6 Months

Heath's sleep this month has been very sporadic. At times, he would sleep through the night. At other times he would sleep for 30min then wake up in his crib crying and rolling over and wouldn't go back to sleep until we would pick him up and rock him back to sleep. Heath would then proceed to wake up every hour for a few nights. Some nights Heath would wake up after sleeping for 5 hours. Some nights he would wake up after sleeping for 8 hours. The inconsistency wore on me, but Heath's sleeping habits have definitely become more predictable. 

Heath celebrated his first Christmas!! It was such a wonderful day filled with a lot of family time. We skyped with my parents in the morning and Dan's parents in the afternoon, so we got to celebrate Christmas the entire day. Heath played baby Jesus at the FHE the Monday night before Christmas. Due to the timing of the FHE, Heath had a little meltdown since it was his bedtime, but we managed to have a great time. 

Heath doesn't like anything that causes loud noises (blender, vacuum, popcorn machine, etc)

Heath likes to suck on his bath toys and stand up in the bath to touch the faucet. He loves to play with anything that he knows he's not typically allowed to hold. One of his favorite toys is his simethicone dropper. He likes to teeth on the rubber top. 

On December 29th, Heath cut his second tooth. When we manage to get Heath to take his tylenol, he is an angel, otherwise he fusses a lot due to the pain. He's gotten so much better at taking medicine especially when we let him hold the dropper. 

Heath has on occasion lifted up on his hands and knees to crawl, but is not consistent. He loves to roll over and is pretty content with rolling over as his mode of transportation. 

Heath loves to sit on the porch with me and watch the cars go by. I tell him what type of vehicle is driving by and what color it is. 

Heath loves books. Reading can usually hold his interest for a good 10-15 min. He especially likes to suck on his new, "Family" book that his Grandma Julie made for him. 

Heath celebrated his first New Years in St. Augustine. We had dinner with friends from Jacksonville and then spent the night at some friends from Omaha who now live in St. Augustine. It was a great time!

Heath had his 6mo shots and did great. He didn't seem bothered by them after the initial injections. He is 27.5 inches long and 19.4lbs., which lands him at around the 80th percentile. 

I am now teaching the Sunbeams and CTR 4 class at church, so Dan watches Heath while I teach. Heath has been doing pretty good with having Dan watch him especially now that church conflicts with Heath's nap time. 

Heath is sitting up really well. When he falls over and loses his balance, he typically catches himself with his shoulder. 

Although Heath is too big to actually sit in the swing, he loves to sit in front of his swing and watch the mobile go around and around. 

Heath slobbers when he sleeps. It's so cute to find a puddle on his sheets after his nap. 

Heath has blue eyes and blonde hair with extra long eyelashes like Dan. 

Around January 7th, I noticed Heath started displaying intense separation anxiety. If I left the room, even for just a moment, he would start to cry until I popped my head back in the room so he could see me. 

Heath loves to be around other kids! He likes to watch them play, but once they try to hold him, he's had enough. 

Heath likes to be played with one-on-one. He doesn't like to be set on the floor with his toys. I need to be actively engaged in play with him or he cries, so it's really hard for me to get much done :) 

Heath still loves "Old McDonald" and "The Wheels on the Bus" with lots and lots of animal noises. 

Heath has started to put his arms out to me when I put my arms out to hold him. It's not perfected, but it's a start :) 

Heath likes to sit on the top bunk in our spare bedroom and pull at the yarn ties on the quilt. 

Heath likes to learn cause and effect. He throws his toys and spoons of the edge of his tray and watch for it fall. He likes us to turn on and off the lights with the switch. 

Heath finds it hilarious when Dan pretends to sneeze. He laughs SO hard! It's simply adorable!

Heath likes to have me hold him after his early morning feeding, but I've been bringing him to bed with me so I can get some extra sleep. I hope it doesn't cause him to want to sleep with me all the time, but he sleeps so much better when we sleep together. 

Heath loves for us to whistle through straws. Heath loves to hold straws in his mouth. He loves raspberries blown on his legs, tummy, neck, and arms. 

Heath loves to sit up in the baby seats in grocery carts. He smiles from ear to ear and looks all around. 

Heath loves to walk while holding our fingers and is getting stronger and stronger.  

I've been crawling around the house so Heath can see how to crawl. Heath just smiles at me. He must realize it's not my typical mode of transportation. 

Randomly Heath may say, "mada."

Heath can scoot around in a circle on his hands with his legs lying flat on the ground. Heath stands up from his chair by reaching out for my hands. So cute!!!

Heath likes to eat pieces of bread.  

Picture overload:

5 Months

We did cloth diapers for the past 4 months, but had to stop when Heath kept getting diaper rash. I'm not sure the exact cause, perhaps Heath has really sensitive skin or maybe the diapers don't absorb well enough, either way, we've gone to disposables for now. Hopefully, after a while we'll be back in the cloth, but after going back and forth for a while, the only thing that seemed to make a difference was using disposables. 

Heath celebrated his first Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful day with Dan and our friends, the Daugherty family. Heath dressed up as a pilgrim! He was adorable! We had fun playing games and reflecting on all the many blessings we enjoy.

Heath has been the king of blow outs. It seems like every other poop results in a blow out. We've even upped the diaper size and still we're getting blow outs. 

At the beginning on December, I had all sorts of ambitions. I was going to make homemade ornaments for all our family members, finish painting our house, paint Heath's dresser, hang up shelves, make wall collages of our pictures, organize my crafts and our food storage, clean the baseboards, etc. But alas, 4 days into December I got a wake up call, when I came down with a sore throat and shortly thereafter, Heath got sick. My poor, poor baby. He could hardly breath. Let alone breath and eat at the same time. I could easily manage my secretions, but Heath had a much harder time. He resorted to throwing up mucus. It frightened me the first few times, but then I grew to expect it (I still cried every time it happened, I just wasn't hysterical). We ended up buying a humidifier, which worked wonders. I ended up holding Heath every night for a week. It was a very long week. 

To top it all off, 4 days into this horrible cold, I noticed Heath's bottom middle gums were swollen. The next day, he cut his first tooth! At first, he wouldn't take his tylenol. He spit it out all out or would even throw it back up, but he's a champ at taking it now. 

Heath loves "Peek-a-Boo!" especially when we hid his face with a blanket. He also likes when I leave the room for a split second and peek my head in the doorway. Oh, his face just brightens into a full on grin! Love it!

Once we went to the beach and the sun was in his face, so he lifted up the blanket that was around him and covered his own face from the sun. He's so smart!

Heath loves to go outside and watch the cars pass by. He loves to go on walks and play "Peek-a-Boo" with me. He loves to go outside. It calms him instantly.

Heath's favorite song is, "The Wheels on the Bus!" It can calm him instantly. 

Heath likes when we blow in his face or let a blanket lower on his face and send a gust of wind at him. He smiles so big! 

Heath is really ticklish on his back (shoulder blades and spine) and kinda ticklish on his sides. He laughs when I pretend to eat his fingers. He giggles when I wash his chin and neck. He feet aren't ticklish though.

Heath likes to be thrown in the air and caught. He also really likes to be put in a blanket and swung back and forth while being sung "Rock a by Heath." 

He likes when we dip his head down into our laps. 

We held off on feeding Heath baby food until after he got better. He just didn't like the rice cereal and he wasn't a fan of the sweet potatoes. At first he loved sweet potatoes and bananas. He would like his tray, fingers, and spoon, but that was short lived. 

Heath got to go to his first ward Christmas party and sit on Santa's lap! He smiled real big--we didn't let him see who was holding him :) Heath got to go to his first live nativity. We discovered that he doesn't like loud noises and music. The music was too loud and he cried the majority of the night until he fell asleep. 

Heath rolls all over--from front to back and back to front! It took a while for him to learn to roll from his tummy to his back.

On December 18th, Heath dropped his spoon over the side of his tray and looked down to see where the spoon fell. He did it the following day as well. He's such a smart little boy! 

We go to play group and reading time at the library. I took him down the slide for the first time, but he didn't mind it much. He didn't even notice what we were doing. I've held off on the library because I don't want him to get sick from all the other kids. 

Heath likes to go to the beach and watch the tide come in and go out! We are so blessed!