Basement, Big Firsts, Babies

Grandpa and William have fun after a hard day of work!

We continue to work on the basement. John and Grandpa Kevin have spent all day downstairs working with the exception of a lunch break. We have all of the ceiling drywalled with the exception of a closet. The bedroom is completely done as well. We are so happy to be moving forward with this project we started almost a year ago. The Grandparents McGarry will be here for one more day to help us make a dent in our drywalling and John has tomorrow off as well to work. Some vacation, huh?

The last piece of drywall on the ceiling in the family room

The last piece of drywall to go up in the bedroom


The first bathroom drywall pieces go up

In William's world, we found his 3rd tooth poked through yesterday and the 4th tooth today. The new teeth are the two upper front teeth. If you put your fingers in William's mouth, he'll be happy to show you how new and sharp they are. It even looks like he bit his tongue for the first time by the looks of the big red mark across it. Here are some picture - please ignore the chunks of rice cereal in his nose.

All of William's teeth


The new ones!

Even though he is getting teeth, it doesn't mean we are slowing things down on the solid food front. Today we introduced our first fruit : Bananas. William ate them without any problems and even said "Mmmmmm..." after one of his bites.

The first bananas

The first bites. He sure loves Diet Coke!

Bananas about bananas!

Another big first for William happened today. William successfully pushed himself up to sitting from his tummy without any help at all! He is a picture of him after he did it for the first time. Doesn't look like anything special, but it is to us! After that first time, he did it again 6-7 more times throughout the day! What a big boy!

Sitting up by myself if pretty neat!

And last, here is a picture of William's newest cousins! Alexander is on the left and Elena is on the right. Aren't they beautiful? We think so!

Babies, Beans, Basement

Wow! We have been busy! Hold on, I have a lot to tell you! The biggest and most important news first: William has new cousins! William would like to welcome Alexander Richard and Elena Marie! They were born today just before 5pm. John was able to talk with Mike and got a great report! Both mom and babies are doing well. Alexander was 5 lbs. 3 ozs and Elena was 6 lbs. 3 ozs. I'm sure pictures will follow shortly (as well as corrections if I made any mistakes). I will post pictures as soon as I have permission from the parents! William can't wait to meet them and start making trouble together. CONGRATULATIONS Aunt Tien and Uncle Mike! Welcome Alexander and Elena!

It's all downhill from here folks. That was the most exciting part of the post, and now it is over. Feel free to skim to the rest of the post for the highlights. I haven't posted much in the last few days for a good reason. We have been running around here the last few days trying to spruce the place up for some very important people to come and visit! On Saturday, Great Grandma and Grandpa McGarry came with Don and Lola to visit our house for the first time! All the way from North Dakota! We enjoyed their visit very much. We didn't take any pictures (not sure why?), but we had a great time seeing everyone. Then, we went with everyone to have lunch with cousin (not really my cousin, but we'll call here that because it is less complicated) Jaime at her house! We have been living in the same town as Jaime for almost 5 years now and haven't ever gotten together. We had wonderful raviolis with everyone for lunch. It was great to see everyone together and visit!

Saturday afternoon, we were joined by Mr Kaushik to assist John with moving our monumental pile of drywall from the garage to the basement in prepration for the visit of the Grandparents McGarry. They carried lots and lots of drywall. Mr Kaushik arrived at 4pm and didn't leave until almost 9pm. That was a LOT of drywall! THANK YOU for your help!!! I think we would still be moving drywall if it wasn't for his help.

The finished piles of drywall. There are piles behind them, in front of them and some behind the other piles as well!

While John was moving drywall, I fed William his last step one vegetable :green beans. After our last doctor appointment, I got the feeling we needed to step up the introduction of our veggies to move on the fruits. I was dreading the reaction to green beans after our experience with peas. All my worry was for nothing! William ate them up without even making a face! The pictures didn't turn out so great because I was trying to feed him AND take the pictures at the same time. Baby food and cameras are not a good combination, so I had to be careful with the camera and careful to hit his mouth! I sure am a talented woman! Next week we can finally start introducing some fruits - should be exciting (oh NO! I can't believe I just wrote that. Look at what our lives have become...the main event we are looking forward to next week is watching our son experience his first taste of a mashed up, strained banana. We wouldn't have it any other way - and I really am excited!)

Before: All clean and impatiently waiting


The green beans

One of the first bites

Q: Green bean reaction or camera reaction? A: Camera


After cereal, green beans and sweet potatoes. I had the sweet potatoes waiting in the wings in case we had a horrible green beans reaction.

And we continue on! Saturday night, the Grandparents McGarry arrived for a visit. They came mostly to see William and also to help us hang the 48979754654654651 pieces of drywall in our basement. Oh yeah, and to see us (the parents also). We played a cutthroat game of Phase 10 upon their arrival and admired the piles of drywall in the basement. Today, we spent the day drywalling (is that a verb? Someone help me!) in the basement. John and Grandpa Kevin did most of the physical work and Grandma watched William and helped out too. I mostly got in the way and stubbed my toes. Here are some early pictures of the progress we made today.

The first sheet of drywall

Mudd supervises the measuring and cutting of the drywall

Grandma Kim feeds William his morning cereal (and sweet potatoes). Yes, he is also playing with a can of Diet Coke. Don't ask, it's a long, boring story.


More drywall being hung



Grandpa and Grandma also brought William a SANDBOX! from Aunt Kaye! How fun!

William, AKA "Wild Bill", hangs out with Grandpa Kevin before dinner tonight. Wild Bill loves his grandpa (and grandma), especially his glasses! Can you believe we went out for dinner and they are back in the basement working again?

Happy Half Birthday!

Dear William,

It is hard to believe you have been here with us for half of a year. You have gone from being a helpless baby who could barely lift its head up to a fearless crawler. You needed help to do everything when you first came home - you still need help, but you are learning how to get around and entertain yourself. You have grown a lot in six months. You came into this world at 8 pounds 4 ounces and today you were almost 21 pounds. When you were born, you measured 21 inches long and now you are 28.5 inches long. We can't believe how many clothes you have outgrown. The clothes marked "6 Months" have been packed away for a long time. You are now wearing clothes marked for 12-18 Months. When you were tiny, you could only drink milk. Now you are eating cereal and lots of different kinds of vegetables. We'll see if you still like those in another few years.

Every day you practice and get stronger (and more determined to get what you want). We are so proud of all the new things you are learning. In the last week you decided you are very strong. You have just started pulling yourself up from your tummy onto things around the house. You are starting to crawl with your belly off of the ground - it is only a few steps before you get tired and go back to belly crawling, but it is amazing to see the progress you are making. We tried to take some pictures of you today and it was hard work. Most of the pictures are of you crawling out of the frame and investigating the world around you.

You are teaching us things too. One of the things we are learning is how to keep the multicolored baby food out of your nose. You are learning to eat the food, we are learning to feed it to you. As you have become stronger and faster, we are learning about keeping you safe from yourself. You think you can fly or at least bounce off of every surface. This last week, you learned that you have private parts during a VERY poopy diaper. We have learned that it is a good idea to keep the hands out of the way when there is poop involved.

You have made so many changes in our lives. You have given us new names : Mama and Dada (although you haven't used them out loud) and we are working hard to fill those shoes for you. Your giggles are infectious and make us laugh too. Your singing wakes us up in the morning - I can't remember the last time you woke up crying. We still are working on how to eat together as a family without plates flying off the table and how to get things done around the house. Every day is a new opportunity to learn together.

We both still have a lot to learn. We are hoping if we wrote something down today, we would be able to remember how precious you are today. Exactly as you are today. Here are some of the pictures we took together today. You weren't very cooperative, but you still make our hearts melt.

Happy 6 Months! We love you,

Mom and Dad

NOW!

Someone finally took pity on me and sent a picture from last weeks play date! L-R: Tate, William, Calvin

We're still working on that tooth. And crawling. And now pulling ourselves up. And we are so frustrated with not being able to do everything NOW! IMMEDIATELY! I'm not sure which of the things William is working on is making his attitude a little bit crummy. I just know that he is frustrated and crabby. All in all, he is a pretty tolerant kiddo. Things haven't been too bad, but he is not his usual happy self. I guess with the little fever he is running from the teeth and not being able to do what he wants NOW is just making him a little more clingy than usual. Still a good baby though. We're looking forward to celebrating his half birthday tomorrow. Cake anyone? Actually, William doesn't get cake. He gets his 6 month shots - great gift, huh? Don't you wish I was YOUR mom? Look for our 6 month photo shoot tomorrow! (or maybe Friday if he won't let me put him down).

Goodnight,
The Heidts

William pulling him self up from his belly onto his toy today. He is STRONG! Still working on getting either pictures/video of him trying out the crawling action with his belly off the ground.

Way to go Grandma , Carrots and Teeth

You just never know! Three posts in one day after a long time without any! We just found out that Grandma got a new job! Way to go! You're (really) the boss! We can't wait to see you and celebrate this weekend. We also would like to wish a very happy birthday to Aunt Megan tomorrow as she turns older.

William had an okay day. He was a little testy this morning which turned into crabby this afternoon. When he finally let us peek into his mouth this afternoon, John spotted and then felt tooth #3 and maybe #4. One or more of the top ones will be making its appearance soon! Enjoy the gummy pictures because they won't last a lot longer.

I probably wouldn't have started a new food today if I had realized the tooth was getting that close, but I didn't. So, today we started carrots! William did a really good job with them and gobbled them up. He did make some funny faces, but he kept opening his mouth up again and again.

Carrots

Can you see where I sneezed cereal on my tray?

Mmmmm....I like to try and bite the spoon. Then I can grab it and make it all sticky....

Hey! I'm trying to eat here!

Thank you, thank you very much. The show is now over.

UPdate

Sorry...it was a long week followed by our Harry Potter readathon. All the way back on Thursday, William performed his first flight attempt by launching himself off of our bed and landing on the floor. On his head. The verdict: He is okay, but he cannot fly. Later Thursday, we met up with another teacher from WMS and her son who is a week younger than William. We were joined by another friend and her baby who was born between the two other boys. All the boys were born within a week of each other. I didn't get any pictures of the three of them (Hey Sundi, did you get one?), but I did get this cute one of two of the three.

William sucks (bites) Tate's fingers. Calvin (sp?) is eating behind them on the couch.


Tate still hasn't found those teeth...or he has a high pain tolerance!

Friday was drywall delivery day. As this was not my week (speeding tickets, son cannot fly episode, clogged ductwork, etc), the drywall delivery did not go according to plan either. When purchased, the building materials representivie asked us if we would like the drywall delivered in the morning of afternoon. We selected "afternoon". So, it was a big surprise when the delivery people called at 6:40 AM to tell me they were on their way. After lots of blurry, half asleep phone calls, I was able to argue enough to turn the truck around until 10:30 AM. Still not afternoon, but better.

Our current NO car garage.

Saturday was full of waiting for our last Harry Potter book. We wandered around and John worked on the basement a little bit. It was all a lame attempt to appear busy until the book was delivered. Then we read the book following our old rules: No one gets to read the book unless we are both there reading. We even had the willpower and desire to attend Winefest 2007 at another teacher's house Saturday night and take a hike on Sunday morning with some friends. And we finished reading it late, late last night.

Hiking on Sunday! William and John are on the far left.


Wild animal footprints along the trail...could it be duck?


William helps Daddy break in his new backpack

Snoozing and hiking

William has been making a lot of progress lately. The cereal and vegetable feedings have been going better and better. Even the peas are better. I still don't think he loves them, but he no longer cries through them. We have two vegetables left before we can start the fruits. He also is doing a lot more of pulling up onto his hands and knees. Once he gets there, he doesn't seem to know what to do with himself and usually goes back down to his belly to crawl off somewhere else to make his trouble. Standing is another favorite. Bouncing or not bouncing, it doesn't make any difference - he likes to be upright.

Naptime isn't just for sleeping! William must have been practicing pulling himself to his knees in his crib.


Standing up with the help of the gate. Don't look too closely or you will see the sweet potatoes up his nose!

Standing and "kissing" daddy through the gate

Practicing standing by holding the gate and looking at daddy!

Mommy and William behind the gate...I thought I was making the same kind of face as his. Turns out not.