December 6, 2006

I Can't Believe How Fast Time Goes By

Sam is now 7 months old, and I can't believe how fast the time has gone by, and how much he changes every day. He's such a big boy now - that may seem silly, but anyone who is a parent will know what I mean when I say that I already have nostalgia thinking about how small he was just a few months ago.

So, what's new in his world? He is now a champion eater, and enjoys breakfast, lunch and dinner along with his bottles every day. He still loves his yogurt, and usually gets a little with every meal. It seems to help with his digestion, and his spitting up is definitely improving. I think soon it'll be a rare event instead of a regular one! It's been fun being able to start giving him 'regular' foods like mashed potatoes and letting him try things like different flavors of ice cream!

He still wears bibs pretty much all the time, but the main reason for it at this point is the drool! He is a big drool machine. Right now he's drooling a lot because he seems to be getting more teeth. We think that the next ones to come in will be his front top two teeth, they're right there, but not quite coming through yet.

Sam is also VERY close to being able to crawl, and he can sit up by himself! It is amazing how much better at it he gets just day to day, but he can now sit up for long periods of time by himself and even catch himself sometimes if he starts to teeter over. He can also sometimes go from sitting to lying down without tipping and bumping his head. He can move around the floor now, and once he starts crawling he's going to be all over the place - I am sure going to get a workout chasing him around! He now gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth a lot, he even scoots a little bit, but he doesn't get the alternate leg movement quite yet!

The biggest change lately has been the start of establishing a bedtime routine for Sam, and teaching him to be able to put himself to sleep when it's bedtime. We currently start around 9:30 and get him into the bath - the great thing is that he loves the bath so much he can be in there for a long time, or if we're feeling tired or it's late we can just do 10 minutes or so in the tub. After his bath, we get him all cozy in his jammies and give him a warm bottle and read a few books to him. Then he goes into the crib (without a pacifier) to go to sleep. We haven't been doing it for long - just about a week - but it is going pretty well so far! The longest he's cried in the past few days is 15 minutes, but tonight it was more like 10. It's hard to listen to him cry, but it's also nice to know that he'll be able to put himself to sleep and that if we're really tired or need him to go down, he knows what the bedtime routine is and will start to understand what it means when it's bedtime. It's hard to know what advice to listen to, and which experts to listen to, and which methods to choose. But I think that what we're doing is going really well so far. He also sleeps through the night almost every night now, which is really nice!

We are having so much fun with Sam even though the teething has made him quite a bit more fussy than normal in the past week! Last night he went and spent a few hours with Brooke and Dave while Justin and I went out to celebrate our 7 year dating anniversary! It's amazing it's been that long... we just went to a movie, but it's always fun to get out just the two of us, and I think we've done a pretty good job so far of making time for us to spend together.

We leave on the 19th for our Christmas trip to New Jersey. Before then, we have some things to look forward to. This weekend we're heading up to Bellingham to see some people that we probably won't see again until after Christmas (Rob, Susan and Maggie, Esme and Ty, and Justin's Dad). We are also going to see Mom's Kulshan Chorus concert on Saturday night, and visit with Leela on Sunday. Then on the 15th we'll have our Christmas celebration with our friends before going on vacation. I'm looking forward to watching Seamus and Lorelai open their presents. It really gives me a peek into how fun it will be for Sam's first Christmas that he's actually more aware of! During our trip we'll get to see lots of relatives and have a couple of celebration dinners. I'm mostly looking forward to Sam meeting the relatives he hasn't met yet, and spending time with Dad, Helene, Lianna, and my cousin Emmy. We always have a really fun time.

In other news, my friend Brie found out today that her daughter, Ginny, is going to be able to come home from the hospital on Sunday as long as everything goes well! It's so exciting, she's been in the hospital for a little bit over a month since she was born at 30 weeks. Her twin brother Roman will have to stay in a little longer, as he's not quite as mature as she is. We are very excited for her to be home and to be able to go down and visit and hold her and really start getting to know her! The other good news is that my good friend Leela found out last week that after 1+ year long interview process, she's been accepted into the United States Border Patrol training program! It's a little sad because it means she'll be away from Washington for at least 3 years, but we're really happy for her too!

The other big news is that this month both Justin and I got Lasik surgery and no longer need to wear glasses! I am still in the recovery process - using antibiotics and LOTS of eye drops - I have to use them every hour. Justin is just using them as needed at this point. I'm still geting used to not having to put on my glasses in the morning and being able to wear sunglasses, and not trying to feel my contact lenses! And I'm definitely enjoying being able to see Sam and lie with him and play with him and not having to worry about him grabbing onto my glasses!

Well, I'm off to read for a little while before bed - the new Michael Crichton book came out last Tuesday! I will be back again soon to update!

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