Ethan is 7 months old

Ethan continues to grow into such a happy baby boy!  He started taking some "crawling" steps just before his 7 month birthday, so I am certain we are in for it now!!  He has learned to clap and we think he might be waving, though we haven't determined if it's intentional or not.  He can get up to the sitting position on his own now too!  Army crawling is his preferred method of transportation and he has gotten really fast!!  He loves to chase balls around the house.  He has started to take some "steps" in the full crawling motion, so I know he will be hard to keep up with soon!  He continues to nurse about 5 times a day with an occasional day with only 4 times.  He is sleeping great and usually takes 2 naps, but some days will take a 3rd short nap.  He loves food and has increased what he eats.  He eats about 3-4 ounces at a meal now, and I am about to start giving him 2 meals a day.  I'm not sure what his favorite food is, as he eats everything very well!  My favorite to give him is avocado and I'm thankful that he loves it! He eat cheerios very well and has started trying small bits of other soft things like banana and avocado.  I prefer to feed him with a spoon though because it's much less messy!  He loves to go to the grocery store and sit like such a big boy in the cart.  His favorite though is when the "racecar" is available so he and Hannah can ride together.  Ethan loves bath time, peek-a-boo, and his sister!  We didn't go to the doctor this month so I don't have exact statistics on weight and height, but he has definitely grown taller!  He can easily fit into all of his 12-18 month clothes, can still wear his 9-12 month clothes, and has officially outgrown his 6-12 month gymboree/gap clothes.

December

December has been an exciting month.  Hannah is really starting to understand Christmas and it has been so fun to watch her excitement grow!  She loves the tree, and asks every morning to do the Advent Calendar.  She has been very good with the ornaments, looking at them and showing me her favorites, but never actually taking them off of the tree.  She has also been awesome with the presents!  The beginning of December was busy with Christmas parties to go to and then the preparations for our first Christmas party!  It was so fun to plan a menu of appetizers and desserts and look for lots of decorations to make our home pretty and festive!!  We had a great time and while I made too much food, everyone had a great time!

Christmas was so fun this year!  Hannah loved her presents and played with every single one!!  Her big gift this year was a play kitchen that my very talented brother-in-law made.  Hannah's eyes lit up when she saw and was just so excited!  We have been enjoying cooking lots of food!!  My parents were able to come up for a few days over Christmas so that was so fun to have them there.  We went to church on Christmas Eve and just hung out Christmas day enjoying each other and opening presents.  Then Christmas afternoon, we had Matt's aunt and uncle join us for a delicious Christmas dinner.  It was a nice day full of special memories!  The day after Christmas we had a fun visit with the Goforths! And then the weekend after Christmas, Aunt Melissa and Uncle Eric came up for a visit.  It was definitely a busy week but so much fun!!!

The biggest news of our month is that Matt changed jobs!  He interviewed with a company called Thornburg and is their new wholesaler for the Carolinas and Tennessee.  He is super thrilled though sad to be leaving some great friends at John Hancock.  We look forward to all of the opportunities he has with his new company!

We finished out 2013 with a little New Years Eve party at our house.  We had two very special families up for the night.  There were 6 adults, 2 two year olds, 1 one year old, and 2 infants!  It was a little crazy but so much fun!!  We are thankful for 2013 and all of the blessings it has brought us and we look forward to 2014!!!

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!!