Video: Oliver's New Airplane

Play Date

We spent the afternoon with Oliver's girlfriend Tessa today. We had lunch at Portage Bay Cafe, which is usually packed, but was pleasantly empty when we were there so we had more room to move around with all our baby gear. Oliver shared some of my curry salad, and ate some apples, pears and peaches. Afterward, we went next door to the second hand kids' store and let the babies play. They had fun, and we ended up taking home the airplane below.

Another airplane for Oliver and he's already big enough to push it with one foot! We do need Nick to fix the propeller when he gets home.

Oliver drives while Tessa hops in for a ride

Yummy lunch! They left quite a bit of food on the floor to prove it.

And Oliver banged on the piano!

Brrrrrr!

This is what Nick has been up to for the past six days. He's in the video briefly at 1:10 (just his shirt and hands) and again at the end at 2:11 (bundled up). Today their heating up the hanger so he won't be cold any longer. A few more days in Eglin, and then he's off to somewhere else for more testing.

Guitar lessons with daddy

Oliver can't wait for Nick to get home so he can play with his guitar!

Nick leavs for Florida

Nick left for Eglin, Florida at 3:30 this morning. He'll be gone for 12-14 days, with the last two being in San Antonio. I just got off the phone with him and he's still working, even though it's 11pm there. Apparently there is a lot of work to be done before they start the cold weather testing in the huge freezer tomorrow, so he will have had a 20 hour work day by the time he gets off. Yikes! He sounded exhausted but said the flight to Florida went well. It was his first time flying on the new 787 so he was excited about that.

It's also the first time he's been away from Oliver overnight, and we're sure going to miss him! We woke Oliver up at 3am so that he could say goodbye. This is how Oliver will greet Nick when he gets home:

In the mean time,

he'll be doing a lot of this

and this

and dreaming of this.

Happy Birthday Penny!

She turned 3 today!

Month 6 Video

Oliver is 6 months old!

Today is Oliver's first half birthday! We cannot believe he is already 6 months old! He is changing so fast and he's more fun each day. He laughs a lot, and we frequently get comments from strangers about what a happy baby he is. He has been sitting up for a while, and we think he'll be crawling soon. He's figured out how to move his legs while in crawl position, but not his arms yet. He's really good at standing too, as long as he's holding on to something.

At around 5 1/2 months he started signing "milk" to us, which is awesome! Now we just have to work on some more signs. Nick and I have a hard time remembering to sign to him. I can't wait until he can sign "potty" to us. We've also been going to baby story time at the library every Tuesday. He has fun interacting with all the other babies. His favorite books right now are "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you see?" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" And his favorite toy is Nick's guitar. He loves it! We'll get him his own in a few years when he's a bit older.

He's also been seeing a lot of his girlfriend Tessa (one of the babies in our PEPS group). Her mom and I trade off babysitting the babies so we can both get some extra work done. She and Tessa come over to our house once a week for a few hours, and Oliver and I go over to her house the next day.

Here are some pictures and a video will be coming soon!

Practicing yoga with daddy

Om

One of his favorite activities, licking the mirror!

Sitting on his potty

Tessa and Oliver

No, you can't have my toy!

Learning to play guitar

First time in the BOB without the car seat. The straps are still way too big.

Close up

Trying to crawl

Ready to lick something. He has to taste EVERYTHING!

Smile and drool :)

Food! and Baby Led Weaning

Since Oliver turns 6 months in two days, we finally are ready to start solids with him! Up until now he's only had breast milk, so this is going to be exciting for him. He's been grabbing at our food and drinks for a while now and we think he's ready to give it a try. Instead of starting him on rice cereal and mashed foods, we are giving him whole foods so that he can learn to feed himself.

It's called Baby Led Weaning, and it involves not giving purees but instead introducing your 6 month old child to finger foods from the start. By six months children are developmentally capable of feeding themselves, which means I don't have to make mush for him! You just hand them the food in a suitably-sized piece and if they like it they eat it and if they don't they won't.

That's the essence of Baby Led Weaning. No purees, no ice cube trays, no moulis, no food processor, no potato masher, no baby rice, no mixing everything with expressed breast milk or formula, no weird combinations of fruits and vegetables, no preparing everything weeks in advance... just you and your child, eating food that you enjoy with you and your family.

So far he's tried melons, broccoli, asparagus, sweet potato, banana, roasted chicken, and rosemary-sweet potato gluten free bread. His favorite so far seems to be the bread and broccoli. He'll hardly touch the banana or sweet potato. I think it may be the slimy texture. We also think he may be left handed, since he tends to feed himself with that hand. Broccoli lover and left handed - he definitely takes after Binny!

Here is a video of him playing with Nick's popcorn, drinking water, and eating broccoli for the first time.

Broccoli, not only is it my favorite, but it's the messiest too!

If I try hard enough, I think I can get the whole piece in my mouth.

Yum! I like this bread!

More Easter Pictures

We had brunch at our house with some friends. It was very nice!

Happy Easter!