Four Teeth

We've had a nice stay-at-home Saturday. The little guy's dad is off playing golf, and my plans to go to a playground were shelved in favor of a 2.5 hour nap (!!!). Here he is, showing off his four teeth.

Uh-oh

We have a sturdy baby-gate at the top of the stairs. We don't have one at the bottom, in part because our stairs are really, really wide and the gates we found locally weren't wide enough. The other reason we didn't put one at the bottom was because the little guy couldn't get up the stairs. Not anymore!

Arts and crafts

Before the little guy was born, we toured the amazing daycare center that he now attends. During the tour, they told me all about how they do arts and crafts with the babies. I thought it was insane at the time (I still kind of think so), but they have the cutest ideas. Here's his latest project:He did the finger-painting and they cut out the teddy-bear shape, glued on the eyes, and drew the nose and mouth.

Daddy's little helper

So one of my chores around the house is to do the laundry and that usually happens on the weekend. Well, this weekend was no different except that I had a little help.
He just crawled right over, grabbed the lip, and stood right up. Beau wanted to help too, but by help I mean run off with a nice sock or something.

Sometimes it was a little hard getting the clothes from the washer to the dryer because of the boy's "huge heed". I mean it's like an "arange on a toothpek".

After the clothes get out of the laundry it's time to fold. However, the laundry basket was already occupied.

If that ain't trouble, I don't know what is! What a fun little booger.

He used to like everything!

I made a new recipe for him tonight-- yogurt and edamame puree with a bit of parsley. I thought it was pretty good...

Apparently, he disagreed.

Finger foods!

He's basically figured out how to pick up pieces of food and put them in his mouth, so this morning he had pieces of bread with blueberry puree and applesauce spread on them for breakfast.

The dogs love it when he feeds himself, because they get some of it. The beagle just waits patiently the whole time.

The main thing the little guy needs to learn now is that he doesn't have to stuff everything he sees in his mouth at once.

Maybe if he gags himself enough he'll figure it out.

An illustrated tale of love and adventure

The little dude found a package of toilet paper that we haven't put in the linen closet yet. (It was on the floor in the dining room.) He figured out that he could pull up on it, and it would slide.

So he wandered into the bathroom with his toilet paper walker, and discovered that he could reach the toilet paper on the roll. SO MUCH TOILET PAPER!
He slapped the roll and was SO excited to see the toilet paper go flying that he fell over. He knocked over his toilet paper walker on the way down.

I tried to roll the roll back.

He tried to eat the toilet paper through the plastic packaging.

I took the toilet paper out of the bathroom and put it back in the dining room. I tried to distract him, but he crawled over to it and gave it a hug. I think he loves the toilet paper.

(I can't believe I'm putting pictures out there with the seat up. Note to self: lower seat before undertaking bathroom photography.)

Nine months old, four days early!

He'll be 9 months old on Tuesday, so we did a practice photo session with the orange football. Last time didn't go so well, but he was pretty cooperative today.

Thbbbttt!

He's not talking, but he's making noise! He does this all the time... especially in public.

Nothing is safe anymore.

He tries to climb into the bathtub every chance he gets. He pulls on wires and is (as I write this) fascinated with a bungee cord. And now climbing up my pants-leg. Here he is trying to figure out how to open the desk drawer.

I don't know that the desk is dangerous enough to keep him interested!

We're back!

We've done a ton of fun stuff lately, but I've forgotten the camera every time. At home, the boy is having a great time rough-housing with his dad.He also is getting good at pulling up on stuff. He's all over everything. Not only is he not holding on as hard, he's starting to move his feet. I think he'll be cruising soon-- we're in trouble!

Squash face!

The little guy makes a huge mess when he eats, especially since we've been experimenting with texture. We had to strip him down to his diaper to leave all of the pasta and squash pieces behind. But really, look at that smile. How can such a happy baby be so gross?

ETA: He got food in his diaper.

Drunken sailor!

My mom taught me a baby song to the tune of "Drunken Sailor." Sometimes we sing a variation of it-- "What do you do with a drunken baby." The little guy has Elvis-style hip motions, and he thinks it's pretty fun to stagger around like a, um, drunk baby.

This is what our house is like a lot. Mildly chaotic and highly entertaining.

Rubber ducky, you're the one...

Bath time is very entertaining now. We've come a long way from his first non-sponge-bath, where he turned purple because he was screaming so hard and we had to pin him down and dump water on him to get the soap off so we could get him out. Not that I'm scarred by that memory or anything... He definitely doesn't remember, and now he loves the tub.

Overdue for a nap?

This was too funny not to post:

Feeling better!

This is how we knew he was (finally) feeling better:

1. He crawled out of frame between me pushing the button and the camera taking the picture.

2. He ate all of his yogurt at lunchtime.3. He started getting into stuff, including a box of wires, the vacuum cleaner, shelves, books, and DVDs. (I don't know why we have a box of wires, but there it is in the background of this picture.) 4. He enjoyed his quinoa and squash pilaf for dinner (and he ate some garlic mashed potatoes today).

Things are finally back to normal around here.

Poor little dude

The little guy has been sick since Sunday. It's been no fun for any of us, but he's perked up a bit today.The one thing that consistently calms the kid down is my rendition of (what I can remember from) the duet "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. It's really embarrassing-- even my own husband laughed at me the first time he heard it. In my defense, it works.

Happy happy joy joy!

The amount of joy that food brings to the little guy is almost indescribable...

Delicious! And entertaining! It's amazing!!!

Some of my favorite pictures.

Not that I'm not around much, but when I'm not handy to take a picture of the boy and his mom, she usually takes them by herself. Like this:
or this: Bedtime-routine

They might not always be in the best light or in frame, but they always involve a mother with a huge smile who is thrilled to death to be playing with her son. I have to say that these are some of my favorite pictures. What a great pair!

We're not ready!

The little guy can get on his knees easily and then push up to his feet.He hit his head on the underneath of the coffee table right after I took this picture. His fun new-ish trick is to crawl over, grab my ankles, and then start to cry. It's heartbreakingly pathetic. Anyway, we haven't even finished childproofing for crawling. If he could talk, he'd be all "C'mon people... keep up!" *sigh*