The Harvey Family: Blake

This week, Blake:

has not been sleeping well because of his sinus congestion. He'll go to sleep with our normal routine and then after a couple hours he wakes up screaming and snorting. The steam showers don't seem to be helping now since they mainly just make him hot in his PJs. So the next option we've had to resort to is having him sleep upright on our chest. This is not ideal but it allowed us to get a little sleep at least. We ordered the snot sucker and tried it out on Wednesday night. We did the dreaded saline drops in his nose first (begin crying), then tried to suck out any loose snot (continued crying), and then while he was eating his last meal before bed I snuck some Ayr saline gel into his nose (repeat crying). Afterward, I'd like to think he was breathing a little better but can't confirm that. He did, however, end up sleeping through the night but it was also the first night he propped himself onto his side. He had a couple times when we thought he was going to wake up crying but then he repositioned himself back onto his side and he fell back asleep. Hallelujah! We tried the same routine the next night and had good results again! He even started to do much better with the saline spray/drops and the Ayr gel. Sometimes it amazes me how quickly children adapt. Hopefully we can start moving his bedtime back and that will help. He is so so tired before we can finish getting him ready for bed so starting earlier might help with the whole process.
tried peaches, bananas, and peas and really liked them all. He is no longer cooperative when I feed him. He has to stick fingers in his mouth as soon as the spoon delivers food so the messy food sessions have begun. I don't know if he wants to feel the food or if he just can't leave his gums alone for long enough to eat.
got a new highchair so we don't have to cram him into the Bumbo seat anymore, woohoo! It even has a little toy that snaps to the tray and can keep him entertained for a short time, but he doesn't like the fact that the back of the highchair restricts his view so we had to position it up against a wall so he doesn't try and wiggle out.
went to a birthday party for a little girl name Aila, but he hasn't officially met her and didn't really get a chance to meet her that day either. It was an outdoor party at the splash park which had potential to be a ton of fun, but thunderstorms in the area closed down the park for almost the entire time we were there. We all huddled under the pavillion and had a good time seeing some friends.
wanted to act like he's on his jumperoo all the time. When you hold him by his armpits he'll just jump, jump, jump whether its on your lap, a chair, or the floor. Silly boy.
had his hand in his mouth more than not. He even does the chewing motion when his hands aren't in his mouth. We're pretty sure he's teething so hopefully his discomfort doesn't last too much longer!
took a trip to Tampa to visit all my coworkers on Monday. The guys all said how big he was and the ladies thought he was just precious. He was such a good boy and was mainly a quiet observer except when he got attention from the ladies. He really is a flirt and can win over any woman with his big open mouth smile. <3 He took a nap on the way over and the way home... the timing worked perfectly!

We had family pictures taken this week now that Blake is 6 months. Our photographer friends who are a husband/wife team were so sweet to offer a session for us. We went out for an early morning shoot and still managed to get all hot and sweaty by the end (good ol' Florida summer). We got to see a preview posted on Facebook the same day so here are the pics from our preview. I just love them and can't wait to get them printed so we finally have some Harvey family photos displayed in the house!