Decorating for Christmas

Cody was helping us decorate for Christmas. You can tell it was bedtime by the red under his eyes. His shirt says "My 1st Thanksgiving" and his hat says "Santa's Helper". We decorated just before Thanksgiving and we are enjoying our decorated house and our son's 1st holidays!

Cody's 6 Month Pictures

(This post is 1 1/2 weeks late in posting) Once again we are amazed at how Cody is constantly changing. This past month he has learned so much! He has started eating vegetables. We started with sweet potatoes and carrots. He loves carrots the best and gets so excited anticipating the next bite. I've been learning how to make his baby food so that's fun as well....and save money! He sits in his high chair and is such a big boy. He has also started sitting in high chairs at restaurants. That's fun and makes it much easier for us to eat. He grabs everything in sight and also drops everything he holds. So, we are in the stage of picking up things around the high chair. He also sits in the basket of shopping carts as well. He smiles and is so proud of himself when I set him in there. It's made shopping easier as well. He loves to be out and watch people and hear the sounds and look at all the colors. He's an easy baby to run errands with. The biggest milestone this month was learning to sit on his own! It seems like he mastered it overnight. He sits on the floor and plays with his toys for long lenghts of time. I love it! We have a basket of toys that we put in front of him and he'll pull the toys out one by one and play. He's gotten so vocal! He loves to just talk and talk and use his voice to try and communicate what he needs/wants. We have started trying to teach him a few signs. Right now we are starting with "more" and "all done". So far he just looks at us like we are weird but hopefully he'll figure it out. He has started trying to hold his bottle on his own. He can get it to his mouth but can't tip it high enough to get anything out. When we are feeding him he will put his hands on the bottle to help hold it. It's so neat to see that he knows how it works. We've also started trying to teach him how to use the sippy cup. Cody is sleeping from 7pm to 6am. He still will wake up once but for the most part we are not feeding him in the middle of the night and trying to get him to go back to sleep on his own. I would love for his bedtime to be 7:30 or 8 but right now he is ready to go to bed by 7. He falls asleep at night listening to music. He's started rubbing his eyes when he's tired. Cody still smiles all the time, leans in for hugs and kisses and kicks his feet when he's excited. His laugh is contagious. He's at the age now where we can play peek-a-boo or other "games" and he gets excited. We've started reading books with him and he loves to anticipate turning the page. Right now it's small cardboard books with very few words but he will sit in our laps and and look at the pages. When the book is done he looks at up, kicks his feet and makes his noise letting us know he wants to read it again. It's so fun to be able to start reading to him. He is still in a size 2 diaper but not for long. We still haven't had to buy diapers (because of our diaper shower) and have 2 more packs of size 2 left so I'm trying to stretch him even though he's probably ready to move up to size 3. He wears 6-9 month clothes. Weight: 16 pounds (25%) Height: 26 inches (50%) Head: 17.5 inches (75%) It's hard to get him to smile when we hold he camera up because he's more interested in the camera. So, this months pics didn't quite capture his smile! But I love this outfit on him. We have an obsession in our house with Moose and I loved this the minute I saw it. We love this little guy so much and look forward to what he'll be learning next!

Cody meets President George Bush, Sr.

And that means Jason and I got to meet him too! We went to College Station for a quick trip this weekend to visit some of our former students who go to A&M and always invite Jason down each semester. We were outside Olive Garden waiting for our table about 8:00 last night. We had heard that George and Barbara Bush were inside eating and we got to see them as the left. Mrs. Bush smiled as she walked out first and then President Bush took his time greeting and shaking hands with everyone as he left. I shook his hand first (as did the students we were with) and then Jason.....however, Cody got the longest greeting of anyone. He asked his name, held his hand and stood and talked to him for a minute. Cody just smiled big! How fun to get to meet him!

Cody loves his Aunt Kristin

We went to Austin to visit my sister last weekend for her baby shower! My mom, Cody and I had a great time with her friends and other family members that were there. Before we left we made a run to Target to get her baby some things...and of course Cody didn't leave empty handed. Going to Target with his Aunt and Bubbe he was for sure in for being spoiled! :) Kristin got him this teeting toy. It's mesh and you put something in there and he licks/sucks on it. I put ice at first and then a slice of banana. He loved it! It's a messy treat but definately fun to have! Here he is enjoying his new "toy/treat" from his Aunt Kristin. 6 month pictures and update coming soon!

Cody's Newest Milestone!

This has been my favorite milestone so far and it seemed like it happened over night! Cody can sit up by himself!! We've been working on teaching him how to balance himself and it seemed like everyday he went longer and longer at sitting with no help! We stayed close by because he would still topple over and get frustrated. But, he can now do it all by himself for a long time and even play with his toys! He's so proud and we love it! Now he knows how to catch himself when he is about to topple and really only falls over when he looks up too high or reaches too far for a toy! We can even leave the room and he'll still be sitting and playing by himself! Bubbe (my mom) got him this now toy that he can play sitting up and he loves it! Tomorrow he'll be 6 months old! He's such a big boy and we are loving watching him!

The Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch!

....that's what his shirt says! And we believe it's true. Ha! Here's our little pumpkin enjoying playing in the candy while we wait for the trick or treaters. Cody was absolutely adorable and having so much fun dumping out the candy and playing in the tootsie pops! I sat the bucket next to him for a casual pic and it turned into about an hour of fun. He dove right in the bucket and proceded to dump out the candy and roll around and play in them. Yes, I watched him carefully because of the sticks. I was so surprised that he could hold the bucket and maneuver it enough to dump out the contents. Not too long after this Cody went to bed and I sat outside talking to my neighbor and handing out candy, Cody slept through it all (doorbell, excited trick or treaters and everything) and Jason enjoyed relaxing and watching tv. Next year will be fun to dress him up!"Hey, Mom! Am I too little for a sucker...or two?" "I'll just help myself to what's in this bucket...the colors are pretty!"

Pumpkin Farm!

Saturday morning (Halloween) we went to a local Pumpkin Farm. We had a good time showing Cody around! There were farm animals to feed and hayrides to go on. Cody enjoyed watching but next year he'll actually get to run around and play and participate in all the fun. He definately enjoyed looking at and touching the pumpkins.

Happy November!

It's November and Cody is now 5 1/2 months! So here are a few random pictures of him from the last two weeks. I just downloaded pictures we took from Halloween and will get those posted soon! The last two weeks have been fun and busy....Cody's 1st high school football game, fall festival at church, going to a David Crowder concert, a pumpkin farm, Halloween, and a day in Canton with my mom. Today we are enjoying relaxing at home and taking care of some things around the house! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and so the blog needed an appropriate background! I think it's fun to be able to change up the background from time to time....and especially during holidays! I love October, November and December months so much! And its been fun to start traditions with Cody during this fall season! He is at a fun stage and we are enjoying him so much. He is so intrigued by everything his eyes see. It's amazing watching him learn. His newest thing is reaching his arms up when he wants to be picked up or wants to go from one person to another and learning to balance so he can sit up. He does great with the boppy wrapped around him and sitting in the high chair. He's also really starting to teeth....poor guys. So far his painful times are in little spurts here and there and he's still sleeping well. He just likes to rub anything he can across his gums and drools a lot.

Hope you all had a fun Halloween and are now gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas! Yay!!