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!

Our Little Heartbreaker

Sully has had an eventful week! He turned 3 months old on Monday and today he is celebrating his first Valentine's Day! Unfortunately, he's not enjoying it that much (and neither am I) because his tummy is upset and he's got some bad gas. (He definitely takes after his father in that respect! Who knew someone so little could make such stinky farts?!?) Luckily for us, though, Sully is a happy baby and doesn't have days like this too often. In fact, we just spent the weekend with Grandma & Grandpa Willhite and they just raved about how happy and smiley Sully was! He was a very good boy. He practiced his boxing with Grandpa, took two really good poops, and melted Grandma's heart even more. See??

Mark and I also went for our first night out sans Sully while Grandma babysat. We had a nice dinner and saw a movie (Juno - cute and funny) but we talked a lot about our son and even discussed his poop over dinner! I guess we're officially parents now!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Willhites! Cross your fingers that Sully passes some gas!

Winter Fun!

This past weekend Sully and I went to Stoughton, Wisconsin for the annual winter gathering with my Girl Scout camp friends. We stayed with Kathy's parents who have a house on the lake and we had lots of outdoor fun! The big kids went sledding and ice skating and we all spent time by the roaring fire! Sully sat in his first snow bank and did a little sledding (on my lap). He slept through most of it and only woke up to cry when the sun was in his eyes or mom accidentally brushed snow is his face. He definitely preferred laying on the El Paca blanket in front of the fire to playing in the snow. He was a good boy, though, and all the girls loved cuddling with him!