Babywearing snuggles

I love babywearing. I love snuggles. I especially love babywearing snuggles on my birthday! I know I have said it before but babywearing has made life much easier while out and about. I get to keep baby close and still have my hands to do what I need to. Plus I get pretty accessories like this beauty you see here-Gira Night Rainbow 2 shorty with fringe. The cary I am using is called the Kangaroo cary and has become my go to for a fast wrap.

5 month pictures!

I'm such a blog slacker here lately that almost two weeks have gone by and my little boy is now 5.5 months old. I cannot believe that he is almost half a year old. He has grown so much and is really on the move now. He loves being in his jumperoo and last night he started crawling! Not pushed up on his hands/knees but up on his elbows/knees. He was really on the go last night so we really have to watch him now since he can move to get into thing he shouldn't be now.

As you can see from this picture Demitri got his little hands on the chalk board and smudged a good bit of what had been written on it. After the 3rd time of fixing it I gave up.

New tattoo

I got a new memorial tattoo this week. It turned out amazing. The idea came to me after my brother died last year, and my second miscarriage. I planned to get an iris, narcissist, and poppy flower bunched together. The narcissist  (Decembers flower) stood for my brothers birthday and when we lost the baby. The iris (Februarys flower) for when he passed away, and the poppy for when the baby had been due. I had an appointment set up to get it done when a few days before I found out I was pregnant and was no longer able to.
It ended up being some crazy sort of fate that Demitri's due date and birthday was February 10th, exactly one year after my brother died. So my tattoo idea changed. I decide to get two iris' to represent my brother and Demitri, and two butterflies to represent the two babies that were miscarried. I looked for pictures of iris' and found a picture of a painting (or what looks like it would be a painting) and loved it. It was what I wanted right there in front of me!

My artist did an amazing job my tattoo is really a piece of art on my arm, and has such deep meaning to me.

Teething

His right side "K9" tooth. 

Oh teething, what a pain. Both of his "K9" teeth are coming in. The one on the left has been working its way in for the last couple months now and I recently discovered the one of the right as well. I'm really hoping that at least one of them breaks through soon, so hopefully he will have some relief before the next ones decide to start coming in. He's sure going to look cute when both of these break through.

For pain relief we have been using:
-Baltic Amber
-Hyland's Teething Pills
-Frozen toys
-Massage
-Gripe Water

The amber works well so long as I either A) do not take it off or B) put it on right after he wakes up in the morning. I can definitely tell the difference of when he has it on or doesn't (or has it on too late). Honestly while I love amber for myself and it really helped with my aches, it is not working as well as I was hoping it would with him. I'm not sure why but I just figure it's because teething is a BIG pain. That said I would still recommend trying amber as a natural pain reliever because it could would fantastically for your baby.

Out of the frozen toys that we have, frozen Sophie (the giraffe) is his absolute favorite. He already loved trying to chew Sophie's face off and once I tossed her in the freezer and gave it to him he went nuts. I've suggested this to a few other moms as well and they found it was a great idea for their baby as well. He have the gel filled circular/textured chewers too, but those are second rate to frozen Sophie!

Here he is gnawing on his frozen Sophie, wearing his amber necklace, and wearing fluff.

Hyland's Teething Pills are also not as effective as pain relief for him as they are for other kids. They are great though, so I would still recommend them to other parents who have a fussy teething baby! they're small, fast melting, and fast acting. Once they melt under his tongue they seem to work right then but that relief only last about 30 minutes, and you cannot give the pills too often. Again these are natural based pain relieving pills so these would be my first choice over over-the-counter Advil or the like.

Yes, I did say massage used as pain relief, and yup you guessed it daddy and I are just massaging his gums. Talk about a happy baby! He smiles and babbles the whole time we do it...then tries to chew on our knuckles. Slobbery fingers are worth it to have him feel better!

Gripe water has been a hero at night in our house. Teething has made him so wrestles, he is not wanting to nap during the day, and then he is exhausted but has such a difficult time falling asleep. One night, after he tossed and turned, and I rocked and snuggled him, tried nursing him and just about anything else I could think of...I gave him a dose of gripe water and he was out a few minutes later. Gripe water has never helped him till he started teething, now it works like a charm!

Happy 4th!

Hope you all had a lovely day celebrating America's birthday, it was cloudy and cool over here but we still had a great day celebrating! I just got little man to fall asleep so I decided to upload a couple pictures before going to bed myself. He did great this evening with the fireworks, actually slept through half the show, and just watched wide eyed for the rest.

Daddy called this his "don't mess with the USA" face.

Sitting up all by himself!

Texas

At the beginning of June we took our first big family trip to Texas so Daniel's side of the family could meet Demitri. They were all so anxious for us to get there, time could not go by fast enough.
Our flight left at 6:30 am so we left the house around 4. We got to the airport and started checking in, only to discover that umm I forgot my whole wallet with my ID and everything in it. Awesome. The girl behind the counter printed our tickets for us and we had to go over to security right away to talk to them.
I felt so horrible. TSA let me through and on the plane with pretty much no fuss but I felt like such a dummy. I remembered everything else we needed but forgot my stupid wallet. Needless to say Daniel now carries one of my IDs with him, just in case.

So, Demitri had his first plane trip and he did fantastic! The only time he fussed with when he was hungry and needed a diaper change. Which seemed to be often, I kid you not the kid pooped more while on the plane that he has at one time ever. Each take off-he pooped, halfway through the flight- he pooped, on landing-he pooped, at our layover-he pooped. You get the idea.

When we finally landed in Texas, Daniel's mom, sister and two youngest nieces were waiting for us. Cheryl (Daniel's mom) was already crying before we even walked. They had their phones out and were taking a ton of pictures right away sending them to the rest of the family that was not able to be there. Who in turn were all going nuts waiting for us to get back.

Here we are in the car, wearing our sunglasses to block out some of the crazy (humid) sun.

Once we got back to the town he was just the center of attention! As you can clearly see cameras were everywhere and there was always somebody wanting to hold him. Which he was fine with so long as he could see either daddy or myself. But over all he took to them right away and definitely loved the attention that he was getting. 

The whole week we just spent time with family hanging out. We went to and saw Madagascar 3 with all the girls one day (oh my gosh it's hilarious!), out to eat a couples times, shopping. Daddy also took Demitri on the 4wheeler around the property a couple times!

Our little gangster (yes, he is flipping off the camera, which I did not notice till after posting this on Facebook)

Another picture proving how much he was the center of attention! Little stinker just ate it all up to. I can't say I blame them though I see him all the time and have a hard time taking my eyes off him he's just so stinkin' cute!

We had a great time visiting with everybody, and we're hoping that when we start having more money coming in that we will be able to make it out to visit twice a year or at the least once, either in summer or over spring break.

20 things we want to be sure we tell our son

I saw this list of 20 thing a mother should tell her son and decided to make my own. My points are not as funny, but they are things I want to be sure my son knowns.

1. Even when you are all grown up you will always be my baby boy, but I will remember to (try and) treat you as an adult and show you respect as an adult. 

2. Always trust in God, pray, and be the spiritual leader of your house 

3. Always treat women with respect, that girl is somebodies princess and her daddy may known how to use a gun. 

 4. Don't go around looking for trouble or starting fights but always defend those who are unable to defend themselves and yourself when needed. 

5. Don't be in a hurry to grow up, it doesn't stop, but childhood and being carefree ends far to quickly.

6. When you are grown keep the kid in you alive, it will keep you young. 

7. Academics and trophies on the wall will never be as important as your character. 

8. Manners still matter. "Please" and "thank you", "Yes Sir/Mam" make an impression on people. 

9. You are and always will be loved by so many people! 

10. Never be scared to come and talk to us about anything, we will listen even if what you have to say upsets us. 

11. Never be scared to stand up for what you know is right even if everybody else is trying to tell you to do something else, people will respect you more for your convictions. 

12. Drugs are bad, mkay. Just say no, there are better things to do with your time. 

13. Respect your elders, even if you feel they are stupid. 

 14. On the same line respect our countries service members, they put their lives on the line to allow us civilians to say and do stupid things. 

15. Men and women are equal in different ways. There are things you will be able to do that a girl will not be able to and there are things girls can do that you will not be able to. Those differences are what make for a great relationship. 

16. Invest your money wisely and save your pennies because one day they will add up to dollars.

17.You determine your true happiness. 

18. Always finish what you start and do your best at it, even if you decide you don't like it. 

19. Care about your personal appearance, and take care of your body but remember it's not the most important thing. 

20. Be you! To quote Dr Seuss "Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You" Be the best you that you can be and don't be ashamed of who you are. 

 Always remember daddy and I will always love you, till the end of time!