Easter / 6 month Pictures - Late of course

I'm a month behind on these photos - and with everything else in my life right now it seems. We took these Easter Sunday they also served as the boy's 6 month photo shoot (this is part 1). This weekend he will be 7 months. 7 months!

Sonny at 7 months:

• cutting teeth - the other day he was drinking out of my glass and his bottom teeth made little ding noises on the glass and I almost cried
• Laughs and laughs and laughs and laughs
• Smiles and smiles and smiles and smiles
• Loves to make friends on the train, on the street, in a restaurant, at the park - anywhere.  This boy loves new friends.  He will stare you down until you smile at him and then will smile and be your best friend until he picks his next victim
• Pulls himself up to stand and can walk around things (unsteadily)
• Good at walking holding onto fingers
• Just about has crawling down - he can crawl just a bit, slowly and still lacks a little crawl confidence 
• Loves dancing. His favorite dance songs are Empire State of Mind - anything with a beat really. Lately he has been going nuts over Daft Punk
• Says Dada a lot Momma a few times (both on accident - but still)

A lot has been going on and I think this weekend I will dump it all out on here.  I still need to post about Florida too.  So much to do and never any time.

Today was josh's birthday.  Where do you think we went?  Any guesses? Yep, Vegetarian Paradise.
I love that man. Every day I still look at him and smile and my heart is filled with love and happiness.  He doesn't even have to do anything, I just see him and sometimes my eyes leak. There are so many reason's I love him, and those are things I want to keep to myself. Just know - if you don't already - Josh is a really special wonderful person and I sure am glad he was born. Happy birthday to him.

Now look at pictures of the cute kid we made:

 i look like i am going to eat him - my mouth looks like i could just about get all of him in one bite

 this top one is one of my favorites

I'm in Florida

Yep. In Florida. It is sunny and warm and humid and nice to be home.  We haven't done much really, but I think that is what coming to Florida is for - to do a lot of nothing. Especially before the new job starts.  That's right, I have a new job and it starts May 16th.  I'm actually really looking forward to the new job- as far as jobs go I think I will like it. Check back with me in two months after I start though.

My Dad loves the ocean, he grew up in Miami Beach and has always been drawn to the ocean.  He has dreamed of sharing that love and the joy it brings him with his grandchildren.  Yesterday, before the sun went down we went for a walk on the beach (my parents live pretty much on the sand of the beach) and these are a few of my favorite pictures. I love them.

You know those cook tops that just turn red when you turn them on? My parents have one in there kitchen and whoever was the designer of it did a crappy job.  The dials on the side make NO sense as to which burner they turn on.  This morning my Mom was making me oatmeal and while it was *cooking* I was showing her some of my friend's blogs.  She smelled something and turned around to find flames on the stove top/counter.  I looked up and sure enough the whole cook-top (which also serves as counter space in the small kitchen) was aflame and my Mom was pushing burning packets of oatmeal into the sink. I jumped up turned on the sink hose and sprayed the counter and flames down.
When she turned the stove on to heat the milk, she turned the wrong burner on accidentally.   The one she did turn on had the box of oatmeal on it and it caught fire.  Here is the aftermath:

 Oops. :)

Sweet Dreams

There are cute pictures of babies sleeping, and then there are these:

This next one?? Seriously, if this doesn't make you go "awwww..." nothing will:

These were all taken about a month ago by josh.

Two things - unrelated and pointless

Each year Corinne's sister Jesse compiles a list of names of babies born in Rexberg, I was discussing this years list with my sister (on gchat) and the conversation made me laugh:

 Cicely:  they are bad to the max
whats up with that town
 me:  young mormom moms
i menat emree not enree
Enree is how people of Brittan pronounce Henry
 Cicely:  why do they want weird names
i saw to two girl missionaries riding around their bikes yesterday
they looked like nerds
most mormos  are attractive, these two looked like the bird lady
 me:  hahaha i want to put that on my fb. I am going to...
 Cicely:  carl!
 me:  it going on my blog
 Cicely:  carl!
 me:  i'm serious I think it is funny and I am posting it now

on another non realted note; i found a new chapstick I love.

It is 95% Organic 100% natrual and surprisingly well priced. I bought it at Duane Reade so it couldn't be THAT expensive. I really like it- tastes nice, long-lasting moisture.  Plus as josh pinted out to me, I am a sucker for packaging.  I'm pretty sure my friend Anna uses it, I know i've seen it somewhere before. Gonna be on my Spring/Summer must have list.

A total of MAYBE 10 seconds

I wonder if when you are so small :10 seconds seems like 10 minutes. The following happened about that fast. What an emotional roller coaster.  I don't know what brought it on. Maybe it was because he has too many giraffe toys to choose from.

Maybe he was mad I was changing the "lens" on my camera (and by camera I mean iphone).

Even with all those giraffe toys he still likes the simple things. Sunday night he helped me make cookies and LOVED playing with the chocolate chip bag.

    

SHM Meets BLW

I don't like to follow any "type" of parenting. I don't like to read parenting books or follow parenting trends, but I do like to find information that supports and guides me on things I think make sense. Enter BLW. Baby Led Weaning. I was a little stressed about being at work and Sonny being home or with the sitter and not having enough milk. Aside from nursing on demand when I am home with Sonny, I pump 5 times a day. Ugh. I don't like it but I do it cause I know it's best.

Anyway, I ran into a doula/lactation consultant I'm friends with and talked to her about my situation and all about Sonny. She said it sounded like he would was ready to eat some food, so I bought some organic yams from Fresh Direct (remember how much I love them), pureed it with breast milk and he loved it.


Then I was talking to another Mom about something and she mentioned that she gave her baby real live adult food from the beginning. I was intrigued. It made sense. Of course I had all the standard questions: What about choking? What about digestion? She told me to check out this website and mentioned the book Baby Led Weaning, which I then bought from Amazon. Although Sonny is not yet 6 months, he showed all the basic signs of being ready. He sits up with no support, he reaches for objects and puts them perfectly in his mouth without jabbing his eye or nose on accident, reaches for the food I am eating and he is super baby. Duh (eye roll).
I was so excited to try this because I knew he would just be thrilled. He was. His delight was not disappointing. At this stage in the game you don't expect that they will actually eat a lot of it. Babies just like to experiment with touch and taste, which then leads them to better eating habits and being more open to different flavors (or so they say).
I bought some organic broccoli (best starter food due to the "handle design") steamed it and set him in his highchair for the first time to join us eating dinner (he also had a few blueberries). He wasted no time guessing what to do with the food, within seconds he had a floret in his hand and them immediately in his mouth.

BOY WAS IT MESSY! I just laughed and loved every second of it. Sonny would smile so big with food all over his face. There was broccoli and blueberry everywhere.





Those pictures are great, but this one is fantastic:
I'm sure I'll blog more about BLW as I discover new things and try different foods. I'm really excited to let Sonny learn about food this way.

5 Months (draft pictures)

Not the official 5 month photo shoot, I forgot to do that this weekend. Scratch that, I didn't forget, we just didn't have time. WHY ARE THE WEEKENDS SO DANG SHORT??? I hate that crap. 2 days, really? 2 days to do eight million things (one day if you keep the Sabbath)? It just doesn't add up.
Anyway- Last Friday (the 18th) the weather here in the city was perfect. It was what almost (I think)every New Yorker has been waiting for. 74 degrees. Splendid. People broke out their flip flops and tank tops and crowded the parks. It was perfect. Josh picked Sonny up at the sitters and met me at work. After showing him off we made our way downtown and hung out at Washington Square Park for a little bit. Josh took these there. Today the high was 40. Bah.