Burton- 7 months!

Par for the course, I am a week late.  I also don't have any pictures of sweet baby boy with his 7 month sticker on, we left them in Birmingham, along with everything else we own... But enough with the melodrama, I will save it for an entire post when I can get up the courage to acknowledge the fact that we have actually moved. :(

Burton you are 7 months old!  Closer to a year than your birth.  I cannot believe it!  Here are your stats at 7 months...

Length and Weight: We won't get an update on this until 9 months

Sleep: We've had a long month in this area.  Combine teething with moving from crib to pack-n-play back to a crib as we jump from house to house, I don't blame you...ok, maybe I do a little bit when you are screaming in the middle of the night ;).  But, you have backed your bedtime up, going to bed between 7:30 and 8:00.  You still take 2-3 naps per day, but unfortunately your morning nap coincides with taking sister to preschool, and your afternoon nap usually falls when we go pick her up.  We will figure out our new routine soon!

Eating:  You have decided you don't really want baby food anymore and would just rather have anything mushy off of our plates, which you readily grab when you are in our laps.  We also went from just feeding you food at dinner time to you wanting it at every meal.  You LOVE banana, bread, pancakes, but you weren't too sure about avocado.  Last night you got some mac-n-cheese and corn casserole at the church picnic, you probably won't eat anything plain again! You are still nursing 4 to 5 times per day.

Likes: Eating, watching and laughing at sister, your exersaucer, falling asleep on Mommy.

Dislikes:  You still aren't a big fan of your carseat, and you definitely don't like being put in your highchair and having to wait on food.

Clothes Size: 9 months

Diaper Size: 4

Hair Color:  Bless you son, you are mostly still bald.  Some of the hair is so light that you can't tell you have any, then other places look more brown.  Who knows?

Eye Color: Dark blue

Nicknames:  Buckaroo and Burtie 

Milestones: You have figured out how to get on all fours and rock, and you just started army crawling!  I feel like it is any day now that you will really be on the move.  Also you have figured out how to get from all fours to sitting up.  This month you have started developing your pincer grasp and can grab at smaller bits of food, even though you consistently drop them in your lap.  About 2 weeks ago you cut your two bottom front teeth!  I can't believe you got them so early considering your sister didn't get one until she was 12 months.  Thankfully this helped explain some of your sleep issues :)

We love you Burton Christopher.  I know life has been stressful and so very hectic the past month, and Mommy feels a bit like we have missed some precious moments with you, but I know this time is short-lived.  You are such a joy and I love hearing your sweet baby laugh.  I can't imagine life without you!

You are almost as big as your sister 

Hanging out with baby James 

My heart is full!!! 

Burton- 6 Months!

So I'm a week late in posting, but let's just say it's a miracle I'm still sane and here (barely) after the week we've had.  

Burton here are your stats at 6 months:

Weight- 17 pounds 14 ounces (50%)

Length- 26.5 inches (75%) this was your exact length from your 4 month appointment, so either they were wrong then or were wrong this time.  Obviously you've gotten longer over the last two months.  

Head circumference: 17 inches (50%). I sort of figured your head was bigger, but it must be because you are bald :)

Sleep: go to bed usually around 8:30, sleep until 7:30-8:00.  You've woken up a few times around 11 during the last week... You take a cat nap in the morning, a longer afternoon nap and sometimes another cat nap in the evening.

Eating: you eat baby food at dinner time. You've graduated from cereal and veggies to fruits now.  There hasn't been anything you haven't liked.  You still nurse every 3 hours.  

Likes: Avery talking to you, I think she is by far your favorite person.  Exersaucer, eating, bath time, putting anything and everything in your mouth, sucking your fingers.  Your favorite place to nap is still on Mommy, something We still do about once or twice a week.   

Dislikes: you still despise your car seat for any extended length of time... Something Aunt Ashley and I had to endure on our recent beach trip.  Let's just say you were more unhappy than happy to be traveling.  

Clothes size: 6-9 months, really more 9 months 

Diaper size: 3, although I feel like you are probably ready for a 4

Hair Color: you are still too bald to really tell.  It looks dirty blonde/brown in some spots and just blonde in others.  I still think it will be close to the same color as sister's. 

Eye Color: dark blue 

Milestones: you started sitting up consistently right after you turned 5 months.  Seems like you are getting so close to crawling.  You somehow maneuver yourself across the playroom; you are never anywhere close to where I left you.  

We love you sweet boy!  We can't wait to see what God has in store for you.  

Out takes, we were not particularly fond of this photo session.

At the doctors office, before shots 😢

Sneak peak from his 6 month pictures.  Will post more later!

Margaret and B at church 

Sleeping on mommy! 

Other Summer Happenings

We've been busy, lots of traveling and various family events.... Let's go all the way back to May and start from there.

Ash got engaged in May!  We surprised her afterward at the house with a party, inviting friends and Randals' family... So much fun!  She was shocked, which made it even more fun! Countdown to next April! 

A few weeks later the whole fam tagged along with M to one of his work conferences in St Louis.   We had a fun few days exploring the city during the day while M was at the conference, went to a Cardinals game, and ate a lot!  We loved getting away just the four of us, even Avery kept calling it our "special family trip."  My roommate from college lives there with her husband and son, so I met her at the zoo one morning!  So nice to catch up with old friends! 

Surprisingly enough we all slept well in a hotel room together! 

Fun at the Magic House Children's Museum 

Inside of our awesome hotel

St. Louis zoo.  Aves was in a mood.

Love my sweet roomie.  Maybe Burton and Lincoln will be college roommates one day :)

The pool was advertised as heated.  Apparently, according to M, it was not.

Headed to my first professional baseball game! 

Daddy got Aves a pink glove for the occasion.  

On the way back to Birmingham we stopped in Memphis for a night to see Mimi and Papaw and let them meet Burton for the first time!

Then basically as soon as we got back into town, Mollie went into labor early and precious James arrived with a head full of black hair!  Burton was excited to meet his BFF :)

Stay tuned.  Got a lot more summer catching up to do! 

Better Late Than Never- Hardison Family Vacation

Well it's August. Whoops. Not really sure how that happened?  I will try and be better, I mean at the very least I can attempt to post sporadically, which would be a marginal improvement.  

Back in June, we went to Destin with the Hardison clan, minus Benjamin and Morgan, since they have decided to carry on the Hardison presence in TX after our departure.  Thanks to David and Sandra for providing a great house for us all to gather comfortably, which is saying a lot with 6 adults and 5 kids aged 5 and under.  The kiddos had a great time playing together while enjoying the pool and beach.  Not that I am for a minute  wanting to wish away a millisecond of my children's youth, but it will be a lot more relaxing to vacation once our kids are a bit bigger!  

Guess what else is not fun on vacation?  Contracting a cellulitis-causing bacterium that requires a round of IV antibiotics at the ER.  Just ask M.  Apparently we thought we hadn't spent enough on medical bills this year, what with the birth of Burton and my appendectomy

Nonetheless enjoy the pics from vacation!

 

Yup, it actually looked worse than this 24 hours later. 

So thankful I got to see one of my very best friends, Katie, while we were there!