The Swing growth chart

It's hard to show Kole's growth without some level of consistent scale. One of the few things we have around is his swing ... which he is about to outgrow. The maker, Graco, says on its manual that it's for babies "up to 25 pounds". Well, the little sprout is nearly there. The swing was out absolute life saver suring his early infancy. It seems so cruel now, but we've learned that every young parent goes through those phases and moments of ... 'how in the world do we just get him to be quiet?' Sometimes babies just cry inconsolably and every book and magazine article addresses creative ways of carrying, "shushing", rocking, singing/humming, swaying ... every concievable way of quieting a crying baby. Our go-to silencer was the swing. When we realized that it worked more than three or four times in a row, I went to Costco and bought an enormous brick of D-cell batteries, which the swing took. Slowly over time, head-support cushions were removed, and the back was able to be uprighted. Now, he's about to outgrow it and begin to crawl. I'm sure we'll have our moment of semi-sadness, kind of like when we finally packed up his cradle and retired it to the attic. For now, he's still swinging when he gets grumpy, or right after a feeding when he needs to chill for a bit. We don't have to play the accompanying music - which we both can hum each note of each song on pitch. It's become very familiar domain for him, but it's just about time to pack it up.
PHOTOS: Taken at 3-days old ... 7-weeks old ... 7-months old.

7 Months

Kole cracks the 20 pound and 30-inch barrier at his 7-month measure. He has cut his first tooth, and still working on the other other lower bicuspid. He is still not 'officially' crawling, though he has been seen from time to time on all fours, rocking back-and-forth, with some occasional forward movement, and even arms and legs working in unison in a forward manner. He is definitely sitting up, with his tip-overs fewer and longer in between. He's growing before our eyes and it's very, very neat to experience. Four times a day he'll have 6-ounces of formula, and three of those feedings (all but the last) is followed by cereal and/or some "first-foods" vegetables and fruit.
I'm adding recent photos of he and I playing football on the porch while Mom was out shopping; another big smile he gave that shows off his little tooth (if you click the photo and get the bigger image, you can maybe see the little white smudge on his lower gum); and how he likes to stand up next to one of his toys.

Work Hard, Play Harder

A funny recent episode in Kole's Jumperoo is reason enough for a quick update. His little exercise contraption is one of his favorites - he jumps and sways from side to side in it; he loves standing upright, even with assistance. It's great for us because he can be occupied and contained for a few minutes if we need to leave the room, go to the bathroom, whatever. The Jumperoo is a mini carnival of noise and chaos, music and sound effects. So much so that when there is 20 or more seconds of silence, it practically pierces through the house. Kathy and I have both had situations recently where the silence came. It's almost concerning at first ... only to see Kole passed out cold in the Jumperoo. When I took this picture, he was actually fading in and out of sleep - waking up and jumping up and down for about 10 seconds, then the eyes start to fade, the legs stop, the head bows down and he's out again. I was trying not to laugh out loud and wake him.

The snot and slobber factory from teething is in high gear. He can drench a bib within a few hours, and now he's starting to maintain a thick crust of snot around his nostrils to where it looks impossible to breath. Wiping his nose is a trick. It's weird to see how much he's grown up, because now he just sees the Kleenex coming towards him and he starts slashing his head from side to side, and opens the door wide open for him to lose his cutest-kid-in-the-world demeanor and start pitching a whiney fit. It doesn't help that he just has hard, crusty boogers that don't give easily.
Another photo op - he's sitting up in longer and longer intervals. Sometimes more than a minute, before doing something to throw his balance and go heels-over-diaper backwards. Recently, he rolled right into one of the legs of his Papasan (the little reclined-seat we feed him in) and he hit his head hard enough to cry tears. We think it's the first time we've ever seen legitimate tears from crying. But, it didn't last long, he took it like a boy and was back playing within minutes.
While putting Christmas stuff up in the attic, we also put most of his Newborn to 6-month clothes up there. Kathy bought some of those space saver bags that suck the air out (they actually work quite well!) and we retired a large load of clothes until a new little brother or sister claims them ... perhaps.

90th Birthday wish

There has been a previous post here (on July 16) of Kole with his only living great-grandmother, Ora Wood, the mother of Kathy's mother. She turned 90 on December 30th, and the Wood family got together at her house. If you missed the previous story, Ora still lives on Bennie Lane in the Indian Hills neighborhood of Grand Prairie, about 4 houses from the intersection of Bennie and SW 5th - which is where my grandparents (mother's mom and dad) lived all of my life. Kole did his best to steal the show, as all had a good time.
Kole is Ora Wood's 11th great grandchild, and she also has one great-great grandchild.