Scootin'

A few nights ago, Neddie was playing with R and discovered that the crinkly dog treats bag was irresistible to the little guy. Notice the Star Wars theme music in the background. My boys are too funny :)

Happy Birthday, Papa :)

Today was Neddie's birthday! To celebrate, we went off on our FIRST ADULT EXCURSION since the baby was born. It's been almost seven months since Ned and I did anything together without the baby. My mom came to babysit while we went to Ocean Beach, one of our favorite neighborhoods. We scoped out some record stores, antique stores and then had some awesome fish tacos. It was just a few hours, but really nice to hang out together sans R. (Of course we missed our little man!)

I got Neddie the new Wanda Jackson/Jack White album, which we listened to a bit this morning. R has been showing less signs of teething pain, so the last few days have been much easier with him which has been really nice. He has been laughing so much!

Also, today he kinda waved "bye bye" to Grammy. He put his little arm out to mimic us, so I'd bet a real wave is not too far away - how cool s that?!

Finally, I was doing some light cleaning in my office and came across a set of Mickey Mouse ears Ned and I bought for Lucky when he was a puppy. (Haha! We are insane!) Of course, him being a dog, he never had much cause to wear them, but they fit Rutherford just fine!

Teething Trouble

Oy vey. Rutherford has being busting chops lately! We think he's teething - although I am beginning to learn that "teething" is not necessarily something that happens with any great predictability, nor something that is just limited to a tooth spontaneously erupting along his gums. It's sort of the generic catch-all term for the fussiness, sleeplessness, drooliness, rashiness period that started somewhere about six months and continues for an indeterminate amount of time. (Two weeks?! Three months?! Forever?!)

Necessity being the mother of invention, we have found a few things that seem to have helped. The big one is the mesh teether. It's basically a wee mesh bag with a baby-friendly handle that we can whack frozen fruits into that he can suck and gum on without fear of choking. He loves it! He's been having honeydew, cantaloupe and watermelon in it and it'll keep him busy for about ten minutes or so. At least enough time to pick up the kitchen or grab a snack :)

In any event, he did sleep much better last night and had a couple of great naps today, so maybe we'll have a nice teething break. Poor little guy!

When he has a fussy day, I do get that magic time during his naps where I hold him, rock him, tell him that's he's my beautiful baby boy and he looks like this:
Makes everything else disappear.

And Now... Avocado

So the squash hasn't been a big hit. R makes these gagging sounds and a yucky face on the subsequent attempts, so I decided to move on. On Friday we picked up our first CSA box from the Farmer's Market (mixed greens, spinach, onion, garlic, eggs, broccoli, oranges and arugula!) and I also found some ripe, ready-to-go avocados. Supposedly they're a great first food.

Last night I mashed some up and tried them out - definitely more interested than he was in the squash. He had some more early this afternoon for lunch, too. The best part is there's like zero prep - just chop it in half, mash and serve. Yay!

In other Rutherford news, he is a scooting machine. Can't leave him for a second before he's halfway across the room trying ram his head into furniture. We need a leash!

Squash!

Today Rutherford tried squash for the first time! We bought an organic butternut and I baked it, then threw it in the food processor:
Added a little breastmilk and it was baby food consistency in no time. R sat, patiently waiting in his new booster seat. He's been having oatmeal a couple times a day and is learning quickly that the chair means food is coming :)

Related, I now understand bibs. He gets his baby food everywhere! He also loves to grab the spoon and try to feed himself... which means his hands are always a sticky mess at the end. :)

The first taste of squash had him looking a little weirded out, lol:


He got over the initial shock and although he didn't seem to LOVE it, he certainly kept eating it, so I'll call that a win. I made enough for his next few meals. I mixed it with some oatmeal so he'd have a familiar taste along with the newbie. He seemed happy enough:


First foray into homemade baby food a success - woohoo! I'll probably try avocados or sweet potatoes next.

Tags

Just something I've noticed - Rutherford LOVES tags. Like, the tags on a pillow, or a blanket, or a shirt or some of his toys. He's transfixed by them, noms on them and likes to run his little fingers around them. Too awesome.

Happy Half Birthday

Today our little guy turns six months! Definitely hard to believe it's been a half a year since he was born. We celebrated with a trip to the park - it's been ridiculously beautiful here, clear and sunny and warm. Rutherford hung out on his blanket with Sophie the giraffe and had a great time watching all the bigger kids run around on their scooters, bikes and play on the swingsets.

He's just about old enough to play in the diaper swing but it was pretty crowded today so we'll try this week. I think he'll love it!

Ned and I have been on a super organization kick at the house that's going really well. Early spring cleaning! Going to work some more on the garage, we've made some huge strides in the past few days decluttering our space. Now with all of the baby stuff everywhere, we really don't have room for extra junk :)

Tonight we'll celebrate R some more with some oatmeal - woohoo. This week I'll be making him some squash, too. Or yams. We'll see. Hopefully we enjoys them!