Everyone Has Advice

Declan has been very... shall we say... clingy lately. He wants to be held and walked around constantly! He fusses and fusses if you're sitting down holding him or put him down, but then shuts right up once you stand up and get moving! So, I googled: “baby wants to be held all the time” and I found a woman with a similar experience…

“My 5 months old baby wants to be held all the time and cries when she's put down... what do I do? She’s been doing this since she was around 2 1/2 - 3 months old and some people say I spoiled her to the point where I’ll never be able to put her down. She cries when I sit down with her she basically just cries a lot when I’m not holding her. As soon as I pick her up she immediately stops crying. I don’t know what to do, did I spoil her and how do I break her of this?”

There were several answers letting the lady (and all of us out there who need to believe we’re not harming our kid by giving them what they want) know that you cannot spoil a baby. They just need love and affection at this age, and want to cuddle and be close to mom or dad. Example:

“First off you can't spoil a baby. I hate when people say that. Your baby needs you right now. But I know sometimes you don't want to carry the baby all the time so either just let her cry for awhile offer toys and make sure she's not wet or hungry or something. If you have something she likes to be in like a swing or her car seat put her in there for awhile.”

And this one:

“Get a vibration chair and buckle her in it when you are doing stuff around the house. Or get a playpen and put lots of fun toys in it. You can't spoil your baby at this age. She needs to know you are there for her. I know it gets tiring but pretty soon she will be all grown up and not even want to snuggle you. Take advantage of this time because it will be gone in a flash.”

Then there were some “not so nice” mama’s out there. One even felt the need to yell at us:

“PUT HER IN A PLAY PEN (WITH TOYS) AND GET YOUR HOUSE WORK DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She does NOT need to be held all of the time!As long as she has a full tummy and dry butt - let her be on her own - if she cries, walk away (out of her sight) and just ignore her. Sooner or later she will stop once she learns you are NOT going to hold her.”

“…and just ignore her…” ...very interesting…

And this lady, who was trying to say it nicely. I think.

“Unfortunately you did spoil her...”

Haha!!

Happy 10 Month Birthday

Declan's cousins Brooks & Gentry are 10 months old today!! Can't believe it! Sending them some love :)

His face is so innocent, but we all know better :)

Sweet little girl! Her eyes just light up!

by the way...do you think she's got enough toys to play with? Haha!

Family Fun Time

Last weekend, we drove out to Aunt Linda's house to hang out since the "Lubbock Crew" was in town. Woah...3 babies under 1 year + 3 big kids 8 and under + 5 parents + 3 doting grandparents = lots of noise, good food, and fun!! :)

Always angels: Skye Marie & Drew

Case & Mama Nicole (you can tell why the kids are so adorable!!)

Aunt Shannon & Dex

Me & Gentry (Shannon's little girl)...Love her "camera face" :) Hehe! So cute!

Nicole & Brooks (Gentry's sweet brother!)

Good times! As hectic as it is now with the kids, I can't imagine when they're actually mobile! Stay tuned for those 'sure to be interesting' posts!

I Might Have a Problem...

So... since my photo session at Kiddie Kandid's didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, I thought we'd try one more place. I really just want to find somewhere we can pop in last minute and walk out with prints! We went to Portrait Innovations in Colleyville, and it was exactly what I wanted. The photographers were good, they took several photos and the "photo picking" process was easy. Yay!!

When I told Sean I had set up an appointment at PI, he just shook his head, and I think laughed a little... But he agreed to go, awww...sweet guy! :) He did put his foot down though, and told me that I can't be taking pictures every three months until he graduates.

"And these are his 14 yr 9 month pics..."

So I promised this was just for his first year :)

These are a few of my favs. He didn't smile (but he came close). And at least he was very expressive! Haha!

Growing Up

When did my baby get so big?? Seemingly overnight, Dex has learned a few of new tricks. He holds his head up now with almost no problem at all (we sometimes get a little "bobble-head" early in the morning),


he likes to stand up (with some support from Daddy),

and when you hold him in the air, he sticks his legs straight out, like he's an airplane! See how much he loves it! Haha!

He looks like he's sporting an army buzz, now that his hair is starting to grow in a little :)

Go America!

Gone Country

There’s nothing like being out in the middle of nowhere to take your mind off things! We spent three days “out in the sticks” with Pop & Emi (grandpa & grandma Mills). My Sis & Bro got to be there, too, so it was an extra special trip!

Uncle Levi and Declan

"Yes, you're holding me...but you're not walking..."

Dex got some much needed attention (haha!) and momma and daddy got some much needed sleep!! I’m not sure why we bring things for Dex to play with, he’s always in somebody’s arms… When we got back to Grapevine and I put him down in his bouncy chair, he actually cried REAL tears! He looked up at me like “Why are you doing this to me?? Why aren’t you holding me??” Ahhh yes…this is going to be great fun for years to come :)

"Where's my Emi?? SHE'll pick me up!"

We got to visit our neighbors. I'm pretty sure Dex made their day!

Woodrow - 92 years ... Dex - 6 months

We took a walk through the pasture down to the tree Pop used to make Declan's cradle. The tree was blown over by Hurrican Rita. I'm pretty sure Dex would have enjoyed it...if he wasn't asleep the whole time.

The completed cradle. With bumper pads and linens made by Emi :)
All in all, a very eventful (for Dex) and relaxing (for m&d) trip! Let the "un-spoiling" begin!

Going to the Country

We're getting out of the city for a long weekend in Milam!  As you can tell, Dex is very excited :) 

Entertain Me!!

I don't need to explain this to anyone that's been inside our house (or seen us travel, for that matter), but we are full of toys engineered to entertain a 12 pound baby that can't walk or talk, or well, even sit up for that matter! Our arsenal has seemed to work pretty well up until now. Recently however, he can cycle through every entertainment devise we own in about 30 minutes. He will enjoy it for a while, decide he's had enough of whatever he's "playing" with, then fake cry until we move him on to the next thing. Boy needs to learn to walk!! We finally put together his play station that is designed for a 6 month old (he's technically about 3) since it sat him up and he seems to enjoy sitting so he can look around. He's not QUITE big enough for it, so we had to make a few alterations...

So his feet would touch the ground...

Notice the blanket stuffed behind him so he'll stay sitting up...

He's either engrossed in the spinny-things or he's wondering if he should cry or not...

And true to form, 10 minutes later, he's had enough!!

Haha! Can't even talk yet, and he's telling us what to do...

Older Pics

Now a few pictures from a REAL photographer! These were Dex's newborn pics taken in May, and they were done by Brandi Fornof (http://www.b4photography.com/). She will be doing all of my pics from now on!! She's awesome :) Thanks Brandi!!

For all you Hornfrogs out there...

Get Me Outta Here!

I’d like to start out by saying that I’m a little aggravated that my first post has to be about me getting aggravated at somebody, but hey, I get aggravated easily, so I suppose it’s fitting!

I scheduled a session at Kiddie Kandid’s yesterday, and WOW. I will never go back. Poor little Dex was so scared of the picture lady by the end of the session, we got out of there as quick as possible! When we left, I told Sean I wish I had been secretly recording this chick while she was taking the pictures. She was snapping her tongue, making motorboat sounds and kept touching his face and saying “DEEEEC-LIN!! DEEEC-LIN!” Oh my gosh, how annoying! Seriously this was his face:

Haha! I told her “Um…he doesn’t like loud noises and rattles in his face. Why don’t you just let me in there and see if I can get him to smile for a second.” To which she said okay, and then continued on behind me snapping and shaking that dad-gum rattle! Poor baby started to cry like 3 times.

I mean, if I’m coming in there with a young baby and I tell you that all I want is some pictures of him smiling, don’t you try to find out what’s going to make him smile? Don’t you see that he’s obviously not happy and possibly try something new?? Maybe ASK HIS PARENTS? Sheesh. There wasn’t ONE picture of a smile in the whole bunch.

And of course, I get there at 6, ask her how long we have so I can get him used to what’s going on so he’ll lighten up a little, she says she has another appointment at 7, so I’m thinking, “Good, we have an hour.” No. We are OUT THE DOOR at 6:30. That included looking through pictures and ordering/printing them. I could go on and on, but I’m just going to chock that up to a lesson learned, and I won’t be back!

Here is the ONE decent pic we got :)