7 Months of Gooberishness

Um, who stole my infant and replaced it with the cutest hob-goblin, ever? I have a legit crawling, cruising, thieving, jibber-jabbering, incontinent mini-adult. He's cute and he knows it.

So baby-proofing is happening. We may end up looking like Nerf sponsored our house, but everyday, Matt seems to have a new scratch or bump on him. He mostly seems to tolerate it well. He seems to cry out in frustration more than pain. He will fall and get upset, or it will sound like he had a skull crushing bop on his head, enough to make me jump, and just be like "what's the big deal?" I'm so blessed in so many ways, so to have a pretty even keel babester is just beyond what I ever deserved.

His favorite word of the moment is tongue clicking. I'm not sure where he learned Kiswahili, but he's very adept at it. He may be telling us very important things in tongue-clicking, strawberries, and La-la-la's. Although he kinda sounds like he's mocking us when he says it..."Hey, Matthew, how was your day?" "La-la-la click pffffffft." "Oh, really?" "Hee." So basically he's already pretty sure we're full of it.

I'm just unpacking this bowl for you, Mom, no big!

I love this little mischief maker. I'm just so happy this little soul ended up in our care. I'm loving all my moments with him, and I can't wait to see what he does next. 

Our animals are still petrified of this little tyrant. He wants to "love" them so bad, but they panic and run for the hills. Love to Matt is pulling your hair/fur, so I get where they are coming from, but it's still a little exaggerated. We are working on soft hands, but that grasp reflex is still so strong!!!!

We are still primarily breastfeeding and eating purées, except when he steals food out of my hand. 

He still spits out anything solid, and occasionally thicker purées, but ice cream is fine...OMG... I should probably be all upset about this, but as a "more mature parent" I'm like "meh". Plus just getting it away from him to take his shirt off ruptured the eardrums of everyone in a 10 foot radius...I'm gonna be such a bad, mom...*sigh*. 

Whatever...I could be worse. He still hasn't been to prison...yet...

Peace, love, and hobgoblins,

Mary Katherine & Matt

Height (Or lack of):  26" 10th percentile...He shrank...not really...but oops
Weight: 16 lbs. 5 oz  19th percentile..shrimpin' up.
Head: 16 7/8" 23rd-ish percentile...
Fave food: Boob juice, mangos and BANANA!
Fave Hobby:  Crack cocaine. We aren't sure who is supplier is, but when I find them, I will kill them.  Seriously...his favorite hobby is becoming wild man at 10:30 pm.  He laughs, giggles, rolls all over the place until he crashes.  I thought babies slept...
Fave sport: Graeco-Roman diaper changing. I need at least 4 hands to change his diaper...and we never do it on a raised surface anymore. But he is  super good at this sport. As soon as he hears the first Velcro tab, he's off!!! And he always wins points for riding time as he manages to spend more time above your hands. I've gotten pretty good at blind Velcro-ing diaper tabs. 

Fave Book: all the edible ones

Fave Toy: rattles and things that go bang when you whack them!

Fave comfort item: Mama or Dada

Predicted career: demolition specialist

6 Months of Matt-moo

*sigh* This kid...aside from being in that adorable, chatty, toe-sucking Gerber stage, he is just amazing.

How did he become 6 months old?  Six months was an eternity in fertility treatments and yet, it seems to be going so quickly now.  I love it, cherish it and hope that my Matt continues to allow me to snuggle him for a little while longer.  "They are only little once..." is pretty much the theme to my parenting.

He reaches for me now, and that my friends, has sealed the deal. Any doubts about how I was doing, who I was to him, and even genetics...GONE. *POOF*.  The only thing that matters to Matt is that I reach back for his outstretched arms, and believe me, I do every.single.time.

Seriously, I didn't think I was having any issues with the egg donation situation, but now I understand how it simply doesn't matter. I get it, now.  Those little hands pointed toward me make my world go around.  He reaches out to me not caring about the number of genes we do or don't share.  He just simply needs his Mama, and that person is Me.

I finally understand what my mother meant about not understanding how much she loved me until I had kids of my own.  But, I also had no idea what it felt like to be loved back. The way his eyes light up in the morning, just because I'm there.  The way he smiles those gummy little smiles. I am just smitten. Those things are the superglue that put my heart back together after so many disappointments.

Seriously, to think I could have missed out on this over my stupid ovaries, I cannot even imagine living out my life with never getting to experience this. It makes my heart hurt even more for my sisters in infertility.  I hope they know how hard I pray for them, and that I don't take any of this for granted.

We enjoyed having him with us at the beach.  He loved the sand and the water. I think I do have a little water bug, which is exciting to me, because I loved water as a child. He just kicks and bats his hands while smiling. Super cute! Maybe he'll be a swimmer?

It is serious work shoveling sand up your bathing suit!

The eating thing is going okay.  We are still super into puree's and not much for the baby lead weaning thing.  They need a lot more dexterity than Matt has at this point. I still hand him chunks of stuff to suck on or chew on, but he seems to choke when he manages to get it in his mouth...so I'm like "NOPE".  So I continue to make his baby food purees and for the most part he seems to like it.  Especially bananas!

We are seeing glimmers of his personality.  For the most part, he's pretty chill about new things, places, people.  He is, however, busy. Very busy.  And he still makes up his schedule on the fly, and I don't understand.  Sometimes he'll take 15 to 20 minute naps and crash all night, other times he'll take a 2 hour nap and party like it's 1999 from 3 am on.  He's so much fun to play with now.  He loves to do whatever you are doing.  He finds new features on my phone everyday.  He loves books, especially their taste.

He also loves his pets. Unfortunately, the feelings aren't quite mutual yet.  Emma does like purees so when one goes splat, that is a help, but she doesn't really associate Matt with those yet.  Matt loves to "pet" aka grab with baby vice grip the kitties and Emma.  Emma just gets her feelings hurt and runs away looking at us like, "how dare you let it hurt me?" Lucifer is kinda like "oh, crap" but yet his curiosity keeps him coming back for more.  Gaius is actually the most "warm" or lazy...however you want to interpret it.  He just looks at me like "how dare you let this disgusting floor troll touch me. I will show both of you by standing my ground!" None of them have shown the slightest bit of aggression which is surprising because, you know, cats.  But Matt is just infatuated with everything they do...and the cats are a bit fascinated with him.  But until Matt can be trained to open a can, he's somewhat useless to them.  Emma licks Matt because she gets positive attention for it.  We know, Emma.  You aren't fooling us...

"I earned this vacation!" 

First time eating carrots.

Matt Facts:
Weight:  16lbs and some change on our scale
Height:  Itty (we couldn't get in to see his pediatrician until 8/8 for his 6 month appointment).
Fave Toy:  Sophie the Giraffe is taking a slight lead which is better than Tim the Lazy V-Tech Truck Driver who stops to make friends while on the job...Don't worry, we tell Matt that isn't realistic.

Fave Comfort Item:  Any of his WubbaNubs, and Mama
Fave Food:  Boob Juice and BANANA!!!
Fave Book:  The one in his mouth.
Least fave food:  Green Beans are Yuck!
Teeth: No teeth...I saw them on a 32ish weeks ultrasound, so I'm pretty sure they are there...
Future Occupation:  We've gone from teeth to an interest in noses as well, so I'm thinking otolaryngologist.

Peace, Love, and Sand Monsters,

Mary Katherine & Matt