Dear Tyler, you're 7 months old!

Dear Tyler,

You're 7 months old! Do you know something?  I think you're so beautiful.  You're a cute beautiful baby boy.  I love to hold you on my lap while you bounce and dig your toes into my tummy or thighs then spring-retract them up so you can do it again.  

 Yes I took you to see the Easter Bunny.  It's your 1st Easter and I started a tradition when I took Dylan!  I took Dylan and Isaac to this same bunny for their first years.  They were tiny babies though.  I actually missed taking you to sit on the mall Santa's lap, so I'll have to do it next year to give a photo to give to your Great Grandma Rebeck for her tree.

You crack yourself up sometimes.
You started doing really well at nights and would go to bed without crying.  You still liked to nurse to sleep, but would go to bed in your bed and stay in there from sometime between 7 and 10pm until 5:30.  But recently, you fight sleeping again, don't really want to nurse, take a bottle, be rocked, etc, and don't fall to sleep 'til after 10pm, then you wake up before 5:30.  It's sorta exhausting for your daddy and me.

 You got up on all fours, then the next day you rocked and rocked, then on your 7 month birthday, you took a reach AND knee - so you crawled!  Daddy and I both saw it.  You were going for a toy towards our coffee table and we watched you do the push up, get on all fours, and go before splatting.  So exciting!

(Yes Dylan is dunking his head in the pool behind you - he was hot.)

Now you can rock and scoot and get up and splat down at your leisure.  You even go from your tummy up to a side plank.  Where you are almost back to sitting up buy you're still tipped over on your hand. You've never seemed to mind tummy time.  Oh, and you pulled yourself up to a standing position on our couch on your 7 month birthday too!  That surprised Dylan and me both.  He said "Look, Tyler is doing what Ivy can do!"

 You sleep on your back, but sometimes I put you down on your side and you'll stay.  But if you start to wiggle, you make it back to your back. You like your feet up on your blankets or on me.
We took your bumper out of your crib because I loved watching you sleep through the rungs. For a couple of weeks, you would be found smushed into those wood slats or would be caught with a limb in there.  You've been good lately though.

 You mostly nurse for nutrition.  I give you simple table scraps and some of my green smoothie I've been making lately.  You still don't like bananas. I feel so guilty about giving you some of our oranges in one of those mesh bag holder thingies.  I didn't clean up the drips well enough that rested above your bib on your collar bone area.  So not only did you have some red skin in your diaper area, it burned your skin above your bib!  I cleared it up with hydrocortizone liquid from your pediatrician.  We'll wait for that. You lunge towards my cup of water and can cough back drink some.  I'm going to buy you a sippy cup tomorrow. (I did buy you two kinds of cups and you love the water!)
When you nurse, your hands are busy.  You don't want to hold anything specific, nor do you want to hold anything for long.  You're not wiggly other than your top hand though, that's good.

You're really wiggly and busy in general.  You usually like me to be near you.  Sometimes only I will do.  You are so sweet and I love it when you get tired and just want me and fall asleep in the sling when we're out, or when you fall asleep on Daddy when we're out.  I love to kiss you.  I like you.
Love, Mommy

1 year and 1 month

Hi Baby Isaac,

You're 13months old now. You like to drop kick, throw, fetch, and watch balls. You love to play outside. You're like a sweet cuddly little tiny baby in a big 1yr old's body. Daddy even said so the other morning when he brought you in to cuddle. You sleep through the night from 8 or 9 until 6 or 7 at which point Daddy brings you in with us. You usually go back to sleep after squirming a LOT.

I'm going to say that your first word is "uh oh" because you say it on your own when you drop something. That was Dylan's first word too. You can repeat other easy words like hello, dada, mama, duck, bye bye, etc. You have repeated some signs like blanket, more, and hi/bye, but your main body language is shaking or nodding your head. You do sign "all done" when I mention it or especially when Dylan tells us he's all done going potty. That's your first sign you do on your own. Your favorite food is raisens. You have a big personality and are really happy or realy sad. You like to find silky blankets and bring them to me for a big hug. I love that you still give baby kisses and that it wasn't just a short phase.

6 Months

Ok, so these are his real 6 month portraits.

Corrie gave me a gift certificate to Portrait Innovations,

so I figured I should do the below spaghetti pictures at the same time

I got his 6 month portraits done.
Isaac weighs 1oz less than Noah did at his 6 month appointment 2 weeks before.

Weight 18lbs, 12oz
Height 27 1/4"
He's in the 75th percentile
(if I remember correctly)

Isaac is sitting up perfectly. He reaches for things beyond his reach and slowly falls over in his quest. He sits there for a while content until he realizes he's a beached whale and can't move. Then I have to rescue him. Usually Dylan comes running announcing "i-gik fell ov-uh, Mom, uh-oh, go get him. i-gik sad, Mama." Isaac still loves to nurse. He does not have anything else that soothes him like a pacifier, blankie, or thumb. I have been loving it, but now realize that I've spoiled him. No really, I have. I put him in the crib on occasion, but give up and bring him in bed with me. He wakes up lots and lots. I have let him cry it out, but a half hour later, he is still so upset and is DREANCHED in sweat. The house is cool, but he just gets SO worked up and upset. Just holding him tight calms him down a bit, but it isn't until he's nursing that he feels save and secure again.

At night, he rolls over with a wide open mouth like a blind little baby bird. I watch it on the monitor, but I feel it more b/c he's right by me. I'm the human pacifier. I wouldn't mind if my milk slowed down b/c I made it 6 months. I only lasted 5 months w/ Dylan b/c we stupidly switched to faster flowing bottles and he liked that. He refused to nurse in the day, then didn't want to at night either. I felt like it was time for baby #2 at that instant b/c I wanted a baby to need me. Well, I got more than I asked for with Mr. Baby #2 here:)

It's hard getting a babysitter. Dylan sometimes says "I don't like new house." When I ask him where he wants to be, he says "Dita house" or "Mia-ma house" (Abuelita/Steven's mom or grandma/my mom's houses). Isaac likes our new house just fine though. He doesn't mind other houses, as long as I'm there with him. He's happy unless he gets tired, so I hear. He doesn't like to go to sleep.

Isaac loves to laugh. Dylan makes him laugh the hardest and longest. Gotta love that!

Isaac eats some real foods, but it takes forEVER to feed him. I usually have to smush his cheeks to make his mouth open. Sometimes I give him a waterproof toy so that when he goes to taste it, I sneak my spoon in his mouth first. For such a chubby baby, he sure is a picky eater. Dylan ate everything so quickly and easily.

When I put Isaac up in the crawling position he will rock. It's so cute. When I put him in the standing position, he rocks even more. I laugh so hard because it's like those dancing santas from Halmark. He just moves his tummy and hips all around in jerky silly movements like he can't control it. I think I have a video of it if I get around to posting it. It's so funny. How can he not have that ballance?:)

I LOVE that he loves me and he's such a cute sweet baby.

6 months

4-1/2 months

2 months

1-1/2 months

1-1/2 weeks

Focusing

The milestone of the day:

focusing! Feb 17th - 2 weeks and a day

Isaac was focusing on the animals above his swing. He also seemed to look in my eyes. It's so hard to pick the date of milestones since it's a phase of learning. Once they're doing it every day, then you know you missed the actual FIRST day.

Milestones

Dylan's un-milestone:

trying to take off his PJs so he can wear shorts. Um, need help little guy? Dylan likes dinosaurs, but he LOVES wearing shorts. Good thing we live in Florida I guess.

Oh, and Dylan's in the 50th percentile for height but only the 25th percentile for weight. He's not in the 2T clothes quite yet.