Milestones!

Oh my, little N had a busy week last week.  She started doing three new things, all in the span of a few days - waving, climbing up the stairs, and walking all by herself!  After months of no new teeth, she also has four in the front popping through all at the same time, poor thing.

BroBro, i.e. big brother, has taken an interest in jokes and puns recently and come up with some cute ones!

9 months

Happy 9 months, little one.

Flipper of light switches.

Baby's First Drawing

Today was a busy day for E. This morning, he learned how to flip a light switch! (But only down, flipping up is a bit trickier.) Most of the switches at our house are old-school (original from the 50's?) hard-to-flip and very loud. The bathroom, however, was remodeled recently and has "normal" switches, so we practiced in there and he was able to turn off the lights by himself.  He can't reach the light switches yet when he's standing on the ground, so I'm not worried about him playing with them and turning the house into a disco party.

For E's birthday, my parents gave him these way cool beeswax block crayons.  Unfortunately, the first thing he did with them was try to eat them.  So I put them away for awhile.  This morning, however, I was writing with a pen, and E kept trying to take it and write, but he couldn't hold it quite correctly to get it to make a mark.  I got his crayons back out, and he made this drawing!

 

I followed my dad's advice to try giving him the blue crayon instead of the red, in hopes that he wouldn't eat it because there isn't too much food that's blue, while he loves some red foods, like strawberries. It worked - there was no eating of the crayon!

I had chosen red originally because I remember reading that the Montessori approach to painting and drawing is to start with a single color, and they start with red. We might as well start with blue, if you ask me.

What do you want with my drawing?!

The drawing is on the back of a recipe for butternut squash soup.  I really like this soup, but it's a project to make, so I generally only have it once a year, in the fall.  This time I spread it out, I made the stock (since I had some bones in the freezer) a few days ahead, and I diced the squash a day or two in advance too.  I roasted it in the morning, and then just the actual cooking of the soup had to take place in the afternoon/evening.  I added black beans too, yum.

 

Baby in a hood, too cute.

One Year Old!

Happy birthday, E!  It really is hard to believe that it's been a year already.  We remember the days in the hospital and the early days at home like they were just a few months ago...

The day itself was full of our usual activities: breakfast, playing outside, nap, picnic lunch, nap, taking a walk with Mommy in the carrier, dinner, and then ... presents!

Okay, this one is actually from our Labor Day cookout

What could be inside?

 

Hammer balls!  Want to play?

 

I'm pleasantly surprised that this toy seems really developmentally appropriate for a just-turned-one year old. E has just started experimenting with putting objects on other objects, and once in awhile inside them, so putting the balls back in the holes is great. He doesn't quite get that he's supposed to use the hammer to knock them down, but he has a lot of fun just pushing them out with his hand and putting them back in.

A birthday post wouldn't be complete without a blast from the past, here's our little guy at 24 hours old:

 

Official Walker

It's official, E is walking! This post is about a week overdue, but he is roaming all over our (ranch) house now without any assistance from us or the furniture.  He still likes to have a hand to hold when we're outside, for now.

Here's an action shot, he likes to keep that arm up :)

One of E's favorite walking games is to lead me by the hand in to the bedroom, and then he hides behind the bed, and I crawl out the door and around the corner.  Then he comes chasing after me like the wind!  He can easily play this game six or seven times in a row, whew.

Mr. Man also has enough balance to stand on his tiptoes now, to reach just that little bit higher when he sees something interesting. He's absolutely wearing himself out these days with his newfound skills, too. I think that might be why his appetite for solid food seems to be increasing a bit.

Milestone: Rolling

This just in! Yesterday, Mr. Muffin completed his first ever, unassisted, 180 degree roll from back to tummy!

 

Sadly, no action shots were taken, but there he is on his tum! He had been getting close for the past couple of days, and then he did it. No additional rolls have been completed at this time, but I'm sure there are many more to come!