The Zoo

So We've been wanting to take Bryce to the zoo since the day he was born. He was too little to go back in the spring, and this summer was brutally hot, so we've been patiently waiting on fall to get here so we could take our little monkey to the zoo!

 There were tons of people at the zoo! I think it was because earlier in the day they had a baby shower for the new baby gorilla. There was pink wrapping paper and pink tissue paper all over the place! And OMG was that baby gorilla not the cutest little thing! Almost made me want another baby. It was so interesting to see how the mother gorilla was cradling her baby and caring for it.

 So cute! She laid down with her baby in her arms!

 The prairie dogs were about the only thing we could get Bryce to look at. He was too busy watching all the people and kids running around.

 So the giraffe leaned over into rhino area to get some grass. The rhino was in the little rhino house, nowhere to be seen. 

 Then, out of nowhere, the rhino starts trotting out of the rhino house right at the giraffe. He didn't have to tell him twice to get away from his grass. The giraffe backed up so fast!

 So this right here is the whole reason we had to come to the zoo! Scott has been dreaming of taking a picture where he holds Bryce up to the whole animal kingdom just like the opening scene in Lion King. (I know, I married a weirdy!) And dont worry, Scott is like like 4 feet from the rail.

We enjoyed our first family trip to the zoo! I know there will be many more to come!

6 months

Height: 27 inches

Weight: 16 lbs 13 oz.

Eye color: Still mostly dark grey. When the sun shines in his eyes, you can see some light brown around the center.  


Diaper size: Size 3

Clothing size: 3-6 months or 6 months. Just depends on the brand.

Changes: This sounds strange I know, but his laugh has changed. It sounds like an old man wheezing. Sometimes it sounds more like bevis and butthead laughing. But when he thinks something is really hysterical, like Scott walking acoss the room, he will laugh and giggle just the same as always.

Milestones: trying to crawl, sitting up, jumps like crazy, cries when you take a toy away (especially Iphones, or Sonic cups), eating solids, holds his own bottle, laughing all the time, a whole slew of new sounds (So far I've heard short a, long i, and the h and g sound. Before all he would do was grunt and growl and maybe say a random sound here and there)

Firsts: Oh my goodness! This month hosted a lot of FIRSTS! I don't even know where to start.

1) Formula. I made the decision to stop breastfeeding. My goal was to make it 6 months. At about 5 months, I just didn't think I could do it anymore. I was leaving my class twice a day to pump. I wasn't getting enough milk for Bryce to get only breast milk, so he was already on a breast milk/formula combo. So I felt like every time we upped his ounzage, I was fighting an uphill battle. I also was getting tired of lugging the bag around, washing the parts, washing the bottles, transporting milk, and trying to keep a never ending supply of milk on hand in the fridge and freezer for outings and emergencies. It was also around this time that I was super stressed, not sleeping, and was sick for 2 weeks. My milk supply basically stopped. I've calculated that on a normal day, I would spend 2 hours a day hooked up to the breast pump. I'm not gonna lie, it feels good to have those 2 hours back But what didn't feel good was what happened next.

2) Constipation. Bless his heart. Poor Bryce would go 2-3 days without pooping. When he did, it was so traumatizing to me and him. He would scream and his face would turn red and his hands would start quivering. There is nothing more gut wrenching as a mother than to see your child in such pain and not be able to help him. After several calls to the pediatrician he now takes 2 ounces of Pear or White Grape juice after every bottle. We have also started solids! I guess we are gonna skip right over cereal. He has only had a couple of spoonfuls of that. We are supposed to be eating fruits and veggies high in fiber to help keep him regular. They said if he doesn't start going regularly, we will have to make an appointment and been seen by the doctor.

3) Teething. As if being constipated wasn't bad enough, he has also cut his 2 bottom teeth! I saw a little blister and by that night, it had cut through. 2 weeks later the other tooth cut through. Whew, we survived that! At least for now.



4) Sleeping through the night....sort of. This month he finally got past the 330 hump. He was in such a slump there for so long, that I still wake up at 330 out of habit. He now sleeps until 430-500. So basically, my day starts at 430 every day. And scott wonders why I go to bed at 9. I dream of a day when I get to sleep until 545, when the alarm is set. ****edit***** So for the past 4 nights, Bryce has slept ALL the way through the night until 6/630!

5) Crawling. He wants to crawl so bad! I keep saying he is going to get a carpet burn on his forehead! He puts his head down in the carpet and gets his butt way up the air and rocks back and forth.

6) Razorback games. He thinks its hilarious to call the Hogs! In fact, its the only way Scott got him to stop screaming when he was trying to poop.

7) Bryce finally got to meet baby Ethan! We drove to Conway on Saturday and saw him. He is still so tiny! I can't believe Bryce was ever that small. Bryce tried to grab Ethan a couple of times, so I can't wait until they are old enough to actually play together. 

8) Riding in the buggy. I now feel confident enough in his sitting abilities to let him sit in the buggy. Lord help me, start praying. because we have mess on our hands. He about flipped out of the buggy 28 times at Walgreens because he was wanting to grab everything off the shelves.

Mommy's favorite moments: defiantly the games he plays with me. His new favorite thing to do is to jump in my lap facing away from me. He will jump like crazy for a few minutes,then he will get real still, turn his head to grin at me, and lay his head so gently back on my shoulder and waits for me to kiss him all over his face. He giggles wildly, and then goes right back to jumping. Then the whole thing repeats. He still wants me to love on him, even when he is busy playing. Melts my heart every time!

Dear Bryce, Part 2

Baby,

I can't believe you are 6 months old. You were so so tiny when you brought you home from the hospital and all you did was sleep all day and cry all night. Now you are such a big boy! You sit up, roll over, try to crawl, and try to grab everything and put it in your mouth! You are eating baby food and sleeping through the night. You are such a happy baby. Really. It doesn't take much to make you smile or laugh. You love watching mommy blow dry her hair and you think its hilarious when daddy kisses you. You love cuddling on Saturday mornings in the bed between us. You wont let us close our eyes, you grab our arms and hair until we open our eyes to say "good morning" to you. You absolutely love your Grandparents. You see both sets almost every weekend and you just light up when you notice who is with us. You are still in love with  your feet. You will pull off shoes and socks just to put your toes in your mouth. And I am still in love with you. Daddy asked me the other night "Am I still your favorite?" I told him he was a close second. Every time I see you smile, my heart just melts. Ive never felt joy like this. My cup runneth over. I know you will never understand the depth of my love for you. Maybe one day you will be a father, but even then, no love compares to the love a mother has for her child. Just know that you are and forever will be my baby. You are loved beyond your comprehension. I still can't understand how unbelievably blessed I am to have you.

I hope I never disappoint you,
Mommy

The rest of our beach pictures

Here are my iPhone pics of the beach!

Wooo pig sooie!

So to kick off the razorback season I wanted to make a razorback wreath for the door. I decided to do something different than a wreath because I have too many with nowhere to put them! I saw something similar on Pinterest but I choose to tweak it to make it my own.

Hobby lobby, the happiest place on earth, of course had everything I needed!

1) red chevron canvas. 8.99 a yard (sadly excluded from their year round 30% of fabric sale). I bought 1/2 a yard which was way more than I needed. The fabric was the biggest expense of this project so if saving money is your thing just buy 1/4 of a yard.

2) burlap. 8.99 a yard(i think). Sold on the bolt by the yard! I had no idea! Again, bought way too much. 1/2 a yard would be ideal. They had several shades of brown ( I bought the lightest). They also had red and black! You could easily make this project with the red or black too. After seeing the finished project I think the black would really make the razorback pop and then I would use a white flower or buttons at the top!

3) No Sew. $2.79. (not on sale). I was really unsure about putting burlap through the sewing machine and didn't want to jack it up trying so I just bought some fabric glue.

4) red craft paint (.69ish)

5)paint brushes (3.99ish) I didn't keep my receipt can you tell?

Ok so when I started this project I was completely bs-ing the whole thing since I deviated so far from the original project. I'm sure there is a more efficient way but I just went with it..

Step 1: iron burlap. I know right? Gotta get those creases from the bolt out! Usually this where I would line up the selvages and square up the fabric but it's burlap for goodness sake and it's not a quilt so I just eye balled it and cut off a piece that looked about the size I wanted.

Step 2: fold burlap in half. 1 layer of burlap is rather thin and since I was gong to be painting and gluing on it I wanted 2 layers. After you fold it in half the top will be folded, the bottom is the selvage end ( it won't fray) and then you have the two raw sides which will be shedding fibers like crazy. This is where the glue comes in. I thought about just gluing the 2 pieces together like a sandwich but I was afraid it would still fray and shed and not look finished....

Step 3: finger fold sides down and iron to set fold. It's hard to finger fold burlap, so that's why you need to iron it. Again, I'm just making this up as I go. I didn't measure to make sure I was folding the same width the whole way down, just eye balled it. You perfectionist out there can use 1/2 inch seam.

Step 4: glue the folds down with No Sew fabric glue. Love this stuff! Dries fast and clear so even when it goops through the burlap you can't tell! I put some heavy crap on top for a few mins until it dried. NOW you should have a somewhat perfect rectangle of 2 layers of burlap, finished on all sides so it won't fray.

Step 5: print a razorback of Internet. Cut out and trace with pencil on top of chevron fabric. Then cut out! Voila! it's a chevron razorback! Use the glue to glue on burlap

 

Step 6: free hand paint your saying in any font you like.

Now this is where I thought I was finished but it just looked like something was missing. I thought two huge red and white polka dot buttons and some ribbon would finish it off nicely. I went to Michael's and didn't see any buttons that even came close to what I had envisioned. By chance, while walking down the scrapbook isle, i saw these red burlap flowers! Bingo! They would perfectly replace the polka dot buttons. Then I realized I didn't need to buy ribbon bc I could just make it out off the left over chevron fabric.

Step 7: tear sticky back off of flowers and use fabric glue to glue down. Hot glue would work well here too but I was too lazy to get it out. 
                                            
Step 8: cut a 2 inch strip of chevron. Finger fold the two sides. Glue two folded edges together. Could just as easily sew it together but I was too lazy to pull the sewing machine out. Glue ends to the back. DONE!