Happy 8-Month Birthday Nicholas!

Dear Nicholas,

Happy 8-month birthday!!! You have become quite the little boy this month (although you will always be our baby). You’ve been sleeping on your tummy all this month and now sleep about 11-12 hours straight every night! And we no longer need to rock you to sleep at night – you fall asleep all on your own once we put you in your crib. Some nights you stay awake for a little bit, but you just jabber to yourself and eventually fall asleep on your own. Another proud moment for us!

You have also started to play with your hair at night to soothe yourself to sleep. It’s adorable! While we feed you your bottle at night, you start running your fingers through your hair, and on your really tired nights, you fall asleep in Daddy’s lap with your hands gripping your hair. We also discovered that this leads to some adorable bed head in the morning!

You also started holding your bottle all by yourself this month…well, when you aren’t distracted by your feet. They discovered at daycare that if they just take off your socks, you’ll keep feeding yourself; if your socks are on, you get so fixated on removing them, that you drop your bottle. You’re a funny little dude!

You started scooting backwards on your tummy this month, and you discovered standing up. It started in the bath one night: you put your hands in mine and all of a sudden you were standing. You were so incredibly excited to stand, that every time I sat you back down, you’d lean forward toward me and stand back up. And you love it when I stand you at the edge of the tub so you can bang your hands on it. And ever since then when you see me, you reach for me, and when your hands are in mine, you stand up. It’s adorable, and I love seeing you discover what a big boy you are!

You’ve been talking even more this month, and have gone back to saying “Dada”, “Daddy,” and – our favorite – “Dad.” Yes, you say “Dad” with a hard emphasis on the second “d,” and it’s hilarious to listen to. You love talking and babbling all the time. You’ve also started dancing when we sing to you or you listen to music. You and I started music classes on Friday mornings, and you absolutely love it. You love listening to everyone sing, you love playing the instruments, and you love when I pick you up and we dance and march around the room. A few months ago, Daddy started doing the thing where he puts his finger across your mouth and moves it up and down while you go “ahhh,” changing the sound to an “abababa” sound…hard to explain, but you know what I mean. Well, this month you figured out how to make the “abababa” sound all by yourself, by popping your wrist in and out of your mouth. You do it a lot and it’s so cute!

You also love ‘clicking’ with your mouth, and do that a lot too.

And the last part of the transitioning from baby to big boy…? You got your first haircut at the end of this month. You were so good too! We showed up and found out that there was a long wait, and you were already due for a nap. By the time they were ready to cut your hair, we figured we were doomed to a fussy, unhappy, tired baby. We were wrong! You were super excited for this new adventure, and were as happy as can be the whole time. And you look incredibly handsome with your new ‘do!

Here you are shrieking with delight at Wingnut right after your haircut appointment. He is definitely your best friend!

You also got to spend time with all of your family on Daddy’s side this month:

Forward progress!

Nicholas made HUGE forward progress today...by scooting backwards!

Check it out:


Once he backed all the way up to the bed, he actually pushed off of it and scooted forwards!


I am one proud Mama today!!!

Fun little dude!

Nicholas is so much fun these days! He loves sitting up and is enjoying shopping since he can sit up in the cart and look around. And he LOVES his jumper and looked oh-so-cool jumping in it in his new shades.

So here are some fun videos and pics of him recently.

Manners & Discipline

This month’s Parents Magazine had a good article on the 25 most important manners that a kid should have – I would argue that a lot of adults need to look at this list and make sure they use these manners as well. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m pretty big on manners, and intend to instill good manners and discipline in Nicholas (and any future children that we have).

So this blog post is a way for me to put “pen to paper,” so to speak, about how Scott and I want to raise Nicholas. I think it’s vital for parents to be on the same page as far as discipline goes, and Scott and I agreed on how we would raise and discipline our children long before I was ever pregnant. One of the most important things that we agreed on was that we want to raise our children to become useful, productive members of society. To do this, we feel that kids should be raised with approximately the same rules that they will have as adults. Let me explain by first venting my frustrations with current trends in non-parenting.

One of my biggest issues is parents who refuse to actually parent their children. By this I am referring to parents who refuse to discipline their kids – and by “discipline,” I don’t mean spanking and yelling (how you choose to discipline is your decision). By “discipline,” I mean “to institute rules and boundaries for how your children should behave.” I personally don’t understand the decision not to discipline. Is it because you’re afraid your kids won’t love you if you discipline them? Is it because you want to be your kids’ friends instead of their parents? Is it because you want to be thought of as the cool, chill parents, instead of as strict and uncool? I believe that kids thrive when they’re given boundaries and rules to follow. It helps them understand what they can and can’t do, and what they can or can’t expect from certain situations.

And to raise your kids without any rules or discipline is to set them up for a world of disappointment (or jail time). Rules exist in our society – that is a fact! When they go to school, there are rules: when to show up for class, how to dress, how to address their teachers, etc. When they learn to drive, there are rules they have to follow: observing the speed limit, wearing a seatbelt, using a blinker, etc. And there are these small little things called LAWS, which, if violated, will subject them to civil and/or criminal liability. So why shouldn’t rules exist at home? If kids don’t observe rules and respect their elders in the home, they will grow up thinking that other rules and laws don’t apply to them, and voilá, you end up with your own personal version of Lindsey Lohan.

So back to my personal philosophy on parenting. Our goal is to raise Nicholas with the same basic rules that he will face as an adult. So if he’s not allowed to pick his nose as an adult, we’ll try to keep him from picking his nose as a child. If he’s not allowed to climb or jump on furniture as an adult, he won’t be allowed to as a child either. I don’t mean to sound like we’re going to be super strict or that we’ll keep him from enjoying the fun of childhood. We just want to have rules that he has to follow and guidelines for how to behave, both in our home, and in other people’s homes.

In that vein, we want Nicholas to respect other people’s rules as well. I was raised to respect my elders, whether they were my parents, my grandparents, my teachers, my friend’s parents, etc. So when I went to my friends’ houses, I understood that I had to follow their parents’ rules. I am frustrated with how few parents seem to teach this to their kids these days. If your kids come to my house, I expect them to follow my rules. If I don’t let Nicholas jump on the furniture or throw things in the house, then when your kids are in my house, they won’t be allowed to jump on the furniture or throw things, even if you allow them to do this in your house. Is this really such a hard concept to understand?

And I’m sure my parents and Scott’s parents are laughing as they read this, because we intended to have stricter rules for Wingnut, which we promptly broke when we brought him home. But the fact is, if we fail to fully discipline Wingnut, there’s no risk that he’ll grow up to do drugs and knock up girls at 16. So we actually do intend to stick to this plan when it comes to Nicholas!

Happy 7-Month Birthday Nicholas!

Dear Nicholas,

Happy 7-Month Birthday! It’s hard to believe that you’re already 7 months old. This was a very “big boy” month for you. You started officially sitting up this month, and it was amazing how quickly you mastered this skill. You went from only being able to sit for a few seconds, to all of a sudden being able to sit up for a long time. And you love being able to sit up and reach for things – it’s adorable to watch!

You’re now eating solid foods and you love them. I’m not sure there is a single food so far that you haven’t liked (other than rice cereal and oatmeal – but I think it’s because they’re boring to your palate). You even tried drinking from Daddy’s big water cup, but I think it’s a little big for you.

You also took your first shower this month in an effort to clear up this pesky cough that you’ve had, and you loved it. You were fascinated with the water, and weren’t bothered at all every time it would spray on your head and run down your face. You just made raspberries to spit it out of your mouth and then you would smile again. You’re great in the bath as well and love splashing constantly. We have a bathtime book that I read to you, but you’re much more interested in chewing on it.

After bathtime, we go to your room and get you ready for bed. Sometimes, if you haven’t had enough naps during the day, you’re a little cranky at this point. But as soon as you see Sophie on your changing table, you cheer right up! You absolutely love her, and it’s hard sometimes to pry her out of your hands once it’s time to eat and go to bed.

We didn’t think you could love anything more than Sophie, but then we introduced you to Sophie’s friend Chan the Mushroom – and you love him even more. He squeaks really easily, and you love anything that squeaks. Here’s a funny video of you chewing on him.

You are still babbling all the time, and said “mamama” this month. Your favorite syllable, though, remains “ba.” You’ve also discovered sticking out your tongue this month and do it all the time. One day I’ll have to teach you that it’s not polite to stick out your tongue, but right now it’s just adorable to see.

You now sleep completely unswaddled, 100% of the time. We started out unswaddling you at night, but you still needed it to sleep during your naps. But now you sleep unswaddled during your naps, in your crib! What an amazing change from a few months ago when you wouldn’t nap in your crib at all. We still love watching you on the monitor at night to see how much you move around in your crib. I don’t think there is a square inch in there that you don’t cover at night. The past few nights you’ve discovered sleeping on your tummy and seem to enjoy this new sleeping position. The funniest is seeing you trying to scoot in your crib when you’re on your tummy, because you just hump the crib repeatedly. It gives us a good chuckle.

You also experienced something new this month: swings! We’ve gone to the park several times and put you in the swing, and discovered that you like it so much that we bought you one for the back yard. I think your favorite part about it isn’t the actual swinging, I think it’s the fact that you have a full view of the backyard and can watch Wingnut run back and forth when we play fetch with him. You still love your brother so much and smile every time you see him.

You are an amazing baby and bring so much joy to our lives! We love you Nicholas!

Here are a few more adorable pictures from this month:

Wearing your hat and PaT's hat

Our Hershey's Kiss Baby

Sitting with Wingnut at the park

Bed Head (and pink eye - but still smiling)

Helping us sort through junk mail