Holt: 4 Months

"Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation."--C. Everett Koop

What a great reminder. And how true! AND…how is my baby already 4 months old? What a joy he is!  He is such a wonderful fit for our family. I am so thankful and humbled by how the Lord created him just for us.

*Milk allergy update: Holt has responded extremely well to me going dairy free! It has taken us this whole month for it to completely get out of both of our systems, but he is feeling so much better! Thank you to those who have been praying for us. The good news is he should grow out of this between 6 months and 1 year--although I'm guessing it will be closer to the 1 year mark since his sensitivity seems to be somewhat severe.

*Thanksgiving: We celebrated Holt's first Thanksgiving and it was a blast! You can read all about that here

Weight: 11 lbs 9 oz (3rd percentile)--he has lost about 3 oz. since our last visit. The pediatrician doesn't seem worried because he is continuing to sleep well at night and be on target developmentally too. We are just going to do everything we can to ensure he is getting the proper nutrition.
Height: 25.5 inches (85th percentile)

Milestones: *he holds his head up pretty much all the time now *he found his toes and loves to grab and chew on them *he talks to us all the time *he laughs every now and then *standing is still his favorite--the kid can seriously stand for 10 minutes at a time *he can see at longer distances---he can recognize us across the room and has started to look out the window in the car *his pincher grasp is improving--he can pick up toys and bring them to his mouth

Sleep: Oh man. This has been somewhat up and down this month. He HAS slept through the night several times (yay!)--I'm talking 8:30PM-7AM. That. Is. Glorious. Let me tell you! However, he will do that a couple nights in a row, and then bam! The next night, he wakes up around 5:00AM or so. We had a particularly rough week and a half around Thanksgiving because he had a pretty bad cold, which made it to where he couldn't breathe very well, and his reflux was acting up pretty bad so he wasn't eating as well. Both of these combined made it rough for the sleep department. He still takes 3 naps a day, although some are only 30-45 minutes, but all in all he does great.

Favorite Things: *his toes *his fists *music *talking and interacting with us *looking at lights and out the window *cuddling *shower time

Feeding: This has been up and down this month too. Since we left to go to Miami and I was gone from him, I had to pump to keep up my supply. However, even doing that your supply still gets a little low. It's been tough on me to get it back up to where it was--especially because when he had the cold and his reflux acted up, he refused to eat. I was having to supplement with formula because I knew he was hungry and he felt like he had been losing weight. It was so hard! Thankfully, at the tail end of being sick he hit a growth spurt (he ate every 1-2 hours during the day for about 2 days straight). I think the result of that helped my supply increase and get back to normal because ever since then we haven't seemed to have as many problems. It's been a rough couple of months between the milk allergy and my supply dropping, but hopefully we are on the upswing now!

practicing sitting up in the Bumbo

loving that fist!

yeah, this was one of THOSE days

His cousins, Caroline and Olivia, absolutely adore him! 

ready for church

Holt's first Thanksgiving

So thankful to be married to him :)

He LOVED his Aunt Hannah!

…and cousin Will (the last boy in my family born 20 years ago)

such a BIG boy!

75 degree weather in November? yes please!

Thanksgiving family photo

Found our toes!

Holt's First Thanksgiving

 I'm pretty sure that this is my new all-time favorite photo. He looks so BIG here! Crazy to think that last Thanksgiving, I was pregnant with this little punkin' and didn't even know it. 

We celebrated Holt's first Thanksgiving last week--I'll be honest, it was a rough week. He got a pretty bad cold starting Sunday; Monday night he screamed (SCR-EAMED) for over 2 hours and refused to eat; Tuesday he ran a fever and continued to refuse to eat; Wednesday I took him in to the doctor thinking he was getting something worse than a cold, but, nooooo, he was absolutely fine---no fever, no fluid in his ears or lungs, smiling and talking as if all is right with the world. His best day was Thanksgiving Day (praises). He just talked and smiled and let everyone hold him and he did great for pictures. Friday we started getting bad again--snotty nose so bad we can't breathe and I think his reflux is getting worse. Whew! 

However, despite all that, it was such a sweet time with family. I feel like the holidays take on even more meaning once you have children--watching your child bond with your parents and grandparents and siblings and aunts and uncles and cousins is just so much fun. It makes me appreciate the value of family even more and got me to thinking about how truly BLESSED we are. What a privilege to be born into a family that loves each other and to have grown up loving to spend time with them--I mean, my sister and cousins were my best friends! I am so excited for my children to experience the same thing with their siblings and cousins. Of course there was yummy food (half of which I couldn't eat because of the no dairy thing) and we spent the rest of the day watching football and skeet shooting. We truly have much to be thankful for! 

Our little family of three

Good grief I love this man

Holt LOVED spending time with his Aunt Hannah

Holt-man, words cannot express how much I love you. Sometimes it hurts my heart because it just overflows with love and wonder and joy. Watching you grow is so much fun--especially now that you're more interactive! You just talk and smile and laugh with everyone and it is so cute. I am so thankful for you and can't wait for many more Thanksgivings to come!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving. This time of year never fails to make people think about what they have to be thankful for ( I mean, it says THANKS in the word for goodness sake). Thanksgiving was a little different for us than it has been in past years--it was our first one ever away from home. That being said, it was also one of the most wonderful and memorable Thanksgiving holidays I have ever experienced. Starting the Monday before (the 21st I think) we had family up here to visit us for a whole week! Such a blessing! Daniel's parents came up Monday and stayed until Wednesday morning. Then my family came up Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning. It was a really special time! This was Daniel's parents first trip up to Louisville, so that was exciting (not to mention we had not seen them since the day we moved here in July). It was wonderful--I had to work quite a bit, but Daniel got to spend some good quality time with them, showing them around our city and taking them to see me at the Apple Store. :) His dad even brought an indoor fryer so we wouldn't have to miss having a deep-fried turkey for a Thanksgiving meal! (YUM-O let me tell you). The morning they left, we went to breakfast at Lynn's Paradise Cafe--this is a MUST if you ever come up to visit. It's a little pricey, but has fantastic food and a fun, eclectic atmosphere. In fact, the food is so good, Lynn has been on Food Network's Show "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" AND "Man vs. Food" has been there as well! How cool is that? Afterwards, Daniel's parents headed down to Birmingham, Alabama to visit Ben, Rebekah, and the kiddos.

My family arrived later that afternoon. We immediately went to Kroger (which our Kroger is awesome) to get last minute ingredients for the Thanksgiving feast. Once we got back, we headed to Macaroni Grill to eat dinner. It was so fun to introduce my family to the wonderful people I work with! We woke up bright and early Thanksgiving morning and had breakfast at IHOP before getting started with preparations for the meal. Let me tell you, I am so proud of us ladies being able to cook all the food necessary in my tiny little kitchen. (trust me, ask anyone and they will tell you how tiny it is). We had a fantastic Thanksgiving meal, catching up and napping and watching football. Then, Black Friday gets here. First of all, let me say I have never, nor ever had the desire, to step foot in any store or mall on Black Friday. EVER. And this year, I got to work it at Apple. Quite the experience, I assure you. Thankfully, I got scheduled the early shift (5:30 AM-2:30 PM) so I was able to get home and watch the LSU/ARK football game--which depressingly ended bad for us. Saturday comes and we all load up to go back to the mall for some fun shopping (it was so great to have some girl time). Sadly, they had to leave Sunday morning, and our week of family came to a close. BUT we get to go back home for Christmas in about 3 weeks!