Thanksgiving Videos

Andrew's Grandma is doing Andrew's favorite thing - reading to him!


Funny noises and apple pie.

What a Mess

On cold mornings I like to have oatmeal and I of course share it with my little man. He is getting much better at using his utensils but still likes to grab with hands. But he prefers to at least have a spoon or fork in one hand! The good thing about oatmeal is it sticks to the spoon making it much easier to get to the mouth!

Andrew Poops!

Don't worry this isn't gross! I just happened to be videoing some other happenstances and Andrew decided it was time to squeeze one out! lol This also stars Andy's amazing oci-cat Thunder!

Couple of vids for now more to come soon...

He's doing this super cute thing wear he stomps his foot when he dances. Or if he gets excited. Like sometimes we let him have the remotes he isn't "supposed" to play with and he goes crazy and stomps all around turning circles. It is so fun to see him so happy! I cannot seem to catch him doing it on video of course however. But here he is NOT stomping but getting me a magazine to look at with him then noticing the camera!


He started this singing into the paper towel roll all on his own. daddy did teach him how to do it into the water bottles too now which is also funny. In the middle of this vid Andrew wants to see the other side of the camera a few times. Try not to get too dizzy watching! You definitely need your sound up to hear all his musical talent!

Sweet Babbling Baby

The title speaks for itself, but I'll add this is my favorite video of Andrew so far this year. It makes me giggle every time I see it and hear it. He is such a joy!

Random Vids From Last Month

Here he is after picking out his first "outside toy" to play with at home. He couldn't wait to get home to try it out! He would always try to get the toys off of our neighbors porch when we went outside. My theory was if he had his own outside toy, he'd have no need for theirs. I was wrong! lol He likes his but is still very interested in theirs!


As many of you know, we play at a park almost daily, probably 5 times a week. Here we are at the downtown Sanger park on a sunny afternoon.


Our good little boy loves to brush his teeth! Well, I think he likes to play in the water and drink it off of his toothbrush lol! This isn't the best representation because he stopped as soon as we got out the cam of course! But he does like to chew on the wrong end a lot too.


I made pumpkin pie for the first time and Andrew liked it! He also eats with a spoon but not once the cam is on! lol

Halloween Videos

Enjoy! We sure did!!

We arrive at Grandmother's house.


All dressed up and ready to go!


Hanging out at the neighbors before trick or treat time.


Getting going in the wagon!

Busy busy

We got a new trash can for his cloth diapers and he had a good time playing with it before I got it set up.

Halloween videos to come soon!

Legos

I thought he'd try to climb back up in that chair, still don't know how he did it the first time, but instead he plays some legos.

Birthday Party Cake

First Birthday Day

Here's the video of the cake he got at home on his birthday. I baked him an eggless chocolate cake with banana glaze. Not sure if he liked it but he did actually eat some.


The pics of his party are up on the album (finally!) and we have a video of that day to post here as well. Someday... ;)

A Ride and an Uh-oh

Camera ran out of batteries or this would have been a longer one. But it should give you a giggle.


You're gonna love this one, turn up your speakers!

video time

At Grandmother's



Partying at Sanger Sellebration

So Much to Tell!

I know it has been a long time since I have written a blog. Hope the videos have kept you entertained! But we're getting to a point where Andrew is doing so many new things that I cannot possibly catch them all with the camera so I have to write them out! It has also been hard to type a blog entry until recently when Andy fixed a program issue on my computer. It is so awesome to be married to such a brilliant computer genius btw! ;)

To begin, Andrew is almost one year old. I cannot believe it is here already. He has changed so much over the last year, I try daily to hold on to the memories of each change.

Most recently he is working on being verbal. He's always been quite the chatter box as you know but he is now saying a very distinct word, Uh Oh! He doesn't always know when it is appropriate and will just say it but he also says it when he or I or Andy drops something or he will say it right before he throws something, which is super cute. I'm trying to work on Hi with him now too. The funny thing is once he picks up a new sound or word he leaves the others behind it seems. He said Mama first but hasn't said it since he started saying Dada. With Dada came all kinds of variations including Dad – du and Dad Dad. All of which meant Daddy but soon came to mean most anything. Now with Uh oh I haven't heard Dada in a few days and Uh oh is taking on many meanings as well. It is fascinating watching him work these things out!

As good of a walker as he is, he still falls a lot. His poor little shins have bruises and his knees are scraped from the outside. Not badly, no scabs just little boy bumps I guess. It used to upset me a bit but now I think it is cute that he is becoming such a little kid!

Still such a baby too though! He still stands and looks like a baby body. It will be fun to watch his body change over the next year. It will turn from baby body into kid body! His arched back will decrease, his bowlegs will straighten, he will thin out in his arms and legs, and his proportions will even out. And then I will have some serious baby fever! We do want another one pretty soon but not while Andrew is still such a baby.

Andrew loves 'tools!' I don't mean like hammers and screwdrivers (though I'm sure he'd love them if we gave him some!) but he likes to have a stick like object in his hand at all times. And he can carry two at once and often does, just yesterday he started with three too. A favorite of his is a plastic spoon but he also likes his plastic rake and shovels or straws. I hadn't thought of them as tools until we recently went to a dinner given by the local Order of the Eastern Star group for our local high school's homecoming, and as Andrew wandered around the room with his two spoons I told a few old ladies how he likes to carry spoons like that. One said of course he does, he has his tools! I thought that was so cute and such a perfect way to describe what he is doing! He even tests new things with his tools. He pokes at stuff, like other toys, the ground, the cats, things outside.

Speaking of outside, we have to take him out every day! He loves it! He will bring me my sandals to let me know he wants to go. He likes to explore. I have to carry around a trash bag with us because our neighbors are not as respectful of our environment as we are and Andrew likes to pick up every piece of trash he finds. If I forget a trash bag it is so hard to keep him away from stuff.

He is also very into his books right now. I don't let him have all of them because he still eats them and tears pagers so the nicer ones are kept up and brought down only for mommy to read to him. But he will sit and read his books on his own a lot too. He reads too! He babbles through the pages and will point at them. I like to point at pictures on the page for him when I read to him so I am sure he is mimicking this. When I tell him in the evening, let's go read some books, he gets excited! He loves to turn the pages for me. I have to be very careful with the library books, he has already torn a couple. But we still go to the library once a week or every other week to play and look for new books. They also have a local story time we will attend if we are free on Wednesdays.

Andrew is very much in a mimicking stage. He will take a plastic cup over to our water jug and hold it up when he is thirsty. He has seen us do this! I would love to get him to sit on his potty chair when we go to the bathroom but he is more interested in looking at it and pulling it apart than sitting on it.

One of my absolute favorite things he just started about 3 days ago is copying us talking on the phone. He will hold a phone (or remote control) to the side of his head, more behind his ear than actually to it, and say “ah” like he is trying to talk. He walks around like this any time he sees us on the phone and just goes “ah ah ah” the whole time. We stopped at the new Circuit City in Denton last Friday just to hang and check it out and the cell phone booth people were so nice. They gave him a dummy phone. It flips and has buttons he can push but no real parts but it looks exactly like the model they have. He is having a good time playing with it! Though the gentleman warned us he wouldn't like it for long once he realizes there's no noise coming out of it like ours! Lol

Andrew also shakes his remotes at the TV. I am so scared he's going to throw one one of these days. He does like to throw things. But so far he hasn't. I think he knows we point the remotes and push buttons to change channels and such but hasn't quite gotten it down. He does know how to turn the TV off and on by pushing the actual button on the TV.

He is such a quick learner right now. I try to work with him every day on little things around. Mostly we just play and let him play and explore. I trust he will learn what he needs to as he goes. Everyday is such a joy with him. He is so happy even though I think he is pushing his one year molars right now and a little extra cuddly, I don't mind. I like it really! Normally he is so independent that it is nice to get some extra hugs!

We are truly blessed to have him in our lives. We learn from him as he does from us. We are taking this parenting gig just one day at a time and following his cues and loving every second of it!!

Nap Time

Just for fun

This is an instructional video we made for metacafe.

But I thought I'd show you because Andrew is so cute in the beginning of it!

More Playing Around

Playing can be serious business when you're such a busy boy!!



Where's Andrew?

Bubbles!

Video from Andrew's 11th month birthday

In the Baby Pool

This was from a little over a week ago at Andy's cousin Lori's house.



Today Andrew is 11 months old. I cannot believe it. Time has gone by so quickly. Our tiny baby is growing up so fast!

Playing and Drama Queening

He is so cute playing by himself in his bedroom. Such a big boy!



And boy when he gets tired and/or hungry everything is a big ordeal!

10 Month Old Videos

Not videos from ten months ago! lol Andrew since he's turned 10 months old! These are the newest ones I have so far. There are more on the camera to get off though!

Playing outside.


Watching TV and walking around.


This is a long one of him on his 10 month birthday day just walking around and crawling too.

More Videos

Kind of old too. From July. I have so many new ones but I don't want to post them until I am all caught up! Ack. I have too much to do! I must be working on about a billion projects right now. lol

Here he is last month just chatting a bit and playing around with a box.


Here he is last month getting Raven on the futon. Raven deals pretty well.


His newest favorite thing to do is "read' his books. he sits by the shelf pulls them out one at a time and flips through the pages. I think he likes turning the pages right now more than looking at pictures but I am working on getting him to notice the pictures too.

We saw the doc this week and his iron levels are getting better but she isn't completely satisfied with where it is at so we are continuing the supplement. He is so good about taking it he opens his mouth for it now!

Did I mention he loves to eat? That child spends about a third of his day in a high chair or hooked on mom's boob I swear! Takes a lot of energy to walk I guess! :D

10 Months Old

Well our big boy is 10 months old now. And walking! He walks more than crawls at home now but is still crawling when he is in a big hurry! :D It's gosh darned cute let me tell you!

These videos are a few weeks old. But I wanted to get them up and shared before it was too too late. The first one is just him digging in the diaper bag. If I leave it open he goes through it. He loves to pull things out of boxes, bags, baskets, whatever! It's fun!

Sorry it is so dark.


This one is him playing in the kitchen cabinets. He is allowed in all but one of them and he like everything else, just empties them! lol He had been playing the pots like drums but stopped as soon as I started filming as usual. I also wish I could catch more of his new noises on video! He is getting the sweetest sounding voice!



I have started the new album for his 11th month and changed the names of all the others to reflect his age and not the month. I think it will be less confusing for us all. lol

Just Playin Around - long videos

Playing with shoes and walking around.


Walking with Daddy's hand, still his favorite way to walk though he walks more on his own each day!

Rocking Chair

More Walking!

He had been doing it for a long time before we got out the camera and he was getting tired of it by this time. But he still does a super job of walking. By now he is almost walking more than crawling. He still holds on a lot and loves to hold someone's finger while he just walks around the apartment. He lets go of things now and takes a few steps before getting down to crawl. He is making it completely across the room at times without getting down at all!



He finally got that 6th tooth through and today is already acting like his old self again. He was so sad and in pain big time for the last few days and slightly for the last few weeks. Last night he slept for 13 hours, pobrecito must have needed it big time!

He love love loves playing outside! He walks around in the grass without holding on sometimes even and picks up everything he finds. Then he examines it and throw it and picks it up again! He even takes a while before he tries to eat it and not everything goes into the mouth!

Well he is on me right now so it is hard to type!

So Close

Andrew is so close to walking it will be any day and he will just take off before our very eyes! I am working on another video we got of him doing it today. It won't be in this post though. It does seem like by the time we get the camera after a walking practice session he is just so over it.

He just popped his 5th tooth recently and is working on the sixth which is about to break through any second it seems.

But today he was taking steps without coaching, from furniture to other furniture and before getting down to crawl. With our coaching and leading, he would take several good steps before either sitting or lunging into us. Tomorrow he will be even better! Any day now I tell ya any day now. Damn, now he'll have to wear shoes when we go out! ;) We're going shopping for some tomorrow.

I can't upload videos right now because Google isn't accepting any this second. I am sure it just temporary and I'll try again soon. I have 3 to show! In the meantime, new pics are up in the online album!

Eating

That's spinach on his cheek!

You Won't Believe These!

Here our smarty pants has figured out how to put his little blocks into a different container! Does this mean right around the corner he'll start putting his toys away? ;) This is just the other night and only his second night doing it. The first night he did it with his wooden blocks. He started by handing them to me and I'd just hold my hand out with one in it and he wanted to put more. So I got out the other basket! Didn't take him long to figure out something new to do!

It's funny how exciting it is to see a new little person do these things!

So what's next, you say?

...

THIS!!

Andrew and his Mesh Feeder

His teeth must not have been bothering him much this day. Usually when his teeth hurt he'll gnaw at the frozen fruit inside. This day and only this day he uses it like a Popsicle!

9 Month Old Baby!

Wow here we are. 9 months in. What an adventure already!
I cannot upload more videos for a bit because we are having issues with our shared folder between our computers. But I will try to get on Andy’s to get some since we have so many right now! But he is on there most of the time so we’ll have to see. ;)


OK, big news. 2 days ago Andrew took his first steps! They were from Andy to me and back again and throughout the day. Then yesterday he did about 1 more over at our friend Bob’s house. He was way too busy at Bob’s to focus on walking!

It is shaky and difficult for him still but he gets it and I am hoping he will soon see how much more efficient of a method of self movement this whole walking thing is! We will continue to work with him daily. As of right now, I am counting first steps as the day before his 9 month birthday!

He has his 9 month check up tomorrow. I have no idea what this one will be like so I have a bit of anxiety. There will be no shots so that is a great relief but they will do a blood test and I am hoping it won’t be like they did when he was days old and had to have bilirubin checks. That was so heartbreaking and now that he’s older it would be harder to get him to hold still for them to drain his little heel and I know I’d have to hold him and I hate to think that he’d associate me with that. I hope they just prick his little finger! They will check iron and lead.

I also hope he is fine with those 2 things. I do not take iron supplements and every time I have been checked I have been way over the minimum so I hope he is getting enough from me. I haven’t been too focused on giving him iron rich foods but I will if they say his is low or anything.

I am excited to see how much he has grown. It has slowed a lot but like Pappy said last weekend, he feels like a hunk of lead! He is tall and solid!

Things are so great around here though. I do feel like the time slips away so much more quickly than ever before in my life! We are always on the go it seems. Even the days that we say, OK, we are staying here and not doing anything, we end up doing something!

Andrew is still a great sleeper and nurser. And he is about to get 4 new teeth I think. It is hard to tell for sure now that he has some in there!

He eats everything and anything he finds on the floor. Cat food and hair mostly!

He also eats about any food we put in front of him! His newest dinner is brown rice with peas and roasted red bell peppers and green onions. All homemade of course and he self feeds that. But this morning I tiny diced up some nectarine for him and he couldn’t pick it up because it was too slimy so he let me feed it to him because he wanted to eat it! He was so cute getting frustrated trying to pick the slippery things up too, he would try and try and then bang on the tray! I cut up the rest of the fruit into pieces for his mesh feeder and put them in the freezer. It is like a little popsicle for him to chew when his teeth are bothering him. But he does eat a lot of food now. Still nurses a lot thankfully, but he loves to eat! He eats avocado as I am sure you have seen and has tried blueberries and cherries. Peas are his present favorite of course especially the dried ones his Grandma got him! I’ve also given him tiny bits of raisin and I want to get him some prunes. I don’t think we have a much of a picky eater on our hands but he could change when he hits his toddlerhood.

His Grandmother had his portrait done at Sears and he did really well considering he was sleepy by the time it was done. They are quite cute and she ordered a lot for us to share. She is so sweet to do that. We all can’t wait to see how they turn out on paper. They were cute on the monitor! It is so cool how they do it now. When I was a kid we had to look at the pictures after they developed then pick some to order then wait for those to be done too! Now they just pop them on the screen and sell them to you and all you have to wait for is the final prints!
I would like to remind everyone that any of the pictures on the online album are available in any size also if there are any you’d like just let me know which ones and what size.

Hopefully I will be able to get some more videos up soon!

Walking

Well, almost. But I tell ya, it won't be long now!

Trying to get him to show off rarely works


Here are a couple of videos from Father's Day. He started walking with the truck the day before so he is still really new at it here




This is my birthday morning again. You can tell he's getting better since it is over a week later.


Now he walks with darn near anything he can push! I am telling you, it won't be long. Then I really won't have time for these updates because I'll be chasing a running baby!!

June 25th 2007

This is the morning of my birthday, I am not telling what age! ;) Andrew is just playing with his toys. Every morning I sit and watch him revisit all his favorites while I drink my coffee or water and get woken up enough to fix us some breakfast. It is one of my favorite times of the day!

Andrew's Second Console!

It's really Daddy's but Daddy is very much looking forward to the days when he gets beat by Andrew on this gaming system! We got it for almost free and it was a fun long adventure to do it. Here is Andrew helping Daddy open it up!

Andrew's Vacuum

OK, well it's my vacuum but he sure likes it!

Andrew in the Morning

Here is one morning a little while ago playing behind the chair.

Andrew and Raven

I took this during the weekend that GrandpaLee was here. And it was supposed to be of Andrew standing up hardly holding on at all but as usual he plopped down right when the camera went on! But I got some cute footage of him playing with Raven anyway. Enjoy!

First Time Swimming!

We took Andrew to our friend's apartment pool where she manages a week ago. It was his first time in a big pool and it was perfect! Our friend, Tammy, had her family over too so there were other kids to watch play. The weather was great, not steady sun beating down, some overcast and warm. The pool itself was so warm it was like a bath! Tammy said she'd been getting complaints about how warm it was from residents. Whatever! We loved it! And as you'll see Andrew did too!

At first he was unsure about what was going on, but once he got it, he GOT it! He would splash and splash and splash! We couldn't quite get him going on kicks just yet but it was all so overwhelming. We took him to the pool at our complex two days later and he loved that too! We'd love to take him every day but once it rains we have to wait for it to be cleaned again and the rain lately seems never ending... :(

Part 1


Part 2

GrandpaLee Videos

Part 1


Part 2


We were so glad to have Lee here and I miss his guitar playing!

Chatty Chatty Andrew

We have ourselves quite the little talker!! We still don’t know what he’s saying but he loves babbling. He will play and cruise around the living room just babbling along.

His first babbles, much to my joy, were ma ma ma ma. He did it mostly when upset and it sounded like he was calling for his Mommy. It worked, my heart would melt and he would always get picked up and cuddled or mommy milks or whatever he needs.

He still does it when he needs me. But now he has added a ba ba ba sound to his repertoire. He can even mix it up and do some ba ma ba and ma ba mas.

We talk back to him and repeat these noises as well as asking him what he is saying and trying to make words out of his mumbles. Sometimes it really sounds like he is saying something!

Yesterday a cat woke him from a nap before he was ready and he was cranky and whining and fussing and babbling no matter what. He wanted Mommy then he wanted Daddy. He wanted up then he wanted down. At one point he was babbling and whine-crying and Daddy says, “what’s the matter Andrew?” And we swear he babble-whined back, “I don’t know.”

Of course he isn’t really speaking and we know that, but he is baby talking up a storm and it is so adorable. Even when he’s upset we can’t help but laugh at the sounds he is making!

And I guess it isn’t fair to say he isn’t speaking because he IS speaking, just not in our language yet.

GrandpaLee, my father, came for a visit from California last weekend and wore us out! ;) It was a ton of fun. He got to see and hold his first grandchild and play with him and show him the guitar. Andy and I would be thrilled if Andrew picks up guitar playing. Any instrument really, music is so great for kids.

Their initial meeting was a little shaky. GrandpaLee was fresh off the plane and Andrew was worn out from waiting and hungry too. He is still a little unsure of new people too.

But he napped and ate on the ride home and when we got here he was good to go until 11 or so the first night and was completely comfortable with Lee by the time we all went to bed.

Here are the pictures, just click on it to take you there:


I have a few videos to upload from it too.

We also went to a friends’ on Sunday after taking GrandpaLee to the airport and got to take Andrew for his first dip in a pool. Pics and vids of that to come soon as well.

We’re going back out today too and will get even more pics and vids!! He loves it!

Older Vid of Andrew

Not too old I guess but a coupe of weeks ago I tried to get him to say Mama on cam. He didn't really do it but I think you can kind of hear it if you use your imagination! But he has been saying it. First word!! Even if he doesn't know it means me, we do! ;)

Zoo Trip

Andrew's first trip to the zoo was a great success! he loves animals and likes to try and touch them and laughs at them even if they aren't nice to him so I was hoping he'd really get into seeing some exotic ones. Though he is only 8 months old, birthday on the day we took the trip June 4th, he still saw most of the animals and was very interested in watching them. The ones that hid or didn't move much of course he missed but we'll catch those next year. We went to the zoo in Gainesville which is only $5 per person and free for babies so at that price and as close as it is we may go back again this summer to feed the giraffes which happens earlier than the time we arrived.

Grandmother, Meema and Grandma (that's Andy's mom and aunt and my mom) all joined us. We met up at our home around 1030 and headed out together. Gainesville is a pretty short car ride from our place.

As soon as we got there I was of course famished as always and insisted we needed to have lunch before I could even THINK about walking around even a small zoo! I had made a few salads and Grandmother brought sandwich fixins so we had a great spread. Couldn't fill up too much since I was slinging the baby though! But I believe we all ate to our hearts' content with some flies and mosquitoes as our guests. Not too many bites I don't think, not me at least, they don't bite me!

After lunch we headed in to the zoo. It is very cute. Small, kind of a perfect size really for us. We could really take our time and see everything. I wore Andrew in the sling and it was pretty hot so I was glad for every break we took, especially the ones in the shade! There was a nice breeze thankfully. I couldn't imagine being there on a hot afternoon in August.

We saw every animal there even if they were hiding from us! Andrew saw most of them. He didn't get his morning nap that day but was very alert and excited anyway. He didn't do much because he was tired but he was so interested in watching! It was adorable.

After the zoo, Grandma and us got some second lunch and came back to our place to hang. Andrew slept on the way home some so he was good to go when we got there for another couple of hours which was nice.

He ate his first peas that day too! Grandma brought some dried peas with no sugar or salt and he loved them! He's also enjoying apples and apricots in small amounts. Mostly he just likes mommy milk!

Andy was quite the photographer at the zoo. Here are all the videos plus a link to the new photo album I started for family trips.

Caterpillar


Feeding the Goats

I am actually trying to hold his arm so I can pull it away if the goat gets rambunctious, not pushing him towards it as it may appear. Andrew loves animals and just wanted to pet the goat, but I was afraid he'd grab a handful of it like he does with our cats! He didn't, he was very well behaved!

Kangaroos with Giraffes


Giraffes
One is eating the fence. The other comes out to join him.



Little Monkeys



Zebras - short clip of the zebras and some birds


Capybara - this guy is kinda cute. Looks like an ugly pig. He's the largest rodent on the planet!


My favorite by far. Put on your speakers! This little guy seemed to have lost his buddies and was hollering for them!


And be sure to check out the photo album! This is the first pic in the group,


We had a great time! Our next trip will hopefully be to the waterpark in Denton. I've been longing to walk Andrew around the lazy river! First I think we need to take him to our pool here at the complex to get him used tot he water and see if he has any reactions. Plus daddy needs to get some sun so we don't have a repeat of last year's sunburn! Now if only they'll get it cleaned after all this rain....

Playing Catch

Not so easy with a camera in your hands! But you can see him "catching" the ball.

Climb up Mommy

I'm really trying got get him to make a sound here he's been doing. It's like a raspberry you blow with your tongue but he does it inside his mouth. Of course he didn't do it but it's too cute how he climbs up my lap. he does this all the time!

Pulling Up High!

Andrew can get his toys darn near wherever they are!!

Eating Apple

Andrew shares an apple with his Mommy. Looks like he likes it!

Daddy's Whiskers

Daddy likes to tickles Andrew with his whiskers. Looks like Andrew likes it too! Sorry it is so dark.

Andrew is his Walker

We call it his race car!!

Playing in the Kitchen

Here Little Mister is playing with his Grandmother's belt int he kitchen. This is a little old. It is before he was pulling up and crawling really well.

Naked Baby Playin in Pool!

Who doesn't love a naked baby? Nobody! :D Here is Andrew doing two of his favorite things, playing outside and playing in the water!

Thank you Grandmother and Meema for the awesome present for Andrew!

Our Big Boy!

Our big boy is growing up a bit too fast but I couldn’t be prouder. I wouldn’t be surprised if he walks before 9 months! But I also wouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t. I don’t seem to be too good at predicting…

He is really close to cruising. It seems like he is trying to get the falling down thing first. He has been practicing! He falls and catches himself about 90% of the time with his hands. And even when he doesn’t and he hits his head, if we don’t react too much and he isn’t too tired, he takes it in stride and goes on. He often will go right back to it and try again right after falling. I love his determination!

He seems to be enjoying eating a bit more and his tummy is learning to handle it. I love to feed him but he isn’t so into being spoon fed. He likes to do it himself and will grab the spoon and put it into his mouth. I am going to stop making him purees in the blender. It just isn’t working. I will just cook the veggies and smash them a little and put them straight on his tray. We’re trying to do 2 meals a day. I use the term ‘meals’ loosely. He really just plays but it is teaching him about food. But he always grabs at our plates or bowls so it is better we sit him in his high chair and give him his own food to play with.

I also give him some carrot in the kitchen when I am cooking to “eat” while he plays in there with me. I always peel my carrots so after I peel it I just shave off an extra peeling of the inner part and give him that. He does actually eat some of it, I know because I see it in whole pieces later out the other end.

I gave him some raw red onion the other day to play with and he loved it.

I let him get into the cilantro at the store the other day and he loved it.

He isn’t really eating these things but more of chewing on them. But he definitely gets some of the flavor. I keep expecting him to make a face at such things, but he likes them.

He got some “bites” of mommy’s apple the other day and liked it. Kept asking for more. Well, whining for more.

Speaking of asking, we are still working on the sign language. He is still a bit young to quite repeat it back to us but I think he is learning that when I do X with my hands, X happens. He has got down the picking him up sign and milk sign. Now I am working on diaper, eat, drink and more. He may not be able to do the signs back until he is a year old or so but I wanted to start showing him early so we’d communicate to him how he can communicate back when his fingers are able to make the signs.

I’m reading him Charlotte’s Web. I think Andy and I are having more fun with it than Andrew. Andrew starts out sitting with me then gets bored and starts to go and play, but I still read until a chapter is finished following him around the room. And I am trying to get into the habit of reviewing what we just read about too.

We went to a story time at the Denton library and may go to one in Sanger too. The Denton one is targeted towards babies and starts back up next month. Andrew seems to really enjoy it. I liked learning some new songs for us to sing! The Sanger one is for kids of all ages but I know he’d like that too, he loves to watch kids!

Still sleeping a lot. He’s a growing busy boy for sure! It must be exhausting to pull your whole body weight up! I know I find it exhausting pulling his whole body weight up. ;)

My first Mother’s Day was awesome! Andy took great care of me, cleaning and fixing things and keeping Andrew long enough for me to have an extra long shower. And I got a special card from Andrew that I will keep! I love my family I am so blessed and lucky!

Andrew Laughs at Manfred

Turn up your speakers for this one folks. Andrew is giggling away! He loves cats for sure.

We Have a Crawler and MORE!

Andrew has been officially crawling for almost a week. Last Wednesday he crawled 5 full crawls in a row and did it a few times a day before falling on his belly to scoot for the rest of the week. As of yesterday, he scoots no more. We may see it occasionally I am sure but I doubt we’ll see it much again. Our Scooter is a Crawler!
And you know Mommy loves that for so many reasons! Sure he’s getting places faster and we have to stop him from trying to get under our desks more, but he is no longer cleaning the floor with his tummy! He’s now topless at home on nice days and how cute is that! A diaper only baby crawling around on the floor is truly a sight to behold.
But that is not all folks…
He is also pulling himself up. He’s been pulling up on low things like 6 inches or lower for a couple of weeks, but he is now pulling up on everything. Yesterday he was getting to his knees and now today he is standing. Still hasn’t mastered it but by the end of the day I bet he will. Next stop cruising and then walking! He could very well be an 8th month walker like his Mommy!
He has always loved standing. We used to stand him up when he was upset to stop him from crying! Now he can do it himself.
Oh sure there will be falls and spills. He has already fallen – in fact right after this video was taken he fell. But he is a tough guy and can handle it well. Usually with a little cuddling from Mommy or Daddy.
We caught on video the second time he ever pulled up all the way on something:



There will be another video to come soon from when we went to Grandma’s house and he was laughing at her cat, Manfred. That one is adorable too, he has the sweetest laugh!

Andrew Reads the Paper

Andrew and Daddy playing with the newspaper! This was only about a week ago.

Andrew Eating Carrots + Bouncy Seat Woes

His second food was carrots. Not a big fan of those either.



Since then he's had banana, brown rice, and pears. He seemed to like the brown rice best I think because he could feed himself. But it didn't like him very much and gave him tummy aches so we're breaking from that for a while. The pears were yesterday and I thought he'd like them more than he did. And then he seemed to have a tummy ache all day from that too, though maybe it was the leaf I found in his diaper this morning...

Next we'll try sweet potatoes. I thought this kid would love food. Seems he only loves mommy milk. Which is all he needs, I am just surprised he isn't liking eating more.

Bouncy Seat Woes
Our "little" man has outgrown his bouncy seat so much, it broke! I was sadder than I thought I'd be. Not just because I could sit here and do things and bounce him and he loved it, but also because that was his favorite place to hang for so long and now it is in the trash. It broke completely in half. Thankfully Andrew was not in it at the time!

He's been weighing it down a lot lately and Daddy would stretch it back up so when Andrew laid in it his bottom wouldn't hit the floor. Well, he stretched it up a bit too much the other day and it broke.

We went to Target to get him a new one and they all said up to 35 pounds, which Andrew almost is. So we got him a rocker that is supposed to be from infant to toddler. He doesn't like it! And neither do we. Waste of $30. At least it gives us a secure place to lay him for naps for right now that is easy to get him in and out of. But we cannot rock him in it. It slides around on our floor and it sits him too far upright for rocking.

We do have some awesome pics of him sleeping in it in its unrocking position. And maybe when he gets older he can use it for another rocking chair of his own like it is intended. And maybe our next child will be able to use it from infancy and like it. But Andrew does not like it, it just isn't enough like his good old bouncy seat.

I still miss it too.

But Andrew is letting me rock him to sleep in my arms with little fights but it still works. And it's what we will do from now on I suppose.

Good-bye bouncy seat. We all loved you and we'll all miss you very much!

Video and Finally New Pics

His easter pictures behind the scenes video. This was a while ago and before he could sit himself up. Such a cutie pie!

And I've had some of these pics for a long time but couldn't get to them on Andy's computer because of OS issues so I put them all up today! And the newest ones are from the jazz festival we went to in Denton last weekend. It was so fun and Andrew had a really good time!

Here he is at the festival in a swing for the first time!


Click the pic to see more!

Aunt Lindsey's Black and Whites

Andy's brother TC's wife Lindsey is quite the artistic photographer. She does beautiful black and whites of scenery that are amazing! Recently she has started to shoot people and asked to do a session with Andrew. Of course I was thrilled! So a week ago she did her first (and probably last! lol) baby photo shoot! We spent over an hour I think and unfortunately most pics did not come out because Little Mister will not hold still anymore now that he is mobile. But the ones that did turn out ear awesome! It was cute and funny watching him crawling around on her black sheets while she tried to get quick pics in the seconds he was still!

Thank you Aunt Lindsey! We can't wait to do it again!!

Daddy's POV

Daddy is holding the camera and coming to 'get' his baby and we get to see what Daddy sees!

Scooter - Literally!

Watch Andrew as he scoots across the floor army man style. he's going to knock down the pile of blocks Daddy stacked up. And might I add I can no longer fold laundry next to him because he now thinks all piles are for knocking down. lol

The Little Eater

I hope you’ve all seen the video of Andrew’s first eating adventure. It was quite hilarious. He was like, “whoa this isn’t my mommy milk!” But we’ve done it almost every day this week and he is getting better and more used to it. He actually picked up some of the squash from his tray this morning and put it into his mouth! I also give him his own spoon to play with. He’ll open his mouth for me for a bite, I put it in with my spoon, and then he puts his spoon into his mouth with it too before he swallows! It’s so neat to watch him learning.
We are doing it in the morning to monitor reactions throughout the day, so I’ll sit with him and eat a bowl of cereal to show him how. He does sit with us at the table when we have dinner too but he’ll only get his frozen breastmilk in the mesh feeder. And he LOVES that! He’ll eat the whole piece and then if I put more in it, he’ll eat that too!
I still have a few more days of squash left, but when that is gone, I am thinking we will try some sweet potatoes. I want to give him spinach so badly but I don’t know how to let him self feed that one just yet.
Another thing I think he’ll really like is noodles. Like spaghetti. For the sake of preventing food allergies, he shouldn’t have pasta until he’s over a year because of wheat and eggs, but I can give him rice noodle. I think we’ll wait until he’s had several more veggies first. But he is always going for strings or cables or belts or cords and he seems very attracted to that type of thing. So I am sure he will love to eat him some noodles!!
And his poops aren’t that bad! I know just what you wanted to hear right! But that was a big issue for me. Breastfed babies have about the easiest going poops as far as smell goes. It may be watery and a lot but it sure don’t stink like formula. But when they start solids, all that changes. I guess he’s not really ingesting enough to make a big difference.
Oh but he sure does seem to enjoy eating. He rubs it all in his eyes and his hair. Of course he doesn’t like the clean up afterwards! But I can’t exactly explain to him that if he didn’t rub it all over I wouldn’t have to clean it all off! He opens his mouth for his next bite. He only takes about 4 good bites and then he’s done. He plays with the food on his tray squishing it though his fingers and examining it.
Still just scooting. Just! LOL! Just scooting any old place he wants to be! He will try to follow Andy and me both into the bathroom. Several times he has come into the kitchen looking for me while I am cooking. He has a foot fetish ;) so he is often stopped on his way to our shoe pile. So far there has been no interest in the cat’s bathroom but I am sure it is to come. We will try putting a gate up and hope the kitties know to jump over it and don’t just poop outside the room.
We were starting to get worried about his bouncy seat addiction. He had been very into it ever since he was days old and would often stop crying in his bouncy more so than someone’s arms. And since he is starting to outgrow it we were wondering what to do. Andrew never was one for rocking to sleep. I remember around his 3 month age he started nursing for about 30-45 minutes and rocking to sleep, and I was thrilled because usually he’d just start going crazy when he was done eating and only fall asleep in his bouncy. I think the thing around 3 months was his starting of teething and it didn’t last for long.
Well, maybe I just wasn’t determined enough. Because now he will let me rock him to sleep! I have to hold him just right and be a bit persistent but it is working. He also isn’t as into the bouncy as he used to be. He has started turning himself over in it and he just doesn’t relax like he used to when he’s in it anymore. Sometimes at night when Daddy is up with him, he will relax in it. But all this week, he has been put to sleep in my arms in the recliner rocking. I am going to get his wooden rocker out of his room and put it in our room to use. I think rocking him in that room where it is dark will help too. Then when he falls asleep he goes right to bed instead of to the bouncy. I am so excited it is working. Personally I am ready to put the bouncy away but I know Daddy still needs it at night and it’ll be a useful tool I think for some time.
We’ve had to put the Bumbo away. Andrew is almost sitting on his own anyway, though we keep the boppy behind him so he won’t fall back onto the floor. But his thighs just won’t go in that Bumbo seat anymore.
He has also started taking a few steps when held up standing. He used to not know how to move one foot and then the other. He’d just stand and kick and if you tried to move him he’d move both feet. Well, all the walking on mommy’s feet seems to be helping him figure it out a little. Now when I push one side forward, he takes a step and then he’ll step the other foot up to it. I think he is a ways away from walking but it is certainly some visible progress.
He isn’t even really crawling yet so I guess we better do that first!
I have more videos to put up from Easter Sunday so I’ll try and get to them in the next couple of days. I just wanted to write a post to let everyone know how he’s doing and how much progress he is making.
Love you all!

Andrew Eats!

I baked him an acorn squash today and we got a couple of videos of him taking his first bites. This is a long one compared to the others I have posted here but a good one because there will never be another first time to eat solids. We have an even longer one of better quality we will show you later too.



I think he likes it!! We'll try again tomorrow as long as he doesn't have any reactions over night. So far so good!

Andrew's Firetruck

Meema gave Andrew a firetruck for Easter. Here he is at home on Easter Sunday being pushed around on it by his Daddy. It looks like they are both having a real good time! Thanks for the great gift Meema!

St Patty's Day

We took Andrew to Chuck E Cheese for St Patty's Day to meet some local parents. He seemed to enjoy watching the other kids more than the rides but we tried to get him to play.

A Whole Half

I guess that’s an oxymoron or misnomer to say, but our little man is now a whole half year old. And we’ve had a wonderful day for his 6 month birthday!
I really thought today would be the day for crawling but no such luck. He gets up on all fours quite a lot though. He may never crawl for real I am afraid. He gets around pretty well and seems satisfied with it for now. He can go fast too! I just don’t like his belly rubbing against the floor all the time. I want him to pick it up! It’s always covered in cat hair (and Mommy hair) no matter how often I sweep the floor!
He may be ready for food soon too. I do think he can handle it, it’s just up to me now to get it, bake it, and blend it! We’ll start with some winter squash, easy to digest, still sweet like mommy milk and a good fun start to food. Though I did let Daddy touch a dried fig to his tongue tonight! Lol. Andrew didn’t seem to mind it. He’s also getting used to the taste of lemons thanks to Mommy’s lemon water I feed him when we go out to eat!
We see the doc on Friday, more shots.  But he’ll get weighed and measured and all that so I am looking forward to it. Plus I after this no more shots until 12 months! Yay! And hopefully Andy won’t get sick at the same time so I have two sick boys to take care of.
We have some video of him crawling and I have some pics I will post soon.
I’ll post again after the appointment to let you know how it goes.

Our Little Scooter!

Barely, but it’s official, we have a Scooter! He has figured out how to get forward by pushing himself with his feet and pulling with his arms. Oh he doesn’t get far and he still gets very frustrated but he can finally get to those toys (and mommy’s slippers) that are just out of reach! He did it for the first time this week when we were over at his Grandma’s house (my mom) and it was too funny. As she watches him thinking it is no big deal, like we are used to it, Andy and I freaked! Both jaws dropped and we looked at each other and got this “Oh no but oh boy” look in our eyes. Here we go!

He is pulling himself up to all fours, knees and hands, but then he pushes up onto his feet. So we aren’t quite crawling, but it will be literally any day now! Like I expect him to up himself into that position and just take off!

It wears him out though big time. He is still napping 3 times a day! Poor thing, he gets so tired after a little while playing on the floor, but he still has that excess energy so he gets to kicking and flapping his arms a lot, especially when he’s trying to fall asleep. But then he’s out like a light for about an hour each time. And still sleeping a good 10 hours a night. He does wake to nurse, some nights every 2 hours some nights only twice, but I don’t count that because neither one of really wakes up too much for it!

The other tooth is also finally through! Just this afternoon after his second nap I felt the sharp little bumps of it. So relieved about it too because I know it had been really bothering him, especially yesterday and this morning. Now it just has to grow in. Which I am sure contributes to the sleepiness and slight crankiness he has.

He really is such a good baby – ask any grandma he has! Yeah, cause they’re really objective! But seriously, he is. He loves to play and explore his toys and any shoes that may be left on the floor. He only really cries when he’s tired or in pain.

Today I was sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor and whatever tool of cleaning I had in my hand was the most fascinating thing to him. He was in his exersaucer in the kitchen with me playing and watching and he’d reach his hands up for the handle of the broom or mop like he thought he could get it even when it was entirely too far away! Too cute as usual! I told Andy he was trying to help me clean. Oh do not worry son, as soon as you are old enough to stand, you’ll be able to help Mommy clean! That’s one thing that will be really important to me from as early an age as possible, teaching him how to pickup and clean up. Never too early to start I say! Of course I also teach him how to cook right now so that’s another skill he’ll have!

One of my favorite recent pics of Andrew!

Andrew with Maria

OK so it took me a little longer than I thought it would to get it all up, but here it is. It's Andrew a bit before he turned 5 months old over at our friends' home playing with Maria. This is his first time on a rocking horse. I think he likes it! And he likes his new little baby friend too! That is Joseph, Maria's baby, he was 3 months old here.

New Favorite Game

Andrew’s got a new game he plays! I’m not sure what to call this one. I put him on our floor, no pants no socks so he gets better traction, and scatter about some smaller toys and his basket, and he tries to get them all. He spins himself around and slides them across the floor or pushes them just out of reach and tries so hard to get to them! He is still just going backwards! He pushes up on his arms and up on his feet though and looks like he’s going to go forward but then just slides back! Oh and he gets so frustrated! But I really think it’s fun. If we pick him up, he stares at the floor and his toys and tries to get back down there out of our arms so we let him get frustrated for a bit. We often give in and push him to his toys or push them back to him after several minutes of frustration. It’s hard for us to hold out but we do try because it is important to give him the motivation he needs to get going!

I swear he’s going to get up and crawl any second.

But I also thought that tooth was popping through in a day or two and it is still just hanging out right below the gums. At least it seems to be bothering him less. Not that we go to bed without a dose of teething tabs – but he does make it through the whole day without any medicating. He’s such a tough little guy! Well, big guy!

Right now he’s on the floor and has pushed all his toys away and is scooting farther and farther back away from them. Why won’t he realize that turning around and scooting back will get him to them? Babies are so funny! I just sit here and watch him play! It’s the cutest when he pushes up on his hands and feet! His arms are getting stronger every day. We are trying to get it on video, but you know how that goes, all action stops when the cam comes out!

Just now I stopped to nurse him because he was acting hungry and as soon as he was done he sat up (assisted) and started looking to the floor and reaching down! So I have to put him down there with his toys. I swear he likes it better than his exersaucer (nicknamed the Pooper-saucer because it seems to have that affect on him)!

His favorite toy right now is still his bowls. But he also really likes theses little duckies my mom gave him for the most recent holidays. They are supposed to be for the bath but he likes to chew on them so we have them for him everywhere. One game we play is I take all the duckies in the living room and put them in his bowl and then he bats at it and they go flying out! Fun times!

Andrew’s latest sound is a squeal! It is so cute and so much fun to know he’s happy by this loud high pitched squeal, but Daddy and I have a little bit to get over when it comes to doing it in public. We don’t like to attract too much attention to ourselves and Andrew likes to see to it that we do! Not just with his noisemaking but he’s so gosh darn cute that people stop and comment on him. It is forcing Andy and I over a bit of our shyness!

I have another video I’ll be putting up today or tomorrow so keep a lookout!

Andrew's 5 month old Birthday

Andrew's Meema took us out to lunch on his 5 month old birthday. Here he is being a big boy sitting at the table with us in his Bumbo!

All Over the Place!

I don’t know that he’s completely figured out that he is rolling and getting somewhere but just this morning he started to roll over and over to get to what he wanted. He used to just roll from front to back. Then he learned to roll back to front, so I put him down on his back more often to practice. Then he seemed to stop rolling back to his back again. I actually worried for about a second! I know I know, can’t help it. But today he rolled all the way over, got across his blanket and to the toy he was eyeballing. Oh no – can’t turn our backs anymore I guess! Next stop, crawling!
He can almost sit on his own, too! We practice everyday for a little while and last night he was really sitting on the bed well without being held up. If his back is even just slightly supported he can sit without falling for a long time.
He even sat in a high chair for the first time yesterday! We went to Chuck E Cheese to meet some other parents from the area and forgot his Bumbo, so we decided it must be time to try the high chair and see how he did. Well, he did awesome!

As you can see. So today I am setting up his little high chair at our table. He used to sit in his Bumbo there but now it will stay in the bathroom.
Still not time for solids yet but he can play with bowls and eat frozen breast milk at the table with us during dinner time!
I am really hoping to get a sewing machine soon. I have so many projects and things I’d like to try for Andrew. I can make him clothes with some super easy patterns and cloth diapers and covers and all kinds of things. If anyone knows anything about sewing machines and what is good to look for when getting one let me know please!
His second tooth has yet to break through but I swear today I see a white space where it looks like it is right there! So close. It’s been bulging for a while now and he’s been a little extra cranky today. Nothing bad of course, he’s so good, just seeming uncomfortable. We gave him an afternoon dose of Hylands to help ease his discomfort and he fell asleep! He still sleeps so much! Takes 2-3 naps a day. Andy and I were both not good nappers as kids according to our parents so it’ll be interesting to see if he grows out of this or if he is just a good sleeper!
We are still adjusting to our loss. It has been a rough 2 weeks for sure. Tyler was a huge part of our family and a big part of our day every day! It still feels like something is missing. I know it just takes time, days put together with him not in them to make them seem like normal days again, but it is still hard. Andy and I talk about him every day. Something we miss that he used to do or just general missing him.
Andrew and our favorite thing to do right now is play outside! The weather has been nice more often than not so we’ve been going out on our front ‘lawn’ area with just a blanket and hanging out! It’s so fun to watch him pull the blanket up to get at the grass underneath. No need for toys out there – nature makes the best toys! I take him for walks on nice days too. Carrying him in the sling facing outwards so he can see, we’ll go and look and touch things like trees and bushes and watch the birds flying around. I love these days of nice weather we get here in Texas before the onslaught of the 100 degrees! I want to take full advantage of every single one.
I am planning to delay Andrew starting solids a little longer. I know he will be ready when he is 6 months old but a part of me still feels like it is too soon. Like once you start that you can’t go back. Of course once he starts it doesn’t mean he has to do it every day! He still has the tongue thrust reflex big time so I know he isn’t physically ready but he has such a healthy curiosity I know he’ll have fun with it. Reducing the risks of food allergies is the concern. There’s no food allergies in our families but you can never be too careful. I know part of me just doesn’t want my baby to grow up just yet. But I also know the longer I delay him starting the ultimately better it is for him. I am sure sometime in his 7th month when he is 6 months old, he will get his first table food. But I am not rushing to start it on his 6 month birthday or anything!
Speaking of table foods, the new question is what is allowed during the first year of food experimenting and what should we start with! So many foods are still dangerous during the first year, even eggs they now say to wait until 2 years! For the rest of his first year I am sticking to a very strict diet consisting only of select fruits and vegetables and chicken and beans. During his second year before he turns 2 years old, we will still be pretty strict in what is allowed. It is so important now that we have the knowledge of how the digestive system develops to introduce foods slowly to the new system and allow it time to fully develop before introducing certain things to really fully prevent allergies and tummy aches!
I am already thinking about his first birthday party! Can’t help it. I know I want to keep it simple and have people bring only small gifts like books and maybe even book donations for our library. Not sure yet. If anyone has any suggestions please email me.
I think we want to stay here in this apartment for one more year if they’ll have us! It is too much for us to move all of this junk only one short year after already moving it! Plus it’s about doubled. No matter how much we get rid of we always have more! No rush to leave for us. This place is nice, cheap, comfortable and we are happy here. It’d be nice to rent a house but we need to wait until we are making a little more money first.
Andrew is about the best sweetest baby any 2 people could ask for. I wonder every day what I did so good in my life to deserve such a wonderful family. I am truly blessed and very grateful for what I have!

Picnic pics!

I have so much to tell you and not enough time tonight but there will be an update about the lives in the Goin household soon!
In the meantime, here's a link to the latest pics added to the webalbum. We love to take Andrew out on the grass in front of our apartment every single day that is nice enough!

What a Lucky Day!

Cosmically speaking that is. This whole year being 07 is luck but to have a day with 03 as the month and 07 as the day is extra lucky! Hope everyone has a wonderful day.
We have a little scooter around here. Backwards! His arms aren’t quite strong enough to hold him up but he can push himself backwards and boy does he! I put him on the floor and put some toys just out of reach and watch him figure it out. We are so proud of him! He tries so hard!
He can spin himself around on his belly and roll from back to front now as well as front to back. Though I haven’t seen him do a complete roll yet and I don’t think he quite realizes that this mean he can get somewhere! I know he’ll figure it out soon.
It is so cute to watching him get frustrated trying to get the toy in front of him and not being able to work that out. I have no doubt all this practice and exercise will have him crawling in no time and I will be scrambling!
We still miss our big fat cat around here. It has been a rough week for sure. We are so incredibly grateful to have Andrew as a source of happiness and distraction.
The tooth is almost completely in I think and I can’t tell if more are on the way. I thought for sure last weekend they were. He seemed in pain and upset so we got him some teething tablets that are a natural pain reliever. But the last day or two it hasn’t seemed to bother him so maybe we are done for a while. We shall see I suppose. Everyday is different!
Well, he’s on the floor right now trying to get to his elephant and scooting farther and farther a way from it and getting frustrated so I am going to see if I can show him how to get over there!

Remember to check the photo album! The new month is up!

Sad News

Those of you who follow our blog here will remember that before the baby came along we had another baby. Well, four kind of, but the real baby in our lives was our fat cat Tyler. Yes, I said was. Yesterday at around 1pm, Tyler passed from this life. We were with him during his passing and it seemed painless, for him at least, though for us the pain still runs deep.

He was much more than just a pet to us. He was a dear friend to Andy and a baby to me.

He lived to be 14 years old and for a cat that is quite a long time. Especially with his weight and breathing problems. We believe his poor old tired body finally gave out.

We are so heartbroken here.

Andrew was so good yesterday while Mommy and Daddy cried over Tyler. He sat with us and watched.

We buried Tyler ourselves with help of Meema in a special place, (Thanks Grandmother,) so we always know where he is.

Some of you may remember the video we made of him last summer. I am so glad we did! It highlights some of his favorite things and catches him doing some of the things he did most.

He also slept with us every night. Before the baby he slept between us and after he slept either on the other side of Andy or between Andy’s legs. Until in the morning when Andrew and I would get up, then Tyler after having some breakfast would always go back to bed and cuddle right up next to Andy.

Andy had him for a very long time, some of that time was just the 2 of them. They were very close and this will be a hard time for Andy especially. Please keep him and our whole family in your thoughts and prayers. We have lost a member of our family.






















































To loosely quote a good friend of ours, Tyler's awesomeness will be greatly missed. We love you Tyler, you live in our hearts forever!

We Have a...

TOOTH! OMG. I so did not expect this to happen so early. Things grow and change so fast in the first year for sure.

It’s not like he’s ready to bite or chew on food just yet, but for the last week I’ve been swearing to Andy that I can see a white mound around his bottom front tooth. Like something is trying to push through, though I was not exactly sure what it would look like and what to look for! Then yesterday, 4 days before Andrew turns 5 months old, Andy yelled to me while I was in the kitchen that he felt something in there. So I came and had Andrew chew my finger too and low and behold, it hurt! He can bite hard anyway but this was like a needle poking me. I gave him some frozen things to chew on and he gnawed away at those. Then later on in his tub I checked it out. The tub is the best place because he can be distracted enough to let me hold his bottom lip down while looking in there from the top as he lays on my lap and he won’t try and cover it with his tongue. It still takes several tries but both Andy and I got to see it. It’s like a little clear piece of plastic pushing between his gum tissue. Oh and we got so excited!!

Sure part of me is sad that my baby is growing up so fast but the biggest part of me is thrilled! Think of how cute his smiling baby pictures will be with that little tooth! And who knows maybe he’ll get the one next to it next and then he’ll have a little cabbage patch smile.

His dexterity is also improving greatly. He reaches with his hands and grabs things so much better. He still likes his Kick and Play in his bouncy and his play gym and what he does now is hold his hand out to the toys and seem to examine his hand along with them, kind of spinning it and looking at it while it is touching the toys. I have also caught him using his pincers a couple of times! This is huge to show readiness for food. I have a feeling that he will surely be ready by six months.

He is already trying to sit up. I have him exercising his torso muscles regularly. When he tries to pull himself up to sitting like when he is done nursing, I don’t just immediately sit him up, I let him work at it for a bit. Then, I just kind of help his to sit himself up. He can also sit on his own for several moments now. But he doesn’t seem to understand that that is what he is doing. Like he just falls forward to reach for something! Too cute of course!

To prepare him for meal times, we are trying to get him used to sitting with us at the table for dinner. He does it in restaurants fairly well if our timing is right and he isn’t too tired. But now at home we have his bumbo in a chair at our dining room table and we will all be eating our dinner there together. I think I have finally worked out the best time to cook supper around here to get it before he starts getting too sleepy and needs his bath and bed time.

His toes are finally making it into his mouth! Not always, he is still turning his hand on those and putting his fingers in his mouth first, though he doesn’t do that with familiar toys only new things. So it is just a matter of time before his toes will be a constant in his mouth like his fingers I am sure! He started by grabbing his socks and pulling those nearly off to get them to his mouth, and now he does it barefoot too.

Speaking of baby feet… I still call him monkey feet. From the moment he was born he was gripping with his toes and now instead of decreasing that behavior, he has gotten better at it! He grabs at toys with his feet and holds them between his feet with a grip so tight, I can lift him up and carry him to another room and set him down without him dropping said toy. His hands still get flailed around some and he likes to bang things with them so toys are more often dropped.

Still rolling from tummy to back only though I put him on his back a lot more now too to try and encourager the other. And he is reaching around and getting to his side and very close to that roll. I am not looking forward to him rolling around here on the floor here. With four cats it is impossible to keep the cat hair off the floor and I do not want him to help me clean it up by rolling it onto all of his clothes. I do however accept this as an inevitability and know there is not much I can do except to try and clean the floor more often! Which I am sure seeing him roll on it will motivate me to do every single day!

Speaking of cats, he loves them! They do not quite know what to think of him still. My old cat Raven is about to get kicked out the house for being loud and obnoxious but that’s nothing new, and he is the one who likes to rub up on everybody for petting, baby included! He’ll take his rubbing anywhere he can get it. Andrew hasn’t quite mastered petting yet though and does a lot of banging and grabbing handfuls of fur and just cat back. It is so funny! We’ve gotten some of these encounters on video so we will post them someday. I have a couple of small videos I’d like to get up soon also. We’re working on it.

I love all the new things Andrew does but of course I have a few favorites. Mostly, he has recently started cuddling with me at night. When he’s on his back, he’ll pull his feet up and let them fall over onto me and leave them there. He also scoots his head over to be next to me, right up against or using me almost as a pillow. If he’s on his tummy, he likes to lift his head up and put it over onto me or up next to me. It is so awesome to wake in the morning to a couple of baby feet on your belly! What a great way to start a day let me tell you!