Christmas!!!

Our Christmas was great. Connor wasn't crazy about all of the excitement during the present opening part of the day, but he loves his new toys and had lots of fun with all of the family members around. Some of the highlights that he got are a glow worm, books, a baby signing kit that I'm sure I'll brag about later, a blanket from Grandma Joyce, and a ball with a wobbly monkey on top of it. It's hard to describe, but when you roll the ball the monkey stays on top and makes noises. He loves to bat at it and it will be fun to chase around when he starts crawling.

Here are a handful of Christmas morning pictures!

Finger food is a GO!

So I've been fighting with myself over finger food. He acts like he's ready, but hasn't hit the milestones you're supposed to look for. He's not sitting up yet and his pincher grasp needs a lot of improvement. But every time we eat in front of him he is frantic trying to get at whatever we have!

So I was in the grocery store hmmm'ing and haaa'ing over the different kinds of teething biscuts they have, and as I was walking away I decided to grab some of the Gerber Baby Biscuts. It was only like $3 for a box of 10 and they are individually wrapped, so I figured I could try it myself and if it didn't seem like a good idea then I'd put them away.

Well they are SUPER hard and just kind of melt away slowly, so after dinner I put him in his high chair and handed him one. He LOVED it! I mean he was sooo happy! So here are some pictures of his very first finger foods.

Ok, I NEED to get on this thing more!

I really need to start keeping up with this blog! Connor is officially 5 1/2 months old now, and I just can't figure out where the time went! He is SO big and so full of personality it's just amazing. He is rolling over like crazy lately and really wants to sit up. It's funny how milestones come. It's like nothing for weeks, and then all of a sudden, BAM! He's doing all sorts of new stuff! He also figured out how to play with the treehouse toy on his high chair, and that has made mealtimes a LOT more difficult!

I've been uploading movies to my YouTube account lately, and I'll be adding more today. I also started a new online store, which you can find Here. My stock is pretty limited so far, but it will be getting bigger as I go through the house and find stuff to sell. I doubt I have anything anyone here is interested in, but take a look anyway and pass it on if you think you know someone who might be interested! (Just in case anyone is wondering, every penny of everything I sell that belongs to Connor goes toward buying him bigger clothes and more advanced toys. I've had some people tell me it's tacky to sell his things, even if I spend the money on him. I told them to buy the stuff for me then.)

Anyway, here are some pictures!

This one was when we were waiting for the parade to start. We walked in it with my After School program! I don't have any pictures from the audience yet, but hopefully I'll be able to find a few! Our theme was Teddy Bear Parade and we handed out donated teddy bears to the kids in the crowd!

It's been a while!

So sorry for the lack of updates! Connor has been keeping us very busy! He's really getting the hang of this eating with a spoon thing, and mealtimes are a messy, fun filled, twice daily experience now.

Ok, so he doesn't look like he's having much fun in this picture, but his expression is priceless! Here's a better one.

This is butternut squash, made in my own little kitchen. Making baby food is surprisingly easy.

In a sadder turn of events, my beloved maternal grandma passed away on the 2nd of this month. She has been ill for a long time, but it was still very hard to see her go. We miss you Grandma.

So many firsts!

We've had so many firsts this week! First he laughed (we haven't had a repeat performance of that, but it's nice to know that they're coming!) and then Sunday night he found his feet! And Monday he started really grabbing for his toys! He's been trying to hold his bottle for a few weeks now, I guess he knows what's important in life! He's really having a blast in his excersaucer lately too. He's getting to be such a fun age!

A laugh!

Saturday night I was giving Connor his bath (we only pull out the tub every other day because his skin is so sensitive, so I was just wiping him down with a wet wash cloth) and he LAUGHED! Oh it was so great. He's done the thing where he smiles and makes noise at the same time, but this was a real "hahaha" laugh! Megan heard it from the kitchen and came running to see. It was awesome.

Helping Mommy

This is our new favorite game. On laundry day, Connor helps me fold his clothes! In other words, I take the laundry basket and dump it all on top of him. I need to bring my camera with me from the start next time, because he gets SO happy when I dump them out! He grabs them up and snuggles and just laughs and laughs.

We've hit a few fun times here lately. We're slowly introducing solid foods. I know a lot of people will gasp because the new thing is to delay solids until at least 4 months, but I like to listen to him more than I listen to "Them" on certain things. He is eating a 6 oz bottle every 2 hours and wanting more. He is watching us like crazy when we eat. So I tried some bananas with a bit of rice cereal and formula, and he ate it up like crazy! I don't have a great picture of that either, but that's because he is pretty much only in the mood for it in the morning when Chris is in bed and the girls are at school. But I'm working on it!

I already started making baby food, and it's fun! Of course, ask me again in a few months and it probably won't be, but Sara is really excited to learn so I think it will be a neat project for us to do together once a month or so. He's tried banana, avacado, and apple so far. He LOVES banana, apple is ok, and avacado gained me my very first look of death. He absolutely HATED it. But I've heard that with first foods you can often try again in a few weeks with different results, so I'm not giving up yet.