Mini-Break

Today Mommy and I loaded up the car and set out on an adventure together. I was so excited to go to Gigi and Grandpa's house that I decided to take a nice long nap in the car on the way to conserve my energy. Well it's a good thing I did! After just 2 1/2 hours we arrived and I played in the living room for just a minute while Gigi and Mommy packed us up for a trip to the beach.

I love the beach! I went swimming and practiced my kicking.

I caught some waves!


Then Mommy left me with Gigi so she could go swimming and catch some waves of her own. Gigi showed me the seagulls and we talked about the other kids playing on the beach... wondering why they weren't in school.

Then we ate lunch. Food always tastes better at the beach. Even my cheerios were more delicious!

Then I went home and took a nap. After my (long) nap we went to Berlin for some ice cream and some window shopping. Later I read a book....
...and played around until it was time for bed!

Impromptu photo shoot

Just because he was wearing a fantastic little outfit.
There is also a hilarious video of him in the bath kick, kick, kickin' his legs. I was downstairs when I heard splashing. I went up to investigate and found Matt soaked from head to toe and Jack laughing hysterically and kicking his legs splashing water everywhere! But since it's a public blog and it's a bath video I'm keeping it to myself.

Little Reader

Here is Jack enjoying his new puppy pillow/mat. Lately we've been using it for reading.

I wonder where Jack learned to smile like that...

See anything familiar?

It's a BOY!!

Cathy woke up on Saturday to broken water so she proceeded to the hospital to start her induction a day early. After 5 hours of Pitocin and 15 minutes of pushing Aidan greeted his parents! Yay to Cathy for pulling off the med-free birth (I must live vicariously when I can).

And in a continuing effort to keep his parents on his toes Jack showed off yet another new skill:

I would consider this to be pretty big. He's still 'Army crawling' so the upper body strength and muscle control I'm sure it took him to lift his arms above his head and reach the stair and pull all the way up on it is HUGE.

Looks like we need another baby gate for the steps now for sure!

From the couch of Emily

I have no desk. I haven't had a desk since January 18th when I left my advising job at UMBC. These are my random thoughts:



My dear friend Cathy was induced yesterday (I assume she did not go into labor between Saturday and Sunday, though we know that it is certainly possible.) She doesn't know if it's a boy or girl, I can't wait to find out. I've been sending all my good karma her way in hopes of a med-free birth, but as I learned the hard way a healthy mom and baby is what's most important. I can't wait to hear from them!



My cousin found out that she's having a girl, and I'm so excited for her. (Secretly I'm a little jealous too because that whole mother - daughter bond is still unknown to me, but no big.) In many ways it was definitely better for me to have a boy first because I didn't go through that 'babies are fragile' thing. That and have you seen how handsome and cuddly my son is?





I love fall! Today is the first day of Fall. I love the leaves and the food and the change in the temperatue which allows for sweaters, and who doesn't love a good sweater!! I'm very excited also because the change in season means upcoming holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. All of which I've always looked forward to as a kid dressing up, good food, and basically everything about being jolly respectively.... but now I have a kid... and I get to dress him up in his first costume, let him mush his mashed potatoes in his hands and play in the wrapping paper and boxes until his heart's content. YAY!

The show must go on

Despite a case of the sniffles we braved the cold morning weather and went on an adventure. (I'm not crazy and promise I didn't overdress him, at 7:30am today it was very cold!)Where are we going, Mommy?

On a walk around the lake, Little Man.

Then this afternoon we went to old Ellicott City and wandered in and out of the shops. We had so much fun and there was so much to see. It was a must to use the Baby Hawk because when the buldings were built in the 1800s no one can reasonably expect them to be accessable.

Brought to you by the letter 'B'

Jack likes bananas. Whole, not sliced.

Jack likes boxes.

The best part about this was he crawled over to the box himself and discovered how much fun kicking it was. This went on for 5 minutes it was a riot to see.

Food Glorious Food!

We've been experimenting with food lately because we were given permission to feed Jack adult food at his 6-month check up. We went to Roots and got a bunch of different organic foods that we've been trying. Pineapple, semolina, Scottish oatmeal and blueberry applesauce are all high on the list of new foods Jack is enjoying.

He was VERY disturbed this morning because he had indicated he was no longer hungry before his Scottish oatmeal was finished so I started to eat the rest of it. He did NOT enjoy watching me eat 'his' food. I suppose this is a lesson he will just have to learn, if he's going to eat big-people food, we're going to sometimes eat of his plate, that's just the way it's going to be.

On a slightly related note Matt and I got dangerous with our culinary experimentation last night and made our first Chinese spring rolls. They were delicious! I was in charge of making the stuffing and then actually stuffing and rolling. Matt was in charge of the frying, because the last time we made polenta I was in charge of the frying and I'm still working my way through the PTSD that resulted.

Now here I am, Monday morning and I'm trying to think of something exciting to make for myself. Sadly I think we don't have anything particularly exciting for lunches today... what a let-down!

From Friday

Colin was here today because Emily3's daycare was closed. The boys enjoyed the exersaucer.

Monkey hid from everything, there was just too much excitement.

Emily1 brought Brooks over for a visit. The boys had a blast!

At the end of the day we watched about 10 minutes of PBS Kids... don't judge me, it was only 10 minutes!

It was definitely a fun day. Jack and Colin were on the same nap schedule so that made things easy! (I probably could have put Colin down for another nap in the middle of the day but since Brooks was here I didn't want Colin to feel left out of the fun.)

Two day wrap-up...

Two days ago we hosted the Mommies. Jack and Cady enjoyed studying some classic literature in the reading corner.

Jillian climbed up the stairs- 3 times!

Then later after everyone left we cleaned up so the BG&E HV A/C people could come and give us a fantastic new system! Jack played nicely with the only toy left out, he didn't seem to mind that everything else was packed away.

Today I went to story time at the mall - HUGE, HUGE, HUGE crowd of people. It was totally overwhelming, but luckily I was meeting some mommies from another group that I met online. They are super nice, and they have groups in every area in every state. So if you're a mommy, or a mommy to-be and you're thinking "Gee... I'd love to have a mommy group too." Check it out! Scroll down the page and you'll find regional groups - then broken down by state.

Then Lindsey and Cady met us for lunch and some retail-therapy. Cady showed Jack her keys, and then Jack showed Cady his keys. They spent a lot of time discussing how their stroller 'drives'.

So tiny

This was the first video.

Jack had just rolled over (a fluke, I'm sure) and we were trying to get it on video to prove that he did it. We never did get it on video.

Huzzah!

Good morrow! On this fair day we rode in out chariot to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. We thought perchance the weather would hold and we would be able to make merry all day. Ok, I just can't ren-speak for the whole blog because I'm not that good so I'm done now.Jack was crowned king of all the land. Something about a sword and a stone; I'm a little fuzzy on the details.

We went to the herbalist...

where we learned about the fantastic properties of licorice root -slight numbing property and GREAT for teething!!

We saw Shakespeare's Scum perform; Jack is their biggest fan! With performances like "Macbeth in 30 minutes or less" we always enjoy their shows. (Puke and Snot is not performing until October this year - for those who love that show.)

It was a bit of a long day for Jack. But we had a fantastic time. We didn't expect top be able to be there as long as we were - you never know when the need for a nap will win out over other plans. We arrived at 10:30 and left at 4:30 YAY!

Anon.

Fun times!

Archana, Wes and Ria hosted an indoor picnic for the Moms Group today. We had a great time!


The babies are getting harder and harder to wrangle together for a picture.

This was the best photo I got. Which is pretty good... I think...

Emily1 got a fun picture of Lindsey and me (Emily2).

When we got home from the party the family played on the bed, enjoying a some time together. The boys smiled for the camera and then Jack and Mommy tortured each other with tickles. (He kept accidentally tickling my knee by putting his mouth on it.)

Big Boy

He's got some fiiiiine motor skillz!

Happy Birthday!

This morning I woke Mommy and Daddy up early because I was so excited that I turn 7 months old today. I also wanted them to get some cool pictures from off the dock while the water was still before the boats started making waves.
What a great view to wake up to!

I posed for my 7 month pictures. I love the camera and the camera loves me!

We went to Berlin and walked around. Mommy and Daddy enjoyed the sights, I enjoyed my rattle.

After my exciting day I decided to kick my feet up, lean back and soak in my duck tub.

This is the life. I try to take time and reflect every once in a while and I've decided that I have it pretty good!