The Scotts: 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!