Jan Feb

2010 is off to a fantastic start! Our sweet boy is growing so fast and ready to take off walking any day now. January brought us a lot of new and exciting things. At the beginning of the year I stopped giving Brock his reflux medicine and he's been fantastic! They say most babies will grow out of reflux between 6-9 months and since Brock was showing signs of it clearing up, I decided what the heck. I'm very happy that Brock fell right into that category, is off the Prilosec, doing awesome, and rarely spits up at all. YAY!!! Also, at the beginning of the year I started supplementing formula during the daytime on the three days that I go to work. It got to a point where I wasn't able to keep up my milk supply to his demand, so I didn't have much choice. I was sad at first, but since I'd made it past my 6-month goal, I was ok with starting to wean him, and more than ready to give up mid-day pumping. Over the next six weeks I weaned him completely and now Brock is strictly on formula for his bottle feedings. He has transitioned very well and doesn't seem to notice much of a difference at all. He's eating three solid meals a day and taking four bottles. He's still a big eater and eats pretty much everything I give him. He's not really into meat ,but I don't worry about it too much right now since I think it's more of a texture issue than anything. I'm still making his baby food and now starting to introduce pieces of food for him to pick up and eat himself. Lets just say, Louis and Sam have a new best seat in the house, right under Brock's high chair! Hehe!

In January we found out that Brock won two "cutest baby" contests. No particularly interesting prizes to report, but we were pretty excited. One of the contests Brock was the overall winner of almost 700 contestants. :-) Side note, Joe is the one who entered Brock into all of the contests. I know that's shocking, but it's true.

Brock and Mommy took a trip to Houston to see two of my dear friends who both had babies the last couple of weeks of December. We stayed with Melanie and Georgia and had a blast! Getting to meet Jack Freeman and Caroline Ryser was so much fun. I am excited for them to get bigger so they can all play together.

Brock's crawling has really taken off. His army man belly crawl turned into a real crawl around 7 1/2-8 months. After that, it was just a matter of a few weeks before he started pulling himself up. Now Brock is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything. I'll turn my back to put the silverware away, and by the time I turn back around, he's halfway in the dishwasher! I'm trying out the "No" word but he doesn't seem to understand. He usually just smiles and laughs at me. I think he gets that from Joe..... Just this past week Brock has started to walk around anything he can pull himself up on. Sometimes he gets excited (or maybe he's just being brave), accidently lets go with both hands and of course falls down. He's a pretty tough cookie and usually only cries if he is starting to get sleepy. He did get a small knot on his little forehead last week from a crash with the coffee table. It broke my heart, but I know it's just the first of many, so I better get used to it. At 8 months I took Brock to the Dr and he was 22 lbs and 29 1/4 inches long. I quickly had to go out and buy toddler car seats, since his infant carrier only went up to 30 inches. He seems to be more comfortable in his big boy seat and has a lot more room. It makes mommy sad to see her baby get so big so fast.

In less than a week Brock will be 9 months old. I truly cannot believe it! It seems like just yesterday he was born and Joe and I were settling into our new life as a family of three. Brock continues to bring us more joy every day and I can't imagine my life without him.

Ready to get up Mom

Brock giving himself his bottle

We have a crawler

and a stander....

still LOVES bath time

Cupid

fun day at the park

Holidays

I'm so sorry for not posting an update last month. Things always get crazy around the holidays as you all know, and having a 7 month old takes the craziness to a whole new level. I wouldn't have it any other way though! Having Brock around for the Holidays has made this season the best one yet.

November, 6 Months old:

We spent Thanksgiving here in Austin over at my Mom's house. The Bungo's joined us over there and it was really a fun day for everyone. Brock was the center of attention, of course, and he did very well. Brock is such a good baby, and Joe and I really have nothing to complain about. He adjusts very well to different environments and has a pretty good schedule. Brock's MiMaw (Chris) is still taking care of Brock on Mondays while Nana (Donna) has baby duty on Tuesday. Thursdays vary a bit; when Joe isn't traveling he stays home with the baby and when he is, we have a babysitter who comes to our house and watches him for the day. Kasey is really good with Brock and he seems to really like her too.

I have listed below some of the milestones Brock reached in his 6th month:

-Brock started eating veggies along with his cereal once a day at 6 months. He likes them all but sweet peas. I am making his baby food and that is going really well. It's actually quite a bit of fun and I get really excited each time I make something new :-)

-Brock got two of his bottom teeth in! The first when he was about a week shy of 6 months and the other two weeks later. Brock's smile has always melted my heart but seeing those two tiny teeth in there make it even more precious!

-Brock rolls ALL OVER the place! You can lay him on the floor and in no time at all he has barrel rolled across the floor.

-Brock LOVES his toys and boy does he have a lot of them!! It's fun playing with him because he can interact so much more these days.

-Brock can sit completely unsupported. He was getting pretty good around the end of 5 months, but by early December he was a pro.

-At Brock's 6 month well-visit he was 27.5 in long and weighed exactly 20lbs. He's in the 80 percentile for both.

-The Dr was VERY impressed by how strong Brock was and she said he's developing "perfectly".

-Brock found his voice and loves to test it out and hear himself talk loudly. It isn't uncommon for him to let out an all out yell for 5 minutes or so. If he's not in immediate sight, it might sound like he's unhappy or about to cry, but I assure you, they're happy screams!

-Brock started waking up in the night to eat at 6 months. I read that this is normal as they go through a pretty big growth spurt at 6 months. I'm happy to report that he's back on his 10-12 hour sleep schedule and goes to bed between 7-8 PM every night :-)

zucchini first veggie

trying out the sippy cup

loves to read

looks like Daddy here

still LOVES bath time

Nickname- One Sock Brock

sitting like a big boy

December, 7 Months old:

December has been FULL of all kinds of excitement!!! Joe and I went to the Riverwalk in San Antonio for a weekend trip and my company's holiday party. We had a great time getting away for the night but were excited to get home to our baby boy! Melanie and Georgia visited for a long weekend in mid-December. It was fun having them here and Georgia loved "Baby Brock"! She even named a doll after him once she got home, and I hear she takes very good care of him. Celebrating Christmas with a brand new baby has got to be the best thing in the world. It has been 10 years plus on both sides of our family since there was a baby around for the Holidays. Brock, being the first Grandchild on both sides, was well taken care of as you can imagine. One of the neatest parts of our Christmas was that we GOT SNOW, and LOTS of it!!!! We spent Christmas Eve in Forestburg, Texas (north, close to the Red River) and it snowed for 10 straight hours and dumped a total of 8 inches on the ground. I've NEVER seen snow like this before and never had a white Christmas. Sharing my first white Christmas with my sweet angel Brock was very special and one that I'll certainly never forget!

December was another month full of milestones for B:

-Brock is crawling! Well, "army man crawling" is what we call it. He can crawl with his legs and crawl with his arms just not at the same time. However, if there's something that he wants he'll get it! (Not sure who he got that from.....) His favorite item to go after is a cell phone, and a close second is the TV remote. Haha!

-Brock saw snow for the first time.

-Brock is on a pretty consistent 2-naps-a-day schedule. One in the morning around 10 and the other in the afternoon around 2. He naps naps on average about an hour each.

-Brock eats 2 solid meals a day. Fruit and cereal in the AM and veggies and cereal in the PM. His favorites seem to be pears and butternut squash. Brock isn't a big fan of bananas.

-Brock started a "sippy" cup. He just drinks water at the moment, but he's getting pretty good at it. It took a few weeks for him to figure out what to do with the cup but he has it down pretty good now. I think he enjoys chewing on the spout the most but seems to like the water some too :-)

determined to get the present

GOT IT!!!!

Christmas Day

Daddy and Brock in their "fort"

unfortunately, Brock has NO toys.....

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and wish you all the happiest New Year. I will post again soon, I promise.

Until next time, we are sending all of our love,

Joe, Emily and Brock

Hook 'em

Fall is in the air

Pumpkin Patch in Wimberly

Brock turned 5 months this past month and celebrated his first Holiday, Halloween. He is topping the scales at 18lbs. 9oz as of two weeks ago, and has even starting to sit on his own. He cant quite do it all by himself, but if he leans forward he can hold himself upright for a minute or so. Brock is rolling around all over the place, can walk in his new walker, and LOVES to talk. He has even started growling like a lion, it is quite funny to listen to him carry on with himself. I am amazed at how quickly he is developing and how he seems to do something new every day. He is starting to develop quite a little personality and is very interested in your every move. He is quite the flirt with his big blue eyes, long eye lashes and sweet smile. He certainly isn't shy when it comes to the ladies. :-) Brock was a lion for Halloween. I am fully aware that he is going to hate me when he is older and sees his first Halloween costume, but I don't care, it was so fun dressing him up. Secretly and I know he liked it too :-) Starting about 3 weeks ago, Brock had his first meal. He is eating whole grain rice cereal once a day and loves it! He is transitioning to solids quite well and eats from a spoon like a champ. He literally opened his mouth like a baby bird on the second bite. You would have thought he had been eating off a spoon for months! I am in the process of getting a few books, and the equipment necessary, to start making Brock's baby food. I have decided I am going to make most of his baby food and will hopefully start giving him some of the Stage 1 foods here in the next week or so.

I will leave you with a few pictures of what we have been up to the past month. I hope all is well with everyone and I am SO excited to keeping everyone up to date with new posts over the next couple months. Celebrating the Holidays with a new baby is very exciting for all of us!

MS 5K

Slept the whole time

Wants to crawl but doesn't quite get what he is supposed to do with his legs

Brock and Aunt Katy

Bungo Men, 3 Generations

Having fun at The Pumpkin Patch

Brock and Mommy

Getting ready to go Trick or Treating

Have you ever seen a cuter lion?