Thad is 7 Months Old

What a big month it was! At 7 months Thad, you had lots of firsts including trying solid foods, celebrating Christmas, and sprouting your first tooth!

 

 

 

 

Here you are trying your first bite of solid food - carrots.  You did great! 

 

 

 



Picking out the perfect Christmas tree.

Playing on the playground after church.

McCord (2010), Wade (2012), and Thad (2014)

PJs with Santa - I think your brothers are sugar-crazed, but you were quite a smiley little elf!

Oh Thad!  You are such a trooper!  This was your first bath with the Bigs and they jumped on you like a new bath toy, and bless your easy-natured soul, you just smiled through the whole experience.

Sitting at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning waiting to see what Santa brought (2014)

After your bath, we sing, "Jesus Loves Me" before I nurse you to sleep.

One of my favorite pictures of you at 7 months - just nibbling on your toes. I just adore every pudgy fold and can hardly believe how many dimples fit into the frame of the camera.

Here you are waking up from a nap and I noticed you sprouted your first tooth - your bottom right.  You acted as if it was no big deal, but I could tell that you were proud of it - smiling a lot and playing with your lips and tongue.  When the second one emerged less that a week later, it brought some discomfort with it.

Thad is 6 Months Old

 

This post is a little bit difficult for me to write, because 6 months old is both a wonderful and a sad thing at the same time.  What an absolute blessing it is to have had 6 amazing, healthy, wonderful months with you, Thad Campbell - but at the same time, it is a milestone that reminds me how quickly time passes.  I feel as though I was holding you in my arms for the very first time just yesterday, but in reality, that moment was half a year ago.  It has been an absolute gift for me to give birth to 3 healthy little boys, each so unique and special. As babies, I had the privilege to hold each of you in my arms, comforting you in the middle of the night. And now I look upon this picture, above, and am so thankful that you three have each other to hold on to.  It is my prayer that you will always be close.

As I go back through these pictures of you at 6 months old, I am amazed by how much you grew in one month.  Here you are as a young 6 month old....

 

...and here you are as an almost-7-month-old wearing the same outfit as above.  My! How you have grown!

 

At 6 months, you sat in the high chair for the first time.  Before you were quite content to lay on your belly on the floor and watch all of the activity around you, but now in the high chair, you seem to enjoy the change of perspective.  Many times, I will put you in the high chair while I'm cooking dinner, and you love to sit and watch.

Enjoying some time with Poppie and GeeGee

And here you are in the jumper-roo for the first time.  Bubba was quite excited for you to try this out!

Happy Thanksgiving, Thad!

Thad is 5 Months Old

Dear Thad, I'm a few months late to write this post, but it's important to me to document these precious months of your first year, because you are so special to us. And anyone who knows you, Thad, knows that you are pretty special just because you are you. 

 

Not a day goes by that I don't thank God for you - an absolute gift!  You are happy, easy to please, easy to entertain, and generous with your smile and engaging eyes.  And speaking of that smile - it's sort of your signature thing.  You willingly share your one dimple and crooked smile with everyone, and I treasure every single smile you throw my way.

 



Here are a few highlights of your fifth month of life.

Our church offers a Kindermusik class for babies, and here you are at your first class.  You were the youngest, and one of the only boys, but you loved hearing all of the noises and exploring the rain stick and drums. Most of the other babies were crawling around, and you loved laying on your belly and watching them. I think you were actually 4 months old when you started the class. 



There's no doubt that your brothers adore you....



....and you've gotten quite used to being smushed in the name of love.

Here we are a the local nursery picking out a tree to plant in our yard in your honor.  Each of your brothers have a tree and we've documented their growth along with the trees, and we plan to do the same with you.  Bo picked out a beautiful Cherry tree for you and we can't wait to see it bloom in the spring.

 

At 5 months, you enjoyed your first Halloween

We carved our pumpkin on the back deck.  You and I are sitting here enjoying each other's company, while your brothers are exploring the ooey gooey insides of our pumpkin.

Happy Halloween, Thad!  Here we are at a neighbor's house right before trick or treating.  You wore the same dinosaur costume I made for Wade when he was your age.  Your tail, however, never seemed to stay attached.  McCord was a cowboy and Wade was Maxx from Where the Wild Things Are

A day or so before Halloween, we went to visit Daddy at work in costume, and you got a lot of laughs as a tiny Georgia football player.


 

This picture is so special to me.  At five months, you and I loved to swing together.  Here we are swinging in the hammock in the back yard.  You loved to lay on my chest and take in all of the sights and sounds.  I love the wonder in your eyes here, and right after I took this picture, I discovered how much I love to kiss your chin.  It's quite possibly the most kissable spot, but hard for me to get to, unless of course we're on the hammock.

I love this picture of you - your calm, sweet smile - this pretty much sums up how you are all the time.  This picture was taken on your first election day.  You came to the polls with me.

Thad is One Month Old

 

Dear Thad, I knew just moments after you were born, that you were going to be the sweetest baby.  I held you so close the first day of your life that I hardly had a moment to take a proper picture.  And to this day you love to snuggle.  I love to rub my cheek on your face, feeling your soft baby breath on my face and the fuzz on the top of your head.  You'd think a baby would get tired for all the smooshing I do to you all day long, but you just love to be cuddled. 

Here you are at just 2 weeks old wearing one of your Daddy's outfits that GeeGee saved.  It brings me so much joy to see you and your brothers wear things that used to be worn by Bo. 

This is how we spent the majority of your first month - all snuggled up on the bed with the ipad for entertainment.  Our days were slow paced and uneventful and perfect.  We made sure that we didn't have a thing to do but be together and get to know you.

During the day you slept best on the dining room table in the papysan, and at night you slept in the bassinet that once belonged to Gee Gee as an infant.  Daddy and both of your brothers also slept in it when they were babies. 

Your first outing.  Daddy and I took you out to a restaurant and we thought you'd sleep the whole time, but in stead you were quite alert for being just a couple of weeks old.  I rocked your car seat the whole time to keep you comfortable and gave evil glances to anyone that looked like they wanted to touch you.  I was very over protective of you in the early days to protect you from germs. 

Another one of your first outing to the museum with your brothers.  There was a special exhibit on bugs, and we were in a big bug phase over the summer. 

Your brother Wade loves to be close to you.  Although he knows your name, he still just calls you "Baby." Wade is quite a kisser and as you know, he can't keep his lips off of you. 

Your oldest brother, McCord, loves to hold you - even as Batman, he can be quite gentle.

Your first Forth of July - we celebrated with Poppie and Gee Gee at the lake.

Mother's Day 2013

Because I've been in the business of playing catch-up with this blog ever since Wade was born, I'm posting a very belated picture of my first Mother's Day with 2 boys.

We had a family of house finches build a nest on our back porch, and we noticed on Mother's Day that the baby birds had hatched.  It was quite amazing to watch her feed her little ones.  They've all flown from the nest now, and she returned to her nest for her second litter (if that's what you call it for birds).  Today we noticed that they just hatched out.  We're enjoying a back porch biology lesson from this little family of finches.  

Wade is 11 Months Old

Oh dear!  How did this happen?  Wade is 11 months, but in just 7 days he'll be a year old!!!

 

 



Wade and his maple and Mc hanging out in the background without pants.  We're normal, right?

As ususal, I'm late, late, late to make his monthly post. Here are a few snapshots of Wade at 11 months old and a few that I wanted to include from 10 months.



This year Wade attended his first Come-See-Me festival. We are so incredibly thankful for our city and all of the volunteers who plan, organize, and implement Rock Hill's annual festival. It is really an incredible experience, and we are truly blessed to live in a town that does so much for its residents and visitors.

One of our favorite festival activities is the picnic lunch at Glencairen Gardens with musical performances.  The boys and I packed a lunch and made this a daily activity.  This is also where Wade got a taste of his fist goldfish cracker. You can see the remnants of it here.  Little guy loves a goldfish!

Bo picked up lunch and joined us on Thursday.

We had a little shin-dig at our house for the final night of Come-See-Me.  I put the boys to work.

Bo helped coordinate and participate in a bed race for a local non-profit (all part of Come-See-Me).  Participants literally built beds on wheels and raced them down the street.  It sounds strange, but it was oddly entertaining.  His team didn't place, but their 60s-themed volkswagon van turned bed on wheels looked groovy being pushed down Main Street by a bunch of hippies. 

Here we are at our next stop on the same day, "Everything Trucks," an event where the city brings in all sorts of trucks that children can climb in and honk the horns.  This is the second time we've attended this event, and it is so much fun for kids and adults both.  Here we are sitting in the very truck that picks up our garbage every Tuesday. When I asked him if our house was on his route, he said, "Oh yeah, I know exactly where y'all live..."  I felt pretty convicted that we produce way too much trash for a family of four.  Needless to say, we thanked him profusely for picking up after us!



Beware: you are about to see pink overload in the next few images, but Bo and the boys were all wearing pink on the same day and they were all just so cute!  I had to take pictures.

These two are quite a pair!

At the Winthrop baseball game, celebrating Bo's birthday. Wade attended his first game at just a couple of days old, and now here he is again at almost a year. 

Trying out sweat bands as knee pads

This little guy has been busy-busy this month.  Here are some of the highlights:

• Crawling like a maniac and pulling up -- the crawling started at10 months, and the pulling up is a newly developed skill. Favorite things to crawl toward: dogfood and shoes and he loves to put both in his mouth.  Ever vigilant, we are with this crawling babe.
• The other day, Bo was getting him dressed in his pjs after bathtime, and Wade kept rolling over on his belly and crawling likity-split to the other side of the bed. Bo said getting Wade dressed is "kind of like putting pants on a slug!" and it's so true.  I've never known a baby who's such a challenge to dress or change a diaper.  His wrestling moves are out of this world!   This little guy is a wiggly, pudgy, chunky slug! 
• At 10 months Wade started saying Mama and Dada and McCord loves to hear Wade talk.  Earlier this evening, Wade was standing at one of his toys pushing buttons and watching it light up and make noise.  He was squealing and speaking jibberish - so proud of himself.  Mc walked over to him and said, "Are you talking Wade?" Sometimes I'll ask Mc what he thinks Wade's saying and Mc's answer is always the same, "...hummmm...he says he wants to go to the park!"
• He was doing a great job eating his veggies, but a couple of weeks ago, I let gave him a goldfish, and it's been all over since then.  This little guy refuses to eat anything other than something cracker-related.  Goldfish, Ritz crackers, and Club mini crackers are his 3 food groups. 

My first Mother's Day with two little boys