Houston 9 Months

Houston's already over 9 months and I didn't do an 8 month update.
I swear I'd blame my unorganized-ness on being a mom or Houston being my 2nd kid, but I've always always been very scatterbrained and behind schedule.

So, at 9 months Houston is probably like any baby - into everything!
He's crawling so fast, cruising around the furniture, and standing independently for a few seconds here and there.  Leo walked at 9 months so we'll see if Houston follows that pattern, but I think it might be a bit longer for him. Maybe 10 months or so.

We had his 9 month check up today and he could do every single thing on the checklist for 9 month old babies! He's talking saying - Mama and Dada appropriately and he'll say baba and makes lots of other little sounds.  I swear one day he said bubbles after I said the word. And he said lasagna once ;)

He just started signing more!! We were at Busch Gardens and I was waiting while Leo and our friend Hannah playing in Elmo's treehouse thing and I was feeding Houston and he was so hungry he was eating everything so I kept saying more? and then it just clicked and he was signing! It's a little like clapping hands, but he was purposefully doing it for food.  *and since I'm just now finishing up this post and he's already 9.5 months he has been signing milk too!! I just love to see him sign and communicate with us.

He loves when we sing and dance. Our favorite song to dance around to as a family is the everything is awesome song. haha. it's a bit ridiculous, but seriously can turn around a bad mood in any of us. If I feel like I've been short tempered we turn on music. If Houston is grumpy, if Leo is bored, whatever - we just start dancing. Even Lee. It's really becoming one of my very favorite things haha because it's totally something we'd only do at home and not in front of anyone else :)

He loves to clap along when we sing If you're happy and you know it and he'll bounce around if he's standing and we start singing. He's seriously so fun.

Houston is a pretty good eater these days. It took him some time to figure out the eating bit. I'd say his favorite foods are still pureed type stuff - yogurt and applesauce mostly. And he loves the baby pancakes that are just egg and banana. He loves banana! But offer him a plain egg and he spits it out. He pretty much eats whatever we're eating at lunch and dinner. Although he isn't a big meat eater. I made chicken and dumplings about a week ago and he ate a huge bowl of it.

While he's a good eater and sleeps amazing at night (12 hours every single night!) he is the worst napper.  I've tried many different techniques, but still some days he goes from 7am-7pm with no nap. On a good day he'll nap twice. At about 10:30 for hopefully like 45minutes-1 hour. Then again in the afternoon around 2 or 2:30 around an hour and half. However... most days he refuses the morning nap or falls asleep for about 5 minutes and then is up again and we retry the name after lunch. OR some days he takes a great morning nap and then refuses the afternoon nap. OR like I said just doesn't nap at all. I've tried to just making him go until after lunch and just take one nap a day and even that backfires on me. Babies.

At 9 months Houston is 20 lbs 10 oz and 30.5 inches tall!  He's a tall boy! 98th percentile for height and only about 67th for weight.  It's funny because I think he's so tiny compared to Leo, but 67th percent is still bigger than average. I think he's just gonna be a long, tall boy.

Houston turned 8 months old in Canada! His first experience with snow!

Houston 8 months and Great-Grandma Coghill 98 years! 

Houston 7 Months

This past month was a big one for my Houston!
Sleeping thru the night, crawling, eating, saying mama, teeth, clapping, pulling up to standing... he is in hurry to be like his big brother.

I have probably 50 videos on my phone (why I'm always out of storage...) of Houston up on his knees rocking back and for and sitting up and then getting back on his knees and then dropping to his belly - just waiting to catch him crawling and to tell you the truth, I don't know if I ever did actually catch him crawling the first day. I was just like one day he was all over the place crawling in the Christmas tree and from room to room.

We have to keep all our doors shut now.  He loves to get into the bathroom.  He tries to pull up on the toilet (gross!) and the bathtub and Leo's stool.  I guess it's the room where he is the least so he's dying to know whats in there... even though he is seeing a lot more of it these days now that he's eating and requires frequent baths to remove all the food from his body!  He is a mess!
He is doing so much better with eating the past week or so.  It took him a while to figure out swallowing, but now he can do it he loves food.  He likes to feed himself puffs or little chunks and claps or bangs his tray when he wants more!  I'm telling myself the clapping is his way of signing more, but I doubt it.

I am trying to be better about doing sign with him.  I know that was so beneficial for Leo.  Leo could do so many signs and then became such a great talker with a crazy vocabulary which they attribute to early communication.  Leo signed milk at around 9 months for the first time so I still have time to teach Houston.  We've started very basic with milk, food, and more.

So far Houston seems to prefer yogurt, applesauce, apples, banana, sweet potato, puffs, blueberries, strawberries, and oatmeal.  I force him to eat chicken, avocado, broccoli, eggs, etc. My goal this week is to give him peanut butter because they say early exposure is good for allergies but somehow he's already 7+ months and hasn't happened it yet.

The day after Christmas, so just a few days before he turned 7 months my sweet little baby started jabbering ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma and it was just the absolute best! Leo said Dada first, but I knew Houston was going to be a mama's boy ;)  He will also say Baba - which I've told Leo is what Houston calls him lol, and make lots of other sounds, but he doesn't say Dada yet.

The day after he said Mama he also started clapping! I know Leo was at least 7something months old when he clapped (I remember the day and could look up the date if I tried hard enough, it was our friend Joey's show at the Broadway Palm and we took Leo with us and joked that he learned to clap for their show, haha).

Houston got his top two teeth right after turning 7 months and tonight I was looking in his mouth and noticed the next teeth next to his front teeth, what are they called again? well whatever they are, they're swollen and will hopefully be in any day!
Teething however, brings me to nursing... Houston is now sleeping through the night! Yay!  I think I was just complaining about it in his 6 month update and then a couple days later I woke up at about 7:30 and realized Houston hadn't woken up to eat that night!
That same day I switched our bedroom furniture so he could have his own room and it's been pretty smooth since, with the exception of when we had company and he slept in our room in a packnplay. He woke up in the night then, but now we're back to normal he's sleeping well again. Even with the teething.
We're going to Canada in a couple weeks I'm nervous about how he's going to sleep... but that's life, he'll adapt hopefully.

Anyway, nursing - Houston has been going really well and easy... until a couple days ago when I developed what I think was mastitis. I got super sick and it was miserable, but thankfully only lasted like a day or so.  And then on top of that Houston now has top and bottom teeth and he's already bit me a few times. ugh.  misery.

But at least he is insanely adorable right?

Houston 6 Months

Dear my precious darling Houston. I am so sorry you didn't get a 5 month blog post.  I promise this has nothing to do with you being the second child and everything to do with your mom being a scatter brain.
In baby time a month is a lot, and 2 months is a lot a lot!  Poor Houston will never really know what he was doing at 5 months old because his mom didn't write it down.  It's only a foggy memory of some stuff she'll make up.

Anyway, moving on and forgiving myself of that ;)

Houston Charles is now 6 months!!
This month I've been testing out little nicknames for my baby.  I've been randomly calling him Housty.  I don't know.  I also sometimes come up with Hugh Charlie. or just Huey.
Lee prefers to call him Hous-town.
It's pretty fun.
This baby is fun. SO FUN!

His face just shouts I'm fun! He's always smiling and his eyes twinkle. I'm so in love with this sweet little boy. He makes me want 15 more babies.

At 6 months Houston is sitting up completely unassisted and can even push himself up into a seated position.  He did this for the first time while he was laying on the floor of the sanctuary at church while I was decorating for Christmas. I left him laying on a blanket playing with toys and looked over and he was sitting up and had the biggest smile. He was so proud.
He's so close to crawling!! He's doing the rocking on his hands and knees and the downward dog pose.  He's going to get it so soon.

On Thanksgiving he got his first taste of food - sweet potatoes!  He didn't really know what to do with it. He's also had an apple to gnaw on and help him with teething. haha and to keep him occupied during dinner time. I think I'll start avocado tomorrow if they are ripe.

He is getting his two bottom teeth! About a month ahead of Leo I think.

His favorite toys are his crinkle book and sophie giraffe (that was actually Leo's... is it ok to share teething toys? lol) and he loves the jolly jumper thing.

Sleeping......... well he's ok, but he could definitely be better.  He goes to bed between 7-7:30 most nights and sleeps a pretty good stretch but at about 3 or so he'll wake up to eat and I sometimes bring him to bed with me and he'll eat off and on until morning..... I honestly don't really know what happens.  I wake up to reposition him depending on how I fall asleep and make sure he can't fall out of bed.  It's not the best, but it happens a few times a week.  Other nights I put him back in bed and then he wakes up again at like 5 and I feed him and keep him in bed with me then.  It seems like he's always ending up in my bed!
Full disclosure...... he did fall out of bed once and I felt like a terrible mother.
I think Leo fell out once too, but I barely remember.... so soon I'll forget that Houston fell out too, right?

We still need to move our bed out of Houston's room.  I KNOW we'll all sleep better, but our 3rd bedroom (which is actually the master) is FULL of my craft stuff and quite a mess. another full disclosure. ugh.


Ok, other Houston news...
He makes lots of super cute noises. He completely adores his big brother. He is so easy to make laugh. He grabs his toes and it's the most precious thing you've ever seen.

first time in a high chair! 

first food!

first time he sat himself up :) 

Houston 4 Months

I found a few minutes to sit down with my actual computer and blog about Houston's 4th month.
Its amazing how little I used a computer these days. I use my phone for everything!
But I'm sure you do too.  You're probably reading this on your phone, huh?


As I start pretty much every single monthly update (and probably will forever) Houston is the SWEETEST baby! Ah that kid is just the kind of baby you can't stop kissing and squeezing.  He has chunked up a bit and his legs are just the absolute perfect size for squeezing and the rolls. And the cheeks.  Ooooooh those cheeks.  They are perfect.

I don't know how much Houston weighs yet.  I'll try to remember to update that when I find out because it is really nice to be able to read back and know little details like that.  Hence why I'm trying to keep up with these monthly posts.  It's fun to read back on Leo's and compare.
All that to say, I don't know how much he weighs, but I know he is a big boy.  He's getting so heavy that I can barely carry him in his carseat anymore! He's wearing size 3 diapers and 9 months clothes!

Even though he's big it hasn't slowed him down from moving!  He loves to scoot himself around and this week began rolling from his back to his belly! The first time he truly got completely flipped over was in the middle of the night so I missed it. And the next time I was in the kitchen and he was in the living room floor so I missed it again!  Still haven't caught it on video yet either.
He'd been sooooo close to rolling for seriously weeks now and I probably have 18 videos on my phone of times I thought was going to be it!

Houston is the smiliest baby I have ever seen.  Seriously he never stops smiling.  He wakes up smiling and smiles at me in the middle of the night.  All you have to do is make eye contact with him and his whole face bursts into a smile.  Ah it makes my heart melt. He smiles when I wink at him, like he knows that the wink is a secret little code between us.  Oh that baby.
He's been laughing out loud too.  He has a deep giggle that sounds like its coming from his toes.
He's so easy to make laugh.  He's ticklish under his chin, on his ribs, his legs, his feet. haha

Funny story, the other day Houston was laying in the floor and Leo was standing on the couch.  I told Leo to get down he was going to fall.  While he was climbing off the couch he sorta fell onto the floor and Houston laugh and laugh and laughed.  It was hilarious. I can only imagine how fun life is going to be as they get older because it is so incredibly fun right now.

Houston is nursing great. Eating about probably 6-7x a day (including middle of the night) He is a very quick nurser. 10 minutes tops. I'm really not looking forward to feeding him real food because I know it won't be as easy.

I won't say that Houston is sleeping great, but it's not what I'd call terrible.  There were a few nights a couple weeks ago that I would definitely call horrible.  I know they say that babies go through a 4 month sleep regression.  I was joking with a friend that my kids are advanced so he went through it at 3 months. ha. But I really do hope that was it and there isn't another one coming up!!
He is currently waking up about twice a night.  He was only waking up once for a long time... but then we had that rough patch once I stopped swaddling him and he still had the startle reflex going on... Now he sleeps in long sleeved footed pjs.

Here's a sample of our daily schedule -

7am Leo wakes (ugh Leo....)
I drag myself out of bed and get like an hour or 2 of one on one time with Leo because Houston likes to sleep in.  We do puzzles, play on the back patio with chalk, draw, build with blocks... 
8:30-9:00 Houston wakes up and I feed him
10:30-11 Feed Houston and he naps for about an hour - usually in his car seat because we are almost always going somewhere in the morning - library, gym, park, shopping, mops, etc.
12:00 - Leo and I eat lunch
1:00 - All 3 of us read books in Leo's bed for nap time.  We read one book to Houston specifically - I try to get Leo to "read" it and then I read 3 books to both of them. Leo naps for 2-3 hours.
1:00-2:00 - Houston and I have one on one time :)
2:00ish - Houston eats and takes an afternoon nap - on a good day it's about 2 hours.
2-3:30ish - usually both boys are sleeping and so I watch a show and craft or pack up something to ship and on rare occasions clean...
4:00 - I don't know we just play.
5:00 feed Houston and start making dinner
5:30-6:30 eat dinner depending on what time Lee can get home
7:15 bedtime! I usually handle Houston while Lee puts Leo to bed.
Then I watch my shows, work on projects, blog (ha yea like once month...) and go to bed around 11 or 12.
somewhere between 2-4 am Houston will wake up to eat and then again about 2-3 hours later.

And then we get up and do it all over again!  I really, truly, deep down inside love being a mom though. I think I'll do a post about stuff that's going on with me soon too, but for now I'll just say I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing and life is good.

Pictures!

caption copied from facebook :) 

Getting ready for bed tonight I said Leo do you know that Houston will be your very best friend someday? And my precious, wise beyond his years 2 year old said - Houston is my best friend now! 😭and my heart melted into a giant puddle.

Houston's first football game! 

Houston's eyes turned a definite brown this month! 

Baby rhyme time! 

This month he started playing in his exersaucer and his jumperoo.  He loves to be standing up! 

And I forgot to mention that Houston has his first trip to Disney this month too!! He was the perfect little baby the entire day and we had so much fun.  I am totally a disney weirdo now.