Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Yes, yes, it's true......

Julian rolled over today in front of my very eyes! Woo!!!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

"Please, sir, can I have some more?"

We noticed that over the past 10 days or so Julian's interest in our food has gone from passive to almost desperate. He looks longingly at my yogurt, hopefully at my scrambled eggs, and hungrily at my soup, so we figured it may be time to at least try some solid foods. I know I am supposed to wait until he's 4 months old and can sit up by himself to introduce solid foods but he was already 16 weeks and he does enjoy the tasting things so, heck, why not?

This saturday we mixed some rice cereal with some breast milk and used our fingers as spoons to introduce this new substance to our liquid-diet son. At first he looked at us like we were crazy. "What is this mess you want me to do? You want to put that in my mouth? Well then...I guess I'll try it." At first he made a funny face but after a couple more tastes he was ALL about the rice cereal! He was even opening his mouth for us when we'd put our finger up to his mouth wit some gruel on it. After a few bites (enough to amount up to 1/2 a tablespoon) we stopped there and cleaned him up. Since then he has shown a lot of enthusiasm for our food and hopefully we can give him a bit each day until he is showing a strong ability to swallow the food safely, and then we'll up the amount. I am thinking of trying some sweet potatoes tonight....





What did I miss?!

Last night, when Julian woke up for his middle of the night meal, I went over to get him out of his pack 'n play (no, he is not in a crib yet and yes, he outgrew the bassinet) and he was *gulp* on his back! We have been putting him on his belly to sleep at night since he was about 2 weeks old (yes, I know this goes against all the 'advice' out there today but he's obviously fine and since he picked his head up the day he was born I figured he would be fine) and I was quite shocked to find him on his back last night. I even woke up Thad to see if he had put him down on his back when he put him to bed but nope, he was on his belly.

So I guess this is a sign of things to come? Oh boy....

Monday, September 15, 2008

First Road Trip: Virginia Beach

Last saturday ago my mom, Terri, and I took Julian down to VA Beach for the weekend. Daddy stayed home with the animals and took care of a massive "honey do" list for mommy (thanks, daddy!!). It was a good trip. We strapped the seat into my mom's SUV which is so much more luxurious than my Subaru. The way down wasn't as catastrophic as I was expecting it to be as we only had to stop a couple times extra for Julian-related issues, and I only had to hang my boob over his car seat once. We drove straight to the Marriott on Atlantic Ave. and Terri stayed with Julian while my mom and I went to my cousin's bridal shower. Here's a Gap baby shot of little JD on the bed. I may be biased but he just may be the cutest baby ever. :)


I thought briefly about taking Julian with us to the shower but then I realized that a bunch of Filipino women in a house would be incredibly loud for him and I just didn't want to make him deaf so young in life so Terri was kind enough to come down with us and hang out with him while we stepped into the Virginia-based outpost of the Philippines for a couple of hours. We stayed long enough to see my cousin bask in her bridal bliss and open a few presents before my boobs reminded me that I had a baby who was ready for a meal.

For dinner on saturday night my aunt (mom's sister), my uncle, 2 cousins + 1 partner, another aunt (mom's best friend) and her two daughters all joined us for a fantastic seafood dinner.



Julian was such a trooper without daddy, through the long car rides, unfamiliar places, and new people. We even stopped in at the beach sunday morning before we left for home so Julian could at least see the ocean. (Side note: A few weeks back I bought an 'ocean sounds' cd for bed time thinking that the rhythm of the waves crashing would be a bit nicer for white noise rather than just the room fan. I was wrong. Every time the waves would crash he would startle. Maybe I can revive the cd when he's a bit older and has had a chance to associate it with the ocean, because I could fall asleep to that sound in about 2 minutes flat).

Here are some pics of his reaction to the ocean. He LOVED it!




Julian's First Picnic

Last thursday we went to Founders Park in Old Town Alexandria for Julian's first picnic. We went with Kathleen and Chloe, Jessica and Hartley, Mary Beth and Claire, Blanca and Alejandro, and Trigie and Vaughan. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and we had a great time! Julian really enjoyed hanging out outside. I hope this is a sign of things to come for an outdoor baby!