Ford continues to get bigger and bigger. He is still so young, but I can't help noticing how big he is compared to other babies. We snapped some pictures of Ford next to Levi, one of his friends that was born in the "boy" group that just emerged with pregnant moms at Crosspoint. We measured Ford too, he was about 27 1/2 inches long! I have no idea how heavy though, but he has to be pretty heavy because he is so hard to carry in his carrier! Way heavier than his sister was. Well Ford got in the pool for the first time on Saturday. He enjoyed it pretty well, he was a bit tired so he wasn't as enthusiastic as normal, but enjoyed it non the less. He wore his dad's cap since we forgot his and he's not able to wear sunscreen yet.



Ford really watches Annabell's every move, he is amazed with her. He also laughs at her anytime she laughs or jumps up and down for him. Today she started playing peek-a-boo from around his bouncer seat, poping her head up just to make him laugh. Which he thought was so funny.

Well tomorrow we are going to give Ford his first taste of cereal. I really wanted to wait until 6 months, but he is so incredibly interested and actually tries to get food into his mouth when we are eating that I think now is a good time. I'll let y'all know how it goes! Love y'all!

Happiest Boy

Ford is the happiest baby! Today while talking to my friend I clapped a little toy in front of him and he began to laugh...so I grabbed the camera and he went town laughing...I captured it for y'all to enjoy! Between Ford and Annabell I have so much laughter in our home! What a blessing!

Motor Skills

My neighbor Heather was an elementary teacher before taking on the job of stay at home mom. She knows a lot about learning development and things of that sort. She is always watching my kids and pointing out things I would probably not notice or at least not correlate with a learned skill or brain development etc. She says that Ford has awesome "Gross Motor Skills" and his sis has really good "Fine motor skills".
From what I understand gross motor skills are things like "rolling, jumping etc..." for an Infant I believe it would be his ability to play while pushing himself up and untying his shoe laces, holding toys, grabbing faces, etc. Today in the nursery he was sitting on the floor (on his bottom) with one of the ladies behind him and playing with all the different toys, he will even crawl his hands out to reach for more toy and stay steady. He keeps amazing me. He made the "Da" sound the other day. It will be interesting to see when he says his first word. I think his fine motor skills are also really great. He can now put the binki in his mouth. Yes he finally took a binki again! He started about 2 weeks ago. It has been nice. He doesn't really use it that much though, sometimes he still rejects it too, but it calms him down if I can't feed him while driving or something of that sort. He is eating so much! Looking at him you would think he is eating solid foods by now, but just milk! He has even needed a bottle of expressed milk on top of his last feeding for the evening, it is helping him sleep through the night, which is great! 7:30pm-7/8am! I'm loving it, he is such an easy baby. So happy too, he smiles at everyone, and seems to make everyone around him happy!
He has become very interested in food, he will watch every bite we take and begins to drool. He would of already had food by now if it was up to Annabell. I have caught her several times trying to share her cookies, fruit, milk and juice. I am hoping to not introduce any solids until 6 months though, we will see if he can wait that long.
Well I haven't taken many pictures lately since Brad has had the camera, so here is some of what I had...random shots of Ford. Love y'all!

zzzzzzzz....

Ford has begun to sleep through the night...and I mean all the way! How wonderful it has been! He goes to bed around 8pm and then is out until 7am. It started when I began to give him HUGE feedings right before bed. I must of not been giving him enough before...but now he is doing well. He has also started to reach out and grab. This has made him and Annabell connect even more. She will put her face really close to his so that he will reach out and grab it. He loves to chew on his teething toys now too.

We went to the Edison Day Parade for the first time. It was nice. I took the kids and hitched a ride with the neighbors. Ford did great until the sirens went off while the fire and police vehicles went by, then he FREAKED out! His GG bought him a cute hat to wear during the parade while the sun was up, so his head wouldn't get burnt.
Here are some pictures in the cutest outfit EVER! I love the hat on him and the jersey says "Dad's Team". Speaking of, Brad comes home tomorrow! YAY! Please pray for his traveling! Also, GG left today. We had such a good visit with her. Ford LOVED to smile at her! He might get some of her red hair too, you can kind of see it in the back of his head...we'll see. Love y'all!

P.S. Ford chews on his tongue constantly, you can even see him doing it in some of the pictures. He is drooling a ton. So I think teeth aren't too far off.

GG and Haiti

Well we have had a busy week so it has taken me a while to be able to post anything. Ford's Great Grandma on my mom's side flew in on Monday to come in Florida and visit. It was her Christmas gift from her kids. So we have been quite busy. Monday night Brad met his missions team in Ft. Myers at midnight (so technically it was Tuesday) and then left around 10am to Haiti. I will let him tell everyone all about it when he gets home. They arrived safely and thankfully he is able to email me on occasion. Please be praying for him and for the people there. Any who, we decided to take Grandma to the beach on Tuesday. She loved it and got a sunburn in the process. Ford wasn't as excited because he isn't able to play in the sand and sun until he can wear sunscreen so it kept him frustrated with having to be held most of the time. He did like watching his sister play though. I also took a picture of him in his big boy clothes. I love when they were little men clothes like Polo's! too cute. I also snapped a picture of him smiling at GG. He loves smiling at her. He got to play with two of his great grandmothers yesterday. We went there for lunch and so they could visit together. It was nice. Ford LOVED playing in the baby walker his G-ma bought for her grand kids. He liked being able to push it with his toes!
Last night Ford went to youth group with me and his sister stayed home. He loved all the attention and did wonderfully until the end of the night which was around 915, about an hour past his normal bed time. He started to cry as soon as we got into the car. He was so sleepy, but he went right to bed when we got home. Well I love y'all!

4 month check-up

(Ford's whining face)

(reading with sis and Grandma)

Ford had his 4 month check-up three days ago. He is growing extremely well and is always happy, except for after his shots...more on that later. Here are his stats:

• Weight 17.8 lbs 95%
• Height 27.125 inches 97%
• Head 44 cm 90%

He is a BIG Boy! He is only 7 lbs short of his 1 1/2 year old sisters weight! And I completely believe his head is as big as hers is now! ha.

Well after MUCH prayer and deliberation and reading I decided to go ahead and give Ford his shots. It came down to having peace with my Dr's decisions on being adamant about giving the shots and his information against the popular positions about waving or spacing out vaccines. I prayed and prayed and prayed and decided to go with my doctor on this. I have to just leave it in the Lord's hands because I don't know all the answers on this topic! Even if I did I would still leave it in His hands! So I prayed for God's protection on Ford held his hands and then watched him scream. SO SAD! His face turned as red as a strawberry and he cried tears immediately! After the nurse was done, I nursed him and he calmed down. He was fine all day. But the next day he began to cry when I picked him up from his crib. He had two HUGE lumps in his legs from his shot and a slight fever. The fever made me nervous because Annabell has had one for about a week on and off. I'm pretty sure it was from the shots though. His fever ranged from 100 degrees to 99.2, but never higher than that. Finally his lumps are starting to go down some today. He has been a happy baby as long as his legs weren't being touched.

This is a video of Annabell making Ford laugh. Of course he was laughing a lot before I got the camera out! If you watch the video for a while you will see her finally start to jump and make him laugh. She is so proud that he laughs as you can see when she claps for herself!

Well I think Ford will be able to role onto his belly soon. He sways back and forth on his back and grabs his toes while doing so. I'm sure it will be any day now.

This next video is of Ford still watching Annabell. I really like it because you notice how he watches her every move! He really looks up to her already! I love being able to see them become friends! It is a wonderful thing. Annabell already asks for Ford to be able to take a bath with her every time now. He has taken 2 baths with her and she loves it. He likes it too and seems to be excited about all the toys in the tub! Well that is it for now...oh wait. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Ford received his first Valentine card from his 2nd cousin Thomas (Brian and Lisa's son). It was very cute! He also got lots of goodies from his Grandma...of course! She is such a spoiler!
Oh and on another note, I started to read black and white books to Ford. He REALLY likes them! They keep his focus much longer than regular books and the library has a lot of selection. Well that is all for now! Love y'all!

p.s. Ford went to the beach for the first time today. No sand or water seeing it's too cool and he can't even stand up yet. But soon enough!

Grabbing

Ford has mastered the art of grabbing things! Especially my hair! ha! Well maybe not mastered but has learned to grab and pull to his mouth just about anything! He is more excited to play with his toys because he knows he can actually do things with them. I even gave him one of his stuffed animals to play with earlier and he really enjoyed it. His favorite toy however has been his toes! He still loves to play with them!
Ford is so expressive. Every inch of his face lights up with you make eye contact with him! I really see that him and Annabell have their own 'look' to them but both look a lot alike! I think they both have daddy's cheeks and my eyes. It's neat to see how different they can look with the same features! Ford is REALLY thickening up! Every ounce of him is full of baby chub and I love it! He is so sweet and such a cuddle bug. He loves to be held. Speaking of that, last night I decided I was done trying to put him to sleep with feedings (per the advise of their Grandma) and decided to see if he would go down on his own. He cried for a while (about 30 minutes) and then I came in and soothed him and then he cried for about 5 minutes and went to bed! Tonight he cried for about 15 minutes and went to sleep. It is SUCH a blessing for Brad and I, because it gives us more time as a couple when the kids are asleep. Plus I think Ford sleeps better all in all. My only concern now is if I should still wake to feed him at night (once) before he starts to get cereal or does he get enough calories on the breast milk alone that I don't need to wake to feed him???? Anyone know for sure? Let me know please!

(left is a picture of Ford and the right is a picture of Ford's friend Logan and Kelly yes we had to change diapers right there!)

Well Ford attended his first Pro Life demonstration today! He did really well, he slept most of the time, then he was in his Bjorn carrier, and then held and the DONE! Once he became really hungry we called it quits and went to let the kids cool off with some drinks and snacks at a local sub shop. I was so impressed with Ford and Annabell and how well they did with us standing in one section for 2 1/2 hours! I am blessed with wonderful babies!

Well Ford was once again the ladies man at the High school girls sleep over. The high school girls love Ford and all enjoy taking turns holding him. A few of them have even babysat for our small group or other bible studies on occasion so they feel really close to him! He slept with me in my bed that evening because it was too loud in his room. He doesn't sleep at well with me because he can feel every time I move and wakes. But he woke up bright and early with a HUGE smile on his face as always! I love his smile! It lights up the entire room!

The girls seem to love to put their fingers in his mouth because he loves to chew on things! I am not the biggest fan of this act but haven't brought myself to say anything because I know they mean well. Plus I guess germs can be ok for him............ hmmmm.
Well we love y'all!