Anniversary Trip (1 Month Early)

Our anniversary trip got to happen in August this year. Something about scheduling on school breaks. haha. So we went the second week in August, a solid month before our actual anniversary.

It was my turn to plan our anniversary trip this year and after much debate I opted to take us to Washington D.C.! My mom came out to watch Kellan for us so we were able to spend a few days - baby free for the first time. Despite the fact that it rained almost the whole time, we really had a good time and got in lots of sightseeing and good eats.

The Capitol Building:

It's quite beautiful in the rain.

A nice view of the national mall all fogged and rained over. If you look closely, you can see the Washington Monument.

And a front view of the Capitol Building.

Just a few more random shots:

Then some views of the White House:

On our first night there the place we wanted to do dinner at (Founding Farmers - highly recommend, however it was pricy) had over an hour wait. We were committed though, probably because we knew we could sneak away and visit things while we were waiting. The first stop we made was the Lincoln Memorial.

We then got a nice twilight view of the Washington Memorial.

Here are some more pictures of our rainy day adventures.

On our last day in D.C, we made a stop at the temple. We were so happy to have the chance to go. It's a lot harder to make frequent temple trips when you live hours away and have a small child who is still very dependent on you. 

After the temple we made a stop at Arlington National Cemetery. That was a very humbling experience. It really makes you appreciate all the sacrifices that have been made to keep our nation safe.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Rows and rows of headstones, all neatly aligned.

Not to mention the beautiful view of the city that you get from the cemetery. 

On our way home we stopped at a place in Anapolis that had a six pound shake. We made a special effort to go there. Between the two of us we managed to finish it off! 

I felt pretty full towards the end of the shake, but Hunter (who ate faaarr more than I did) almost lost it on the way back to our car but ultimately managed to feel better. 

All in all we had a great time! We were really able to enjoy ourselves - and being with just each other. Kellan and my mom had a great time and no problems. Everything went really well. We loved DC - probably me a little more than Hunter - and will definitely be going back multiple times in the future. 

Honorable mention that isn't pictured: parts of the Smithsonian. We visited the Air and Space Museum (where I desparately wanted to buy Kellan an astronaut outfit but didn't because of size) and the National History Museum which we could have spend so much more time in. 

8 months!

It feels like I just wrote Kellan's 7 month post and here we are again at 8 months! When they say time only goes faster when you get older and when you have kids believe them. It's 100% true.

Month 7-8 seems like it was a really big month for Kellan! It seems like he's doing all sorts of new things and just continuing to grow and develop. I know I say this every time, but it really is so much fun! I'm really loving this mom gig. 

To start the month off, we took a quick trip to Boston where we were able to have dinner and visit with Hunter's mom who was there on business. Here's a picture of our delirious baby at the harbor around 9 pm. Waaaaaayy past bedtime. haha.

We have visited the beach multiple times now. Kellan loves the sand but isn't sure how he feels about the water. I think it's the cold that causes him to scream bloody murder with even the slightest touch. After he gets used to it a little he does better but is still wary. We're working on that.

Despite his hesitation with the ocean (Long Island Sound to be specific), he LOVES the little pool! He'll sit in there and splash and play around for as long as I will let him. This is also true of the bathtub. 

Daddy had Kellan for the day a few times this month while I was was at work and one of those days took him shopping. Dad got a USA futbol (ha!) jersey and Kellan got a whole outfit complete with socks and a tiny World Cup Ball. 

Apparently when Mommy's away the boys will play!

He's really started to interact with everyone. Here he is with a couple kids from daycare. He loves playing with them and gets so excited to see them every morning when we get there. 

Kellan LOVES Kenobi! Ameya too, but it's just not the same as the love that Kellan and Kenobi share. Kenobi will literally let Kellan do whatever he wants - pull his fur, hold his tooth, touch his paw - and just sit there. Kellan laughs and smiles, flaps his arms and kicks his legs every time he sees Kenobi. It's the cutest.

He officially upgraded to a big boy carseat this month! We opted for the Britax Marathon and got a plush covered one. It's nice and soft and HUGE! I'm still adjusting to it and the large size and I can't imagine putting a newborn in it! I know that it's perfectly safe for 5-65 lbs but it's just so big! haha. I'm sure as we use it more and get more used to it instead of the bucket seat it will make more sense to me.

Side note: He's not super happy in this picture, obviously, haha. At the time he had a fever (from his first official named illness - Coxsackie Virus or Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease) and was also in the process of cutting his top left front tooth. He cut the second top front tooth the day before his 8 month mark so he does have both, one is just a week and a half behind. 

Disclaimer: this picture was taken immediately after removing the carseat from the box in our living room. No extra measures were taken to ensure his safety in this picture. 

 If you look closely in the picture below, you can see the one top tooth. He rocked the scraggle tooth, haha. The mess on his face is because he learned how to drink from a straw this month! I got straw sippy cups for him to try and after a couple days he got the hang of it. He thought he was sooooo cool the day he learned how to drink from the straw and has started drinking a lot more water than before - which is great news. This was taken the next day after I shared my frappachino with him. I was impressed that he was able to drink from that straw as well because it was so much different than the sippy cup straw but he didn't have any problem! Everytime I picked it up to have a drink after letting him try some he demanded that I share.

 We have been loving this perfect summer weather and spending as much time as possible outside!

Other fun facts from this month:

Kellan is officially crawling! He only army crawls, but he can sure pull himself around pretty quickly and is ALL over! His favorite things to crawl to: the dog's water dish, any vent, and any dog toy. 

He's started waving and clapping! He waves to pretty much everyone when we arrive or leave somewhere. His wave looks suspiciously like hail Hitler, haha, but he's starting to move his arm up and down a little. It's super cute. Clapping started right around the 8 month mark. He'll even mimic you if you clap at him, although that's still hit or miss. 

We will have whole conversations in lip smacking. I am loving this new type of interaction. It's so fun to see him respond to things we are doing as well as things in the environment.

Now that he's a big boy and can sit up, he HATES being on his back. Diaper changes, in the tub, or wherever - he is a big boy. Don't even think about making him lay down. haha.

His hair has really started to come in! He's working on a nice little baby mullet that we might have to cut sooner than I wanted. He's also starting to get little hairs on his arms and legs. 

Stranger danger is real. He is a little more hesitant on handing out smiles to people he doesn't know than he was in the past. 

He's such a momma's boy! I am loving it. No one is as cool as I am at this point. haha.

Food wise, he loves solid foods! We added more fruits and veggies to his repertoire this month as well as turkey, beef, and eggs. He's really started liking to feed himself. He's even started to try and grab the food off the spoon. Because of this and his ability to chew, I've started making his foods chunkier and trying to give him some sort of finger food at least once a day. For the most part, the dogs only get a little bit of food. 

Tales of a Working Mom

I'm not sure what I expected would happen when I had a baby work wise. I suppose for a long time I just assumed I would stay home - because that's just what you do and is the preferred route of a lot of women. But when we decided we wanted to have a baby when Hunter was in school I knew that meant I would continue working - and that's okay! We knew that the timing was right for a baby even if it was going to be extra difficult at this time in our lives.

We weren't sure how everything would work out when we had the baby, but we just knew that it would. If we would do our part, the Lord would fill in the rest. We had to keep that faith or else we would have gone crazy with worry.  The job I got when we moved out was a graveyard position. It wasn't ideal, but it worked. It was a job and the graveyard shift differential is pretty hefty, to be honest. While I kept trying to come up with an excuse for why I couldn't go to graves once I finished my training, everything was smooth sailing in my pregnancy and I just had to do it. It really worked well for those few months I did it, my coworkers were wonderful, and the work itself was interesting.

After baby came, we quickly realized there was NO way I could continue working nights. I was originally only given 6 weeks of leave so that meant figuring things out fast. I started looking for other jobs and applied for a number of different things. I interviewed with a few different places and things looked promising. Once my 6 weeks was up I wasn't ready to go back. Kellan was still too small and I didn't feel nearly established enough to be able to leave my baby for a good chunk of the day - or night as it still was at that point. I went into work with full intentions of quitting. Quite to my surprise, my supervisor countered my concerns of not being ready and not being able to come back on nights by saying "That's fine, take as long as you need and we'll figure something out. I need a tech and you need a job so let's see what we can do." As it turns out, there were a couple opportunities that had popped up in the couple weeks preceding me coming in that could potentially work.

After a few weeks, it ended up that I was offered a day position in Immunology. I had never worked in immunology before but was willing to give it a shot because the timing was infinitely better. Luckily, there was a spot open at the hospital run daycare and we were able to get Kellan in there no problem.

Things just kind of fell into place at that point - further attesting to the fact that this is what I needed to be doing. The job was and still is perfect, really. I am able to time my breaks when I need them and as long as I get my work done, it doesn't really matter when I take them. I am able to visit Kellan during lunchtime every day and feed him. The ladies that take care of him during the day are WONDERFUL. They obviously care so much about him and even miss him when he's gone for a couple days. They do exactly what I say I want done schedule wise and care wise. Honestly, things probably couldn't have gone better with my transition back into work post baby.

We have been so blessed with the way everything has worked out. Kellan's happy, I am happy, Hunter is happy, and we are all able to accomplish the things that we need to in order to have a functional and progressing family.

Will I continue working? Probably for at least a few more years. Definitely full time until Hunter is established in a job as a PA and likely until we have another child. Full time day care just wouldn't be worth it at that point - it's EXPENSIVE, but worth it to know my child is in good hands. Honestly, I'll probably want to stay part time at that point. I enjoy working and I am able to more fully appreciate and love on my baby when I'm with him. Maybe things will change when we actually get to that point, but for now things are working as well as they possibly could.

Our Baby is 7 Months Old!

I don't even know how it happened, but somehow my baby is 7 months old. I know I've mentioned it before, but it's still true so I'll say it again - life just gets more and more fun with everyday.

Official 6 month stats:

Weight: 20 lbs 14 oz (94th percentile)

Height: 29 inches (above 99th percentile - his little dot was literally off the chart)

Head size: 80th percentile

As I mentioned last post, we took some 6 month pictures! It's pretty difficult to get two 6 month olds who weren't quite sitting at the time (they both are now!) to stay balanced long enough to get both of their attention and make them both smile. Needless to say, that didn't actually happen. haha. Besides, that pink hat was waaaay too interesting to Kellan for him to pay attention to anything else.

All he really wanted to be doing the ENTIRE time was this....

...roll all around in the blanket. It was so soft and he just wanted to put it in his mouth and roll in it rather than sit on it and smile. haha.

Since it's warm now, we have been able to explore a little and experience New England. One of our first stops was Mystic, CT. It's an old whaling town with a lot of history. We went to both the Seaport and walked around the little shops in old town. We also spent a lot of money on homemade pasta and vinegar and ate like kings from home for the next couple days. 

As I hinted at earlier, Kellan is officially sitting up now! There was no specific day that it happened, it was just a gradual process - 30 seconds one day, 1 minute the next, then 5, 10, etc. 

Here he is sitting in the cart at Target like a big boy. Side note: why did I forget how awesome Target is? I've been maybe twice in the last few years and since this initial time last month have been back at least twice now. 

Another bonus of warm weather: weekly league Ultimate Frisbee games. Kellan absolutely loves hanging out outside and loves playing with the frisbee. He even has his own frisbee now.

He's still loving all things food! We've branched out a little now and tried new things like yogurt, quinoa, rice rusks and puffs as well as a slew of new fruits and veggies. He does well with both purees and chunkier foods. He is doing so well with foods that he dropped a feeding milk wise. He now nurses 4 times a day (no need for bottles at this point - timing works perfectly for me to be able to feed him every time) and has a solid food breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He's started using a sippy cup and does pretty well with it. He does make a watery mess every now and then and thinks it's funny to spit out the water sometimes, but overall does a great job. 

Hunter spent a weekend in Ohio playing frisbee so we went to Boston and hung out with my friend Cherie. I was able to go to the temple and after that we just walked around Harvard mostly and drove around downtown. Kellan did great in the car both ways and was an angel baby all day as usual.

 Next up in experiencing New England: Strawberry picking! I'm sure this isn't New England specific, but the opportunity is all over back here so we jumped on it. 

There were rows on rows on rows of beautiful, bright red strawberries. I was amazed every single time I moved at how many strawberries there were.

 Within about 5 seconds of me sitting Kellan down he had picked a nice, ripe strawberry and put it right in his mouth. He wasted no time. I let him eat a few strawberries while we were there and he was thrilled. Also, very messy - but it was totally worth it.

Overall, we left with just over 10 lbs of strawberries. They are some of the best strawberries I have ever had - something about being freshly picked, I'm sure. 

We let Kellan chew on a corn cob now that he has little teeth. He is really good at chewing and loved being able to gnaw on it.

And for the last couple pictures of this post: he has his own little camping chair to sit on! It's not super balanced so I'm always close, but it looks so cute to have him in it!

And for some other odds and ends:

Kellan can now say "dada"! Sometimes it's more like da-da-da-da-da or ta-ta-ta-ta, but regardless, dada is definitely in there and will officially be known as his first word! Sometimes he'll just move his jaw up and down without making any sound which is really funny to watch. He also just screams - happy screams - a lot. You can tell when he's excited or happy. He's always been talkative and that continues to be the case. 

He would rather drink from my water bottle than anything else - and does fairly well as long as I don't pour it out too fast. Every time I take a drink he opens his mouth expectantly. The same is true for what I'm eating, although to a lesser extent. 

He's started to give the biggest, cheesiest smiles. He scrunches his little nose up and shows off his little teeth. It. Is. The. Cutest. Thing. Also, really hard to catch on camera.

We were given a jumper that hangs from the door way and he absolutely loves it! He'll jump in there for as long as I will let him. He even jumped himself to his first little blister on his big toe. He was only in there for 20 minutes or so and was jumping so much that he blistered it up. He was happy the whole time though and didn't even seem to notice, which is good. I didn't know anything was up until I took him out and went to put him in the bath.

Overall he's just such a happy baby. He's almost always content and only fusses when he needs something. He loves everyone and everything and has taken a particular liking to Kenobi as of late. He also really likes to be greeted when someone walks in - particularly by his dad. He'll usually respond with a scream and a smile. 

And that's a wrap for 6-7 months. I can't wait to see what the next month will bring! Maybe crawling?? He was really interested in being able to move until he really mastered sitting up - now he seems much more content to just sit so we'll see!