Colten, 6 Months, and a comparison

Can you believe just how cute this boy is!?!

Babies never cease to amaze me! You take this little bundle of what sort of looks like a person home from the hospital. He doesn't do much other than cry, sleep, use diapers, and cuddle (which is by far the best thing they do!).

Fast forward 6 months and you have a completely different being! Somewhere in between, they roll over, push up, smile, giggle, and show a little personality!

Colten, you have grown up so much in these last 6 months! Here are some things that are doing/loving:

*You still love to be held. Sometimes it's hard when you want to be held, but also want to be moving at the same time!

*You are still scooting around, but now throw in a few crawls here and there as well.

*You have started pulling up on things and have even cruised a few times to get to things you really want to get to. This is a major source of frustration for you since you want to walk so badly, but just don't have the ability to do so yet!

*You LOVE bananas! I can mix anything with bananas and you will eat it up (well, except for cereal..that you don't like no matter what is mixed with it!). You have eaten avacados, squash, sweet potatoes and applesauce.

*When fed, you don't wait around for the spoon to come to your mouth. You lunge for that food, which makes mealtime very messy!

*You chow down on teething biscuits. We gave you one and the mess you made with it was totally worth it when we saw how much you enjoyed it!

*You love your big brother, Austin. You can be crying in your carseat, but if Austin talks to you, you stop crying and smile at hime! By the way, your big brother adores you as well!

*You have TWO teeth now!!! This creates a problem when you want to chew on our fingers! It also created some problems at bedtime, but we are hoping that gets better soon!

*You have been using a toy piano as a walker and scoot across the living room with it very quickly!

*You are still a champion nurser. This makes me so happy knowing that you are getting the very best food there is!

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I went through some pictures of Austin when he was 6 months old and thought I'd include one here to show a comparison between the two boys. Mind you, this picture is pre-DSLR camera and the camera I did have obviously liked the grass to be in focus and not our adorable little boy! SO, excuse the poor quality!

6 Months

Can you believe it? Colten is now 6 months old! Half-way to one year! Time has certain flown by. It does not seem like he was born 6 months ago. It seems like just yesterday that he was a tiny newborn!

Here's this month's comparison picture.

And I also made a collage, but for the life of me cannot figure out how to make it bigger on here like some bloggers can! If anyone knows how, please let me know! If you want to see it up close, click on it!

And how this month's picture makes him looks smaller than last month, I have no clue! I'm guessing a slightly different angle.

I'm taking more pictures of our 6 month old tonight, so I'll post them and list what he's been up to later.

I ♥ Faces on the Beach

This week at I Heart Faces is all about the beach! We lived in Hawaii for 3 years. I have TONS of beach pictures. So many, that I knew I wouldn't be able to pick just one, so I am picking this great picture of my niece, Anna, from when we went to Destin, Florida.

I love the pose she is in (totally candid, but oh so pretty) and the sunset on her face.

For more awesome beach pictures (I'm sure there will be some breathtaking ones) click here, on the button below, or go to http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

Just another day....

Just a few pictures...

They are just so sweet when they sleep! We've been having major bedtime issues lately because of those darn teeth coming in! It's so nice when he finally gets to sleep!

I found a washer/bean bag game at Wal-Mart for $15. The set that I built for Brian got ruined in Hawaii, so it was neat to find this right before we are going camping! Austin wants to play it everyday.

Colten loves being outside.

Again, this boy is doing WAY too much, WAY too soon! He's getting around the room now by crawling a bit, then scooting. He's pulling up on things...all the way up to his feet now. The other day, he pulled up on the clothes basket and "cruised" to the couch where I was sitting. It wasn't far, but at the same time, I think it's a little too early for him to do this stuff! He'll only be 6 months old on Monday!

He LOVES this piano right now. He'll scoot over and pull up on it. He bangs on the keys to get them to play a song and he's even learned to get off of it and back on the floor to crawl/scoot to something else. We still haven't babyproofed anything...nothing like waiting until the last minute!

Growing Up

Our boys are growing up so much! Tonight, we went to the park after dinner. We tried going earlier today, but the minute Austin went on the slide, he got right back off and said they were too hot to play on. We promised to go to the park near our house after dinner when they would be cooled off a bit.

We get there and decided that Colten would probably LOVE the swings. He adores being up in the air. Either thrown up or swung up or even upside down! He just giggles every single time. When he first got in, the sun was in his eyes and he just hung on for dear life...before he was even swung! A few swings later and he is giggling and smiling from ear to ear. He is just so happy! We decided we needed to get him one for our backyard.

Austin has been practicing on the swings as well. He's been trying to swing by himself for a little while now, but just hadn't figured out how to pump his legs efficiently. He did it a little bit a few days ago, but tonight I think he mastered it. Brian started off pushing him, but then he was doing it all by himself and was going pretty high and staying that way all by himself! He was so proud!

They really are growing up right before our eyes!

Hanging on for dear life.

This really is a happy face...he does this all the time followed by a smile and a giggle.

A perfect view of the proud Daddy with a cute kid peeking over the swing.

So happy!

Always trying to climb UP the slide!

The big boy swinging by himself.

So Proud!

Chowing Down

We are blessed...we have two boys.

Who are VERY good eaters!

Colten has definitely gotten the hang of eating solids now! He chowed down on sweet potatoes tonight. He was STILL hungry, so I gave him bananas after that. He was not happy that those were all gone, so I finally gave him a teething biscuit. This was his first teething biscuit and he LOVED it!

Which is the complete opposite of how he feels about rice cereal! I tried giving him that tonight too, but he gagged, made a face, and spit it back out. Oh well, it's not all that nutritional anyway!

So, here are some pictures of him eating the biscuit and the mess afterwards. (excuse the quality of the first couple of pictures...I'm still trying to figure out the lighting issue in our house with my camera)

Do you see that tooth in there? And do you see the white spot next to it that will soon be his next tooth??? He's growing up so fast!

Oh, and in case you were wondering about our feeding skills (aka the mess on his bib that looks like he fed himself!), this kid LUNGES at the spoon as you feed him. His lunges are not very coordinated and you never know when he's going to do it or what direction he will be coming from! Don't worry, he gets a lot more in him than on his bib! :-)

Not MY Child!!!

Welcome to Not Me! My Child Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over here to read what her MSC (Many Small Children) have never done! Also check out what other parents are saying about their perfect children!!!

This is usually a Not Me! event complete with people NOT admitting the silly, embarrassing things they have done during the week. I have NEVER played since I am WAY too perfect to do anything embarrassing! However, I will certainly tell all the funny things my child has done (I say child since Colten hasn't really had the time yet to do anything other than have blowouts EVERY time he finally has a dirty diaper).

So, here it goes!

Austin most definitely did NOT potty train at 3 1/2. I had NO fears of him going to kindergarten in diapers. In fact, he potty trained so early, all the other parents came to me for potty training advice!!

When he DID potty train, Austin did NOT get caught squating on the bathroom counter peeing into all OVER the sink...we most definitely did NOT have to replace our toothbrushes that night in order to brush our teeth.

My child also did not step out onto our front step and proceed to poop on the front mat instead of walking across the house to the bathroom. And he most certainly did not finish it off by urinating into the bush while he was out there!

Austin has NEVER had a tantrum. We do not allow that sort of behavior in our family. So, when his Daddy was deployed for 15 months, I did not have problems with him throwing fits EVERY time we went into a store. I got to go to the store all the time and enjoyed every minute of my perfectly behaved child. Oh, and there's no way we still have a tantrum regularly every now and then at the age of 4 1/2!

My child has never asked a plump man, that we have never met before, if he was having a baby like his Mommy. Nope! Not my child! Austin always knows the proper things to say to people.

I ♥ Faces...and FEET!

This week at I ♥ Faces the theme is FEET! Usually, the most important rule is to have a face in your entry, but this week, we are focusing on feet.

I have to say, I LOVE baby feet! They are so cute and small. Of course, I'm a little biased, but I think Colten's feet are absolutely the cutest (of course Austin was this way too, but now they are big, usually dirty, 4 year old feet! :-)

So, here's my entry...Colten's foot. This was taken at my mom's house and I just loved how this picture turned out with his face still being in the picture, but the focus being on his cute little tootsies! I'm so glad I tried this shot at this angle!

Head on over to I Heart Faces for more cute feet pictures.

Click Here or the button below.

Where Has My Baby Gone???

Colten is growing up....WAY too quickly!

First, the day we left for Missouri, he did this (excuse the mess and the poor picture quality):

Not competely standing up...but too darn close for our comfort!

Next, he started teething hard core when we were in Missouri. The day after we got back (Tuesday the 14th) he got his first tooth! He has the bottom left front tooth in and the right one isn't too far behind. We can already see the white spots under his gums.

Yesterday, he started going from all fours to sitting. He did it twice yesterday, and he's been doing it all day today! He's still not crawling, but OH SO CLOSE! He gets around...sort of by scooting. It takes him forever to get anywhere and that is VERY frustrating to him!

Oh, and he's also LOVING his food as of yesterday. I took some bananas and mashed them up and fed him that. He LOVED it. Today, I took mashed up bananas and added them to the sweet potatoes that he didn't like on Monday and he ate ALL of it! He was even going after the spoon like he was starving! He still isn't into cereal, but he did eat some after I put some pear juice into it. Just a little to sweeten it up a bit.

Colten's doing so much...our baby is growing up!

Springdale Pool

On Thursday we went to the Springdale Pool. It is a huge aquatic center with a big pool, a kiddie pool and a baby pool with splash pad. Austin loved this pool when he got to go for the VBS Party. It's always so crowded and we've recently heard of some not-so-great moves by the lifeguards, but we decided to take the kids anyway since we didn't really want to put up our own wading pool.

Both kids are loving the water this year. Austin is cautious still, but is getting more adventurous every time. Colten sits there and splashes and splashes until he (and whoever is next to him) is completely soaked! He does the same thing in the bathtub...which is why Austin has been refusing to bathe with him lately!

No pictures of Colten in the water since I didn't want to chance getting my camera wet, but here are some of what I did get!

Another Road Trip

We have been putting some miles on our van this summer! I think we are making up for the 3 years we spent in Hawaii and could only visit family and friends after an expensive plane trip!

We went to Missouri last weekend. It was a different trip than all the other since we stayed with my sister, Amanda. Amanda has 5 dogs. She originally had 3 dogs, but due to circumstances, she now has my parents 2 dogs as well. With our two dogs, that makes SEVEN dogs in one house. This was the part we weren't really looking forward to. However, it went a lot smoother than we had anticipated! It definitely helped that Amanda has a big yard that the dogs can run around in. Oh, and a basement that we can lock them in when we are tired of dealing with them! LOL

We got there on Thursday afternoon, had dinner there with Nana and Grandma Jean and then we stayed up way to late visiting. The next day, we went out to Dittmer to visit Grandpa Terry and Grandma Frede. Austin always loves spending time outside when we visit. There are horses, ducks, a pond and all kinds of other things he likes to explore. Grandma even made a Jello Poke Cake which is one of our favorites!

We got back from Dittmer and Nana was at Aunt Amanda's house. Both kids love Nana and we are very glad she got to come over both Thursday and Friday since she was sick the rest of the weekend and we weren't able to spend anymore time with her. Austin got to go to the playground with her that night and then got a snow cone as a special treat! He came back with the bluest tongue I have ever seen!

Saturday, we had plans to spend the day out on the river with Papa. We went over to Grandma and Grandpa Todisman's house to visit there a bit, then went out on the river in Papa's boat and had lunch (brats and chips...YUM!) Time goes by so quickly on the river!!! We swam and had fun in the water (there were a LOT of people on float trips!). Austin even fished a bit, but just really enjoyed floating down stream a bit on a life jacket, walking back up the river a bit, then floating down again!

Colten even took his nap on the boat! (and don't worry, he wasn't sleeping like this when the boat was moving...we were on the shore!)

Sunday, we had plans to go over to Grandma Jean's house for dinner (Chicken and Dumplings...YUM again!). Colten couldn't keep his hands off her necklace...he just loved it! Both kids were really good there and soon it was time for us to go back to Aunt Amanda's and get ready to go home the next day!

Our trips to Missouri are always busy, but fun trips! We see a lot of people in such a short amount of time. The kids love the attention though and its good to get a break from our everyday life!

A Birthday Party

A little boy in our playgroup had a birthday party the other day, so we got to spend some time at the park celebrating his 3rd birthday!

We had a blast...although, having a party at a park is always a good idea. Especially when you also get to splash in a nearby creek!

Austin taking a break...there were water guns and he wasn't happy about being squired in the face. Don't worry, he got up and was back to playing and laughing just a few seconds after this was taken!

Colten was sleeping when we first got there. Then he played with his carseat buggies for a while, then entertained himself on a blanket under a tree. He was SO good at this party. He really loves being outside and is so laid back when he's out there.

There were Transformer party favors and a Transformer cake...right up Austin's alley!

Party blowers (is that what they are called?) At least they don't make them noisey anymore! That would not have been fun to hear on the way home!

The middle child is the birthday boy...he ate three cupcake's worth of icing. Not the cupcakes themselves, but the ICING on top of them! I have to say, it was the best kind of icing...whipped cream icing! YUMMY!

Our 4th of July Weekend

We had a great 4th of July! We decided to go down to Little Rock and hang out with friends and family.

We went down on Thursday and spent some time with Bobo (Yaya was in Kansas at a reunion with Grandmother, Granddad, and Aunt Nancy). We also went to the park and the pool and had a blast!

Saturday's festivities were great and we are so glad we were invited to the Sullivan BBQ! The food was tasty, the people were great, and the fireworks were spectacular! A lot of money was definitely spent between the neighbors and the guests at the BBQ!!!

Since this was Colten's first 4th of July, I figured I'd put a picture of him in this post along with the slideshow I made. The kids had a blast and did a great job staying up late and not being TOO cranky!