A professional picture - courtesy of JCPenney

We had Sully's 9 month portraits taken last week (ironically on the day he turned 10 months old), and they unfortunately didn't turn out as well as his adorable 6 month shots, but there were some cute ones. He was a little tired and cranky, and now that he's so mobile it was hard to keep him in one spot. He also really liked the photographer's camera and got mad every time he tried to touch it and she wouldn't let him. But for the first time we had three different backgrounds and we even did an outfit change - he managed all that pretty well. It was kind of a bummer though because his smile has changed - he now has my squinty eye/squishy nose smile which is still cute, but it's not as charming as his leprechaun grin. So there you go, more on Sully...and it hasn't even been a week since my last update! GO ME!

Summer of Sully

Ta Da! I've finally caught up! I apologize for taking so long, but it was daunting to try to sum up Sully's entire summer in one sitting. Plus, it was difficult to decide which pictures to include because he's just so darn cute all the time! Before we get on to the pictures, let me tell you a little bit about all the tricks our boy can do. He's 10 months old now and he seems like such a big boy! (I just took this one of him in the rocking chair today - doesn't he look more like a boy than a baby? How did that happen?) Sully has definitely mastered crawling and he's so quick. I can hardly keep up with him! He's also figured out how to pull up to standing and he's gotten good at that too. He can even let go with one hand and stay supported! He's done a bit of cruising, but he's more interested in the up and down game at this point. He's pretty good at taking steps when someone is holding on to his hands, though, so I'm thinking it won't be long before he's walking like a pro. YIKES! He also has 3 teeth and is chewing bigger food - he loves cheerios and sweet potato chunks. I'm trying to expand his finger food repertoire, but I'm slow to move on because I'm so scared he's going to choke! He's pretty vocal, too, although he mostly babbles and makes sounds rather than words. He can say da and ohh, and he's even started saying uh oh a bit, but none of the sounds ever come with a corresponding meaning. He's got a great laugh, though, and he's really happy most of the time, so we've been having fun playing games with him like peekaboo, pattycake, How Big is Sully? and lots of tickling! The best is watching him play with Drogo - they kind of chase each other a little bit, although it seems Drogo would prefer just to lick Sully. Every time Sully sees Drogo he smiles, and we're working on how to pet him gently rather than pulling out his fur and tugging on his tail. I think that's most of Sully's recent accomplishments, so let's get on to oohing and ahhing over how cute he is! I decided to go back and start with pictures from June and work my way up to August. You'll have to check back later for September (mark your calendars to visit sometime in December - it should be up by then!), but hopefully this will tide you over for a bit!



Sully became a budding artist this summer and made a few different works of art. All were finger paintings, but we experimented with color schemes and as he got better at his crinkle the paper technique he was actually able to cover more surface area. He created his first masterpieces for Father's Day then made a birthday piece and get well piece for his favorite babysitter Emily and her dad. I'm looking forward to expanding our art projects - I think we'll tackle coloring next!

Kathy gave us a bath seat to use in the bathtub, and Sully likes it (see the next picture) but he had more fun sitting in the box it came in. I of course took tons of pictures - he was in the box for at least 15 minutes - but this was by far the cutest.

Here's Sully during his first bath in the big bathtub. He loves to splash and kick his feet, and I love the seat because he's stationary and it's less likely that he'll drown. It does make it hard to clean his boy parts, though.

We signed Sully up for swim lessons this summer, and while he didn't really learn much technique, he seemed to enjoy being in the water, splashing, and kicking on the kick board. He wasn't a fan of being on his back or being underwater (as we inadvertently discovered when he slipped out of Mom's hands...oops.) but overall he enjoyed his experience, so it was worth it.

Here's some shots of our big eater! He's pretty much a bottomless pit. I've heard from a few other mommies with boys around the same age that Sully eats way more than their sons. But yet he stays so skinny - he must have gotten that from his dad...

Once camp ended in early August we were actually able to do some fun stuff outside as a family. These are some pictures from Sully's first picnic in the grass. There's a really great forest preserve near us so we ate and walked around and had a delightful afternoon. (The new family photo in the profile is also from this picnic.)

Shortly after our picnic at the forest preserve we took Sully on another picnic to the small beach on Gray's Lake. We wanted to go swimming and take him in the lake, but it ended up being too cold and rainy, so instead Mark did baby tricks and Sully ate sand.

This is just a cute picture of our little man in his Exersaucer. He likes it lot and I realized I didn't have any pictures of him in it - so here he is playing and drooling away.

He can't quite climb stairs yet, but he gave it a good try last time we were at Grammy and Grandpa's. I snapped this picture right after he fell back on his butt. The look says, "Hey, Mom - I'm going to learn to do a bunch of stuff you're not ready for me to do yet. Isn't that funny??"

Well, there you have it. A brief look at Sully's summer. We did a bunch of other stuff too like go to the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa W and the Williamson family, attend some graduation and birthday parties, play at the splash park, explore Grammy and Grandpa G's new addition, and spend a few days on Grandma and Grandpa's farm, but I didn't put all those pictures in because then I never would've got this posting done. Thanks for your patience with me - I will try my darndest to update more regularly now that I am back to teaching only 3 evenings a week. I'm sure there will be lots of news since our little peanut is almost a year old!

A shirt from Uncle Todd

Sully received this shirt from Mark's brother Todd before he was born. He finally wore it for the first time at the annual Fall Fest/Labor Day party at my parent's house, and yes - Mommy did drink. But luckily, Sully didn't cry...too much. He is a happy boy who smiles and laughs more often than not. He also drools more than I thought was humanly possible, as you can see from the large wet spot on his shirt. (He's working on cutting his fourth tooth.) I know you were expecting a bigger update, but I'm low on time and I thought something new would be a welcome sight. (How many of you are as sick of "The Month of May" as my mother is?!) I hope to do a full scale update sometime this weekend in between coats of paint on the front windows. You'll probably need to cozy up with a beverage and snack - it will be a long one! Thanks for checking in and have a great weekend!

The Month of May

May was a big month for the Wacky Willhites! We went to a wedding in the QC and Grandma and Grandpa Willhite babysat while Mark and I went to the reception. (We're obviously parents now because by 9:15 we were out the door and on our way home!) That same weekend, we squeezed in a quick visit with Julie while she was in town from Phoenix. She had only met Sully once in December, so this time he showed off and flirted with Julie, gave her lots of smiles, and actually stayed awake the whole time! Sully and I learned CPR and basic first aid, so now if he stops breathing or chokes I will know what to do. We had our annual trip to Brookfield Zoo with the Nelson family and Sully seemed to enjoy his first visit to the zoo. We also hosted our first ever large-scale family party to celebrate Sully's baptism. He did really well at the ceremony, and the party was successful even though we had way too much food! Sully also got to meet his godparents, Wendy and Matt, and we got to meet their new baby girl Sidney for the first time. And in between all those events, Sully started eating 3 meals a day of solid food (sweet potatoes and bananas are his favorites), sitting up unsupported for a few minutes at a time, and babbling non stop! He also had a yucky cold and stopped sleeping at night, but now he seems to be over that and has been sleeping until 4:30am pretty much every night. He's also extending his naps - today is the second day in a row that he took a 2 1/2 hour nap! Hooray for sleep! So that's a quick update of what's been going on in our neck of the woods.

Now on to the fun part - pictures!! Here's Julie and Sully being cute together.
Here's me and Sully being cute together at Grandma and Grandpa's - in the matching pjs Ginger gave me for my birthday!

Did I tell you Sully is eating solid foods now?

These are some of my favorite shots from the zoo. Sully was more interested in Connor and Riley than in the animals. The boys would be standing at an exhibit, and Sully would reach down and try to touch them. At one point he petted Connor's hair - it was funny! (And so was Mark, as usual!)

This is Sully and his girlfriend Sidney. She is a month younger than Sully and she is a very sweet little lady!

And finally - here are some shots of the baptism. Sully looked very handsome in his sweater vest and he didn't cry when the Deacon poured the water on his head. It was a nice ceremony.

So there you go - that was May. I can't promise that I'll be on top of updates in June, though. I start camp on the 16th which means I'm back to work 5 days a week for 8 weeks! Plus I'm assistant camp director AND the director of the show for first session, so I have a feeling I won't be blogging until July...or maybe even August! I'll try my best though. I don't want to deprive the world of the adorableness that is Sullivan James!

In the last two months...

So although Sully is no longer sleeping through the night (he has a cold and it's thrown him off big time!) he's still pretty cute, so I wanted to share some pictures of him! There's also been a lot of firsts and accomplishments since my last posting so I thought I'd brag on my boy a little, too. (He's six months old now...can you believe it?!?)

Sully had his first St. Patrick's Day and his first Easter and got dolled up for both. He enjoyed some corned beef and cabbage (a la breast milk) and got his first chocolate bunny from the Easter Bunny (it was plastic). He even helped Grandpa Griffith dye some eggs (and it's rare that Grandpa ever dyes eggs, so it really was a first!)

He also started sitting up with minimal support, spending more time outside, eating baby food, and using his Johnny Jump -Up, which he loves.

And oh yeah - he learned to read!

So that's a quick look at what Sully's has been doing since March. We're going to the zoo for the first time tomorrow and his baptism in on Sunday, so I'm sure I'll have many more adorable pictures to put up soon. Until then, cross your fingers that he'll sleep tonight!!

Hallelujah!

So it's been almost two months since my last posting, and Sully has lots of new tricks. I've been wanting to put up some new pictures, but we got a new computer and it's really a pain to upload pictures from the camera. So I've been putting off posting because it's just not as fun without pictures.

However...something very exciting happened last night that I just had to share. And you won't need a picture to appreciate it!

Sully FINALLY slept through the night last night! And it only took 6 months! He didn't fall asleep until a little after 9pm (even though I put him down at 7:30). We've started letting him cry until he is asleep and it's hard, but last night it seemed to do the trick because Sully didn't wake up until 5:30am! That's 8 hours of consecutive sleep, people! I, of course, didn't go to bed until 11:30, so I only got 5 1/2 hours of consecutive sleep (I woke up at 5:00, rushed in the nursery to make sure Sully was still breathing, and was too hyped up to go back to sleep since this was the first night in his whole life he slept that long!), but man, was it heaven!

I'm trying not to get my hopes up because I know this won't be an every day occurence, but at least now I know it's possible! It's also getting easier to put him to bed at night, which is really nice. Usually he goes right to sleep after we go through the bedtime routine. (Last night was funky though because he was in Arlington Heights with me and took a nap in the car right before we started the bedtime routine.) And naps are coming together, too. Today I put him in his crib expecting him to fuss, but he was asleep in like 30 seconds. Mark asked me, "Where's the baby?" And when I said, "In his crib," he didn't believe me because Sully was so quiet!

There you go - the best news ever! I think Sully was just practicing for Mother's Day and on Saturday he's going to sleep until 7! Cross your fingers for me!

There's so much more to share about our little peanut, so I will try to get some pictures put up before the end of the week. He's getting so big so fast! He'll be 6 months old on Mother's Day and he's up to 15lbs 12 oz. It's hard to believe - I can hardly keep up! (Which is obvious by my lack of posting....)

Almost Four Months!

Sully will officially be 4 months old on Tuesday (technically he is 17 weeks old today) so I figured it was time to get an update on here! Sullivan continues to amaze us with how much he grows and changes each day. He is super smiley and chatty most of the time - although he didn't smile when he took him to get his 3 month portraits (as you can see above). He has started grabbing for his toys and can hold a rattle. He can stand pretty well (with assistance of course) and he's gotten really good at holding his head up! He's pretty strong for a little punk! He is FINALLY starting to consolidate some of his sleeping, so I am so excited about that! He took an hour and a half nap this afternoon and has slept for 7 hours at a time the last 3 or 4 nights. HALLELUJAH! I actually woke up at 1:30 last night thinking it was much later, and I was worried because Sully hadn't woken up yet. But then I realized it was only 1:30 so I went back to sleep, and Sully didn't wake me up until 4:00. I am really hoping this pattern will continue!

I think that's all of his biggest accomplishments. But he can drool with the best of them, and in case you were wondering or worried since the last update - he has pooped 3 times this week. He even went 2 days in a row, so I think he's on his way to being regular again! So I guess that's all I have for now. I have some cute videos, but I have to figure out how to get the videos to work, so hopefully I will get those up this week. Check back soon! In the meantime, here's some pics of Sully doing his new tricks!