The Fletcher Family: July 2006

Bath Time

I forgot to mention in the 5 month post below that the night before Holden's 5 month birthday (7/23), he moved up in the world of baths. Each passing day, it was becoming increasingly more difficult to bathe Holden on the little bath hammock we had. He would try to roll off, kick the wall, and spin the seat around which would eventually lead to him sliding down into the water. On the night of 7/23, he rolled off, landed on his belly, and then just stayed there splashing around chasing shadows and water ripples. He loved it! I loved that I didn't have to bend over the tub to hold him down on the little hammock. So, our bath time has evolved to a tummy time bath.

Five Months Old

Can you believe it? We have a five month old! Holden just mastered rolling over about a month ago, and now he's moving around every where. He's found his way out of our safe place, his room, and is just starting to explore the hallway. In the last couple of days, he's pulled up on things twice. First, he pulled up on a metal toy bin to look at some toys (I missed this - Trey saw it). Second, he pulled up on Trey's leg (I saw this one!). By the time I grabbed the camera and turned it on, he was back down. He's not sitting up yet, but I can't wait for the day he does. I'm hoping we can get a little break when he will just sit and play, but I'm not totally confident that he'll just sit there since he's such an active little fella. He's eating rice cereal twice a day, and sleeping eleven to twelve hours at night. He still wakes up once a night to have a bottle, ususally around 2:30 or 3:00, which is pure heaven compared to the 7 or 8 times a night he was waking in the beginning. During the day, he plays for about 2 or 3 hours at a time before he needs a nap. He loves toys, listening to songs, and Houston.

Five Months Old

Holden made it out of our safe place and into the hallway.

On his 5 month birthday, we decided to take the bumper pad off of his crib. He's starting day care in a month where bumpers are not allowed, so I thought we'd get him used to not having one at home. It lasted all of 20 minutes. Within that time, he got his foot stuck outside the bars twice and started crying. So much for that nap!

His newest move, he's up on all fours and getting closer to crawling!

He's doing this side sit-up too. Maybe this means sitting is in his near future. Shopping carts here we come!

I had to do it! Last night, I kept hearing something over the monitor after I put Holden down to sleep (notice that Trey has zip-tied the monitor reciever outside of the crib). I went in to check on him and he had pulled the bumper down and was sucking on it. I had to snap the picture. (Sorry for interrupting, Holden!) Luckily, he fell asleep (not sucking) a little bit later, he wasn't traumatized by the bright flash in his dark sleepy place.

The Friendship Begins

Holden "found" Houston today. Lately while playing in the exersaucer, Holden has been observing him, but there's been no reaction one way or another. So when Houston walked into Holden's room, and his whole face lit up, I was surprised. He was genuinely happy to see him, much like he is when Trey or I walk into the room. Houston laid down outside his door, and the rest is history. You can see how it all played out. The bad news is....Holden has found his way out of our safe place.

Big Boy Car Seat

Look who loves his new car seat!

Good Morning

Remember This Little Guy?

This week I've started putting together Holden's baby book; I've just finished putting in pictures of his first two weeks of life. Looking back on those pictures brought back so many feelings and emotions. I feel honored and blessed to be Holden's mommy. Life is truly such a miracle.

March 1, 2006 - This picture was taken right after Holden's first bath.

July 13, 2006 - He's a big boy now!

Our Safe Place

My mom gave me another good mommy tip. After talking to her about all the head-into-the-corner stories she told me to create a safe place for Holden to crawl around in. We determined his room was pretty safe. Now, all I do is throw some toys around, and he has a little party crawling around his room. I'm amazed at how fast he is when he wants something. But this also means I'm pretty much confined to this room now. Thank god for wireless internet! You can all be sure to have lots of blog updates from me.

These pics were taken Wednesday, July 12th.

I was sitting in my chair taking all of those pictures. I must have been doing something on the computer; when I looked down all I saw were two little legs sticking out. I got up and had to snap this adorable picture! He needed a little rest.

And some not so safe things:

Today (7/14) we did the same drill. After running errands, I threw some toys around and put him in his room. I had been using my computer earlier so it was sitting out on the floor. I went to get some juice for myself, when I heard my computer making noise. I hurried into the room to find Holden playing with the computer. He managed to open screens I've never seen before. I quickly put the computer on the side table next to my chair. I fed him, played with him on the floor for a bit, and then decided to update the blog. As I pulled my computer down and started typing, Holden bolted over here (he was over by the hamper playing with his yellow block) and pulled it off my lap to try to play with it. I got back up in chair and continued with the update. Just as I was typing the part about his little legs sticking out, I looked down and there they were again. This time he was studying the glider parts underneath the chair. He is his father's child.

I put the computer down to snap the picture and he spied it right away. I had to quickly snatch it back up. This boy is a handful!

So Funny

Holden makes me laugh out loud every day now. He is exploring the world around him, always making connections. Sometimes these connections are just down right funny! One of the toys on his exersaucer is a five button sound machine. It has pictures animals on each button. When you push the button it makes the sound of the animal, then says the name of the animal in English, then in says it in Spanish, and then it plays a song. Yesterday I kept hearing "[the roar of the lion], lion, leon, [song]" over and over. I looked over and Holden was pushing the buttons with his HEAD! He cracks me up!

A New High Chair

Yesterday, I purchased the Graco Contempo high chair. My mom talked me into getting a high chair right away, and I am sooo glad I did! (Thanks for the tip, Mom!) It is ten times easier to feed the little guy in it. It folds up really slim to only 7.5", which is great for our small house. I'm able to fold it up after his feedings. It reclines to three positions and has six different height positons. I love that I can sit in one of our dining room chairs and put him to a comfortable height for me to feed him. The seat is a wipeable vinyl- another plus. The greatest part was that it came completely assembled, so all I had to do was pull it out of the box and it was ready to use. Another big perk was that it was on sale - we got it for only 70 bucks! I am thrilled with this purchase (it may be one of my all time favorites)!!

Love the slim fold!

A Traveling (Little) Man

Holden has started moving. He started his own little form of scooting a couple of weeks ago. He got his little bottom in the air and scooted on his chest. Recently he's started moving his arms and he kind of pulls himself around. He also pushes with his feet while he lies on his belly. On Sunday, Trey and I would put a toy (or the tv remote) in front of him and he would have it in his hands very quickly. Holden manages to get into corners constantly: he scoots into the corner of his crib instantly; while on the floor in the living room, his head is mashes into the corners of the coffee table; and while in his bedroom, he somehow gets to the corner of the room (As I was typing this, he banged his head into his dresser and burst into tears.). We constantly have to watch him. Trey has suggested that we just put a helmet on him and let him go. Can you just picture it?! I reminded him that we all learned to move around without wearing a helmet. So, I guess it's time we start thinking of baby proofing. Where do we begin?

Notice him heading straight for the corner?

The next picture in this series is one where his head is smashed into the corner.
We didn't capture that one on film.

Beach Time

The Brower family had us over to the beach house for dinner on Friday night. We had great dinner and enjoyed some cocktails. Holden fell asleep in his car seat and slept through dinner. What a treat!

On Saturday, we headed back down to the beach for some fun in the sun. Holden went in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. He was mesmorized by the water flowing over his feet before receding back. We stayed at the beach house for dinner. Holden once again fell asleep and here's the miracle part....when we got home, we were able to transfer him to his crib without him waking up. Woo-hoo! I can say Holden has become a much easier baby these days.

4th of July in Visalia

My mom, grandma, Holden and I left San Diego on Friday, June 30th and drove to Visalia. (Trey had to work over the holiday weekend so he stayed home.) We had a great time. In the beginning it was a little difficult to entertain Holden without all of our baby creature comforts. By 9:30 on Saturday morning, I had sung every song I knew to Holden and he had more blanket time than he could handle. Mom and I went to Target and got the Baby Einstein Exersaucer. Boy....what a life saver! We also got him a baby pool raft and he went in the small jacuzzi pool for the first time on Saturday. He was ok with the pool, but I can't say he loved it. He was pretty indifferent about the whole thing. He didn't get back in the rest of the trip.

Jill's family came into town on Monday afternoon. We had a great time in the pool that afternoon. Holden got lots of love and attention from his Aunt Jill, Uncle Randy, and cousins Amanda, Mackenzie and Tabatha. My mom made a great bbq dinner!

On Tuesday, the 4th of July, we woke up to Jud making yummy waffles. Then it was back out to the pool for us. That evening we went to the Visalia Country Club for a huge family style barbeque. My mom had gone with her friend Nancy earlier and set up our chairs and blankets for our little "camp". There were over a thousand people there. They had lots of jump houses, tattoo/face painting booths and waterslides for the little kids. There was also a live band. Amanda talked to them and ended up singing The National Athem a capella. What a brave girl! Holden fell asleep at around 7:00 in his stroller. My mom and I came up with a game plan to go behind the clubhouse during the fireworks show, so the loud firework booms wouldn't wake and scare Holden. Well, just after we felt content with our plan Holden woke up SCREAMING! He was not letting up, so my dad took us home at about 8:00. No fireworks for us this year. I went home and put him right to bed. As I was washing bottles, I could kind of see the fireworks from my parent's kitchen window.

On Wednesday morning, my mom and I packed up the car and she drove us back down to San Diego. We had a great time chit-chatting the whole way, and Holden did amazingly well in the back seat. That night we walked to the shopping center near our house for a Mexican dinner and margaritas at Los Cabos. Mom left Thursday morning. We had such a fun time together!