Theo :: Six Months

Theo turned six months on Christmas Day! He had his six month check up on December 27 and came in at 18 lbs, 3 oz (!) and 27 1/4 in. Both measurements put him in the 75th percentile.

Theo is somehow still fitting into 6 month clothing, but most pants are getting too tight around his baby gut and the shirts are getting stretched lengthwise. 6-9 month fits perfectly with not much room to grow. The 9-12 month clothes are definitely in rotation. 

Development:
--Theo finally decided that rolling over was awesome and started rolling back and forth like crazy in early December. 

--We finally started seeing little white lines on baby boy's bottom gums in mid-December and were watching his mouth like crazy! Spoiler alert: they just missed this post :)

--Theo has always been a babbler, but it seems like it has exploded this month! Most sounds are still soft vowel sounds and we're always making m, d an b noises to him. He probably things we're crazy people!

--Mr. Man is still tripod sitting and needs help, but he's getting much better and more solid. He definitely prefers to be laying on the floor and will only tolerate sitting down for very short periods of time.

Overall, we're so much more laid back with Theo's developmental milestones than we were with Noelle. It's definitely more of the second child syndrome! Of course we're watching for delays and that type of thing, but we're not forcing anything and are happy to let our little guy pick things up at his own pace. No micro managing or "my baby can already do [this]!" around here :)

Firsts:
--The first, first was Theo's first Thanksgiving! We spent Thanksgiving Day with Bryan's family in Rockford and came back home Friday evening. Theo has already made this trip once or twice and has done very well in the car, usually sleeping most of the time. We are so lucky to have our extended families close by. Even at an hour and fifteen minutes, going to Rockford is a pretty easy trip, even with two young kids. Even better is that we get to see Bryan's grandparents. Gramps is in his early 90s and Grams is in her late 80s. Both are incredibly spry and it's such a great thing for them to be able to interact with their great grandkids! I really hope both kids are able to have great memories of the times they got to spend together.

Noelle requests silly versions of our pictures these days!

--We travelled to the Home Depot Forest for our Christmas tree! Theo was bundled up and enjoyed the view from his car seat!

--We took Theo on his first big road trip the weekend of December 6th. We went up to Minneapolis to visit our good friends and had an absolutely wonderful time. Theo was an excellent traveller and we couldn't have asked for a better trip.  We got to see two sets of friends who we don't get to see very often and it was much needed to take some time off and relax with good friends. Both women in the couples are pregnant and due within a few days of each other; one with her second and one with her first. Both genders are surprises and it was fun to talk about pregnancy symptoms and give our boy/girl guesses. Noelle had a wonderful time the whole weekend, but especially enjoyed playing with Liam, our godson, and going to the Mall of America to go on rides. She even went on her first roller coaster! I didn't get a picture of her and Bryan on the ride because I was nursing Theo in the middle of the rides area :) We also got to see the insanely detailed and awesome Christmas display on the 8th floor of the downtown Macy's. It's called A Day in the Life of an Elf and is just too great for words! I definitely recommend it if you're in that area during the holidays.

--The biggest first was, of course, Christmas! We had a great Christmas and everyone kept commenting on what a happy and calm baby Theo is. As we were sitting down to dinner on Christmas Eve, my aunt commented that he is definitely a second child as Theo sat calmly in his car seat the entire time!

We had my immediate family over to open gifts on Christmas Eve, then we all went to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner and more presents with my grandma and cousins. 

Christmas morning is all about being at home with our kids. Bryan and I feel strongly about having this tradition for our kids and hope to always be able to do it. 

After opening presents and having breakfast we headed down to Rockford for more family and presents time.

While the kids definitely got spoiled, our families do a pretty good job of holding back and not getting them an insane amount of gifts. 

Christmas with kids is just so magical and means so much more to us than any Christmases we had before kids. I don't know what it was about this holiday season but I just didn't want it to end. This has definitely been one of my favorite Christmases. I'm thinking the cute kids definitely had something to do with that!

Health:
--Theo's torticollis is looking much better and his PT decided toward the end of December that we could start going every other week as he was responding to therapy very well. Yay!

--After a few nights of really awful gas at night that was seriously messing with his ability to sleep, we put two and two together and realized it always happened on the days we gave him squash. (We decided to give him homemade butternut squash puree as his first solid food.) Once we stopped this, he stopped having terrible gas pains. We decided to wait a couple of weeks and try again. This was in early December and right after Christmas we started up again. Despite wanting to avoid traditional baby food, we felt that oatmeal would be a good gateway food if we were dealing with a sensitive stomach. So far, so good!

--Nursing hit a bump in the middle of December. Even though our freezer stash was no more, I was able to keep him exclusively breast fed by pumping once before bed and as often as I could on the weekends. Unfortunately, I got a bad case of strep throat in mid-December and was beyond down for the count. Between just being sick and the antibiotics, my already sensitive and lowish supply took a big hit. At this time we had to start supplementing with formula. This was insanely difficult for me and it took me a while to be ok with it. I'm now comfortable with the whole thing, and while my supply did bounce back, it still hasn't been enough and Theo gets anywhere from 2-4 oz of formula during weekdays. He is still being fed breast milk 95% of the time and I just can't be mad at the number. It's a fantastic thing I'm able to do for him, no matter the breakdown.

Sleep (Saving the best [worst?] for last!)
While all of the holiday traveling itself didn't bring up any issues, the deviation from schedules did - big time. We are starting to see that Theo is a creature of habit, especially when sleep is involved. We only stayed over one night during Thanksgiving and thank goodness for that. [Not the visiting family part, just the terrible sleep part ;)] I think I slept about 2 hours total that night. Theo would scream the second I set him down in the pack n play so we ended up cosleeping and nursing for comfort pretty much all night long. While I love lots of things about cosleeping, the anxiety I get is not one of them. So when we do cosleep, I am pretty alert and don't get a lot of sleep. Thank you God for coffee! And a husband who let's me sleep in without any grief!

You can never have too many sleeping baby pictures - it's pretty much a rule of life.
If only he could sleep like this all the time!

We had similar issues with our trip to Minneapolis involving the sleeping patterns (or lack thereof) of our youngest. Theo had a pretty stuffy nose that weekend and had a really hard time staying asleep. He kept snorting himself awake and just couldn't breath. So again, he and I coslept in one queen bed while Bryan and Noelle shared the other one.

Travels aside, Theo was having a really hard time falling asleep in late November and early December. It was the whole "falling asleep in my arms but waking up the second I put him down" thing. It's pretty obvious that his incoming teeth are really bothering him. During the day he is drooling like a rabid dog and chewing on anything possible.

Tangent - this type of thing (issues with sleeping, or not sleeping I should say) would have, and did, really bothered me when Noelle was a baby. I would beat myself up wondering why my baby just can't sleep through the night (stuffy nose aside). This time? I just take it in stride, drink an extra cup of coffee and count my blessings. I remind myself that this is such a short season and will soon be a distant, and not entirely unwelcome, memory.

I can't believe we've hit the six month mark! That countdown to the one year milestone is getting closer and closer!

Theo :: Five Months

No doctor appointment this month so no weight/length info. 

Development:

--Theo hasn't had had any teeth come through yet, but he is drooling and chewing on his hands like crazy. Everything goes into his mouth and we've had to remind Noelle a few times to keep small toys away from him. Even with all of the teething rings and toys he has, there is apparently nothing better than his hands or someone's fingers. Sometimes he even prefers his hand to the pacifier when it comes to sucking for soothing. 

                         

--Just a few days after he turned five months he started pushing up all the way on his arms. He loves to be on his tummy and I definitely think he'll be a crawler. (Noelle never really crawled. She scooted around for a few weeks and then decided she wanted to start walking!)

--Baby boy can sit in an exaggerated tripod position but really doesn't like it. He'll get very fussy, very quickly. 

--Theo has rolled over a few more times, but isn't really interested in doing more than that. He does love to be on his side though and will half roll over when he's playing in the floor. 

Firsts:

--First Halloween: I'm not a big costume person and think traditional baby costumes are kind of silly and a waste of money. Theo went as a Packer because he has a personalized jersey and Noelle had a little football! Theo got to wear his costume a few times and I know we'll have more fun with it next year!

--First snowfall: boo, no picture 

--First big cold hit the week of 11/11. The whole house was hit with the sniffles except for me. Thankfully everyone got over it pretty quickly. 

--First time in the Jumparoo. Really digs the frog toy. 

--The biggest thing was trying real food for the first time. After a lot of reading and research on my part, we decided to skip rice cereal. I'm not entirely comfortable with baby-led weaning so we started with purees. Theo's first purée was butternut squash that we made ourselves. He actually really liked it and we're slowly going to give him more. For some reason we're just not in a hurry to give solids a go, so we'll just go with the flow and see what happens!

                               

Our freezer is stocked with butternut squash, acorn squash and peas from our garden. We'd like to make the majority of Theo's purees and have really enjoyed it so far. It's just so easy!

Breastfeeding is going very well! We are still staring down supplementation in the near future because the kid still eats more when he's taking milk from a bottle. 

For my own sanity I have accepted this and moved on. He'll still receive breast milk 99% of the time and that number is ok by me. I just cannot dwell on it because the guilt starts to creep in. I have enough mom guilt in my life and I don't need to add any more. 

One thing I still have to figure out is how to work the logistics of solids and nursing. I hate pumping - both the actual pumping and all of the parts to clean, so we'll see what works best in terms of getting him a meal of milk and solids. If it works out best to pump and give him a bottle with his food, then I guess it's what I'll do, but I want to avoid that if I can. 

Gotta do what we can to keep these things growing! Cankles anyone??

                                  

Other things I want to remember from this month:

--Found a lovie - a little giraffe/blanket combo that he likes to snuggle with at nap time. 

--Celebrated Daddy's birthday on 11/12. Went out to Bel Air Cantina with my parents. He slept most of the time, but really liked taking everything in while he was awake.

--Theo discovered his tongue halfway through this month and loves to stick his tongue out all the time!

                                 

Health-related:

--Theo's had to have appointments with two different specialists this months - an OT for possible torticollis and a urologist. I won't say why he needs to see the urologist to save future teenager Theo any embarrassment! Let's just say there's something minor and fixable that we eventually need to take care of :) He will need surgery, but for now we just met for a consultation and will revisit in 6 months. 

The OT confirmed that Theo has a minor case of torticollis and also a tightening of the muscles in the back of his neck that cause him to always look more up than straight ahead. It looks like he's always straining his head back. I'm sure there's an official, technical term for this, but for now you get my description :)

You can really see the torticollis tilt in this picture:

                                 

Theo will have PT appointments once a week and we have exercises to do at home. Hopefully we can get everything fixed quickly! Those copays every time are no joke! 

--This one is kind of weird, but Theo loves to try to eat our elbows when we're changing his diaper. If you think about how you stand over the changing table, there are times when your arm is right over his face. He takes this opportunity to grab your arm and try to mow on our forearms and elbows! Every time! He just smiles and giggles when you laugh and tell him to stop!

                                    

Theo is just a happy kid! Anytime I have to describe him, I always say he's our happy, smiley little guy! Just to keep things real though, the below picture happened one night when Bryan was out running errands - both kids going at the same time! So let's say he's a happy guy 95% of the time!

                                       

Noelle continues to be so in love with her little brother. She is such a mommy and reminds me a lot of myself and my little brother (who is also 4 years younger than me). 

                                       

                                       

I can't believe we're fast approaching the 6 month mark! I always want my babies to stay babies. But I do love watching them grow and develop!

Theo :: Four Months

Yikes - talk about being behind on this! But no matter how far behind I get, I'm going to catch up. I don't have these monthly updates for Noelle, and falling off the blogging bandwagon when I got pregnant with her is still one of my biggest regrets. Thankfully, I take notes throughout the month and I did start this post shortly after he turned 4 months, so it shouldn't be too difficult. So here we go! Theo turned 4 months on October 25.

 

Stats -

Weight: 16 lbs, 10 oz - 85th percentile (I seriously thought he'd be off the charts here. I mean, check out those tree trunks we're calling legs!)

 

          

Length: 25.5 in (give or take) - 75th percentile 

Theo can still wear most 3-6 month clothes but is definitely fitting into 6-9 months things. They're roomy, but not voluminous. 

I seriously don't even know where to start. This month has flown by as we have settled into life as two parents working full time. I wasn't as great with note-taking this month because I'm tying so hard to be with my kids "in the moment." And after they go to bed there is a whirlwind of activity to get things ready for the next day. So forgive me for the following jumble of thoughts. 

I swear life with this kid is just one giant growth spurt. The week of October 7 he ate like crazy at Lori's, but went back to mostly normal that weekend. One day that week he ate 21 oz!!! This is just insane and I actually had to put my foot down with Lori about how much he should be eating. My freezer stash is not going to last long, I can already tell. She, of course, is convinced we are starving him, but I just laugh off her passive-aggressive comments because I know she means well. I am just being incredibly stubborn about breastfeeding this time around and I don't want to supplement with formula if I don't have too.

Time for a huge, huge tangent.

Here's the thing about that: we supplemented with Noelle from the very beginning and my milk supply just never stayed where I needed it to. And unfortunately, I just didn't push myself hard enough to keep it going. And you know what? Noelle is a perfectly healthy and wonderful 4 year old (going on 13). But for some reason, I am super guilty about the whole situation and I think that is behind my drive for breastfeeding with Theo (that, and it's just going SO WELL this time).

Theo, like many babies, eats much differently with the bottle vs. the breast. He could take down 6 oz a feeding from a bottle if we let him. And Lori, bless her heart, would be all too happy to let him do this. Now, I do not have low supply, but I am not a milk machine either. During my second week of work, my body suddenly switched from hormonal milk control to baby-led milk control. Meaning, I was producing based on Theo's daily needs. And I don't think he noticed this change at all. At home, he still ate the same number of times and was always happy and full after each feeding. At daycare, however, he was chowing down like nobody's business. This meant my freezer stash did take a huge hit. And because my body was producing based on his needs and his needs weren't changing at home, i was not pumping enough during the day to keep up with him. Try as I might to get Lori to give him smaller feedings, she insisted that he was screaming after 4 oz bottles and only settled down after she gave him another ounce or so.

I am so conflicted in this situation. I want to believe Lori, but it's so difficult when i routinely (as in every time) pump between 3 and 4 ozs each session. I know the pump isn't as efficient as the baby, but i know the difference is not that much. And i tried everything to pump more during the day. I'm taking 9 fenugreek pills a day, I'm drinking Mother's Milk tea every day, i tried pumping more often, i tried oatmeal, lactation cookies...you name it, I've tried it. Not much changed, but Theo was still happy during the evenings and on the weekends.

And that is where my big problem with supplementing lies. If my baby really, truly needed more food, i would supplement in an instant. But because I know he is just fine with me, it just makes it that much harder. I don't want to rush in to solids, and we're skipping cereal, but part of me can't wait to get there in hopes that he'll drink less milk and I won't have to supplement.

So we'll see how things go. Every day I'm trying to break down my insane wall of stubbornness to make myself understand that it will be ok if we have to supplement a couple of ounces a day. I mean, c'mon! 2 ounces out of probably 25-30 a day is really nothing to be upset about. I actually unsubscribed/unliked a few breastfeeding pages on Facebook because I felt it was just making me feel worse. While my ultimate breastfeeding goal is at least one year, I have changed my mindset to see each day without formula as a goal reached. I also have to remind myself that even if i have to supplement here and there, it will in no way alter my ability to breastfeed for as long as i want.

Ok, huge weight lifted from my shoulders in putting that out there...I know I kind of hijacked the monthly update, but let's be serious...if I hardly have time for the update itself, how will I have time for a separate post :)

Back to the growth spurt-like behavior - Theo's sleep went to crap that week also as he was up at least twice a night to eat and would only sleep if he was being held. Finally, on October 14 we decided to try some sleep training aka cry it out. CIO never worked for Noelle, so we were hesitant to try it with Theo but were at our wit's end. That first night it took about 40 minutes with us going in every 7 minutes or so to pat and reassure him. Since then, it's been going really well! He still fights it some nights, but we usually just have to go in once.

And whether it was due to CIO or not, he gave us two nights in a row of sleeping ffrom 9:30pm - 6:30am!! That was on October 18 and 19, and flukes though they might have been, we very much enjoyed it :)

Wearing his finest onesie to celebrate his first full night of sleep!

The drooling has been insane this month. He is going through shirts and bibs like a mad man. I actually noticed a bump on his gum a few days before he turned four months, but his doctor said it was just a pre-teething thing. She can tell that the teeth are on their way, but they still have a bit to go. 

Noelle is as enamored as ever with her baby brother. She can make him laugh and smile so easily and she loves that just as much as he does. He follows her all over the room and loves to watch her dance around.

Firsts this month:

First Halloween - We had some pre-Halloween events, but his first Halloween is actually in his fifth month. We went to Discovery World for a members-only trick or treat event, the Zoo for Boo at the Zoo. Unfortunately I have no pictures of Theo from either event because he pretty much slept the entire time, both times!
 

First trip to the pumpkin farm - a cold and dreary day. Theo slept in the Ergo the entire time!

Loving this wild ride we're on! 
 

Theo :: Three Months

                                       

                                  

I wish he didn't have pants on in his 3 month photo. I think the size of his chunky thighs is a huge difference!

Theo's third month saw the biggest changes in personality and development so far! It's such a shame to have to go back to work just as my baby is getting more and more interactive!

And that's as good a segue way as any for one of the biggest events of the month: my return to work. Even before I was pregnant I often heard women say that with number two they could barely wait to get back to work. While I definitely wasn't that excited, I was a little less anxious this time around. And I absolutely felt a lot less guilt. Don't get me wrong, I still cried in the weeks leading up to my return, I just cried a little less than I did with Noelle. 

                           

On the (semi) dreaded first day back, I was a lot more relaxed than I thought I'd be. Which obviously had nothing to do with the 4200 emails I had waiting for me! Yikes :) Thankfully I didn't have to do much as everything had already been taken care of by my coworkers. We had also moved to a new building while I was on leave so it was fun to walk around and say hi to people as I acclimated myself to my new surroundings. Working in HR means you know just about every employee so there were a lot of catch up chats and baby picture viewing!

One of the main things that made my first day easier for me was that Bryan stayed home with Theo. There was an unfortunately timed stomach bug "outbreak" at Theo's new daycare, so we chose to keep him home. Knowing Dad was there to ease Theo into the transition set my mind at ease also. I wish we would have planned this from the start and I now tell every pregnant woman I know to do this!

I settled into my new role as a working mother of two pretty easily and there have only been a few minor hiccups. I thrive on to do lists and schedules, so I've done well with getting as much as possible done the night before and my routine hasn't varied much. This drives Bryan crazy as he needs a little spontaneity, but I keep telling him that, for a little while, our jobs are just to make sure our household keeps up and is functioning. It won't last forever and before we know it we'll have two independent kids who won't need as much "work". And we will be so sad about it!

Going back to work obviously means child care for the kiddos. We are so lucky that Noelle's school has a child care onsite so we do not have to worry about transportation midday. I drop her off at school at 7:45 and after a few days of "weaning" she waits in line by herself (with friends and teachers of course) while I continue on. She's in class from 8:00 until 11:00 and then goes to child care until Bryan picks her up around 4:15. We've had a few struggles with this transition, but overall she's doing very well. 

We're trying something different with Theo - an in-home daycare. It's going really well so far and I hope to find time to write a post sometime after we've been going for a while to talk about the differences between in-home and a (great) center. 

So what else has been going on?

--Our little guy laughed his first laugh at 9w5d and we captured this little video. 

Which I can't get to load right now...argh!

Since then the laughing has been sporadic but he is always doing those giant, open mouth silent laughs! Theo is super smiley in general and will flash his adorable gummy grin to almost everyone he meets. I'm wondering if this will change as he gets older, like it did for Noelle. I just don't remember Noelle being a smiley baby with non-family. Our nickname for her was The Observer because she was very aware of her surroundings, studying everything and everyone and soaking it in. With this, she wasn't always very interactive with strangers and would just stare at them. Theo is definitely the opposite so far!

Little man is also super chatty (definitely gets that from his mommy!). He is a babbling fool and loves it when we respond to him and hold a "conversation."

--The car seat is no longer referred to as the devil and does not garner instant screams from Theo. While he hasn't fully accepted his nemesis, the relationship is a lot less frosty than it was last month. Our ears are much happier for it. Oh, unless he's hungry, then there's no relief. 

--Theo also started sleeping a lot better about halfway through the month. I don't think it's a coincidence that it started happening around the time we started daycare. Lori keeps our little guy pretty active during the day and he eats really well also, which I'm pretty sure leads to a much better night's sleep. Theo is usually down for the night around 9:30, up sometime in the 4:00 hour and then again around 6:30. I really couldn't ask for a better sleep schedule at this point and am soaking it in because I know that everything, good and bad, is just a phase :) Noelle was an absolutely terrible sleeper until she was about 10 months old, so I'm perfectly happy with anything better than we had with her!

--I'm not sure where Theo is size-wise as he didn't have a doctor's appointment this month, but it's obvious he's growing. Most 0-3 month clothes don't fit anymore, especially shirts. He looks much less squished in 3-6 month clothes, although the pants are usually pretty long. He's like me and Noelle and has a long upper body, so the shirts are the first to get too small. 

--Nursing is still going amazingly well! It's actually gone a little too well in respect to introducing bottles. As in, we never really did. Oops. It's just so much easier to nurse him wherever we go than to give him a bottle and then have to pump. We finally made time to practice the bottle about 10 days (!) before I went back to work. I got my first night out with friends and Bryan took bottle duty. We tried a few more times before I went back and Theo struggled a little every time and it was very obvious that there was only one bottle he liked. The problem with that was that the one he chose was a Similac bottle that we got as a freebie with one of those formula samples they send you. 

Side note: I don't typically sign up for things so I have no idea how these companies always know you're pregnant. Some kind of pregnant lady radar or something...more likely that my info got sold by The Bump or Baby Center. 

Anyway, when I went to Babies R Us to buy more bottles, I found out that they had actually been discontinued and weren't available in stores. Even though the website said they had them.  Oh, and did I mention this was the night before Theo's first day at Lori's. Go us. So we decided to see if Theo would take a different bottle and bought a Dr. Browns and an Avent. No luck there for us or Lori. He was definitely a Similac man - kind of ironic, isn't it?! I jumped online and found bottles and nipples in slow and medium flow on Diapers.com. Bonus - they were super cheap because they were discontinued. We're hoping that if Theo gets to the point that the medium flow nipple is too slow for him, he won't be so picky and will accept a different bottle type. Again, this is NOTHING compared to our bottle struggles with Noelle so I will take it and be a happy camper!

--We took a mini family vacation to my parent's place up north in early September and enjoyed some relaxation.

                                 

                                  

                            

--Theo got his first cold this month, which was inevitable with Noelle going back to school. The worst of it was a runny nose and small cough and he was better after a couple of days. 

--I mentioned above that Lori has been keeping Theo plenty busy and one of the things she has been working on is getting him to look to the right. At his 2 month checkup our pediatrician noticed that Theo didn't look to the right very much and his neck had gotten a little stiff. We've been working on it and it's slowly getting better, although he still prefers looking left. 

All in all a great month full of ups and downs and lots of baby snuggles and smiles :)

                                 

Theo :: Two Months

Ugh--totally forgot to put in Theo's official two month pic and stats from his two month appointment!

14 lbs, 4 oz = 97th percentile - giant baby!

23.5 inches = 75th percentile 

I know it's cliche and I know I'll be saying it every month, but--two months already!!?? Pure craziness. 

Our little Theo is such a fantastic baby. When all is right in his world (i.e. well rested with a clean diaper and full belly) he is just the calmest and happiest guy. However, if any of those things require attention? Watch out. Also, even if allis right but we have been mean, horrible, safety-conscious parents who have buckled him into his carseat? World War 3. Thats right, Theo is officially a carseat hater. He has screamed entire car rides before and we have all gotten very good at ignoring it, because it's the only thing you can do. The crying is only remedied by taking him out of the carseat and holding him. Someone tell me this doesn't last forever. Please. But I can forgive this because a: he's adorable and b: this is what babies do. 

About halfway through this month he finally started staying awake and alert for longer periods of time, which everyone is loving. Noelle wants so badly for him to be more interactive and playful. These two will be best buddies, I'm sure of it. Theo absolutely loves watching Noelle. She is an entertainer and loves to dance and sing. Theo will just watch her and if she leaves his line of sight he starts to look all over for her!

He also likes to lay on his play mat and kick the octopus and turtle rattles that hang from it. Theo also loves looking at himself in the mat's mirror and gives big, gummy smiles to himself!

During Theo's second month we got out and enjoyed lots of things the area and summer have to offer. Although admittedly, Theo slept through most things :) Which is why many of these pictures don't always include him!

We celebrated my birthday at the end of July. 

We had Ott Family Field Trip Day. We went to Possibility Playground in Port Washington,

Bookworm Gardens (one of my favorite places) in Sheboygan,

and the beach at Kohler-Andrae State Parks. 

Theo had his first trip to the State Fair, followed a few days later by his second! He did not enjoy these outings (as if any infant would). It was too hot and noisy for his delicate sensibilities :) But his big sister sure had a blast!

Theo (and Noelle) took their first trip to Mimi and Papa's (my parents) up north house. Theo did a lot of this:

And a lot of this:

Throw in a few trips to the zoo, Discovery World and a restaurant here and there and Theo had a very busy second month!

Nursing is still going incredibly well. Theo nursed at all of the above places and it's amazing how relaxed we've been. Unfortunately that relaxed feeling does not always last. That gas/reflux issue I mentioned last month? It was back with a vengeance this month. After ruling out foods and before a call to the doctor, I really started to pay attention to our feedings. (TMI ahead) Since Theo was a few weeks old my letdown has been really forceful. I've had to cover the non-feeding breast with a cloth because milk would drip out like crazy and sometimes even spray while Theo was eating on the other and the same thing was happening. It was getting progressively worse and I finally put two and two together and realized my overactive letdown was causing Theo to gulp his milk really fast. Doing so would cause him to also cough, choke and gulp down a lot of air. A little Googling and some feeding time adjustments have pretty much solved our issue. And thank goodness because dealing with a screaming baby every night was really starting to get old. I give huge props to parents who have to deal with true reflux and colicky babies. 

As far as physical developments go, Theo is holding his own during tummy time. His neck strength is really great and I think that's partly because he hates to be held in a laying down position. He m.u.s.t. be held upright or he will start yelling. Noelle was the same way and I sometimes wonder if it's gas that's hurting or if they just like the view better that way. 

Theo has always liked standing and he his legs can "support" his body weight for about 3-5 seconds before going back to jelly. 

One of our favorite developments this month has been Theo's full blown smiles and his silent laughing. He gets this big open mouth grin and you can just tell he wants to give a big ole belly laugh! There has also been a lot of cooing and babbling and he really likes to talk to the ceilings and his playmat.

Life with two kids is still going really well and I'm truly surprised at how easy things have been. Not to say that it hasnt been hard and stressful at times, because it absolutely has. Nothing makes you feel as frazzled as when both kids are screaming at once but you can only help one at a time. Noelle's age and the fact that she is pretty independent and a great helper have been big reasons things are pretty smooth most days. But I'm definitely not naive to the fact that things will not be this easy as Theo gets older and becomes more demanding of our attention. For now though, we love seeing our family of four grow and develop!