Oooooo-Ah

The word of the day Ooooooo-ah. To be stated with expression of discovery similiar to "Ah yes, so that is how it works."

Examples of use:

1. I opened the freezer to see if there was anything more interesting in it than 30 seconds before. William stuck his head in, looked around and said "Oooooo-Ah."

2. While changing William's diaper, I set the dirty diaper to one side and set to the task of trying to button up his shorts as he rolled over and over. Somehow, he managed to get ahold of the (wet) diaper, he swung it around towards me so it opened up. He peered inside and commented "Ooooo-Ah"

3. While William was napping, I snacked upon pretzels while paying some bills at the computer. I set them on the floor when I heard William wake up from his nap. I brought William back into the computer room to finish up what I was doing. Then, I went back to his room to grab some toys so he wouldn't try to pull up on the fan or chew on the fan cord. While in his room grabbing 2 toys, I heard a delighted "OOooooOO-Ah!" coming from the computer room and the sound of the plastic pretzel bag rustling. I ran at the speed of light in time to just catch the bag from being totally tipped upside down.

4. I was getting ready for the day in the bathroom. William was on the floor, playing with one of his books...until he wasn't anymore and was pulling himself up on the small trashcan (full). He pulled himself up to his knees and peeked over the top. As he peeked, he tipped the trashcan over. "Ooooo-a" he said wisely.

There were other events today that were "Ooooo-ah" worthy, I just can't think of them now. Onwards to other things...
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Food Update:

William had prunes yesterday for the first time (besides his prune juice). This is the last Stage One baby food we had left, so now we are on to the stage 2 stuff. And hopefully other solid stuff. Solid food stuff I mean. I think we will start meats sometime this week. Not looking forward to that - they look yucky to me. I guess I'll have to wait and see what he thinks.

First taste - kind of looks like chocolate, doesn't it? Sure doesn't taste like it. I promise.

Halfway though

All done! And trying a Gerber Puffed Sweet Potato thing.
The eating real! solids front: The Gerber puff things are WAY easier to handle than the Cheerios. We'll have to go back to those again later.

Crunching it between his teeth/pushing it out of his mouth with his tongue


Those puffs are REALLY hard to catch! Trying to figure out what to do with it now that it is in his hand. Funny, because everything else ends up in his mouth.


Trying for the mouth. The whole opening hand thing is very difficult.

Happy Back to School Day!

Here is the photo slideshow I have been working on:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Today the buses came through our neighborhood and picked up the kids with shiny new backpacks standing at the corners. It was a little bittersweet. It is one of the first days of school in twenty eight years I am not going back to school also. The three of us (John, William and I) were all invited to a wonderful back to school party at Jeff's house on Friday night. Jeff gave us this:

to commemorate William's first hike. It is a picture of all of the hikers in a frame with rocks from the creek bed along the hike craftily attached to the frame. Very, very special! It was fabulous to relax and hang out with everyone again. William crawled around and pulled himself up on all kinds of dangerous objects and all kinds of people watched out for him and put him back on the ground (or picked him up and cuddled him). It was just what we needed. I love my coworkers. And yes mom, I'm writing my thank you note right now.

As this weekend was also our ten year class reunion, I also have been thinking back to the first day of school 10 years ago when I started college with my bestest friend Jessica by my side. Aren't we cute for our first day (this picture is posted without permission)? Anyway, I just wanted to also wish Jessica happy 10 year anniversary of our first day of college. And we survived. More impressive, we are still friends. Even if we didn't go to our reunion.

Now for the reason we didn't go to the reunion. We have done a lot of driving this summer and although William has proved to be a champion traveler, we felt bad asking him to sit for a long time in the car two days so close together. John and I talked it over and couldn't decide...still couldn't decide. I leaned towards going, he leaned towards staying home. So, we based our decision on something completely shallow. If I could find something appropriate to wear, we would go. If not, we would stay home. I couldn't find anything to wear. The shorts in the above picture might have covered up my post baby belly nicely, but I sadly don't own those any more. To be fair, I did quite a bit of shopping with William and the two of us couldn't agree on anything. So, in the end we stayed home. All (sort of) because I couldn't find something to wear. Oh well...


Finally, evidence of childproofing at our house from this evening:

Oh, yeah...

How could I forget? Tooth #5 made its appearance yesterday. If you are hoping for a picture - you are going to be disappointed. You try and put your fingers in his mouth with all those other teeth! Ouch is right!

Where have you been?

I'm not sure where we have been. There has been things going on this week, but no more than usual. I am going to point the blame at the little boy who is becoming busier by the moment. I'm also working on some snapfish stuff and another photo slide show. It is coming, I promise. Here is some examples of my busy -ness.

William helping load/unload the dishwasher. Any moment now, he'll shift his weight which will cause the dishwasher rack to move and he will knock himself out. What do I do? Grab the camera.

On Thursday, we introduced barley cereal.

At lunch on Saturday, we gave Cheerios a test run. William wasn't so sure.

Although it at least slowed him down enough we got to eat more than a few bites at a time.

Otherwise, one of us stuffs our face while the other one chases him around.

Still not sure about the Cheerios on Saturday

William helping me by emptying the lower levels of the pantry.

We have some serious baby proofing to do. I'm committed to trying to work on it this week (watch out!). I'm tired of chasing him between the electric cords, brick fireplace, dishwasher door and other dangers around the house. It is time. It is also time for bed. More tomorrow, I promise!

Cruisin' and Bruisin'

Determined. Stubborn even. William is bound and determined to figure out this whole cruising thing. At any moment you can find him pulling himself upright upon any object in our house, regardless of its stability. The door to the laundry room, from inside his crib, from outside his crib, from inside baby jail, on the coffee table, on the dishwasher, on the computer chair (yes, the one with wheels), the oscillating fan, a tall bookshelf, etc are all places he has (attempted) to pull himself up in the last few days. Once upright, the feet and hands start to go and he cruises along hanging on to the furniture. They aren't very coordinated yet, but he did manage to do 4-5 laps around his baby jail over the course of today. Moving only towards his left. Haven't quite worked out the right direction yet. That would lead to the second part of the title: bruises. This poor little baby is covered in bruises. Arms, legs, back and even one on his sweet little head. Makes me sad - but as I said before he is bound and determined to be in motion all the time.

Peeking over the top of the baby jail

Napping is quite difficult because of this. I'm not really sure what to do with him. He is sleeping less at night and less during the day. He is absolutely exhausted and crabby as can be. Yet, the moment I put him in his crib, he is already moving to pull himself up. According to my books, he should be sleeping more now, not less. Before, the moment I published about our sleep struggles, they disappeared (something is grammatically incorrect here, but I'm too tired to sort it out now). Hoping the same will happen now....please!

He is also doing this funny little yoga move that reminds me of the downward dog position. While sitting on the floor, he leans over so he is in a position to crawl. Then, he pushes his behind up in the air and looks up at me. I'm not entirely sure, but my guess is that he would like to push himself up into standing. Hopefully that won't happen until next week at least. I can't believe how fast it is happening. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this time next month he is learning to drive or leaving for college. Although, potty training would be nice....

Yesterday, we introduced applesauce into the circulation of fruits. William enjoyed it very much, despite our concern that it would be to tart for his bland loving taste buds. No problems at all! All we have left are the prunes from the first step foods! (Yummy!)

Applesauce

Not sure about the first bite...

Quit taking my picture!

We are so happy to hear that William's new cousins are finally home with their mom and dad as of Saturday. I decided it wasn't a good idea to publish more pictures of the twins without permission from their parents. But! I got these this last weekend and how can I not share them? Are they not the most precious pictures ever? Ever?

Alexander & Elena at the hospital

Elena & Alexander at home!

Grandpa Heidt left yesterday morning to drive back to Rochester. We are so thankful for his help with the drywall. John and Grandpa worked very hard and completed most of our drywall (3 little spots left to take care of)! Wow! It is looking great down there!

The family room

The office

The bathroom/family room

Pictures, As Promised

I finally have a moment to post pictures and tell you about the Vacation Bible School Finale (see separate post). Today, I was making dinner while William chewed on a wooden spoon and played with Tupperware lids. He has been babbling a lot the last few days and tonight he pulled out the...."dadadada!" I got a little video of it - I'll work on getting that posted soon. He would chew on his spoon and then say "daddadada..." into the spoon like it was a microphone. Very, very cute. I thought it would be awhile longer before we started hearing those kinds of things from him! What a surprise!

Pears!

Yummy pears!

Messy face!

Grandpa Heidt arrived on Friday afternoon to help us with more drywall. Between playdates, basement projects and Vacation Bible School we have been running like crazy this week! It also seems like William is just pushing and pushing himself this week to try and do things for himself. I am exhuasted just thinking about all the things he is learning this week. The little boy is in bed and the bigger boys are downstairs still working, so I have time to post some of those pictures.

I was getting ready for the day while William played on the bathroom floor. Then I turned around and he was...in the shower!

Mmmmm....shampoo!

Wiped Out

William is learning new things so fast my brain hurts tonight. Sleep is something he simply doesn't have time for currently. He was up over an hour earlier than usual this morning and took 3 naps today totaling about 1.5 hours - and fought me on most of them. Typical total nap time is about 3.5 hours. On top of that it is 15687864656 degrees here right now which is enough to make anyone tired. Here is a list of what is new (I'm too tired to write it out...):

-6 Month pictures were taken yesterday at $ears. The pictures themselves we 100% better than his 3 month pictures. But, the prices were not. So, I do not think we will be back. I'm still working on how to share them online. Stay tuned for that one.

-pulled himself to standing this morning on the baby gate. Them pulled himself up to his tiptoes to reach for something he wasn't supposed to have on the other side of the gate (it isn't called "baby jail for nothing)

-Pulled himself to standing using the dishwasher rack. Managed to pull the dishwasher rack off of the dishwasher and almost onto himself before I caught him. I didn't think the bottom rack even CAME out of the dishwasher. Shows you what I know.

-At the grocery store this morning he was getting crabby and cried/yelled at me "Mamamamama!" I was so stunned, I stopped driving my cart and almost caused a 3 cart pile up. And then my heart and brain fell to pieces of mush right there in the chip aisle. It could have been a huge mess. After I recovered myself and apologized to the carts behind me, I said "mamamamama" back to him. He giggled and replied "Mamamammama" like he knew it was something special. Then, he had a tantrum resulting in us exiting the grocery store with great speed (and high volume as well). I haven't been able to convince him to do it again (the mama thing, not the high volume thing). Apparently, he is saving it for another time when he is in hot water with me. Smart boy.

-We are working on clapping hands skill. William thinks it is quite funny (most of the time, unless he cries. Then he doesn't like it) most of the time when other people clap their hands. He is not interested in learning it himself. We have progressed from the hitting the table with one hand to banging two plastic blocks together with about 67 percent accuracy. The rest of the time he drops one of the blocks or misses when he brings his hands together.

-Several times in the last few days he has been experimenting with some "cruising" (hanging on to furniture and moving hands/feet to get somewhere else). He is really good at the moving hands part and reaching. He does NOT understand the whole moving the feet thing though. His upper body moves along and he picks up his feet and puts them down in the same place or on top of each other. Then, he is off balance as his body is now a diagonal line with his arms very far away from his head. This makes him very frustrated and a little scared (I think) as he doesn't know how to go back the other direction or move his feet towards his arms. But, it doesn't stop him from trying it again and again and again....

-Oatmeal is being tolerated very well and so today we added : Pears! He ate them all up along with his favorite sweet potatoes. Pictures will come at a later time (Read the last sentence in the first paragraph).

-Sat down on purpose by himself 3-4 times tonight to a cheering crowd. I am not confident he will retain this skill for our nap sessions tomorrow.