Casa de Clements: 6 Months Old!

I can't believe that Connor is 6 months old already! Seriously, where has the time gone? I didn't have time to take a photo with his month sticker today (Tuesdays are crazy busy with soccer), so we'll have to do that this weekend.

We started our day at 4am (he almost always wakes up at 4 and about half the time he stays up for the day, the other half I can get him back to sleep). Ended up being ok because I had an INSANELY busy day at work, so I just started working. He had his 6 month check up today with our favorite pediatrician in the practice. I say this every time I go there (which has been often lately), but I'm SO thankful that we've found the perfect pediatric practice to take the kids to. I feel so comfortable with all of the doctors and they all take such good care of us.

He fell asleep in the car on the way there. That's always how it goes - he falls asleep just in time to have to get out of the car seat and have his clothes stripped off :( What a rude awakening! Anyway, he's a whopping 13lbs 6.5oz, which is only the 1st percentile for weight. He's gaining perfectly according to his own curve, though, and his doctor is very happy with his growth. He's meeting or exceeding all of his developmental milestones, he's just small! He even showed off his fondness for standing and jumping while we were there - the doctor laughed about that.

Connor had allergy testing done last week since we can't figure out why he keeps getting hives. Testing didn't show anything overwhelmingly positive, but showed a possible peanut allergy. They don't do a full panel on a baby so small (his back is pretty small!), so they only tested for 6 major food allergens. He didn't have a strong reaction to dairy, which is good, but he could still be intolerant, just not allergic. They're having me eliminate peanuts and obvious sources of soy (tofu, edamame, soy sauce) from my diet (and stay dairy free), keep a detailed food log of what I eat, what he eats, and what his reactions are, and we have to re-test in a month. He was a trooper for the testing and it was really no big deal. I hope we can figure out what's bugging him!

Food wise, he's had rice cereal (for a few days), oatmeal, bananas, and avocado. We introduced sweet potatoes when we got home on Sunday night and it really hurt his poor tummy :( He threw up for the next 8 hours and was just generally miserable. He didn't fall asleep until 3am, which was rough for all of us. His doctor told us to wait a few months before giving sweet potatoes again. Strange since that's usually a pretty safe food, but I don't want a repeat of that! We tried peas tonight and he wasn't a fan. They stayed down, but he made the classic baby icky face.

We had a great weekend! We drove to Fredericksburg to celebrate Christine's graduation from Mary Washington! The whole family was able to be there, which was awesome. Terry and Laurie figured out that the last time we were ALL together was 8 years ago. And of course, there are 2 new additions to the family since then, so it was Grammy and Grampy's first time with all 6 grandkids at the same time! It was Connor's first stay in a hotel and thankfully he did pretty well! We kept him up REALLY late Friday night to visit with everyone, but he slept the whole night in his pack and play. Saturday night was not as good, so I ended up bringing him to bed with us (after spending a lot of time getting him used to his crib sleeping on his own, I really, really hesitated to do this, but we all would have woken up otherwise). At least I was able to get a little sleep that way.

Graduation was really nice, but it unfortunately started raining :( Thankfully the weather held out long enough for us to see Christine receive her diploma and walk across the stage. The kids and I headed back to the car when the rain started. We still got wet, but at least weren't soaked. We met everyone for lunch after the ceremony and had some yummy BBQ!!! After lunch, we went back to the hotel and all took a nap! I was pleasantly surprised, but we managed to get both kids to sleep for 2 hours! Granted it was in a double bed with me and both kids, but I'll take what I can get. When we got up, we went swimming. Grammy was already down in the pool, so she helped Sydney a lot. Connor just floated around with me and had a blast. He really loves the water. I let Sydney get in the hot tub when we were done to warm up a bit and she enjoyed that (it wasn't too hot, don't worry). After a quick shower, we headed out to dinner with the family.

It was really nice to visit with everyone at dinner and the food was DELICIOUS! I had tuna, which was to die for, and I ate far more than I needed to. I'm really proud of how well Sydney behaved - it was a LONG day and she was a champ through dinner, even though it was pretty late for her.

Sunday morning, we woke up early and drove to campus to get some family photos taken. I'm so glad we were able to arrange for that.

Thank you, Laurie for the iPhone snap shots from our photo session. Here are a few.

Grammy and Grampy with all 6 grandkids

Grammy and Grampy

Terry and Michael

Three generations of Clements men

Jennifer and Christine

Girl Cousins

Courtney and Kaylee

All of the Cousins

Here are a few more from the past few weeks...

Hi mom! What are you looking at??? I'm 6 months old today - no big deal!

Sleepy boy on the way to the doctor.

Enjoying a nice evening watching Sydney playing soccer. Ignore the pj's. It's what he came home from daycare in and I didn't have anything else to change him in to!

He actually held a crayon and colored an apple for us :)

Sydney's Mother's Day gift to me. A Mother's Day journal where she and Connor can write / draw a letter or picture for me every year. It will all be in one place and nothing will ever get lost. She obviously wrote the letter entirely on her own and I could not be more proud!