Tuesday, March 10, 2015

5 Months Old

5 months already?!
3/7/2015
Unofficial measurements:
15.5 pounds
26 inches

This was a fast but rough month for Russell. I think he was sick 80% of the month. First, he got a fever from his 4 month shots, then he got a cold and cough. It made for a month of rough sleeping and grumpy baby and Mommy! But he is now healthy and back to being a happy guy most of the time. We are still working on the whole sleeping thing...

We had two big milestones this past month!

1. Russell David is now a solid food eating champion! But seriously, this guy loves his food. He eats about a pound of applesauce a week, plus tons of other fruits and veggies. He loves to eat! Every time he sees us with a bowl and spoon he assumes we are going to be sharing it with him. He isn't super picky about what he eats. It took him two feedings to like sweet potatoes and several feeding to like bananas, but everything else was devoured quickly. Speaking of quickly... you better keep shoveling the food in, and never get up from the table to get more food or you will get Angry Russell.


His grandpa says he needs to learn the proper manners for how to act between meal courses. Screaming is not socially acceptable!



Food is Great!
2. The swaddle wars are finally over! He was getting so strong and breaking out so quickly, we knew we had to figure something out. After much internet searching, we found something that we really hoped would work. Zipadee-Zips. We had seen the product on "Shark Tank" before Russell was born, but had forgotten about it. Sadly it took 7-10 days to ship, so we had to be creative for a while:
Swaddled like this then put in another swaddle!
Finally, a week later, it was here!

Stephen says he looks like he is wearing a dress when he is in it, but I don't care! Basically it is shaped like a four-pointed star, with long points for his arms. It has been great. He can wiggle and move, even suck on his hand, but he wont scratch his face up! I wish I could say that it has made it so he sleep soundly through the night... far from it! But it does allow him to self-sooth better!

Random other highlights from the month:

Playing with Daddy is the best

His football is now his most grabbed toy-
even in his sleep
Russell relaxation position

Mastered the art of blowing raspberries-
now we only hear it when he is mad
I call them his angry spits


He likes to lick R2D2
And converse with Yoda

Baths are still the greatest thing in the world!

Thanks to a great prescription, his
face is nice and eczema-free most
of the time 

Standing in his crib

Standing in front of his snowman


We still can't believe how fast he is growing and how much he is learning everyday! He is so stinkin' adorable and we are so in love with him!

Monday, March 9, 2015

Bear Update





Russell Want to Build a Snowman...

We've had some pretty random weather these past few weeks. We've had days in the 70's and days in the 20's! Keeps us on our toes...

During some of those days we got snow!The first snow storm I was so excited to go out and build a snowman with Russell for the first time. It was just me and Russell home because after 2 freezing rain days everyone had to go back to work and school. There wasn't much snow and I am not skilled enough to build a real one one-handed. So I made a very tiny one!
Looks impressive, but is smaller than my hand!




 Because Texas is not Utah, when it started snowing again a few days later and didn't stop for hours PepsiCo sent all their employees home early! It was great.  We had plenty of snow, but it was too fluffy that we couldn't even make snowballs. But it was perfect for snow angels!



We were hoping the snow would be better the next day, but it rained and turned the snow into ice... No snowman for Mr. Russell...

But then a few days later we had another snowstorm! It came during the night, so it was an official snow day for everyone. It was a perfect snow day too. It wasn't very cold, no wind, and lots of perfect snowman building snow!

We went outside to build Russell a snowman. Russell and I watched as Stephen and the family build a snowman... It was kind of sad looking, so I handed Russell off and built another one using all my snowman building skills!

Working on my snowman- his short squatty snowman friend next to him

Russell really liked being outside with everyone. It was a little bright for him, so we had to keep him in a shaded area. I need to get him some Russell-sized sunglasses! He is going to be a happy guy once he can crawl/ walk around outside!





And because his dad likes to play with him, Stephen decided to see what would happen if he just stood Russell in the snow and let go. So Russell stood and pondered the meaning of life by himself, in a field of fresh white snow...


For about 3 seconds... 




It made for a cool picture though! And he got to make another snow angel. It was a good day to be a Russell!

Snow is Awesome!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day has never been my favorite holiday. I wasn't in the best mood either, because someone decided to only sleep for 3 hours total the night before. But it is a good excuse to go out to eat and get lots of candy! Plus it means some cute outfits from grandparents.

Stephen said he looked like a prisoner...


Our plan was to go out to lunch as a family (Dave, Robin, Ashlyn and us) at this little Mexican restaurant in downtown McKinney. We got there and every person sitting in the place had this look of boredom. It was very strange. We had to wait several minutes before someone came to talk to us. Then we were told that we had to wait 10-15 minutes for a table even though we had a reservation. As we were discussing what to do, a lady from one of the tables comes up to talk to the host. She said they had been seated for almost 30 minutes and didn't even have drinks... So we took that as the final sign that this place was not going to be the best and walked out. No wonder it was the only restaurant in downtown McKinney without a wait out the door...

Luckily we found a place with only a 30ish minute wait instead of an hour or more. It had fantastic salsa and guac for a non-Mexican restaurant too! I had a BLAT sandwich with sooo much bacon on it! Russell was pretty well behaved for having to wait so long before we got in. He wouldn't stay in his car seat, of course, but his grandma was willing to hold him so I could eat. Sandwiches are hard to eat holding a Russell!

After lunch, Stephen and I were commanded to leave Russell and get out of the house. We just drove to a little shopping center and walked through some shops. Sadly, the Petsmart there was just have a kitten adoption fair so we didn't get to see any puppies. 

When we got home we brought with us some heart-shaped pizzas for dinner! Then finally we opened our presents... 

Never too old to get action figures and Legos!

Russell chocolate from Russell to say sorry for
being a punk the night before...