Herring Family Happenings

Monday, July 23, 2012

Seven months comparison pictures

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Friday, July 13, 2012

What I want to remember: Graham at 7 months

I can finally say without hesitation that this has been a wonderful month. I feel like we are finally able to enjoy life with Graham instead of simply surviving. This change is due to several factors: 1) Tummy troubles are a thing of the past (as long as I stick to my diet, which I have). 2) Graham can find his own pacifier and replace it all by himself. It's as if we have a whole new baby.

Two little teeth popped through this month!

Eating
Graham still nurses 5-7 times every 24 hours. He LOVES eating pureed food--fruit and cereal in the morning and two veggies along with fruit and cereal in the early evenings. He has responded well to all the foods he has had so far (squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, rice, oatmeal, bananas, avocado, apples, pears, and plums). Aside from the grains, I have made all of his food (but I have to take store-bought with me when we travel as the homemade food is frozen). As for my diet, I have been able to reintroduce wheat and eggs with no consequences. Praise the Lord! Next up will be fish and shellfish. I gave Graham a few small solid bites of banana today to see if he could handle the texture. He didn't vomit it up like Piper did on her first try, but he wasn't a fan.

Sleeping
Unless we're traveling, Graham is now up only once a night to nurse. This is amazing! Sometimes he's up as early as 2:00 am, but usually he doesn't wake until 4:00 or 5:00. He actually slept through until 6:15 once, but he hasn't repeated this. BUT...Momma is finally getting some sleep!!! Naps are still hit or miss. Sometimes they are 30 minutes, and sometimes they are two hours long. I haven't been able to figure out why these times are not consistent. In the past two weeks, Graham has gotten really good at putting himself to sleep for naps when I lay him down drowsy but awake. He usually gets himself to sleep with little or no crying. Being able to find and replace his pacifier has really helped with his sleeping. There may or may not be about five pacis scattered around his bed at any given time.

Playing
Graham is such a busy body! He has perfected sitting and playing but is now on the move. He likes to shake toys that make noise and bang his hands and toys to make noise with toys that don't rattle on their own. He is also into "working" his toys and is very gentle with tags. He loves the water and enjoys splashing around. As always, Piper is his favorite playmate. Pretty soon he'll be following her around on all fours!

Getting measured

Splashing in the little pool at the lake

On our last trip to the lake, Graham floated like this for 30 minutes at a time--flat on his back, no one touching him. He was so peaceful!

The other day I left Graham on his playmate on top of the purple hippo. I left the room to tend to something in the kitchen and returned to find him way off the mat and into one of Piper's toys.

Will he like balls as much as Piper does?

I caught him trying to eat this one. I don't think it tasted very good.

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Family Reunion

While we were back home for a visit, we were able to get together with most of my cousins on my dad's side of the family. My cousin Rachel and I hardly ever get to see each other since she lives in Florida, so I knew I needed to make an effort to see her when she was up visiting Pop Pop. We were a rowdy bunch, but we had so much fun together! I hope the next time we get together, all of the cousins and their children can make it!

Pop Pop with his great grandchildren (missing Lyndie and Channing)
What a legacy!

The girls and their kiddos

The men-folk

Graham and Sadler had a great time playing together! Sadler is about 7 weeks older than Graham.

The other reason for our visit was to celebrate sweet Lyndie's third birthday. She had a Cars-themed party. Piper still talks about getting to eat Lightning McQueen cake.

That cake is a work of art!

The bike was definitely a hit with Lyndie. And the pint-sized camping chair was a hit with Piper :-).

Boys and their kids

Gramps posing with Bert and Ernie (as uncle Corey calls them)
Can you guess which is which???

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Lil' Slugger

Piper still continues to be enthralled with every ball she encounters. While at Nana's house, she got to practice hitting the baseball off the tee. I think she would have stayed outside doing this all day if we had let her!

She LOVED wearing the glove around.

Look at that stance!

Nana finally got it through to her that she should swing around instead of up and down. No more chopping!

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A visit to the dentist

Piper had her first visit to the dentist this past week. Baby Leia went along for the ride and actually got her teeth cleaned, too.

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Fourth of July

We started celebrating early on the 4th (well I started celebrating early) by running the Firecracker 5K. The race started at 7:00 am, but it was already 85 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. I don't ever get to run in full sun, so I was underprepared for how hot I would get. Unfortunately, this was my worst race time yet, but I'm still proud of myself for getting out there and trying it!

Ashley and I, post race

We bummed around the house all day and went to Piper's friend Mikey's house that evening for a cookout. We had a great time getting to know his family better. Piper, Mikey, and his cousin Claire played hard, and Graham was just content to hang out with me on the couch (as long as there was something to chew on). Everyone remarked on how well-behaved he was. If they only knew!