6 months

Our little man turned 6 months old on Wednesday. I can't believe he is that old already.

We went in for his 6 month check up and shots on Thursday and here are his stats:

Weight: 18 lbs 13 oz (74th percentile)
Height: 26 1/4 inches (44th percentile)
Head Circumference: 43.2 cm (34th percentile)

Dr. Murdock said he looks great. The funniest thing that happened at Callen's appointment was this conversation:
Dr. Murdock: "Besides those scratches on his nose, he looks perfect."
Me: "Yeah, he likes to hack up his nose at nights."
Olivia, sitting up to join in: "You can say that again!" (giggle, giggle, giggle)

Honestly, where does she come from? At least she is entertaining and Callen adores her. Here are some pictures of Mr. Cal from his first 6 months.
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Few minutes after he was born, Sept 9th
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One week
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One month
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Two months
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Three months
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Four months ~

Five months ~

Six months
Happy 6 months my son!! Thanks for being such a sweet, lovey, happy boy!

Aquarium and magic water

Well, we took our trip to Utah and took the kids to the aquarium. We almost didn't go. Last Wednesday night Olivia was running and playing with Dexter when she tripped and fell. Her ankle made this really horrible pop and then she couldn't walk. She was screaming and crying so bad. That evening when she still wasn't putting any weight on it, we decided to take her in to see her doctor, luckily they are there until 9. Long story short, nothing was actually wrong. We even went back on Friday and they did an x-ray because she still wasn't walking on it at all. Still nothing. So she must have sprained her ankle. We were all so excited to get out of the house that we decided we were going to go on our trip anyways, even if we would have to carry our little Lou Lou the whole weekend.Lou pretending to talk to Grandma and Grandpa


Notice his cute messy hair from being in his car seat? :)


We went swimming at our hotel and the kids looked so cute in their little suits!!! Sadly, my two year old is wearing a 4T swimsuit. Still cute though. After we were done swimming, we told Olivia about the 'magic water' in the hot pool. The magic water would make her foot feel all better and she could walk. It was more mental than actually painful now so this actually worked and she was walking all over the hot pool (thank you Justin for the creative idea!). It still took some convincing when she was out of the water but she has been walking on it since. She still has a limp and sometimes if she tweaks it just right she cries but she is still walking. Thank goodness, having two babies to carry around is hard work!Look at those rolls!


Puppy had to be in the picture too




We also went to Cabela's. It was actually really neat. We had never been there and they have a ton of stuffed animals all over the store set in these huge exhibits. Olivia thought it was great. Casey thought it was great too because they had some huge bucks and bull elk. I really liked the fudge and Callen likes anywhere that he can watch his sister, mommy, and daddy.

We were able to go visit Justin and Joi and their kids too. Olivia loves playing with her cousins and looked forward to it for days. I didn't get many pictures but this one is of Ezra and Olivia with their blankets. They were sitting on the stairs showing each other their blankies, it was pretty cute!!

Before we went to the aquarium we went to the Sandy mall that was right by our hotel. They have a carousel in it and Olivia loves to take rides on them so we thought it would be fun for her. She rode a kitty cat eating a fish and now tells us all the time that she rode a kitty cat.

The aquarium was okay, don't know if we will ever do back. Olivia was so tired from everything we did and not having a nap that it was hard for her to be excited for too much of it. There was an octopus that just sat in a corner, a huge anaconda that freaked Olivia out (she is afraid of snakes), HUGE bull frogs, a petting area to pet sting rays (which I did, Casey and Lou opted out of that), jellyfish, and penguins.
Stingray


Jellyfish


Olivia really liked the penguins. They have a section so you can watch the penguins dive in the water and watch them swim which was pretty neat. Also, Lou did not forget and told them hi for Aunt Joi just like she asked her to. Callen's highlight of the aquarium was when I was holding both of the kids so they could see the penguins. But who needs penguins when your awesome sister is right next to you?? He was laughing and trying to hug her and was just so happy she was so close to him. He absolutely loves her. Meanwhile, she was freaking out and trying to push him away. Ah... sibling love. A penguin swimming in the water, you might have to look closely


Lou watching the penguins and Callen trying to love on his sister




Overall it was a fun trip but like always, we were all ready to get back home. Always bittersweet when you leave home. Olivia even told us once that she "wants to go home... I really miss my Papa." Those dang grandparents. I guess they will just have to go with us next time....Tired, sleeping babies on the way home

Random bits of the last month or so...

Casey and I spoke in Sacrament on Sunday. We haven't spoke together since before we had Olivia. We have both spoken in Sacrament since, just not together. It was kind of nice. Not the speaking part but being able to sit quietly with my husband and then listen to him speak (we left the kids with their grandparents so for once our Sacrament meeting really was quiet). He is a fabulous speaker. He really is. I do okay, I get by. Adults kind of scare me. Put me with a bunch of kids and I do great and can have a lot of fun teaching them, but adults are a different story. I guess that's why I went into Elementary Ed. Makes sense. But Casey really is great. He seems so calm and collected while he talks and it is always just so good! Everybody told us how great we did, but I think they were mainly talking to him and I just happened to be with him so I got included in the praise. Like I said, I get by. I know I am not great and I am completely okay with that. I tell Casey that he better be careful; everyone is going to see that he is such a good speaker and have him do it all the time. In Sunday school three different people made references to his talk and related it to the lesson. "Like Brother Payne said...." I said something about that on the way home and he told me "Yeah, it was kind of weird." He just doesn't believe me when I say he is that good, that people actually remember lines from his talk and use them. What a lucky girl I am to have such a wonderful, humble, compelling man.

{My Valentine's present. It's the Salt Lake Temple where we were married. Isn't it beautiful? Like I said, lucky girl.}

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Olivia's new thing is to sing and dance around all over our house. I guess I shouldn't say new because she has been singing and dancing and going non-stop since she came out of the womb, but she loves to sing her own songs and dance dance dance. I frequently get told "No Mom, don't watch." I guess she is a little shy in her dancing. She is doing fantastic in the potty training bit. She is in big girl panties all the time now and though she does have accidents here and there, she generally makes it to the potty. It is still a fight to have her go sometimes but that is what I get for having such a stubborn and independent girl. I hate to say it but she is just way too much like her mommy. We went to the mall and let her play on the toys they have there today. She was running around asking the kids "What do you think you're doing?" So bossy, so much like her mommy... poor Callen... we know what he has to look forward to. She loves going to story time at the library, still cries when we take her to nursery, gets up in the middle of the night and sleeps on the couch, and drags that pink and brown blanket around everywhere she goes. She has also liked "peanut butter suckers" lately.

{Peanut butter sucker}

{Taking her nap as I type, with her blanket}
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Callen is getting big fast. He rolls over from his back to belly all the time but still hasn't mastered the belly to back roll yet. He has done it once and that is it. But is has many many rolls on his chubby little body, he even has rolls on his knees! I love those rolls though. He is always so happy. I get asked "Does he ever really cry?" The answer being no. He fusses a bit but it is not too often when he really cries, when I am around anyways. He is very much a mommy's boy, I like this though. He is a snuggle bug and loves to be held. We tried taking his binkey away from him last week. We were just so tired of getting up 3-8 times a night to walk into his room and put his binkey back in, so I thought it would be better if we just took it away. Ha. Looks like he proved me wrong. The first day was a bit of a struggle but he did it and after crying for about 15 minutes went to sleep. 15 more minutes at about 3 in the morning. But that was okay, I thought it would get better. Well by his 7th day of no binkey (that's right, 7 days, no Binkey) I had enough. Enough of him taking no naps unless he was nursing, enough of listening to him scream for 15-30 minutes in the middle of the night, and enough of being used as a human pacifier. We ended up giving it to him for his Sunday morning nap. He had been crying for 15 minutes, we gave him his binkey and he was out in 30 seconds. He has been happily enjoying his binkey since.
Little stinker. So I lost my first battle with my son. You win some, you lose some right? Sadly, I know I will lose many more. That's okay.

{Handsome boy}

{Sitting up by himself}

{Taking his nap as I type... yes, with THREE binkeys. What a turkey}
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We are headed to Salt Lake this weekend. I am so excited. We need to get away. Have a change, force me to be out of my favorite Boston sweatpants and Buckeye hoodie. Yes, I am quite the fashionista around my house. We are going to take the kids to the aquarium in Sandy. We've heard it is good, hopefully it is. I'm sure the next post will be about that, just a heads up I guess.

{Doesn't he need a haircut, our little panda puppy?}

{What monkeys I have}