Peas!

Look how good he is at feeding himself! In fact, The Dude is all about the finger food phase... he much prefers this method than the ol' spoon feeding thing.

Sun, Sand & Surf

*It's been a couple of weeks now since we went to the coast for The Dude's first official summer vacation... and yes, we are just now posting the details. You see, we have been chasing our little man around the house - he's on the move and keeping us busy! More on that later...

We loaded up the car with all the life-support systems (stroller, travel crib, high chair, 13 changes of clothes) for 3 nights & 4 days at the ocean side with The Family. Cousin E is here for her summertime visit, and we all felt the need to get some sand between our toes. We found a great house that had a marvelous view, all the comforts of home, and that great "beachy" feel.



Though the sun was out, it was still a bit chilly - but we managed to get down to the surf and roll around on the sand (in the stroller, that is...)



We ate well, rested fairly well and sucked in the fresh air. Of course, like all good vacations, it was too short. But this one goes down in the history books as the first of many summer vacations. We look forward to many more for the memory files...

8 Months Old!

Whew! The months keep clicking by - and no stopping that freight train, right? And now that mobility has entered the picture, we will be stopping to catch our breaths often.

The Dude is, for the most part, crawling. He pulls himself (military style) from room to room, to Penny's bed, to Penny's food, to the beloved stereo... just about everywhere he's not supposed to be. We are reinforcing "No" and "Ouchy!", and are sounding like a broken record.

He can wave hello and goodbye, sits up beautifully, lifts his arms when he wants to be picked up, can sort-of feed himself (with the help of a feeder bag or sticky millet puff cereal), eats like a horse (pretty much anything we put in front of him), smiles at everyone who smiles at him, babbles constantly, and is napping on a somewhat regular schedule.

AND - he is getting one of his top teeth! It's coming in quickly, but hasn't broken the skin just yet... but it could be any day. Anything and everything goes in the mouth, and we do wardrobe changes often.

Oh, how we love our Little Man... we never imagined we would fall this hard.

Happy Birthday Dude!

And away we go...

Ok - so, he's figured it out. He's not exactly crawling, but this is the first step.
This video was taken a couple of days ago... he's much faster now.



As you can imagine, we'll be babyproofing the house this weekend. He's already discovered Papa's stereo - we put a pillow in front of it, but he's too smart for that - so we'll be figuring out how to keep all the knobs and dials safe.
On the baby, that is.

Sleep, Sweet Son

As we write, The Dude has been napping - in his crib - for two hours. This is HUGE. We've been slowly working toward the whole scheduled napping thing, and just two weeks ago we couldn't even set him down and hope that he would sleep for 20 minutes, let alone an hour.
Yesterday, Papa became The Nap Master and put him down at 8:30 am and he slept until 10 am. Today, same thing... he went down at 9am and is still asleep here at 11:03 am.
He's such a happier baby when he has good naps, and seems to sleep better throughout the night too.

So sleep on, dear Dude. We'll be here when you wake up.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Hold on to your hats, folks... The Dude is ready for take off. In the last week, he has come up with something new every day to surprise and amaze us.
For example, he has started waving to people when they wave at him. It's very deliberate - no coincidence there. His chubby little hand waving all around... ugh, so cute.
He also started making these clicking noises with his tongue (which we are trying oh so hard to get on video), and he is SO proud. He contorts his little mouth all funny and makes the noise over and over, and looks at you for you to do it in return.
And last, but not least, he has started to master the art of yoga. Or at least assume the positions (just like someone else we know). He has figured out that he can move, but gets so frustrated when he doesn't go anywhere. Every now and then, he'll get his knees under him and rock back and forth, but again, complains that he can't. get. over. there.