Aunt Lana's wedding

Devlon's Aunt Lana got married last night in Austin! Lana and Devlon's Mom are sister. We left Cass with Pops & Gigi who were quite happy to baby-sit. It was just easier to leave him at home, since the wedding was at 6pm. His night routine is dinner around 5:30 or 6:00, playtime and then bath at 7:15. He is usually nursing by 7:30 and in bed by 8pm. So to mess all that up, try to keep him awake and get home from Austin.........nope! I know some people think we are nuts trying to keep his schedule normal, but he loves it and it makes for a much happier baby (and mommy & daddy!). So, we had a fun adult baby free evening with Devlon's family. But it was the first time he went to bed without nursing. He took the bottle fine and was apparently asleep in no time. Guess Pops & Gigi have the magic touch. The wedding was in this darling hall in Austin with beadboard walls/ceiling, hardwoods, stained glass windows and old fashioned chadeliers. There was yummy food and lots of wine. The ceremony was nice and Lana looked beautiful!

Aww, don't we clean up nice? No baby food, snot or drool on these outfits!

With cousins, Megan & Stuart (Lana's children)

The cousins! (minus Ryan)

9 months!

Trying to eat the rubber ducky.

Loving his new toy

8 months with the bear

You people aren't feeding me fast enough! I'll help myself! Cass' first taste of rice and beans.

Do I have something on my face? Seriously Mom, stop with the pictures!

I can't believe my little man is already 9 months! We went to the doctor on Friday and here is the report....

Weight: 20lbs 15oz (50-60th percentile)

Height: 30 1/4 inches (99th percentile)

Head circumference: 95th percentile

He got a lead level check and an iron check, both which were good. He also got a TB skin test. He did great with the prick for both tests! The doc said he is "long & lean". He has obviously slowed a bit in the weight department. We had a good check up. Doc said to keep focusing on a healthy diet, but thought Cass would continue to be tall and thin. He currently likes: egg yolk, tofu, fish, chicken (real, not baby food kind) veggies, ALL fruits, oatmeal, lentils (well, he doesn't love them but I make him eat them!), rice & beans (good thing we live in SA), pasta, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc. He loves to feed himself but makes quite the mess. He is working on his sippy cup but doesn't have it down yet. He is a good eater for sure!

He is still sleeping 11-12 hours at night. He is almost crawling. I know........a late crawler! Hopefeully that means an early walker. He is pulling to stand and sometimes pulls things over on him. He is so curious and into everything. He loves the remote and phone and has learned how to turn the phone on speaker so he can hear it and see it light up. He is still a snuggle bug at night.........nurses himself to sleep. It is at night when I just want to soak him up.......his smell, his sounds, how he feels in my arms, and to feel him breathing against me. He is such a joy, such a happy boy and has this wonderful laugh. He laughs so much at the dogs and when we make funny faces. It is so cute to hear his little belly laugh. I can't remember life without him, and I don't think I want to!!!

A Boy and his Dad.....

These are from a few months back........in fact, I think they were his 7 month pictures. But oh so cute not to share. It is really fun to see Devlon and Cass together. Devlon is such a wonderful Dad and Cass just loves him so much. You can see it in Cass eyes when he sees Devlon. Devlon gets to spend every Wednesday with Cass and I think that time together without me is so good for them! While I think that Cass is a Mommy's boy now, I know that will change soon enough!

My beautiful boy

First Beach Trip

We were in Rockport this weekend for a family reunion! Lots of fun with the Fam! Cass seemed to enjoy the beach......but was a bit apprehensive of the crashing waves. He was a trooper the whole trip!


Too cool.....chillin' in his shades

Getting used to the sand

With his favorite Aunt Bibi

With Mommy

A fun profile view playing with seaweed under the shade of a lounge chair

6 months

Wow. My baby is already 6 months! Well, almost 7 months by now. But again, I am so behind in blogging! 6 months was a busy month for us. We went for his check up and his stats were:
19lbs (80th percentile)
28 inches (95th percentile)

We were given the go ahead to try meats......but we haven't done it yet. He is loving organic rice cereal & oatmeal and all sorts of fruits & veggies. We are trying to stick to mostly organic stuff. I am going to start making his food so that should be interesting. So far he loves peas, apples, sweet taters, green beans, pears, peaches, squash & prunes. We are still introducing a few things....he liked carrots but the seemed to upset his tummy so we will give them a break. He doesn't seem to like avocados, but we will try again. We will add bananas soon....along with some more exotic things (blueberries, apriocts, spinach, etc). He sure likes to eat! We are working on the sippy cup.....he doesn't quite have the hang of it yet. Of course there are only a few sippy cups that are BPA free (the new rage) so we are only trying those for now.

Other big milestones......he is sitting independently....he has for a while now. We have been swimming at Pops & Gigi's pool many times......he likes to hang out in the float, but hasn't been to keen on putting his head under water. He is teething, but none have popped thru just yet. He is still sleeping like a champ.....from about 8pm-6:30am consistently. Occasionally he wakes up and we just give him the paci and he typically falls back asleep.

We had our first sickness that required antibiotics. He had a viral upper respiratory infection that led to an ear infection. His coughing was TERRIBLE and I had to sleep with him one night just to keep him asleep and calm. We are on the tail end of that. He was a pretty happy boy through out it, so that was a blessing.

Another sad milestone for his 6th month was my Meemaw passing away. She was an amazing person and I am so glad she got to meet Cass and spoil him rotten during the short time she had with him.

We have been busy with family visiting, family reunions, Father's Day, weddings and the other ins and outs of daily life (work, dishes, laundry, etc). I'll get some pics up tomorrow. I am headed to a bridal show with my Mom and sister.....so that should be fun! Good night! :)

Funny boy

I layed Cass down in our bed this morning while I did a few things in our room. I looked over to check on him and he had fallen asleep holding his moose. Guess he didn't want to part with it!

Cass has this funny quirk of always holding his hands together. In his bouncy or swing, when we are holding him....pretty much anytime. I look back at him while I am driving and he is doing it in his car seat. Makes him look so serious!

Battle of Flowers 2008

Ready for the parade!

"What is on my neck Mom?" Cass showing his Fiesta spirit!

Cass & Mommy!

The parade was hot and humid, but fun! I had to feed him on the front row with no blanket because it was so hot. I'm sure someone got a show. Cass did great! He even napped thru a few bands and police sirens. He got his first cheap parade toy from his Gigi.......a green inflatable monkey. We had a blast with Tricky, Treva, Colton and Gigi! Many more years to come I'm sure!

Rice Cereal

So we started Cass on rice cereal right at 5 months. In short, he still doesn't "love" it. The first few days he acted like we were feeding him poison. He is better now, but doesn't show a huge interest in it. He will eat it now without fussing too much. We are going to keep trying for another week or so, and then maybe look into oatmeal. I have read some kids don't ever like rice cereal, and oatmeal is on the lower allergenic side.

I want him to get better with this before we start veggies and fruits. We have decided to start with green veggies, then orange veggies and then fruits. We don't want him to get used to the sweet in the fruit and not like veggies. But, we need to get the hang of this cereal thing first.

For all of you out there.......did your kids like rice cereal? How long did you try it before moving onto fruits & veggies? Ever try oatmeal?

Newest family member

Introducing Louie! Devlon brought him home for me as a Valentine's/Anniversary present in February. He is almost 6mo old........and 100% puppy. Cass has gotten quite interested in him, and even laughs at him. Louie loves to try and lick Cass when we are doing floor time, or when we come in the door with the car seat. He is sweet, but has been a handful from time to time. He is pretty much housebroken.

He favors me (probably because I don't discipline him as much as Devlon does), and at night will sit in the bathroom when we bathe Cass, then he follows me to Cass' room and stays by the glider until I lay Cass down to sleep. When I get up in the middle of the night, he follows me up and down the stairs. He is a sweetie!

Saturday stuff.....

Not much to report here. We had a rough night last night. Cass has a lingering cough from his sickness. Combined with drooling (we think he is teething), he was coughing all night. Most of the time he sleeps thru it, but last night it woke him up several times. All but once, we could go in, give him the paci back and pat his belly and he went back to sleep. At 1:30, I gave in a fed him hoping the milk would help his cough/throat. At 6:30, I fed him again and then we dozed in my bed until 9:30 or so. The cough doesn't seem to bother him, he is all smiles this morning.

So, I started weight watchers a month ago with my Mom. Since I had already lost 30lbs after having Cass (I was at my pre-preggo weight when he was born, so the 30lbs was a bonus!) I figure it is a good time to keep it coming off. Especially since I am nursing. So, as of today's weigh-in I have lost 13lbs. It's actually pretty easy since I have 10 extra nursing points. I told Devlon I was going to nurse Cass until he was 5yrs if it meant extra points to eat! Devlon said no way. I also figure/hope that by losing more before baby #2, maybe my chances of having the dreaded GD (gestational diabetes) will minimize. We shall see..........

On the homefront, we have a family of opossums living under our deck. It freaks me out. I won't take Louie (oh yeah, we got a dog! Will post pics of him soon) out at night. Devlon "got rid" of one of the babies when it was digging in our flower beds last week. Last night another baby came up on the deck while we had music going and lights on. I am paranoid one will get in the house (we often leave our back door open, especially when the weather is nice) or it will run into my feet/leg. We need to get rid of them totally. I don't like the idea of Cass playing in the backyard with those things nearby.

Well, Cass is down for a nap. I should go shower and clean the house. I have to work tomorrow (yuck) so today is my only free day. Have a great one.

I'm Back!!

Hello all. So sorry for being MIA for a while. I have a good reason, I promise! I started back to work on Feb 20th, and since then have been adjusting to working 4 days a week and being away from my sweet boy. I knew it would be hard, but it is the absolute hardest thing I have ever done. I was an emotional mess for the first 2 weeks. I still cry from time to time, but have adjusted as well as I can at this point. It has been hard to find time to blog since all I want to do is love on him when I get home from work. After he goes down at 8pm, there is laundry, dishes and sleeping to do. Here is what we have been up to.........

Cass is going to a church around the corner from us 3 days a week. Devlon stays home with him on Wednesdays and I am home on Fridays. Cass has adjusted well to his teachers. Since he isn't a great napper, he is often exhausted (and grouchy) when we get him by 5:30. The napping is improving so there is hope! He is sleeping well at night, praise god! He on average is sleeping 10ish hours. Sometimes he is up at 8 hours to eat and then goes back down for a few more hours. We are still swaddling him. Yep, I know we need to break him from the habit. We tried a week or so ago to stop swaddling and he was up every 2 hours. So he is back in the swaddle. We are not swaddling for naps and we are looking to wean the swaddle in the next few weeks. We also still rock him to sleep.......something we are looking to wean as well. I would like to read him his story, rock him for a few minutes and put him down drowsy so he learns how to put himself to sleep. But we shall see........the times I have tried that he cries and it breaks my heart. He is a very happy boy in the mornings so it is fun, but also sad since we have to go to work while he is so happy.

We had our first sickness. It was bound to happen with him being around other kids 3 days a week. It wasn't terrible, but a fever up to 101.9 and general fussiness. Pediatrician thought it was viral and had to run it's course. The fever went away for a few days and then came back. All of that obviously affected his sleeping at night. I think we are over it and back to our normal self and routines.

We went in for his 4mo check up and shots. We have a big boy! He was 16lbs 10oz and 27 inches long. That puts him in the 80th percentile for weight and 99th percentile for height. He was almost off the growth chart for height. He is wearing 6-9mo clothes. He has such a long torso so most of his pants are still too long for him. We are probably going to start rice cereal soon. He is still a happy boy breastfeeding, so I wanted to keep him only on breast milk as long as possible. He is showing signs of wanting to eat, especially since he sits with us at dinner time in his high chair. So we are planning to start the cereal around 5 months. Speaking of breast milk.........I feel like a cow! I am pumping 2x a day a work to keep the milk flowing. My plan is to keep breastfeeding for a year at least. He does great with the bottle and has no problems going back to breast to eat. :)

Some firsts:

He has rolled over! Whoo hooo! He hadn't rolled over by his 4mo appointment so I was a little worried. Doc said no big deal, now that we do the back to sleep most babies roll over later than they used to. He finally rolled over last Saturday. He still doesn't love tummy time, but has gotten better with it. Now that he can roll over, he doesn't stay on his tummy very long once we put him down.

He has found his hands, which are always in his mouth, his feet and last night in the bath he found his boy parts. He loves bath time and kicks up a storm.

He is very vocal, but only fusses when he is tired or hungry.

He loves his outdoor swing and exersaucer, but only tolerates the exersaucer for about 10 minutes.

Alot has happened over the last few months.........his first valentine's day, his baptism, visits from family and friends and play group with his 3 girlfriends. I have lots of pics to download, but for now I will leave you with some of the most current pics from his 4mo photo shoot (www.betruephotography.com).