The past few months...

We've had a great past few months!  I don't want to forget some of the fun things we've done, though I don't have pictures for most of them, but here they are in no particular order:

• Our good friends Juan and Cami welcomed a beautiful baby girl in January, Maya Vera.  Not to brag or anything, but I was her first babysitter. ;)  

Here is the little beauty wearing the headband we gave her. 

• Cam surprised me with an early Valentines Day date.  Kasee and Jason were sweet enough to volunteer as babysitters the night before Valentines Day so we could go out.  We went to Hopdoddy (our favorite burger bar) and the cupcake truck in Austin.  So fun!  (He really surprised me well...I had dinner in the oven and hadn't showered that day. Ha!) 
• My mom and Abby came out for a weekend in February.  I can't believe I didn't take any pictures!  We had a blast!  We ate way too many Round Rock Donuts,  shopped at the Domain and the outlets, hung out downtown on South Congress, and ate at Rudy's and Chuy's.  I want them to visit every month!  It was so much fun.  
• We watched our first season of the Bachelor (where have we been?!)  and enjoyed watching it every week with a group of friends.  It was fun to trash Courtney all together!  
• This past weekend we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.  It was nice to get out for the day and see something new!

• Cam is enjoying work!  He just finished his first role in Corporate Accounting and now he's started his second role, Treasury, which he loves.  He's really had a great experience at Dell so far.  
• At church, I play the organ one Sunday a month and Cam plays the piano for primary and ward choir.  Sometimes I cover junior primary for him so I can listen to all the hilarious kids.  
• We've been enjoying the mind blowing new park in Round Rock!  It's in walking distance, which is great.  I can't wait until Andy's a little older so he can enjoy it more.  Right now, he's mostly interested in the swing.  
• Our friend Kasee is always throwing the most fantastic parties!  (She has a fantastic food blog, check it out: theaprongal.com.)  She threw a Panini's and Pop Party!  It was a blast, and as always, very delicious. 
• Our friends Bart & Janssen threw a Pi(e) Party on Pi Day!  We each brought pies and basked in the deliciousness.  (I stole this picture from her because I didn't get one.)  

• We had a super fun ladies night in February!  We went to Macaroni Grill to celebrate Cami's and Andrea's birthdays and then went to see "The Vow."  (very disappointing to us all) It was so nice to have a break from the babies and spend time together! 
• We went and visited Bryan and Aisling (Cam's cousin) in College Station a couple weeks ago.  It's always so fun to see them!  Though it was very rainy, we enjoyed some awesome fajitas, chatting, and playing Loaded Questions.  We got some super cute pictures of their little boy Carter with Andy. 

We've got lots of fun things coming up.  This weekend we're doing a boat cruise with a bunch of friends.  Yay!  Next weekend Cam's parents are coming to visit.  We are so excited to see them! Also, I just booked a trip to Utah from April 17-25.  Though we're sad Cam can't join us, Andy and I are very excited to see everyone there!  

Lee Family Pictures

Back in December, we had family pictures taken with Cam's family.  I haven't seen many of them, but the ones I've seen turned out really cute!  Cam's cousin Jessica took them and did a great job.  My favorites are the pictures of Andy.  They're his six month pictures and we LOVE them!  

9 months

I can't believe Andy is already 9 months old! That just sounds so...old.  He is definitely looking less and less like a baby.   He's growing up so fast!  We love him to pieces.

• He has learned some "words": na-na-na and da-da-da.  (Cameron thinks he's actually calling him dada. Yeah, right.  His first word will definitely be mama.)  He is extremely talkative.
• Though we still haven't seen a tooth, he experienced his first teething episode, which included a nursing strike, lots of screaming, and sleepless nights.  (We thought he was sick; the doctor said it was teething.)  Our only sanity those few days was Baby Einstein.  He loves it soooo much.  (Especially the little puppet that comes on-he always talks to it.) I'm guessing we watched it 30+ times those few days?  It was literally the only way to get him to stop screaming.  He starts beaming as soon as he hears the theme song because he knows what's coming.  
• He is such a LOUD baby.  This makes church very exciting.  He loves to surprise everyone with ear piercing squeals of joy.  
• Still loves the bath.  He gets really excited as soon as we turn the water on. 
• Loves to stand.  We got him a little keyboard he can stand up and play.  He loves this!  

• Can stand holding on to things, but still falls over (and screams) occasionally.  
• Still wearing his helmet.  Bleh.  However, his head is looking a lot better! Hopefully he'll only have to wear it 3 months instead of 4.  
• Loves solids!  Turns out we don't really have a picky eater...I'm just a bad cook. :)  I'd been making all his food, which he didn't like much.  We bought a few of the packaged baby foods just to figure out what flavors he might like and he loves every single one of them.  So much for being a hip, frugal, baby food making mom!  At least he eats now, though.  We're doing two meals a day and working on getting to a third.  
• He has a new favorite game: dumping out his basket of toys.  I don't mind at all because it keeps him entertained for quite a while.  
• We're trying to help him learn to drink from a sippy cup.  He's not really catching on.  He mostly chews on the nipple.  He does like water though!  
• As always, wakes up 2-3 times a night.  However, he did have his first time ever sleeping through the night!  (From 10-6:30) A blessed, random occurrence.  He must not have liked it that much because he hasn't done it since. :)  
• He got really good at flipping from his back to his stomach this month, but as soon as he'd do it, he'd get really mad because he hates his stomach.  We'd flip him back over and then he'd do it again.  Many naps were disrupted while he practiced this new trick.  
• Doesn't love his Johnny Jump Up so much anymore.
• Loves to cross his ankles.  Too cute.  
• Continues to love walks.  He always kicks his feet against the stroller.    
• Loves the swings, as always.  
• Loves touch 'n feel books.  He's always touching the textured parts.  
• Is really getting a lot better at moving.  He's close to crawling.  He's flipping front to back, back to front all the time and is scooting backwards and turning.  He gets up on his knees sometimes too.  Just this week he's learning how to go from sitting to falling forward onto his hands.  

And some pictures!  (I need to be better at taking more.  It's hard because he moves so fast, it's hard to get a good one.  I promise he doesn't have a blank stare all the time...that's just the only time I manage to get a picture that's not super blurry.) 

Hypnotized by Baby Einstein.  What will the sheep puppet do next?

Black beans are way more fun to play with than to eat!

8 Months

How in the world is Andy 8 months old?!  I can't believe it.  And yet, I can't really remember life before him.  (Or that I ever actually slept at night.)  Some highlights:

• Just barely started slightly scooting backward! (I don't think he realizes he's actually moving.)  He can turn a little too.  I was convinced he'd never crawl, but it looks like I might be wrong.  
• Is getting slightly better at eating solids.  I feel like the only two foods he'll eat without being tricked are oatmeal and pears.  We're also working on black beans, applesauce, bananas, and sweet potatoes.  He mostly blows those all over the kitchen, though. 

• I would be more worried about his solid food habits, but he still nurses a ton and his weight is pretty high--I would guess in the 21-22 lb range.  
• He is in 12 month clothes! All his clothes make him look so grown up now.  
• Sorry for the disgusting picture, but I have to document a big part of this month.  TONS of blowouts.  Every time he poops, it's a blowout.  He's struggled being regular now that he's eating solids. He even had his first (and hopefully only) suppository.  

• Getting better and better at standing while holding onto something!  He still falls over occasionally, but is getting consistently better.  
• Of course, the biggest "milestone" of the month was getting his helmet, which he wears 23 hrs a day.  I didn't prepare myself for it actually being an adjustment.  Luckily, he adjusted pretty well after a few days.  He doesn't seem to remember it's there and isn't as sweaty anymore.  I seriously think it's been much more of an adjustment for me!  I miss cuddling his sweet head and kissing his cheeks.  I hate feeling a big piece of plastic while nursing.  However, it's going pretty well and we haven't had any major problems.  It looks like he'll be wearing it 3-4 months.  Sad.  

• Still loves baths, his johnny jump up, his activity center, the swings, and any toy that makes sound and lights up.   He also loves random household toys like measuring spoons, highlighters, and drawstrings. 

 

• He is really starting to enjoy books more.  He lifts the flaps up on his books and gets really excited about them.  
• Loves pounding on the piano!  Naturally, we are thrilled and very proud.  The cutest part is that he stops to look at us every minute or so to make sure we're listening and we approve.  
• Loves peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake, itsy-bitsy spider, etc.  
• Has developed this fake cough noise he loves to make.  He does it constantly.  

• He is such a boy!  He loves being thrown around, airplane, spinning in circles...anything active!  
• He is so chatty and social.  It's fun to hear all the new noises he makes and the new sounds he learns.  He even imitates us sometimes.  
• He loves to knock on everything...the table, books, the door.  
• He has the sweetest giggle you've ever heard.  He has such a cute sense of humor.  It's so fun to figure out what will make him laugh.  
• Loves to be tickled.  
• Loves Baby Einstein!  This was discovered when our friends Matt & Andrea were babysitting and trying to calm him down.  They had a DVD and popped it in.  It mesmerizes him!  When I can't get him to calm down, I pop it in for a few minutes.  Here he is watching it: 

• An unfortunate development:  in addition to refusing bottles, he won't sleep anywhere but his room.  This really limits our previous babysitting trading arrangements!  Also, he's decided he only likes to eat in his room, in his rocking chair, in the dark.  Fantastic.  This means no more nursing on-the-go in the car or nursing at church.  He nurses every 3-4 hours during the day.  And every 3 hours at night.  I'm thinking he might sleep through the night when he's 2.  My mom informed me that's what I did, so I suppose this is karma.  
• We are convinced he's the sweetest boy in the world and can't believe how much we love him!  This really is such a fun stage.  It's definitely an easier phase than some past phases.  He can entertain himself and usually takes decent naps.  We love him!!! 

Baby Shower

About a month ago, my friend Kasee and I threw our cute friend Cami a baby shower.  It was so fun to celebrate her little girl on the way.  (Maya Vera: cutest name ever.)  The theme was "books & bows." It turned out great! (Mostly thanks to Kasee, who is known far and wide for her party throwing abilities.)

I was pretty proud of these cupcakes:

Playing a celebrity baby matching game!  Cami, the guest of honor, is on my left.

Hostesses! Me and cute Kasee.