My, my how the time flies!  Phoenix is officially six months old today.  He’s sitting up on his own now and doing well with the baby food.  We had a minor complication with constipation this week, but prunes and sugar water are doing their part to make him comfortable.  The last check-up he had was about four weeks ago where he weighed 16.6lbs.  I’m guessing he’s probably around 17lbs by now and growing like a weed.  He’s not quite as chubby as he was and is certainly growing into a mini-Bob.  He’s been great with helping me out with packing up the house as we prepare for the move to Knoxville.  He sits in his bouncy chair and squeals as I make a ruckus in the living room with wrapping paper.

Phoenix loves playing with the puppies now.  It’s the one thing so far that  he hasn’t tried to put in his mouth.  Probably because Whidbey is too busy trying to stick his tongue there anyways.  QD Belle doesn’t really pay too much attention - she’d rather have me petting her instead of Phoenix.  I can already tell that he and Whid will be great friends!

A friend of ours uses a Simpsonized version of himself as his icon, Ben Callahan, and I thought it was so funny.  So I went online and Simpsonized our little family.  I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until you see us on the show!

Well Phoenix is now on a little bit of solid foods at 5 1/2 months.  He does 1 tbsp of cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  The funniest was the first day we gave him cereal.  The pediatrician said to start with 1 tbsp with breast milk once a day for a while.  I sat him down in his  bouncy seat and put the bib on him - this is after I nursed him in the afternoon.  He sat there and looked at me and started to jibber jabber like usual.  I put the spoon up to his mouth and he just looked at me with mouth closed.  I had to force it in his mouth a little and he opened for the  first bite.  It was then that I saw the funniest face ever!  He grimaced and looked at me like, “Mom, what is this crap?”  Then he smacked his lips together a little.  He continued this with every bite.  The next day was a little better.  The first bite was accompanied with his grimace.  But the next spoonful was greeted with an open mouth.  He took the bite and then squealed as the cereal poured out of his mouth.  He then just looked at me and grinned.  I have noticed that the train or airplane method of feeding him does NOT work.  Both times I have tried that he closes his mouth and gives me this odd look.  Almost as if to say, “Mom, seriously, you’re making a fool of yourself.”

I’m also going to have to go to Goodwill again and get him more clothes.  I’m one of those mothers who has nothing wrong with buying her child second-hand clothing.  Especially because the boy is growing out of things in a month.  And, he’s starting to get food and drool all over them anyways.  He’s up to six month old clothing - sometimes 9 months.  I feel like he just got to wearing the 3 month old clothing!  So - off to good ole Goodwill for some more clothes!

To catch everyone up, Phoenix is now 13 weeks old - officially 3 months!  At his one month checkup he was 8lbs 14oz and 21in long.  At his two month checkup he was 11lbs 15oz and 23in long.  Growing boy!

And today marked a milestone… he rolled over for the first time!!!  He now can hold his head up high on his belly and loves to fly through the air above mom and dad’s head.  He talks away and I swore I caught him saying "Yeah!" after I did.

He’s staying more and more alert as he continues to talk and coo to his toys, particularly flower and turtle that hang from his play yard.

And unfortunately, he’s already ruined quite a few outfits as he can’t keep his bodily discharge (if you know what I mean) in his diaper.  Two weeks ago, he had the poop of all poops.  We were at house church celebrating the Easter weekend, a week before Easter since we wouldn’t be together, and I heard him fill his pants.  I called to Bob and said that Phoenix wanted to spend time with him…  Bob caught on and agreed to change the diaper.  He called me in a few minutes later saying, "Crystal, you’ve got to see this!"  I ran in and Phoenix was lying on the floor with a nice yellow ring soaked through his onesie all the way around.  It took over ten wipes - which only partly cleaned him up.  We ended up stripping him down and just putting him in their bathroom sink for a quick bath.  It had ended up on his arms, legs, back, and feet from trying to remove his clothes.  Needless to say, I was so happy that I had brought an extra change of clothes!  Now I’ll just have to remember to carry a towel in case of another emergency bath!

Here’s the latest family pic (Easter weekend)…

Phoenix was six weeks old this past Thursday. As you can see from these pictures, he’s already growing so fast its crazy. It almost even seems hard to keep up in some ways. He’s been so good so far. He still sleeps mostly all the time, but he has a couple of times during the day where he’s awake for an hour or so. Then every once in a while he has the odd day where he’s just fussy and it seems like he’s up all day long screaming, heh. Its so easy to forget those days though. You can get so frustrated from the seemingly endless screaming, and then five minutes later he smiles up at you and you forget everything. Its pretty awesome.

He’s starting to get a little bit more interactive these days too. He’s much more aware of his surroundings now. When he’s awake, often he’ll look at us. He recognizes sound too. Often, if you say his name, he’ll hear it and turn his head and look at you. He’s also starting to make little cooing sounds now every once in a while too. Still not too much of that, but he’s slowly but surely doing it more and more. I’m sure before long he’ll be doing it enough that we might even wish he wouldn’t do it so much, heh. He’s starting to outgrow some of his infant clothes already. We’ve starting having to put some of those clothes in storage in wait for the next baby someday. It seems crazy that he’s outgrowing clothes that fast. He has tummy time about once a day now, and he’s starting to be able to push himself up a little bit, and can hold his head up on his own. Usually after about five minutes or so though he gets fussy and we have to turn him back over, heh. Not exactly sure why, but it seems he’s the most content when he’s on the changing table just after his diaper has been changed. Seems like that’s when he smiles the most. Its exciting to see him progressing so well though. What a blessing.

Phoenix is officially one month old today. Though I’m not real sure how the time is measured…on Thursday he was four weeks old…but today (January 27th) is one month to the day from when he was born (12/27).

The first month has been fantastic. Really. Sure, there have been adjustments, but in general Phoenix has been a fantastic little boy. He has his moments when he gets fussy and just doesn’t feel like going to sleep, but for the most part, he’s starting to get on a pretty good sleep, eat, change, sleep schedule. We’ve managed to keep him healthy in the middle of this time of year when there is so much crud floating around in the air. Praise the Lord for that.

We took him to his first birthday party yesterday. His friend Evan turned one year old this week and we celebrated it with him yesterday afternoon. Happy birthday Evan! It was a good time…though Phoenix slept through most of it, heh. That’s OK though, he’s still growing. Jeremy and Cortney know how to throw a party though, so everyone had a great time…thanks guys!

We’re still working on figuring out some good ways to incorporate different kinds of updates on this web site. One thing we’re thinking about now is some kind of video journal. I think we’ve figured out some good ways to do that kind of thing, and it should be fairly easy I think. I won’t make any promises, but I think we’re gonna at least give it a shot, so stay tuned for that.