Family Travels...

Tucker, Dustin, and I traveled down South to Florida this past week.  Dustin works from home, but for a company based out of Florida, so he has to travel down there often for meetings and things like that.  Tucker and I try to tag along too if we can!  Dustin's aunt, uncle, and cousins live there and after living down there for almost 3 years we made some great friends we love to visit whenever we can! :)  Tucker did great traveling and we were so thankful for that.  He really is the happiest baby I know and content pretty much anywhere we go!  I am constantly reminded of how blessed we are with such a good baby!

On the drive down...

As soon as we got to Aunt Vicki's house, "Cousin" Maggie started to entertain Tucker.  Here she is reading to him.  Tucker loved playing with her!

They have a playground in their neighborhood, so I was able to take Tucker to swing for the first time.  He loved it!  We went more than once, because he Loved it so much.  He could not stop laughing.  It was so much fun watching him!

I love that Maggie is in this one too, because she enjoyed watching him as much as I did :)

Different day, but just as excited as the first time!

And below, is a video of him laughing away and having so much fun!

On Saturday we made our way to Andalusia for Abbie's (our cousin) engagement party.  We loaded up the car on Saturday morning and we made the 2 hour drive...again Tucker was a champ and did great in the car.  The party was at John Wesley's house, Abbie's fiance'.  His mother's house happens to be the second oldest house in Andalusia and it was so cool!  It had so much character and it was Huge!  It's crazy how big houses used to be and how tall the ceilings were.  This house had 14 foot ceilings throughout, even upstairs.  I love old houses...I would take an old house with all that charm over a new house any day :)  I'm so glad we were able to make it to the party and to celebrate the engagement of Abbie and John Wesley.

Eating dinner in the 2nd oldest house in Andalusia

On the drive home today.

After 5 days of being away from home, we are glad to back.  Tucker was also very happy to see Rusty :) We definitely enjoyed some sunny days in Florida and getting to see some people that are very special to us.  I am very thankful for the relationships we made while living down there.  I look forward to taking Tucker back down to the beach often, especially this summer!

PS- I felt I needed a little pick me up after all that driving so I turned to Pinterest when we got home and made this...

It is a layer of cookie dough, layer of oreos, and then covered with brownie batter!  What am I thinking?! 

To be continued...

Just wanted to give a quick update...we have traveled down South for a few days to enjoy some beautiful sunny weather, attend an engagement party, and spend some time with some of our wonderful friends and family.  Will leave you guys with a little sneak peek into what we've been up to lately...

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Eight Months

My Sweet Tucker,

You are a little over eight months now.  By the way, the days of getting you to lie on your back on your blanket for our monthly photo session are over!  I couldn't get you to lay still on your blanket for more than just a few seconds :)

You are so active now and so full of energy!  You are all over the place...crawling, standing, pulling up, falling...you are a busy, busy boy!  You love pulling up and standing on anything.  You also enjoy pulling things down off of tables, out of baskets, and always exploring trying to discover something new to get into.  You have recently started to dislike having your diaper changed, probably because you are so busy and don't like to slow down at all!  We are enjoying every minute of you and are having a blast trying to keep up with you!

You are still loving your food!  We have recently started adding some textures into your purees.  So far..your favorite is still Zucchini with some little pastas added to it.  Mashed sweet potatoes are definitely a close second!  You are still drinking 6-8 oz. bottles and eating solids just at lunch and dinner, since Dr. Stone wanted us to wait and add the 3rd meal after your nine month visit.  You are really enjoying feeding yourself super puffs now too!  You look so proud picking them up and pushing them into your mouth :)

Sleeping is still going good too.  I rock you to sleep around 7pm. and you sleep usually til' around 6 am...although it has been a little earlier in the past few weeks.  You seem to be enjoying sleeping in your crib and rolling all over the place throughout the night!

Your little personality is shining more and more everyday.  It's amazing watching you grow and develop.  You laugh ALL the time.  You love to laugh!  Daddy and I love watching you laugh.  Your laugh is hysterical!  You wake us up every morning with your smile and that is such a Delight to wake up to each day.  We are beyond blessed to have you in our lives and are SO thankful for you!  I can't believe another month has come and gone...We Love you Tucker boy :)

Man's Best Friend

This is the story of Tucker and Rusty...

Rusty is our 9 year old Weimaraner.  I bought Rusty for Dustin as a Christmas present the first year we started dating, our senior year in high school...well actually my Granny bought him, because I didn't have any money back then!  He has literally been mine and Dustin's baby since then.  Rusty has been with us everywhere.  All of our moves, every house we've lived in, and a part of our lives since Dustin and I have been together!

Rusty has always been the center of our attention...so needless to say once we had Tucker, we knew things would be different for him.  We didn't know how he would respond once we brought Tucker home, because he is so high energy and gets so excited!  Much to our surprise, Rusty pretty much ignored Tucker.  He really paid him no attention at all, maybe because he knew he was now going to be THE baby of the house.

We almost had to force Rusty to acknowledge Tucker in the beginning...and showing Tucker any sign of affection/attention was out of the question!  Can we say jealous?!

As the days went on though, Rusty came to accept that Tucker was going to be living with us and we explained to him over and over that they are brothers. 

Also, as the days went on, Tucker became more alert and started having play time, rolling over, and becoming more active and Rusty was right there watching him learn and grow.

Tucker then started to crawl, roll, and even roll into Rusty.

Rusty, who we sometimes refer to as Eeyore, will occasionally moan and if he could talk, would probably be saying, "Oh bother.."

Just look at his face, don't you think that's what he would say?!

Tucker, on the other hand, LOVES Rusty!  Seriously, he cannot get enough of him.  Now that is he is crawling, he follows Rusty all over this house.  He just laughs, smiles, and makes all kinds of noises trying to talk to Rusty.   When Tucker first started to laugh, Rusty was the one who made him laugh the most!  You would think Rusty is the funniest thing ever!  

So now that Tucker is pulling up on Everything, this includes Rusty.  Rusty is not a very big fan of this...I try to tell him though that Tucker is learning and he needs to be patient with him.  We'll see how well he listens.  

For now though, Rusty is slowly starting to love Tucker more and more every day that goes by and Tucker thinks Rusty is the greatest and funniest thing he has ever seen!   I'm sure as time goes by and Tucker begins to drop more food on the floor Rusty will feel the same way!

Teething time...

Once again, it's been teething time for us.  Tucker got his first tooth around 4 months old and has since cut a total of SIX teeth!  That's right, six teeth in 8 short months :(   The first four weren't so bad...a little fussy, but nothing too extreme.  These last two...woo, well these have been quite the ordeal!  They are the top two teeth on the right side.  His front large one and the next tooth beside it.

With all this teething, come lots of symptoms which include, but are not limited to (I just sounded like a warning for a pharmaceutical commercial haha)...Fussiness, congestion, nasal stuffiness, sleeplessness, restlessness, and gum sensitivity.  Those are the main ones we are dealing with over here!  Poor Tucker boy.  I quickly called for reinforcement...

First on the list...is Camilia.  

Camilia is a homeopathic medicine which contains some great all natural medicines that help to soothe painful gums and irritability.  It comes in single liquid doses that look like this...

You then just twist off the cap and squirt the whole amount into the baby's mouth.  You can repeat this every 15 minutes as needed.  Safe for children 1 month and older.

Second up...

Homeopathic teething tablets made by Hyland's Baby.  Dissolvable tablets that help to relieve restlessness and wakeful irritability due to teething and 100% natural.

I love both of these medicines.  First off, because they really work.  Tucker seems so much better after I have used them.  An added benefit to these, is that they are homeopathic/all natural...which makes me Very happy!  Whenever possible, I try to avoid true medicines as much as I can.  Of course, if needed I will bring out those.  With these teeth, I have had to add some Infant's Advil every now and then too.  

And lastly...

for all the stuffiness and for his runny nose.  I use the tried and true cool mist humidifier.  I swear by a good humidifier!  It truly can work wonders!

Plus, I add these vapo pads for babies that smell heavenly!  They make Tucker's room smell like Rosemary and Lavender and help him to not be so stuffy...love em'!

So...when the teething time gets rough, it's nice to have things that actually work and can make our sweet baby feel better.  I have been trying to get a picture of the teeth for all you readers, but it's been near impossible!  Tucker makes it pretty hard to snap a picture of his new pearly whites :)  Those new teeth have been very mean to him, but he's quickly getting back to his happy self!  Thankfully!

Pulling Up

Tucker has been crawling and on the move for almost 2 months now.  It's been really fun chasing him everywhere!  It really is so exciting watching him explore and discover all sorts of new things.  He has recently added a whole new element to this though...pulling up and he is in full force pulling up on anything he can!

It started out something like this...

And that was only the beginning!

His GiGi then gave him a piano for Christmas and this is when it all started.  This piano is what made him discover this new adventure of standing and pulling up.

And then it happened...

And he was so proud!

He plays on this piano all day long.  He's probably training to become the next Beethoven, or that's what I think! :) 

He is on a mission all day long trying to find the next best thing to help him stand and to pull up on!

Eating Starfish...

And he loves playing with that baby in the mirror too :)

This also happened...

So Dustin and I spent Saturday morning lowering his crib mattress.  And then I realized that with me being a whopping 5'1" tall, it has made for quite the challenge of getting him in and out of there, especially when he's sleeping!  No one ever tells you about these things...when you are at a height disadvantage you just have to figure them out for yourself :)

We are doing our best at making sure Tucker is staying safe while learning to pull up on all these new things!  And with each new milestone, we are having so much fun!  Needless to say, it's been pretty busy over at the Vann household.  

Which makes for tired Baby and Daddy...

and Mommy too!

In the meantime, Tucker boy will just keep playing his piano and training for his first big solo performance!

Review Time!

I like products that work, are efficient, make life simpler, and most importantly save us money!  So...when I find things that fit into these categories, I like to share so others can enjoy too!

A little backstory...
I am pretty neurotic when it comes to photos and photo storage.  For example, I have all these great pictures on my iPhone.  Dustin gave me my newest iPhone the day before Tucker was born.  So...literally my pictures on this phone start at day # 1 of Tucker's life.  With that being said, it's always made me a little crazy that something is going to happen to my phone before I can back these up or have them printed.  Which is one the reasons I love Facebook and Instagram for picture sharing and storage.  That way if anything ever happens to our computer, phones, etc...at least they will always be there on a site and we can access them from anywhere.  Also, as much as I love how digital/technological everything is now when it comes to pictures...it still makes me a little sad that lots of my pictures never get printed because of this reason.
That was the backstory.

One day I happened to stumble upon the Postal Pix app and I am SO glad I did.  It's an app designed specifically for the iPhone for printing pictures and then they mail them to your door!  It's awesome.  All different sizes of pictures available at great prices.  The quality of the pictures are great too.  The other cool thing is, if you choose to print any photos you've edited in Instagram they are printed in 4x4 squares and look sort of vintage, which I love!

Like this...

Another Instagram favorite hanging on the fridge now, thanks to Postal Pix

So...I ordered all the pictures that I hold near and dear to my heart, off of my phone, starting with Tucker's first days up until recently.  The app makes ordering super easy, very affordable, and delivered to my door within just a few days!  Now all those pictures I worried about losing are tucked away safely.  I don't know about you, but our pictures are some of our most prized possessions!  Here are a few of my favorites over the past 8 months of Tucker's life.  Enjoy :)

 Tucker's 2nd day in this world.

First time to the Beach.

First time to Pensacola...look at how little he was!

I could go on and on, but I'll stop now...those are some of my favorites so far though!

When I find things I enjoy, I love to share...so I think I am going to make this review thing something I try and do weekly!  Be on the lookout, because you might just find something you really like! :)