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!

The Cutest Puppy Ever!

Ryan doesn't really get into holidays, but I was so excited for Cannon's first Halloween! When we found out we were having a boy I immediately planned for him to be a puppy for Halloween (if it was a girl, then she would have been a kitty). I didn't realize that it would be so hard to find a puppy costume, at least one that didn't cost $25. A few weeks ago I found one at the Goodwill. But after we tried it on Cannon, we realized that it was too small. It was the kind that didn't have legs, it was like a sack. It was only too short, so I decided to make legs in it and a place for his feet to come out. Because I do things at the last minute, I waited until this morning to alter it. The end result was very silly looking, a puppy wearing floods. So then I spent the rest of the morning looking for a puppy costume. I finally found one at Target and it was on clearance! The biggest size they had was 6-9 months, and Cannon barely fit in it. I have to say that he makes the cutest little puppy! But he hated it! He didn't cry, but he sulked the whole night and had a disgusted look on his face. First my dad came over to see Cannon in his costume. Then we went to trunk-or-treat at church. And finally, we went to Ryan's parents' house where we met up with the other cousins. I knew Cannon was too warm in his costume. It was 73 degrees today. But as the sun went down it got cool and then he was okay.


Too small!


Cannon with my dad.


He had this look the entire night!




We got one smile, thanks to my dad!


Some more pouting.


Cole was a pea pod. He actually liked his costume!


Not the best picture, but it's the only one I have of Cannon's first trick-or-treating with his cousins and his grandma. Jade is Dorthea and JT is Ironman.

We had a pretty fun night. Cannon was sure glad to get out of that costume and take a bath!

Amazing Grace!

I just had to post this video! Yesterday Cannon woke up early from his last nap. It would be too late for a third nap, but it would be too early to put him to bed when he was tired. I decided to power through and keep him up until at least 7:15, but hoping for later. Ryan got home a little later that night, so it made it worse. Cannon had been very whiny for awhile and we were on our last stretch, dinner, bath, then bed. I was trying to get him to eat, but he was being so fussy and I was reaching my end. Fortunately Ryan came home just in time to save us all. Ryan is like a celebrity in our house. Everyone loves it when daddy comes home! I had Ryan stand nearby so Cannon could see his face. Usually if Ryan just looks or talks to Cannon then he is all smiles, but he was being a little tougher this time. I told Ryan to sing to him (this is how we used to get Cannon to stop crying in the car). The song that came to his mind first, Amazing Grace. Although the words are incorrect, the effect was, well, amazing!

6 months old today!

I can't believe my baby is six months old! Time has gone by so fast, a lot faster than I expected. We went for his well check today. I always love taking him because I'm anxious to see how big he is getting. I also really like our pedi and she always loves seeing Cannon. Of course he was all smiles for everyone, but he was sure to keep me in his sight at all times. Starting last month he gets sad if someone else holds him. He looks at the person, looks at me, and then cries. It doesn't happen every time. In fact, most of the time he will happily go to anyone. But he just does it when he is extra sensitive like if he's hungry or if he just woke up. At church Ryan and I both teach, so he is used to going to random people. All the ladies at church line up to take a turn holding him! I never know who will have him, but I always feel like he is safe and well taken care of. Anyway, here are his stats for today:
Length: 27.5" (90th percentile)
Weight: 19lbs 11oz (90th percentile) *This is more than triple his birth weight!
Head: 43.3 cm (25-50th percentile)

I always make his dr appointments in the morning because he is the happiest and he is generally up around the same time everyday. His naps vary and I never want to disrupt them. He usually gets up around 7:30 each morning. Of course today I had to wake him up because he was sleeping past 8 and our appointment was at 8:40. I don't blame him though, all the rain makes it a perfect day to be sleepy.

I really feel like he is growing up! He is doing all these new things. I call it an intellectual growth spurt.




He likes to eat these rice crackers. Of course, the first time I gave it to him he bit off a huge chunk. Instead of immediately fishing it out of his mouth I watched him and he started to chew it. It dissolved really quickly in his mouth so he never choked. I didn't know that he knew how to chew! So then I decide to try a cheerio.


And he ate it!


He can also drink water from a sippy cup, which he loves! Sometimes I have to take it away because I don't want him to fill up on water. I'm glad he likes it because it will make it that much easier to wean him by the time he turns one.


He also likes to eat fruit with this net thing. He can eat bananas and raw pears. I gave him raw peaches the other day, but then I realized that he shouldn't have raw peaches yet. Luckily he didn't get a stomach ache later.

On Monday, we went to Ryan's parents' house for a triple birthday party. Starting October 1, we have non-stop birthdays until January. But then there will be two more babies coming (both girls) one in February and the other in March. And then Cannon's birthday is in April, so I guess it never ends! Anyway, we celebrated Rick and Kristina's birthdays and their baby, Cole's first birthday too.






I love this silly face he makes!


Cole got this from grandma and grandpa and Cannon was mesmerized by all the lights and sounds.