cereal, sitting & a little more

So I know it's not time for Gunner's monthly blog update - but two very major milestones have been reached for our little bambino!

 

Rice cereal - as in, real food that comes in a bowl and fed with a spoon?!

 

And we are now working with gunner to learn to sit! exhibit a: his new CHAIR!

 

Now... if this isn't enough growing in a matter of weeks - I don't know what is. I've always heard that six months is the funnest time because that's when they really start learning and excelling. and WOWzers was that true! Everyday he is learning something new and this is the most precious of times because every moment he's closer to hitting a huge milestone.

 

I can't even imagine what all will be in his six month blog (which, mind you, will be in less than THREE weeks!) Ahh, this is craziness.

 

Oh & that reminds me... for all you who do follow me & my blogs - please stay tuned because there will be a little something extra featured on Gunner's next blog!

today I have a five month old!

Even typing this is crazy for me to believe.

Five months? really?

 

just yesterday you were a little 6 lb newborn and today you are an actual BOY. Full of energy and personality, expressions & character. This is nuts!

I know I say this every month, but THIS is the best month yet. By far, you grew more in this month then any month before. I'm noticing that every month becomes a bigger month than the last, because you are just learning new things every single day. By the end of the month I could write three blogs on all your progress & updates!

But I'll do my best to keep this month's updates to the biggest & best ones =)

 

Well little man, you are officially a BIG boy.

teething baby at its finest! this actually is perfect for this month's picture because this sums up your entire months main update (in a nutshell)

 

- you are in level 2 diapers now (for 14 lbs+ mind you!)

 

-teething is in full effect! You have been teething since you were 2 months old, but now all those little white spots in your gums - are actually starting to break through!

 

-your first tooth has officially broken through!! It's right in the front, on your bottom gums. almost dead smack in the middle. it's the cutest thing because that's all you see when you smile. & ouch! now we know now to let you chew on our fingers right there!

 

- you finally are playing with your toys! oh man, you don't even know how happy this makes me. I have been trying to get you excited about toys since you were a baby! and finally you have found the fun in them! It's so sweet! You grab all your toys and hold them and shake them and rattle them all day long. With that, our house is a bit messy now because there are piles of toys of yours all over the place because you have to have something in your hands at all times so there's a pile for every room. happy baby happy parents right? I'm just excited that you love your toys now & it gives me something fun to buy you when i'm out because you enjoy them now :)

 

- You know how to use your teethers now! you can hold them in your mouth by yourself and just chew chew chew away.

 

- YOU CAN HOLD YOUR OWN BOTTLE! Yes, yes - it's true. You refuse to let us help you hold it anymore so feedings take a little while longer.. but you hold it all by yourself! Amazing. you are such a smart little boy.

 

- we have to be very cautious now because you have discovered your hands and mouth. Every single thing you can grab you pick up and instantly put it in your mouth. I left the room for two minutes and you had scooted over and started chewing on some magazines on the floor! insane! didn't take long to start baby proofing the house.

 

- with that - you are just about mobile. not crawling yet, but crazy close to it. you can roll & roll and scoot around so fast you never ever stay on your playmat anymore. I'm sure by your next blog you'll make progress in this department.

 

- your sleeping is about the same. you go to sleep around 10 and are up for the day around 9, with an average of 3 feedings through the night. but you are dont even open your eyes to eat so it's not long before your asleep again.

 

- you have somehow learned to argue with people. it's adorable, don't get me wrong. but scares me for the future. lol. between your expressions, your faces & the different tones of voices you have - it's not hard to read how you are feeling. & arguing is something you definitely caught on quick to! lol (i'd say that's from dad)

 

- I went shopping this month and bought you an entire new summer wardrobe! it's was crazy buying 6 month sized clothes, but i know it's fast approaching so it gave me an excuse to take you on a little shopping spree to get you ready to break out in style!

 

- you are incredibly active now! nonstop all day long you are playing with something or talking to everyone and everything in sight.

 

- you discovered your toes! and your favorite thing to do is stick those cute little toesies right into your mouth! it's so funny because you do it and work so hard to make sure they don't fall out of your mouth. it is the cutest thing ever to watch how big your eyes get everytime you discover something new and pick it up.

Well Gunner bear, like I said, I could go on forever. This month was a big month for you. I can't even believe that the next blog I write will be your SIX MONTH BLOG. 1/2 a year old already. Ahh, lets just focus on month 5 for now, that's about all my heart can handle. I want to say slow down on growing so fast, but we really are enjoying everything you are learning. Everyday is a whole new adventure with you and everyday is the very best day, because of you. Love you little man <3 

Gunner's 1st Easter

I cannot even believe it is EASTER already! This year is flying by before my eyes! Well I was really looking forward to Easter because it's always been one of the funnest holidays for me. I always LOVED the magic of the Easter Bunny, coloring eggs & I've always been a HUGE fan of Easter Egg Hunts. Up until last year, my mom still made me hunt for eggs she would hide for me and my brother, lol. It's just a really fun and special holiday.

 

I spent weeks buying things for Gunner's Easter basket & preparing everything for his first introduction to the Easter Bunny & Easter. Yes, I'm aware that he's too little to really understand, but it's great practice for me - & I really have so much fun with holidays, I cannot even help myself with over-doing-it for him. But, I am DEFINITELY excited for next year when he can waddle around on his first Easter egg hunt & get excited when he sees that Easter basket full of goodies.

 

Sunday Gunner and I woke up really sick. I had a really bad cold and felt feverish & gunner is teething really bad so he had a very LONG night and was very grumpy. I did the best I could to make the morning fun, but it defintely was a tough one. We went to my moms for lunch and Gunner got TWO really great Easter Baskets from both my parents. My mom got him the cutest swim suit with matching hat & flip flops so I'm definitely looking foward to seeing him in that when Summer comes. After that we went to Rick's mom's house for a really big Easter Dinner. They make prime rib every year and WOW, it's definitely something we look forward to every year.

 

I didn't get a lot of pictures because I got increasingly sicker as the day went on. But that night when we got home I got some medicine and a hot shower - and then we were able to do our own Easter with Gunner at the house. I took some Easter pictures with him, we gave him his basket, read him his letter from the Easter Bunny, and then let him do his own version of an Easter egg hunt (basically letting him play with 100 plastic eggs). He LOVED the eggs the most. He was rolling around in them & grabbing them and hitting them - he played for over an hour with all these eggs and eventually fell asleep in his little bunny costume, surrounded by all his eggs. I'd say, for a (almost) 5-month-old - he definitely enjoyed his Easter!

My attempt at a little Easter photo shoot. He wouldn't keep the eggs out of his mouth long enough though and just wanted to play! So... eventually we just let him play with them :)

 



It's a NEW year!

I'm a little late on this blog {big surprise} but a couple weeks ago was Norooz, aka Persian New Years. My dad's side of the family is 100% Iranian, so naturally this is a very BIG day for our family. We always spend the day celebrating together with a big dinner at someone's house, the whole house decorated with all the appropriate settings to bless everyone & the new year to come. It's pretty special to be apart of something unique and I always get excited to have a "New Years" in March. It's like a second-chance to start fresh if I haven't held up to my New Years resolutions since Decemeber.

Random fact: In Iran, this new year puts them at year 1392! Pretty nuts!

 

On the day of Norooz (March 20) we went to my grandma's house for dinner with the family. She decorated her house and really wanted everyone to come see her table setting (In Persian culture you decorate the whole table with each of the main blessings for the year to come, you decorate it early on in the month and leave it out until Norooz arrives). The whole family went over to house for Pizza & Cake for a true "Persian Cuisine" LOL! No, really we had the big celebration scheduled for the weekend so we just had a quick dinner while we could get together at her house.

 

Sunday we went to my cousin & his wife's house and had a FEAST of food. All my favorite foods and dishes and the whole family! Couldn't ask for more!

 

I cannot wait until Gunner is older to explain all these things to him. Rick always asks my dad and uncles and grandma about the culture and everything - he's really curious about everything since it's all so different from American culture. So I'm really excited for one day Gunner can ask those same qeustions and learn about it too. It's really nice that he'll have different cultures to learn about from Rick & My families :)

 

Here are some pictures from both celebrations & Gunner's FIRST Norooz



Gunner got some money in his little pocket! lol!

His new thing is passing out at the most random times!

Here are the pictures from Sunday's celebrations. There aren't a lot because Gunner passed out early into the party and slept the rest the time. Pictures are definitely worth a thousand words.. (lol)

 

Passed out while being bounced! (It got really hot and he gets fussy if he gets hot so.. off with the shirt!)



This about sums up Gunner's celebrations.. tuckered out!

Ethan sure does love his little cousin<3

 

proud mama moment!

For weeks now, Gunner has been trying to hold his OWN bottle. He's alawys been very independent and likes to do things on his own - but this was on another level. The last few weeks, his feedings have taken a bit longer to get through because we have to do the whole song&dance of trying to feed him, him hitting and slapping our hands away so he can do it himself, then the bottle falling, then us trying to feed him again or hold it for him (even with as little as our pinky touching it) and him hitting our hands again - and so on & so forth. It's been a bit frustrating to feed him, but SO CUTE because you can't blame him for being frustrated, and it's so sweet seeing him work so hard at something. Well, last night - all his trying and trying paid off - and he hit my hand away as soon as I gave him the bottle and a few minutes later - BOOM! He was holding his very own bottle & FEEDING HIMSELF!! It would fall out here and there but I'd just pick it up, put it in his mouth and position his hands - and he would take care of the rest. It was such a huge deal for me! I called Rick in to watch and we were so happy to see our little baby boy teach himself something on his own!

 

By the pictures, you can see that he was pretty stoked about this too ;)

 

St. Patricks Day! {Weekend}

Another "Baby's First" is in the books!

 

I have always loved hoildays because my mom always did such a great job of making every holiday the biggest & most fun holiday of the year... Ever since I was younger I would think to myself how much fun it would be when I had children of my own to make holidays fun with and I always promised myself I'd make each holiday SUPER fun. & Even though Gunner is still so small (yes 4.5 months is still small to me!) I wanted to try my best to make it fun for him! So, I did the best I could for St. Patty's Day!

 

Rick & I got our tax refund this past week and I spend most the week paying off credit cards and debt, and putting the rest in savings & towards bills... So this weekend I thought it would be fun to have a little mommy&gunner shopping day! We went ALL OUT! My mom went with us and we had the best time shopping!!

 

First we went to Carters (my biggest weakness I swear) and I got - literally - B A G S of clothes for him! He doesn't have a lot of clothes for 6 months, so I stocked up on those and got lots of cute summer clothes (baby's first summer!) I won't lie, I spent over $150 on just summer clothes for him. HOWEVER, that is AFTER 2 coupons & additional 20% day! I was so proud of myself leaving there saving over $100! Then we went to Old Navy and I got even MORE clothes for him! I love Old Navy for boys because they actually have really "cool" kids for little boys. Girls clothes are freakin adorable EVERYWHERE, but boys are harder to shop for. & Carters and Old Navy are always winners in my book. Between the two - I darn near filled up my trunk with bags of summer clothes for him. & now his closet is FULL of adorable clothes for when he grows into 6-month sizes (hopefully not too soon). & he undoubtedly will be the coolest 6-month old on the block! I made sure ;)

 

I also did a little splurging on myself and got new makeup and that was better than Christmas! I've been scraping the containers for weeks now hoping to just get a few drops on my skin - so it's beyond fun to have a whole new set of makeup!

 

The rest of our tax money went into savings (what was left after bills and paying off my debt completely) & this week I plan to go open up Gunner's first bank account to put some money in there & start his own savings account :)

 

The rest of our St. Patty's Day weekend was spent with friends & family! Gunner and I went to lunch with some beautiful ladies and he had a blast! I dont get to see all my girlfriends too often because of our schedules and being so busy always - so it's always a big treat when we can get together. & gunner just LOVES beautiful ladies so he had a really fun time too at BJ's with us.

 

Sunday I tried to make it really fun for Gunner, but there's really not a whole lot I could do with him to be "festive" this time. I thought of green formula, but then instantly thought that wouldn't really work out & probably is very unsafe for him... so then I though a green bubble bath? But then instantly realized that wouldn't be too sanitary... All day long I did what I could to incorporate the holiday, but it was tricky. We both wore our green while we went to lunch & errands with Auntie Karin & Gunner wore his ADORABLE fedora! LOL, really, that was the highlight of our day. Then Rick & I started designing Gunner's Easter basket (Rick is insisting on making him a custom basket so we've started figuring out the plans for that)

 

All in all, I'd say it was a really fun weekend! Maybe not as festive as I would have wanted, but it makes me even more excited for next year because now I have BIG plans for his 2nd St. Patricks Day! Can't wait!!

 

 

Little too much shopping & he passed out!

Having fun with all his friends in his crib!

Baby's first "White Tee" (LOL) I was cracking up at how cute these were, I had to buy them! He loves being naked because he's always hot, so after his bath - he was loving the no-sleeves!

Today I have a four month old!

Okay, so I've actually had a four month old for about a week now BUT let's be honest, I can never be on time with these blogs anymore! (lol) Luckily, I am well-aware of my habitual "late blogs" - so I keep track of Gunner's progress all month in my phone so I never miss a thing AND keep the updates divided into his month so I don't get confused as to which blogs equal which big updates of his ;)

______________________________________________________________________

 

So anywho, now that I got that confession & explanation out of the way - onto your blog Gunner Bear.

 

February was a BIG month for you! I swear each month gets more and more fun, but February you were FULL of life and laughing and I just loved every second of it! Each day you grow more into your own person and it's the neatest thing to watch. Your dad and I were just talking about how we get so excited for each day with you because we know you'll have a whole new face or expression in store for us. You are just growing so fast, and it's the most special thing in the world to watch! Here is the (rather lengthy) list of your updates for February!

 

- You had your 4-month checkup last week so we were able to weigh you! You weigh a whopping 14 pounds now! You are actually still considered "underweight" by a tad, but the doctor said you actually are growing just right.. her word was actually "beautifully"

 

 - You are 25 inches long! I actually knew you were going to surprise us with that one because everyone notices how long you are. You may just outgrow your dad and I afterall!

 

- You eat over 4 ounces at a time now, but not quite ready for the big boy bottles yet. Definitely probably going to break them out next month though :)

 

- You were starting to outgrow your jet-spa bathtub (that's what happens when you grow so tall so fast!) so we had to take out the part that has the shower head, so now you got lots of room for your long legs!

 

- You learned to splash! And BOY oh BOY, do you love bathtime even MORE now! Mommy has much more of a cleanup now afterwards, but it's okay - because there's nothing cuter than seeing you splash your legs around and laugh (literally) out loud the whole time. It's worth the clean up indeed.

 

- You can roll over and over and over again! And now in our bed too! So we have to be careful leaving you for ANY amount of time alone anywhere really because you just roll around so fast!

 

- You're getting back to being really cuddly with mama, and I can't even explain how much I love that! You have been really independent the last couple months, and you still are - but now you want to cuddle at night and in the mornings when you can't get comfortable or can't sleep. I LOVE IT! I missed holding you & rocking you to sleep so much.

 

- You talk & laugh ALL DAY LONG NOW! I love it! You are quite the chatterbox like your mama, and you like to laugh all day long like your daddy. You're just so fun to watch. You seriously crack everyone up all day long because you just sit there laughing at everything and talk like crazy. It's getting hard to watch serious movies while you're awake because you want to chime in on everything and it's hard to hear the movie! But that's okay - you're way more fun to watch any day ;)

 

- You have a thousand different faces now. You learned emotions and have a face to go with each one! You're so personable and have so much character now, it's easy to always know how you feel and what you are thinking - just based off the face and tone of voice you use. Everyone comments on how much personality you have & it's so much fun to watch you talk with all your expression & emotion. You definitely entertain us all day long.

 

- You have developed different laughs now. You have at least five different laughs now and they are all so stinkin cute! You're cutest one though is your newest one, which is your OUTBURST laugh where you laugh with your whole belly and your whole body just gets into it. You throw your hands and kick your feet and laugh so loud you sound like an old man, it's the C U T E S T. I've gotten lots of videos of it already because we can't help but laugh everytime you do it.

 

- It's official. Dad is your favorite person in the world. As much as I wish I could say it was me, I can't blame ya either. Your dad is pretty funny. No matter what you're doing or where you are - you will break your neck to find your dad everytime you hear his voice enter a room. Even if you're sleeping, you instantly wake up and look to find him. And every time you lay your eyes on him, you just laugh with that loud outburst full-body laugh of yours. It's the sweetest thing. I've never seen a baby love someone more<3

 

- You finally hold your rattles & toys! You actually now (since discoving you can pick things up) have to have something in your hands at all times. I'm so happy you finally are getting use out of some of your toys - rattles mostly. And now when you go to sleep you just grab the covers and pull them up to your face and instantly fall asleep. I keep a little burp cloth in your crib and swing so you can hold it when you're tired because it helps you sleep to hold it in your hands.

 

- Also since discoving your fingers, you love pulling mommy's hair. I have to keep my hair up most the time now when I'm holding you because you like to pull on my hair. But even when it's up you'll reach up and pull it out of the ponytail just so you can hold onto it (ouch) - Dad says it's a sign of affection though so now I actually think it's cute (lol)

 

- You're more tickelish than ever before. Pretty much anywhere makes you laugh and cringe up. You're most tickelish spots though (to name a few) are: under your chin, your belly, your feet, your inner thighs (changing your diaper is always entertaining) and your upper lip (seriously)

 

- You take naps in your crib now! We can all thank dad for this one. He's been getting you more comfortable with your crib (since you don't sleep in there yet) and now you almost instantly can fall asleep in there by yourself. Such a big boy! I promised dad that we are going to start trying you sleeping overnight in the crib now that you are comfortable in it. Just gotta take it slow (yes mommy still wants to co-sleep with you even though everyone tells me to do otherwise now) - but yes, probably by your next blog we will have updated this to you sleeping in your crib. But only after I go buy the best monitor there is so I can "attempt" to sleep away from you.

 

- You REALLY want to crawl. I'm thinking that by your five month blog you maybe already will have gotten your first crawls down. You can scoot around the ground, roll all over the place & now you know how to arch your body up - just can't make that big final push. But you're getting stronger each day and I'm certain any day now you're going to make that first move. Now you even cry and huff & puff because you get so frustrated you can't move - and I know how stubborn you are, so that really makes me sure you'll get it down soon. (hopefully not too soon though)

 

- && lastly, this isn't an "update" as much of a "discovery" - you are incredibly terrified of red lipstick. Yes, I can't even make that up. I would never have guessed this until it came time for mommy to smother you in red-lipstick-kisses for your valentines day pictures & BOY was that an adventure! I've never seen you instantly just panic and cry with the biggest tears! It was terrible. Then as soon as I took it off you just laughed and went on about your playing. Needless to say, we may have to think of something else for next years valentines day pictures!

 

Well Gunner, those are your biggest milestones & updates for this month. I just know at the rate you are going that March is going to be a B I G month for you! I'm thinking we may even see some big milestones met. I already got your St. Patricks Day outfit & we also have your first Norooz (Persian New Years) at the end of the month to look forward to!

 

As always, we love you little man. & if I could, I'd write an update for everyday with you - because everyday really is special on it's own.

 

 

 

Caught you busting some moves during your photoshoot :P