Rosemary Beach May 2013 - Hatch On Vacation

For the majority of our relationship together, Johny and I have been vacationing on 30-A in FL. We've stayed in Seagrove Beach most often but the past two years we have stayed in Rosemary Beach. We absolutely love this area and enjoy visiting year after year!

Hatch went with us to Cancun when he was 3 months old but he didn't actually go out on the beach since our resort only had a small little beach area. He got in the pool a few times but he was so little he didn't really know what was going on. So, while this wasn't technically his first trip to the beach it was his first time to Florida!

We went for an extended weekend stay & rented this adorable little carriage home in the Rosemary community.

If you've never visited this area of FL, many of the homes are very large & often have their own private pools. Many of them build carriage homes behind the main homes and they're typically loft style with one other bedroom. They're small (less than 1,000 sq. ft.) but all we need for a short stay. We were just a short stroll to the beach, pool & downtown area with lots of shopping & dining. 

Hatcher was a total rockstar on the ride there & home. We were nervous because he has never been in the car for longer than 2 hours and has begun to despise being in the car seat. He barely cried & we only had to stop once going & coming on our 5.5 hour journey. He loved exploring the beach house & getting into new things. 

We only did one full day on the beach because Hatch wasn't a huge fan. He didn't like the ocean one bit & honestly it was a lot of stuff for two people to drag down to the beach with a baby in hand. We would go down to the beach at night when there were less people & by the last night he was enjoying the sand a lot more but the water not so much! We spent most of our days at the pool relaxing, playing at the play ground & going for long walks in the stroller. He loves people watching & seeing cars go by. It's funny how the little things fascinate these little ones! We dined out for dinner twice & both times HT was great!! We ventured out for a lunch date one afternoon & he wasn't happy at all. Mommy & Hatch headed back home early & Daddy brought Mommy's lunch back to her at the house. Flexibility is key with small tots!

We had so much fun watching him experience new things & I'm so thankful that we were able to take this little trip & get away as a family for a few days! It was nice for it to just be the three of us with no work & no chores to do. It was the life!!

Here are some pictures from our first official family vacation! :)

Just strolling!

This sweet boy was tuckered out & ready for a nap!

This is the life! Snoozing on the beach with the waves crashing in the background. 

Who needs a sound machine?

Waiting on the ocean water with Daddy!

Dinner at Shades with Captain Hatcher

Daddy & Hatch at Shades!

A gorgeous Rosemary sunset!

Sunday Farmer's Market in Downtown Rosemary

Floating in the pool!

I could just eat him up!!

This is what nap time looked like every day twice a day! :)

Boy did he love to swing!!!

Playing in the kiddie pool!

Dinner at the fabulous Mexican Restaurant in Seacrest Beach with my sweetie!

Those eyes!!!!!!!

Beautiful Rosemary Beach

Mommy & Hatch on the beach

Daddy & Hatcher on the beach

Loves getting Daddy to help him walk!

The loves of my life! :)

That little grin is too cute! :)

8 months old & learning lots of fun new things!

It's hard to believe but Hatcher turned 8 months old on May 24th! This sweet child of ours is growing like crazy and learning so many new things. It's like everyday he learns something new! We have had many "firsts" over the past month so needless to say it's been an exciting time!

Hatcher is all over the place in his walker. He has learned to open the kitchen cabinets & drawers. He has even learned that there is stuff in the drawers that are super fun to play with like plastic spoons & ladles!! I can't take my eyes off of him for one second. 

He's officially a CRAWLER!! So crazy but so exciting for him! He did it for the first time on May 28th. His daddy had been working with him on it all weekend & of course he does all by himself as soon as daddy leaves town for work. Still trying to catch it on video but I know he's going to be all over the place now!! 

We still only have two bottom teeth. Those top ones that he's been teething since he was 6 months old have still not made their appearance. He drools every where & puts literally everything he can get his hands on in his mouth! Come on teeth!!!

He is saying "dada" really well & can say "mama" but doesn't say it very often! We've been working with him on who people are. For example, you can say "Hatcher, where's the puppy or where's Dooley" and he'll look for him until he finds him. He does it with mommy & daddy too and now we're working on grandparents. It's so neat to see him start recognizing who people are by name!

Hatcher had his first & I hope his last Emergency Room visit on Mother's Day. Scared us to death!! He had a runny nose & lots of nasal congestion for about two weeks. Tissue and the nasal aspirator were our very best friends...well mine not his! The doctor told me it was just a part of teething and there wasn't anything we could give him. He started with a cough on the Saturday before Mother's Day. It got worse as the day went on and much worse after we put him to bed. By 3:00 he was having difficulty breathing and we made the decision to go to the ER. They gave him a breathing treatment and a steroid shot and told us he had croop. He was honestly doing so much better before we ever left there around 6:00. Seeing him that sick and in the hospital was terrifying and I literally had knots in my stomach the entire time. The doctor and nurses took excellent care of him and it meant so much to us. He was supposed to be dedicated later that morning at church but we decided that wasn't a good idea after our eventful night and didn't want him getting the other children sick. So we will wait until next time! 

Hatcher also had his first beach trip which I'll post about later! What a fun trip!!

We also moved him into a big boy rear facing car seat. He was getting too big for his infant car seat & honestly he was uncomfortable in it. He seems to be more comfortable in his Britax although right now he just isn't a fan of being in the car seat. I think at some point all kids go through this stage. He does like sitting up & being able to see more though! 

Time is flying by & I can't believe I'm already thinking of 1st birthday party ideas!! Yes, I have a Pinterest board all about it. Haha! We are throwing around a few different ideas and although I'm not ready for him to turn the big one, it'll be fun to plan!!

Below are pictures from his 8 month photo shoot!!

Hatcher: The Busy Body! :)

It seems that as soon as Hatcher turned 7 months old, he decided he was ready to put growing up into overdrive!! Let's just say we're going to have our hands full with this little boy!

He's into EVERYTHING!!! When he gets in his little walker, he is gone! This child can move so fast & manuever himself in tight spaces like nothing I've ever seen! He can also clip your ankles & run over your toes like a champ! He bumps into everything & I swear he's going to give himself whiplash!

In just the past week, he has learned how to open & close the door on Dooley's kennel, shake the blinds on the back door, pull on the table clothes & curtains, run his little fingers all up & down our pantry doors which are glass & how to really chase Dooley down!! Poor dog doesn't know what he's in for. Dooley is terrified of him in that walker & hides behind Johny & I when he feels threatened by it. We have a bench at our front door & a chair in our bedroom that allow Dooley to see out the window. This is not what they're there for but that's not what Dooley thinks. Hatch has learned to walk up to them & that Dooley will lick him all over & that he can pet Dooley. Today, he learned how to hold Dooley by the collar...seriously?!?!

He has also become quite the wiggle worm! He is constantly flipping over while we're changing his diaper & clothes. It takes forever to do either of these chores now & it's hilarious. He used to lay there so still & sweet & now he just wants to be on the move!

He has also become quite impatient. (I have no clue where he got this trait; certainly not from me!!) When we feed him his bottle, we have always burped half way through. Now when we take the bottle away, he screams bloody murder. You give it back to him, it stops. OMG!! So now, we're just feeding him the whole bottle & then burping to overcome a screaming fit.

Now, all this said he's still the sweetest little thing ever!! He's still very laid back, smiley, happy & silly! He's just realizing that he's way more mobile now & that he can manipulate us to get his way. He's wrapped around both of our fingers so we'll see how this goes!

I love watching him grow & learn new things! He's getting so big & it feels like time is going at warp speed. We were looking at pictures of his first few months the other night & we couldn't believe how much he'd grown & changed.

He's at such a fun age that I just wanted to share a few exciting new things happening in our household!

Hatcher is 7 months old!

Yesterday, we celebrated Hatcher's 7th month!! He's grown so much over the past month & has several new "tricks" he can do! I tell you, with every month that passes our love for him grows in abundance & we love watching him grow into a big boy!

While he's still a fan of the jump-a-roo, his Corvette walker is by far his favorite toy! Last week, he started moving all over the house. Every time he's gotten in it prior to last week, he's just chewed on the steering wheel & moved side to side & backwards. Now, he can walk forward in it & can literally go all over the house. He has figured out how to get through door ways & thinks it too funny when he bumps into stuff which is every five seconds! He likes to stroll in the kitchen opening & closing the cabinet doors & often tries hard to reach for things around him. Of course, he goes wherever Dooley is & sticks his hand out for some puppy kisses! It's the cutest thing! Needless to say, I've started baby proofing much sooner than I had anticipated.

He loves to play in his room on a pallet with his toys & is seriously wanting to crawl. He's doing well at scooting & I give him maybe another month before he figures the whole thing out & boy will we be in trouble then!! He loves tummy time now & would prefer that to being on his back. Funny how things change! Two months ago, I could barely get him to do tummy time for 5 minutes. He's sitting up on his own & he can do it well he just would rather be on the move so he doesn't have much to do with sitting up either. Praying he'll do it long enough for his 6 month (really 7 month) photos tomorrow!!

Hatcher is making lots of sounds & has even said "mama" a few times! He tries to mimick what we're saying & we swear sometimes he says "hey!" He likes to pat everything. He pats us, the table, the high chair & that's often what I find him doing when he wakes up from his nap. It's so cute! Our favorite trick we have taught him is how to high five! I started doing this with him about a month ago & then one day after eating his food, I said high five & he did it! I was one proud mommy & couldn't wait to show Johny his newest trick! :)

As I mentioned before, Hatcher has never been a fan of sleeping anywhere for nap time other than my arms or the Mama Roo, which he sadly out grew! About two weeks ago, I started really working with him to set naps at certain times of the day & to make sure he was napping in his crib. I'm happy to report that he's doing great & is napping in his crib three times a day for at least an hour but usually for an hour & a half! YAY!! This mommy misses holding him but boy can I get a lot more done around the house. Now if only he would sleep through the night!! He goes down every night around 8:00 but is awake crying sometime between 1:30 & 3:30 most every night. Typically, the only way to get him to go back to sleep is to feed him. I usually cave just so we can all get some sleep! Hoping once we're done teething, this will stop.

About a week after Hatcher's 6 month check-up, I took him back to see his pediatrician because two nights in a row we were up in the middle of the night with him screaming bloody murder & we weren't able to console him. The doctor wanted to see him to make sure he wasn't getting an ear infection. There was no ear infection but he did say Hatcher was teething his top teeth which was likely part of our sleeping issue. We continued to talk & he remembered at our last visit that I mentioned Hatch was having terrible constipation issues. We began talking about what he was eating/drinking & the doctor told me he felt Hatcher had a milk allergy/sensitivity. Words I was hoping he'd never say! Johny & many of the men in his family have milk allergies & we were hoping it would skip Hatch. We had started weaning him five days earlier to formula. I was like wait a second...this constipation has been going on way longer than that! Basically, Hatcher was allergic to the dairy I was eating & likely the Similac Advance he was having one bottle a day of at that point. So, he put him on Nutramigen which is made for babies with cow's milk allergy. To make the weaning process easier on both of us, I started by taking away one nursing session/bottle a day. I would do this about 5 days & then replace another feeding with formula. Just this past weekend, he started drinking formula at every feeding. I do miss breast feeding but great news is Hatcher is pooping regularly & is much less gassy! I'm so thankful that our pediatrician figured this out & that Hatcher seems to be feeling much better!

Below are some recent pictures of Hatch & his 7 month picture!

Love that sweet smile!

This is the first time that he showed interest in the sticker which made it hard to get pictures!

Mom...it's sticky!!

My first time in a high chair at Amici!

So cool driving mom's car!

The happiest baby!! :)

Hanging with his puppy!

Kisses from Dooley! :) He rolls over to the couch if Dooley is sitting there & pats the couch until he gets Dooley's attention!!

Cruisin in his corvette!

Mommy & Hatcher on our play date with the Prance's!

So silly! Getting naked for bath time! 

Helping Daddy drive his truck!

Celebrating Mommy's birthday with a Hibachi lunch!! 

My sweet boy! :)

Family picture after dinner at Mellow Mushroom for Mommy's birthday! 

"Just Hatched" - Hatcher's First Easter

This post is just a few weeks late but I suppose it's better late than never!

Hatcher's first Easter (3/31/13) was wonderful! We had all of our family at our home & we all went to church together. My parents & grandparents came over from LaGrange and my sister drove in from Birmingham. Johny's dad was here too & we really missed his mom. Her father had been in the hospital that week & she really needed to be there with him. We missed her but took lots of pictures!

After church, we all had a home cooked meal at our house prepared by my mom & myself! Then Hatch opened his Easter gifts & played with everyone. He LOVED all the attention! :)

Below are some of my favorite pictures from the day!

Hatch with Grammie & Poppy!

Opening his Easter gifts with his bunny ears on! I know one day he'll totally hate me for this picture!

Aunt Brit & Hatch at lunch the day after Easter!

Easter morning in his bunny jammies!

Family picture after church.

Hatch with his GiGi & Paw Paw Campbell

Hatcher with Daddy & Granddaddy!

HT & Granddaddy

Getting ready to eat with his "Just Hatched" bib on! Too cute!

And of course, Dools rocked his bunny ears that his Auntie Anna gave him! :)