Celebrating Jamey's Half Birthday - 6 months

I started to write this the other night, but had writer's block. So, I am picking it back up today, Matt's 35 birthday, before I call it a night. Matt is working in the garage on Wood Duck houses and I am inside on monitor duty.

The past six months has been so wonderful, as a family of four, and has gone by so quickly. It is amazing how much both Cora and Jamey grow on a daily basis. They have both been blessed with the most beautiful smiles and Matt and I are trying very hard to be the best parents to them both. I can't speak for Matt, but I fail on a daily basis but pick myself back up and work to be better and not repeat mistakes or techniques that just are not working.

Jamey's first Christmas and Cora's 3rd Christmas was magical. Before children I would not take the time to put up a tree, but I really do enjoy putting the tree up and this year Cora and I spearheaded the project. Matt and I learned the lesson of only giving her non-breakable ornaments the hard way, so now we know better for next year. I know of two ornaments that were mine that are in the "to be fixed" pile. Jamey did not know what was going on but Cora has started to get the hang of things. She LOVES to open presents but would prefer to open hers and everyone else's presents as well. She took her time and played with each toy after opening it up, but anything was not a toy was not of much interest. Jamey didn't have that much under the tree but got some things leading up to Christmas that he needed. He was taking it all in and happily observing his crazy sister.

To celebrate New Year's Eve, we traveled to North Carolina to be with Kirk, Laurie, Cole, Boyd and Zeke. Matt didn't come on this trip, due to our basement flooding issue, but Mimi traveled with us. Unfortunately while we were en route to N.C., Jamey started to cough and Cora wasn't too far behind with her coughing. They made out on the trip okay, they were both at about 70% - 75%, but upon our return to home were diagnosed with a viral bug and eventually botth went on amoxicillin. Jamey ended up with a double ear infection, I didn't see any of the symptoms, and Cora a single ear infection. This was my first experience with ear infections and it is terrible to see your babies not feeling 100%. I will be more protective of them in regards to being around children that are sick in the future, another lesson learned the hard way.

At six months, Jamey is now able to roll from front to back and back to front. He is not rolling a lot, but he can. Our pediatrician thinks his weight (he is the high 90%) and cloth diapers might be part of the reason. We gave Jamey his first solid food, breastmilk has been his diet to date, a few days leading up to Christmas and he seemed to catch on to spoon feeding fairly well. He had avocado, sweet potato and butternut squash. His favorite is sweet potato. However, since his sickness he has not been interested in solid foods. Maybe his tastebuds just need some time to get back to normal and we will keep offering up new and old flavors to pinpoint his favorites. The goal is to introduce as much veggie as possible and fruits will come after. I remember, from when Cora was just starting to eat solids, that the sweetness of fruits is always a winner. So start with introducing veggies, move to fruits, and always serve veggies first or half and half on the spoon when eating both at a meal.

The pictures are from Christmas morning, New Year's Day with the cousins, N.C. stroller ride in STYLE and capturing Jamey at 6 months (with the help of Cora - 2 years 8 months).