1/2 a year

It's hard to believe that my baby is 6 months old already. It seems like we just brought him home. He is getting so big and changing so quickly now. He can scoot around in reverse anywhere he wants to go. He can roll over front to back and vice versa. He eats cereal and fruit in the morning, fruit and vegetables at lunch, and cereal and vegetables at night. We are constantly entertained by the conversations he holds with us, his toys, the dogs, or himself.



We took him to the lake a few weekends ago and he loves swimming in his life jacket. He was just hanging out wearing his shades and kicking in the water.

At his appointment yesterday he weighed 16.7 pounds and was 27 inches long. He grew 2 inches in 2 months and gained a little over 2 pounds. He is right on track with his milestones but still has no teeth and is not showing signs that any are going to pop through immediately. He loves to chew and bite things but the doctor said his gums are not swollen yet so we have a few weeks. I am thankful for each day without teeth, as I'm still nursing :)

you don't know what you got till it's gone

Last week I visited family and friends in Illinois. (I'll post the logistics in a another post) I am very glad that I left Southern Illinois after high school because for many reasons. I have learned that not all stop lights flash after 10pm. I have tasted foods from all over the globe and regularly eat at restaurants without a single fried item on the menu. I attended an amazing college, found a job I love, and met my wonderful husband. All in all, moving away was one of the best decisions I have made.

That said, there are many things I miss about small town life that I don't realize until I visit.
1. I don't know my neighbors. I live on a dead end street with 10-15 houses on it and I don't know the first names of more than my immediate next door neighbors. While we were in Illinois, we visited the lady who used to take care of me when I was little. She updated my dad on pretty much everyone who lived in his small hometown as well as the last three families who lived in the house we moved out of when I was 4.
2. Never meeting a stranger. In So. Il. chances are everyone you meet knows someone you are related to and even if they don't they're sure to call you hon and might even invite you over for supper if you talk long enough. Living in Georgia most people do have that famous "southern hospitality" but it's just not the same as that small town Southern Illinois friendliness.
3. Nature. When I got home Keith and I went out for ice cream and there was a rabbit in the yard of the house at the end of our street and Keith stopped to look at it. It was just an ordinary brown rabbit that I didn't give a second thought to but he was intrigued. It makes me a little sad that Jackson won't grow up surrounded by cows, horses, deer, rabbits, and the occasional pig or goat. He'll be able to visit some pretty neat petting farms, zoos, and aquariums but he will miss seeing these creatures in their natural, wild states.

One thing I don't miss but feel a little sad that Jackson won't experience: following a tractor down a regular street in the middle of the day.

While we were there we had a great time visiting old friends and family. Here are a few shots of our visits.

Meeting Mama's friends Melissa and Grace and their babies.

Lauren and Jackson really hit it off!

Mama's childhood babysitter's daughter and grandkids

Mama's childhood babysitter, Wanda

Nana and Aidan

do I have something on my face?

Tonight we tried carrots. Jax liked them better than the avocados. So we have a 50/50 success rate with the veggies we have tried. Well technically avocado is a fruit but who's counting?

Jackson loves trying to help me with feedings. He grabs the spoon and shoves it toward his mouth. So of course food gets everywhere, all over me, the table, the baby, there's probably even some on the dog. Jax finds that the spilled food makes and excellent foot lotion!

School's out!

Today was my last day of work until August 1st! I'm so excited to have some fun summer adventures with the littlest Boddie. This weekend we tried out his little splash pool. He was not a huge fan of the cold water but once I put his Bumbo chair in the water he loved it.


He also turned 5 months old on Saturday. He is getting so big. He makes tons of noises now. He has started screaming and squealing like a little monkey and also blowing raspberries. He can roll from back to tummy and vice versa but he prefers not too, I guess he's a lazy boy. He loves TV, it's depressing how much he loves to watch it but I do take advantage of his love with the occasional Baby Einstein to get things done. He still loves his bath and especially loves to drink bath water.


We started solid foods last weekend. He has been eating the cereal really well so I decided to add in a new food this weekend. I tried avocado because my baby food book said it was a good first food. He is not too sure about it but has eaten a little more of it each time I offered it. Since I am a giant nerd, I am super excited to make different baby foods and try them out this summer.

And finally, we are heading to Illinois next week to meet some family and friends that haven't had the chance to meet Jackson yet. 7 hours alone with a baby in a car will be interesting!

A few quick notes

I can't believe how quickly Jackson grows and changes. He is fascinated with the TV currently. Any time the TV is on he finds a way to watch it. He'll crane his neck all the way around if he needs to in order to see it.


In other news, he has survived his first bout with food poisoning. I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning from some tuna I ordered on Friday night. I didn't realize it until around 11am on Saturday when I had already breastfed Jackson several times. I couldn't eat anything without throwing up and my poor boy had some terrible diapers, one of which leaked down his legs onto the living room carpet. Keith had to shampoo the carpets while Jackson and I took a nap. I stopped nursing him and fed him previously pumped milk and pumped and dumped milk yesterday. Thankfully we are both fine today.

It was a cool day here so we took a little family trip to the Buford dam. We walked around along the river and around the dam. It was a fun little adventure. We even saw some goats and a donkey. Jackson seemed to enjoy the fresh air and new surroundings.

I only have 11 more days to work then I get to spend the summer with my sweet boy. Hopefully we'll have lots of adventures to post about!

my first Mother's Day

Today was a great day. My sweet baby boy started the day by sleeping from 8pm to 5am. Keith made me breakfast while I snuggled with my baby listening to him "talk". He has found his voice and loves to make noise. My boys got me 2 beads for my Pandora bracelet, a pasta maker, and a ravioli press. I'm really excited to start making homemade pasta. Keith's parents and sister came over for a cookout. Keith made smoked pork and I made some hamburgers and vegetable pasta. Everything turned out great. Keith's mom brought me beads to spell out Jackson on my
bracelet, so it's getting pretty full.

Our sweet little family

I love baby kisses

Jackson was 4 months old on April 28. I have been so busy that I forgot to post! He weighed 14.3 lbs and was 25 inches long. He's a big healthy boy. He seems huge to me but the doctor said he is in the 53% for height and 41% for weight. I guess there are some really big babies out there.

A sleep tale

Last night was terrible. Jackson went to bed at 8 and then he was up at 9, 9:45, 12, 2, 3, 3:30 and 5! At 3:30 I decided to try and let him settle himself so he was crying. Keith shakes my arm and says "the baby's crying". It was really funny to me. Like maybe all of a sudden after 3 months of answering every little sound I couldn't hear him wailing through the monitor. I responded that I had just been in there and I was giving him a few minutes to settle down to which he said,
"maybe he's cold". Now I don't know about anyone else but I'm not that agreeable at 3:30am so I said, "you're welcome to go in there and check". Obviously my husband was awake since he was talking to me, why did he need to wake me (or think he was waking me) instead of going to investigate on his own?

Which reminds me of a conversation I was having with my friend Christine the other day. We both said that when we're home with husband and baby, or two babies in her case, that we'll say, "I'm going to go to the bathroom, kitchen, whatever watch the baby". But neither of our husbands do the same. They are free to leave the room at any time without making sure someone is watching the baby. Now in reality I'm sure neither of our husbands would let the babies play with fire or stop breathing if we didn't remind them but it just struck us both funny that as moms we feel that we need to constantly have the responsibility of caring for the baby while the husband doesn't.

I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression, Keith is very helpful with Jackson and I've never asked him to get up in the night because I'm breast feeding and there's not much he could do anyway.