No Judgement Here

I used to judge moms who let this happen...



Now I don't. Who turned this faucet on!?!?!?

(Sorry for the gross-out. I just needed you guys to suffer with me, as I'm a little yucked out myself.) ;-)

6 months. Are you kidding me!??!

So we've made it to the infamous 6 month mark. We've kept the kiddo alive for HALF OF A YEAR!!! Kind of weird that we've been parents for this long...

This past week, we spent time at my parents house for 5 days while Brian was in Africa (post on that later!) Brewer thrilled Honey and PawPaw with his cuteness.



Are you kidding me?!?! How precious is this baby??

He has been sitting up well for about a week now, gaining more balance every day with the help of this cool toy that helps him focus and play.



I love his expression. "Mom, seriously? Stop taking pictures. It's not cool." Hehehe. We are going to seriously embarrass this kid with our un-coolness.

Brewer Achievements @ 6 months:

- Eating 1/4 cup rice cereal twice a day
- Tried sweet potatoes for the first time yesterday; he did not bat an eye and ate like a champ (kind of underwhelming, actually)
- Sleep through the night for at least 10 hours
- Take one big nap a day pretty consistently and a couple of other cat naps
- LOVES bathtime (usually our go-to fix-it if he's fussy at night) but two nights ago, decided he didn't like just sitting in the bath and started crawling all around



- This weekend, he got in the bear crawl position for the first time, up on his hands and toes
- Still loves his exersaucer, playing well in it for 20 minutes at a time
- Moves around with intention now. He actually will scooch around to head towards something he wants.
- On that note- he's scooching around!! Kind of a modified army crawl where he pushes off with his toes and drags himself with his arms.

We're amazed at how much he's growing and changing every day. This is a pretty cool stage!

Rice Cereal, Day TWO

In case you couldn't tell, day two of feeding went fabulously!

We thickened up the cereal for the second day, and this seemed to do the trick- he was a huge fan! He was definitely wanting more, but I wasn't sure how this would be for his digestion (my bestie Brooke admonished me- rightly so- that if the kid wants more, feed him! Duh...) ;-)

A second development (it seems that they're coming almost daily right now!) on Monday was that Brewer learned to sip through a straw. He was grabbing for my cup with a wide mouth, wanting to drink! So, without a good baby sippy cup, I grabbed a toddler sippy cup that we had received as a gift. It has a gummy straw instead of a sippy opening. After fumbling with it for a few minutes, he bit the straw and played with it. Then, he started sucking, and because he's stubborn, he kept sucking!! And so, we're drinking through a straw now!

SUCH a fun stage right now!

FIRST FOOD!

Brewer is five months old today, and per our pediatrician's suggestion, we are starting cereal today! We've been instructed to feed him a combination of brown rice, oatmeal and barley over the next month before we start in on fruits, veggies and meats.



HELP! In order to save money, we're wanting to make our own baby food. We have purchased the Baby Brezza to make food, but I haven't figured out to make cereal with it yet. So, I put some non-cooked brown rice in our chopper (cheaper version of a food processor), and then mixed that chopped rice with breast milk to make the cereal. Well. It of course was just a nasty grainy mess. So, I purchased some regular brown rice cereal until we get this figured out. Any advice on making your own cereals would be GREATLY appreciated.



So. He did pretty good, but I really didn't have any clue about what to expect him to do. He seemed to not be a fan of the taste or whatever at first, but then was anticipating the spoon for quite a few spoonfuls before getting really ticked off that he was strapped in a chair that he couldn't escape. What texture is the cereal supposed to be?? Thicker breast milk (really, really liquidy), or more like liquidy mush? Because mine turned out really, really liquidy, and I don't know if I should be making it thicker...?



Anyhow! He's a pretty cute kiddo!



Last week, he seemed to be struggling to get past some drainage and spitting up more, so we took him to the pediatrician. The dr. was not very concerned about the cold he seemed to have, but about a couple of ingrown toenails! (Yes, our kid has ingrown toenails.) Brian and I haven't really worried about these too much because we both have ingrown toenails (the dr. was beside himself that we live with this issue and haven't had a podiatrist cut them out. Are you freaking kidding me?!?!) Anyhow, the dr. gave us a prescription that would kick the cold and the toe infection. Who knew one med could do both?? After Brian and I discussed it at home later that evening, we decided to wait a few more days to see if Brewer could get rid of these on his own. Three days later, he seems to have lost the green boogers and one toe is looking much better. The other is still questionable...



We weighed him while we were at the pediatrician, and he's at 15.35 lbs., a full pound heavier than 3 1/2 weeks earlier. That puts him in the 33% for weight.

Cutest Little Ring Bearer

Brewer had the distinct honor of being a ring bearer at his Auntie Anne's wedding a few weekends ago. We had to drive to Lubbock for the wedding, and traveling has gotten a little easier with Brewer. We'll try to leave shortly after feeding him, and then will feed him bottles along the way, stopping only to burp and change diapers. Definitely not as easy to travel with a baby as it was without, but we're figuring out some tricks.

The weekend was pretty action-packed, and we had just a wonderful time with everyone. We forgot our camera, so I didn't really get a lot of pictures of the weekend, but check out this precious one that the maid-of-honor Sarah got of Brewer and my mom. (Great picture, but I pulled this off facebook so the quality isn't fantastic.)



Here's Mom and Daddy dancing with Brewer.



So precious, but my cell phone doesn't have that great of a camera.

We were so thrilled to be able to be a part of Andrea and her hubby Brian's (yes, she married a "Brian") big day. They are so obviously in love, and we just love them so much!



Here's my Brian and his beautiful sister, the bride!!!



Brian was so proud of his little man, and was so happy to be able to show him off to all the family that had gathered for Andrea's wedding.



Gammy Linda (proud mother of the bride!) dancing with her sweet little Brew Boy.

Thank you, Andrea and Murry, for letting us be a part of your big day!

Little Man is 2 Months Old!

Well, I missed the 1 month old post, so we'll start up with the 2 month post!

Brewer was 2 months old on May 1, and is the delight of our hearts.

- He is coo-ing a lot, and "talking" to us. We've started trying to talk back to him after he coos in an effort to start the beginnings of "conversation"...

- He has started smiling regularly, usually when we're changing his diaper. Almost as if to say "Be careful! I might pee on you!" (Which he does. Not quite as often as in the beginning, but still enough to be annoying.)

- He has started to enjoy baths a lot, and will sit still in the bath, letting his arms float and then will start kicking and splashing all of a sudden and get very excited.

- He nurses regularly every 2.5 to 2.75 hours, in an effort to try to reduce nightly feedings.

- We had 3 glorious nights in a row last Thu., Fri. and Sat. where he slept 8, 7 and 7 hours respectively! Then, he reverted back to waking up after 4 to 5 hours to eat again.

- He's sleeping pretty well at night in his "Swaddle Me" blanket.

- He's starting to focus more on things with his eyes, rather than staring off into space. He likes our faces, the TV and his playmat toy that plays fun music. (He gets excited when the music pays, and starts kicking along with the music.)

-He's discovered his tongue, and will stick his tongue in and out of his mouth, almost like he's tasting something, or wants to lick the air. Very funny!

- Brian wants me to include that Brewer's starting to get a "Friar Tuck" hairline.

We love you, sweet boy!

Mommy is doing well, too! It took a little longer for me to heal than I expected it would, and the recovery continues. With a little more sleep (and I think the adjustment to less sleep) I'm handling day-to-day mini crises better (hello, projectile poo!!! Who knew babies had that kind of trajectory?!?) I'm feeling incredibly blessed to be able to stay at home right now- I'm working from home, but finding it difficult to get everything done that I need to.

Overall: Love, love, love. I fall in love all over again every time I look at this face!

Falling in Love

Brewer Clinton Davis was born on March 1, 2011, at 12:39pm. He weighed 8 lbs., 3 oz., and was 20 1/4 inches tall.

My life changed in this moment, forever.



Their lives changed too...



So did this guy's...



Can't wait to share all the details with everyone, but for now, just know that we're in love!