Seven Months Old in Atlanta

Alexander and I headed to Atlanta for a long weekend to see many of our favorite people.

I thought this shirt would be too big, but it turns out this will the first and last time he will wear it!

I was truly amazed with how well he did in the car.  In both directions, I fed him oatmeal and gave him a bath before loading up, and in both legs, he slept for all except for about 30 minutes in the middle, when he woke up to play and eat.  This makes me feel so much more at ease about our upcoming road trips to Knoxville and to Colorado Springs.


He loves that his mesh teethers fit in the Pulley Palz

Xander slept nearly the whole way!  He did wake up for lunch at Chick Fil A.  This is him sitting in the booth like a big ol' boy.

Gammie was pretty excited when we finally arrived

We started off with a relaxing afternoon at my mom's to recover from the drive.

A laundry basket is sometimes the perfect play pen

Xander PULLED HIMSELF UP while playing in the laundry basket!

 We got to Atlanta on Thursday, my mom's bridge night.  This Thursday, the bridge group was celebrating Sue's birthday.  We thought crashing the party was a great surprise.  We had such a wonderful time with these ladies, they never even got around to playing bridge.  We were so happy to get to see them!

Though he was terrified of the two little Dachshunds that greeted him to begin with, once he had been fed, he started egging them on with squeals of delight

He somehow wrestled his right arm out of his PJs our first night in Atlanta

He slept wonderfully in the Pack n' Play without any disruptions to our new WONDERFUL sleep schedule

As soon as we woke up on Friday, we headed over to see Grandpops and Grandma Jay

Alexander now gives hugs, and he had a big one for Grandma Jay!

Another first while in Atlanta- officially big enough for the shopping cart!  I've since bought a cart cover.  The straps were pretty gross...

Though I love him in hats, Alexander is not a big fan

Saturday morning we headed to the park to see Petty and her three kids, including Jacob who is just four weeks younger than Xander

Alexander was a little more enthusiastic about the friendship than Jacob was

All the kids

Our first experience with a slice of watermelon

Had to get a baby bottom pick while we changed out of our sticky watermelon clothes

Baby swap!

Another first- highchair time with Uncle Craig!

What a big boy

All smiles for Uncle Craig

After breakfast with Petty and lunch with Craig, we headed to Dunwoody to see Weston and Bruce.  We loved getting to play with Hudson, meet beautiful Beth Ivy (just five weeks old!) and see their new home.  The house is so family friendly and the yard is amazing!  I just love it!

Playing with the big boy

Gammie held tight to the littlest in the room

Xander was loving time with Weston

I cannot believe Alexander was ever this little!

Sibling love

While at Weston's, we got a wonderful surprise!  Gen, who lives just down the road, walked over to see us!  I haven't gotten to see Gen since having Alexander, so it was so wonderful for us all to spend time together.  As of this week, our college crew now has 11 kids!

Eating watermelon for the second time in one day, but this time he threw it up....sorry Gen!

Saturday was go, go, go!

To slow things down, we woke up leisurely on Sunday and headed over to Granpops and Grandma Jay's house for breakfast before getting on the road.

Alexander was so content playing with Grandma Jay.  He had so many giggles for her before he settled into his morning nap.

A quick breakfast and bath after a good nap

Milestones
We hit 7 months old during our trip!

To mark the occasion, Xander decided to start waving hello
He officially sits and plays for extended periods of time without toppling over
He pulled himself up one time during our weekend trip
He rolls all over the place and scoots/ army crawls occasionally
He LOVES solids, as long as they're pureed (he still throws up some when
there are chunks- sorry Gen!)
He sleeps between 9 and 11 hours at night (thank you, Lord!)
He has his first tooth!  It actually came up during our car trip back to Florida without him making a peep
He wears 9 month and 12 month clothes and size 4 diapers
He has chunky thighs and chunky cheeks, but otherwise is not too roly poly
He makes all sorts of sounds and has finally started to copy our faces and sounds on a regular basis
He loves big dogs, but is sometimes frightened/ overwhelmed by little dogs
If he is ever upset for no apparent reason, a quick dip in the pool or bath tub will calm him down
His go to communication is to grunt.  He rarely cries anymore.
He weighs in at just over 19 lbs, eating solids twice a day and nursing about 6 ounces 6 times a day
He loves everybody, but gets really excited when he sees his favorite people, and Zoey of course

Happy Independence Day!

Though I no longer get summers off, my school does get a short summer break to celebrate the fourth of July.  Alexander and I started our break a day earlier than scheduled, as he came down with a stomach bug.

The stomach bug kept him home from school Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but as usual, he was in great spirits the whole time.  Though I was sad Daniel and I had to cancel our day date that we had planned for Friday, I cannot say I did not enjoy getting extra Mommy and me time with my favorite little chunk.

Luckily, he was well enough by Friday to keep his 6 month wellness visit.

Alexander weighs 18lbs 2oz

is 28.2 inches in length

with a head circumference of 44 centimeters

That puts him in the 97th percentile for height, and the 71st for weight.

Pausing for a bottle at the doctor (when we weighed him, it had been three hours since his last meal)

When I asked the doctor about sleeping, as we are still struggling to sleep well around developmental milestones, growth spurts, and sickness, the doctor said that Alexander is the size of a nine month old and will not suffer at all from skipping night feedings.  She said it will help him to be a lifelong good sleeper to self soothe now, despite it being a difficult transition at first.  She suggested giving him a bottle with a little water in it if he cries for more than a few minutes without falling back to sleep.  I am happy to say that this seems to be going fairly well, with him falling back to sleep within minutes each time and going around 7 hours before his one and only night feeding.  I've only given him the water when he wakes up at 5am and is considering waking up for the day,

We have celebrated Independence Day in a big way!

Don't mind me.  This was the best family pic we could get.

Sunday, we went to a neighbor's house for a party.  They've invited us over every year since we've lived here, but we've always had company in town.  This year we headed over and had a great time!  We had to leave before the fireworks to put Alexander to bed, but we sat in our driveway to watch the beginning of them.

Flirting with the pretty girls, as usual

On the fourth, Xander, Zoey, and I began our day with a bittersweet trip to Destin for our last walk with Magnus, Paisley, and Elena.  We are going to miss them so much, but WILL see them again!

Magnus was very sweet to share his pirate ship

Alexander is sitting so tall, I didn't even have to assist him in playing with the ship

This crew makes me happy

When we got home, Daniel had a little fun with Alexander's festive bowtie

All dressed up as Party Boy from Jackass (I take no responsibility for this!)

While Alexander took in his afternoon nap, I cooked up the Martin family macaroni and cheese and got ready to head out to the Ulm family Fourth of July party

The festive outfits were so darn cute!

Rockin' his stars and stripes

All the babies seemed to love the water!

The Ulm house was the perfect place to celebrate our independence

I feel so blessed to be a part of our great nation.

Proud to be in the land of the free because of the brave.

Happy Independence Day

and thank you to all who serve in our nation's military,

especially those who are currently deployed!