Christmas 2012, Part 1

Christmas was obviously quite a but different this year with baby boy but it was by far our best yet. We usually go to my brother's house on Christmas Eve but this year our family came to us so we could put Gray to bed and still be able to hang out. We spent that night enjoying good food and opening presents. He loved tearing into the paper and trying to eat it. Gray got lots of books and some toys and clothes. His cousins got him a Braves bib with their own money which was so sweet! Mama and Daddy got him a few books and a Leap Frog learning table.















Books are one of the most valuable things he could ever have and I will make sure he knows that as soon as he is old enough to understand. From hand me downs and gifts, he has quite a full bookshelf and it just makes my heart happy, happy, happy!
Christmas morning we went to my brother's house to see what Santa brought and had a big breakfast like we always do. We aren't sure what, if any, level of Santa we are going to do with Gray (I know that just breaks a lot of hearts and maybe I will explain our reasons in another post sometime) but for this year he didn't know the difference so we just let Santa do what Santa wanted to do. Mugger and Gram Santa brought Gray a rocking horse and more toys and books. This rocking horse is just the cutest thing. He neighs and moves his head and tail when you push his ear. PA-RESH!












 

We usually head to Paul's parents on Christmas Day but decided we will start going the day after. It's hard breaking tradition but we want to start our own traditions with the three of us and thankfully both sides of our families were more than understanding about switching some things up this year. We were home by lunch time from my brothers on Christmas Day and it was so nice not rushing off anywhere and spending time as a little family.






Paul and I didn't buy each other gifts this year due to our right budget with me staying home with Gray. Any extra money we do have these days we'd rather spend on an experience rather than something tangible anyway. I have to admit I really missed buying for Paul but our sweet boy is more than worth any and every sacrifice we have had to make and he is far better than any gift we could ever buy. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and headed out right at dark to look at Christmas lights-a new tradition we want to do every Christmas night. We made it through one neighborhood before the screaming began. It was very close to the kind of screaming we heard back in the colic days. I have been slowly introducing dairy back into my diet and I'd had quite a bit of cheese over the past couple of days. I was scared to death that it wasn't going over well with Gray. I felt so guilty and sad for him and we were scared to death about what it might mean for the next couple of days, especially with a five hour drive ahead of us. We tried pulling over and getting him out of his car seat to calm him down but nothing worked. We headed for home as fast as we could and when we were almost there he fell asleep. He was totally fine when he woke up and for the rest of the night so I guess he was just exhausted. We were so relieved. And there will be many more years to look at Christmas lights.
Coming soon-Christmas Part 2 at Nana and Grandpa Hicks'
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He's even silly when he sleeps

Gray has had some pretty funny sleep habits and positions from the time he was born, like putting his butt up in the air like so....


He has slept on his tummy for months now and often spits up and/or drools during his sleep, making for some dirty sheets. The spit up and drool were causing his little cheeks to break out (plus who wants to sleep on crusty sheets?!) so we were having to change his sheets several times a week which was becoming quite a pain since the bumper and mattress have to be taken out in order to change them (I am pretty sure that just counted as a run on sentence). So we finally got smart and spent 10 bucks on a sheet saver a month or so ago and he acts like it's his pillow. The first couple of nights it was in his bed, he positioned his body sideways in the crib so his whole body was on it. I can't blame him though, it's quilted and is rather comfy. We washed it last night and it was still a little warm when we put it back on right before he went to bed so this is how he slept last night and is napping this way as I type this...


And he is totally still rockin his Christmas pajamas and will be until they don't fit anymore so don't judge.

Speaking of which, hopefully I'll be back soon to recap baby's first Christmas!

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Way behind!

I have so much blogging to catch up on and with a very busy almost 7 month old I have no idea when it will happen. But two things are keeping me motivated and excited to find the time. One is that Paul's parents got my blog printed onto a beautiful, nice, hard back book for Christmas. It starts with my very first blog and goes to my first blog about Gray's birth. It was a huge surprise! Paul and I have briefly talked about doing this but it's pretty expensive and wasn't going to be on the priority list anytime soon. Though a lot of my blog posts (mostly before Gray) aren't much of anything too special, it is still my journal and captures a lot of our life. I treasure the book so much already and knowing that another edition will hopefully be printed one day, I want to be more intentional about blogging. The second motivator is that I have an app on my phone now that will let me post from there and even include pictures straight from my phone. I stole the idea from a friend and fellow blogger, Liz Crews. So a big shout out and thanks to her :) I might get on the computer twice a week and although Gray goes to be early, by that time I just want to hang out with Paul and am too exhausted to do anything else productive. But I am often on my phone for a few minutes several times a day while I am pumping, eating lunch or pumping.

So here's hoping that I will get caught up on the end of 2012 and blog more in 2013!


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Merry Christmas!!

6 months

Happy half of a year to our sweet boy! I may or may not be teary-eyed as I type those words. It's been another big month for Gray. He has grown and learned a lot and his stages of life just keep getting better and bringing us more and more joy.

At 6 months...

Gray weighs 17 pounds, 1 ounce (42nd percentile). I was surprised in his weight because he hadn't even quite gained two pounds since his 4 month check up. But the doctor sad his curve looks great and that weight gain will really slow down a lot from this point on. He has more than doubled his birth weight and by the looks of his chubby cheeks and legs, we are confident that he is packing on enough chunkiness.

His height is 27 and 1/4 inches (75th percentile). He has grown and inch and a quarter in the last two months and 5 and a quarter inches since birth!

His head measurement is 17 and 1/2 inches (82nd percentile). This isn't surprising considering Mama and Daddy both had big heads. It's just because he is so smart already :)

The biggest milestone for Gray this month is that he has TWO TEETH! Both of his bottom middle teeth finally broke through the skin a week ago. I haven't been able to get a picture of them and they aren't up enough to see when he smiles but it won't be long. He had a really rough time with teething and ran a fever and was up a lot at night and didn't nap well at all. He has been holding his mouth funny and just seems very curious about these new, strange things that are in there. I'd love it if he had a break until the next ones came in, but I'm sure not holding my breath.

He can sit up with no support for about 5-10 seconds and loves to be in the sitting up position. I wrote that just yesterday and today he sat up for almost 2 minutes! I think play time is going to be even more fun for him when he can sit up for as long as he wants to by himself.

He is rolling all around. Though he has been able to roll over both ways for a couple of months, he will now roll several times in a row and can get around a lot, considering he isn't crawling yet.

His favorite toys are his feet, his Sophie Samson giraffe (Daddy made it have a boy name. Plus, it would have been confusing with Sophie the dog), his exersaucer, his crawl ball and any and everything that lights up and makes noise. His Nana and Grandpa got him a Noah's Ark snow globe and he is so fascinated by it. Mean 'ol Mama won't let him put it in his mouth though. He is also loving the Christmas tree lights. He also loves books and his favorite one is a tractor book. Of all the books we read, he shows favoritism toward this one particular tractor book, which amazes me. I also find it so fascinating that boys this young already show such interest in boy things. No one has to teach boys to like tractors and sports and girls to like baby dolls and kitchens, they just do. Isn't it just amazing how God created us?

 

 He is starting to play like a big kid, like riding on Daddy's shoulders. This doesn't make me nervous at all.

And swinging at the park.

He is eating solids once a day, soon to be moving to twice and eventually three times a day. He has done great with eating from a spoon since the very first time we fed him that way. He wasn't a big fan of peas the first time he ate them but other than that he has loved everything so far. He nurses every 2-4 hours during the day. We still give him a pumped bottle with rice cereal before bed and he will take 7 ish ounces. He is close to being able to completely hold his bottle on his own and has become interested in holding his own spoon.

Sleeping is going good, except for last week when he was teething so bad. We are almost done with weaning him from his one middle of the night feeding and he has done great with it so far. Last night he was down to only getting 2 ounces but never woke up to eat. He woke up and stirred and whined a couple times but only for about 2-3 minutes so it was the first time he'd gone all night without eating-yay for this!!! Most nights he sleeps 12-13 hours, waking up anywhere from 1-4 times. Other than when he was teething bad, he usually just cries or whines for a few minutes and sometimes plays for a few minutes and then goes right back to sleep. We let him cry unless he is in pain. We learned at the doctor yesterday that their sleep patterns change around 6 months and it is very common for them to wake up several times after midnight. Naps have been pretty iffy lately. He usually only sleeps an hour or hour and a half so a lot of days he ends up taking three naps.

He has really started reaching for and grabbing things this past month. Gone are the days of being able to eat or drink anything while holding him. He now loves to grab at your face and has even poked me in the eye a couple of times.

He is now responding to praise and gets so excited when we clap for him or say "Yay, Gray!". He is also catching on to games like peek-a-boo and anticipates being tickled by laughing and making funny faces.

I feel like I say this every month but he is talking A LOT!!! We had a family Christmas get together this weekend and a lot of people met Gray for the first time and they all kept talking about how verbal he was. We talk to him pretty much nonstop and I read books with him every single day so I think that has a lot to do with it. I find him looking at my mouth a lot these days while I'm talking. It is so amazing to me how early language development begins.

He is wearing most all 9 month clothes because he is so long but a few 6-9 month stuff still fits. He is also still wearing size 2 diapers but when we run out soon we are going to try moving to size 3.

He loves, loves, loves music! We jam out to all kinds of music every day and it just makes him so excited. He recognizes when it cuts off and will look at you like tragedy has struck. He also loves to be sung to, especially if he is tired or fussy.

He really started noticing Sophie about a month or so ago and LOVES her!!! He just smiles and talks to her all day long. He tries to pet her but she usually runs away ;) One of his favorite things to do is to sit with us on the floor while we play fetch with her. He could watch her run down that hall a million times. She is also warming up to him more and more and has even given him several kisses right on the mouth.

He has started recognizing other babies and can tell the difference between them and "big people". He gets so excited and starts flapping and talking when other babies are around. He also really recognizes Mama and Daddy compared to other people. We always make a big deal when Daddy comes home and he is starting to show excitement with that. Paul was able to meet us at the doctor yesterday for his 6 month check up. We were already back in the room when he got there and when he walked in Gray started flapping and squealing. It was so sweet!

He is starting to show a little bit of a temper. When he's in his exersaucer and gets frustrated he will stomp his foot. He also makes a noise when he gets mad. I guess the complete meltdowns are soon to follow.

Here is our sweet Gray Christopher at 6 months...

I love this picture of him. His teeth were really bothering him and he was holding his mouth funny. It made those sweet cheeks look even chubbier!

Can't wait to see what our little man learns in his seventh month of life!

Gray's dedication

Gray was dedicated at our church the Sunday after Thanksgiving, November 25. There are several purposes for baby dedications at our church. 1) for the pastor to give a charge to the parents about how to raise their child in a way that reflects Christ 2) for parents to come in front of the church to publicly proclaim their promise to God about how they will raise their child 3) for the pastor and the church family to pray over the children and the families 4) for the Pastor to ask the church body to pray for and support the families and 5) ultimately to dedicate the babies to the Lord. We believe that Gray is God's child but He is graciously allowing us to be his earthly parents and for that we are immensely grateful.

It was so special to us that Pastor Will did the dedication. He is not only one of the most influential pastors in my life but he is also one of the pastors that married us.

 

So do y'all remember me saying in my Thanksgiving post that the more people that were around, the more energy Gray had? Welp, the same went for dedication day. We were on stage in front of the congregation (a much smaller number of people in the contemporary service that we go to) and Gray hammed it up, to say the least. He squealed and talked the entire time. Pastor Will first went down the line of families to introduce them and then he came back up the line at the end to pray for each family. Both times he stood with us, Gray got even louder. Thank goodness for Will's microphone. He was definitely the most vocal baby up there and of course everyone was cracking up at him the whole time. In Pastor Will's prayer over Gray and our family, he thanked God for Gray's voice and all of his energy. I thought that was priceless! I have a feeling our boy is going to be wide open with a huge personality.

Here is our family after the dedication (minus my mom who had to scoot out early to work in the infant preschool room and my sister in law and two nephews, who were sick with the flu)...

The Sowers were there too, which meant a lot to us

It was a special day for us and one that we do not take lightly. We pray every day for Gray and that he will continue to grow and be healthy. We also pray that we will be godly parents and an example of Christ for Gray through our marriage and parenting. But our biggest prayer is that he will come to know Jesus at an early age and be a strong Christian boy and man. Few other things in life will make our hearts as full as that would.

Thanksgiving weekend-WITH PICTURES :)

Thanks to my friends Patrice and Sarah for helping me with the whole "you don't have any more storage space for your pictures on blogster" deal. Part of me thought it was a scam, part of me was just worried that there was going to be some crazy ridiculous charge to have pictures on here from now on. I almost panicked, but all is well now. Two and a half bucks a month is certainly worth how precious and one day valuable this blog will be. Now on to catching up a little...

I felt more overwhelmed with thanksgiving this year than I ever have before. I truly don't even know where to begin in counting the many blessings God has given us. I try my best to not take all of those blessings for granted and not just on Thanksgiving day, but every day. And the most important thing is to remember that we have been given those blessings from God and nothing or no one else can get the credit for them. Gray is certainly at the top of the list for us and he sure made this Thanksgiving a special one.

We spent Thanksgiving in Boone, as we usually do, with Paul's dad's side of the family. They have a very large family with 12 grandchildren and number 13 on the way. All of the children are extremely smart and well behaved and Paul and I started taking notes long before Gray came along. They do things completely different from most of the rest of the world and I love it. I could make it an entire post and maybe I will sometime. Anywho, we had a wonderful time visiting with family and hanging around Boone. Gray got to meet his great grandfather (Paul's dad's dad, not the one Gray is named after) for the first time. He has severe dementia and doesn't know who anyone is so he won't remember meeting Gray but we sure will.

Four generations of Hicks men!

 

 

Gray didn't nap very good at all but considering he was in his pack n play with 12 children running around he didn't do as bad as I thought he would. We always stay in a hotel and I was especially glad for that this year. The first night was pretty rough but by the second night he did much better. Despite the lack of sleep, he was in such a good mood and absolutely loved being around so many people. He laughed and carried on and showed off as much as his little self could stand it. The more people that were around, the more energy he had. The two most common words spoken about Gray while we were in Boone were "big" and "verbal". I'll take both as compliments :)

On our way home we went back to the same Christmas tree lot that we went to last year for the first time. It was even more fun this year with the company of our sweet boy. The people that live there are super nice and down to earth and I think we will be giving them our business for a long time. And any tree/any size is only 40 bucks. By looking at their house, you can tell how they afford to give people such a good deal.

 

I tried telling Paul that the tree we picked was way too big but he didn't believe me until we got it inside and it didn't even come close to standing up straight without hitting the ceiling.

He came in and out with that big 'ol thing three times and ended up trimming a foot off and then had to doctor it up to get the top shaped back up. It made for a lot of laughs, which just happens to be one of our most favorite things to do. Decorating has been a little different this year with a little one taking up most of our time. It took us three nights to get the tree completely finished. It's so big that we spent one evening just putting on the lights. But as I recall saying last year, no tree is too big and I love coming downstairs to this sight every morning! Gray loves the lights and he just stares and stares at the tree. I guess this will be the last year we don't have to worry about him pulling on the ornaments and lights.

 I decided to put up a few more decorations this year than I did last year. I am so over our house being on the market and having to keep it a certain way. It's been almost four years so at this point I don't think Christmas decorations are going to keep it from selling.

Gray was dedicated at church on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. That is deserving of its own post though, so I'll be back with that soon!