Six Months.

Height & Weight: You weigh 18 pounds and 4 ounces and you're 27 inches long.  Good gracious, where did my tiny baby go??  

Health: You've been in tip top shape except for two short-lived colds.

Sleep:  You have gotten SO much better! I think the turning point was around five months.  You sometimes have trouble going down at night, but we have a routine and it seems to help.  You have bathtime, look in the mirror and have snuggles with daddy, then you eat and snuggle with me.  I usually lay you down awake and you fall asleep, but sometimes you fall asleep nursing.  I feed you again at 10pm before I go to sleep, but you are generally very drowsy. Most nights you sleep until sometime between 3:30-5:30 (You did make it to 6:40am once!) If you wake up before 4am daddy or I give you your paci and you fall back to sleep.  Your naps had gotten better as well.  Some days are better than others.  I lay you onto your tummy, you snuggle up with my scarf and your paci and most of the time fall asleep.  The past week has been awful and we've had lots of power struggles at nap and at bedtime, but I think it had to do with all the milestones you hit this week.  Bedtime has been close to normal the past three nights, but naptimes are still terrible.  I hope soon  you decide again that little naps are good for both of us.

Diet:  Milk is your favorite, but you've tried carrots, apples, sweet potatoes, peaches, pears and oatmeal.  Tomorrow we're going to try peas :) 

Clothes:  You are a chunker.  You can't even fit into anything six month size, haven't fit into them since 5 months.  You are wearing 9mo-12mo.  Pants are just plain  hard because of your fluffy cloth diaper butt.   

Baby Gear Love:  Your jumper is a favorite!  Recently we bought a high chair and you love it! I think it makes you feel like a big boy.  You love frozen teething toys and anything else that can fit in your mouth.  You have started to like toys that make noise and light up.  You spend lots of your time on the floor with mommy and daddy rolling around and playing toys or looking at books. 

Likes:  You still love bath time, singing silly songs with daddy, tasting different foods, looking at colorful books, video-chatting with aunties or Grandma and Grandpa, petting Comet, going for walks with mommy and being naked.

Dislikes:  When you're tired, but won't sleep, naptime, not being able to figure out a new skill. 

Social:  You enjoy other people, but you're starting to voice your opinion about wanting mommy and/or daddy.  You love your grandparents and aunties and uncles.  I love watching you play with your little friends.  The level of interaction is so wonderful.           

Milestones: The last week was incredible!  On Monday you started lifting your body off the ground on your hands and toes (plank) for less than a second.  Apparently you decided to skip your knees all together for right now.  Tuesday you were holding yourself up for seconds at a time.  Wednesday you were getting into your plank and scooting backwards and sitting up for a few seconds or longer when I'd place you in that position.  Thursday and Friday you were a moving machine scooting yourself across the floor.  Saturday you just continued practicing and then today you rolled from one end of the room to the other and when you couldn't roll anymore you started scooting backwards.  I'm sure forward crawling won't be far off.  You are amazing.  

Nicknames:  Daddy's nickname for you is Boomer and Mommy's is Goober, Gooby, Scooby.

We love you so much sweet little Boo Boo Bear! I can't wait to keep watching you grow!

Our Start in Cloth Diapering

Cloth diapering can be for everyone, but it certainly doesn't have to be! I'm in it to save money, to reduce what chemicals come in contact with Kai's skin and because he's just so cute wearing his fluff. We have been cloth diapering for about 4.5 months. We are still not cloth diapering full time and I'm not sure if we ever will. He wears one disposable every night. I've tried cloth at night but he always wakes up soaked and that's no fun for anyone. I've been reading up and I could buy different inserts to try, but I don't really know if I want to invest anymore at this time, especially without the assurance it will work for him. I like this blog post talking about different types of cloth diapering mommas. At first I was definitely The Newbie, but have since graduated to The Minimalist, secretly wishing I could be The Stasher. I did so much research and talked to every friend that cloth diapers, but I still think it's trial and error.  My cousin absolutely LOVES her Fuzzibunz and they worked great for her two boys, but the BumGenius have worked much better for Kai.  I hope I end up cloth diapering all the kids we're blessed with, mostly because I want the money we invested to go as far as possible. I'm just going to give a quick list of what we've used and are currently using because I'll write more detailed posts in the coming weeks.  Details on everything is just too much for one post!

What We Have Used:
Lil' Joeys Rumperoos - We were lucky to borrow these from a friend!  They were the first dipe that fit the little guy. 
Fuzzibunz Small - Kai wore these until about two weeks ago.  They weren't my favorite because if I didn't get to changing him quick enough (or didn't notice) right after he peed or pooped we were in for wet/dirty clothing.

WAHM Infant Pockets and AI2s (found incredibly cheap on Craigslist and they were great!)

What We're Currently Using:

Fuzzibunz Medium
BumGenius 4.0s and Freetimes - Snaps -  LOVE both of these :)
Flip Covers and Stay Dry Inserts - Snaps and Aplix - This is an incredible offer on a limited budget. 

Some Randoms I Don't Regularly Reach For:

Gro-Via Shell - Use with disposible inserts.  I got it on Craigslist. I wish I had one of their inserts, but they're expensive in my book.   

Charlie Banana Shell (Never Used) - Craigslist. I have no idea why this didn't have an insert with it. That's probably part of the reason I never reach for it. 

Kawaii (Never Used) - Got for free from Kelly's Closet.  It's too big for Kai still.

Wet Bags: I love all my wetbags!

Kanga Care (large in Blue, loving their new Charlie print!)
Bumkins (small in Croc)
Charlie Banana (small in Construction)

Wipes:
Homemade
Bumkins Flannel Wipes
Homemade Wipe Solution

Keep an eye out for the detailed posts coming soon!  Thanks for stopping by!  Feel free to leave a comment about what you love best in your stash or any questions you might have! 

No-Bake Energy Bites

Yesterday I wanted to make something, anything really.  When I'm in that kind of mood I usually wander over to Pinterest to look what I've pinned to see if anything looks good.  I found two pins, Skinny Monkey Cookies and No-Bake Energy Bites.  I weighed the two, both looked equally tasty, but in the end I realized I didn't have applesauce, plus finding time to bake something with a 5 month old seemed like too much work.  No-Bake Energy Bites is it!  I went off the recipe from Smashed Peas and Carrots, but with my own twist.  I also doubled her recipe because as a nursing momma I eat all the time.  I didn't want to eat them all while making them and hoped for some leftovers.  Thankfully there are some left in the fridge for today's consumption :) 

Here's what I used:

2 Cups Oatmeal
1 Cup Peanut Butter*
2/3 Cup Honey **
1 Cup Flaxseed Meal/Ground Flaxseed
1 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips
2 Cups Crushed Honey Nut Cherrios and Graham Crackers***
2 tsp Vanilla

* I think any nut butter would work, especially if allergies are present.  There are many comments on the post from Smashed Peas and Carrots talking about different choices.  I actually used 1/4 Cup crunchy peanut butter and the rest creamy. That's what what I had on hand and it seemed to work just fine. 
** I used creamed honey from the Farmer's Market and it looked like it had cinnamon in it, but I'm not sure.  I think adding cinnamon and other spices would be great.  
*** I used these because I needed something to replace the coconut in the original recipe.  One I didn't have any coconut and two I don't like coconut.  My huband likes coconut so next time I would possibly split the ingredients in half and add coconut to half for him and maybe dried cranberries or raisins for me.  I would also like to try throwing some chia seeds in.  I love chia seeds :) 

There are so many different combinations that I could try I'm sure I'll be making these in the future!

After putting everything in a bowl I microwaved it for 30-45 seconds, which nicely melted the chocolate chips.  I like the texture better without crunchy chocolate chips.  I mixed it all together and rolled in into balls.  The mixture sat on the table for a little while in the middle so I could tend to Kai, but it didn't seem to matter.  I finished rolling them and put them in the fridge which made them harden.  (The original recipe says to cool and then roll.) They are so darn tasty!  Hopefully they'll last a few more days, but we'll see.  Enjoy!

For a photo check out my Instagram!  My username is emhammar. (My computer wouldn't upload for this post.)

This Kid.

Seriously how did I get so lucky?  I can't even begin to put into words the love I have for this little man.  I can't get enough of his rolls, his ticklish toes, his pouty lip when he's sad, his toothless grins (which I don't think will last much longer), his contagious giggles, when he sneaks smiles at his daddy or Comet, his love for bathtime, his snuggles or his love for reading books.  He's my little Goober.  I consider myself so blessed.  I promise to post a six month update around Feb 23!  Stay tuned!