Little man is 5 months old today!  I can't believe the time has already gone by this fast!  A friend of ours took these pictures at the rehearsal dinner on Friday night and she put this together for me!  Love it!!!

SLEEPING: Chris usually goes to sleep between 8:30 and 9pm, depending on what we have going on for the night.  He pretty much sleeps all the way through the night and wakes around 4:45-5am to eat.  Sometimes he wakes at around 3am and whimpers a little.  If he doesn't stop whimpering, I head to his room and turn his sleep sheep on and give him his paci.  He drifts right back off.  I never have to lift him out of his crib.  He falls asleep on his own in his crib after his last feeding and I think he enjoys being in there.  I still swaddle him every night and I think that helps a lot.  Right now he is still sleeping on his sleep wedge but I will see if we can eliminate that soon.  At Grandma's house he has started taking good solid 2 hour naps.  He sleeps in the car both to and from Chapel Hill also so he is doing great!

EATING: Chris is now enjoying his solids!  He especially likes the fruit.  He has eaten peas, sweet potatoes, bananas, apples, pears, squash, green beans and carrots.  The carrots did not do too well with him.  He had them two days in a row and he threw up both days.  And it was throw up, not spit up, I could tell.  So I will hold off on giving him any more carrots for awhile.  He also enjoys juice in the evenings.  We give him 2 ounces of 100% juice (apple, white grape or pear) and mix it with 2 ounces of water.  He really enjoys it and cries when it's gone.  He also continues to nurse once in the morning and once before bed.  I am still pumping every two hours at work to provide his 3 bottles for the daytime.  The little guy is growing so fast!

PERSONALITY: Chris LOVES to smile!  He is almost always smiling and giggling and everyone tells me that he is such a happy baby.  He has started playing with his feet a lot and grasping for anything near by (including my lips and chin and his daddy's beard!)  He is putting everything in to his mouth now and drooling constantly.  There are no pearly whites popping through just yet but we expect them to any day because he is constantly nawing on the side of his paci or trying to put his entire fist in his mouth.  He is also rolling over I believe but I have yet to see it (both Nana and Grandma have seen it when he was with them).  Does this mean I hold my baby too much, lol???  I suspect that he will be sitting up unassisted any time now as he is always trying to pull himself up, especially in his carseat when he can grip the sides.  I absolutely love to watch him develop right before my eyes!  He is sooooo fun right now!!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday!  After the wedding we went home to change and then headed down the road to my mom's.  My aunt and uncle had come over as well as my sister and her dog.  We had burgers and dogs and just hung out.  Chris had been with her all day while we were at the wedding so she had the perfect birthday, according to her.  I am so thankful for my mom and all the things that she has taught me.  I hope to be only half as amazing as she is...

Ed was honored to be a part of one of his best friends weddings yesterday.  Will and Candice were married at our church in High Point and Ed served as one of the groomsman.  The ceremony was wonderful and the reception was full of fellowship, delicious food and an amazing cake!  Candice looked amazing in her dress and we had a good time spending the day with some of our good friends!

We took the boys to the Central Carolina Fair last Friday night.  It is very similar to the State Fair, just on a smaller scale.  It's held at the Greensboro Coliseum in the Pavillion.  We got TJ a youth ride band for $15 and he was able to ride everything that he wanted, as many times as he wanted.  Not a bad deal!  He had a great time.  All of the action was so stimulating for Chris and he loved watching all of the people and all of the rides going round and round and up and down!

Yesterday was my sister's 27th birthday.  We went over to mom's on Sunday for a cookout to celebrate.  We had a great time and the weather was beautiful.  Here are some shots of us from the day!

Here is a video of the first try with solid foods!  I was totally taping with my left hand and feeding him with my right so it's a little shaky, sorry!  And please disregard the ridiculous voice and the hungry cat in the background, lol!

So we have been experimenting with solids again over the past week!  We started with some bananas and he actually seemed to enjoy them.  It's amazing with your first child because not only is it a learning experience for Chris but it is for me as well.  When I tried to feed him the peaches a few weeks back and he didn't seem to like them, I was sure it was because they tasted bad.  I mean, what baby food could really taste that good?  After only a spoonful or two, I just quit because I didn't want to force it on him.  As we tried again with the bananas, he sort of had the same reaction at first.  He spit them right back out.  But this time, I kept trying and I discovered that he didn't not like them, he just didn't know how to eat off of a spoon.  I'm sure you are thinking "that should be pretty obvious Rachel" but it really wasn't to me.  I was so focused on them tasting bad to him.  To ensure that he would like the taste of them, I dipped his paci in the food and gave it to him that way at first (see picture below, lol!)  He really liked it and that is when I said to myself, let me keep trying with this spoon.  SO after several spoonfuls and half the container on his bib and mouth, he actually started to open his mouth when he saw me put bananas on the spoon.  He was learning how to swallow off of the spoon and I was learning how to put the spoon in his mouth so he couldn't spit the food out right away.  He has now enjoyed both bananas and sweet potatoes.  We will be experimenting with other new foods in the next few weeks (pears, apples, carrots, green beans and more peaches!)  I have a video of him eating bananas for the first time I will add later.

We also gave him rice cereal for the first time yesterday. Dr. Davis told us to not try the cereal at bed time the first time, just in case he didn't like it or had a bad reaction to it.  That way we wouldn't be up all night.  So I pumped a bottle around lunch time yesterday and added 2 tablespoons of rice cereal.  He ate like a champ and then proceeded to take a 3 hour nap!!!  This from the baby that doesn't nap for more than 15 minutes at a time.  So tonight I pumped his last bottle and again, added the cereal to it so we will see how he does sleeping!

So I am having a much harder time than I thought updating the blog with being back at work.  By the time I get the chance to sit down at night, I want to go to sleep and not be on the computer since I've been on it all day.

But anyway, we went to Atlanta for the Labor Day weekend to watch the Heels play LSU in the Georgia Dome.  The game was great and even though we lost, our boys played with so much heart that you would have thought we had won at the end of the game.  The LSU fans were silent (as they had narrowly escaped defeat by a team down 13 defensive players, mostly starters) and the Carolina fans were up cheering, clapping and making lots of noise as the band played our fight song.  It was a great atmosphere.

Prior to the game we went to the Fan Zone in the Georgia World Congress Center.  It was basically a HUGE pep ralley for both teams.  They had great games for the kids, the bands, cheerleaders, free give aways & food.  Chanler and I got our face painted while Jalen & TJ ran all over the building.  Schultz & Ed walked around with Deuce strapped in the snuggly.  We had a great time.

Deuce did great during the game!  We got in to the stadium about 2 hours before kickoff (yes, we HAD to see the team warm up entirely) but it worked out well because I needed to nurse and there was really nobody in the stadium.  So I just went up really high and sat comfortably.  Deuce was happy through the entire game and people all around us kept snapping pictures of him because I had put eye blacks on him and he just kept smiling at everyone.  I fed him once more but I've gotten so good at this that I was so discrete that Chanler didn't even notice and she was sitting right next to me!  He slept the entire 4th quarter which was amazing because that's when we made our big comeback and it was so loud on our side.  All in all he loved his 1st Carolina game!