Photo Drop

Our house is a lot more active now!

Xander is a fast crawler and climbing on everything as well as walking while holding onto anything at standing height.

He's got four teeth and is a hair puller.  He gets in trouble at school sometimes for this.  Luckily, his teachers are handling this in an ABA friendly way, so I didn't have to go all behavioral on them.  But really, I had to make sure they weren't increasing this behavior!

Here's some photos from our latest family fun

My work family had to say goodbye to Heather this week.  She is the person that told me about ECAC and who taught me a lot of what I know about behavioral therapy.  She is also a personal friend.  We will miss you, Heather!

Fun at Oktoberfest

Trying to get a teeth shot

We love sitting by the pool, especially with the weather cooling off

Daddy's night- dinner time

This is what happens when he is given free access

Zoey's adoption day- Four years with our princess!

 Celebrating adoption day

We let Potatoes pick his sister a toy.  Of course he chose what he likes- a toothbrush- and then stole it for himself.

This looks like a meme to me... great picture!

Hands free!

Daniel taught him to roll the ball back and forth in a matter of about 30 seconds

Drive home from school- every day! The nap continues for at least 20 minutes once we're home also.

Exploring mom's donate pile

Also exploring mom's donate pile

Cuteness pictures from his night with LO (aka our night out!)

I do not get these sweet snuggles. Jealous!

Thank you, Lo for this gem

Nine Months Old

Our little Potatoes is Nine Months Old!

 These were my attempts at a Nine Month picture....he doesn't stop moving!

He LOVES wagon rides!  He will tolerate the stroller or the carrier, but loves the wagon.  He likes to hold onto the side and shake back and forth, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Standing Strong

He pulls himself to standing and can sit back down.  He skipped the standing and not knowing how to get down.  He just falls to his bottom.  Probably because of all the tossing around daddy does with him.  This boy has no fear!

Sibling Love

He crawls super fast all over the house, primarily following Zoey or me around.

Zoey is not a fan of the crawling bro.  It stresses out her herding instincts.  We are trying to teach her to get up and leave the area when she gets nervous.  On the other hand, sometimes she is so excited to see him (when we first get home, or he first wakes up), she licks his face repeatedly, and he gets frustrated.  They can't match up on their excitement over each other.  We definitely have to keep an eye on the two of them now.

His favorite vocalization has moved from 'da-da' to 'ma-ma' (be still my heart!), and he has recently added 'nar-nar' to his sounds.  He also loves to blow raspberries on my stomach, even more than when I blow them on his belly.

Playtime

Since crawling, he does not wave or high five as much (he used to wave constantly, even at inanimate objects he found appealing).  He isn't still enough to do these things often, now.  He is constantly trying to get somewhere new and explore what else might be around the corner.  He wants to climb everything, but hasn't quite figured out what to do after getting one leg up on something.  He is go, go, go.

He is sleeping well, from about 7:30 until somewhere between 4:00 and 5:00, usually.  Before new milestones he continues to struggle, waking up frequently.  He wakes up on my work days around 5:45 and on no work days between 6:00 and 7:30.  He still takes two good naps and one cat nap every day.

He eats and eats and eats.  He takes about 6oz of milk every 3-4 hours and eats solids in between.  His favorites are homemade blueberry Greek yogurt and yogurt bites I freeze from the same homemade yogurt.  He eats really anything you put in front of him, though, so we have begun feeding him whatever we are eating.  He prefers finger foods so he can feed himself.

He has his nine month appointment on the 21st.  I'm eager to see where he lies in the stats, because according to my measurements, he hasn't changed much since his sixth month appointment in height or weight.

Photo Drop

Jonathan is home!  Xander is figuring out who this guy is.

Zoey got in the creek right at a patch of sticky seed pods....covered!

ECAC 5K

Lauren hung out with the bro so we could have a night out!

We Have a Crawler!

Milestone to begin the Mayhem: We Have a Crawler!

After thinking about it for nearly a month and deciding it was just too much work, Alexander finally decided that his beloved sister was motivation enough to get on the move!

This happened during Daniel's work Fantasy Football draft, thus the background noise, but I could not miss the opportunity to get it on camera.

Since his first crawl, he has decided it is not intimidating at all and pulls himself all over the house.  I have sources (Aunt Leaha) who say he uses his new mobility to chase after the girls in his classroom all day at school.  

T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

As usual, this big milestone came after a week of terrible sleep.  Luckily, since crawling, he is once again sleeping through the night.  That brain really works hard at night to help him do new things!  I was completely exhausted after just a week of bad sleep even with working only three days.  I have no idea how I made it through the four months of sleepless nights when I was working more hours.  Praise God for mama strength!

Time to baby proof

Photo Drop

GrandCracker sent us this hardcore wagon after Xander loved his Colorado Radio Flyer so much

Oh the cuteness!

He was so excited for his first neighborhood wagon ride

Beautiful girl waiting for Daddy to get home

Fence squirrel- her favorite

Up from a nap to watch the Dawgs get their first victory with our new coach

Happy Labor Day!

A Shower for Karlee

On Sunday, Nikki and I had the pleasure of celebrating our friend Karlee and her baby girl that we are all so excited to meet.

Karlee is such a sweet, dear friend, who leads my ladies Bible study and whose husband, Jonathan, works with Daniel.  it is so great to have a friend whom our husbands are as close as we are!

The shower was a brunch, as that has been Karlee's main pregnancy craving.

We had a waffle bar with all the toppings, jalapeno deviled eggs, sausage balls, and cucumber sandwiches

Karlee likes hot air balloons, so we had a hot air balloon cake as well as a hot air balloon fruit tray with our muffins and cheese tray

Nikki did an amazing job decorating Chinese lanterns into hot air balloons!

Brittney rocked it out helping me with Xander when he got fussy and helping Nikki and I get the final touches wrapped up.  The two older girls had a blast in Nikki's pool during the shower.

We had a great group of ladies and children come out to shower Karlee and Baby Goeres with love

We were so glad Scarlett came out with her boys!

We had guests sign You Are Special as a guest book

Beautiful Harper

I love this picture!

We love you, Karlee!  Once Jonathan is home, we will be waiting with baited breath to meet Baby Goeres!!!

Karlee's shower marks the commencement of the Martin family being in full speed.  For the week leading up to the shower, Daniel was volunteering twelve hour days in the August Florida heat to help my school's playground build.  Though he came home exhausted every day, he absolutely loved it!  

This week was monumental for the Emerald Coast Autism Center in two ways.  Our playground was completed ahead of schedule to be absolutely breathtaking.  This week also marks one year since our ECAC family lost our beloved friend and therapist, Azel Hardy, in an utterly tragic act of violence.  I still think about him all the time, as his heart was like no other.  I cannot believe a year has passed since I saw his huge smile.  Heaven is a better place with his presence.  We love you, Azel.  You will always be remembered.