A Letter To My Son {Month 6}

{NOTE: This month's letter and tomorrow's follow up post are a little different than the months before, therefore prior to reading please understand that the choices Brandon and I made, and are now sharing with you, are what we believed were best for our family. We do not under any circumstance pretend to believe that there is one "right"  or "wrong" way to bring a child into the world and therefore, what worked best for us may not be what works best for your family. This blog is not a place of judgment and we ask that you honor that by not passing any in return.  Regardless of how a child makes their grand debut - naturally, with the help of pain medication, c-section, whatever - the day should be absolutely celebrated and that sweet (exhausted) Mommy should receive a gold star for doing her best to bring a healthy, happy baby into this wonderful world. End of story. Thank you for letting me share the wide array of things that are on my heart and for having an interest in my sweet son's life! You are appreciated.}

Little Prince,

It hurts my heart to face the fact that we are already at the six month mark - your half birthday... How is that possible? Where did those six months go? In my best effort to slow down time, to make your days of "baby" last a little longer I want to change up this month's letter. Instead of writing you a little note about what a sweet and perfect boy you are - because I'm pretty sure that's been well established - I'm going to do a separate post about the day you were born. Your true birthday. I haven't told you this story yet and it's one that I don't ever, ever, ever want to forget. I was very afraid that I might miss something about the day you were born - that I might be blurry on the details after the actual event was over so your Daddy and I called our sweet friend, Josh McCullock, the guy we entrusted with the responsibility of capturing our wedding... and we asked him to also photograph your big day. Now, by the time you are old enough to read this I don't know what will be thought of "birth photography" but in today's world it is happening more and more often, but some people still think it's a little out there ("some people" being Gabby/MamaShawna) so I want to explain why we did what we did....

Well, first off, if you haven't realized this already - your Mommy is a rather strong-willed woman. I can't help it, I come from a very long line of strong-willed women, but that's a whole other story... I had made my mind up that I wanted to have you without a single drop of pain medicine in my system. People (your daddy included) thought I might have been crazy, they were probably right to some extent. Nevertheless my reasons were genuine - I didn't want to miss a single thing about your first day of life. I would rather feel the pain than take the chance of having a reaction to whatever type of pain medication I was given and then be groggy or sleepy or sick or looped. I wanted, more than anything, to be 100% present. I wanted to be able to hold you and stare at you and feed you and just be in awe of you from the very second they handed you to me. I had waited my whole entire life to be your Mommy and I sure didn't want to miss a minute of it once you were finally here. 

So after the no pain meds decision had been determined, we had to make a few other choices... Your daddy and I decided that we wanted our first time with you to be a special time for our little family of three. We knew that those precious few hours after you were born would be sacred and therefore, we decided that your daddy and I would be the only two people in the room other than the medical staff. The only drawback was that we wanted to be able to share the joy of your arrival with our family and friends, but without them all staring at your Mommy while she screamed her head off like a truly crazy person. So, we decided to ask Josh to photograph your birthday! It solved all of our dilemmas - I didn't have to worry about missing or forgetting any little detail, our family and friends could view the pictures that Daddy and I chose to share and your first day of life, my sweet son, would be well documented!  Problem solved - we were happy! 

So, tomorrow, in celebration of your half birthday I will share the story of the day you were born (with completely modest, precious, tear provoking pictures!).

All my love,

Mommy

Six Month Milestones:

Eye Color - Hazel. Mainly brown, but with definite gray flecks.

Weight - 17lb 11 oz... Approximately the 50 percentile.

Height - 27 1/2 inches... Right around the 75 percentile.

Clothing - You are completely filling out all 6 month clothes, so I always buy 6-12 or 9 month! I'm looking forward to short sleeve season so that your sleeves aren't always 3/4 length... 

Nicknames - Little Prince and Coop.

Sleep - Sleeping through the night like a champ! Yayyyyy! You've even started taking a real nap (gasp!). Lately you've been going down for a solid hour to two hour nap in the middle of the day. If we are out running around than you just stick with your normal power naps in  the car, but if we are home you will knock out a big boy nap!

Hair - Just growing, growing, growing! I'm a bit confused what to do with it since you have a cow lick on your right side, but the swirl that makes your part is on the left side! I typically just brush it with a kind of swish to the left at the end, but lately I've been giving you a little mini-mohawk up front. Surprisingly, it stays spiked up perfectly all day with zero product! It's pretty darn cute, but it makes you look older and Mommy is definitely against that!

You aren't quite as mesmerized by your feet as you were last month, I guess they are kind of old news at this point... Nevertheless, you never stop moving them. Whether you are eating, riding in the car or just sitting in my lap, your little feet are always bouncing. It makes me laugh!

You continue wanting to reach/touch/hold and put everything possible in your mouth. You love to "play the drum" on any flat surface. Your favorite toys vary day by day - every toy is new and exciting right now! You are learning how to make the fire truck roll, push the buttons on toys that make sounds and so on. It's fun to watch you discover new things every day.

Baby Yoga is on break again during the month of February! I fear that by the time it comes back we will be crawling and therefore, no longer able to attend, but... 

We've started Kindermusik this month and you think it's great fun! In your class we play the drum, tap your sticks to the beat of music, sing and dance. You watch Miss Ginger very intently and every time she looks in your direction you flash the biggest smile! The only negative is that class starts (on the entire other side of OKC) at 9:25 am so we have to really book it to get you up, ready, fed and on the road in time... 

You are still talking non-stop. You talk to yourself in the mirror while we ride in the car. You talk to me constantly throughout the day. It isn't like you are just jabbering away either, you look at me very seriously and work very hard to make your mouth make certain sounds. You also will look at strangers and just smile and talk excitedly to them! You think your daddy is hilarious when he tries to get you to say "dada dada" and I wouldn't be completely shocked if you said it back perfectly to him at any time. You very randomly roll your tongue over constantly - I can't do it but your daddy can. You just learned that you can do that little trick so it's happening nonstop right now.

You are such a smiler - if anyone makes eye contact with you, you light up with the biggest smile! Your grin makes getting through the grocery store a lengthy process because everyone wants to talk to you and you want to talk back! I am so happy that you have such an easy smile - it brings everyone you come in contact with great joy!

In the last week we have introduced you to big boy food. Look out world, the Cooper-man is ready to eat! You LOVE real food and watching you love food is quite possibly the most entertaining thing your Daddy and I have seen in a very long time. Neither of us can eat for watching you!! We aren't giving you the traditional baby food, but instead are doing the "Baby Led Weaning" approach - basically we give you the same food we are eating (talk about an incentive for Mommy and Daddy to eat healthier) and let you figure out what to do with it. In just one week you have made great improvements and are doing excellent! We've only found one thing that you don't enjoy - bananas. I think it was because they are slippery and you were frustrated that you couldn't hold on to it. Other than that some of your favorites have been: cheese, apple slices, grilled chicken, chicken salad (it had onions in it and I wouldn't eat it but you made sure it didn't go to waste!), strawberries, potato wedges, hamburger, zucchini and your absolute favorite - crab legs! You are your Momma's child! You make a wild mess (Rylee's posts up under your high chair as soon as I pull it up to the table) and when you are done we just pick you up and stick you straight in the sink. Oh, each new thing is such great fun!

To sum it all up, we've been very busy this month - You kicked off the adventure of eating real food. We can see the tip of your very first tooth. You randomly rode a donkey. We bought a new house and began the massive remodel. You sit up completely by yourself and have tried more than once to pull up (a few times successfully!). You started your first music class. You attended three OU basketball games and one high school game. We made three trips to Vian. You "helped" grandpa move into his new house. You stayed in your first hotel (we went all the way across town to Edmond, super exciting). You crashed a baby brunch. And last but certainly not least, you were one very precious Prince Charming and made lots of Valentine's Day deliveries to all your favorite ladies... Life with you sweet boy is never dull.