Simply Stark: September 2014

9.23.2014

Six Months Old

There's my happy boy!

Well you have been here for half of a year! Before we know it you will be smashing your birthday cake into your face.

There are lots of little milestones you have accomplished this last month...

You are sitting up by yourself like a pro now for the last week or so. Sometimes you'll topple over, but usually if you get tired of sitting up you have figured out how to flop to the side and get to your stomach.

Speaking of being on your stomach, you are SO close to crawling! You can get up on your hands and knees and bounce there. You also move your legs forward like you are going to crawl but then put them back and just go back down to your stomach. A new thing you've been doing for a few days is getting up on your hands and feet like a gorilla. You will get up like that and then kind of lunge forward and that is how you sometimes get yourself around. Mostly you kind of slither on your stomach and roll to get places. And you are FAST! It looks like we're going to have to put the baby gate up by the stairs soon.

When you are happy or excited all four of your limbs just go crazy. It is pretty funny to watch and you just love it. If you are laying on the ground you will kick the floor with your feet constantly. I be Grandma Stark loves hearing that from below. At least she says it's pretty cute.

Lately you haven't been sleeping that well though. At least in your crib. You'll only sleep for 1 to 2 hours at a time. But when you are next to me you will sleep for much longer stretches. I would really like my bed back though, so could you figure this sleeping thing out soon please? At least you still nap for a good length in your crib during the day.

You are doing so good at eating solids. You will eat anything I put in front of you but you clearly like prunes and squash the best. It also seems you like the ones that are a little thicker so I'm thinking to upgrade you to the stage 2 foods. I'll ask your Dr tomorrow at your 6 month appointment anyway to be on the safe side.

You love to laugh and just yell and use your voice in any way that you can. Your are also very entertaining with your raspberries and blowing bubbles. We put you in front of a mirror in our hotel while we were on vacation last weekend and you talked to yourself for quite a while. You are also getting very grabby. Anything that is in reach will most likely end up in your grip, and if it is something you want you will wiggle your way to it. Much to Tanner's dismay you like to get his cars and trains. But he is really good at sharing with you or at least trading you for another toy and not just grabbing. You got a hold of his hair a few weeks ago and he was not happy about that at all. But Mommy thought it was pretty funny.

Your dislike for car rides has only gotten worse. You cry and scream the entire time when we go somewhere. You even made yourself hoarse from crying as we drove from the rental car place to our hotel last weekend. At least you did amazing on both plane rides! It's too bad we don't fly everywhere we go and you have to be stuck in the car.

You should be popping a tooth through any day now. I can see the white pimple looking bump on your lower gums and you always have your fingers in your mouth. You've been pretty fussy about it too, so I wish it would just come through and stop bugging you. But then we have the rest of your teeth to deal with later, so oh well.

You are still in size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes. Some of the onesies you have grown out of but the majority you can still wear. Your toes have also broken through a pair of your PJ's and are about to on another pair. I cut the fee off of the first pair and plan to with the others. You seem to like them better without feet anyway so we may have to try to find you some footless PJ's.

Weight: 16.9 pounds
Height: 26.5 inches

We love you little dude! Keep up the good work!

xoxoxo

mommy and daddy

Oakland, San Fransisco and Melinda's Wedding

We took our first family vacation and went to Oakland, CA for Kollin's cousin Melinda's wedding.

For a couple weeks leading up to it I was stressing myself out on what to pack, how the boys were going to handle the plane ride and just how everything was going to go.

Everything went so smoothly there really wasn't anything to stress about. I am so glad it worked out so well and that we are more confident now to take a vacation in the future whenever that may be.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare which was our first big relief. We were able to sit around and let Tanner wander and watch out the window for planes. The flight itself was surprisingly easy. I nursed Chase during takeoff, he slept the entire flight and then nursed him during landing. He was absolutely perfect! Tanner was able to keep himself entertained with the activities I had packed for him in his backpack. His favorites were the silly putty and stickers, which were all we really had time for since the flight was only an hour and 45 minutes or so.

We got our luggage, took the shuttle to the car rental place and drove straight to the hotel using the GPS on my phone. It was so easy!

The next day we walked down to Jack London Square with most of the family that was there. The kids loved running around by the water and on a pretty neat playground that we found. Then we had to head back for everyone to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was at Preservation Park which was a very pretty enclosed neighborhood I guess you could say. It had older houses, a gazebo area where the wedding was and a big fountain in the middle.

Melinda looked so pretty and happy! As she was walking down the aisle she was already crying. So sweet.

There was dinner, dancing and a photo booth. We went and did pictures in the photo booth and got some pretty funny shots. Right after we got out of the booth Tanner say Grandma Stark and went running for her and turfed it really good. He got his knee pretty bad and it bled for quite a while. The next few days he has not wanted to walk on it in the mornings since I am sure it gets all stiff as he sleeps.

The dancing was really fun. Tanner was even dancing around and looking so cute! At the end everyone sent off the bride and groom with sparklers. By the end both boys had had enough and were pretty grouchy. Tanner didn't even want to do the sparklers. Until he saw them lit up that is, and then stole a couple from other guests after his burnt out.

On Sunday we walked back down to Jack London Square with who had not left Orlando yet. We were with Tiff, Seattle and their kids, and Cory and her daughter. (Tiff and Cory are Kollin's cousins)

We took the San Fransisco Bay Ferry to Pier 39 and walked around everywhere. We bought lots of souvenirs and took lots of pictures. Chase was a little fussy that day which was to be expected after the night before, but Tanner was almost the worst I'd ever seen him (which was also expected)! He was whining so much and crying at the drop of a hat. Constantly wanting to get into the stroller but couldn't since Chase was in it and was overall just kind of making the whole day hard on everyone. While I was nursing chase one time he climbed into the stroller and zonked right out and took a pretty good nap! Chase also fell asleep as he was eating so Kollin and I took turns carrying him as he slept so we didn't have to wake up Tanner. Once they both woke up they were like new kids and pretty happy for the remainder of the day.

On Monday we packed up everything and headed back to the airport. We got a little lost on the way to the airport since Kollin took the wrong turn to get on the freeway but we got it figured out. That made us very glad we left super early. We got the rental car dropped off and shuttled back to the airport with no issues at all. Our flight didn't leave until around 4:30 and we got to the airport around 11:30 or 12! It wasn't bad though. We were just happy we were early and not late. We all just hung out, ate snacks and got some more souvenirs from one of the airport stores (ya, I know. super expensive). I really wanted to get Tanner a plane like the plane we were flying in so he could maybe remember the trip and I found on in the store so that's what he got. It also kept him entertained with all of the spare time we had to wait.

At one point he was flying around with his plane he tripped and face planted into the carpet. He was ok, but his plane went flying. It went under our seats and stopped by someones foot. I found it but couldn't reach it from where I was and couldn't move since I was nursing Chase. I was telling Kollin and Tanner where it landed and as they were trying to get to it the man who it landed by bent down and got it for us. It turned out he was the captain of our flight! He asked us if we were headed to Salt Lake and we said yes. He then said after we board that we should all come and see him in the cockpit and take pictures and have cookies! It was so nice of him and Tanner loved the cookies part.

As we boarded they were already expecting us and showed us right into the cockpit. The captain had us sit in his seat and we all took some pictures. It was pretty funny because Tanner thought that was where we were actually going to sit, so he had already taken his backpack off and stowed it under the pedals of the plane. It was pretty funny getting it back out of there when we were leaving to find our actual seats.

After we took off both boys fell asleep for the entire flight and only woke up once we were on the ground again. Such good little fliers! Then my dad came and picked us up in our car and we headed home.

It was a really nice trip the turned out so well for everyone. So glad we went!

Looking out the window of our hotel room the first morning. He loved seeing all the cars, people and buses from up high.

All dressed up and waiting for the wedding to start.

How Tanner entertained himself while we waited for dinner to start. They are little circle cutouts of maps that were decorations like confetti on each table.