momma very happy!

Jedidiah is also fascinated with our cat (much to his dismay).  He loves to chase him around and gets so excited when he sees him!  His little arms go up and down with excitement and you can tell that he wants to pet his kitty SO BAD!  The cat is pretty good with him too, wary (as he should be), but still trusting and sweet with him.  He’ll let Trent or I “help” Jedidiah pet him, even though he occasionally comes away with a handful of fur.  He also likes puppies and wants to pet Nana and Popo’s dogs every time we’re there.

Jedidiah has started following me EVERYWHERE!  Wherever I am, he is there also.  He follows me in his little walker and watches or “helps” me clean, load the dishwasher, cook… you name it.  I have to be careful when I turn around so I don’t trip over the little man!  He’s always at my heels!

Jedidiah has figured out how to help get himself out of his car seat.  As soon as we unbuckle him, he helps pull his arms out and leans forward so that we can lift him out.

He’s also been laughing and giggling more this month.  At first it really took a lot of effort to make him laugh, but now he laughs at everything!

Health:  Poor guy has a gunky eye again.  It’s nothing more than a clogged tear duct and our pediatrician says it’s no big deal, but it looks rough.  Momma had a week or so where I wasn’t feeling very well and I worried that he might get whatever I had, but prayer worked to keep him healthy while I worked through it.

Jedidiah also ended up with two little blisters on his toes.  Trent took him across the street in his walker while he played basketball and the kid literally wore holes in his footy pajamas!  He’s recently learned how to stop, using his little toes as rudders.  Little did we realize while he was out there that he was ripping up his poor little feet!

Eating: He tried his first foods this month!  We introduced him to watermelon in a little mesh sucker thingie (sorry, I have no idea what the technical term is) and he LOVED it.  You could just hear him sucking away!

He’s also tried avocado, banana, and potato.

Of course we are still primarily nursing.  This kid seems to think he’s a pro or something.  Any time that I don’t use the nursing pillow, he nurses in the craziest positions!  He’ll start in a normal spot and then literally work his way all the way around to the other side.  He also likes to nurse kneeling down nowadays.  It’s funny to watch but a little bit crazy to manage!

Whereas Jedidiah used to rub my arms or my chest while nursing, lately he’s shown much more of an interest in feeling our faces.  He especially likes the feel of daddy’s beard.

Sleeping:  Jedidiah was finally sleeping pretty normally.  He was going for about 7-10 hours without eating and then he would nurse and go back to sleep.  We had a few 11 hour nights right at the beginning but then I got a clogged milk duct because my boobs were getting so engorged going that long without feeding him.  We both found a happy medium between these times and then he would go back to sleep.  He was still sleeping for 11-12 hours a night up until this last week!  I think either his teeth are bothering him, or he’s going through a growth spurt, or he’s just having fitful sleep because of all the milestones he’s hitting and the things he’s learning.  Now he’s back up several times a night!  He had also gotten better about napping… until he started pulling up.  Now I can’t just leave him in the crib… he immediately stands himself up and cries and cries.  I tried going back in there to lay him back down every few minutes, but he wasn’t having it.  Any suggestions mommas?  It’s not like we were getting long naps, but I was thankful for any little break I could get (plus, he’s a much happier baby when he’s not tired, and I’m a much happier momma when I can get things done!).

 

Diapers:  Well, it seems appropriate to mention here that we had our biggest blowout to date at the very beginning of this month.  We were at church and Trent had him in the carrier.  He had just woken up and we were going to head home.  Trent took him out of the carrier and started to hand him to me when I realized that he had poop on the back of his outfit.  So we went in to change him… not realizing how bad it was!  This kid literally had poop all the way up to his neck!  If we would have been at home, we probably would have just cut his onesie off and thrown him straight in the bathtub, but alas, we were in our church bathroom, so we just had to wipe him down with wipes and wash out his clothes as best we could.  It was a memorable moment.  We weren’t even mad, we were impressed!

He’s wearing size 3 diapers now and we’ve noticed that he’s leaking out more at night.  Like nearly every night for about a 5 night stretch, so I’m not sure if the diapers are too big, or if it’s just a different brand that fits him differently, or if I just need to make sure I change him in the middle of the night.

We’ve been doing much better with the cloth diapers lately.  The ones from China seem to fit him better now that he’s a little older and they have such cute designs on them!

Clothes:  This is the first month in a long time that we haven’t felt like we needed a bib at EVERY moment.  The past couple of months have seemed like a monsoon was coming out of his mouth ALL THE TIME.  We couldn’t do anything or go anywhere without a bib.  And, quite frankly, we were going through a lot of bibs each day.  After about an hour his bib would already be drenched through (and sometimes his outfit underneath too).  Somehow this month the drooling has seemed to slow down a bit.  Not that he’s stopped drooling, but it’s tamed itself down for now.

Dressing (and changing) this boy has gotten much more difficult!  He is SUCH a wiggle worm!  We’ve gotten pretty good at dressing him while he’s in a crawling position or in any other contorted way he ends up, but it’s certainly not easy!

He’s also started trying to look over the edge of the changing table (or any dangerous edge, it would seem).  I’m not sure if he’s a daredevil or if his depth perception is starting to develop, but we have to watch him like a hawk (we always do anyways)!

Social:

Right on his 6 month birthday we attended a crawfish broil that some of our neighbors were having.  They had invited us earlier in the week but when it came to be Sunday, the weather was not very cooperative.  We were pretty sure it would be cancelled.  We drove around to check and just happened to see that they had rented out the hall just down the road.  So we ended up eatin’ good that day!  We carried Jedidiah’s little walker down with us and let him scoot around on the hard floor chasing some of the other kiddos that were there.  That was probably our favorite part of the whole shindig- watching him interact with the other children.  He laughed and laughed at them and the kids kept doing silly things to make him laugh.  It was so much fun to watch!

We had a family lunch at The Egg & I right before Jedidiah’s 6 month check-up.  Thankfully daddy was able to take a half-day and come to our appointment with us.  While we were there, Jedidiah was drinking from our water glass.  He really wants to be able to drink like we do.  Now we can hardly drink anything without him wanting to take a sip!

“Aunt Dot” came by for a visit one Friday afternoon.  She came bearing gifts for our little guy.  She’d just spent some time in Florida visiting Universal Studios and had bought Jedi a little souvenir- E.T.!  She said she thought of him because of his big blue eyes.  It was very sweet.  She also brought us a cute little summer outfit that says “Rad like Dad.”  He will look very cute in it!

My best friend, Traci, had a birthday party for two of her kids born just a few days (and years) apart.  It was a color party… you know, like a color run.  Unfortunately, Trent and I were late so we missed most of the color fun, but we still didn’t leave unscathed!  Dylan managed to douse us with what little color was left… so here we are… first white, then very pink!

We took a little trip to Georgetown to celebrate our friend’s mom’s birthday with a luau.  On our way we stopped off in San Marcos to meet up with one of the girls in our old youth group.  She’s now a junior in college!  Man how time passes!  We enjoyed our chat and she enjoyed hanging out with the little man.

After a nice time talking with her, we went on to meet up with Heather and Zach, our friends from China who just happen to live less than 2 hours away from us!  We had a great time at the luau celebrating Heather’s mom Shelly and then spent the night with them there.  There were some storms that night and we weren’t comfortable driving back.  Anyways, it really was a blessing because we were able to attend Zach’s church the next morning. He pastors a small church plant called the Church at Round Rock.  It was a pleasure to hear him preach again (we’d heard him several times while we were in China) and we were able to have some time together to catch up after service.  We really treasure these friends of ours and were thankful to have been able to go!

On our way back from Austin we stopped at BUC-EES.  For as many times as I’ve driven that stretch of I35, I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never stopped there.  Neither had Trent.  We enjoyed looking at all the stuff they had, but between the gazillion people  that were there and it getting close to feeding time for Jedidiah, we didn’t stay very long. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stop there and I’m sure we’ll get the chance to visit again.

I helped my girlfriend Abby run a nature camp for a few mornings for some of our friends’ kids.  We enjoyed the nature trails and learned about lots of cool things.  We looked at different bugs and insects, searched for evidence of animals that might have been there and talked about the flood waters that had deposited a large amount of trash in the park.  Oh yeah, and we learned The Scat Rap… a rap about animal poo.  The kids loved that one!  Jedidiah loved being outside (even though momma got eaten alive by mosquitos) and he even has little fat roll tan lines now!  BAHAHAHA!  They’re so cute!

We finally had the chance to celebrate my father-in-law’s birthday with a trip out to Top Golf.  Now, not being a big fan of golf myself (I find it excruciatingly boring), I didn’t expect to enjoy it so much, but the facilities were great, the food was delicious, the weather was nice, and the golf was actually… fun!  It was a really nice time to spend with family and we all enjoyed ourselves very much.

We spent several afternoons visiting his daddy at work- playing with his kids and helping him pack up his classroom.  It was a lot of work, but we’re all  so excited that school is out and that daddy will be home for the summer!!!

Likes:  Simple things: paper, napkins, straws, bubble wrap, ribbons, magnets…  This is also the first month he’s shown any interest in toy cars/trains- he sits or lays on his side and rolls them back and forth.  He’s developed an affection for the game “Peek-a-boo” and loves it when older kids play with him.  My friend Abby’s kids came over to play and she caught this adorable photo of her boys playing with Jedidiah.

Jedidiah also likes musical instruments.  Nana bought him a xylophone which he quickly figured out.  He’s also enjoyed strumming the guitar (or banging on it) and playing our piano.  He also likes listening to different music and sometimes even sings along.

This little boy still enjoys his books and loves banging on them and flipping through them, looking at the different pictures.

Jedidiah is a big fan of nature.  He loves to be outside, playing with leaves, sitting in the rocks, anything.  Every time we go out walking in the stroller, he takes a piece from our bushes along and often holds it the entire time we’re out.  We usually bring a back-up one just in case he drops his first one.  I love that he loves to be outside so much!

Dislikes: Laying still for any amount of time!

Memorable moments and firsts:

He’s gone mobile!!!

• Jedidiah figured out how to go from a lying down position to sitting and back to crawling.
• Speaking of crawling, one afternoon Trent and I were hanging out with him in his room and Trent had just polished off a bag of chips.  Jedidiah started playing with it and soon realized that if he put both hands on the bag, he could use it to scoot himself forward.  So he would go to a crawling position, then scoot the bag forward until he was on his belly, then he would get back into crawling position and scoot forward again.  He did it for a good couple of minutes.  We were so impressed with his resourcefulness!  He’s such a smart boy!!!
• He’s took his first few crawling steps and now he crawls like a pro!  It’s so cool to watch him crawl to Trent or I.  I love that he wants to be with us and now he can get there on his own!
• He’s started pulling up on everything lately!!!  He particularly likes using the coffee table and banging on it as loudly as he can.  He even walks along it, but it doesn’t stop there… he’ll use just about anything, including the rocking chair, as you can see below.  He hasn’t quite figured out that pulling up on things that move isn’t the best idea…

We introduced a sippy cup since he’s shown such an interest in drinking out of our glasses.  He really liked it, but hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it.  He could get the water in, but he didn’t know to swallow it, so it just kind of ran out of his mouth and dripped down his chin.  Now, though, he has figured it out, and besides the occasional drips, he drinks like a pro.

We finally got to use our pool!  After a learning experience with a failed inflatable pool, we had gotten a hard plastic one.  And the day after we got it, it basically rained for the next few weeks in a row.  So our first time using it was actually on Memorial Day.  He and I got in the pool and he splashed around and played with his toys.  He also liked leaning over the side so that he could play with the grass.  We had a lot of fun with this little pool and I anticipate much more fun as the summer progresses!

Jedi started clapping and waving his arms up and down with excitement.  He hasn’t quite figured out how to clap with his palms open, but he has the concept down!

He’s “graduated” to riding in his stroller facing forward now.  We’ve ditched his car seat and just started strapping him in instead.  He loves to face forward because he can see so much better!  One night we were out and about on a walk and we ran across some bikers coming out of a nearby restaurant.  Jedidiah showed quite an interest in their motorcycles, and randomly one guy whipped out a toy motorcycle from his bike’s storage and gifted him his first toy motorcycle (well, it’s actually his second, but it’s the thought that counts!).  It won’t be able to come out of the box for a while (because of small parts), but it was a really sweet gesture and Jedidiah loved playing with it regardless.

Jedidiah went down his first slides this month, both with mommy or daddy of course.  He went down a slide with daddy at his work during recess and mommy took him on a (small) waterslide at Six Flags Fiesta Texas.  He also had his first swing experiences.  He seemed to like it and even pumped his little feet to get himself going!  I love his smile in this pic!

What about mom?  Well, I’ve started a new business venture from home, working as a health and fitness coach for Beach Body.  I’ve really enjoyed it so far- I love their vision and heart for changing lives for the better.  It’s all about relationships, support and accountability!  I’ve already loved the community that I’m in!  However, that being said, I sure feel much busier trying to juggle this new stuff with a now-mobile baby and trying to keep up with the house… AND Jedidiah deciding not to take naps in his crib.  I definitely find that I don’t get as much done during the day as I would like to, and I’ve been more tired because of him waking up more often during the night.  On a positive note, starting this new job has forced me to be more intentional about where I spend my time and prioritize my life better.  I feel like I’m making healthier choices for myself and honestly, working out every day does help me to feel energized and good about life!  But I sure am ready for Trent to be home during the days!!!

Daddy time:  This photo is my absolute favorite one of Trent and Jedi from this month.  I’m not sure what it is about it, but every time I look at it, my heart just melts!!!

Trent loves taking Jedidiah out and showing him new things.  One of the things they did this month was play basketball together.  Jedidiah loved watching him bounce the ball and shoot it in the air.  He also loved the free reign and being able to walk wherever he wanted.  It is always so cute to watch the two of them together!

Thanks so much for reading!  Until next month…