December 30, 2016

Theo is 9 Months Old!


Big Events 
  • 11/30 - 8 Months old
  • 12/2 - Family pictures
  • 12/16 - Traxel family Christmas
  • 12/17 - Jacob and Sarah's Wedding
  • 12/18-20 - DeWaard Christmases
  • 12/23-26 - Grunder/Halupnik Christmases 
  • 12/30 - 9 Months old

    Size/Percentile: As of 1/4/17
    • Weight - 18lb 1oz (21%)
    • Height - 27.5" (15%)
    • Head - 18" (69%)

    Daily Schedule: 
    Between being sick, moving to the crib and the holidays, night sleep is a thing of the past, but we're working our way back to this best case scenario from early in the month: up at 7:30, bottle at 9, lunch at noon, nap til about 3, another bottle at 3:30, family walk/errands, dinner at 6, bath bottle and bed at 7. Night bottles at 10:30p and 5a.

    Things I Love:
    • Lily
    • The bath
    • "Drumming" his hands on tables
    • Standing
    • Feeding himself - especially mashed potatoes

    This Month's Milestones:
    • 2 teeth
    • Sitting in the bath
    • Crawling belly up
    • Pincer grip
    • Pull up to stand
    • Steps when holding fingers
    • Crawl to sit
    • Attempting stairs
    • Moved out of Mom and Dad's room.

    Highlights of the Month:
    • Theo packed on 3.5 pounds in the last couple months according to his sick visit! This is awesome, because he is back on to his growth curve. He's still relatively tiny, but he's in a mix of 6 and 9m jammies, along with his 6/6-9m clothes.
    • The big sleep event this month was moving to the crib in the nursery. After sharing a room as a family at DeWaard Christmas, we just never set the pack n play up and moved him in with Lily. We figured that if we were going to throw off his sleep with the holidays, we might as well kill 2 birds with 1 sleepless stone. It's gone better than I thought it would so far and we love being able to watch TV in bed again. It's the little things folks. 
    • Unfortunately, my plan to try introducing more actual solid foods over Christmas was thwarted by illness, so Theo still gets 2 purees a day along with some finger foods. He was all about the party potatoes at Christmas though!
    • Along with his purees, he still gets 5 bottles a day - 18oz of milk during the day and 12 of formula overnight. 
    • We started out the month taking family photos, celebrating Auntie Amanda's 21st birthday and setting up for Christmas. Theo thought the lights and the gifts were mesmerizing. 
    • On the 6th, Theo got not one but TWO teeth in the same morning. Thank goodness they're through - the poor boy was miserable the couple days beforehand. 
    • Developing the pincer grip really opened up Theo's ability to play. He loved picking up the plastic rings that come with scarves and dropping it on the hardwood to hear it rattle. Not to mention, he's way better at eating his Cheerios. 
    • The bath is still the best thing ever, especially with the bubbles that he got for Christmas!
    • Theo spent the second half of December sick. He had a horribly snotty cold for about a week leading up to DeWaard Christmas, where he spent an otherwise tired but happy day vomiting. After that he got sick every other morning for the next week. (So. Much. Laundry.) We took him to the doctor between Christmases to confirm it was just stomach irritation and not an ear/sinus infection. The good news was that it was just the cold, and we're now 5 days vomit free!
    • Speaking of Christmas, you can read/see pictures about it here.
    Family photos by Jennifer Lee Photography
     





















    Escargot anyone?


    December 29, 2016

    Merry Christmas 2016!


    Theo's 1st Christmas felt much less chaotic than the last couple years because of how our celebrations were bunched. After decorating, eating the presents, staring contests with the tree and waiting (mostly) patiently; Christmas finally arrived.
    Onesie was worn for my first Christmas...
    pictures, service, family Christmas and Christmas day 



    First came our little family Christmas on the 17th, because I'm still 8 years old and hate surprises. We have been doing the want/need/wear/read gift idea that has been going around, but also added in make and hang (annual ornament).



    The next day we left for extended DeWaard family Christmas in Pella; starting with Jacob and Sarah's wedding on Saturday night. It had stormed Friday night and that morning, so the roads were a little dicey, but Mike got us there safely and it was only a little bit of a mad dash to be ready on time. Unfortunately that meant I didn't remember to get a family picture while we were all dressed up. Sunday morning was spent in the pool, dealing with a less than ideal hotel situation and then Lily and Theo napped through Christmas. (Can you picture my "of course" eye roll?)


    First time swimming without needing to be held! 
    That evening we drove back to Johnston and started Mike's immediate family Christmas. The adults did gifts and played white elephant after the kids went to bed and then the kid's had their Christmas in the morning. Unfortunately, Theo spent that whole day sick, likely a reaction to the very runny cold he had had the whole week before.



    No more making TP tube binoculars for me!!
    Home for a couple days, including receiving my new camera lens and a trip to the doctor to confirm that Theo wasn't 1) in need of antibiotics or 2) contagious, and then we were off to Mount Vernon to see my family. We had two days of just hanging out as a family, playing lots of cards and continuing Megan's Great Losing Streak of 2016 (its real bad guys!) before actual Christmas celebrations began.




    Dad and Mike constructed some of Dad's gifts from last year - itty bitty figurines.
    This is one of 20 cars on a 4" tall ferris wheel!
     

    We were so close Joe! Sigh. 
    On Christmas Eve, we went to my first ever candlelight service at Veritas CR before heading to the the Hardin's house, as is tradition. Juli's gift was just amazing...



    Theo wasn't so sure about the cracker crowns...
     

    Lily cleaned up all the wrapping for us... as we opened, by tearing small pieces,
    putting them in the box and saying "der you go" over and over.

    We opened gifts on Christmas morning and the rest of the Halupnik family came over the day after Christmas. 






    To celebrate it being Theo's first Christmas, we recreated Lily's 1st Christmas photo, which was much tighter fit with his extra 2.5 months and 3 pounds!


    We also attempted a siblings in front of the tree shot. The holidays can be really hard, especially when you're sick... 


    But we survived and did have a very Merry Christmas, and we hope you did too!