Christmas Continued...

Pete, Lewis and I had a wonderful, quiet Christmas this year.

Here is our little man all dressed up. He suddenly looked like a little linebacker! Where did his neck go??

Our family of three before Christmas Eve mass. We ended up only hearing about the first 5 minutes before Lewis decided there were far too many people in the church and that he wanted out! We spent the rest of mass downstairs with all the other kiddos that got upset =)
Lewis got to open one present from Santa on Christmas morning.
He thought the ribbon and the wooden blocks were equally delicious.
Of course the real gift was spending time with loved ones. Here Lewis is getting loved up by Grandma Julie and Poppy.

Christmas - Part One

Grandma Jane and Papa John came down to visit last weekend and we celebrated Christmas a little bit early. We had a fabulous meal, presents and homemade candy!
Lewis loved spending time with his grandparents. Not really sure what to do with presents yet...
But he's certainly looking forward to more Christmas celebrating!

Six Months!

Good Lord, we have a 6 month old. A friend of mine was in town over thanksgiving with her brand new 2 week old and I can barely remember that stage! As you can see, Lewis continues to be ridiculously cute (that's an objective finding by the way).

He loves mirrors and will talk and laugh and reach for the other baby. For a few days, he would sit in the laundry basket and chatter away while Pete got ready for work. That ended pretty quickly once he figured out how to pull up to standing in the basket...
Over Thanksgiving, Lewis got to hang out with the kiddos of two of my best friends. Emily and Toby (the big 10 month old) live on the East side of Madison which is really not that far away - but still somehow with work and babies' schedules we don't see each other nearly enough. Meghan and her newest Mae (the little one) came up to visit from Ohio. It was pretty tough getting all 3 in one picture - all the others had someone sitting on or chewing on someone else!
Lewis continues to LOVE to eat! So far he has devoured everything we've given him from mangos to peas. The picture above is what happens when Daddy feeds him his prunes.
Just being cute... What you can't see are his two bottom teeth. He's a little drool machine that chews on anything and everything (and those teeth are sharp!)
This is a great age and I have to remember to enjoy it while it's here. Lewis can sit up really well now and can reach, grab and enjoy his toys. But since he can't crawl yet, I can set him down and still expect to find him where I leave him! That's soon going to be a thing of the past. He can already push himself backwards on his tummy and pivot all the way around. Over the last week or so he's been up rocking on his hands and knees whenever he's eyeing up a toy in front of him. He's also found that if he lunges forward from sitting he can get pretty far, and landing flat on his face doesn't really seem to faze him.

Lewis' First Snow

5 Months Old!

Lewis is 5 months old today!

He is such a happy, playful, ACTIVE boy!

He likes to be moving and doing all the time and doesn't always see the point of stopping for naps. I'm still amazed at how inquisitive and observant he is, especially in new situations or when he meets new people. He's also very deliberate when he's playing with his toys, patiently figuring them out. You can just see the gears working in his little brain!

In the last few weeks he started sitting up by himself, which gives him a whole new perspective on his toys. He's also started scooting on his tummy - but only backwards. This frustrates him to no end since he's usually try to get at the toys in front of him, and they keep moving farther and farther away.

I'm very happy that Lewis has started liking baths a bit more. We've been using the bucket style tub for "soaks" before bedtime. Now that he can play with his bath toys he's much more content. He learned a valuable lesson a couple nights ago -- he likes to "bob for toys" using his mouth rather than his hands to pick them up and when he got a mouth and nose full of water he was less then pleased. Since then he's been using his hands to stabilize the toys before bobbing.

Over the last few weeks, we've been blessed to have an old friend visit from Brazil. She teaches infant massage and took time out of her busy schedule to come work with Pete, Lewis and me. If I catch him at the right time of day, Lewis will lay quietly and contently as I give him a massage. With such an active little one, these quieter times are so sweet. Thanks Sarah!

Halloween 2010 - Pumpkins and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Lewis ended up with three costumes this year. Two were loaned to us by friends (thanks Julia and Mark) and the 3rd was actually what I bought him for his winter snowsuit.

We started off Halloween weekend by visiting Pete at the capital for the Supreme Court Halloween potluck.

On Sunday, we tried on our Tiger outfit. Super cute, but the tail made it hard to go in a carseat.

Finally, we tried the bear. Even though it's a 3-6 month suit (and my boy is not small...), it was gigantic. The result was super cute but not very practical.

So, in the end, he spent the real Halloween night as a pumpkin.

First Solids

Lewis has been very interested in food lately. He watches carefully when Pete or I are eating near him and looks like he could just grab the food right off our plates. Since he's sitting up well and seems to always be hungry, we decided to try some rice cereal. The first time he did pretty well - kept most in his mouth and took several bites before seeming to be done. We tried again this weekend and he devoured it! He was grabbing the spoon to help Pete get it to his mouth faster. I think this kid's going to be an eater! Here's the play-by-play of his first experience:

Getting started...

Eating nice and neatly...

Well not all of it stayed in my mouth...

Oh, just give me the bowl. I'll do it myself.

We were also lucky to have Grandma Jane visit recently and she helped me get some baby food ready for the coming weeks.

Four Months Old Today!

Lewis has changed so much over the past month!

When I tried to take the picture with his birthday sign this morning the differences were very apparent. Last month he was lying on his back and I was able just to put the sign on his tummy and shoot away. This morning, well, we'll just say there were alot of out-takes.

He's getting bigger, sometimes it seems like he grows an inch in a day. We have this cute pumpkin costume from a friend and I don't think it's going to fit by Halloween, so we took a few pictures in advance. Luckily my friend has twins and also gave us a tiger costume which is bigger!

One of Lewis' new favorites is sucking on his toes. Diaper changes have become more difficult because he doesn't want to let go! He seems to prefer sucking on the right foot, but holds on to lefty. In the last month he has also learned to roll both from tummy to back and back to tummy. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to put the two together to get moving yet!

One of my favorite things to watch is how well he does with independent play. As a stay-at-home mom, the fact that he can now play in his exersaucer or on a blanket with toys for 15 minutes is a lifesaver. He loves playing in his exersaucer outside while Pete rakes and he usually plays in it while I get dinner ready.

One of his other new things (thanks to Poppy) is watching cars. Poppy and Grandma like to take him down to one of the busier streets in our neighborhood and then they just sit and watch the cars go by. Pete's hoping this means that Lewis will love playing with match box cars as much as he did as a kid.

Mirrors

Hey that baby is pretty cute...

New Friends

Lewis is interacting with his toys more and more. He loves to hug and talk to his stuffed animals (and chew on them).

He continues to have a love of Elephants. I think perhaps it's related to the similarities between their ears and his Dad's...

He is so secure in his masculinity, that his favorite new toy is a bright pink doll that was mine as a baby.

Three Months Old Today!

Took this photo of Lewis today and it was so cute that I had to share!

Three Months

Our Lewis will be 3 Months old in 3 days!

As you can see from the photos, he's really starting to get a personality. He's dressed in a jungle themed outfit that was picked out by Daddy.

We've been amazed at how quickly he changes and learns new things. He rolled over for the first time a few nights ago -- he flipped from his back to his front in the middle of the night and was not too excited about it! He's talking up a storm and really starting to reach and grab (at toys, mommy's hair, our clothes...).

Now if he would just learn to nap in his crib...

We've got a cute kid...

He's very dapper...

Very serious and observant at times...

Very strong and learning new things each day...

And oh so loveable!