Special Ceremony

Sunday was a special day! At the beginning of the service, we had the opportunity to dedicate Noah to the Lord--a wonderful celebration of the amazing little boy that God has blessed us with!! Near the end of the service was another special ceremony--this one of baptism...another celebration of the amazing life that God gives us. We left church that day with an incredible feeling of hope and of God's love being poured out all over us. Talk about warm fuzzies!!

Firsts

With a baby comes all sorts of new firsts, some of which are milestones that fall into the "Exciting" category, and some "Not So Thrilling." Today while DS was taking his bath, we had the first little bathtime floating poopie. That one I would consider "Not So Thrilling". I imagine this will not be the last, but we can certainly hope for the best.

The other day I got out my guitar and tuned it up. That was a first for me in many months. Sitting next to me, DS started rocking back and forth and singing back. He's a natural!

We had beautiful weather this week, but this morning, it is pouring down rain again. Yeah, Oregon!

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Good Friday first by taking a trip to the pool. We met DS's friend Lucy there, who is about 2 weeks away from her first birthday. They had fun splashing away together!

Then, in the evening, we headed off to church for a really awesome Good Friday service. It was a great time of praise and worship and reflecting on the awesome freedom we have because of the amazing thing Jesus did! On Sunday, we were invited by one family to another family's home for an afternoon dinner. :) As it turns out, the host family's father works at the university with DH. It was a nice time of visiting and some more celebrating!

Feeding Time at the Zoo

This week was Spring Break for DH. We dog sat for the week. We had 2 extra dogs running around the house...That's right, this week we lived in a dog house, not a people house! Everyone got along well. We took walks with the pack daily and thoroughly enjoyed some down time before the home stretch...just 4 more weeks until classes are dismissed for the summer. Yeah, Education!!

6-Month Visit

We headed off to the doctor's this morning for DS's 6-month visit. First of all, I was looking forward to what she had to say about the flat spot on his head after having been to PT and doing all the stretches, etc. for the past 2 months. She also seemed happy with his progress. She confirmed that we should continue the things we have been doing and it will be completely resolved in time. Yay for success!!

He got his 6-month round of immunizations. Still doesn't like to be stuck by needles...but who does?? He actually did pretty well this time.

Growth factors are as follows:
Weight: 19 lbs., 12 oz., 85th percentile
Length: 28 in, 80th percentile
Head Circumference: 17 1/4 in, 30th percentile
Conclusion: Slowed down growing a bit (which is normal at 6 months), but still huge.

He loves his squishy soccer ball--I believe he might have soccer in his future--I'd be okay with that. :) Problem is that Ollie and Beau like to steal it from him. He will have to work on his footwork a bit... For now, he's the guy that throws the ball in from the sidelines when it goes out of bounds...since that involves using your hands.

Swimmer Dude

Friday afternoon, we took our first trip to the local pool with some of DS's friends. DS loves to swim. He just kicked away as we "swam" back and forth along the pool. He tried a variety of kicks--the flutter kick, and the butterfly kick particularly. He hasn't quite mastered them yet, but I am hopeful. The butterfly kick made his little bottom bounce up and down and was quite funny to watch. He was dunked once...when I taught a Water Babies class in PA, this was highly encouraged, simply to start getting them comfortable with going under water. He looked a little startled, but his smile came back almost immediately. Babies inherently know to hold their breath under water, so a split second dunk never hurts. I forgot my camera that day, but DS's friend Finn had his grandpa there with a camera taking pictures, so when I get those, I will pass them along. This one will have to do for now: A great pic of the swim trunks, roly-poly arms and legs, and "Buddha-belly"...the only thing that is missing is the water. :) (For the record, I was having a bit of a spelling issue, so I looked in the dictionary..."roly-poly" is actually there! 50 cool points for Webster!!)

DS is learning to knit. Well, actually, he just tries on his mama's projects...PS. He tried this one on himself--his mama did not make him do it! :)

Vegetable Eater

DS is now a vegetable eater. We started with carrots on Thursday, mixing it in with his cereal, which is pretty much just rice mixed with milk. Sounds good, right? Rice and carrots...and milk to wash it down. Well, we did the "4-day rule" before introducing sweet potatoes yesterday. The sweet potatoes definitely seem to go down easier then the carrots. (Like mama, like son, I suppose!!)

I invested in a really great book about making your own baby food called "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. It talks about making everything from your own cereals ("Super Porridge") and almost every fruit and vegetable out there and how to make them for babies. I have started doing a little bit of cooking and freezing little bits in ice cube trays for quick meals. I am looking forward to trying all the various forms of vegitation with DS. The greatest part is that it also gives me ideas of different things to try for "us big people" that I would never have thought of. For example, today was the first time I have ever cut open an avocado. I was pretty amazed at the size of the "seed", or "pit" or whatever the "proper" name for it is. Supposedly, it is pretty easy to grow an avocado plant, so I think I might give that a try. Guacamole, here we come! I was a little overwhelmed at first by all of the information, but DH reminded me to make one little change at a time and before we know it we will be a true Oregonian, living off the land!...or something. I thought I was a pretty healthy eater for the most part, but I am realizing there are a lot of ways I can make our diets healthier and more diverse (but still yummy!) and cheaper!