Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday

The Christmas season has come and gone and this was a fun one for us. As always we started out our traditions with Jack Stack on Christmas Eve and it was (as always) delicious! Then Reid and I exchanged our Christmas PJs and Carson was sound asleep in his reindeer jammies.

Christmas morning, surprisingly, Reid and I woke up before Carson. I got the bubble bread going and turned on some Michael Buble before going to get little man. We had a great time opening presents and it's so fun to see Carson experiencing new things. Santa was good to little man this year and he, of course, had the most presents under the tree!

After the Christmas festivities were over, Reid headed to the airport to pick up our friend Donnelly. Then later that evening it was time to celebrate Reid's 28th birthday! We had our traditional pizza and holiday beer and then birthday cake. As always I stressed over making him a cake, but I got cute idea at the final minute and it turned out ok. A white cake because he didn't get a white Christmas.

We all hit the sack early and woke up refreshed and ready to go for a hike! We went up to Chief Mountain (11,709ft) outside Evergreen, CO. The weather could not have been any better and Carson even gave us some smiles at the summit. And this also happened to be the first "summit" Carson has ever made. After our outdoor adventure we took Don to Champa for some yummy burgers!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Hard to believe we are about to ring in 2014!

Carson: 7 Months

Hard to believe another month has come and gone and Carson is now 7 months old! We went to the doctor, again, and I'm happy to report he is finally packing on the pounds. Keep it up kiddo!!

Newborn: 8lbs 6.3oz and 20.5in

Two Weeks: 9lbs 1oz and 21in

Two Months: 12lbs 9.5oz and 25in

Four Months: 13lbs 13oz and 25.5in

Five Months: 13lbs 11.5oz and 26in

Six Months: 13lbs 7oz and 26.5in

Seven Months: 14lbs 5.5oz and 26.75in

Carson's newest trick now is sitting up by himself! He's getting so big and growing up soo fast!! Reid also said he saw him crawl a couple steps last night. Usually he gets around doing a lunge-worm move, but it seems he might finally be figuring out how his hands work. He is still a very silly boy and loves laughing at Snyder. Today at church I felt a little pointy stub poking through his gum! He might not get his wish of two bottom teeth for Christmas but it won't be too much longer.

We are still loving the food and I think his favorite is avocado. Recently I've started letting him munch on an avocado chunk in the mesh feeder. He is getting very good at using his hands and this keeps him busy for a while. I also let him finger paint with some bananas and he seemed to enjoy that once he figured out what was going on.

I think we have decided forgo Santa this year and are going to start a new tradition next year of going to a mountain town to visit Santa. We live in Colorado so why not do something Colorado-ie! Nonni and Poppa are visiting right now and we are having lots of fun. Carson got to open his first Christmas present with them and it was very cute!!

Stay tuned for our Christmas celebrations!!

Grammie Comes To Town

We are in full swing of the holiday season and ours started with a visit from Grammie!! My mom came out last weekend to babysit Carson while Reid and I went to his work's holiday party. I have to say I was able to enjoy myself much more knowing he was home safe and sound with family. Grammie also got to see Carson in action at Gymboree. She got some good pictures :) The last picture is Carson during his favorite activity...the parachute!

Next up Nonni and Poppa are coming to town!! Hopefully we'll make it out to see Santa Claus next weekend too. After that Carson will get to experience his first Christmas :) Mommy and Daddy are already spoiling him (ok it's more excitement for me) and we are excited to start our traditions with him. Christmas Day we have a good college friend coming to town and then hopefully Grammie will be back with Grandpa at the end of the year.

Don't worry my Christmas card and letter will be out soon. I didn't know it was going to take 2+ weeks for my cards to process and ship :(

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two "Bottom" Teeth

Over the past few weeks Carson has not been himself. Of course Reid and I always talk to each other about it, "Well what do you think it could be" and no one has the answers (babies are tricky!). Teething keeps coming up a lot and I have noticed some signs, but never really thought it was only teething problems. So out of curiosity I Googled teething yesterday. Thank you http://www.breastfeeding-problems.com/teething-baby.html for the spot on description of little man! I hope we get some teeth soon because this is no fun...

What are the signs of teething?

- Teething rash ~ This is a rash found on baby’s chin from all the drooling: it's not bad but occasionally you'll see a little rash on his chin

- Chewing on everything in sight: he's always put everything in his mouth but lately he chomps on  your finger

- Waking up at night (plus other changes in sleeping patterns): Mom has been on a workout hiatus thanks to this

- Reflux (spitting up more often): just when I thought we were getting better!

- Becoming fussy at the breast: this is not helping his weight-gain issues

- Ear tugging and eye rubbing: tons of ear tugging, and silly me was thinking the eye rubbing was allergies or something

- Congestion or runny nose: we've had congestion since Sept. but it has picked up a lot recently

- Excessive fussiness: this started yesterday for the little guy. We tried ice cubes in the mesh feeder. Today we'll try a frozen banana!

- Excessive drooling: Carson has always drooled a ton but his new thing now is to blow spit bubbles. Too much drool!

- Swollen, red gums: I haven't noticed this one, but his bottom gums are a little white

- Teething fever and diarrhea: no fevers thankfully 

- Infant Diaper rash: poor guy has had two instances of extreme diaper rash

In other news we travelled to Texas for Thanksgiving this year. Carson is a squealer now so the guy next to us on the plane probably wasn't too happy with his cute baby noises at 7:00a. When we got there, he was a little overwhelmed at first with all the people staring at him, but was happy and content when mommy was around. So thankful we could make it down there! Reid and I even had an evening out with the cousins. Carson apparently did not approve because he did not cooperate for bedtime. Sorry Grammy!!

I'll leave you with a video of a new food we tried! Since we didn't have much luck with sweet potatoes (gobbled them up but did not sit well with his stomach), we went for another orange food, carrots! This day he wasn't really interested in food in general, so we are going to wait a few days and try again.