End of Summer & Back to Work

Whew! I never knew you could miss a little person so much! I went back to work this past Monday for three inservice days & students on Thursday and Friday. This means that Will went off to childcare instead of being at home all day.

Monday was a ROUGH morning for me! First off, Will decided this would be the day he wanted to wake up at 6am and cry cry cry (he normally wakes about 7am). I was just getting up myself and starting to get ready. Bret had worked overtime until 4am and (thankfully) went in a held Will until I was ready for work. Not sure how the morning would have gone if it would have been one of Bret's work-til-8am mornings. I was fine driving over to Will's at-home childcare and even with the physically dropping him off; Will was smiles the whole time. But once I was back in the care alone, I just got so sad (and am sad even typing this!!). I headed to work and there was a train on the way, so I had a quick cry session while I waited to be on my way again. Our meetings that day gave me a distraction from missing Will constantly and his childcare provider sent me a few pictures which made me happy. Sidenote: his childcare provider watches only teachers kiddos, so there are three other teacher's kids at my school who go there as well. She is super highly recommended & I am so happy she had an opening for my babe.

In my opinion, it is important for kiddos to see both parents work. Not only for financial reasons, but for Will to see that men & women both serve a need in the workplace. I love that I had the entire summer with him, getting to know his little personality and seeing how much he grew in those short months. But I want to be a teacher as well. I want to be with my third graders during the day & with my baby in the evenings.

On Monday after work!

Tuesday: We were so happy to see each other again after childcare!

He snuggled with me to sleep! This hadn't happened in MONTHS!!

When did he stop being a little baby?!

"Why is there a gate here?"

Hangin' out with dad

Helping mom organize for school

  

Mom is a jungle gym now

wherever mom is, I want to be there

newest trick

peek-a-boo

Beginning of summer: May 2016

End of summer: August 2016

William: 7 Months

7 Month Stats

Weight: 17lbs

Length: 27.5in

Eating: Five nursings four hours apart a day (7/11/3/7:30/DF) with a formula bottle at 6pm and solids at lunch and dinner (noon & 6pm); We are doing chunky purees for his solids. I would like to give him some whole food as well (as per baby-led weaning), but we shall see how he takes to that.

Foods Will has tasted so far:
Fruits--> apple, avocado, banana, pea, mango (loves!) peach, plums, prunes, & blueberry
Veggies--> sweet potato, acorn squash (loves!), green beans (dislike), carrots, peas (loves!), yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, & tomatos
Grains--> baby oatmeal mixed in with bananas/blueberries/yellow squash
Protein--> chicken (not a fan of the texture)

Bedtime: Bedtime starts about 7:30pm and Will is usually asleep by 8:15pm. I nurse him right before he goes to sleep, so he's nice and drowsy when I put him in his crib. Almost everytime he is put down to sleep (put down on his back), he rolls to his left side and cuddles up in his blanket. I dreamfeed him and he goes right back down for the night. I would like to wean him off the dreamfeed so he sleeps all the way through the night with no wake-ups. I have started to pull back the dreamfeed a few minutes at a time. I go in about 10:10pm to do the dreamfeed (was doing it at 10:40pm). I'm hoping that by doing this it will stretch out his sleeping and I can eventually drop it altogether.

Naps: Still rockin' two naps a day for about 1.5 to 2 hours. Depending of the length of the day's nap & activities of the day, he may take a catnap sometime between 5 & 6pm. He goes down for his naps awake and falls asleep well on his own (within about 10 minutes). When we put him down, we give him is pacifier & cover him up with his blanket. By the time his nap is over, the blanket is nowhere near being on him anymore. Sometimes he's on top of the blanket or it's balled up next to him.

Diapers: size 2

Clothes: Will is working his way out of his 3-6mo clothes and fully in his 6mo clothes. The solid foods have helped him chunk up and get him into the size clothes of his age :)

Favorites: Always moving! He knows how to get himself from Point A to Point B pretty quickly. There is a mix of army crawl/leg drag & rolling over and over to get him where he wants to be. He is working SO HARD on trying to crawl and he's so close to getting there. He gets frustrated when he's up on his hands & knees rocking but nothing happens. Sometimes he crosses his ankles when up and then he trips himself.

Even though he doesn't like to be stuck in one place, he loves to be held. As long as whoever is holding him is moving around or bouncing him, he loves to be in someone's arms. He likes to touch the face of whoever is holding him as well. And, if you have longer hair, he will see how hard he can pull on it before you stop him (wonderful game, right??).

William seems to enjoy eating solids! He knows what his highchair is for and what happens after he is put in it. He's pretty demanding and will bang on the tray if he's not fed fast enough (such a joy!). As soon as he sees his spoon full, he little mouth opens like a baby bird for a worm.

Dislikes: Green beans!

Development: As we said above, William is working on crawling. I think each day he gets a little bit closer to crawling by himself. He gets up and is so proud of himself, but then loses it and falls back onto his belly or to his side. Sitting is going much better. He can hold himself pretty well once he is put into the sitting position by someone else. He can't pulled himself up to sit yet (that dang head is so heavy!).

Will is working on making a variety of sounds. It's easier to know what his sounds mean now as he uses them consistently in similar contexts. The sound heard the most is a "waa waa" sound that he makes when he is playing with his toys. Bret tries to convince me that he is saying "mama", but it's definitely a "w" not a "m". He turns his head toward whoever is talking near him, even if that means squirming around in the arms who whoever is holding him.

We just had his last of the six swim lessons on Thursday. He really enjoyed being in the water and we will probably put him in the class again to continue his familiarity with being in a swimming pool.

Looking Forward To:
-the last couple weeks of my summer break with Will

(not looking forward to having to go back to work instead of being with Will all day)

Food Gets Messy

Broccoli

Peas

Yellow Squash 

Plums & carrots 

Tomatoes & Rice (not a fan!)

Blueberries

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July is a favorite holiday is our household! Bret has a love of fireworks and the Fourth has always meant a time to get together with family for him. We announced my pregnancy last Fourth as well and now we have Will here to celebrate with us!

Will & I made a Fourth of July craft to send to his grandparents & aunts and uncles. Yes, the flag isn't exactly correct, but this is how the military displays their flag; always flying in the wind toward victory!

The Fourth of July also always means a trip into Topeka to get together with the whole Dinkel family. With five brothers and sisters, Susie's family (plus their kids and their kids now!) is always a good time. William was quite the trooper! he had his solids like normal about 6pm, then was a social butterfly with all of the family. He nursed at 8pm and slept on me from 8:30-9:30pm, through the beginning of the fireworks. We went back outside and Will got to see some of the fireworks. He wasn't scared of the noise and was interested in all of the bright lights. This goes consistently with his always-alert attitude. The Fourth is Bret's favorite holiday and one day wasn't going to ruin our little guy (we hope!) so Bret shot off all his fireworks and we left about 10pm. Will slept on the way home and we treated putting him to bed like his normal dreamfeed. Here's hoping for back to normal routine tomorrow!

We bought Will's Fourth of July outfit last summer (the jumper; yes, I was still pregnant when we were planning what he would wear!). And it turned out wonderful!