Pictures are worth a thousand words......

......or so they say. Here is what happened in October, as told by pictures.

Here is the obligatory Halloween picture. I made my costume sans pattern so it took forever! It was made with nursing in mind. The top portion lifted up for access to a tank top that I turned into a nursing tank. The skirt portion was sewn to the tank top. It sounds a lot easier than it was. Phew. It was fun, but I'm glad it's over.

Here we have Daddy and Emery. Notice Emery's foot in the second picture, it's in his candy bucket. Shortly after, he dropped the bucket breaking the bottom. His shoes kept falling off as well so we finally just put a pair of socks on him. :) He had a good time. A couple people thought he was a girl though, they called him "Pocohontas". I don't think he looks like a girl at all...does he?!

How was your Halloween?

Perfect Pumpkins

In the picture below, you see Owen and Emery, my "perfect pumpkins"!

They posed for me at The Pumpkin Patch. This was our most recent outing. We had originally planned on dressing Emery in his costume but decided against it at the last minute. While there we made our way through half of the Corn Maize, enjoyed a hayride, devoured some S'mores (not Emery!) and danced to some Irish music. It was a lot of fun. :)

Here we have Daddy and Emery at church waiting to go on stage for the baby dedication. Unfortunately this is the only picture we have of the dedication.

It was a sweet moment. I carried Emery onstage so Owen could have his hands free to hold the microphone. There were maybe five families that were dedicating children, on our turn to tell the congregation why we were choosing to dedicate Emery Owen got a bit emotional and we had to do a mid stage switch so I could do the talking instead.
It was a nice public gesture that was a promise to Emery that we would raise him in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.

The same day we took Emery to the nursery for the first time.

He loved it of course. I don't think he even noticed that we were gone. Owen told his mom that it seemed like we were on a date. I was a bit distracted thinking about Emery the whole time. Baby steps right? It's good for all of us to have a break, and it's great to prepare Emery for someone else to care for him if (ahem...when) I go to school.

Once we got home, we decided to have a mini photo shoot once we got home. The leaves were all over the place and Emery looked so adorable in his little suit jacket. Check these out!

Putting a leaf in his mouth.

He wouldn't let go of the leaves.

It's been a busy month around these parts and there are a ton more pictures to show you, but unfortunately Emery is 'army crawling' now and I don't have the patience to sit here and upload them all one by one. I leave you all with this little gem. He's not hands-and knees crawling, but that doesn't matter because it seems he's got other plans. Yes folks, he's pulling up!

Six months just flew by....

Can you believe it? Emery is Six months old! His fifth tooth broke through two days after the last one. FIVE teeth! Wow. Three on bottom, and the two front teeth.
We went to his six month well baby check up this morning. Just as I suspected, he's very tall (surprise, surprise). The nurse had to measure him twice to make sure she got it right, the first time she said he was off the charts. He's 28 inches long and weighs 20 pounds 8 ounces. He still has 2 pounds and 2 inches to go before he's too big for his car seat. Dr. Toledo seems to think that his weight gain will level off now and he'll continue to keep getting taller. She also mentioned that he may be a walker before he crawls since he enjoys pulling and standing so much.

I guess that being an 'Attachment Parent' isn't very common at The East County Health clinic. I walked in wearing Emery in a sling on my hip and everyone just stared at me. I guess they were trying to figure out how the thing worked, I don't know. Then when they asked if I brought his shot records their eyes conveyed disbelief when I said we weren't doing shots. Finally, after the nurse had finished the weigh in she told me I could put his diaper back on. I proceeded to put one of my homemade wool diaper covers on Emery and she said, "No, no don't get him dressed!" I responded with, "This is just a diaper a cover."
Are we just completely alone in the way that we're parenting Emery? I don't get it. All of these things make perfect sense to me, it's like second nature, so the fact that I come into contact with people who have no clue as to why or how we do the things we do, it baffles me.

Now that Emery has reached the 'magical' six month marker, I feel like I just need to give him as much food as possible. He enjoys eating very much. Dr. Toledo suggested that since he has a mouthful of teeth that he could 'do more' than other little ones his age. I agree. He shocks me sometimes. Yesterday he grabbed lettuce from Owen's plate, I gave him a slice of cucumber and he sucked a hole in the middle of it so at dinner, we gave him a few asparagus spears which he loved!

I don't like giving him food when Owen isn't home because I'm terrified that when he does that gagging thing that he's really choking. Owen is really calm about it and is so good at scooping whatever it is out of Emery's mouth (I'm afraid I'll shove it in further). I guess I just need to get over it.

I would just stick with the jarred baby food that we have but there doesn't seem to be enough texture for him. I hesitate to thicken it with rice cereal because I read somewhere that the iron fortified cereal hinders the absorption of the naturally occurring iron in breast milk. Can anyone confirm this for me?

We got Emery's Halloween costume yesterday. His Grandmommy Young made it for him, and it is sooooo stinkin' adorable. I would post some pictures but we haven't had a chance to put it on him yet, and I can't find the USB cord for the camera. I still need to make my costume, but Owen's cowboy costume is good to go. I'm excited!

YAWN!!!!

I'm soooo sleepy today. I don't really know what it is either. Maybe my sleep is too segmented?
Emery has been sleeping in his own bed (the co-sleeper attached to the foot of our bed) the past week or two so I've been getting good chunks of sleep. He goes to bed around 12 (refuses to even think about bed before 12) and does really well. He wakes up around 5am to nurse. I just bring him to bed with us and we go right back to sleep. The past couple of days after he's come to bed with us, I've gotten up at least two more times to take him to go pee. (See the previous post regarding EC). This entails me removing his diaper, stumbling through the dark to the bathroom, (again in the dark as not to wake the sleeping babe more than necessary) and holding him over the sink while cuing him (it's rinsed out immediately after use!). I've tried using his potty, and an empty Sitz bath for his calls of nature, but he refuses anywhere but the sink. We do put him in diapers at night, but the poor bug wiggles and squirms and grunts until you take him to pee. Who can blame him right? ;) As a matter of fact, he thinks it's hilarious to see himself pee in the mirror, and starts to laugh before we even enter the bathroom.

From day 1 both Owen and I have signed (I brush my hand down from my shoulder) to Emery when I nurse, and just recently I've added in the ASL sign for milk. Just a couple of days ago I've noticed that when he's tired he starts to 'wave'. Since Mr. E usually nurses to sleep we were curious as to whether or not this was his sign for nursing or milk. I offered last night when he started waving and he got soooo upset. I guess not!

We're in the process of trying to decide on what Emery will be for Halloween. Owen will be a cowboy, me an Indian princess, and Emery either a baby Indian, or a horse. I'll be making his costume. Does anyone have any ideas on how to go about making either one of those costumes?