he sits and lunges!

A lot has happened in the last few weeks! Steven has perfected sitting (for the most part) and he is now pulling up onto all fours and lunging! Yes, I think we are going to have a crawler on our hands very soon. And no, the house is not yet baby proofed. I see a trip to Babies R Us in the not so distant future.

Food update- Steven is doing pretty well with solid foods. Only problem is he really doesn't like taking them from me (or Matt really). For some reason he would rather eat from pretty much anyone else but us. I'm told this is a phase, but I would love for it to end soon. I can get him to open his mouth for about the first five bites, but after that I'm practically forcing it in his mouth. He likes it, I can tell, he just doesn't want to work for it. He does have good days here and there. Like yesterday- he ate a ton! But today, only a few bites. Oh well. He does have certain foods he likes and dislikes- we all know how the apples incident turned out, and he doesn't like green beans either (well, at least the ones I made him). He LOVES peaches, pears, sweet potatoes, he likes carrots and bananas okay and the first time I gave him peas he didn't seem to mind them. I think next week we are going to try avacado.

These next few pictures are from a baby play date I went to with Steven at a friends house. Steven just started cracking up laughing at another little boy who was there. It was hilarious and I'm so glad I caught it on camera!

This is a picture showing him on all fours.

And this picture is completely out of focus, but I think he looks so cute! Like a mini football coach. :)

And here he is, sitting up all by himself like a big boy!

I never thought

Looking back this Mother's Day, being a mother for the last 6 months has been the most fulfilling of my life. Don't get me wrong, I loved just being a wife, but my son has given my life so much more meaning. He has made our home so much happier, so much more complete. I've learned to be selfless, to be patient, to appreciate all my husband does for me, and to smile and think about what a beautiful, healthy baby boy God gave us even at 3am when it seems sleep is no where in sight. My little boy has changed my life in so many ways I can't even begin to list them. Except that I will.

I never thought I would love nursing my son so much. Despite the pain the first few weeks and all the stresses that breastfeeding brings, I wouldn't trade the bonding time for anything. Except for the biting. I would gladly give that up and he doesn't even have any teeth yet! :::shudder::: I pray everyday he's just like his daddy and doesn't get teeth until he's over a year old.

I never thought buying boy clothes would be as addicting as I thought buying girl clothes was. It is.

I never thought I wouldn't mind changing endless amounts of poopy diapers. And inspecting each and every one to make sure they look as they should.

I never thought I could fly out of bed so quickly when I hear the cries from my little one. It's amazing that I haven't slammed into any walls when I run across the house just out of a deep sleep.

I never thought my heart would melt a little more with each and every smile, with each and every giggle, and with each and every tear.

I never thought I would miss him as much as I do when I'm away from him.

I never thought I wouldn't miss reading. I would rather play with my son! But I do look forward to bath time (for me) when Steven's asleep and I can maybe get a chapter of Harry Potter in before I fall asleep and risk drowning in the bath tub.

I never thought I would be one of those moms with a kiddie CD in the car CD player all the time. I have 2 and I rotate them. I actually like them and keep singing them even when we aren't in the car.

I never thought getting peed on in public and not being able to change clothes would really have no effect on me. It happens. It will dry. I do get upset when it gets in my hair though.

I never thought I would nap with my son and love it so much. I really look forward to our morning nap together. And he sleeps so good in our bed!

I never thought I would want to shave all my hair off. I'm very surprised I have any left since several handfuls get yanked out every day. OUCH. Ponytails, everyday.

I never thought I could love someone this much.

I never thought rolling over, sitting up and solid foods would be all I talk about with my friends. What did we talk about before?

I never thought a boy other than Matt could steal my heart so completely.

I never thought a red headed baby boy could be so damn cute.

I never thought time would pass so quickly. It seems like last week we came home from the hospital and now we're getting 6 month portraits taken.

Here are a few of my favorites (ignore the watermark):

He's such a joy and I'm so happy to be his mommy. :)

Easter and Great Grandma Sternad

Easter weekend Matt's Grandma Barb and Aunt Deb came into town from Iowa for a visit. We had a lovely time with them! Great Grandma Sternad (GG Girl) was very excited to meet Steven and see all her Texas family. Steven was exactly 5 months old the day they came in. I forgot to take his traditional monthly picture, so these will have to do. Here are some pictures from our Friday night visit:

Steven also had a great Easter! The Easter Bunny(s) were very good to him!

Aunt Katie and Uncle Tom got him some cool cars! Vrrroom!

B and Nana got him a basket full of books, turtles dressed as bunnies, and lots of other goodies!

GG Girl got him an Iowa Hawkeyes Piggy Bank. He loved the bank so much he thought he would give it a kiss (or eat it). Ummmm, pork.

And then everyone made a contribution in the bank for Steven's college fund.

And here is Steven when we told him he would have to pay for college himself.

And then the big bucks started rolling in!

apples: yay or nay? you decide

take me out to the ballgame

Baseball. Americas favorite pastime. And Steven's too. We went to our first baseball game last Saturday at the Dell Diamond. The Round Rock Express were playing the Iowa Cubs...and I'm sure you can guess what Steven was wearing...

I think he had to be the cutest baby Cub fan there- and there were more than just a few Cubs fans! They beat the Express, so we went home happy. Ordinarily, we would have been rooting for the Express, but not when they play the Cubs.

I think it's safe to say Steven had a good time...

But it did tire him out.

I'm sure this isn't the last you will see of Steven at the ballpark.

poo explosion = baby's first shower

With the introduction of cereal came changes in Steven's digestive system. It took his little body a few days to get used to the solidity of his bowels. He went from having a dirty diaper at almost every diaper change to not having more than one in 36 hours. Needless to say, the next one was a doozy.

He has this horse jumperoo that he loves to jump around in and at the particular time of this blessed event, he was in it. Only by the grace of God Himself did none of the mess get on the jumperoo. Matt had just gotten home from the gym and was about to go start the grill to cook hamburgers. I went to go pick Steven up out of the jumperoo and when I did I felt something wet drip on my foot so I looked down at it and saw what it was that landed on it. I held him out to look him over and knew it was bad without even seeing the inside of his outfit. And wouldn't you know, the outfit I put him in had to go over his head...or be cut off. Looking back, I should have just cut it off.

When I saw how bad it was I hopped over to the tile floor and yelled for Matt to bring me a towel- and fast! We wrapped him up so no poo would get on the carpet (little did I know what was waiting for me underneath the horsey) and we took him to the changing table. I had no idea how I was going to get his outfit off without getting waste products all over his face and head. I knew he was going to need a bath, but what I didn't know was how I was going to get him in it without bringing all the poo with us into the tub. So, I told Matt to get the shower ready and to go ahead and get in it- it was time for Steven's first shower!

I was sure he was probably not going to like it at first. He's not a fan of water in his face (well, what baby is?) and I was thinking this was going to have to be a quick one. Just a rinse to get the majority of it off and then I would get him in the tub. I handed him to Matt and went to start cleaning up the mess on the changing table and this is what I came back to:

Turns out, he's a big fan of the shower! He would not stop giggling and laughing! It was hilarious, and obviously I had to stop mid-poo clean-up and catch these gems on camera. It really made scrubbing the carpet for an hour and hosing down the shower and changing table with bleach totally worth it. :)

rice cereal's newest fan

We decided to try Steven on rice cereal last week to see how he liked it and if he was ready to start solids. The first night was interesting! He didn't really seem to know what was going on, but was having a lot of fun laughing at Daddy while he video taped it. I'm not exactly sure how much of it he ate, but he had a lot of fun! The next night he seemed to like it a lot more and even started to open his mouth for it. By the third night he was lunging for the spoon with his mouth wide open and there was nothing on his bib! The boy loves cereal!!!

We tried jarred sweet potatoes yesterday but he didn't seem to care for them at first. He would kinda squint his eyes like it was sour or bitter tasting, so I smelled them and ICK! They didn't smell anything like sweet potatoes to me (and I LOVE me some sweet taters!), so I'm definitely going to start making his food- STAT!

Here is a photo progression of the first night we tried rice cereal:

He knows something's up.

What the.....

Okay, so this might not be so bad...

This stuff is awesome!!

I hope he doesn't end up being a picky eater like his daddy... ;)