Why, oh why, do I find this crying baby so irresistable? Am I a monster, or what? 😉

I’m sitting here watching Anderson… the episode about controversial parenting methods.  Of course, the first issue discussed is the recent cover of TIME magazine (you know the one I’m talking about).  Yes, the cover definitely even made me take a second look.  And yes, my immediate reaction was, “God, I hope she is that child’s mother, not some model.”  I understand that the photograph’s main purpose was controversy (with a caption that reads: “MOTHER ENOUGH?”) and to start a conversation about the ways in which we raise our children. The article that followed the “racy” photo shoot, however, was a non-issue; an informative piece about the who, what, why and hows of Attachment Parenting.

I would consider myself an AP mom, although I made these parenting choices (extended, on-cue nursing, baby-wearing, co-sleeping, etc) long before I knew that these collectively formed a particular parenting style.

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why our society feels that we have the right to be so judgmental, so opinionated about other parents techniques, strategies and philosophies.  Look around, people- what we have been doing in the past isn’t necessarily working out for us.  Lets stop judging and instead maybe we can offer some support and tolerance. Lets give parents the benefit of the doubt and assume they are trying their hardest to raise their babies the best way they know how.

🙂 Just my thoughts for the day.

I’ve gotten a little behind with pictures, but a couple weeks ago we visited Ian’s parents in Carolina, and we had too much fun not to share a few pictures.  They live on a beautiful ranch with lots of green grass, open space, and ATV’s. It is truly a little boy’s paradise.

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Hi Love Bucket,

You are 7 months old now!  You are the most handsome little boy and you melt hearts everywhere you go.  I have to keep a close eye on you, because, on two different occasions, I have bent down to pick something up, while holding you, and when I stood back up, I realized a little toddler girl had been kissing all over you behind my back!  Both times, the little girls were complete strangers!  You are going to have to turn down the charm, son.

You have the best smile.  Truly. It’s amazing. Your whole face smiles- eyes sparkling, nose scrunched, mouth open wide- sometimes smiling so hard that we can’t tell if you are laughing or crying.

You are now able to crawl backwards (you haven’t quite mastered forward), and you can sit up all by yourself!!  Daddy saw you sit yourself up last night for the first time and it caught him completely off guard.  He sputtered, “Um, you just sat up like an ADULT!  Do you, um, wanna go get a beer or something?!”  Haha. Its pretty cool to watch you flip yourself up from belly flop position. You aren’t that coordinated at any of these new skills yet though, so you kinda remind me of a helpless, flailing turtle.

You have decided that you want to only eat “real” food- actual BITES, no more mashed and pureed baby food.  Your favorites now are humus, prunes, your teacher’s squash soup that she makes just for you, and Baby Mum Mums (Aka- GIANT rice krispies).  I also let you taste a french fry yesterday (I know, I’m a mommy failure) and you went NUTS.

You continue to grow every day.  We are now buying size 3T clothes for you! When I was folding laundry this afternoon, I chuckled as I laid your shirt next to your 5 year old foster brother’s- I couldn’t tell one bit of difference in size.

The red one is yours!

Your hair no longer feels like velvet, and is actually starting to fill in a bit. And, it is becoming more and more obvious that you are a RED HEAD. 🙂 Oh, and you are getting cute little baby hair on your arms and legs!

Your two bottom teeth are getting bigger every day.  It is exciting, strange, and a little sad to see teeth in your mouth when you smile at me.  It is so much fun watching you grow and change, but I still hate how FAST this is all going.  I only have a few days left before you are crawling all over.  I’m trying to savor every last second.

The other big accomplishment this week is swimming! You can float on your back ALL BY YOURSELF, you can float in your tube and kick your feet to “swim” clear across the pool , and when I “superman fly” you under the water, you come up LAUGHING and SQUEALING.  You are part fish, I’m convinced.

If you can’t tell, I LOVE being your Mommy and this is THE BEST summer vacation I’ve ever  had.

Happy 7 months, Grae!

I love you… more and more each day.

Every year I look forward to summer break.  This summer, though, takes the cake.  Spending the entire day with my sweet baby boy?  Yes, please!  It is my first summer vacation from the mom side of things, however, so we are still perfecting our routine. I will say, we haven’t had ANY problems finding stuff to do thus far.  We’ve been taking long walks every morning, swimming most afternoons, cooking dinner every night, and fitting in lots of tummy time (he’s only a few days away from CRAWLING!) and more play dates than I ever imagined a 6 month old could have in between.  Turns out Grae is a pretty popular fella. 😉

We are finally starting to feel a little better around here, and after surviving 9 weeks of a hellacious virus that turned into walking pneumonia, and Grae cutting his first two teeth at the same time, I feel like the next couple months can only get better.

🙂

Grae is teething again… his second tooth is cutting through as we speak.  He’s trying his hardest to be a solider.  However, his hardest means that we cannot even think about putting him down.  As long as we are toting all 21 pounds of him around, he is ok.  🙂 Soon he will have his two bottom pearly whites.  The first one seems to have grown an inch each time he wakes from a nap.  Sorry for the blurry pic- its the best I can do with an unwilling model.

Grae waved “HELLO” to his Daddy today!  I don’t know how these little gestures can be such momentous achievements, but I can’t even begin to contain my pride.  It is the most amazing thing in the world to watch this tiny baby communicate with us… ok, so maybe he’s just mimicking our actions… either way, HE WAVED, dammit.

😉 Completely.Awesome.