7 Months of pure joy!

I just realized that I never did a 7 month post for Vander!
I have been absolutely horrible at taking pictures lately so this is going to be a boring post with no pictures. I will post some updated pictures soon and make an effort to take some!
In the meantime, this is what Vander is up to these days.....
-Can barely scoot...Usually in circles but sometimes forwards
-Loves to move from sitting to stomach to back to stomach- He's a wiggle worm!
-Favorite toys are his squirting bath toys
-Has found his voice and loves to scream and jabber. Not because he's mad, just because he has discovered he can
-Waves his hand all the time, but I don't think he quite understands what it means
-Said his first word this past week. Of course... "DA-DA" much to my dismay ;)
-LOVES Mum-Mum Rice snacks and inhales them and all other food sooo fast. He eats as fast as his Daddy and Mommy :)
-He just started on finger foods this past month and it getting quite good at getting little things to eat in his mouth
-Favorite solid foods to date are Sweet Potatoes and Butternut Squash
-He's obsessed with his binky
-He loves to pet the doggies and laughs when they lick his face
-He loves to grip my hair and then pull on it
-He sits up on the bench at church and just plays with his toys
-He LOVES water and loves it even more when it is given to him through a straw
-He's a GOOD boy. Very very rarely whines or crys. Almost always has a smile on his face. The sweetest little boy in the world with the happiest spirit.

Most recent measurements as of 6/8/2011.....

Height- 28 inches   - 85 pecentile
Weight- 19 lbs       - 70 percentile
Head- 17.25 inch   - 45 percentile

New Favorite Hobby?

I think this morning Vander found his new favorite hobby and I found very good way to keep Vander entertained while I'm working :) Who knows... maybe this will lead to some very beautiful piano playing in our home some day. ;)

And heck... why not toss a few pictures on here from the past few weeks while I'm at it!

 He loves to TRY to feed himself. I give him his own spoon and let him make an attempt at getting some of the food in his mouth. It usually just makes a huge mess. But he sure does try hard!

This is his favorite way to be carried around by Joel right now. Screw the shoulders, he likes to sit on daddys left shoulder only.

Memorial Day and Bathtime

This week is a week full of firsts! We had a great memorial day this year at my parents house. We played in the pool with Vander and got to experience his very first swim! The water was quite cold and he didn't even make a peep! What a trooper! He actually was mainly focused on the antennas on his bumble bee floaty and didn't pay much attention to anything else.

Then he went on a "Golfball hunt" which is basically a Craig Grandbaby right of passage with Bop Bop (my dad). Basically each time a grandbaby gets big enough to sit on my dads shoulders without wobbling TOO much he takes them out to the golf course behind their house and they search for stray golfballs together. Every time one of my nieces or nephews got big enough for their big golfball search I always thought how excited I would be for when my own baby would get to do it. And YAY, here it is!!! Vander would only hold onto the golfballs for a very short period before he dropped them on the ground. He'll learn soon enough :)

 His first dunk.... we were waiting for a scream when he hit the cold water (He loves HOT water just like his mama)

 He swam with Joel practically the entire time because I'm a wuss and the water was cold!

 Ready for their big hunt to begin!

 Vander was a little confused when they were literally crawling down INTO a bush to get a ball

 His very first golfball- Of course... STRAIGHT to the mouth- Nice and clean too!

 He looked so cute and tiny out on Bop Bops shoulders

Holding one of the balls they found. Only seconds before he dropped it :)

THEN... Tonight, Vander finally graduated from his little infant/baby bath to his mom and dads nice BIG tub. He LOVED it and was just jibber jabbering the entire time.

 Look at that chunky little monkey! Measured him today and he weighed in at a whoppin 20 lbs!!! Thats the 85 percentile baby! :) This boy loves his food!

 He loves his squirter bath toys! He played with one single animal the entire time. Very easily entertained :)

 The Blue Whale is his very favorite

 My favorite part of his bathtime is his adorable little cellulite bubble butt

6 Month Pics!

I just got Vander's 6 month photos from Aubry! They turned out so cute! You can practically see into his soul :) He was teething during the shoot and was MUCH less smiley than usual, but it was nice to get some soft gentle pictures of him for once.

Fastest 6 months ever!

I'm about a week late on this post because Vander was actually 6 months on the 19th, but I've been waiting to take a picture of him that is super cute where he looks nice. Well, when you work at home and YOU are in your PJ's all day, your kid is also... Call me a negligent mother.. but my son practically lives in his PJ's. Comfort is key in this household!
Anyways... He just had his 6 month pictures done and hopefully I'll be able to post those adorable pictures soon!
I cannot believe how fast the last 6 months have gone by. I feel like I was just in the hospital having Vander yesterday, but at the same time, I can't even remember what its like to be without him. He continues to bring an overwhelming amount of joy to our home. He is the HAPPIEST baby ever (until this past week when he started teething). We are so so blessed and Joel and I tell eachother literally daily how much we just adore him.
Heres a little about Vander in his 6th month....
-He can roll from back to front, front to back, spin around all over the place
-We can often here him flinging his hips up and banging and twisting up in his crib when we put him down
-For the past month he has been able to find his Binky and then put it in his mouth
-He sleeps in a sea of Binkys, when we wake up in the morning they are ALL behind his back
-He loves to scratch things to feel the texture and to hear the noise of the scratching
-He can sit on the floor for a long time and just play with toys without making a peep
-He has now had almost every solid food under the rainbow (Favorites include Pears, Carrots and Sweet Potatoes)
-He almost always is sucking on his pointer and middle finger and when he smiles or laughs he always shoves his hand in his mouth
-Although he has many toys, his favorite things to play with are Pens, Calculators and the remote. (Come to think of it, all things we throw at him when we're busying working or watching tv....sad)
-He has already had 4 haircuts at the wee age of 6 months
-He LOVES the dogs and laughs when they lick his face
-He just barely started scooting himself around on the floor, but he can only go a matter of inches
-He loves to spin and twist and practically crawl off of the changing table
-He has started teething and we expect a tooth to appear any day now!
-He giggles and laughs so hard when Joel kisses his face. Probably because of Joels furry facial hair.

 Naptime with Daddy

 On our way to softball!

 Just chillin in the pj's

 His first finger foodish thing :) Mum-Mum



Lunch Time Swimmin'

Today Vander and I spent my lunch break taking a nice little "swim" in Vanders new pool he got from the Easter Bunny. This was his first "swim" and he was a little confused. Mostly because our psychotic dog Wymme was running around the tiny pool in circles whining trying to figure out how to dive in. Vander spent most of his time watching her run around the pool in circles. I'm sure this summer will consist of many lunch breaks of swimming and chillin in the sun- One of the many blessings of working from home.

 In his beach bum outfit. Prepared for his big swim!

Take note of our stupid dog pouting on the side of the pool.

Warrior Dash 2011

Joel and I ran the most amazing race today that I have ever run in my life.. and I've run a lot of races!!!
The race was called the warrior dash. It was a 3.4 mile run with 12 obsticals along the way.
Obsticals were as follows:
-Jumping over 6 half walls and under 6 strands of barbed wire
-Running up and down dirt hills
-Running through a river
-Climbing over a junk yard with cars and tires
-Climbing up a 20 foot stack of hay
-Climbing up and down a cargo net
-Climbing up and down 15 foot wall with a rope
-Running over a long balance beem plank
-Running through a maze of bunge cords
-Climbing over a horizonal cargo net
-Jumping over fire pits
-Climbing through a mud pit
It was a BLAST. The obsticals were my very favorite part and the running was just kinda thrown in there. Check it out at WarriorDash.com.
The last obstical was the mud pit and it was EXTREMELY messy. Joel dove in, so he was literally covered from head to toe in mud.
After the race, you walk about 1/8 mile over to some water trucks that spray you with fire hoses. Even after being sprayed with a fire hose we were STILL covered in mud.
It was so freaking fun. Needless to say, we are already mentally signed up for Warrior Dash 2012 :)

 BEFORE: Nice and clean. We ran with a bunch of friends from work :)

 The rocks at the bottom were shredding my knees. I had to try to crawl under the barbed wire without rubbing my knees

 Joel literally JUMPED in

Joel JUMPING into the mud 

 Caked with mud :) It ended up drying and we could all barely move

 AFTER: All extremely muddy

 This is where you "rinse off".... In another pit of mud...

 As you can see, although "rinsed", we were still a mess... And then we were absolutely freezing, wet and muddy...

Sittin

Vander is getting to be such a BIG BOY. When you used to sit him up he would fold himself over and basically lay on his legs... Or hed just fall over. Just this past week he has gotten so stable and can now sit up on his own without falling over. He loves to sit and play with something in his lap. I love it!!

Newport Beach and Easter!

We headed to Newport Beach to celebrate my moms big 5-0 bday! :) Included in that trip was also Joel's birthday and Easter Sunday! We had an absolute blast! We stayed for a week at a home just feet away from the beach. The weather was good and it was so nice to hang out with the entire family! While we were there we also went to Legoland (which we have learned is GREAT for when you have a 3-10 year old kid ;) 5 month old.... Well, not QUITE as exciting).

A HUGE thank you goes out to my parents who provided us with this extremely fun trip!!

 Off to Legoland!

 Joel and Vander panned for goal and crystal!

 They found lots...

 Not quite old enough to fully enjoy Legoland

 Waiting for Maddux for an hour to do a car ride that lasts 2 minutes... The joys of theme parks :)

 He LOVED staring up at the fish swimmin by

 Sleepin on the beach

 First time in the Ocean :) He freaked when the cold water touched his feet

 His first Easter egg hunt. He was so excited! Even though we basically held him over eggs and had him pick them up.

 Easter gift from Grandma and Bop Bop.

 First Easter basket. Joel was quite upset that I got him a right handed baseball glove... As if they carry left handed mits for 5 month olds? Please note the Reese's eggs, which were bought solely for the purpose of me and Joel eating them :) MMMmMmM