The Many Faces of Blake

Adventures in eating

These are pictures of Blake's first try with solids. He's eating rice cereal and did really well on his first take with it! This was done on July 4th.


Proud Mommy and Daddy with a messy Blake.


Most of the food ended up on his face instead of in his mouth but that's the fun part!



Yum!

Hey Mikey, he likes it!

Daddy helping out with breakfast.

I was planning on putting a video here but its taking way too long to upload. Does it have to take ALL DAY?? Seriously! I've seen people use vimeo I'm wondering if that will upload my videos faster than blogger does. Anyone have any suggestions? Its highly irritating.

Mike and Pam's visit

For the fourth of July weekend, we had special visitors in town- Mike and Pam! They came all the way from California to visit with family and this was Mike's first time meeting his nephew. We were excited for Mike to finally meet Blake and to see how they interacted with one another. Mike loves babies and had been looking forward to getting his hands on Blake. We had a wonderful weekend with them and were sad to see them leave.

Pam and Blake

Blake was fascinated with Mike's goatee (some people have suggested James growing one but that won't happen anytime soon!)

Pam and Grandma did the "pass around" with Blake all weekend

Chillin' in the grass (I wanted James to get a shot of Blake actually on the grass since it was his first time but let's just say my husband is not the greatest photographer.)

Great-cousins, Grant and Giana having fun with Blake. Giana actually held Blake a few times (the first time she met him she was too scared to hold him) but she did comment on how gross his drool was. :)

Blake was upset for some reason when Mike was holding him and this is a shot of his "frowny face".

Looking up at Uncle Mike.

They look good with a baby! ::hint hint::

We were hanging out front and Blake was having fun in his exersaucer.

I love his face here.

Cuddles with Uncle Ghee.

6 months

I can't believe the title for this post is 6 months. My baby boy is 6 months old! Half of his first year of life is over and it happened in a flash. I know my last updated post on him was when he was 4 months so there is a lot to catch up with! I think I will just post a few pictures with this blog and try to do a bunch of other ones with more pics and video. I got a new camera for my birthday back in July and I LOVE it (Canon powershot SX200IS) but I am still confused on where it uploads onto my computer since it uses a different program than my old camera. So some of my pictures are missing or they don't come out as good of a quality with the old picture program, which makes me mad since this camera takes awesome pictures. Anyway... back to Blake.

Feeding: A week before he turned 5 months, I started him on solids. He was showing signs that he was ready to eat by being interested in our food and acting hungry after nursing. He also went through a growth spurt and I felt that if he had some additional food, it would help to give him what he needs plus I was just excited to try it! He loves everything he has had which is apples, bananas, pears, peaches, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, and peas. He has never given a funny reaction to any of the foods he has tried. He just takes a bite and goes for the next one! (All you kids were good eaters!) He has gotten to the point where he opens his mouth just waiting for the next spoonful which I find amusing. In addition to his solids which he eats 3 times a day, he nurses 4 times a day now which is so much easier than a 3 hour time frame. My goal is to nurse him through his first year and the first six months so far have been great. The first 3 months were rough but after we both got the hang of it, it has been so easy and cheap! Probably in the next month or two, we'll introduce the sippy cup for water and juice.

Sleeping: Since we just started his new 4 hour feeding schedule a week ago, its been difficult to figure out his naps. He takes one in the morning and afternoon and sometimes early evening but the length varies. He needs to sleep a little bit more during the day but I think at this point he is so much more aware of his surroundings and very active that its hard for him to stay down for long! He is just raring to go until he gets fussy for lack of sleep. :) But at least nighttime sleep is great. He sleeps 10-12 hours a night and has been doing that since around 4 months old. Thankfully, James and I have rarely had a night where we felt like we were up all night with him. That has happened maybe 4 times since he has been born. As a newborn, he was up twice a night for feedings which is normal and then by 8-10 weeks he was up only once or so. Then he quickly went from 7-8 hours of full sleep to 10-12 hours. So his nighttime sleep is great.

Physically: He now weighs 17 lbs 10 oz and is 26 1/2 inches long (both are in the 53rd percentile). He has been able to roll over from stomach to back since 4 1/2 months and now rolls from back to stomach as well. He is sitting independantly and has even started crawling a bit! At five months he got his knees underneath him and was trying to work it out. He really only succeded in moving backwards but now he can scoot himself forward and turn himself all around. He's not totally on-knees crawling yet but I'm sure its only a matter of time! He is also into grabbing pretty much anything he sees which means boundaries and the word "no" will become commonplace around here. Gone are the days when he used to just lay down peacefully and watch his surroundings. My baby is growing!!

Personality: Its very interesting to see what shows through as his personality. He is not a big "talker" instead he loves to make grunting and growling noises and loves making razzing sounds. He can make a "mmh" sound and when I tell him to try and say "mama", he'll just look up at me and smile as if to say "you're crazy lady!". I love seeing him fully recognize James and me. Whenever he sees James, he gives a great big smile and loves to try and get his attention. He'll make silly faces and duck his head and move all around until James will look over at him. He giggles and gets so excited whenever we go get him from his crib so that makes mornings so much fun to see his smiling little face looking up at us! He also seems to be more of an observer and thinker. He likes watching his surroundings without giving much reaction. You can tell he is processing what is going on. Also when he is tired, he just zones out and gives a blank stare. But when you can get him to smile its the greatest thing as it lights up his whole face and shows off his cute dimple. Obviously I am so in love with my baby boy and could go on and on about him but I'll spare you the pain. :)

More pictures and maybe video to follow. (Hopefully.)