For the past three days Teddy have been taking his normal two naps and the a quick nap around 6:30 for anywhere from 45 mind to an hour. Then, he’s been awake until about 9:00. It’s actually been pretty nice because… Get this.
Teddy has been sleeping through the night! You heard me! From 9:00 until 5:00/5:30! Then sometimes he’ll even go back to bed for another 2 hours! It has been amazing. I hope I didn’t just jinx it now by writing it down.
Fingers crossed!
Teddy, you’re 7 months old today! This coming month you’ll get to experience two of my favorite holidays, Christmas and New Years. Last year I enjoyed them so much because you were in my belly and I was so anxious for this year to come and I could hold you. This year I’m so excited to have you here with us! I’m anxious to see how you respond to opening presents on Christmas day, I hope you like what you’ll be getting.
This month, you finally decided that you really like food. You were always willing to try foods but you weren’t much of an eater, now you’re “mmmmm”ing, smacking your lips and drooling whenever food is in sight. We are always having to move everything away from you at the table because you are so eager to get at it.
You’ve mastered crawling, pulling yourself up onto things, transferring, sort of waving, and saying “dada.” I can’t wait to see what next month hold for you!
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Wow! This month Teddy is more mobile than ever. He always is on the go. Grandma said, “Now I know why you’re always tired. This kid is crazy!” Teddy is hardly ever content to just be in your arms anymore. He always wants to be crawling around and getting into things. It keeps me on my toes, that’s for sure!
I mentioned that Teddy has mastered crawling, but what’s funny is that he’s such a hefty little guy that he’s not exactly fluid in his execution. He’s very rigid when he puts one leg, one arm, one leg, on arm to move forward. We joking call him Teddy “The Tank” because he’s so slow moving. That doesn’t stop him from demolishing anything in his path.
This month Boone actually started to be nice to Teddy. Not nice enough for me to capture any of the cuteness, but he’s actually kind of taken to him. It’s very sweet.
Teddy had many fun adventures this month, including going to Knott’s Berry farm! Nana and Papa are allowed discount tickets during the month of November since Papa is a Marine so the entire Lopez clan went down to Knotts and tore it up! I had forgotten how fun Knotts can be with all the western scenes and rides. That could have also been because cousin Ju-Ju LOVES “choo-choos”, “yee-haws”, and “bang-bangs”. It is so fun to experience things with kids.
Teddy loved all the rides he went on, including the balloons. He had to sit on his own across from Alex and he did great! It was so cute. I can’t wait to take him again next year when he’s a little older and can try out some of the bigger kid rides, but I don’t think I’ll ever be prepared for when he wants to go on crazy rollercoasters. I’ll just need to pray my way through that.
Teddy really loves music and not just in a dance to it kind of way. He really appreciates it. He looks in wonder whenever he sees someone playing the piano, cello, or guitar. He LOVES beats to music and gets very excited when people sing. It’s so sweet. This past month I showed him Yo-Yo-Ma playing his cello on Mister Rodgers and he was entranced. If he doesn’t end up doing something with music I’ll be surprised.
Teddy also had his first Thanksgiving this month! I wasn’t always a huge fan of Thanksgiving growing up because I don’t like turkey or ham. But as I’ve gotten older I’ve really come to love it. A friend of mine put into words exactly what it is, “I love this holiday more than any other for approximately two reasons. Number one being that you basically do nothing all day besides sit, talk and eat. There are no presents to be purchased, no nothing you need to do besides be. The second reason is, of course, the community.” I LOVE this. It’s exactly why this holiday is so great. We spent the first half of the day with the Thomazins and the second half of the day with the Lopezes. Then we decided to make a weekend of it and see the Cotsenmoyers for Auntie Am’s birthday. Teddy, Ten and Cam love hanging out, when they aren’t fighting over toys, stealing binkies, and scratching each other.
We also were able to finishing unpacking and decorate our house for Christmas! Hooray. I LOVE Christmas and the decorations that come with it. I wish we could leave them up all year; mostly the christmas lights. The glow the give is so cozy and warm.
So, here’s the Holiday season, to you and yours! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I know that I said Teddy has really taken to food, but he seems to be uninterested in anything baby food related. He’s not interested in rice cereal, baby oatmeal or even mashed up things like avocado. However, he’ll eat little bits of things from my plate during meal times. He loves eggs, sausage, and even blueberry muffins, beans and rice. I’m always shocked to find that he likes bitter and sour things. He LOVES to chomp on pickles, olives, and even blueberries.
So, today I thought I’d try something different. I warmed up a few blueberries and mashed them up into his baby oatmeal. Hooray! HE LOVED IT! He even ate the entire serving. He has never done it before.
Now if only we could find the secret to scheduled nap times, sleeping through the night, and above all, sleeping past 6:00 am.
Half a year! Teddy, you’ve made it. Not only have you survived without any serious bodily injury, but I don’t think we’ve messed you up mentally really either. You love to challenge us — that’s for sure. You make a decision and you just go for it. Nothing is going to stand in your way!
You continue to show you absolute favoritism to our dog. Boone. Yes, Boone is your most favorite thing in the whole world. I never thought I would have to compete with the family dog, but both Dad and I struggle to get your attention if Boone is in the room. You laugh and screech hysterically whenever he enters the room.
You’re also loving food and crawling everywhere. I cannot turn my back for a second and there is absolutely no getting anything done while you’re awake. You require my complete attention now. It’s fun though. You are such a fun guy to hang out with. You love to explore things around the house. Your favorite thing right now is boxes, cords, and the laptop. That could have something to do with the fact that we moved this month, but I also think you love the computer because you get to talk to Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Papa on the computer. You love them too, just not as much as Boone.
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Teddy has had so many adventures this month. He had his first Halloween where he dressed up as a pilot and Boone dressed up as an airplane. We really wanted to do a family costume that was a bit more creative but between the move and Alex’s school schedule, there was just no way.I look forward to doing something awesome and creative next year! Not to discredit this year, because it was pretty stinkin’ cute.
We also moved this month. It was a crazy endeavor but we could not have done it without my parents and Creswell helping me pack and our amazing friends who helped us move! Then those who came over to help me UNPACK! Seriously, we are crazy blessed. Moving with a baby was so different from other moves we’ve done. I felt completely disorganized and felt like I didn’t help at all. It was a humbling experience for me and I’ve been realizing that even though I love helping others, sometimes it’s okay to receive help as well. I don’t need to apologize for it either — just take the help and say “thank you.” Again, I am so blessed.
Teddy has his six month check up this week and I’m pretty sure he’s over 20 lbs now. Exercising with him has been fun. I feel like I’m building up some great arm muscles from tossing him in the air and doing “baby-kisses pushups”. He doesn’t stay on his back very long for those though.
The milestones that Teddy met this month include: actual crawling, pulling himself up on things, saying “baba”, getting his first teeth (the bottom two), and eating real food! I feel like this past month he just decided he was going to accomplish a bunch of things and he just did it! Remember how I was saying it’s so nice that he’s not growing up too fast? Well watch out! I’m pretty sure this kid is going to be walking by 9 months.
Teddy can crawl so quickly now. I cannot turn my back for a second. He’s getting into everything. The cupboards, the dog bowls, the boxes, the trash, cords behind the couch. He’s obsessed with everything he shouldn’t be. It’s going to be out goal this weekend to start baby proofing the house, that’s for sure.
Not only can Teddy crawl, but he can pull himself up onto things. He crawls over to his walker and tries desperately to pull himself up to reach the toys. Thank goodness we have carpet now because on the wood floors he would never be able to get up on it. There is an unfortunate side effect to this new talent though. He falls a lot! I’ve been able to catch him many times but it’s crazy how fast he just topples over without any warning! He’s a trooper and gets right back up. We haven’t had any big tears yet.
Teddy’s newest addition to his language set is “baba”. He says this all the time. When I say all the time, I mean it. At his 3:00 am feeding and diaper change, as his 6:00 am wake up call, morning, noon and night. What is hilarious is that he will not say, “dada” anymore. If you say, “baba” to him he just goes and goes repeating it back and smiling at you. But once you say, “dada” he clams up. It’s the strangest thing. But again, when he decides something he’s going to do it. No bones about it. I am of course really looking forward to him saying, “mama”. I’m pretty sure my heart with just melt out of my chest and I’lll cry.
Teddy has also started eating food this month. He loves sweet potatoes, squash, avocado and chocolate shakes. Haha, okay, we’ve only given him a few sips of one, but he sure loves it. I’m so glad he likes such a variety of foods already. What we’ve found most interesting is that he LOVES sour and salty things like pickles and olives. Of course I LOVE them too so it makes me excited to see some of myself in him.
The weekend we moved we also had a fun family celebration! Nana and Papa celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. Papa surprised Nana with a vow renewal which we all were able to be a part of. It was very special. Afterward we went to Santa Barbara for family pictures taken by the amazing Alex Creswell (Andie as we call her) and dinner. It was a lovely day.
Finally, Teddy’s biggest and most exciting adventure this month was his first trip to Disneyland! We drove down on Monday morning to meet Grandpa, Grandma Aunt Jewels, Uncle Thomas, and Uncle Jonathan to celebrate Grandpa’s birthday. We spent all day on Monday at the park and then Teddy and I were able to stay another day at the park on Tuesday. I know that Teddy won’t really remember the trip, but I know Alex and I will have fond memories of his first trip.
I can’t believe we’re entering into the holidays. I’m so excited for Teddy’s first Thanksgiving and Christmas. Until then though, here are a few pictures from this month with our little Bubba Bear.
That’s right, I said TEETH. This kid had been really fussy lately but not overly so and then seriously, out of the blew… we have TWO bottom teeth. I can’t believe how much this kid has decided to grow up this past month. 
We officially have a crawler on our hands! For a few weeks Teddy has been doing this weird kind of army crawl where he drags his legs behind him and uses his arms to pull himself. We say he looks like a zombie because he also makes grunting and gasping noises while he does it. If there were zombie babies on the show “The Walking Dead” he’d be a star.
Teddy hadn’t been showing any signs of getting ready to really crawl except doing the rock-a-rock where he gets up on his hands and knees and just rocks back and forth. I had been trying to get him to crawl from that position but every time he would just belly plop and zombie crawl to his destination.
Last week though, at bible study, Sally plopped him down and he just went for it! We didn’t believe it at first so I grabbed my camera and he did it again! Over and over he kept crawling. We all cheered him on. It’s so sweet to see how everyone just loves this little guy so much. He has so many people rooting for him and loving on him!
Now that he’s had a good week of practice I literally can’t leave the room for a second. He can crawl from the living room to the kitchen in 10 seconds. It’s crazy. I was texting my inlaws saying how there’s no way I can get anything done while he’s awake now and they all said, “Don’t! Just enjoy him.”
I think I will. I love this crazy, crawling, zombie kid.
We now have a baby on the move and always hungry! About a month ago we started letting Teddy try some of our foods. A few beans here, an avocado there, some chocolate shake. He was really into whatever we gave him to try. We even gave him a lemon and he seemed to enjoy it, after the first shocking taste.
With each new food comes a whole new adventure for this little guy and as a food lover myself, it sure makes me happy that he’s so into food. What has been pretty comical though in this whole food experience is that every time he takes a bite he makes a scrunched face as if he doesn’t like it. Then he’s “mmmmm”ing and opening his mouth for more. But, as soon as you give him another taste he does it again. So hilarious.
Now that we are all moved in we’ve been giving Teddy actual foods to eat. So far he’s had avocado, sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, black beans, and tomatoes. He’s a huge fan of sweet potatoes and squash but he DOES NOT like bananas. It’s absolutely hilarious to me how much he hates them. He gags and shivers whenever I try and feed them to him. I can’t believe such a little person who hasn’t experienced much of anything can have his such strong opinions. I love that he’s not a particularly picky eater though. It makes giving him new foods to try more fun.
It’s been so fun watching him experience new foods. Pretty soon he’ll be eating us out of house and home! He’s definitely a growing boy, that’s for sure and he’s changing more and more everyday.
Are we insane? Yes… yes we are. Moving with a baby is HARD. Packing is a joke, cleaning is non-existent and so is rest. Any time Teddy was sleeping I was packing/organizing/cleaning. But the reality is, I have a part-time job and a full-time job being his Mom. Alex has a full-time job and a full-time school load AND he’s a Dad! So, when our lease was up we really had to consider if moving was going to be an option for us, or if we should just renew our lease.
Alex began the process of looking for a new place, just to see what was out there and what our options were. He spent neither every lunch break for a week looking at places. He narrowed it down to three places and made a spreadsheet (because that’s what we do) comparing them all. Together we decided on apartments in TO, 7 mins from Alex’s work, close to church and our doctors, and the mall. It’s a one bedroom with a den (for Teddy), central A/C and a washer/dryer AND dishwasher. It has everything I needed to feel good about making a move. So, the packing began.
My parents and Creswell came out the weekend before the move and we kicked the crap out of packing. Every single thing was packed except for essentials. It was a huge blessing and I still can’t believe we were able to get it all done in two days with a baby. Teddy was a champ but definitely was having a bit of a panic attack at us packing everything up. The poor guy didn’t understand what was happening to his house!
Then throughout the week Alex and I began packing up the essentials. The weekend rolled around and we had family come visit. We celebrated Nana and Papa’s anniversary and also attended church on Sunday. Everyone thought we were crazy. Maybe we were, but our time with our family and church family was precious. On Sunday, after church, Alex got the UHAUL and a bunch of church friends met us at our apartment (6 to be exact). It took all six of us and Teddy 6 hours to move all of our things from the old apartment to the new apartment. Did I mention that this new one is an upstairs unit? I didn’t? Oh. Did I mention that we might be crazy? I did? Oh…
4 of the guys lugged our bed, or couch, out table, our entertainment unit, Teddy’s crib and our PIANO up the stairs. I couldn’t believe it. All in 6 hours time.
This past week I’ve had so much help unpacking the place. Almost every day someone has come over to either watch Teddy so I can unpack or help me unpack while Teddy is napping. I can’t say it enough, WE ARE BLESSED.
The new place seems to be agreeing with us. I absolutely love it and Teddy is warming up to it as well. In fact, he’s finally sleeping through the bulk of the night now in his own room. For the past four nights he’s only woken up once. I’ve enjoyed the sleep and the extra energy I’ve had to be able to work and unpack. Again, we’re blessed. And also, crazy. 
Our family tradition. We always have Del Taco the first meal in a new place.
We are currently in a crazy time of our lives. Alex is in school and possibly one of the hardest semesters he’s had. I started a part-time job at our church and to top it off we’re moving. Needless to say a super, ultra cool Halloween costume wasn’t the first thing on our list.
But, as luck would have it, Auntie Jonna had purchased Teddy a pilot outfit for my baby shower in a 6 month size! Huzzah!! To top it off we had Boone’s costume from the year before. Seriously, our dog is pretty great.
So, without further ado, Teddy the pilot and Boome the plane!
We made sure to stop by Auntie Jonna’s for Teddy’s first trick-or-treat experience. Then he headed out to a fun party with tasty chili, cornbread, treats and trick-or-treating. What a blast!
Teddy was great at the party and it was so fun to see all the kids being able to walk around a neighborhood and ask for candy. Everyone was so friendly and some of the houses were so creative!
We had such a great time celebrating Teddy’s first holiday tradition. He even waited until we got home to conk out because he didn’t want to miss anything.
Teddy you are our little squirmer and talker! You are always on the move. You love to jump, “walk” in your walker and army crawl. You also learned how to say, “dada” this month and you LOVE to wake up around 5:00 am with a song in your heart — except you usually share it with the entire neighborhood.
You, as usual, are very vocal about your distaste for things like your carseat and being left alone for any amount of time even if I just walk into the kitchen. You have been tasting different foods this month and I think you’re finally ready to start trying some food! At first you always make a face as though you’re shocked and mad that we fed you, but then you seem to really enjoy whatever we give you. You’re very excited about starting to try new foods and you often try to reach for whatever I’m eating or drinking. Your hand-eye coordination is really good! You even seem to understand the difference between food items and non-food items.
You continue to be the happiest and easiest baby in the world. Even when you got sick this month with a cold we would still smile and laugh constantly. You had so many fun adventures this month including your first camping trip! You were a trooper and even slept fairly well through the night.
You most definitely are going to start crawling this month and we are SO NOT READY! But, ready or not, HERE YOU COME!
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Teddy is a champ. He’s always up for anything and boy have we tried a lot with him this month! Teddy had his first trip to San Luis Obispo this month and his first sink bath, he started saying his first word, he went on his first camping trip, and even went to the park for the first time! He is such a trooper and a dare devil. He’s fearless and comfortable doing just about anything. Some things make him apprehensive at first but once he gets going he loves whatever we throw at him.
His sleeping patterns this month have left much to be desired. He’s back to waking up every 4 hours and I am exhausted. When does the sleep come again? My brain needs it.
One thing that is amazing though is this kid’s ability to fall asleep anywhere (he gets it from his Dad for sure). In the middle of a noisy church service, a classroom, a starbucks or the beach, if this kid is tired there ain’t nothing gonna stop him from sleeping.
He still isn’t too fond of the adventure chair unless someone is sitting in the back with him. I don’t mind doing it, but on long car rides I’ve found myself getting pretty sick in the back so we’re at a point where we’re wondering if we should just let him be frustrated and figure it out or try something new. For the most part, Teddy is a super easy-go-lucky baby but when it comes to the adventure chair there is no changing his mind. He HATES it.
A few things he does love are his jumper and his walker. I LOVE it because he just goes and goes while I am cooking, doing dishes, or doing laundry. It sure beats caring around this 18 lb hunk of baby. That’s right, folks! 18 lbs.
This month Teddy was dedicated to the Lord at our church in Newbury Park. Almost all our family was able to make it up and it was a wonderful service. I remember seeing pictures and video of my brother, sister and I being dedicated and thinking how fun it would be when I had my own. I definitely teared up while we were up there with our extended family and church family lifting us up in prayer and praying blessing over Teddy’s life.
We chose 1 Samuel 1:27-28 as his life verse because it is the verse that came to me the day I found out I was pregnant. It also was the inspiration for his name because the verse explains that God was faithful to answer our prayers for a child and because of that we acknowledge that he is a gift from God and should be constantly given back to him, for his whole life. To say we are blessed seems to be the understatement of the century but we are. Here’s a link to the dedication video if you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet.
The craziest thing we did this month was a train ride from Riverside. The train was WAY better than driving because I could change his diaper and feed him whenever I needed to without having to pull over — but man, lugging around a stroller, bags, diaper bag, and an 18lb baby through Union Station is quite comical. I survived though and Teddy really enjoyed the ride.
Okay, I take it back. The CRAZIEST thing we did this month was take our 5 month old on a camping trip. EVERYONE thought we were crazy and brave. I just tried not to think about it. Being out here has been challenging and having a baby makes being a part of a community even harder because (surprise) it take a lot of work to get places and do things with a baby.
So, when our church announced that we were doing an all church camping trip, Alex and I resolved that we were going to make it happen. I am so glad we did. Teddy was fantastic and we had so much help and love shown to us on the trip. Did I mention how much I love our church family? Teddy does too, that’s for sure. He even ALMOST crawled to Miss Sarah, on the beach. This kid is not lacking in the love department at all.
What an amazing month it’s been so far. We never think it’s possible to love this little guy more, but every day we are in awe of how much more we love him. I think it’s been the craziest yet. Next month will be even crazier though because we’re attempting a move — with a baby! More on that in the future. Until then, here are a few favorite photos from our adventures this month with the Bubba Bear.
