Merry Christmas From Our Family To Yours!

Cards from Minted

Whose That Guy

As a first time mom I want to start yearly holiday traditions with my family. Since our babe is only 7 months old I felt as though some traditions I could skip this year because 1) he won't know and 2) he is just too little to understand. Once tradition we did do, because photographs are involved and we can't not have one his first year, was to go visit Santa. 

So last Monday we made the trek to Bass Pro Shop (sorry I was NOT going to see the mall Santa) to see the big guy. In our minds a Monday afternoon seemed perfect, all the kids would be in school so there should be no line. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to see a packed parking lot and a decent size Santa line. Thankfully it moved rather quickly and about 15-20 minutes of keeping the babe happy, it was finally his time to meet Santa. 

Waiting patiently in line

Confused as ever

Wyatt did a great job sitting on Santa's lap. He definitely was confused as to who the big jolly guy was, which is apparent by the expression on his face. I'm so glad we have this years picture and I look forward to keeping this tradition going with all of our children. I'm very much looking froward to next year, when he understands a little bit more.

TGIF

Yea, it's Friday! Its been a nice low key week with me and my little. We spent a few days at home, baked some cookies, had a play date, did a little shopping, and snuggled a little bit too. This weekend we have a small friends holiday get together and then we'll be prepping for Christmas. The next few days should be busy, but fun. Hope you have a great weekend!

My Wishlist

Every year I'm always asked by family members what I want for Christmas, so if I had to make a list for myself this is what would be on it...

Mixing Bowls 

Bangle Bracelet Set

Textured Front Sweater

Urban Decay Naked Basics

And these boots (I can't get the picture to save correctly)

Nothing too fancy or too expensive, just things that I 'want' but would probably not buy myself. 

I know this is cliche but as long as we spend the holiday together as a family I will be one happy momma. It's going to be especially fun this year as I will get to experience the holidays through my own child's eyes, which I hear is the greatest!

7 Month Old Wishlist

As a first time parent I'm super excited to be celebrating the holidays with my little one. However, I need to realize he is only 7 months old and has no idea what's going on. I've tried to restrain myself from buying him EVERYTHING and decided to try and keep our gifts to him to a minimum because honestly the babe only wants to play with electronics (i.e. phones, remotes, etc) and boxes. So he could really care less about what Santa is bringing him for Christmas this year. And like I said he is only 7 months old, he doesn't need much.

 Sensory Balls

Playskool Ball Popper

VTech -Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker

Little People Load & Go Construction Site

He is also getting a few books, an ornament, sippy cups, and baby toothbrush in his stocking, as well as a new outfit under the tree. Can't wait to celebrate with our little guy this year. Hopefully he will be more interested in his presents than the wrapping paper and boxes.

Oh Christmas Tree

I don't normally do this but I put up our Christmas decorations BEFORE Thanksgiving. Usually the decorations are pulled out and put up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but since it was so late this year and my mom was here to help, they ended up coming out early. Plus, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Christmas time and with all the work you put into decorating why not enjoy it as long as possible. We did however wait to get our Christmas tree until after Thanksgiving. Here is a glimpse into 2013 our holiday decorations...

 

He's not a decoration but he sure is cute...

Wyatt - Seven Months

I feel like this month Wyatt has changed so much, reaching many new milestones and becoming less of a baby. I cannot get over the fact that he has been here for 7 months already. Crazy!

Stats:
No appointment this month, but I don't feel like he's changed much in height and weight since last month.

Sleep: 
We're still working on this. Some days are better than others and we will leave it at that. Hopefully next month I'll have more exciting 'sleep' news to report! 

Eating:
Wyatt has been eating solid foods at breakfast, lunch and dinner and continues to nurse about 5-6 times a day. He hasn't been a picky eater, except for the Gerber mixed vegetables. He doesn't like those at all. We have also been giving him some snacks throughout the day (i.e. yogurt melts and puffs).

Diapering:
We are still cloth diapering and loving it. In the beginning using them added another item on my 'To Do' list, but I'm glad we've stuck with them because it's become so much easier and less of a chore. He is still wearing disposables at night, Pamper size three, because he is a heavy wetter and I know his cloth diapers would not hold until morning. I do think that once I'm done using the size three diapers I have we will be moving up to size four, since we've had a few nights where he has peed out of his diaper.

Clothes:
He is wearing all 9 and 12 month clothing. Due to his bulky cloth diapers he is mostly wearing 12 month pants and sometimes I'll stick him in 12-18 month pants. 

In celebration of the holiday season I got him his first pair of monogrammed PJs, which I absolutely love, and he also got an adorable reindeer onesie.

Social:
This month his Gamma, from Georgia, came to visit. She was a huge help in getting our dinning room repainted and decorating the house for the holidays. We also did a little shopping while she was here and she spent lots of quality time with her grandson. I think Wyatt could have cared less about me that week, especially since she would rock him to sleep everyday (THANKS MOM!).

We also celebrated Thanksgiving with his other grandparents. They came down and spent a couple days and Wyatt loved the attention he got.

Highlights & Milestones:
Wyatt cut his 5th tooth (on top). He has done really well teething and only gets slight fevers, rosy cheeks and clingy at nighttime. This usually only lasts one day, when the tooth is cutting through the gum, but thankfully his personality stays the same.

Wyatt has officially started army crawling/pulling himself around. He loves to go after cellphones, remotes and the Christmas presents under our tree. He has also started to go after Gunnar when we're hanging out in his room. Wyatt does get up in the crawling position and rock back-and-forth a lot but he still hasn't actually figured out how to crawl, thank goodness! I'm not ready because I know he's going to be into EVERYTHING. 

Wyatt has gotten really good at sitting up and can do so for extended periods of time. He still has the occasional fall, but I think it's safe to say he can sit, even though he still prefers to play on his belly.

Boo

So I know I just posted about Thanksgiving but since I'm trying to play catch up I don't want to forget Wyatt's first Halloween. The Sunday before Halloween Wyatt and I met some of our friends and their children at a nearby pumpkin farm to enjoy some of the fall festivities.

 On the hayride

 Ready to see the aniamls and get some apple cider 

Me and my little

We ended up leaving the day after our pumpkin farm fun and headed south to my sisters house. While there we attended a trunk-or-treat, went to another pumpkin farm, and went trick-or-treating. I'd say he was able to experience all that fall time and Halloween has to offer.

Photo captions beginning with top left:

Wyatt in his awesome glow-in-the-dark skeleton PJs

Photo that my sister setup with the kids, with Wyatt in his too small lobster costume

The kids at trunk-or-treat

Wyatt the chicken ready to experience trunk-or-treat

The duck and the goose trick-or-treating (Please note that Wyatt fell asleep within 5 minutes of trick-or-treating)

Giving Thanks

This year we spent our Thanksgiving at home. With all of our traveling in September and October we had planned to just stay home for the holidays this year. Wyatt's Scranton grandparents did come down to spend the holiday with us and because of his daddy's work schedule we ended up celebrating a day early.

Unfortunately we ended up having our turkey dinner pretty late and Wyatt was ready for bed by the time we actually sat down to dinner. Side Note: Wyatt, like most kids, is a clock and as soon as its his bedtime he knows and he is READY to go to sleep. The eye rubbing, whining/crying begin immediately at 8pm if he's not already in bed. Anyways, dinner was delicious, the turkey turned out great and the company was great too. Overall I would say we had a very successful turkey day!

Wyatt was ready for bed!