Getaway

Ryan and I went on our first overnight trip without Cannon. We had actually planned it before he was born, but for a while I was iffy on whether or not I was going to go. Early last spring Ryan bought tickets to see the Tennessee Titans play against the Houston Texans in Houston. The Titans are Ryan's favorite NFL team right now because he loves Vince Young, as do I. We loved watching him play as UT's QB and we have been following him since he was drafted into the NFL. They are finally starting him and he has won every game since then. Ryan had bought 4 tickets at a really good price and then sold 2 of them for more than double what he had paid.
Anyway, I decided that I would go with Ryan since Cannon has been pretty good lately about taking a bottle. I have never left him more than a few hours, so this was going to be a big step for me! The plan was that Ryan's parents were going to watch him on Monday and that night and then a friend from church would watch him on Tuesday because Ryan's mom had to work. So we dropped him off at 11am on Monday and then we headed to Houston. I didn't want to be a psycho mom and call every hour, although that's what I wanted to do. I waited until we checked into our hotel before I called. Cannon had had a good nap and enjoyed going to the mall with his grandparents and 2 cousins.
The game was awesome! We had amazing seats, the 13th row at the 50 yard line! And best of all, VY sat right in front of us the whole time (except when he was playing)! The game was close the whole night, but we were able to get the win. It was weird cheering for the opposing team, but it was still fun. There were a few other Tennessee fans amongst the Texans fans so it wasn't so bad.
The next day we slept in and then went and did a session at the Houston Temple. On our way back to Austin we stopped in Bryan/College Station to see our brother-in-law at his new job at the Miramont Country Club. This place was spectacular and decorated with the finest materials you have ever seen! Just to give you an idea, the owner really wanted a particular kind of Italian marble. The wait list was a few years, but he wanted it immediately. So he bought this company in Italy and made himself first on the list! After Rick gave us a tour, we ate lunch/dinner together and then headed home. I was so excited to see Cannon that I could hardly stand it!
When I saw Cannon for the first time, he smiled and reached out for me! This was the first time he has ever reached for me, so it was really cute. Then he saw Ryan and lit up like a Christmas tree. Then he looked around at everyone else and smiled at them too. So Cannon was a champ and they said he was happy the whole time. He never took a bottle for Ryan's parents (what a stinker!), but he took the bottle fine for my friend. They have 5 kids, so he was entertained the whole time. I felt bad that he wouldn't take the bottle, but it was nice to hear that he was still happy.


Ryan also really likes Chris Johnson, so I got a picture of him too. I forgot to get a picture of Michael Griffin, who also used to play for UT.












This was taken right after the game. It's kind of a bad picture of us because we were tired and my hair was disgusting because it was humid.

7 months old, almost

Technically he won't be 7 months until tomorrow, but what's one day? I love that he is doing all these new things! He is interested in everything around him and has to have it. This includes my hair and Ryan's glasses! He's been pulling my hair for a while now, but now he does it on purpose.
He is still a great eater and likes to try new foods. Sweets are still his favorite (peaches, mango, bananas, etc), but he eats most anything. Oh, he LOVES soy yogurt! I think he has a sensitivity to milk products. I usually mix in a little soy formula with his cereal and every now and then he has a soy formula bottle. I used to give him regular formula, but I noticed he would spit up ALL the time. It went away when I switched. I tried regular whole milk yogurt with him and he did the same thing. Ryan even gave him a teeny tiny taste of tapioca pudding (made with whole milk) and he spit up all the next day. And it's not the usual spit up, it's the kind that smells like vomit. I might try regular yogurt again when he's 9 months old, but hopefully he will be okay to drink regular whole milk when he turns one. But anyway, he eats 2 small solid food meals per day, sometime three. I have introduced him to new grains other than rice cereal and he seems to enjoy them too. I have enjoyed making his own baby food and cereal and it's not as hard or time consuming as I thought it would be and it definitely saves us a lot of money. We do keep some jar food on hand for when we will be out of the house. I have been following the book Super Baby Food and I love it. She is, at times, a bit overzealous, but I take what I need from the book. This is one of my favorite baby stages and I love introducing new foods to Cannon.
He is still going 12 hours at night, with one wake-up to eat at around 4 or 5am. I have temporarily given up trying to break him of that feeding. There was one week where he went 11-12 hours without eating at all, but then he went back. But what I noticed was that it messed up my milk supply. During the day he wants to eat/nurse every 4 hours instead of 3. Without that early morning feeding he would only be nursing 4 times a day and I don't think that is enough for him. So I will just wait a couple more months until he is eating more solids.
He is still toothless, but they are on their way. He has been "teething" for quite a while now, so we're just waiting for them to pop through any time. Generally he is his usual self, but every so often he will be in pain for a couple of days and then it will go away. The pain is always relieved with baby Orajel or Motrin.
His likes are pretty much still the same, Blue, Ryan's singing, exersaucer, jumperoo, reading, etc. But he has a new fear of the blender and vacuum. He will be okay for a short period of time if I hold him while I vacuum, but the blender freaks him out! I have to put him in another room and close the door if I need to blend something. He is also afraid of the Wicked Witch of the West, as you will see in the video.

He can grab the Cheerios, but he can't quite get them in his mouth yet!

And don't think I'm a mean mom, Ryan! Now that it's on video I promise I will never do it again!

I think he is starting to wave. He did it to Ryan when he left for work this morning and he does it to the "baby" in the mirror. I've been testing this all day to see if it is real or not. It's hard to see on the video, but he copies me when I wave to the mirror. He is also starting to reach for people. This is still an emerging skill, but it's going to happen for sure this month. He did it to Ryan this morning and then when I went to take him, he turned away from me! He did this another time when his Uncle Robert was holding him and he turned away from me when I went to take him.


New trick, pulling the cloth off his face!


That's pretty much it! Oh, he has been making new letter sounds. In addition to vowels, w's, k's, g's and h's he says, "bah, bah, bah, bah," and "buf, buf." He is no where near crawling or doing the army crawl. He is content to hang out where he is or else he will just roll to get to where he wants to go. I will try to put him in the crawling position, but it is nearly impossible! He either stiffens his whole body so that his legs won't bend or if you do get his legs bent, he won't hold his chest up and he does a face plant into the floor. Oh well!

Who does Cannon look like?

I suppose that Cannon is a good mix of us. Half of the people say he looks just like me and the other half say he looks just like Ryan. I can see both of us. And I think that Cannon's looks change as he grows. When he was first born he didn't look like either of us. Actually, he looked like my dad. I don't have very good pictures of either of us and I only have two pictures of Ryan. What do you think?

Ryan:


Me:



1 year old (I know, where's the hair?!)

Utah Trip

Cannon and I spent a week in Utah to see my family. Ryan stayed home this time and took care of the house and Blue. We had a great time there seeing family and friends. Mostly, we enjoyed spending time with my sister and her new baby Kennedi! I took tons of pictures of Cannon! I was really hoping that we would get some snow, but it seemed unlikely. The weather was actually kind of warm and nice when we were there. But on our last day there we woke up to snow! It wasn't very much, but enough for some pictures. The sun came out and all the snow melted, but later in the afternoon a huge blizzard came through when we were leaving for the airport. Crazy! Our flight was delayed and we barely made our connecting flight in Phoenix. It was a fun trip, but we are happy to be home. Cannon was SO happy to see Blue and he kept laughing at everything she did!


My sister and I took the babies to this really cool aquarium right down the street from my mom's house. Cannon loves to look at fish and animals and we really enjoyed it too!


Cannon had fun grabbing the crunchy leaves and trying to eat them.












This is his new old man face that he makes all the time, in addition to sticking his tongue out!


Here is baby Kennedi! She has blue eyes and blond hair. Cannon looks so dark compared to her.


My sister dressed her in the cutest clothes and bows! It kind of makes me hope for a girl next time.




Cannon would just stare at her. It makes me wonder what he was thinking.


Playtime on the bed turned into a photo shoot. I got the best pictures of him just rolling around and eating his feet!










Snow!






On our way to the airport we stopped to visit my grandma. It was sunny and all the snow had melted. All of a sudden, the sky got dark and this blizzard came through! It was really fun for me because I haven't seen snow in a long time.

We had fun on our trip and Cannon was the best baby! He was so happy everywhere we went and he was so smiley with everyone! Random people in the airport would come up to me to tell me what a cute baby he is. Ryan and I definitely think we are so lucky to have such bright spirit given to us!