Ethan is 6 months old!

Our big boy is just growing like crazy!  He has actually slowed on his monthly height and weight gain, but he is changing so much!  Just one week after he turned 5 months old, he started being able to stay in the sitting position pretty well.  He still rocking on his hands and knees but no official crawling yet.  He is starting to make some forward progress but usually ends up going backwards.  Ethan continues to be the happiest baby we've ever seen.  He smiles at everyone and at everything.  His cry is often a mix between a laugh and a cry because he just can't stay sad!  He LOVES to eat!  He is still nursing about 5 times a day and I think we are mostly over the hump with night wakings.  Occasionally he will get up once.  He is only eating the one meal of solids, and eats about 2 ounces of food at that meal.  He loves prunes and bananas, but we haven't found anything that he will turn away yet!  Ethan loves his big sister and it is such a joy to watch them play together.  He loves any toy that makes noise and especially toys that he can easily grab and shake!  He still loves to hold on to burp clothes and blankets.  Ethan has also started sucking his thumb.  He will take a pacifier but mostly uses them as a teething ring.  I am just loving to watch him grow and learn.  At his 6 month appt, Ethan was 21 lbs and 29.25 inches tall.  He is still above the 95th percentile and is still in 12 month clothes, though is starting to be able to wear some 18 month clothes as well.

November

These months are just flying by!! We had a great November!  The first weekend of November, Matt officially became a Tough Mudder!  He did this race with a few other men called the Tough Mudder.  It is basically a 12 mile obstacle course complete with lots of mud, water, electric shocks, and many other things.  We were so proud of him!  The following weekend, we headed down to Atlanta.  I was there a few days before Matt go there, so I spent some time catching up with some of my Atlanta friends and meeting new babies!  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that time with friends, but Hannah and Ethan had a blast playing with everyone! We picked Matt up from the Airport Thursday and met some great friends from Boston for dinner.  It is so fun that our worlds can collide sometimes and those we knew and loved in Boston (atleast a few of them!) are now in Atlanta and we can see them from time to time.  We also celebrated Matt's birthday that weekend, and Hannah had a great time eating blue cake!!  We love fall and as you will see from the pictures, Hannah loved playing in Grandaddy's leaves.

About halfway through the month, Hannah got her second ever haircut!  She did such a great job and was very proud of her new do!  And then we of course finished off the month with Thanksgiving.  Life with 2 kids always brings unexpected adventures, and this year, Thanksgiving week proved this to be true.  The Saturday before Thanksgiving, Hannah woke in the middle of the night with a high fever, and we discovered at the doctor's office on Monday that she had come down with the flu.  It was iffy on whether or not we would make it to Thanksgiving Day festivities in Atlanta, but luckily the Tamiflu did the trick, and Hannah was fever free in time to make the drive!  We had a great time at Aunt Lauri's house and were so thankful for her hospitality.  We were doubly blessed because both Matt's parents and my parents were able to be at the Pratt's for Thanksgiving dinner.  It is a rare treat to have them together and it was so fun being around so much family!  Hannah absolutely LOVED playing with Aaron and Andrew and reading with Elizabeth.  Ethan happily went to anyone who would hold him and showed off his sitting skills playing in the great room!  The day after Thanksgiving, my parents had my sister and her family and my brother (we missed his wife, Melissa, so much!) over for dinner, so we were thrilled to be able to see them and as always Hannah just had a wonderful time with her cousins.  Sunday morning on our way out of town, we had the very special treat of seeing our friends, the Frey's, as they were in town all the way from Boise, ID!  It was a short visit with them, but so wonderful!!

Ethan is 5 months old!

Ethan continues to be such a joy!!  He is really the smiliest baby I have ever seen.  He cries when he gets tired, hungry, or if big sister plays a little too rough.  But other than that, he is just always smiling!!!    He has started to really laugh a lot!  He loves to watch people and will often laugh at funny faces or loud noises.  He loves to be surprised, so peek a boo is one of his favorite games!  He also has a blast with patty cake!  He hasn't been sleeping quite as well as in my last update.  We have had some nights where he gets up 2 or even 3 times!  But most nights at this point he wakes up once, while occasionally still giving us a full nights sleep.  We have started baby food.  So far Ethan has had rice cereal, avocado, and butternut squash.  He has really done a great job eating, and doesn't seem to love the squash but will eat it fine!  He is rolling over like a champ and started to push up to his hands and knees this past month.  On his 5 month birthday he started rocking back and forth while on his hands and knees!!!  He really is growing too fast, and I fear that we are going to have a mobile child much earlier than expected!!  He can sit for a few seconds, but doesn't mind when he falls over.  He has started loving to hold toys and his favorite things to play with are his buzzy bee, any burp cloth, or any blanket.  He also loves to grab onto hair!!  Hannah and I can often be found saying, "Ouch! Ethan, let go of my hair!"  He has two teeth on the bottom, and is full fledged into 9-12 month clothes.  He is actually beginning to outgrow some of the 6-12 month clothes from Gymboree.  Ethan weighs 20lbs 2oz and is 29 inches tall.  He continues to be "above" the 95th percentile in height and weight!  

October

October started out with our second trip to St. Louis since Ethan was born!  Matt's parents celebrated their 50th anniversary on October 5th and we (Matt's siblings and their spouses) threw them a party!  What fun to see lots of family and friends and spend time with everyone!  We are so thankful for Kurt and Margie and the commitment they have shown to each other and to God.  It is so rare in our modern society to see such an example!

We had tons of fun at the party and for the weekend as a whole.  The kids did great on the flights.  Ethan slept most of the time, and Hannah had fun looking at books, doing a puzzle, and coloring.  The weekend was over too fast, but Hannah absolutely LOVED playing with her cousins:  Aaron, Andrew, and Sean Henry.  She also really enjoyed spending time with Claire and Grace while they babysat.  Ethan was so happy and loved to "talk" to everyone and was just full of smiles.

Since St. Louis, I feel like the rest of October just flew by!!!  On the 12th, we went to the UGA vs Mizzou football game in Athens.  It is always so fun to be back in my college down!  Despite Georgia's very poor showing, we had a good time.  Matt was thrilled with Mizzou's win of course, but was very nice and didn't rub it in!  Hannah and Ethan had a great time with Mama.  Ethan took bottles like a champ!

Then the weekend after that, we headed up to Asheville on Saturday for Lauren's baptism on Sunday.  It was a very fun, yet quick, trip.  Hannah just really loves playing with her cousins and Lauren is so precious!  We were also able to celebrate her first birthday a couple weeks early.  She was so cute trying the cake, but looked like she didn't want to get too messy!!  We love our sweet little Lauren Lucille and are so thankful that she is in our family!!

We've had lots of fun enjoying the cooler weather.  We made our first Jack o' Lantern and although Hannah is afraid of it, she LOVES eating roasted pumpkin seeds!  We took our little monkeys to church on Halloween for "Reformation Day" and Hannah had a blast running around, jumping in the bouncy house, getting her face painted, and riding her first horse!!

Fun in St. Louis

Sweet cousins at the Renaissance Festival!!!

Sweet Goforth Family

Halloween Fun!