6 months!

Dear Anthony,

Please forgive me for writing this two weeks late. Don't worry, I've had what I wanted to say about your recent activities all planned out in my head. Ok, not all planned out...but there were mental bullet points :)

You started solids about 10 days before you hit 6 months. We started you with rice cereal of course, and you were kind of alright with that. We then introduced you to avocado, carrots, and bananas. You've tried more things since then, but let's not spoil your 7 month post! You've helped me to let go of my previous pension for keeping you uber-clean. I let you get as messy as you need to during meal time, and I try to clean you up really well when it's over. But sometimes I still find a little dried-cereal stuck on some crazy part of your body later on in the day.

You are showing your preference for being with mommy more than ever. I love being your favorite person :) We spend all day together, and we try to get out and run errands and visit family when possible so you don't think the entire world consists of just our house. You're better about taking short car rides now, so running errands and visiting people is easier to do. You haven't figured out what your nap schedule should be like, thus you can be a little grumpy in the evenings. Sometimes you nod off during those short car rides and that's it for nap time, no big nap for you! Which means no rest/eating/catch-my-breath time for me. But you're still worth it and then some!

Sippy cups were recently introduced, and I called your Granny when I bought them...almost in tears. How did you get so big?! My little baby was completely reliant on me and my breast milk one minute, and the next you're adding solid foods and drinking from sippy cups!! (Ok, so you don't really drink from them, you bite on them with your gums, but you can hold them up to your mouth pretty well.)

You've continued teething, but you haven't actually gotten any to burst through those little gums yet. I'm in no rush, I will absolutely miss that gummy smile when it's gone. I'm soaking it up all I can right now! You have still been a good sleeper lately, and I hope that continues. You've decided that 8:30 should be your bedtime, and we're happy with that. Occasionally I hear you babbling to yourself once or twice during the night, but it's over pretty quickly and you're back to sleep. What a great baby! :)

And you can also sit up by yourself now. Wow. That was so amazing to me. I had wanted you to be able to do this for so long so we could start really playing together, and who knows, maybe even rolling a ball?! And now you do it! Of course when you reach for something super far or watch someone walk by too intently then you fall over, but that happens to everyone occasionally.

And here you are, my 6-month old baby!






Ok, give me your silly eyes!!


Daddy didn't seem to understand that this was your show, so I asked him nicely to put you down :)








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Father's Day 2010

This year marked the first Mother's Day and first Father's Day in our little family, yippee!! Since it was Anthony's Day (big Anthony), I told him we could do whatever he wanted. He decided we should spend the day out at his family's house celebrating with all of the Hagoods, multi-generation fun :)

I'll start right off with saying I was SUPER PSYCHED that little Anthony would have the chance to get in a pool (or any body of water bigger than our bathtub) for the FIRST TIME. Let me repeat that so it sinks in, THE FIRST TIME. And here's the kicker, I didn't take photos of it. Why you may ask?? Little Anthony's window of time to get in after lunch and before he had take a nap so we could make the trek home was very small. I had a decision to make...get the camera out, take lots of pictures of him getting in the water with someone else...or actually experience taking him in myself, and knowing that I wouldn't have time to get out and get the camera and have him get in with someone else. I chose LIFE! Experience! Moments with my son! Yeah, it's not on camera, but it's stored in my memory forever :) Would I love some photos of the look on his face when we walked him in?...sure! Next time we'll remember to buy a cheapy-disposable-water-proof-camera. Live and learn!

Big Anthony thought there was no way the little man would enjoy it, especially so close to his nap time. There was lots of preparation involved: sunscreen, swim diaper, swimsuit, hat, floaty with hood for shade...check! He seemed a little bewildered for a minute, and then he was just content and curious. We pushed him around, played with a couple water toys, and we held him. This went on for about 10 whole minutes, and then it was time for a nap :) Not much for a first experience, but we know Gigi and Grandad will let us come back and use the pool anytime! (Right? RIGHT?!?!?!) In fact, stay tuned for pics of Anthony and Alex swimming because Leslie and I are determined to get out there when it stops raining.

Other than swimming, we ate good food, talked with family, and we even visited our lot on the way home to see if anything had changed. We knew they hadn't broken ground yet, but we wanted to see if they started clearing the cedar trees that we knew had to go.

(Below) Left to right: Anthony Warren, Anthony Perry, Gary, Hugh, Jarrod, Jaden


And in case you can't tell what you're looking at next, this is my big head blocking the way of a cute baby using a grown-up cup for the first time. This isn't his primary method of drinking, but he kept grabbing at all the cups so we decided to let him try it. It went well for a while, and eventually there was a big movement on his part, and water kinda got all over my lap :)

Wow

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. On the contrary, I'm making my mark all over the place! I've been busy with weddings (two this weekend - and the one in Galveston made me swoon for the beach...oh how I've missed it!), a cute baby, a husband, two houses to deal with, etc.

I have some photos of Anthony for his 6-month letter that I want to share; I just need to catch my breath first. Things have been so hectic, and I've gotta find a way to slow down for my own sake and all the people who have to put up with me.

I'm pretty sure I already sent this link to everyone in the world, but I'll put it here anyway...my little boy was on the news eating some Little Vittles food!

I love the Little Vittles, and it's been so exciting to pick out new flavors each week for Anthony to discover. We've already determined some heavy-hitting favorites, but I want to keep exploring :)

Without further ado, here's my little man!....

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/consumers/baby-food-company-opens-in-austin

Daddy's Home!

You'd think by the title of this post that I'd put up some pictures of Anthony and Anthony playing together when he got home today...but no. While he was gone I was ok the first day. It was of course very noticeable on Wednesday at the time he would normally come home from work. I didn't have anyone to help me when I would normally get some work done in the evening (work on photos and the house). But I was glad that I slept well that night since I usually don't do well alone in the bed. I will give props to my cousin Samantha for spending the night so I wasn't alone in the house :) The second day we found plenty of things to entertain us, and we even had lunch with my friend Mitsi at Russell's. But the second night wasn't as good. I was feeling a little exhausted of taking care of everything by myself (not that I can't do it...but it's out of the norm), and I stayed up until almost 1am each night/day trying to get things accomplished. Then I woke up a million times last night; I was desperately in need of coffee this morning.

Anywho...I'm glad Anthony's home again. And my parents visit tomorrow, yay! Also, if I haven't mentioned on the blog yet, our offer was accepted on our new house we want to build, woo! We still have to wait for financing approval, and of course it's contingent on selling this house, but I'm still so so so excited!!!

Now enjoy this goodness of Anthony playing

Untitled from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

And the goodness of his cute little cry

Anthony Crying June 2010 from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

Solids

My little man tried SOLIDS for the first time! I had taken him to the doctor for his first cold, boo. And I told her he was ready for solids, so she said we should just go ahead and start since he's about to be 6 months soon. I was so excited that I strolled him next door to the HEB and picked up some rice cereal pronto! I took some great video of his not-so-enthusiastic response, but it was too large to upload so you have to make do with these photos unless you wanna come visit and witness this cuteness in action!



























Anthony doesn't seem to think that the baby rolling around is his diaper is as cute as I do...so when Daddy's away, the baby will play...in his diaper! Here's a little play time from this morning :)













Not sure if I mentioned the fact that we got little Anthony a car. I know, I said I'd make him get a job and earn it himself, but at least he is paying for his own insurance. Ahem, ok, enough kidding around. LOOK AT THIS CUTIE PIE!









Adjusting his mirrors.






















And I couldn't help myself, I have to take some photos of him right before I head out to weddings because I just miss his little face so much. I feel sorta like the Grinch when his heart swells so big that it breaks the little thingy. Every time I see a picture of the baby I just swell up with love, and sometimes get a little teary, even if he's just upstairs for a nap! Crazy mommy hormones.











In case you're curious, yes, that is a dish towel we're using as a burp rag. Time to do laundry!






Back to the solids, he has had cereal once to twice a day for 5 days now. He's been doing very well, consuming more and more each time. I went ahead and gave him a little avocado, and he doesn't seem too thrilled with it. He'll still eat most of it, but it's pretty funny to see all this green stuff coming back out of his mouth. Actually it's kind of funny to see green stuff going INTO his mouth. He only had milk up until a few days ago, and now he's a big boy! I told Anthony that I was proud of the baby but also sad because he's growing up so fast. It seems like we JUST brought him home from the hospital. And Anthony said that he wanted to take back his previous statement where he said he'd be glad when the baby grew up and wouldn't really miss the baby stage (namely the neediness), but once he saw him take that big step towards being an independent person...it was just too much. He said he wants the little man to stay a baby!! He'll always be my baby :)