Six Months!

Semmes was six months old yesterday!  It's hard to believe.  I honestly can't remember what life was like before him.  He's such a great baby.  He is 18 pounds, 15 ounces (so really, 19 pounds) and 25.7 inches.  He's a little short for his weight, so he's in the 95th percentile for weight for length.  He is in mostly 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers.  He sits up like a champ, can stand if he is holding onto my hands, and is starting to scoot around.  No crawling yet and he can still only roll onto his tummy.  Then he gets stuck.  I think that since he can lift himself up so high, he is scared to roll from that height back onto his back.  He'll figure it out.  He still doesn't have teeth, but Cooper didn't get teeth until he was eleven months.  But he is drooling like a champ.  Also, he does have hair, but since it's so blond it doesn't really show up in pictures.  Cooper's hair was a darker blond.

These pictures get harder to take every month.  He was trying to crawl off the chair to get to the camera I was holding.  He grabs for EVERYTHING and everything he manages to grab goes straight into his mouth.  Taking him to restaurants in interesting.

He has been to day care twice in the mornings while I've gone to Bible study, and today is his second day of Mother's Day Out.  He ate well at both places, which is what I had been worried about.  Shouldn't have worried, though.  This kid is going to eat.  Instead, he is a TERRIBLE sleeper when he's not at home.  He didn't sleep either time he went to the daycare at Fellowship.  Yesterday, he took one nap from 10:20-11.  That was it.  As soon as I walked into his school yesterday, I could hear him screaming (his classroom is right next to the door).  But as soon as he saw me, he stopped screaming, smiled, and grabbed my face to give me one of his nasty, open-mouthed "kisses."  Made my heart happy.

These pictures were even harder to take.  I didn't have Brad to distract him since Brad was taking Cooper to school.  And we were outside, where all the cool stuff is.  And we had this chalkboard that obviously needed to be touched.  But I managed to get one good-ish picture.  He's smiling, just not at the camera.  Whatever, I'll take what he gives me.

Finally, we went to Clarksdale a few weeks ago and I got out some photo albums from when I was a baby.  And there I discovered that Semmes looks like me, a lot.  There is no me in Cooper (except his dimples), so it's awesome that Semmes looks like me.  I think he has my nose and eyes.  I think his mouth is more like Brad's and obviously he has Brad's chin, but I'm glad he has a little (or a lot) me in him!

The Park

Our neighborhood has a great little park.  There's a pool, a playground, a creek, and a big field with a track around it.  We like to walk over there and just sit outside.  I'm sure next summer/fall will be much more hectic at the park, but I like our calm family time on the blanket.

I'm sorry I'm so repetitive, but ya'll, Semmes is seriously obsessed with Leffe.  It's crazy.  

No!  I don't want to go home!! 

Destin (mostly in pictures)

First of all, the water in Destin was gross.  This is unheard of.  But they had something like a record 22 inches of water this summer, so there was sediment, sea grass, sea snails (slugs?), etc.  that made the water nasty the whole time we were there.  Now, I've seen Destin in all its glory, but Brad hasn't.  And we talked it up.  A lot.  So we get there and the water is gross and I was kinda mad.  To Brad, it just looked like the rest of the Gulf of Mexico.  And that made me even more mad.  Because, as I'm sure many of you know, Destin in NOT like the rest of the Gulf.  Oh well.  We still had an awesome, amazing, can I please go back now time.

The view from the condo where we stayed.  

Semmes HATED the ocean for several days.  The first time we put Cooper's feet in the water, he kinda grinned and seemed to like it.  Semmes screamed.  And every time a wave would crash, he would grab my neck and hide his face.  Poor kid.

This is the best $7 I have ever spent.  He stayed cool in the pool (we put a few inches of ocean water in it) PLUS there were inflatable toys to chew on attached to the pool.  It was great.

Our friend Alecia from med school just happened to be in town.  Her parents rented a boat one afternoon and we joined them.  It was great to see her and get to catch up!

The company told Alecia that all the boats had infant life vests.  Yeah, no.  This was the smallest life vest they had.  Good thing we weren't allowed to take the boat out into the Gulf.  We stayed in the very calm waters of the harbor.

The pirate ship.  Someday, I want to go out in it...

This was how we spent the vast majority of our day.  Everyday.  Brad studied.  Semmes slept or played.  I laid in the sun and read or played with Semmes.  It was awesome.  

See what I mean about the water!??  Ugh!!

Semmes "ate" carrots for the first time.  I didn't think he really ate anything, but I was wrong.  Because we saw them again the next day.... you know what I mean.

He was obsessed with this pineapple.  We got it the first day, but never cut it until almost the last because Semmes was so interested in it.  Yes he's on a countertop.  I'm a great parent, I know.

And in other great parenting moves, we brought Cooper's shark Halloween costume and took pictures one morning on the beach.

My little landshark!  Fins up!

One afternoon, we just couldn't take the wind and sea grass anymore, so we drove over to Seaside.  Cutest beach town ever.  It's where they filmed "The Truman Show."  This is the chapel there.

And the post office (obviously).

Their water was gorgeous, of course.  But the sand was HOT!!

Love, love, love these pictures.

These two German (I think) ladies took these for us.  One took the pictures, one made Semmes laugh.  They were great.

On our second to last night, we went to Harbor Docks for dinner.  Great local restaurant with fresh fish.  I will say this about my dinner there: I have now decided that all shrimp should be stuffed with crab, wrapped in bacon, and grilled.  Amazing!

Last full day.  Sad.

Everyday we were there, a couple created sand sculptures.  The last day was the only kid-friendly one (one day, for example, it was a butt and legs sticking out of an igloo). Semmes wouldn't look up; too bright.

He finally got used to the ocean, and by the end of the week he was a total beach bum!

Next year, if we get to go back, we're taking Cooper!  I missed him too much!  The last morning we were there, I made a comment to Brad that if we could put Cooper in a box and ship him down, I would never leave.