Friday, July 4, 2008

Seven Months Old. Incredible. Time does fly!


June 17, 2008
Seven months seven months seven months! It's not really a landmark age, but we sure do love it around here. It comes with lots and lots of traveling rolling, sitting up pretty well (although he needs a spotter because he launches himself over when he is ready to go!) and more spit bubbles and FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY the first tooth. It's here. Well, it's through. It's not all the way up. And yeah, it's crooked. Heh. Douglas and I will start setting aside orthodontic money now, I guess.

Here's my photoshoot of the day and a video with Samui... the most patient cat ever!

I r 7 monthz. I haz banana.



I am so big. How's this smile, mami?


Who invited you!? Why are you always here?!


Video with Samui.

An Assortment.

Just a little assortment of odds and ends.

Aborted Nap. Someone would NOT nap. I watched him on the Video Monitor but it wasn't revealing the real reason he couldn't sleep. It was the disco. The disco was keeping him awake.

Seriously. I have no idea how he did this. May 29, 2008.


Caught on video. Signing "Kitty Kitty Gatito".
And I honestly think that he hasn't done it since then. Ha. Of course. June 3, 2008.


Busted. Licking the playmat. June 24, 2008


Working my leg muscles on the soother. June 24, 2008


June 14, 2008. My first ride in the park swing. Wicker Park, Chicago.

Professional Photos: Six Months Old

So, our photographer friend Rachael came to see us for Six Months Photos. I think you will agree, we got some wonderful shots of our baby here. I love them so much. This was such a good investment. We will treasure these photos forever.

Check them out...

Mami, am I in here?


You drew the mustache on me, too!? Can I divorce my parents?!


Look at me. Sitting on the sofa!




Hey ladies. Wanna hang out on my playmat?


Woah. Flirt much?


Professional Baby.


Awwww.....


Mami, it's nap time. I am really sleepy and teary-eyed.

I eat more than milk now! Woot.

May 28th. First Real Food Day.

Yeehaw. Having hit the six month mark and getting the go-ahead from our pediatrician, we started Real Food. Or Solids in the world of baby lingo. We started with a lovely concoction of Mommy Milk and Rice Cereal made super-duper thin and watery. A straw would have worked better than the spoon. But since he hadn't even tried a spoon before... it was worth starting slow.

We have quickly moved to baby oatmeal because rice cereal is, uh, binding. And apparently oatmeal is too. So we make it with prune juice now. I am making all his food. Which basically is about as simple as 1-2-3. Shop, steam or boil, puree, freeze in ice cube tray. Then just transfer to ziploc baggies and take the ones out I need for the next day the night before. Super duper easy and since buying organic can be a pretty penny it does help to be able to make my own. Do you know how many servings a single large sweet potato makes?! A LOT. We are still working on the same one.

So far at a month into eating real food with a spoon Joaquin has had applesauce, pearsauce, sweet potato, carrots, peas and acorn squash. He loves everything! So far he's only having a single meal of Real Food a day because it's mostly practice right now since he still is getting his nutrition from milk. But he's got it down pat.... He likes to play and does spit sometimes, but really he likes eating enough to just keep at it until All Done!

Here are some photos and a video of the very first bite of food he had. Enjoy! He did.






Video of First Real Foods.

Turning six months old in TEXAS!

On May 15th, 2008, Joaquin took his first airplane trip. And it was to Texas to see his great grandparents, great aunts and uncles and go to a family reunion. On top of all of that he turned six months old and went to the beach for the first time the same day. Talk about packing a lot into 4 days!

First of all, I need to brag on my baby for a second. He was amazing!! What a happy little guy. Just put out a pallet of blankets on the floor, scatter some toys around and put a bunch of people in a circle around the room and he is happy as a lark, er, parrot, for a few hours. He was definitely working the Professional Baby all weekend. I was beyond impressed with him. Not only that, we had just given up the swing for naps the week before and he was able to sleep in his playpen that we bought for night and naps almost without a single fuss. He did refuse a few naps, but he was a pro enough to know if you Nap Strike you have to be a happy baby so no one tries to put you back in the baby jail to sleep again. He's clever. I think he gets this from his papi.

We spent some good time with Great Ma and Great Pa in Houston and Great Aunt Deb. Here are the photos from our Houston time.

Everyone together enjoying the air conditioning.



Four Generations.



On Saturday we traveled down south for the reunion, the beach and more great-relatives. Joaquin was a big fan of watching the seagulls at the beach. But you know, I still think he thinks they are flying Siamese Cats.

These are at the reunion at the Rockport Beach. We basically put our suits on for the photos and then changed back. But hey, they turned out great. He got baywater on his feet and even 2 months later I still sniff them and saw Ewwwww, those smell like shrimp!










Quality time in Aransas included sitting in the rocking chair with Great Grandma and chewing on his giraffe.






On the way back to Houston we stopped at Woodsboro to visit Ronald and Patsy, the new baby barn kittens and a good photo op in front of a great handpainted Texas fence. Perfect!!

Joaquin took a big nap right on Patsy's shoulder. Those are very, very rare from him. But he found a great snuggle partner and just took supreme advantage. Smart fellow.





And finally... since we weren't at home with the big guacamaya puppet, we had to use the little one and great grandma's chair. I think it worked.

SIX MONTHS OLD TODAY!

I am so behind. We owe everyone a LOT of posts. Let's start with Mother's Day!

EEEE-Yikes! How has it been two months since I have posted to the blog!? What in the world have we been doing. Uh. Well, enjoying decent weather for one. Going outside without many many layers. Driving with the windows down. Putting on sunblock. Those kinds of things.

So let's start back in time a couple of months and I will try and get as up to date as I can. And yes. I am posting on the evening of July 4th ... hope hope hoping that the racket outside from the illegal fireworks won't wake Joaquin up. It sounds like Beirut around here.

Mother's Day. It may be my new favorite holiday. (It's definitely topping July 4th. Heh.) We had a great day as a family together. Starting with opening some very sweet presents that included a dogtag style "locket" that I wear with a photo of my baby boy. And of course he is obsessed with it and loves to yank on it and play with it. So we only wear it out and about. It's a great built-in toy. After I wear it one day he spends the next day looking for it. Let's talk about Object Permanence shall we? :-) Douglas also got me a very sweet book called I'll Love You Forever. How in the world I am expected to read that to Joaquin and not bawl each time is beyond me. He also got me an adult book, Barbara Walters' autobiography.

We went for brunch at Gioco. A restaurant we hadn't been to before but definitely will return to. It's nice to be able to make reservations for brunch because waiting on a table often eats up the "good" baby time in the infant carrier.

Here are photos from our day.










Game over! Let's GO!