PLAY TIME WITH COUSINS!

Playing at the park with Charlie last Saturday. This is his First time in a swing. He wasn't so sure about it but I did manage to get a smile out of him!

Emma, Allie and Adie came to play!

Charilie came to stay for a few days with Grandma while her baby brother Elijah John was born! She has SO much to say! Once she gets started she won't stop. And she talks about Daniel all the time!

Stairs!!!

So one day I am up stairs making dinner and I hear the sound of little hands and feet on the stairs. I look over and Davey is encouraging this guy to climb up our steps! The crazy thing is that he needed less help that time than he did in this video. The camera is distracting him. He usually goes up with no help. This was taken a week or 2 ago.

Through the Night

Last Thursday I was  talking to a friend about how my child still does not sleep through the night at 8 1/2 months old. Every night he will get up around 3 and down an entire 8oz bottle then fall right back asleep. She told me about her son who did that and when he was 10 months old her pediatrician told her that there was no reason he should be getting up anymore and in fact he was now just "playing her." She said, after that visit she went home and for the next 3 nights used the "cry it out " method by the 4th night her son slept soundly through the night. 

Now if any of you have seen my son you know he is huge. 

Daniel with his cousin Charlie (she is 10 months older)

He came out big and hasn't slowed down. I think I should change his name to Moose or something more suitable to his size. My point in saying this is to emphasize  the fact that he does not need to be eating in the middle of the night. So I decided on Friday that he was done...Like clock work he woke up to eat. I got up and instead of picking him up to feed him, I laid him back down, covered him back up, and rubbed his belly for a minute. Then I left him and he continued to scream. I let him go for a few minutes and went back and did it again. I never spoke to him. I just put my hand on him to try and calm him. After this I let him go...of course the crying turned into blood curdling screams and broke my heart. After about an hour and a half he finally fell back asleep and slept til morning(7:30 or 8 I'm not exactly sure. Davey got up with him and let me sleep in.)  Saturday night came along and we had the same routine but this time he cried for only 45minutes to an hour. Then came Sunday night. I never heard him once! Davey said he got up with him and laid him back down and Daniel only cried for maybe 15minutes. Monday night he didn't wake up at all! Here's hoping he continues sleeping through the night! I know there are a lot of people who do not agree with this type of sleep training and that is alright. I however am a believer. Now if only I could train myself to slept through the night again. Even though Daniel didn't wake up last night I still did because I am so used to getting up!

This is him napping the other day. He always pulls the blanket up by his face, rolls over to his side or belly, and finds his way to the corner.
(Do not be alarmed. He can still breathe!)

Daniel Loves Music

Daniel loves music. For example, when was on Glee the other night, any time a song came on he would stop what he was doing and just stare in amazement at the music. He will sit mesmerized by anyone who will sing to him. Anyone that is...except his dad...

On the move

 So Daniel has become quite the little mover. I have to say I couldn't wait for this stage. Not because I wanted to chase him around making sure he didn't get in to trouble but because he has been getting so frustrated with not being able to get where he wanted to go. Now that he is crawling more he doesn't get frustrated as easily and can entertain himself a little more.
It was about the last week of December when he started to take his first crawling "steps." He would get so excited and of course so did we! Now he is able to get everywhere and is even getting good at pulling himself up to stand. He wants to go from one thing to another while standing but can't quite figure that one out yet.

If this was on a smooth surface like the tile he could sort of walk behind it. I say sort of because I only saw him do it once (though my mother says he's done it before) and it seemed to be more of an effort to stay standing than and effort to actually walk as he quickly made it from one end of the kitchen to the other holding on before he fell.

This is one of his first really good crawls early in January.

It has been quite a while since I last posted. I fully intended to post some videos of Daniel's first solid food feeding and some other milestones but it won't work. I must be defective or something. He is 6 months old now but looks like a 9 month old! He is 20lbs and has 2 teeth! He is sitting up and wants to be everywhere but get's frustrated because he can't get where he wants to go.

Here are some pictures to represent the past few months. 

Pearson Cousins at the Fall Festival!

Uncle Jimmy holding Baby D and Baby Gabe

My first "ride" in the Johnny Jump Up

I couldn't help myself. I had this green bucket and thought it would be great for fall pictures. 

The essence of cuteness!

Playing Piano with Daddy! He Love's the piano. He would play it all day if he could! He always looks with excitement when Davey plays on it. It's so cute!

Grandma Pearson feeding him rice cereal! YUMMmmm!

Hanging with Grandpa Ermold

This is my attempt at carrying him with a chitenge that I got in Zambia.
It is basically just 2 yards of fabric wrapped around me to hold him up. I had a very difficult time getting it just right. I did it really well once and then couldn't get it tied securely enough to feel comfortable going anywhere like that. He is just so stinking heavy!

My first "Mum-mum" cracker!

With Mom-mom, meeting his 2nd cousin Tye. Poor kid. Daniel tried taking him out!

I can sit up!
And I love Reading! (In about 30 seconds he is eating it)

Poor Baby D

So my baby is officially sick for the first time at 4months old. Yesterday he had what seemed to us like the common cold with a slight temp of 100 just before bed time. We had no Tylenol and it was late so we thought we'd see if it would go down by morning and then got to Walmart when it opened for some.  By 4am he sounded like a barking seal and we could tell that his temp had risen. He just looked and sounded awful. So we decided to take him to urgent care. They took his temp and he was up to 103. Every time he coughs he begins to cry because it hurts and then he cries even more because the crying makes it hurt more...it's just a bad cycle. He wants to eat constantly too. I don't think he eats as much as normal because he's so miserable so he is doing a lot of short feedings like once every hour or 1.5hrs instead of his normal 3.5+hrs between feedings.

I know him getting sick was inevitable but there was a part of me that hoped he would never get there. What parent wants to see their baby sick, at any age. And I definitely didn't think his first sickness would land him in the ER! I was thinking a common cold would have been much nicer than croup. 

Breathing in water vapor.
Doesn't that face just make you want to cry?

Daddy holding him.

We have him sleeping in his bouncy seat to elevate his head.
He still wakes up every few minutes with a painful sneeze or cough then needs soothed back to sleep.

My heart just aches for him. I honestly can not imagine being a parent who is constantly concerned with their child's health like some of my friends. You are my heroes Matt and Julie Leach  and Rachel and Michael DePaulo.