#miles and layne are so cute and pretty | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

adventures-with-chopper-blog · 6 years

Text

Chopper is growing big, and growing fast! Summers here!

Chopper will be 5 months on June 3rd! Its simply unbelievable how fast time has gone by. Chop is doing so well. Hes eating baby food, he took his first swim, were working on getting him to sit up, he babbles and sings like you wouldn’t believe, he kicks and kicks and kicks…..and kicks! You’d think hes trying to run away! Really, if I could take him in the middle of one of his kicking moments and put him upright, he would take off like the energizer bunny!!

To begin the meat of this post, let me explain a little bit about where we live, which is also our hometown. We live in Wildwood, it’s a little 5 - mile - island located on the southern part of New Jersey. We have a boardwalk with 3 amusement piers, 3 water parks, all kinds of shops, games, there’s a lot of fun things to do up there. We also have long, beautiful, sandy, tranquil beaches! Here’s a few pictures!

Its pretty cool living here, I must admit. A lot of the time I catch myself complaining and moaning about how much I dread living here, but now that i have a child of my own, I am realizing how lucky I am to live somewhere that people from all over the country, (even Canada!) come to on vacation. There’s really something for everyone here. I cant wait until Chop is big enough to go on some of the rides on the boardwalk. However, the reason I mentioned where I live is because its Memorial Day Weekend, perhaps the busiest weekend we encounter down here in the Wildwoods. There’s so much going on, theres’ a really cool kite festival which always is an opportunity for some beautiful photos:

Here’s us today !

But the island is really PACKED. Even so, I must remember once again how lucky we are to live here and have all of these amazing things going on, there’s something different every weekend!

Enough about me and where we live, more about Chopper! With Summer beginning, that means great weather incoming!!! Which means Chop got to take his first swim in his Grammy’s pool!

He was a bit apprehensive at first, because this kid likes 104 - degree bath water, so even the 84 - degree water in the pool was quite a shock to him! After he got used to the waters temperature however, he liked it a lot. I did notice that he’d rather me hold him, outside of the float. I think he didn’t feel quite secure & safe enough in the float even with me holding him under his arms like in the picture. He’d rather me just hold him and float around.

So we had a nice day yesterday. Grammy and I take him on the boardwalk and for a lot of walks, and let me tell you - the fresh air does wonders for a baby to fall asleep! He rarely sleeps the night - once in a while, but on the occasion he does sleep the night - you bet he went outside that day and got some fresh air!!

Otherwise, eating is going very well with him, (knock on wood) he hasn’t had any problems with any foods I’ve given him… So far so good! He’s had apples (they were his first), pears, sweet potatoes, and green beans! Having to wait 4 days in-between each different food is definitely frustrating because I want to just keep giving him new things, but better safe than sorry. He really seems to enjoy eating, and all the different tastes and textures. He is going to be a human garbage disposal, I can tell, anything you put near this kids mouth - hes going to eat. I really have a feeling I do not have a picky eater on my hands, which is wonderful. I think so far, fruits are his favorite. But here’s a picture of him after a dinner of some sweet potatoes!

TIP: don’t forget, even though you’re feeding your baby food now, you still must keep up with the formula! I’m keeping a formula and food diary, to make sure that he gets the right amount of formula each day still, because it is truly imperative to the development of his brain and other muscles. At 5 months, he should be getting about 24-32 oz a day.

As far as his straining that he was having trouble with a few months ago, its completely disappeared and his little body and digestive tract is working and moving things along great as far as I can see! My secret - mylicon probiotics! They come in a tiny dropper bottle, and I put 5 drops in one of his bottles once a day, and the difference it made RIGHT AWAY was incredible! Within a day or two, he was no longer straining, pushing, feeling uncomfortable all day, and as i said, everything is moving along smoothly! It made me so relieved and feel so much better, I really hated seeing him like that, so uncomfortable. All of my fellow moms and dads sure know how much it stinks watching your baby be in any kind of discomfort or pain at all!!! So it was truly a relief that i was able to make that go away.

As far as his growth is concerned, I have a feeling we’re going to have a monster on our hands!! Remember now, he was 6 weeks premature… And he now weighs, at a few days shy of 5 months, just about 16 pounds!!! there’s babies that were born before him, at full term, and don’t weigh as much as him or don’t look as big and grown as him. He isn’t overweight in the slightest, hes just a very healthy, chubby, growing baby boy, and I couldn’t be more proud of him for how far hes come, and I really couldn’t be more proud of myself, for how far I’ve come. (More on my personal recovery story in another blog post. I promise i’m going to become more involved in this, because i’m really getting back into writing, not to mention this is a great place to write my thoughts and keep track of his milestones and all the cute little details of our journey with Chopper.)

Chopper is proof that premature babies CAN and WILL grow BIG AND STRONG!

As for momma and poppa chop, I start my face painting back up in the beginning of July, 3 days a week, so that should keep me busy this summer, I really enjoy doing that, I’ve been at it for 5 years! Its very rewarding, when i’m finished painting their faces and I turn the mirror around and they get a glimpse of their faces, the expressions once they see my artwork on their faces is truly priceless, and ever so rewarding. Poppa chop is chef-ing away at his job, it gets very busy in the summer, anywhere you work on this island. And were planning on taking a little vacation of our own in the end of June, to Canada!!! We’re all really excited. But until then, were just going to keep on enjoying our little man Chopper Layne, and continue to watch and help him grow!!

Some bonus pics of Poppa Chop & Chopper!

#baby #babyblog #parenting #momblog #momblogger #cuteness #cute #babies #babyboy #adventures #wildwood #newjersey #summer #beach #kites #weekend #fun #parent

2 notes · View notes