First sniffles

My little guy has had his first cold starting last night. Poor little guy has had a miserable runny stuffy nose that makes quite a mess if he sneezes. It made it difficult for him to sleep last night since he couldn't breathe too well through his nose and around 3 in the morning he was up because he couldn't sleep with his yucky nose situation. He's had a slight fever and been a little sleepier than normal but the yucky nose is probably the worst of it. He hasn't acted like he is feeling too miserable thankfully. 

You can see it in his face that he doesn't feel good though. He got less stuffy through out the day but I can hear his stuffiness in his sleep again now that he's gone to bed. 

Jesus loves me

I can sing Jesus loves me in my sleep now before if I didn't know it well enough before from working in Bible class and singing it to the children during circle time {and when upset} for the past two years and singing it in general with Abby. 

It's always seemed to have been Micah's favorite song - I could sing it to him in the car to settle him down. Even Abby caught on to that and would start singing to him if I didn't when he was upset. {Such a sweet sight to see and hear when she does that} 

This week Micah has been having a difficult time transitioning from the rocking chair into his crib at night {and nap too but that's a different story} Most likely he is starting some early separation anxiety and he is looking for his mama combined with some probable teething discomfort. 

So one night when he didn't want to settle I rocked him and sang to him alternating Jesus loves me and Jesus loves the little children and he finally was able to settle down to sleep. The next night he was still a little difficult but not as bad as the first night and he allowed me to rub/pat his back while singing. Since then he's been okay with the singing and patting/rubbing of his back and I don't have to sing the songs 500 million times before he's out.  He'll peek his head up and look around and all it takes is a back rub and one or two songs before he's back out.  


I'm sure there are some moms maybe many moms out there who would read this and roll their eyes or at least think to themselves just let him cry and he'll figure it out and sleep all by himself but it just doesn't sound right to me to let my little guys cry for their mama until they fall asleep. They are only little for so long and I am willing to help them sleep without tears for as long as they need. Sure some nights can get rough but it's all worth it for the snuggles. 

He's such a sweet sleeping baby. Can't he just stay this little and snuggle with me forever? Can you see the little Horton ear as he snuggles with his favorite toy?

Of course as I write this he's been up several times more than normal so far tonight because my little guy has a stuffy nose. Poor little guy can't breathe through his nose very well. :(

Wordless Wednesday

Determination

He so so badly wants to be on the move to keep up with his big sister! Where did my itty bitty go?

Ladies Man

Micah wore his shirt Uncle Jeremy picked out for him for the first time today to Bible class. He got lots of comments today about his shirt - and his gorgeous big eyes as well. 

On a very happy side note Micah slept in for oh maybe the 2nd time since we've been home from Paris - until oh 7:20 - about 10 minutes before my alarm was going to go off to get us ready for Bible class. It was nice not to get up with him at 5/6 am. Here's to hoping it happens again {though I doubt it since I just told ya'll about it!} 

Not Me!

It's that time again! Time to tell about what we did not do this week! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This week I surely did not give Micah a slice of apple on to chew on after he grabbed it from my hand so that I could sit him in the bumbo and eat my lunch with two hands. Nope not me!

And since I did not do that, I certainly did not put that slice of apple into a mesh feeder while we went to play out side after lunch to keep him content so I could clean out the car (which also certainly was not a mess!) Nope not me!

We certainly did play poker with our 3 year old just because she wanted to play 'cards' like Daddy and couldn't remember how to play Go Fish. Nope, not me! 

So what did you not do this week? 

Baby-led vs Purees

Ever since last Sunday when Micah really starting making a fuss when people ate food in front of him I've been putting off really starting solids with him - trying to hold out until 6 months. I did however buy some avocados this past week and have been deliberating between baby-led solids or making his baby food purees. Baby-led weaning/feeding is giving the baby food he can pick up and bring to his mouth to chew and swallow. Babies who have the coordination to grab and bring the food to their mouths also tend to have the skills to chew and swallow said food. They also then are in control of how much they want to eat similar to how a babe nurses because when they nurse they control the flow of milk and can change from nutritive sucking to non-nutritive comfort sucking when they are full. I'm intrigued by this method of letting a young baby have larger pieces of food instead of making the purees. This would save me the step of pureeing/freezing the food as I plan to make all of Micah's food as I did for Abby. In baby-led I would still steam or roast harder foods to make them easy to Micah to chew and eat. 

So back to the avocados... I decided to give the baby-led a shot - nothing to lose there. So we got Micah all situated (stripped down to a diaper and bib and sitting in his bumbo) and gave him the avocado in two halves - large pieces that would be easy for him to grip - or at least as easy as an avocado can be. 

Hmm... maybe not so easy to grab. It does however prove to be quite the amusing item to push and shove around and kept him occupied so I could eat my dinner take pictures of him. 

Since dinner was calling my name at this point, I decided to put some of the avocado in his mesh feeder so he could finally get a taste as I was getting tired of picking the avocado up from his lap between eating bites of my food. He seemed to like it okay but also enjoyed checking on the handle side of the mesh feeder almost as much. Then again I guess that side had avocado all over it as well since his hands, tray, lap, bumbo and table were all covered in avocado by this point. 

After we were all done eating I contemplated how I was going to get the avocado covered baby upstairs and into the tub without leaving a trail of avocado through the house. Plus it wasn't quite bath time yet and he is pretty used to our routine of bath, books with sister and bed. So we opted for option k.

His first (and probably not last) kitchen sink bath. 

I'm now thinking we may stick with purees but am still some what undecided at this point. I did however get to enjoy a full meal without a baby in my lap!

Ready set roll!

So it finally clicked to Micah that since he could now roll over both ways (though he had only previously rolled over from back to belly once) that he could use that to roll all over. He went from the rocking chair on one side of my bedroom to the dresser on the other side. Unfortunately my super awesome camera was in the other room so I didn't get a video of the rolly polly-ness today but I will - soon - I promise.

While I didn't get a video of him rolling - I did capture this video of him trying to crawl. He was up on his knees a little more before I grabbed the camera and almost trying to rock a tiny tiny bit. Eeek! We definitely got that baby gate up just in time! Where did my little bitty baby go?

{Please excuse the pile of laundry on the couch behind Micah as I was folding laundry before grabbing my camera to film this - hence why Abby mentions in the video that Micah is going backwards through the kitchen to do laundry}

Food

Today after church we headed out to a spaghetti lunch with Grandma and Grandpa. Micah slept on the way there but it wasn't as much of a nap as he needed. He was trying to grab hold of everything he could reach and his boring old toys just weren't what he wanted, I nursed him but he was still fussy until......

he managed to grab a piece of my roll. Then he became as content as he could be. He was so happy to have that roll and was so mad I took it away. So daddy gave it back to him when I passed him off to daddy so I could eat without a baby trying to stick his fingers in my plate (or dropping food on his head.)

So after eating some ice cream with the grandparents (again with Micah getting frustrated that he wasn't getting anything) We headed to BRU since it was in the same shopping center and picked up some ice cube trays for making baby food, a sippy cup and some soft spoons. I'm going to start with making him some breast milk cubes to put in his mesh feeder (which I had picked up the other day at Target) since I'm not ready to deal with the mess (and diapers) that come from solid foods and see if that can buy me at least another week or two if not until 6 months before starting the 'real' stuff. It at least buys me more time to research on baby lead weaning/eating instead of the mushy stuff and see what I want to do. It sounds cool (and like less work) so we'll see.

We tried out the sippy cup with a little bit of water tonight. He mainly chewed on the cup and played around with it but he was happy. We'll keep trying - maybe just maybe he'll take some milk from it and mommy can get away for a little longer!

Sitting!

What's that you say? I'm doing what? Are you sure?

Yea I'm pretty sure.... let's check
That looks like sitting to me. Do we need another angle to make sure?
Of course it only last a few seconds but he's getting there!

Okay mama enough pictures - time for bed. Night everyone!

Micah talking away

You can tell when he sees Abby come in next to him. I think he might like her just a tiny bit what do ya'll think? :)

And an extra silly picture of him I took.

Finally

Micah woke up early this morning. He forgot (again!) that the childcare at the gym is not in fact open at 5:30 when daddy goes to the gym. So after he spent a little while in the swing while mommy I put him down on the play mat and laid down to watch him. He had been on his back - his favorite way to lay down so that he can get his toes. This morning however he decided to make use of his early morning and finally figured out how to roll over onto his belly! It wasn't that he couldn't before because I'm sure he could have had he wanted to for about a month now but before he really had no desire and was perfectly content to be on his back.

Playing around

Playtime today in the exercauser. I was mainly playing around with the settings on my new toy and caught a couple cute shots of Micah.

He loves to attach and eat this flower. He's so funny going after it - it's his mission to get it in his mouth and he won't give up until he succeeds.

Hey look another toy I can get into my mouth!
Hi mama!

5 months

My little guy is getting too darn big!

Mastered skills:

• distinguish between bold colors
• play with hands and feet

I think we've got the playing with hands and feet thing down pretty well here! As far as the colors I think he can tell the bold colors - he in particular likes to watch football or baseball with Daddy and I think that is partly because of the bright green grass (or turf) and sometimes brightly colored uniforms.

Emerging skills:

• Recognizes own name
• Turns towards new sounds
• Rolls over in both directions

We recognize our name and turn towards new sounds about half the time. The other half he is too busy with his feet or toy to pay attention. He has yet to roll from back to belly but rolls to his side all the time. He just has no interest in rolling onto his belly because he would much rather be on his back. He came very very close to doing it today though.... until another little girl gave his keys he was reaching for to him while we were watching Abby in ballet. When he is on his tummy he almost always rolls to him back.

Advanced skills:

• Can sit momentarily without support
• Mouths objects
• separation anxiety may begin

Micah can sit for a second before starting to fall over. He can even tripod sit for a couple seconds before he'll try to fold himself in half. As far as mouthing objects - that's about all we do around here - toys, fingers, blankets, Horton, french fry, whatever he can get his little bitty hands on goes right to his mouth. No signs of separation anxiety yet and let's hope it stays that way!

There happens to be a tag on the boppy pillow that says not for sleeping. I certainly would never not follow those instructions just so Micah would sleep longer.
Nope! Not me!
I also certainly wouldn't have left my bed unmade either. Nope not me!
Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

My very own swing

I think two towels would work better than one. I don't have a scarf to hold him hostage with but maybe I should find one to help him sit up a little better. That said he seemed to enjoy it!

Supervising the swing set building with Grandma

good morning

Micah was up early this morning (6 am - instead of his usual 7 am) so he and I sat and watched the news while he munched on his fingers and talked to me - after he had some swing time. The only time he likes the swing is first thing in the morning and he'll swing for up to 30-45 minutes while I either doze/try to wake up/or get ready for the day ahead.

Okay mama I'm sleepy again!