The Month That Would Not End.

Ever had a month that felt as though it would not end?? That's been October for us. Which is sad because October is actually my favorite month of the year. I love the cool temperatures, autumn colors, breaking out the fall/winter recipes....all of that. But, I'm so ready for this horrible month to be over. I'm grateful for the little blessings -- a day here or there to spend together as a family, those beautiful autumn colors that I've gotten to see just a bit in our coming and going, and I'm just generally thankful that God sustained us and we've made it through. But, my. goodness. It has been difficult. It won't really feel as though the month is over until Friday, as things will continue to be hectic and a bit difficult until then, and even then, things don't really slow down a whole lot until Thanksgiving, but things will be a *little* better for the first part of November.

Enough about that, though. The latest update on the little man is that he is 7 months old (can hardly believe it) -- wasn't he just 6 weeks old yesterday??? He is so close to crawling that it is driving him crazy. He clearly has places to go, and nothing is going to stop him. He is one determined, persistent, little guy. He was sick for the first part of October -- 2 full weeks of congestion and yuckiness. We're still working on trying to recover from that. The cold is gone, but his sleep is still not what it was. I think he has only slept through the night twice in the last two weeks, which is highly unusual for him. He has been a steady, through-the-night sleeper since he was about 8 weeks old. And, Drew has been out of town for work for most of that, so I've been up with the boy every. single. night. Good times. Truth be told, I don't hate it most nights. I feel we have been blessed with plenty of sleep for several months, which is unusual for new parents. And, he is so snuggly once he finally settles down and starts to fall back asleep. I'm not sure there is much else like the feeling of successfully getting your baby settled down after he's been crying, and having him fall asleep on your shoulder, all snuggled up with you. I am hoping that this nighttime waking is a short lived phase, though.

In addition to that, we have been thrust into the "he's into everything" phase. I set something down, Chapman army crawls, scoots, rolls, and does whatever it takes to get to it and get into it. So, things are staying much more "picked up" in the parts of the house that he's in most. As I type this, he has rolled all the way across the family room floor to get the tray from his high chair that was propped up on the floor. *off I go to retrieve my son*



He was quite a cute little cow for Halloween this year.