8 months

Our boy is growing fast! Everyday I feel like he has something new to his personality. As always here are pictures and little things he's doing! We didn't take as many pictures this month, but we've still got some :)

- He is still army crawling. He knows how to go on all fours but he just doesn't really do it.

- He had his first Valentine's Day, Daddy's Birthday, and Grandma Mim's Birthday. He made a cute valentine for our upstairs neighbor who is 5 days younger than him. There was a little card that I didn't get a picture of that said, "Happy Valentines Day Maeli! Will you be my Valentine. You are so sweet, open the door for a special treat!" Inside the bag was a little noise maker, a small teddy bear, and sweet potatoes sweet peas and sweet carrots. It's like they went to dinner together :) We slipped the card underneath the door that connects the house.

Our Natural Wildlife Explorer!

- He went on his first hike in a national park. He did SO well and loved being outside, even if it was a little cold.

- He climbs on everything, and we had to lower his crib because we found him standing up in it one morning.

- He makes this little clenched jaw face. Not because he's angry, just out of excitement I think. It's hilarious! He usually does it when he is eating.

- He is babbling all the time now-such the little chatter box.

- He nurses 4 times a day, and eats baby food 3 times.

- He was having a hard time with his naps for a little bit, I think because he's getting to the age where he can do so much more on his own. He's learning new things and wants to consistently do them. When I would lay him down for his naps he'd just cry. So I figured that since he did so well with his bedtime, that he must just need some kind of routine to let him know it's time to take a nap. I started reading him a story, closing his curtains, and rocking him in his chair to let him know it was quiet time and time to sleep. It took him a couple of days to catch on (he'd just try to play with me while I rocked him, so I'd close my eyes), but after that he knew exactly what's going on and would immediately lay his head on my shoulder once I sat down.

Had to take a quick nap on the hike, there was just too much beauty to take in!

- We've introduced him to the baby food meats. It makes me gag, but he loves it. Well, the first time he thought it was weird, I think because of the texture. He made funny faces the whole time he was eating, but he never spit it out.

- He is really ticklish and laughs all the time

- He got to be babysat by both grandma's and his great grandma while we went skiing for Tyler's birthday. They all had a blast (as did we, but we forgot to take pictures)

- His favorite food is green beans and pears. He likes vegetables more than fruit. At least I think so because he always makes sour faces with fruit. I think it's too sweet for him still.

Trying to reach Thor's hammer with Daddy!

- He finally does the raspberries or spit bubbles. I've seen other babies his age do it for a while, but he just picked it up.

- He did get sick for a week or so. He had bronchialitis. He was just congested and had a bad cough. We got a vaporizer for his room, and it helped a lot. He was such a trooper though, still just a happy little guy.





And just some more pictures.

On the way to and from Bryce Canyon.

7 months

Well I better get this posted because in 10 days Kaiewa will be 8 months. He is closer to a year old than he is a newborn now. CRAZY! But I absolutely love it. He is SO much fun to play with these days. He's so animated and loves everything! So I'll try to keep this short and sweet, seeing as I need to remember from almost two months ago what he was up to.

Doesn't he look like Mr. Miagi from Karate Kid?

- He sure is a chubbster these days. Look at those rolls! I could just squish them all day long. He looks like a little sumo wrestler here. Maybe Happy Sumo should use his picture for their ad now :)

- He sits up on his own like a champ. No more toppling over anymore.

- He LOVES all his baby food. He has yet to spit anything out that we've given him. And honestly, the more things that we've introduced, I truly think that he prefers veggies over fruits. Crazy kid, but I think the fruits tend to be more sweet and sour. He does loves pears though.

- He is eating baby food twice a day. Once after his morning nap and then again to start his bedtime to routine.

- He did get a really bad case of eczema on his back when we got back from VA. I think it was the drastic change in weather. Going from not really cold and moist to single digits and dry dry weather. We used Aveeno lotion. Essential oils. Vaseline. The combination of everything really helped.

- He still takes 3ish naps a day. One in the morning. One in the afternoon. And a short one in the late afternoon (or 'prevening' as termed in Big Bang Theory)

- He still loves his bath and splashes. He sits up in it at the beginning, but then lays down when we wash him. He did try to turn over a couple of times and would drink a lot of water and get scared. He's doing better now though, he knows to keep his head up.

- He did this funny thing for a while where he would growl at us. Adorable.

- He did have a week or two of stranger danger. He was mostly okay, but he would just get a little worried when he realized we weren't around. i.e. When Tyler and I were asked to speak in church, and a friend watched him for us.

- He is starting to become a little bit of a terror. Pulling on cords. Wanting any electronic that we might be using. We have a vent in our front room that he always runs his hand along because it makes a cool sound.

- He 'played' in the snow. We had so much that he could stand in it alone.

- He loves other kids. No joke. I know that seems weird to think he would notice them, but he lights up when he sees them. Babies, toddlers, any age kids. Loves them.

- He did this thing for a while where he would arch his back over the back of the bumbo. Don't worry we never let him fall, or left the room when he was in it.

- He can dunk :)

- He had reading time and band time with his stuffed animals :)

Alligator photo bombing in the back :)

- And a couple more pictures of when we went to Nickelcade. We watched Uncle Riley do DDR. Raced daddy in a car game. Played fruit ninja. And rode in a big rig :)

 

6 months

Kaiewa is half a year old already. I know I always say this but truly I can't believe it! He is growing and gaining more and more of his own personality everyday.

- He had his first holiday season. He spent Thanksgiving with the Higa side of the family. Then he spent Christmas with the Kala side. He met all his cousins, aunts, uncles, and admirers.

- He is sitting up like a pro. He'll still topple down sometimes but it doesn't scare him like it use to.

- He loves to 'fly'. We hold him parallel to the ground and he kicks his legs, opens his mouth really big, and scrunches his cute little nose and we fly him around the room.

- He has graduated to the big bath, and man does he love the room. He slides all around, and he'll sit up in it and splash the water with his hands.

- He has TWO teeth! I guess that "All I want for Christmas is my two front (bottom) teeth" came true for him. He did really well with getting them. He was a little fussy, but that was it. No fever or being a terror. The one tooth on the right came first and is the bigger one. The bottom left came next and it's still a little stub right now.

- He went on his third and fourth plane ride. He did really well. The trip to VA he slept most of the way (3 out of the 4 hours). I was so grateful because it was just me. On the way home he would sleep for a little and then wake up, but Tyler was there and so it was easier to juggle him between the two of us. He'd get a little fussy here and there but nothing too bad.

- He still just eats rice cereal. One bowl at dinner time. He'll start eating more foods this month. I've mostly held off just because I'm selfish. Breastfeeding is so easy, and introducing solids is just another thing to add to the list.

- He got his first minor diaper rash. Nothing awful, but when we were in VA for christmas he just wore disposables because I didn't want to deal with travelling and cloth diapers.

- He's going to start crawling soon I'm sure. He scooches backwards, and he'll prop himself up with his arms straight, but he doesn't do it all at the same time.

- He was all over the place with sleeping while we were travelling, which I'm sure is normal. He switched sooo quickly to East Coast Time. I couldn't believe it. It was a little rough for me because I would go to bed later there but he would still wake up really early. Now we're back home and he's doing better.

- He loved all the Christmas lights around.

- He did open some of his Christmas presents, but it would've taken all day if he opened them all :)

- He's laughing alllll the time.

- He's ticklish right on his sides, underneath his ribs.

- He grabs at everything and puts it right in his mouth.

- He rolls constantly if you lay him down on the carpet. We got home from VA and he was on one side of the living room, and then quickly made his way across the room and into the kitchen.


- He sleeps best in a crib, particularly his own.

- He's a show off in public. He loves seeing all the people everywhere and just smiles and kicks.

- He use to do this thing where he shook his head no all the time.

- He is getting such a little personality. He is such a happy baby who loves everything!

I posted most of his pictures of facebook this month, so that's why there are only a couple :)

5 months

I know I'm a bit late again on the month post, but since I was a little late in posting about Kaiewa's 4 month milestones I feel like this month was over before it even started. Our boy sure isn't a little baby anymore! He is growing so fast!

- He still loves the outdoors! I can't wait for him to experience the snow. He's eaten some of the little that we've had, but we haven't had much (which I am so grateful for by the way)

- Kaiewa rolls all over the place now. If he is on the floor, he'll quickly be on the other side of the room in no time. He rolls both tummy to back and back to tummy, and he'll go either direction. He goes back to tummy with ease, but going the other way his arm that he's rolling over gets a little stuck so sometimes he'll plop back.

- He had a brief period of time where he didn't chew his hands. He still doesn't do it as much as he was, but occasionally when everything else is out of reach he'll chew on those fingers.

- He has found his feet! At the beginning of the month, any time you changed his diaper his body would fold in half and he'd chew on his toes. He did it because he can't really reach them with his diaper on. Cloth diapers are much bigger than disposable. 

- He can almost sit up on his own. I'll sit him in between my legs and most of the time he'll sit there, but sometimes he'll get so excited that he'll end up flopping forward or something.

- He holds onto things really well, and can grab at them no problem. The trick is hanging on to them. There have been many a toy thrown clear across the room.

- He has this funny bald patch on the side of his head. It looks like we took the clippers to just that one spot. But we didn't. I think the hair has been a little slower to grow there because for a long time it was just a really dry patch of skin. Plus we probably kept rubbing off any hair that was there when we put lotion on it.

- He has had this for a while, but when I do his laundry he has a whole load to himself. It's crazy that one little boy could have so many clothes.

- He still sucks on that lower lip, but he'll trying talking to you when he does.

- He's said mama, but not on purpose. 

- He loves to play this little chasing game with Tyler. He'll laugh and laugh, and it never gets old to him.

- He grabs my face when eating/burping or if I'm just holding him.

- He still doesn't like pacifiers, but if he is fussy I'll give him one and he'll hold onto it and just chew away.

- He has started rice cereal. We probably gave it to him when he was 4.5 months. He does well with it, but he's not completely into it. Somedays he'll eat it all up, and others he just doesn't really care.

- He eats every 4 hours now.

- His schedule pretty much goes eats, then plays, then sleeps. He'll eat then play for 2ish hours, and down for 2ish hours.

- He takes 2 long naps during the day, and maybe a short one before bedtime.

- He goes to bed (we lay him in his crib) at 7, and he sleeps 'til 6:30, sometimes 7 but not often.

- He spits up allllll the time. Hence the reason he usually has a bib on.

- Everything goes in his mouth...of course :)

- He loves our water bottles. Obviously he doesn't drink out of them, but just chews on the nozzle.

- He loves to play the chasing game, where I hold him and Tyler chases him from behind. He laughs so much!

- He loves his little walker toy, though he mostly just chews on everything and only scoots backwards in it occasionally.

 - He still loves his massages that he gets at night, and sometimes he'll even let us do his back. Look how much he splashed Tyler from the bath :)

- He is so calm in the mornings. He'll just sit there and chill.

- He scratches the rocking chair after he's done eating.

- And pretty much we think he is the most adorable baby boy ever. I mean look at this face!