The Hartwells: Fall Fun with Dad!

Yea! Daddy was home this weekend!! Blaise sure does love him, and Mike can get Blaise to laugh better than anyone else! Melts your heart! On Friday, Blaise had his six month check up at the pediatrician. This time, the cardiologist had decided it was okay to go ahead and start Blaise on his vaccinations. Up to this point, he had not gotten any. He had a total of four diffrent shots- one being the flu shot. I'm glad he is finally getting caught up on these as whopping cough and the flu are already out in strong force! Of course, I wasn't too nervous going into this appointment, even though most mom's are. I'm probably one of the only mom's they've actually had who somewhat laughed at Blaise's reaction instead of joining in on the crying myself. Of course he screamed and tears streaming down his face, but in reality the poor kid's already had more than 300 shots in his life, 90% injected by his own mommy. I always get a kick out of people now who think having their baby's get their shots is the worst thing in the world. Hmm. If only Blaise's life would have been that easy! :) Blaise sailed through with flying colors, never even took any Tylenol and was no worse for the wear 5 minutes later. Man I love this little boy!

He weighed in at 14 lbs 11.5 ounces. I thought for sure he would be at 15 pounds, but he has stuck to his 5% on the growth curve. Dr. Groppe was very pleased with how he has been doing. Little Mister even has two teeth popping through! We go back in a month to get the second part of the flu shot, then sometime in November to start the once-a-month RSV/Synagis shot. Our next "regular" appointment is the 9-month in January. His SAT levels were 88. I'll take that any day! Hoping for something about 90-ish, but 88 is super!

I'm already getting nervous for his late November cardiology/ECHO appointment. It will be the first ECHO since the Glenn. I pray every single moment for everything to look fine. I honestly can't even think about it being anything BUT fine. I squeeze this baby more each day more than the day before. He is such a true gift from God.

Blaise is rolling around, held his own bottle for eating for the first time last night, sat up on his own for a photo at the pumpkin patch today, and actually ate his big boy food from his new high chair this weekend. We are hoping he keeps up his eating habits! He also got to roll around for almost an hour with his diaper off last night. Pure enjoyment for him and mom and dad as we got a kick out of counting how many times he "sprayed" the blanket he was on.

We went to the pumpkin patch by our house today and Blaise has a great time. His favorite part was petting the goat. He got his own pumpkin, and we all had a super time! He has a little amazement with animals these days. Grandpa and Grandma Hartwell's dog Cartman is the coolest thing ever. Blaise is hilarious he just lights up, squeals with delight and does everything he can to reach for him. We think Cartman will be the reason Blaise learns to crawl!

Pure amazement each day when looking at this little boy. I went to a craft fair with my mom this weekend, and saw lots of mom's there with their kiddos. I think I commented a hundred times to my mom how crazy I thought they all were exposing their babies to germs with so many people around. I guess I'll never really know what it's like to have a normal mommy/baby experience, but I think it's meant to be this way so I can enjoy that much more time with him at home!