Yep, He's the Cutest

This morning I used the bright natural light coming in my bedroom window to get some sweet pictures of him on our white comforter.  He is so precious. I love these!

You can see the rest in the Shutterfly album here.

Bib's, Teeth, and Kisses

It has taken me a week now to get a chance to update this blog. I can't even remember everything now. Last Tuesday we hung out at Nana's house so that I could start working on Andrews baby book. I got most of it done and was able to finish it on Thursday I think. But while we were at Nana's, Andrew seemed to figure out how to get his seat to turn in his exersaucer.  His teeth seemed to be bothering him still and since I dont have any teething biscuits or anything, Nana offered him a graham cracker. He actually did pretty well at getting it to his mouth to chew on. He seemed to like it. I am not particularly excited about the ingredients not being good for him - but it served a good purpose that day.

Here he is wearing a wonderful bib Nana made for him from an old sweatshirt:

Here is his new carseat (this picture was taken March 18th):

A clear shot of his new top teeth coming in:

The following pictures are of Andrew on the blanket Ted had as a baby (the yellow gingham that Ted's grandma made for him when he was born), and then a couple of shots of him with the quilt Aunt Sandi made for him.

You can see the rest of the pictures at Shutterfly. 
Then I have two videos to share. One we're standing at the front door and he's laughing at Tripod on the porch. He was laughing hysterically before I got the camera out.. of course!  The second one is of Andrew giving daddy kisses.

More Teeth!

I just really quickly wanted to update before I forget to write about this. He has two new teeth! Last night the first top tooth finally broke through the gums.. barely. You don't see it right away, but you can feel it with your finger. Today, the second top tooth barely broke through the gums. They're still obviously bugging him - but at least that should pass soon. He's been so good though - what a trooper.

Today we went out to buy paper. I knew exactly what I wanted - but couldn't even find it online. I wanted some particular printer paper with a subtle design in the background that I could print out what I write here in the blog - and paste it into his baby book. I am not into scrapbooking, and didn't want to scrapbook his baby album, but it looks like that is my only option for the albums that are available. So, I ended up buying random paper to perhaps use as backgrounds for the pictures, and have printed the blog on regular plain white paper. We'll see what I come up with. I'm hoping to start working on that. Here he is six months old and I only just this past week got all the pictures together to put in his album.  Andrew of course loved being out and about (its definitely a good distraction while he's teething!!) and looking at and feeling everything. He's such a good boy.

My Little Munchkin

Andrew has such a good temperament, it just blows me away. This week has been rough for me .. emotionally and physically, and unfortunately, he's been off his normal schedule which makes it more difficult for both of us.
Today was no different. His 9 month jammies really are too small for him. They can't be comfortable squishing his toes.  My first photoshoot came, but their 2 year old was so disagreeable we didn't get any pictures and they decided it'd be best to just try another time so they left about 5 minutes after arriving. Then shortly after my next photoshoot, a maternity session, said they were having some complications (Baby's okay) but they were hoping to reschedule. So my day suddenly opened up.  I was hoping to work on Andrew's baby album but that wasn't working out either. So long story short, we ended up at the Mall of all places looking for pajamas in the 12 month size. Target didn't have them a couple of weeks ago when I looked. Its probably been close to a year since I've been to the mall! Anyway, we spent a small fortune and got some pajamas. Its amazing how few there are. I had to get some that are still a 9 month size but they're definitely longer than usual, and then some 12-18 month size. I think total we ended up with 6 or 7 pajamas. Hopefully that will get us through a few weeks anyway!  But again, Andrew was completely off a schedule.. over tired.. teething .. and although it felt difficult because I was so tired and drained and chemically being drained further - he really was remarkably good! 

I'm so grateful to have such a good kid.  He was an attention getter as usual. Even another mom with a baby came up to me just to tell me what an adorable baby he is.

anyway.. if you hear of sales  - please let me know. I need footed pajamas in the 12 month size and larger as I think they'll come in handy later too.

Six months strong.. and growing!

Andrew turned 6 months old at 2:13pm this past Wednesday. Today he went in for his 6 month well-baby check up. He weighs 19 pounds and 1 ounce which puts him in the 75% for weight. He is 29 inches long which was off the charts still. He's healthy and doing well. His gums look as though he may be pushing out 4 teeth at once soon! Poor guy. I know they itch and hurt and bother him and we're going through a lot of teething tablets trying to help ease it. But he's a good sport and still in good spirits most of the time.

I went against my own recommendations and tried to get some 6 month pictures of him when it was close to his nap time. So he wasn't all laughs and smiles (nor was I since I've had a rough week). I dont particularly love any of them, but he's still a cutie and a handsome little boy.

Here are the highlights, remember you can click on them to see them larger:

Andrew this week

I'm not entirely sure what is "new" with Andrew. He's always so good and happy and just takes in the life around him wherever we go. He's been a pretty good eater too. He at least tastes everything first. He doesn't usually open his mouth wide until he's tasted just a little bit on the spoon. He's smart! lol If he really really likes it, though, he'll nearly eat your hand trying to get to the next bite. He likes green beans, corn, squash, sweet potato, broccoli, and carrots. He wasn't big on avocado and banana is hit or miss. He doesn't mind carrot juice or prune juice. He likes oatmeal better than rice cereal, but he'll eat both. And he tried pureed banana with mixed berries the other night and loved it! I tried to introduce mostly vegetables first.. I think he'll be a pretty good eater.  He still loves his bottle, although I did get him to nurse a couple of times last week. I do look forward to when we're done with my milk. Pumping or nursing is SO inconvenient. I try to pump every two hours but time just zips by sometimes - and when I have photoshoots it never works out right. We did upgrade him to the stage 3 bottles and he's still getting adjusted to that. I think it's giving him too much milk.. but sometimes it works for him.

We also bought a new car seat for him on Saturday. He's almost too tall for his infant carrier now so we at least needed to start looking. We spent a little more than I anticipated on it, but it seems to suit what we want. Although it is even wider than the carrier so I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to fit in the back seat with Andrew - including me!  We haven't installed it yet, but our car is simply too small for a family!! We're hoping maybe next year we can afford to buy a bigger vehicle. We know what we want, but its a 2010 model so we need to wait for the price to drop.

Here's something relatively new: Andrew turns himself over to sleep on his tummy. We still keep the positioner in the crib to help him stay somewhat centered. A couple of times he's rolled himself over it and ended up between the positioner and the crib edge, but usually he just turns himself within it.

He rolls around quite a bit on the floor. When he is tired he'll flip out like he doesn't know how to roll over - but we all know he can. Sometimes I put him on his back on his playmat, and go do dishes. When I turn around to check on him again - he's on his tummy and 90-180 degrees from where I put him.  Once he is on his tummy he scootches backward too. He tries to pull himself forward sometimes but with no success. His pants get in his way I think.

He loves to be held upside down... pretending to be dropped and catched ... and swinging. I'm so glad he's not a big scaredy-cat when it comes to those things.

He thinks the cats are funny.. especially Flash. He laughs when he comes around. Flash doesn't understand why he can't play with all of Andrews toys. He LOVES the dangling animals on Andrew's playmat, and the crinkle sounds that he makes when he runs across it. This morning he was swatting the tic-tac-toe blocks on Andrew's activity block and then reaching through them to touch the other sides of the box. He loves tackling a little ball that has Winnie-the-Pooh sitting on top of it and when it moves you hear a deep bell inside.  But he just gets in trouble every time he plays with the toys - and is so confused.

Here are some pictures we took the other day when it was warm. Remember you can click on them to see the bigger:

Looks like Fall

Andrew is such a doll. He is such a good baby who hopefully will be a good kid too! He's laid back and easy going for the most part - which is what I'd expect from Ted and me, but you never know. And he's quite the attention getter wherever we go.

Lately he has figured out how to take off BOTH side mirrors of his Jeep walker. He takes it off just as fast as you put it on!  I dont know if I have written this in a previous post, but one of his favorite things is Nana's purse. She has a Laurel Birch purse and he is been intrigued with it for a month or two now. He's only just recently started discovering that there are things inside the bag! He also likes the little sea horse that plays music that we leave in his crib. For the longest time he wasn't interested in it, but the last couple of weeks we have been able to get his attention with it. We leave it in the crib now, and he sometimes turns it on himself in the morning when he wakes up. He still loves to try and eat his feet - I just love that. Although I dont really want to think about how dirty his socks probably really are.

The other day Ted put a heater in our gym so we could work out a little. We brought his Jumperoo in there that he had already been jumping in for a while. I thought it'd be better to bundle up his feet since the floor was cold. I put one some sweater socks my grandmother crocheted over 30 years ago, and then put some shoes on him that are too big. He quit jumping. He looked bored. You know how a cat thinks he can't walk when you put a harness on him? I told Ted I think Andrew doesn't realize he can still jump since his feet feel heavier. So Ted slipped the shoes off and instantly Andrew got happy and started jumping again. I thought it was funny enough to report here.

So.. about the title of this post. Today it was sunny and a high of around 60 I think. Although the gentle breeze was rather brisk, it was pleasant outside. Ted had to take the trash to the dump, so I took Andrew outside to watch daddy load up the truck and drive off. Then I thought I could take some pictures of him. So I put on a hat (that I actually purchased for my studio, but its so stinkin cute on him! and protects his ears from the wind) and a jacket and set him in the dead leaves in our yard. It looked like fall - especially after some of the special editing I did. Here is a link to the entire shutterfly album, and here are my favorites (and you can click on them to make them larger:

I love Natural Light

I'll say it again.. I love natural light! Especially when we haven't seen the sun for days on end. On Sunday morning Ted was feeding Andrew green bean puree and I just loved the lighting. I stopped what I was doing and grabbed the camera. Here is the link for the shutterfly album of all of them.  These are my favorites though (you can click on them and they show larger):

Saturday Ted injured his finger to the point that handling Andrew was difficult. Saturday night neither of us slept well, for different reasons. So I asked mom if she could take Andrew Sunday after her meeting and keep him overnight so we could try to sleep. Sunday was busy anyway as I also had to pick up leftover consigned items at one sale, and take down my booth at another by certain times. Andrew ended up staying two nights at Nana and Papas. He did so well. He laughed at Daisy when he first saw her, so that was a good start. He wasnt too sure about Papa Bruce though. I'm guessing it has mostly to do with his mustache, but he hasnt been around him more than a few times since birth anyway. But apparently he slept well and played hard as usual.

This evening I had a photoshoot so Ted kept Andrew occupied. I already know how excited he gets at my keyboard, but I found this humorous still.  This is what Ted told me:

While Andrew was on my keyboard, he opened a remote connection to my server, opened Internet Explorer in Full screen mode and typed "7CF WES=-0f\" in the google search engine.

Interestingly, the top item in the results was "The Tree of Knowledge and the Law of Yahweh"

I think we have a voundakent on our hands..."

New toys

 This week there were a couple of consignment sales locally. I consigned in one and advertised in another, but of course had to check out both. I bought an exersaucer at one for just $10, and a play mat and clothes and a toy at the other. He loves all of it.  He was SOOO good. He loves to be out and about and riding in the stroller. He had only had a 30 minute nap when it was time to go, and only two cat naps less than 10 minutes long by the time we got home again. Yet he was cheerful and happy and quite an attention getter.
Most recently he also broke one of the rear-view mirrors off of his Jeep. He pulls on it until it comes off. I think I was with him when he did it for the first time. I heard it hit the floor, then he peers over the side of the Jeep at it. Next he is straining to see down the hole that is now in the Jeep where the mirror was attached. He looks back at the floor. Strains again to see in the hole. Then starts to cry. lol It was hilarious. Ted keeps gluing it back on, but he keeps pulling it off. He doesn't cry anymore over it.. its more of an, 'oh well, it fell off again.'

here are the latest pictures:

 

I just wanted to show how small he is in the crib still despite how big he feels. 

Here he is playing in his new exersaucer. The seat can turn inside it so he can turn in circles to play with each of the toys around him.

 

  

  

And here is the playmat. I haven't been willing to fork out the 25-30 bucks for one at a consignment store, but it was only $6 at the sale. I figure even if he doesn't play with it long, its another thing to help him occupy himself now so I can make dinner or do whatever I need to do. We just rotate through his toys at this point when I have stuff to get accomplished. But this has things he can feel on the mat itself, then you can move the toys around (giraffe, elephant, parrot, monkey, etc) on the arches. There is also a mirror that sits in the corner. So enough to do for a little while.

I think I did alright in getting him some clothes. I didn't hit the jackpot or anything because I dont know what to get him! I bought a 9 month romper for him to wear now, and its already too short. Its too short in the torso. I bought him another set of footless pjs that looked nice and long and lean that are 9 months thinking he'd get to wear them soon - and they fit right now. They are a hair too short, but still long enough to get by. Actually, its what he's wearing in the exersaucer pictures. The sleeves are a little big (not too long, just big), but other than that it fits okay enough.  There wasn't much in the 9 month section at the sale, so I browsed for 12 month stuff. I figure in a few more months the weather will be warm enough to put him in short sleeves and we can add a sweater or jacket if its cool. So I bought a few short sleeves - if he wears the 12 month size when he's only 7 months, or if he makes it all the way to a year to wear them - it will all be the same season for the most part. Whatever. I dont know how to figure out this size thing.

New Sunglasses

We had some mild weather recently and I bought Andrew some sunglasses so we could be outside. I was waiting for a portrait customer to arrive and figured we could go play in the driveway until they got there. So we strapped some shoes to his feet, put his glasses on, and cruised around. Here are some of the pictures (a couple are blurry - sorry.)

 

  

  

  

  

  

And I'm trying to learn to take fun/boring/ordinary pictures like everyone else always has in their albums. Everyone seems to expect me to always have creative or interesting pictures or something - and I just dont feel like trying to take those all the time. And of course with a stupid point and shoot camera it feels impossible to achieve that anyway. So I'm loving that I can just take random pictures and post them here with no expectations of myself. Here are a couple of Ted and me in the driveway.

 

  

  

And we actually went out to dinner tonight. Here is Andrew tasting the table (ick!!) and then sitting in his carseat. I can't believe we already need to buy a new car seat because he's so big for this one. However, I wanted to get a comparison picture before we upgraded since he was so small in it when we brought him home five months ago. 

 

 

  Andrew has been saying 'Hi' lately. When his reading dvd starts it begins with a girl saying "Hi! My name is Aleka...." and the other day he said Hi back. He has said Hi several times this week. Saturday was the first time that he said hi to daddy. Ted was trying to get him to smile for the camera and Andrew said Hiii ... and Ted didn't even register at first that Andrew said that! He was really excited when I told him. Its clear - you just dont expect it is all.
  Andrew has also decided that eating solids isn't as exciting as he originally expected. I dont push it since most babies aren't on solids until at least 6 months old anyway. I will offer him solids when he seems particularly interested in my food, and if he doesn't eat much of it - thats okay.  I did get the genius idea of putting organic carrot juice in his bottle. He wasn't too keen on it at first but didn't really put up a fight. The next time I added it to a tiny bit of milk that was leftover from another bottle and he didn't seem to even notice the difference.  I'm hoping to get him to taste avocado this week. He's had banana through a mesh feeder that he can suck on and sometimes he likes it and sometimes he doesn't.

He is getting better at moving the Jeep in the direction he wants to go. We had to raise it up a level outside when we put shoes on him. When I had the video camera out, he didn't seem interested in walking, but once I put the camera away, he was actually walking straight and doing well. Figures. I haven't even seen these videos yet - just uploaded them while I had a chance. So.. sorry if they're long and boring.