Picture of the Day: 12/30/11

Food, Glorious Food

Simon has been working hard the past month to keep his title of "the best eater". He got off to a great start with the sweet potato and has been pretty solidly plowing through anything we can send his way. For a while he had a rough time with the greens (broccoli, green beans and peas) but with the addition of the food mill to our culinary tools instead of just the food processor we tried peas again and he liked them way better (still with a carrot mixer).

Today we tried avocado for the first time and the little man loved it. He ate an entire half an avocado (just mashed with a fork).

After the jump is a little video of Simon showing us how delicious prunes are (with a guest appearance from Amy's hands). And I've for some reason also included a list of all the foods he's eaten to date and how he liked each one. Way too much detail, obviously I'm getting slap happy and should go to bed.

Christmas in Chicago

We had a lovely Christmas and Simon had a blast.  He wore a cute new reindeer outfit from his Aunty Lisa. Simon got a bunch of wonderful presents - toys and clothes and books, along with a food mill we can use to make his baby food and a wipe warmer so we don't freeze his poor bum with cold wet cloth wipes!  But his favorite present of all might have been the tissue and wrapping paper things were wrapped in (which we didn't let him eat). We did let him eat the "baby paper" that crunches like tissue paper but was cloth wrapped so it doesn't break away when soaked in drool.

After the jump are some (okay, a whole lot of) pictures.

Christmas Present Photo Shoot

This morning Jenn gave us a Christmas present from her and Simon: an amazing framed picture of Simon from a photo shoot they did last week at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

We love the picture and can't wait to hang it up and show it off.  As a bonus she also gave us a cd with some of the outtakes from that day, and those are all great too. (See those after the jump)

Thanks again for the fantastic present, Jenn!

Present Intro

Simon opened his first present today - from Jenn. He loved the ribbon though he didn't try to eat it, just played with it. Even with help he didn't quite understand the whole ripping of paper thing . He was very neat and a little surprised every time the paper ripped. When the present came out, it was the tissue paper that won the day. Again, no eating, just lots of crunching! The present was a rocker onsie with matching comfy pants with pockets - which I'm sure you'll see in a post soon!

6 Months Old

Our young man is six months old today. Man how time flies. We took a couple pictures special of his newest skill - in crawl position. There is a little rocking, but mostly when you put him on his hands and knees he just hangs out and checks out the world from the new vantage point

.

Broccoli!!!!

The Five Stages of Broccoli

Hard as it is to believe, Emily and I managed to create a picky eater: our little boy is not a fan of the broccoli.  Before each spoonful he gets excited because he's expecting more sweet potatoes, and then as soon as he tastes it he gets this worried and betrayed look.

Click through the jump to see Simon learning he lives in a world where broccoli exists...

The sweet potatoes won the battle!

Snow Fun

It snowed last night! The pretty light fluffy kind of snow. We piled up a little in front of Simon and he was enjoying it at first. Then he put his hand in the pile and sadness ensued. He gave us a betrayed look that said 'Did you _know_ this stuff was cold and wet!?!' A little bouncing and all was forgiven. Jenn kindly took a family photo too.

Garage is Done!

We are completely done!! Yay! The railings are in and the garage window came and siding is finished. Just in time for Chicago's first snow.

Teeth!

If you look closely you can see two tiny teeth at the bottom of Simon's mouth. Yay Teeth!

Tooth Hurty

It is amazing how much is constantly changing and how fast things happen!

Our little guy has quite the personality. As we guessed from his newborn attitude he is a pretty chill little guy. When he started fussing last week we were so surprised! But upon reflection really shouldn't have been. His pink, pink cheeks told us he was teething. What to do? Jenn to the rescue - suggesting different a gel to sooth his painful little gums. He hums when his teeth hurt him and for a couple weeks we had a cranky spell every once in a while until we gave him the gel. Again, cranky for Simon is sad face and humming with an escalation to angry face after a while.

It all paid off when we felt Mr Sharp Tooth - front left. Then two days later front right also appeared! No wonder he hurt so much. If you look very patiently you can see them through the drool and around the tongue. You can certainly feel them if you are willing to be a human chew toy. The only teething things he really likes are his pacifier, which he holds to the side to better chew, baby fingers, which are getting chapped from all the attention, and mom fingers. That last is my least favorite now that there is a tooth. When we get a good shot of the little things I'll post it.

We also finally made the leap this past weekend into cloth diapers. Boy was that first sweet potato diaper not sweet at all. But we are getting the hang of it. We are close to settled in, just need a couple things to get it all together.

He is learning and growing at an amazing rate. Can you believe it is only five and a half months. In that time he went from a little hungry lump baby to a tiny person who is figuring out how to impact the world. Here is a clip of him trying to work the marble toy. (Side note: Look at how well he is sitting now! He can't sit himself up, but if you sit him up he hangs out there for a long time.)

I was going to do another of him playing with the marble toy, but he got distracted by the pacifier. Sometimes he can put it in himself - you look over and he's just happily sucking away! Other times there is some challenge in getting it in!

All bundled up

Standing!

Picture of the Day: 12/3/11

Simon went for a long walk in the stroller with his Grandma Patty and had the best time! Look at that smile!

Picture of the Day: 12/1/11