8 months!!

Two thirds of the first year - done! Check! Four more months and we'll have a one year old! It's amazing! London has been a busy boy this month! He's figured out the whole crawling thing (although he "army crawls" for the most part and has yet to figure out that his knees are good for something) and gets around with significant speed. The baby gates are up and the days of laying him down on a blanket with a few toys to keep him happy are gone! He's into everything he can reach and if he can't reach it he wants it anyway. A little separation anxiety has started to kick in and we can't leave the room for more than 15 seconds before a little voice starts checking on us to see where we went. The breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus have expanded and finger foods are present at every meal. It's been a busy month to say the least!

In the last two and a half months he's eaten sweet potatoes, butternut squash, broccoli, green beans, peas, white potatoes, spinach, apricots, peaches, pears, apples, blueberries, bananas, avocado, carrots, cauliflower, watermelon, chicken, baby rice, baby oatmeal, and toast. I think that's it. I spent Monday afternoon in the kitchen cooking up some chicken meals and a lentil dish. We're moving into "meal" territory - not just a couple of cubes of fruits or veggies, but recipes that smell yummy and taste delicious (if you can get past the "pureed to a pulp" look and texture, which I did when I licked the spoon after filling my ice cube trays! Pretty darn tasty stuff!) The freezer is stocked. I'm hoping we have enough to get us through the puree phase.

So far there has been little that he doesn't like. Bananas were unpopular for a couple of weeks, but they're back on the "like" list, and spinach fell of the list and into the "dislike" column a couple of days ago. He tried chicken (cooked with onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, and chicken broth) for the first time yesterday. Judging by the way he inhaled his lunch both yesterday and again today, I think it's safe to say that chicken is a "like". Although, I told Pern today that if what emanated from London's diaper this afternoon was the result of chicken, there was a strong possibility that I will be raising him to be a vegetarian, at least until we're through the potty training phase. P. U.

Isn't he a doll?

First Trip to the Beach!

We spent a couple of days in Kitty Hawk, NC this week. One of my parents' best friends owns a townhouse down there and has always been very generous about letting us stay at her place when the need for a little beachy time strikes. This was London's first trip to the beach. Although he did not LOVE it, we did discover that he enjoys the pool, so we will be sure to make a few visits to our neighborhood pool this summer. I think the ocean was a little too large and noisy for his liking. He was very uncertain about the whole foot dunking thing and got really fussy and clingy whenever we tried to get his toes wet. So the two times that we actually went to the beach were short trips indeed! We spent more time at the house, the pool, and the car than anywhere else.

We took a day trip to the aquarium to see the sharks, worked on our napping skills, and Pern and I got caught up on the last season of "Dexter." All in all we dragged tons of baby stuff to the Outer Banks to do exactly what we could have done here at home. Except for the beach part. But it was worth it to get away for a couple of days, have a change of scenery, and make a few memories. The first year is so full of "firsts" after all!

These pictures are from our second attempt at "going to the beach!" We took some video footage of the first "going to the beach!" but who knows how long it will take to do something with that.

Is it me or does he look suspicious?

This was about as close as we got!

He wasn't a whole lot more confident with Daddy.

It's always nice when a random stranger offers to take your picture

and doesn't run off with your camera.

Recent happenings

Since he's been more mobile, London has discovered how much fun his play tunnel can be. He's not quite crawling through it yet, but he can drag himself around with the best of 'em!

He's such an incredibly happy baby!

Today was Father's Day... London gave Pern a book called "Me and My Daddy" that he made for him on Shutterfly. I don't know when he learned how to use the computer, but the book is very cute and well-written. Who knew?