All About Ayden

This post is all about Ayden!  Our sweet, adorable charmer!  He is our happy baby.  Anyone who says hi to him will be rewarded with a smile.  Doesn't matter who it is, he's going to smile and flirt.  When he does get upset, sometimes he's not sure whether to laugh or cry and we get a little bit of both.

On his 6 month birthday

The best word to describe Ayden is content.  He will happily lay on the floor playing with his toes or whatever toys are within reach.  He's been pretty content staying wherever we leave him.  Even though he can roll over, he's usually happy staying wherever we put him.

He loves his little piggy toes!

As of Tuesday, Ayden weighs 19 lbs 8 oz, which puts him in the 76th percentile on the regular chart, not the preemie chart.  He is 26.8 inches at the 38th percentile.  So basically he is short and fat!  lol, I am just kidding.  He is perfect.  However, his weight gain is exceeding his growth curve so Dr. B has decided it's time to take him off the NeoSure formula because he most definitely does not need the extra calories.  He is still getting vitamins with iron every morning, and now that he is starting to eat solids, she felt that he will be getting the necessary vitamins and minerals that the NeoSure was providing.

Oh, and did I mention that his head circumference is at the 98th percentile?  Yeah, he still has a super big head.  Big heads do tend to run in our family, so Dr. B isn't concerned about that at all.  Big head = big smarts!

Ayden is in size 3 diapers and wearing a variety of clothing sizes, anywhere from 6 months to 9 months. He's actually even grown out of a few 9 month items, but can still wear some 6 month stuff?  I don't know how that happens, but apparently it does.

Ayden is able to lift his entire chest up off the floor and he is able to get his knees under him, but he can't seem to figure out how to do that at the same time.  If his knees are underneath him, he just manages to push himself around with his face plastered to the floor!  Haha!  Once he figures out how to put his hands down and lift up at the same time, I think he will be off and running crawling!  He loves to stand up, with assistance of course.  He's also been working on sitting up.

Ayden is super ticklish.  Shake his belly, he will laugh.  Tickle his chest, he will laugh.  Change his diaper, yep, he laughs.  We discovered that he thinks our cold hands are pretty funny too.  I always tried to be careful not to touch him too much while changing him if my hands were cold, but one time my cold hand brushed his belly and he burst out laughing!  So of course I then had to test it out and pressed my hand on his belly and he just laughed and laughed and laughed.  It's probably mean, but he has such an awesome little baby laugh!

Teething has officially set in.  Ayden LOVES to chew on his hands and suck on his bibs.  It's difficult to get a bottle in his mouth because he always grabs his bib and stuffs it, along with his hands in his mouth.  And then he complains if we don't feed him fast enough!  It is forever a struggle to hold his hands down while trying to get a bottle in his mouth.  He's not partial to his own hands either.  He will suck on any hand/arm/leg that is anywhere near his mouth!

Sucking on his Grandma Nini's thumb

He can just about get his entire fist in his mouth!

We will be making a visit to Occupational Therapy for Ayden next week.  He struggles with his fine motor skills and has a hard time grabbing things.  He also tends to hold his wrists funny at times.  We are hoping that he is just a little behind and will soon catch up to his sister.  The OT will evaluate him and make suggestions as needed.

Ayden is sleeping through the night anywhere between 10-12 hours.  However, it has definitely been a struggle the last few weeks putting him down.  We have learned he's not much of a cry it out baby.  He just gets more and more worked up.  We've tried teething tablets, Orajel, Tylenol....Bedtime has been a struggle. It took us 2 1/2 hours before he fell asleep one night.  He still goes down fairly easy for naps though.  Thank goodness.

I always wanted a girl.  When we found out we were having twins, I really hoped for at least one girl.  I think I would have been a little disappointed if we had been told we were having two boys.  Of course I would have ultimately been happy with two boys, but I REALLY wanted a girl.  Now that we have our boy Ayden, I can't imagine NOT having him! We would have missed out on experiencing all his beautiful smiles and his joy when he gets excited about something.  I know I'm biased, but I also happen to think he is a beautiful baby!

Now, for a grand finale to this All About Ayden post, I leave you a bunch of pictures!

He almost looks like a little boy instead of a baby with only shorts on!

Just LOOK at that smile!!!!!

Working on his sitting up skills

"I can't ALWAYS be happy Ma"

Taking a little snooze instead of watching the softball game.

Trying out his high chair for the very first time.