Jack Meets the Easter Bunny, and Doesn't Hate Him.

Well, that turned out better than expected...

Babywearing Love!

Can I just say, Thank God for Babywearing! It's the only way I could have survived the past six months! And I am so, so thankful for having stumbled across the Babywearing International Group in greater Austin. So many of those lovely women have been so kind and informative and helpful, and without them, I wouldn't have known where to start. So happy to know them and be a baby wearer :)

Jack's First Foods!

Now that Jack's six months, we're starting solids. I could bore you with a list of stuff he's eating and how he feels about it, or I could show you these cutie pie pics of him stuffing his face :)

Clearly, he's kind of on the fence about it. The spoon? Oh yeah, gimme gimme. The food? Eh, it's kind of a "What the heck is this in my mouth?" type reaction. The best, though, was watching him look at his hand underneath the plastic bib, being able to see his fingers clearly, but not being able to get them into his mouth because of the bib. He was SO confused. Babies are so dang cute!

Springtime Staple: Bluebonnet Pictures!

If you're a Texan, you know that it's basically a rite of passage to get pictures taken in our famed state flower, the bluebonnets. Yet every year, I scramble to get some last minute before they disappear for the rest of the year, usually pulling over wherever I can find a decent-ish patch and snapping a crap photo with my phone. 

Well not this year, my friends!

I was so lucky to have my wonderful friend Erin offer to snap some of the kiddos this year on beautiful Sunday morning before church. I love, love, LOVE how they turned out:

Springtime Fun at the Round Rock Express Game!

Recently, I won tickets to attend a Round Rock express game at the Dell Diamond. In case that wasn't awesome enough, the event was being held in the reservation-only pool area, complete with free food and drinks. Beer, BBQ and the pool? Everyone wins!

I also had the chance to catch up with some of my favorite Austin bloggin' friends, and Ava had a blast swimming a bit, climbing the rock wall, and, oh yeah, watching the baseball game! We highly recommend the Round Rock Express for some good, old-fashioned family fun!

Unfortunately David was at school that particular night, so the kids and I flew solo:

A big thank you to the Round Rock Express for hosting us! We will certainly be back!

Happy Half Birthday (Yesterday), Jack!

Y'all. My baby is SIX MONTHS OLD (well, and one day, but who's counting?). How in the world did that happen? Why does infancy go by in the blink of an eye, whereas pregnancy feels like it takes ten years? I digress...

Anyways, Jack Jack went in for his six month well check yesterday, so I've got some new stats! At six months, Jack:

- weighs 16lbs, 5 oz. (30%)

- is 27.25" long (80%)

- not sure the exact circumference and I'm too bone tired to walk over to get the little form, but I remember his teeny little head is in the 23%.

He's also meeting a bunch of his milestones, and basically decided yesterday now that he's six months old, he's going to sit. 'Bout time! I love the (albeit so, so short) period between when they start sitting and when they start crawling. You can just plop them down for a second, and while they like their vantage point, they can't move. Bwahaha - you're stuck, sucker :)

Aside from sitting, Jack continues to roll around like a little sausage, and can move several feet on his own with a combo of rolling and laying on his back, arching like a madman and pushing. His pediatrician yesterday said she'd never seen a baby do that, and was shocked how strong he was. Hercules!

He's also so, so sweet - the mama's boy everybody promised me when they found out we were having a boy. He especially loves giving kisses, and gives them to me liberally and on command :)

He gives them to Ava, too. He's quite the charmer with the ladies:

He also is getting better at getting his little legs under himself when on his belly, and can army crawl a bit when he really wants something. Which, is, basically all the time. Jack has some serious opinions, and they all seem to revolve lately around things he wants (everything!) and when he wants them (now!). Thankfully, he's basically the cutest baby ever, so he has that working for him when he's screaming bloody murder for my phone charger. An evolutionary mechanism if I ever heard of one!

As for solids, we're starting slow. I have given him a couple bites of avocado from a sandwich I was having the other day, as well as some mushed banana and a few pieces of super steamed broccoli. While he wants to grab everything and put it in his mouth, it's mainly to explore, not to actually eat it. He's more into the spoon than what's on it these days, which is how it should be before age one. I'm not too stressed about it. I'm planning to do baby-led weaning with him, but picked up some jars of organic baby food at a great price the other day, so there's that for convenience, too. Since we're not always at home, it's good for me to have those sorts of things when I can't control what foods are going to be in the house.

His reflux has gotten significantly better, and the only real puking he does is when I slip up and eat dairy. I'm really devoted to remaining dairy-free, but there are some periods where I slip (I'm looking at you, Easter candy!) and then just move forward and try not to beat myself up. I'm having a hard time lately feeling overwhelmed and with the sheer volume of things I have to get done, between the house, the kids, myself, my work, my writing gigs, etc., and for some reason, feeling deprived like I do when I have to cut out whole food groups really seems to be the trigger for me reaching my breaking point. A girl needs her chocolate, amiright? 

Happy half birthday, little man! We love you so very much, sweet boy, and are so happy to have you in our family!