Mom's Birthday!

Mom had her birthday at the end of September. She had to be in Charleston the night of her actual birthday because Jordan was getting surgery early the next morning, so we celebrated a few days later.

Her restaurant of choice was our family favorite, Miyabi's!

Chandler loved the chef's show and the birthday balloon.

I got him out of the car and all the way into the far side of the house and he was still clutching the balloon for dear life.

We went back to my parent's house and opened presents. Chandler gave her his little handprint.

Mom requested a chocolate fudge cake with strawberry filling, so I attempted my first three layer cake. The decorations didn't end up looking anything like the picture I was trying to copy, but it still ended up pretty cute.

I was able to get the buttercream somewhat smooth this time, but not as smooth as I wanted. I just can't figure out how to do it! And writing on cakes isn't even going to happen. I tried to put "Happy Birthday" on the top and it looked like I had a seizure while I was writing it. And even though I had etched it with a toothpick first, I started trying to go to fast to make it look less shaky and ended up putting "Happy Birtday" and had to scrape it all off and smooth it down again. At that point, I figured Mom knew well enough that it was her birthday and I would just skip that step.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Halston Gets Her Ears Pierced!

As part of her guard uniform, Halston had to wear rhinestone earrings. So she finally went to go get her ears pierced! Mom had to be out of town, so I got to do the honors and take her and a few of her friends met us there.

I told her we had to take one last picture of her with no earrings and this was the face she made...

She picked some pearl earrings while the little girl ahead of us was finishing up. She wasn't really nervous at all until it was her turn and she sat down in the chair. But they gave her a stuffed animal to squeeze. She also plugs her ears when she's getting poked or prodded (which is kind of funny because I have to plug my nose).

After she did it, Halston said "That's it?!"

Other side...

And the final result!

My Boy

Chandler has passed the 7 month mark and continues to be ridiculously cute on so many levels.

He was a little late in the game, but he is officially sitting now. He's been able to stay up for a little bit for the last several months, but didn't stay up for long. I wasn't too worried, because I knew he was super strong. I think it had more to do with a lack of interest. He is always busy and trying to grab everything in sight, so he would just dive for everything around him. Or make it into a game. Josh was working with him one night and every time he started to fall over Josh would catch him and sit him back up. So Chandler would do this little excited smile and then start falling backward and crack up whenever Josh caught him in mid-fall. Anyways, after we stopped goofing off, he started doing great and now he's pretty much a pro!

He now has 3 teeth, all on the bottom. His little smile is so cute I can hardly stand it. (It's really hard to get a picture with those little teeth showing, though.)

Chandler is great at getting himself around. He rolls like crazy everywhere and pushes up on his arms to scoot himself in the direction he wants. He is going to be crawling before we know it! Which leads me to my new dilemma...

Chandler and I are back to our nap time wars. The way I had solved it last time was by letting him sleep in our room on our bed because it's much darker in there during the daytime than in his room and that seemed to help him. I put a barrier of pillows around him, checked him frequently, and everyone was happy. But yesterday when I went to check on him, I found this:

Turned completely around and slowly making his way over the barrier. So, sleeping on my bed can't happen anymore and I'm trying to get him to the crib (which he sleeps in like a champ at night, so it seemed like it should be an easy transition). I've tried the cry-it-out method, but after 10 minutes he can't catch his breath from sobbing and the repetition of "mamama!" breaks my heart, so I inevitably give in. So now I am trying to rock him to sleep and then lay him in his crib, which is working okay so far. Even when he woke up half way through, he didn't cry and got himself back to sleep.

Also, one time he woke up and was playing in his crib when I walked into his room to put some clothes away. He got really excited and pressed his face up against the bars so he could see what I was doing and it was so cute:

He is fascinated by how his jumper hangs from the doorway. Every time we are holding him and walk by it, he makes a grab for the straps. When he's in it, he's spends half his time leaned back as far as he can so he can see the top.

He still loves pretty much anything we feed him and doesn't really show a special preference for anything. Recently, though, he has started gagging every time I feed him oatmeal (don't know why that suddenly started).

Since Chandler loved the exersaucer he used in Arizona, the Atkinsons were nice enough to let him borrow theirs! It was been so great for me, too. It keeps him happier longer so that I can get things done.

The weather has been gorgeous, so we went and took a stroll at Market Common the other day! He still loves being outside and riding around in his stroller. He even got out and stuck his feet and hands in the fountain for a little bit.

He also does this hilarious fake smile all the time that's hard to catch on camera...it's like he's looking around for someone to make him genuinely laugh.

Here he is on the day he turned 7 months:

And bonus pictures! (I can't help myself...)

Lately, we have been having a huge problem with him wetting through diapers and having poopy explosions. I'm having to do a load of laundry pretty much daily...he wets through his jammies and blanket almost every night. So, I think we are officially done buying the cheap diapers. When I was in Arizona, he had a huge poopy explosion in a store where there was only a nasty employee bathroom and I had to use a makeshift changing table (it wasn't pretty). And of course, I just happened to not have a back-up outfit in the diaper bag that day, so he had to hang out in his diaper.

He has his tongue hanging out like a little puppy all the time...

He had been asleep and woke up and was trying to put his passie back in his mouth, but only made it this far before he fell back asleep.

We just love our little blue-eyed, dimpled boy way too much!