My First Christmas

(11 months)

Hot Cup (not his first Christmas, but he's about our baby's age here)


I'll be posting about someone else's First Christmas soon :)

A New Aunt for Baby

Tuesday was my brother's WEDDING DAY! He's an amazing guy and I am so incredibly happy for him and his bride.
Here's the good-lookin' couple. (I love this between poses shot :)

The groom with his nephew.


Here they are with the our uncles that came for the big event.


The lovely table decorations.


My beautiful sisters (+ a SO ;).


Me & Clar.


Our little family.


Our baby's schedule was way off, but his dad is always great at keeping him happy!


The happy couple are on their honeymoon :)
We look forward to seeing them again after Christmas!

Rainy Day

8 Months!

Laughing at Grandma :)

Our baby is so cute, happy, playful, smart, content, and peaceful. We have so much fun. He laughs and smiles all the time. He loves playing with his dad. Some of their favorite games are peek-a-boo (Hot Cup hides behind couches and walls for this) and passing a ball back and forth. He's got things figured out and knows what is going on. He knows how to quietly tell me what he wants and seems to appreciate his routine. He loves to eat and is also great about going to bed.



When I play the piano in Relief Society on Sundays I have to get someone to hold him when Joe's not available. For a little while now he's known where I am and been able to look at me. Last Sunday when I was sitting up there I waved at him and he lifted his hand up! This made the person holding him laugh out loud, which made him cry - he is very sensitive to sudden noises - but she was able to comfort him pretty quickly.

I don't have a single picture from his first Thanksgiving, I'll have to request from family so that I have some. Here are some pictures from this month.

Playing with seats.


Eating banana.


Happy Birthday Grandma!


Christmas is coming!

Teeth!

Our baby turned 8 months old yesterday and I'll do a post for that soon. But first I wanted to share this photo where he allowed me to take a picture of his teeth :) The first one came the end of October and the second came around Thanksgiving.

Last Sunday

I forgot to mention ...

We keep the Touch and Feel book in the diaper bag, so he usually only plays with it when we're out. Really mostly just at church. Last Sunday was the first that we think he truly got it. He was feeling the textures on every page.

Also starting last Sunday, he leans over to see what he drops. He doesn't drop them just for that purpose ... I think. Maybe he was by the third hour.

7 months

My baby is getting so big! He's such a great boy and I love watching him grow, but I'm also a little sad he can't stay my baby forever.

I've been giving him two solid food meals a day and he loves it. He's always loved dinner but lunch took some convincing at first. I recently started making his food. I might have started sooner if I'd realized how fun and easy it would be. So far I've done apples, peaches, green beans, and butternut squash. And bananas and avocados, but I don't make those ahead of time, I just mash them with a fork when it's time to eat. He loves eating fresh bananas right out of the peel like mommy so we share one almost every day. He also likes Cheerios. I put them on his tray and he loves going after them but he's still figuring out how to get such a small thing in his mouth. He's great at picking up big chunks of banana and avocado and taking a bite out of them.



I believe it was October 29th that we first felt the tooth that was about to come through his gums and within a couple of days we could feel and see that it had come in! He's been amazing about it and I hope that's a good sign of how the rest of his teething will be.

We'd always held him until he was asleep and then put him in his crib. But that was getting more difficult so around 6 months I decided to start leaving him in his crib crying when it was time to go to sleep. Even though everyone says it's fine to do I didn't want to. He's my baby, I'm supposed to comfort him when he cries! But I immediately saw how it really is a good thing. It has made putting him to bed so easy. He still cries sometimes, but he usually doesn't and I think he knows the crib is a nice place to sleep. He'll even ask to be put there when he knows it's time. And sometimes after I lay him down he'll look up at me. So I whisper to him and give him a kiss before I leave. He's such a sweetie!

Last month I mentioned how he loves the big mirror we have in his room but I didn't have a very good picture of it.


This month I even took a video. Please excuse my appearance.


He likes to pound on pretty much anything. Another big one is windows. He loves outside!

He also loves to play the piano. See how cute :)

My Gourmet Chef

Since I'm now a non-working parent I of course make most the meals around here these days. But Hot Cup is an excellent chef and his talent and passion for making yummy things has thankfully not been completely abandoned.

I'm generally too consumed with enjoying the food to bother with a camera. But I have taken a couple of pictures.

Does this Bracciole and Risotto not look incredible? It was so delicious!


And here is one of his Puff Pastries. He makes them with different fillings; this one has nutella. Yum!


He often makes nice drinks for us - non-alcoholic versions of drinks from the book Zero-Proof Cocktails. (A gift to us from his sister. Thanks Wiggles :) Here are a couple we've enjoyed.

Kira Rosso (a non-alcoholic Kir)


Blushing Virgin (a non-alcoholic Blushing Lady)


Thanks babe for being so awesome in the kitchen <3

Watching Baby Einstein

He loves watching My First Signs. See him smile when it starts. He's always got a little smile for the catepillar and a little bigger one for when Marlee Matlin first comes on.

Happy Halloween!

6 Months!

15 lbs 2.4 oz
28 inches

Our little baby is getting so grown up! He's a natural at turning over now and does it all the time. He's also mastered the pacifier. He likes to play with it and he puts it so that he's got both the nipple and the bottom of the sheild in his mouth. He'll leave it like that for a while or go back and forth between that and having it in correctly. He switches to having it in correctly hands-free. And sometimes he does it all while talking non-stop. So cute!



He loves when he's held so that he can stand. He also likes to sit and is getting good at it, although I still use a boppy or something to support him. And when he gets tired of sitting he just leans back or to the side or rolls over to his belly.

Here is a video of when he learned that he cannot have tummy time on a verticle surface.



He loves going for walks. Everyday that weather permits we go for about 30-50 minutes and he just sits peacefully in the stroller the whole time. He looks around and will occasionally talk quietly to himself. Can I say it again? My baby is so cute!!


I put a big mirror up against the wall in his bedroom and occasionally we play in front of it. He has a great time there, he loves looking at himself and his toys in the mirror.


He's very interested in his seatbelts. In his car seat, stroller, bouncy seat, and high chair. Playing with them can keep him entertained for quite a while sometimes.


Speaking of the highchair, he hated it the first time we tried to put him in it. So he had his first bowl of rice cereal while sitting on my lap. But now he loves his highchair because it means he gets yummy food. Our little boy loves to eat from a spoon!


This is a video of the first time that he ate from a spoon. Look at his cute little tongue go :)

Turning Over

He's been able to turn over from his tummy to his back for a couple months. And this week he's been turning from his back to his tummy too! He did for the first time on Monday evening. And Tuesday morning it looked like he was going to again so I recorded it. It took about 3 minutes but this is just the last minute. Monday evening it just took a few tries.

Beach Trip 2011

Isn't this the cutest beach baby you've ever seen??


We've been back from the beach three weeks already; it felt faster than ever this year, but we had a wonderful time!


A trip to the beach isn't complete without kiting and beach games :)


It was fun to have my cousin's family there too this year. They have three adorable little boys. See how the oldest is comforting the youngest? Too cute.


Our little boy wasn't denied attention from anyone and quite enjoyed it.


Here's our little family. We're getting his baby foot imprint to make a mold with Plaster of Paris (Thanks Tara! :)


He was curious about the ocean at first. But it was completely my fault that he got upset. Luckily he's forgotten all about it and hopefully he can rediscover it next summer.