9 Months and not slowing down....

SLOW DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That seems to be all that I say now days…

Well I want to rewind a little bit. To start this past month off, we had just started eating table food. And if I tried to get him to crawl or at least push himself up he would whine..  And he was not strong enough to pull himself up, nor had he ever tried.

NOW we are eating me out of house and home and he is crawling all over the place as fast as he can and he REALLY wants to walk but he cannot keep his balance.  AHHHHH!

It all really started when we went on our family vacation to Wimberley. About two days before we left Collin had attempted to scoot himself and pull his legs behind him, almost an Army crawl. But as soon as we got there it is like this place was magic or something. I put Collin down on the floor (which is concrete) and he just took off. He understood how to crawl. Then that night I put him down in the pack in play to go to sleep and when he woke up in the middle of the night for a bottle there he was standing up and holding on the side of the pack and play wanting to get out… CRAZY.  So from that week on it has been non stop. He is all over the house. He LOVES the dog’s water bowl. We get in a fight over this daily. There is something about water that he just loves, he lived in the river with us on vacation and now every day since we have been back he has been in his little pool, or the hot tub to swim or float in his floaty.

He has such a personality. He smiles really big at things that he likes. Anytime he sees ELMO, we get a big smile, it can be on you tube, a stuffed animal, a book. He flaps his arms up and down and smiles and laughs. Crazy kid. He also really recognizes people that he knows. My mom and dad, and my grandma Nana he really knows and will reach out for them. And even after spending a week with the rest of our LARGE family he knew the kids and would get excited to see them.

Now on the other side he is very stubborn, he ALWAYS wants what you have. Nothing can even compare to what you have. Food, Cell Phone, Laptop, a piece of paper.. ANYTHING, if you are holding it, he wants to hold it. And he will scream until he gets it.. oh my… oh my…

A little more on his daily routine,

-          Sleeping from 8pm to 6am waking up once still…..

-          Drinking 6 four ounce bottles.

-          Taking 2  - one and half hour naps

-          I give him a bottle and rock or bounce to put him to sleep, even for naps.

-          Eating anything in sight, loves the little puffs.

-          Wearing size 3 diapers and 12 month clothing.

-          He is also drinking from a sippy cup that has a straw.  (mostly water though, no juice)

We are going to his 9 month doctor appointment on the 16^th.  So we will see then how big he his, but he has grown so much. I wish he would put the brakes on he is growing up too fast.

In other news, I went back to work. It has been 2 weeks.  I work now for a local bank here in Victoria for the private banking department. It was a hard choice, but it was time for me to go back to work. We also had a babysitter lined up to take care of Collin, but that fell through, so he starts Daycare on Monday. I really hope this is an easy transition for both of us. It is going to be a big change.

Here are some photos of the last month.

Swimming in the hot tub in our backyard

With Mimi and Papa at Gruene Hall

Swimming in his little pool in the backyard

Holding and drinking his bottle all by himself.

Very excited Elmo is on the laptop while he is eating breakfast

Collin drooling while him and Papa try to pick up girls at Gruene Hall.. ha ha

Collin and his daddy - giving the surfer sign ... coool dude.

Me and my baby at Wimberley, his first time in the blanco river..

Collin and his two cousins... Lexi and Bryan

Me and my baby playing in the rapids at Wimberley

Swimming with the Family, dogs included in the river...

Way to cool, he had to wear my sunglasses to make sure he fit in with the rest of them.

This is how he took a bath each night on vacation, in the sink!

Wearing at Hat at the General Store

This picture was from our vacation too, at Cabela's in Buda TX

This is his 9 Month Photo, sitting up big and tall on his race car...

 Playing on his toy that I got him for his 9 month bday.

He has to have his own drink at any place we go to eat.. Drinking from a straw!

8 Months Old and some new news....

Collin turned 8 months old last week. He is turning into such a little stinker. I must admit that my child is very spoiled. I know its my fault but I could not help it. Being a stay at home mommy makes it too easy to spoil your little one.
We are really working hard on crawling. He is still not very happy with it at all, but we are making progress. He is now able to lift up his upper body and extend both of his arms to support his weight. The next challenge was to convince him he needed to lift his booty up and put his knees under him, this is tough. But we have gotten to the point where he now rocks back and forth. He is still very grumpy that I am trying to get him to try this a couple of times a day.
And then of course once he fusses too much or just out right cries, I give in, and pick him up or I put him in his walker and I get huge smiles and laughs... Its like he is laughing at me "ha ha ha.. I got my way" I just tell him, "just wait mister....your time is coming" We have these eye contact conversations all the time. I know.. crazy. But its the life at our house.
So he is IN LOVE with his walker. If I am walking with him across the house and he sees the walker, he gets all excited and cannot wait for me to put him in it, unfortunately the first thing he goes for the in the walker is the doggie water bowl, and sure enough about every other day it gets flipped over and I have to clean up all the water.

As you can tell our house in NEVER boring. We are always on the go and Collin keeps us very busy. I love every second of it. I am so happy every day that I have got to spend at home with him to watch him grown up.
Collin is still eating like a champ, we are trying more and more grown-up foods. Eggs are his favorite. I think he would be happy if he could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We also introduced the sippy cup, but he would rather drink out of my glass, and he also knows how to suck out of straws. He can take big gulps from my sonic drink. This kid loves unsweet TEA.. I try juices, but unsweet tea or water is what he prefers. So I had to go out and get some decaf unsweet tea.

Sleeping is still a mountain we are trying to climb. Collin is still going to bed around 7:30pm but wakes up 1 to 2 times a night wanting a bottle. I just keep telling my self one day.. We will sleep through the night.

Collin now has two little teethies. But my poor baby is very unhappy when his is teething. I feel so bad for him. He has been running fever with this second tooth. I hope this doesn't happen with all the other teeth to come.

He is still babbling away but no real words other than Mama when he is crying. But his facial reactions to things are priceless. Sometimes I wish I could keep a video camera on him 24/7 it cracks me up. We are still in size three diapers, but we are almost ready to go to fours. He is getting so much bigger and Stronger each day.

In two weeks we are heading to Wimberely for our week long family vacation we take each year. It will be Collin's first trip. I hope he loves it as much as I do. I have been going there every year since I was a baby too, and I would not miss it for the world.

Here are some 8 Month Photos

My sweet baby boy, I love this photo, one of my favorites.

A happy 7 month old!

Summer time is right around the corner. And Collin is READY! but so am I.

I feel like every time I post on my blog, I always start out the same way. But its TRUE. Collin is growing up TOO fast. Somethings even change overnight.

Our little man is sitting all by himself, and if he does fall over, he is just as happy laying on his tummy or back. Just the other day he also had his first tooth come in. He cried most of the night, the night before and I didn't understand why. The next morning there was the little tooth. The reason for all the tears.

The past month has been a whirl-wind. We started April out with a fantastic Easter. He got a walker from the Easter bunny. Collin then learned how to scoot around in a walker super fast . Which now he is a pro at. He knows how to control the turns and can make his way all around the house. We also have a walker at his Nana's and this is a lot of fun for him.

We still are not getting any better at crawling but most mornings and after his naps I find him trying to pull himself up with the bars around his crib. He is getting very strong, I bet one day very soon I will walk in his room to find him standing because he was able to pull himself up.

He is still talking up a storm. He is able to say Mama and lots of other vowel sounds. Sometimes Josh and I think he is really saying sentences the way he mumbles all the sounds.

He had he 6 month doctor appointment back on April 16th. He weighs 19.11 lbs and was 26.75 inches long. Which now, I swear it seems he has already gained another pound and grew a couple of inches. Otherwise the doctor's appointment went great.

Collin is still in size 3 diapers but his favorite thing to wear is just a t-shirt, no shorts or onesies for this little one. :-) We are trying more table food with him. He is still eating Gerber baby food, but we have tried veggies and noddles too, so far and is loves them all.

Collin is having more and more nights where is sleeping through the night. It is still not 100% of the time but I love the moments we have at night, I get lots of big hugs.

The last thing that I wanted to make sure and post about was SWIMMING. Our little man loves WATER. We took him to his great Aunt's pool and he loved it. Plus we bought him a little pool for the backyard and he is a super happy baby any time he can splash. But just yesterday we decided to get the hot tub up and running. Well it is actually a cool tub, because we keep it at around 80 degrees. I was a little nervous at first with him but he loves it. Even today we got back in the hot tub and swam for about 30 mins. He was even upset when I told him we had to get out and I wrapped the towel around him. I think he would live in there if I let him.

Below are some pics from the past month.

"Momma"

Collin's first word is officially momma. I was excited the first time he said it, but it was more like just crying and some M sounds were just all mixed up in it.

Then there was the crying with some ma ma ma ma ma over and over. I really didn't want his first words to come from this but it did.

I say it's official now, because now he can reach up with his arms and say it one time momma..... I just want to cry especially when he has that big grin to go along with it. (this one is for the record books) now we need to work on da da. I love him so much, nothing compares to a mommy's love for their baby.

6 months old and extras from the past couple of weeks

So shame on me. I really thought that I would find more time to be able to post more often on the blog. I must say it is hard. I don't see how you guys do it, and most of you are working mommies too.. Man I need to get better at this.

Well here goes, Collin is 6 months old !!!!

It has been about a month since I last blogged. There is so much to tell, once they hit this age things start changing so fast. Plus the weather is getting better and it is pretty outside. Collin loves to be outside. We even became members of the zoo so that we can go as many times as we want for the next year. Seems like we are always on the go.

The weekend of March 24th and 25th we went to Port O Conner for the weekend. I think Collin really likes to be on the move. (Knock on wood) My mom and I went down Friday afternoon and checked into the Captain's Quarters Motel. It was nice. We got all settled in and set the room up. (this takes time when you have a baby) My dad and Josh came down that evening once they got off work. That night we went to a shrimp boil, (Collin was not very happy, lots of mosquitoes, this mommy was not very prepared with OFF.) So it made for a short evening, we ate and had to get back to the hotel. Collin slept like a champ though. Saturday was a lot of fun, my dad got to fish in a fishing tournament. Josh had to study most of the day. But my mom and I got to take Collin out for some fun in the sun. Saturday night we went to a fish fry with everyone from the fishing tournament. Then Josh and I went out on the town in Port O Conner and for those you who know where Port of O Conner is, you are probably laughing very hard right now. We went to the Cantina and Maddens.  It was just nice to get out and have some fun. Sunday we took Collin to the beach and let him stick his toes in the water. A great weekend.

Coming up....
A lot is happening in the next couple of weeks. This weekend is Easter, and we have two places to go. Next weekend is my birthday, the big 3.0. We are having a crawfish boil with lots of family and friends. Then on the 28th and 29th we are going to New Braunsfels for the weekend. This is something we do every year. I can't wait. Lots of pictures and stories to come. Now.......

What's up with Mr. Collin Andrew Hanchett.....
He is getting so big!! We have not been to the doctor yet for his 6th month check up, but he is 20lbs via the scale in my bathroom and about 26 inches long. He is wearing size 3 diapers.
We moved to the new convertible car seat. He loves it, it gives him so much more room to relax when we go places. We still hang the DVD player on the back of the headrest and he watches Fox and the Hound 1 and 2. We try changing movies but he gets upset. So more puppies singing it is.
Collin is able to sit now with out any support for 1 to 2 minutes before for topping over. This is something that he just learned in the past couple of days. I usually put pillows around him or prop him up on something, but the other day he was in the bathtub and he was sitting without any help from me. (he is growing up so fast)

Tummy Time is still no fun for him. He doesn't like it all. If I prop his chest up with something he will tolerate it for a little bit, but he still looks like he is swimming. Not sure if he will ever crawl at this rate.

Standing, oh my! this is his favorite. He loves to stand and walk as long has he can hold on to your hands. You get big smiles. You can stand him up to the coffee table or even the couch and he can hang on. The crazy thing is I think he will walk long before he will ever crawl.

FOOD!!! He loves food. He eats size 2 Gerber foods three times a day. In the morning and at night I add oatmeal too. There really is not anything this kid will eat. He loves them all. He also likes to feed himself with a spoon. This makes it hard to feed him, since he wants to feed himself. So when it is time to eat, it takes a while. I just introduced meat to him a couple of days ago. He likes the chicken apples the best.  (Plus we get 5-6 bottles a day)

Nap time and sleeping- Well I don't think my child will ever sleep through the night. He gets so close some nights, and then when I think we are making progress, he will wake up three times in the night the next. So it looks like this is the way it will be. He goes down somewhere around 7:30ish and wakes up usually two times throughout the night wanting a bottle or just to be rocked back to sleep. Then he wakes up for the day around 7:30am.

Collin has such a personality. He is laughing up a storm now. Especially at me or Angel. If I jump up and down and sing silly songs I get belly laughs. Apparently I am a good performer in his eyes. Now on the other side he is very stubborn, (I wonder where he gets this from) It is his way or the highway most of the time. And if he is not getting what he wants, he will definitely let you know about it. (we need to work on this, I see this getting worse in the future.) He still has not said a real word yet, but we are working on it. He loves to talk to himself. Especially in the mornings when he is in his crib.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. :-) More posts to come.....

 A movie from us at the zoo, he likes goats!