Nicolas - Nearly 7 Months and Nearly Crawling

Nicolas has continued practicing his crawling and he can move pretty fast and get anywhere he wants. I still wouldn't call it crawling as he walks his legs up until his bottom is way up in the air and then he bends his legs under and pushes forward. His arms and legs certainly aren't co-ordinated yet, but he's trying.

His new thing is to stand on the couch and lean against the cushions and look out of the window. He loves to look at the flag moving and just see the yard while he's standing up.


He's still bouncing in the Jonny Jumper, but he doesn't like to be in it for too long unless Leo is there to entertain him.
Because I feed Nicolas in his high chair, he's got used to sitting upright. Now when I put him in his reclining seat he pushes himself forward so he's sitting up right and leaning out. I worried it would tip over, but luckily it doesn't.
I tried feeding Nicolas on chicken this week. I did it in the crock pot with sweet potatoes and it tasted pretty good. I added lots of veggies to the puree and he loves it. He doesn't seem to digest much of what he eats as he produces a whole range of multi colored diapers!! He's on 3 meals and a snack now with 3 feeds from me. He has his 6 month shots this week so we'll see how he's growing.
We had the follow up meeting with Nicolas' plastic surgeon. He was literally with us for 3 minutes and said the scar looks good but is still too hard, so I have to continue to do lots of massage to soften it up. He also gave me some cream I have to put on twice daily to reduce the appearance of the scar and then we go back in 3 months. I suddenly realised that even if Nicolas does get used to falling asleep in my arms so I can do the massage, it's a small price to pay if he looks great when he's older.

Summer Vacation - Week 7

We had the kids until Thursday for their last week of summer. We tried to do as much as we could to make their last week fun. We went to Fernbank Natural History Museum on Monday with Sam, Isaac and Lilli. The kids love it there and Nicolas was awake this time - he slept the whole time the last time we were there. The kids played when we got home while I tried to vac out the alge from the pool, but as soon as I sucked it out, the filter churned it up and spat it back into the pool. The kids didn't seem to mind swimming in cloudy water, and at least I knew the alge was dead!

Tuesday we had to take Nicolas to the plastice surgeon, so I bribed the kids with a milkshake if they were good, and they were.

On Wednesday we went to a new water park with, Erin, Sam, Rebecca, Tiffany, Caroline and all the children. We had a great time and the kids loved the fact they could go down the water slide. Most parks won't let them as they aren't tall enough. We left just as it started to rain and then the kids had gymnastics in the evening. Adam had managed to leave work early and came to watch them as a suprise. They both did so well and I could see Adam was really proud.

The kids just played at home on Thursday because I had a cake to make and decorate for the husband of one of the new Mom's at church. It was quite a rush as Adam and I went to a 311 concert on Thursday night. It was our first night out without Nicolas since he was born and Stephanie babysat. Because we left at 4pm I had to leave food for Nicolas and make sure she had everything he needed. I knew he would be well looked after, so I could relax and enjoy myself. He was asleep by 8pm and Stephanie said he was really good. It felt so strange being without him, but we had such a good night with our friends Caroline and Brian.



Since then we've just been relaxing and doing stuff in the yard. Adam is working on turning the bottom shed in to a drum studio and I've been paving in front of the kitchen window. I've run out of pavers, but I'll have it finished by tomorrow, then I just have to save the money for some plants!! I also spent the weekend reading the new Harry Potter book. It's very good and it has my kind of ending, it's definately worth a read.

Nicolas at 6 1/2 Months - Found his Feet

Jaden and Kirsten were with Lisa this week so I got to recover from being sick and do very little! I made and froze lots of food for Nicolas. I had wanted to work in the yard, but it's been really wet and rainy. I joined Facebook and we'll see how I do. I never got into Myspace, but maybe I'll have more time for Facebook.

Nicolas found his feet this week. All he wants to do is hold on to them. His favorite thing is to sit in his highchair and play with them while he waits for his food.

He's also started to push up on everything so he is sitting upright. He doesn't like to lean back in his rocking chair anymore and pushes off the back of it so he's sitting up straight.

He's also getting better at trying to crawl. He now bends his legs, but still hasn't mastered bending them and moving forward. He goes up on his hands and his toes so his bottom is right up in the air.

We bought him a baby bouncer last week and he loves bouncing on the dog. Leo isn't allowed on the carpet so he lies in the doorway where the bouncer is. Nicolas thinks it's so funny to slam into the dog and grab handfuls of fur, or jump on his head. Leo is so used to Jaden and Kirsten that he just lies there and accepts it.

Nicolas will eat anything I give him. He's added peas, broccoli and courgette to the fruit and veg he was eating. He's not very good with lumps yet, he tends to gag on them and as he still shows no sign of teeth, he has nothing to chew with. I'm going to try introducing meat this week and see how he likes it. He eats about 5-6 oz 3 times a day and has an afternoon snack of fruit puree. He actually slept from 8:30pm to 7am last night but he's had an irratic sleep patten this week - sometimes waking at 2am and sometimes making it to 5am.

Summer Vacation - Weeks 5 & 6

Mom always says that when I do too much I get sick, and unfortunately she is usually right! We did so much in the first 5 weeks of the Summer Vacation and with me not getting to sleep for more than 4 hours at a time, thanks to Nicolas, I started getting sick last week and if finally got me on Friday. Adam had to get up with Nicolas on Friday night (the first time since he was born!) and I've had a temperature over 100 for the last 4 days. Adam has been so sweet looking after me, and luckily Nicolas is little enough that he doesn't mind just hanging out on the bed and playing.

Inspite of that we have still had a fun couple of weeks. We've had lots of friends over to swim and also half the neighborhood kids at times. The kids have had a great time and what we spent on the pool and deck has been more than worth it.

Jaden turned 8 on June 30th and as we had his party the week before, he opened his presents in the morning and then had a "boys" afternoon with Adam and Woody fishing. Kirsten and I stayed at home and baked and watched a movie.

We got Jaden a shark that squirts water for one of his presents.

I spent the early part of last week in the garden getting it ready for Erin's shower. The grass was overgrown and the flowerbeds filled with weeds thanks to all the rain we've had recently.

I spent some of the week clearing out the shed, which is something I have to do a couple of times a year as the junk just builds up in there and then I cleared the area in front of the kitchen window so that I can pave it and plant it properly. It currently looks like a piece of wasteland as I can't get grass to grow there and I see it everytime I look out of the kitchen window. I think it will take me at least another 2 years before I get the garden just how I want it. Never in a million years did I think I would enjoy working in my garden so much.

4th of July was wonderful. Adam spent the morning sleeping off whatever I have now (it took him a day to get over what has nearly killed me!) and then we had Woody, Stephanie, Sam, Russell and the kids around. Adam got fireworks from South Carolina as the legal ones here are useless. They were amazing and even Nicolas seemed to enjoy them.

We had hung sticky fly papers in the gazebo on 4th of July and on Thursday a mother bird, who had baby birds in the corner of the gazebo, flew into one of the fly papers and got stuck. I hate touching birds, but I couldn't leave her there, so I had to put on my gardening gloves and pull her off. It was awful as she flapped and screeched and when I got her off she had left most of her wing feathers stuck to the fly paper. She lept out of my hand and ran off in to the flowerbed. I felt very sad and knew she would probably die, but I hoped there would be a Daddy bird to raise the babies. No such luck!

On Friday I started to feel properly sick but I had lots to do ready for the shower. That was when the baby birds decided to start jumping out of the nest looking for food. In the end I got the number of a woman who would take the babies and raise them. They had little wing feathers already, so they had a good chance of survival, but the woman said I had to have them to her in an hour, and she lived 45 minutes drive away. I put the 3 babies in a shoe box and got the kids to watch them while I woke Nicolas and fed him quickly. Suddenly Jaden ran in to tell me Leo was trying to eat a baby bird that was stuck between the deck and the BBQ. I had to get two little sticks to lift the bird out of the gap as it was too small to get my fingers down and Kirsten's fingers were too short. Thanks to Leo we saved all 4 babies but it was the last thing I needed when I was feeling sick and trying to get ready for the shower. The birds really creeped me out but the woman who took them started kissing them as soon as I handed them over.......eeehhhgggg!

I got all the food done on Friday and woke up on Saturday after 12 hours sleep (thanks to my angel husband) and felt much better. I couldn't have done the shower without Sam's help and Rebecca and Ashley who brought food. I had a great time and Erin enjoyed herself, which was the most important thing. After everyone left Adam and I did nothing for the rest of the weekend, which was quite nice after the crazy last 6 weeks. I just wish I'd felt better so I could have enjoyed it more.

Nicolas at 6 Months - Eating Three Meals a Day

Weaning a baby while making the food yourself, and trying to keep a 5 and 7 year old entertained for the summer is hard work!! Something had to go and it was the blog! After 2 weeks I'm back on track as Nicolas is now eating three meals a day and is only nursing morning and night (with a few little 'snacks' in between). He took to food straight away, especially fruits, and now eats about 6 oz of food per meal. Vegetables took some getting used to, but he likes root vegetables. We are working on the green ones now, he gagged on broccoli yesterday, but then Adam and Jaden have frequently gagged on vegetables, so he has the Woodall genes to fight there!

My friend Karen gave me a baby food processor which is my favorite thing. I can make enough for a couple of meals at a time and freeze the excess. The good thing about Nicolas eating food is he's slept for 8 hours the last two nights. I've had flu for the last 4 days with a temperature of over 100, so 8 hours of sleep was a blessing! Being sick with a baby is no fun, but at least Lisa had Jaden and Kirsten for the weekend, so they didn't get sick, and Nicolas seems fine so far.

Nicolas is now a expert at pushups, he goes right up on his hands and his toes, but can't actually move forward like this. He can go backwards, but it can't really be called crawling yet. I think he's a few weeks away from that, but at least he can move around a bit. He will spent about 15 to 20 minutes by himself on the floor playing with toys by himself while I do things with Jaden and Kirsten, but he loves it when the kids play with him.

Their favorite thing is now to carry him around. It made me nervous at first, but as long as they aren't carrying him on the slate floor, I feel he hasn't got that far to fall!! I always hoped I'd be a relaxed parent and I think I am. I know Nicolas can cry if something is wrong, so if he's not crying, I presume he's OK with whatever the kids are doing with him.

It really touches me that Jaden and Kirsten have made snuggling with Nicolas in their beds part of their bedtime routine. Nicolas listens to Adam or me read them their bedtime story then while Adam is saying goodnight to one, I say goodnight to the other while they hug Nicolas in their bed, and then we swap. They both get upset if Nicolas goes to bed before them without them getting to hug him. They also both want to bath him everynight, but they have to take it in turns because they fight over who gets to sponge water over him and then fight over his rubber duck and I shout and Nicolas cries! Not the calming bedtime routine he needs!! Nicolas' face lights up whenever the kids smile at him or hug him which is so sweet to see.

For the last 6 or 8 weeks Nicolas has been falling asleep on my knee at night so I can massage his scar. As you can see his scar is looking really good. For all his other naps he has fallen asleep wherever I happen to be with the kids. As a result if I want him to nap in his crib he screams because he's forgotten the routine he was in before his operation and before the kids were here for summer. I stared to get him back into a proper routine this week with being sick and being at home, so Nicolas has been crying himself to sleep. It breaks my heart, but I know he's fine and the last thing I need is to have a baby that has to be rocked to sleep! It only takes him about 5 minutes now before he goes to sleep, which I don't think is too bad.