Teething

 Yeah, we still go to the swings a lot.

Bradley is teething and it's been rather horrible with him up every couple hours during the night. Until last night, when he only woke up once the entire night! Glory glory hallelujah, this is what hours of consecutive sleep feels like.

I woke up at three expecting to have to go up to check on him, but he was still asleep! That's the worst part of all this, I still wake up at odd hours even if he doesn't. He's trained me. Then he woke up at five and seemed to be doing fine but he was making noise, so I turned off the baby monitor so I couldn't hear him unless he truly wailed (going for the parent of the year award here). He went back to sleep on his own for the first time EVER in the middle of the night. And then he woke up at 6:30 and did the same thing and once again I turned off the baby monitor so I wouldn't have to hear him unless he really wailed. He did just fine and Nathan said that when he went to get him at 7:00 he heard squeals of joy as he walked up the stairs to the baby room. That little boy is so stinkin' precious.

Despite the teething we're having a blast with this child. We're only a few days away from Bradley turning six months old and we now understand what we've heard about how fun this age is. There are so many giggles and smiles now and he's getting more and more mobile.

The other day I lay on my back on the couch and had him sit on my stomach leaning against my legs while I sang songs to him and he was entranced. Entranced I tell you. And a few nights ago Nathan and I were playing cards after dinner while Bradley played in his exersaucer by the table. He was staring at me and would laugh and smile whenever I looked over at him. Then I felt bad because I wanted to have him look at Nathan too so I tried to turn the exersaucer so he’d grin over at his daddy too, and he kept rotating on his own so he could keep on looking at me. Things like this make a mother’s heart melt. And it’s not like he doesn’t adore his daddy too, there is great excitement when Nathan gets home from work every day. Huge smiles and giggles. And I can’t get him to be as snuggly and calm with me as he is with Nathan. Although I got to have another afternoon nap with him cuddled up against me the other day. Glorious cuddles!

We recently decided to try out the sippy cup for our son because he’s been grabbing at cups, bottles, and chairs (yes, chairs) and trying to suck at the top of them. The sippy cup said it was 6 months plus and Bradley was barely 5 months, but in the tradition of my mother I choose to believe that my child is highly advanced and can do all things early. The jury is out on whether or not that is true in this case because Bradley was able to use the sippy cup with some assistance from his daddy, but he quickly figured out that we were trying to sneak milk to him NOT FROM MOMMY and pitched a fit until he got to nurse properly. Ah well. It’s just a good thing I’m staying home with him or this refusal to drink milk from anything but Mommy would have been more of an issue.

No, I do not think this is correct. Where's Mommy?

And in honor of Nathan, I got Bradley yet another Superman outfit! Behold the Superman pajamas!

Another fun developmental milestone has been Bradley's discovery of his little privates. They are absolutely fascinating to him, and what better time to grab and handful of his bits than when I'm changing his diapers. I don't care if he wants to grab his little privates, I'm sure it's very exciting, but I draw the line when it's diaper changing time. So there's a lot more going on when you change a diaper these days, you really have to be on your toes. He always looks at me a little incredulously when I have to wet wipe a roaming hand. Ah parenting, I just can't wait until I'm having to potty train him.

Parenting has been quite the journey, even in the first six months. I feel like Nathan and I are a better couple now, you quickly learn which methods of communication work and don't work when you're sleep deprived for a few months straight. "I love you" and "you're doing a great job" seem to be very helpful things to say on a regular basis.

But it's all worth it for this wonderful little boy. We went away to Pink House with our friends Brendan and Heather over the weekend and had a blast. Here are some family flannel shots that believe it or not were not planned in advance.

Yeah, that's the view from the front deck. Not too shabby.

Our wonderful friends Brendan and Heather.

Here is my new favorite picture of Nathan and Bradley as Nathan is reading to our little boy as part of his bedtime routine.

Poor Nathan was a champ on the night that the teething child couldn't settle down in his crib. He took one for the team and there were some couch cuddles which did not result in as much Daddy sleep.

We love going to Pink House, it's the same place we went with Nathan's Idaho family. It's amazing what a difference it makes to be out of the house for the weekend, the to do lists go away and we actually relax a lot more. There were a lot of games on this trip, but the most popular was definitely Settlers of Catan. Nathan had never played before and won 3 out of 4 games. Guess who has a new favorite game.

And HERE are his amazing 6 month photos we just had taken. I had to kneel behind him in a very awkward position in order to hold him up for the block photo. Worth it!

Love how this one captures the light in his eyes!

We were pulling his fingers out of his mouth for most of these pictures. He loves his fingers oh so much.

So. Cute.

Coeur d'Alene Trip

We took this guy to Coeur d'Alene over Labor Day weekend to visit some of Nathan's relatives.

Woohoo, a roadtrip sounds like fun!

 We had a pretty good time in Idaho, a huge thanks to Nathan's Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Larry for letting us stay at their place!

That said, it was interesting sharing a room with Bradley again. He would wake up if we talked, or even tried to whisper to each other. So we had a great visit but I was very very happy to get him off to his own room again. I can't imagine co-sleeping with this kid. It's hard enough to sleep in a bed with a husband and cuddly cats. I leave to feed Bradley in the middle of the night and when I return I have to try to find a way to wedge my way back into the bed. We have a king sized bed, you would think this wouldn't be an issue. Silly me.

That said, I am VERY pro co-napping with the child after trying it out with Bradley the other day after coming home from a swimming excursion with another mom. That may have been the most snuggly hour of my life. Bradley doesn't cuddle yet (he's typically far too busy for such things) so this was particularly amazing.

Snuggles!!!!!!

My wonderful wonderful view

Anyway, Coeur d'Alene was a lot of fun. We saw friends in Spokane on the way over and spent time trying out the swings at the park which was a lot of fun. And we found a nice park with swings in Coeur d'Alene as well, in between visits to see Grandma Jerry.

Grandma Jerry is Nathan's dad's mom and she is Bradley's great grandma. She has some medical issues the week before we came out but she still felt well enough to spend some time with her newest great grandchild.

 Bradley LOVED his great grandma. We visited a total of three times over the weekend.

Bradley enjoyed getting to crawl all over Grandma Jerry

Grandma Jerry may have enjoyed it as well

We also got to see Bradley's Aunt Abby, Jenna and Ryan (second cousins), and Robin and Randy (first cousins once removed). I can thank the Meister family reunions I went to as a child for teaching me the correct terms for extended family. That and all the fun grammar games we got to play. There are far too many English teachers on that side of the family (says the girl who majored in literature in college).
 

With Aunt Abby

Ryan was actually really good with Bradley, Bradley just happened to be very sleepy and fussy when he got to hold him

Me saving Ryan from having to hold the fussy child.

We gave Bradley a fun ball and he started howling. Being the good parent I am, I laughed at him. And then quickly put him to bed, poor tired boy!

The gang. We got a lot of good family time in, it was a great trip!

Bradley impressed everyone with his great love for nature. He was stripping so many leaves off the tree in front of the house that I had to spend a bit of time across the street with the trees at the community garden. He had started dragging them off by the fistful, 5 or 6 leaves would fall at a time. He's was a bit of a menace.

Here are some family photos we got in. So pleased whenever we get photos of the three of us.

Bradley looks adorable here

Aaaaand he's chewing on his foot. His favorite foot, he only ever chews on the right one.

We had a wonderful time and were patting ourselves on the back for beingso awesome at traveling with an infant when we got in the car for the ride home. And then we hit Labor Day traffic and things got bad. Bradley woke up and nothing would calm him ... except for the sound of his parents singing to him. We sang to him for an HOUR. Do you know how short most children's songs are? Row row row your boat lasts about 15 seconds. We had a song sheet from our parenting group that we went through a few times and I was on my fourth round of You Are My Sunshine when Nathan turned on a mix cd that I had made for the trip and we started to sing along to gems such as Call Me Maybe, a number of Katy Perry songs, and a bit of hip-hop. Bradley was very impressed by our rendition of California Love. I don't know if we win a parenting reward for our ability to comfort our child in a clutch situation or if we should be punished for singing Justin Bieber to our child.

Since We've Been Home

Bradley has many books, but only likes three. Brown Bear Brown Bear, Barnyard Dance, and Doggies. It's lucky I like them because I end up reading them all 2-3 times per day. Although Bradley is working on learning to read them on his own

Ah yes, this is an excellent book!

Bradley went to an Iowa State football game watch and then cheered his daddy on at his softball games the next day. It was a sports weekend for the little guy and his poor mother. Actually, sports outings have gotten a lot better for his mommy ever since he came along. I no longer have to play on the softball team! I am legitimately afraid of the ball and they still wanted to have me play. Now I have a bayybeee and I have to watch him and barely pay attention to the game except for when Nathan is up to bat. At which point there is a lot of cheering and whistling. He's studly and I want to make sure everyone knows it, especially Nathan!

Bradley is a little blurry here, but I know Heather will be happy to see this photo of her with the cute boy!

How cute is Bradley's Iowa State Jersey?

Mommy showed up after shopping and cuddled up on her boy

Yep, Bradley had about had it with football by the time I got to the game. I feel ya kid, I feel ya.

Going out is much more complicated now that solid food is involved

And we are currently in the stage where we enjoy how grabby he is. I'm sure we'll grow tired of it but right now it is super adorable to have little arms stretching out for anything within his grasp.

We also went up to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Redfern while Nathan was away on a work training trip in St. Louis for a couple days. Grandpa and Grandma were quite pleased to have this smiley boy around, he was not lacking for attention. We also got to see Great Grandma and Grandpa King (my mom's parents) and Bradley still doesn't make it far into Patty Cake without shoving his fist in his mouth.

With Great Grandma. I need to take a video of patty cake next time.

And there are SO many smiles these days. Nathan and I are just loving life with this little guy. I don't know if it's that he's sleeping better at night or how much he's developed in the last month or so but we are loving everything to do with Bradley. He smiles pretty much all the time now. And when he smiles, it's with his whole face. Cannot get enough of this, we're excited for all the things we'll get to do with him in the future but I also kind of want to freeze time and keep him like this forever. He's just so wonderful.

 We are also discussing creating a "muscle man" Bradley calendar for 2013. Stay tuned!

Oh yes, so many muscles!

5 Months Old

Bradley turned 5 months old last Thursday! To celebrate, I took him to our nearby park for his first swing ride! I think he liked it ...

 

He kicked his legs and happily hollered a bit, I'm going to take him to the park every day if he keeps this up!

 Note the amazing new hat courtesy of our friend Jeanne Moore. Too too adorable!

Then some cool big kids showed up and things got even better! Bradley grinned even more when there were other children to watch and listen to.

Bradley and Friends

And here are our friends Christine and Jeanne spending some quality time with Bradley after bringing over some awesome presents for the baby!

Bradley loves to be surrounded by the ladies

He looked beyond adorable in the hat, although it took a little while for him to get used to it.

It's fashion, kid. It's not supposed to be comfortable.

He also showed off for Christine and Jeanne by eating solid foods in front of them and then having a very solid poo a few minutes later. One minute he was playing on the bed, the next minute Jeanne was asking why my son was turning purple. In all fairness, it was more of a deep red ALL OVER his face. The poor child. And then we laughed at him. Worse and worse for sweet little Bradley.

Revenge

Bradley can give as good as he gets though. All he has to do is have a loud juicy burp in my ear after I've fed him and I have a mini heart attack. Only Nathan has gotten spit up to the face so far though, huzzah for Mommy!

He is also already turning into a bit of an imp. At 5 months! Once I put him in his high chair he hollers at me until there is food in his mouth. And if that food happens to be distasteful to him, like spinach or peas, he'll eat the first bite I sneak to him, grimace and perhaps gag, and then keep his mouth firmly shut for the next spoonful while grinning at me. I grin back at the little imp, act shocked, and ask him why he doesn't want to eat his delicious spinach. He just keeps grinning at me with his mouth closed tight until I bring him something more reasonable, like applesauce. I'm pretty sympathetic about these things really, I still think many vegetables are gross and I'd rather eat applesauce myself given the choice.

Parenting

This is a picture of great parenting in action. Yes, that's Daddy letting his child hold his beer. Child likes this.

Look at those eyes

But he does this with anything we hold up in front of him, we tested it out with a salt shaker the other day. We just don't take pictures with the salt shaker.


We just got back from a weekend away at Coeur d'Alene visiting Nathan's family, soon there will be a blog post sharing our adventures!