We have the beginnings of a crawler.  Little b has done awesome at army crawling and everyone that sees him do it is highly entertained, but this past weekend while in a huge hotel lobby with carpet for traction, he got up on his hands and knees and instead of just rocking like normal, took about 3 teeny tiny crawls.  I had to laugh at one point - he was trying SO.HARD to go, and he looked under himself at his knees, then sat down and patted them like, "Hey, why aren't you going anywhere?"  :)

Big B had a great time this past weekend as we traveled to the regional basketball tournament.  Josh's team didn't make it this year but we went anyway - as much as I would LOVE to bring his boys, I look forward to the family time too - the first time in months we've gotten to spend a whole weekend with Josh by ourselves. It's kind of nice.

Big B also got to sign up for elementary kid basketball this week.  He's beyond excited.  He wants new basketball shoes.  And we had to buy the shorts that were not included in his entry fee like his jersey was, because heaven forbid his own basketball shorts don't match the jersey!  He also asked his daddy if he would please coach his team.  I noticed he did not ask me. LOL!

Other than that, things have been soooo busy.  In fact I had to go to work Monday in order to have time to sit down and write an email to my family.  How bad is that?!

the observer

I'm constantly amazed at how smart little b is.  We found out just how observant he is this week.  We put recessed lighting into our living room (hooray for no more dark living room!!!).  The lights are ona dimmer which is nice.  I thought I'd put the lights on super low while I fed the baby in the middle of the night after they were installed.  Little b got so distracted by the lights that he couldn't eat.  And he wasn't just curious about them - he was ANGRY at them!  He laid there, pushed the bottle away, and shouted away at those lights with an angry face as if he was saying, "HEY! I know you weren't there last night - what are you doing there now?!?!"

We ended up having to go in his room to finish eating and go back to sleep. :)

I thought it might just be because the lights were on (low) and he didn't like it shining.  However, the next day, his daycare provider told me that she changed the picture above the changing table and he spent the whole diaper change shouting at the picture in the same way - "HEY! You didn't look like that YESTERDAY!" 

So not only does he observe, but he clearly does not like change and shows it with some fantastic shouting and angry faces.  Ha!  It's quite adorable actually!

in other news...

In Brecken's pretend basketball games, we've had what I thought was everything: pretend concession stands, announcing of names, high fiving his imaginary team mates, "goodgamegoodgamegoodgame" afterwards while shaking hands of his imaginary opponents, tip-offs, etc. Today, something new: a pretend bloody nose during the game. Oh, my child! LOL!

seven months

We celebrated little b's seven month "birthday" by receiving his birth certificate in the mail! What great fun that is to see our last name and J and I listed as his parents.  Love that.

Length / Weight: We had to go to the doctor again today, so I have an official weight.  The poor baby had another ear infection this month and we had to go back and make sure it was gone once and for all.  It is... for now.  Anyway, at home when I measured him he's now 27.5 inches long.  At the doctor, his weight was 18 lbs, 10 oz.  

Eating: Still on Similac Sensitive, and most bottles are 6 oz.  We started vegetables this month.  He's a huge fan! He doesn't even make a face of "oh, that's different" when he tries something new, he just gobbles it up! Two exceptions: my homemade carrots, which I think was a texture thing he didn't like.  Three bites and he was done.  The Gerber carrots though, were delicious!  The night I steamed and pureed peas, he had whole body shudders and refused.  B and I laughed SO.HARD at him.  We tried again the next day, and he ate a bowl full.  He had been crabby the night before, so as B said, "He must not have liked them because of his attitude."  LOL!  He eats jarred green beans because I don't know how to make those right, and I've made him pumpkin, squash, and sweet potatoes in addition to the peas.  He loves them all!

Sleeping: He still isn't as awesome at sleeping as he was before Christmas, but we're getting there.  I don't think he's actually HUNGRY when he wakes in the night - just needs something to suck on maybe.  He won't take a paci, so we've given him a bottle of water in his crib.  He's found that and put himself back to sleep 3 out of the past 4 nights.  

Wearing:  Size 3 diapers, and size 6-9 month clothes.  We found out that we can't really use hand-me-downs from his brother anymore - B was so small that his 6-9 month stuff is mostly summer attire, and it is definitely not summer weather yet!  Darn it, Mommy has to shop. :)

Miscellaneous: He is a mover!  The kid is constantly on the go.  He's fantastic at rolling to get places now, but he doesn't need to do that often because he's army crawling!!  I swore the kid would be "real" crawling before 7 months old, but I was a bit off.  He's close - rocking on hands and knees, but can't figure out how to go yet.  So for now, army crawling is his mode of transportation and he's quite good at it!  Sticks that left arm out and gets his feet dug in and he's off to the races!  He's also very close to being able to roll into a sitting position.  And his laugh - oh, his laugh.  It's amazing.  Usually he laughs at his brother.  They love each other so much!