6 Months

When did my little Spencer get this big?!  It blows me away how fast time goes by.  He is six months old yesterday and just so much fun.  He's doing lots of new things all the time.  He's trying all kinds of new foods and has yet to encounter anything he won't eat.  I don't think he's in love with the turkey baby food I gave him, but he totally ate it today on the third try.  Bill and I were a bit worried that he wasn't really an Ashman if he didn't like meat, but he calmed our fears this evening. lol.  He has decided recently that he wants to help with the feeding process, so his face is usually covered with food by the time we're done.

He's scooting along like crazy.  He puts his head into the floor and pushes with all his might and actually can move pretty far.  He's a pretty content kid though.  While he can roll and scoot now, he only does it to get to something that interests him, then he's content to hang out there for a while.  He loves his high chair.  Thanks Aunt Debbie!  I can stick him in it with a few toys and he's good for quite a while.  

He's starting to express opinions about things and not just reacting.  He is teething and he has had a bit of a hard time going to sleep lately and he will straight up refuse his pacifier if we try to give it to him.  He clamps his mouth shut, starts kicking his legs into the bed and throws a little temper tantrum.  It's pretty hilarious.  He also will dissolve into tears if he thinks we took away his spoon when he's eating and will refuse to eat anything else.  Also somewhat amusing, but I'd rather he just ate. 

He's started to discover his deep voice.  He is starting to kind of growl at us.  He's also kind of hoarse from the bedtime temper tantrums, so mix that in and he sounds a bit like a smoker.  Pretty much he just makes us laugh all the time with his talking.

He is still a cuddle bug.  I'm a huge fan of that.  He does everything he can to get my hair.  He's about to push his first tooth through and is subsequently chewing on everything from his dad's big toe to my shoulder to anything else he can find. 

That's about it for the update.  This adorable little guy has pretty much changed our lives.  I never realized how smitten I could be by such a little person.  Cliche I know, but it's pretty awesome.

Where has the month gone?

I can't believe it's halfway through July already.  This month has flown by.  We've just been doing so many fun things, I haven't had time to document them.  Here's a few of them:

We went to Stadium of Fire.  It's my first time even though I've lived in Provo for the better part of 10 years.  Brad Paisley came and it was totally worth the wait.  He is a fantastic performer.  He ended the night by jumping into a lighted pool going across the back of the stage.  Yeah, that's just cool.

We left the very next morning for a family reunion on Bill's side on the Oregon coast, a mere three miles from where my family had one four years ago.  It was fantastic to go back there.  Good food, good times with family, lots of Spencer-loving done by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Grandma Suzanne got to feed Spencer. 

We took family pictures. 

We went running on the beach in the biggest headwind I've ever run in.  Bill's comment, screamed at me over the wind so I could hear, was classic, "I've never had to lean so far forward to run so slow!" 

Speaking of running, I got Bill a pair of Five Fingers minimalist running shoes for his birthday and a pair for me to match. 

We haven't been too many times, but they are fantastic!  I was skeptical of them, since it's kind of the in thing right now to run barefoot and I'm not a huge fan of following trends like that, but this one might be legit.  I'm still getting used to running more on my toes.  It makes my calves and shines super achy, but it feels so good to have so little on my feet.  Bill loves them too.  We went running together for the first time in like a year with Spencer in the jogger a few weeks ago and have gone several times since.  We looked like a cute little jogger family.  It kind of made me laugh. 

I think I've said before that Bill and I celebrate both his and my birthday in July for his since we have so many events in January when mine is, and just added another with Spencer sharing my birthday.  So Bill gave me my birthday gift too.  He got me tools!  A jigsaw and a Kreg jig to make pocket holes in wood. 

Plus a children's songbook.  He knows the way to my heart. :)  Since we're moving to a new house that is bigger than our apartment in a couple weeks, I'll actually be able to build a few more things and I'm so excited!  The tools will allow me to do that.  I'm going to build a pantry, since the house doesn't have one, an entertainment center tailored to the projector we have, a toy box for Spencer, and maybe some boxes for all the blankets we have.  This will be over time of course.  Oh, and some sawhorses so I can not kill my back doing all this. 

On the Spencer front, as that's who I spend most of my time with, he will be six months old next Thursday.  When did that happen?!  He decided this week to do a bunch of new things.  He's still eating like a champ and eats anything we give him.   He is getting his first tooth finally!  Bill found a little tooth nub yesterday. 

He's been somewhat unhappy today, and it's pretty obvious his gums are sore, so hopefully it will come through soon and be done.  He has started to move too.  Here's a video showing a bit of it.  (or I can't get it to load no matter how many times I try, so that will just have to wait.)  He started that two days ago and now is either moving or rolling all over whenever we put him on the floor.  I swear he is going to get rug burn because he doesn't know yet that he should lift his head up when he pushes with his legs.  But he's moving and he's enjoying it.  And that's our month for the moment.  Super busy, lots of fun, and more good things to come. :)