Look who's 1! (and a month...)

This post is a few weeks a month late, as seems to be par for the course for me these days.  What an eventful few weeks it's been too: first birthday, first birthday party, first cold, and a few new achievements to boot.  When I started writing this it was a 12 month update...I guess now we can call it the 13 month update!

Rolling over the odometer
Hard as it is for me to believe, Daniel is now a year old.  On the one hand it's hard to believe he's already been with us a full year, but at the same time, it feels like another lifetime ago that he wasn't here.  It's been the most challenging and rewarding year of my life (and, I suppose, Daniel's too ;)). 

Here's his 12 month picture. 

That will be his last monthly picture with the infant carseat, as we've now graduated to the convertible seats in both cars.  Althought the seat is rated up to 30lb, it is only rated up to 30in, so even though he hasn't even hit 20 lb yet he's already maxing out the height.

Party time!
Kevin and I decided to celebrate his actual birthday by taking off from work to spend the day together as a family.  I think we'll make July 21st an official family holiday and spend it together each year.  In later years we'll go to waterparks or movies together, and vacations, and maybe when he's all grown up and out of the house he'll look forward to meeting up with Mom and Dad for a birthday lunch.  But this year we weren't quite as ambitious.  We stayed at home, relaxed, and played.  It was nice to get some "just the three of us" time in before the weekend, when the birthday celebration went into high gear.

Kevin works at Microsoft and we're friends with many of his coworkers and their families.  We decided to combine party-planning forces with another couple, Charlotte and Alden, whose son Justin turned 3 the week after Daniel's birthday.  We did a joint birthday party at the Coppell Aquatic Center and it was great.  We had close to 50 guests, including many of our friends and their little ones.

Here's Daniel in his birthday shirt.  You can't see the back but it has "Williamson" and then the number 1 like it's a jersey.

























Here are some pictures of the kiddos playing at the pool:
























































And here are birthday boys Justin and Daniel blowing out the candles on their cakes:

And here's Daniel digging into his cupcake with no restraint.  You think he liked it?

12-month checkup

Daniel had his 12-month checkup a few weeks ago and everything looked great.  He's still small and skinny, weighing in at only 18lb 4oz and standing 29.5" tall.  The weight in particular is on the lower end of normal, but we and the pediatrician are not concerned about that.  One, both Kevin and I were skinny kids, so odds are he will be too, and two, he's healthy and eats well.

An unhappy milestone
It was bound to happen sooner or later.  About a week after his birthday and the checkup, he got his first cold.  Fortunately it was fairly mild but it was hard to see him in pain.  He had a runny then stuffy nose and a few days of mid-grade fever, which translated to a few days of crankiness.  His appetite was off but he slept really well, which helped him feel better.  It was nice to see him get better and our usual boisterous happy little boy return!

Eating
Some big changes this month.  We've got him taking at least one cow's milk bottle during the day now and will transition to both daytime bottles being cow's milk in the next week or two.  And now that his daytime milk is cow's milk, we're working on transitioning to taking those bottle feedings by straw cup.  I didn't want to do that with breast milk because I didn't want to risk wasting any of that milk, but if he spills or wastes a cup of cow's milk, it's easy to get more.  No particular target date on when we want to make the full switch from bottles to cups, but I thought now was a good time to start trying.  He takes his straw cup well and can drink from it without assistance, so it might be an easy transition for him.

As far as solid foods go he's still the enthusiastic, voracious eater he's been.  Everyone who sees him eat is amazed at how much food such a little boy can put away!  And we're glad to see that he enjoys a lot of foods you don't typically think of as baby food: mushrooms (he's a big fan of sauteed shiitakes), kale, and fish to name a few.  Maybe a picky phase will come later, but for now he loves his veggies!  A typical dinner involves us feeding him meat and veggies off our plates plus some fresh fruit and sliced cheese or plain Greek yogurt.

Sleeping
Not much to report this month.  He's still doing well with a one hour "rest time" in his crib in the morning, when he usually just talks to himself, and a 2-3 hour afternoon nap at around 12:30.  He's generally asleep by 8 or so and sleeps till 7 in the morning, though lately he's been waking up at night more, perhaps because of a diaper rash that's been hanging around.

New tricks
Daniel has a few new tricks in his bag this month.  One thing he likes to do is wiggle his hand over his open mouth while he's babbling to make an underwater effect.  I'm pretty sure discovered it by accident but now he does it on purpose.  On a related note, he's started making an "oh" noise which is pretty cute.

It's not new, but he's gotten more consistent about giving us kisses on the cheek and about shaking his head when we say "shake, shake, shake!"  He looks like he's saying no, but he's really just playing a game.  And when he's standing up holding onto something and we say "bouncy bouncy," he'll bounce his booty up and down.  Which I haven't adequately captured on video yet but must for posterity.

His biggest new accomplishment this month is learning to crawl down the stairs.  He's been going up them for months but now has learned how to get back down.  He's got a very deliberate process we taught him-turn sideways, slide front leg down, then back leg, then front arm, then back arm.  Here he is in action:

He has also learned how to close (but not open) doors but gets frustrated when the baby gates on the stairs don't close like he thinks they should.  Here he is playing with the gate and just playing in general by the top of the stairs:

The latest, hot-off-the-presses development?  Just yesterday Kevin saw him stand without support for the first time.  He's done it several times now for several seconds at a time.  Are first steps just around the corner?  We shall see...

A few developments we're less fond of

Daniel is really an easy, happy, agreeable baby, but he has picked up a few less desirable habits of late.  One, he likes to throw his food on the floor while he's eating.  Two, when he's nursing he likes to announce that he's done on that side with a playful bite.  And three, he has recently learned to headbutt Mommy and Daddy.  Of course, the problem with any of these things is that the first time it happens it's kind of funny (well, not the biting part, but the big smile on his face when he does it) so it's hard not to laugh, then he feels encouraged.  Headbutts, dropped food, playful bites and all though, we love our little boy so much and feel so very blessed that he's ours.

What an eventful month!

Daniel's first trip to the beach

This past weekend marked a big milestone for us: our first vacation as a family of 3, and Daniel's first trip to South Padre Island.  Naturally, I have tons of pictures to share :)

Family tradition 

Padre Island's a special place for our family so it was an obvious choice for Daniel's first vacation.  My dad grew up in the Rio Grande Valley and took day trips to the beach as a boy.  Ironically, he missed a chance to own land there when my car dealer grandfather turned down a customer's offer to swap land on Padre for a new car...well, in fairness to DadDad, Padre wasn't developed then, and he wasn't in a position to speculate on land when the manufacturers needed to be paid right away.  (Still, it would be nice to have a do-over on that one! ;)) 

My family took yearly vacations to the island when I was little too, and it might well have been my first vacation (in fact, next time I get ahold of my parents' photo albums, I might update this with a picture of baby Ellen at the beach).  Kevin and I went together several times before Daniel and always enjoyed it, so practically from the moment we saw the plus sign on the pregnancy test we were looking forward to continuing the family tradition and taking our baby there.

Fun with friends 

What made this trip even more special was that our dear friends Marko and Nicole and their son Alejandro joined us.  We traveled to San Francisco with them 2 years ago before we had kids kids and it was fun to travel together again as families.  After the boys went to bed for the night, the four of us spent several pleasant evenings hanging out on the balcony talking.

During the day it was great to see the boys playing together.  They're too young to really play cooperatively but they seemed to enjoy each other's company.

Here they are playing in the condo.  Alejandro is trying to "brush" Daniel's hair with that plastic lid and a tv remote:

And, here they are together on the beach.  They were too young to really use the beach toys we so carefully picked out (yes Kevin, you told me so!), but they definitely enjoyed playing in the sand:



Finally, here they are in the pool, kissing!  Yes, this picture is sure to embarrass them mightily when they get older.  It sure is cute though!

First day 

We flew from Dallas to Brownsville on Friday, July 8.  It was a short, easy flight, made even easier because the plane wasn't full, so we were able to bring the carseats on and sit in 2 rows by ourselves in the back of the plane.  They boys did pretty well but Daniel got a bit fussy at one point so I took him to an empty row behind us to nurse.  He then fell asleep in my arms for about 30 minutes.  After we landed we were just a short drive from our destination.  We didn't do much that day except relax, make dinner, and enjoy this view from our balcony:

Every Friday night during the summer there are fireworks over the bay.  We watched them from the walkway outside our front door:

Time to play at the beach! 

Saturday morning Kevin and my dad went fishing in the bay and the rest of the group went down to the beach.  As expected, Daniel loved playing around in the sand.  He ate his fair share of the sand (which made for some interesting diaper changes) and would have eaten plenty of shells too, if mean mommy hadn't taken them away.  (I know, what a spoilsport to take away those choking hazards!)

Mmmm, sand! 

We went back down to the beach again that afternoon and Monday morning and afternoon.  Daniel could have spent all day on the shore splashing around in shallow tide pools and crawling in the sand. 

I love this picture.  It looks like he's crawling out to sea!

He was less fond of the ocean itself. We carried him out in it and he seemed to enjoy looking around but would get antsy or a wave would hit him in the face and he'd be ready to go back to shore.

 The pool was fun too:

Daniel had a great time in the pool.  One thing that made him laugh was when he's push on my chin and I'd jerk my head back like he had knocked me backwards.

He also thought it was pretty funny to "kick" me while he was sitting on the side of the pool ready to "jump in":

Meals

As much fun as the beach and pool were, we did venture out on dry land from time to time.  Kevin and my dad had quite the successful fishing trip so for two lunches, we took fresh fish into local restaurants and ate it for lunch.  Here's the day two spread at the Padre Island Brewing Company.  Impressive as this haul looks, the previous day's was even bigger.  The  fish was great.  Fresh is the name of the game with seafood and it's not often you can eat fish that was swimming just hours earlier.

Sleepless in South Padre

Daniel generally sleeps soundly at night but has a harder time sleeping away from home.  As the last story suggests, this was certainly the case on this trip.  He woke up during the night two of the four nights, which he seldom does.  These sleep problems did have a sweet silver lining though.

When Daniel woke up crying the first night, I fed him and Kevin soothed him, all to no avail.  After an hour of crying (his, not mine, though I felt like joining in) I was out of ideas, so I brought him into our bed hoping to calm him.  As it turned out, that was exactly what he needed.  He nestled his head on my shoulder, let out a deep sigh, and was out like a light.  He slept snugly and soundly in my arms the rest of the night.

For the rest of the trip, I held him in my arms and napped with him in the afternoons.  It was nice to get that extra cuddle time.  Nursing soothes him very well but it was good to be reminded that my presence alone could soothe him so well.  Co-sleeping may become a special new travel tradition for us.

Here's a picture of us napping together.  The camera settings were wrong so it came out black and white and grainy, but I still love it.  Look at the total relaxation on his face! 

Time to go home :(

Alas, after 4 wonderful days on the Island, Tuesday came and it was time to go home.  This time our flight was full so we had to check the carseats and hold the boys in our laps.  The flight time ran into the early afternoon nap time so I worried Daniel might get cranky, but he was in good spirits the whole time, thanks in part to the steady flow of water and puffs we sent his way.

Once we landed, I put Daniel in my Beco carrier to wear him till we got back to the car.  To my surprise, he fell asleep while we were waiting for a shuttle bus back to the garage.  He was sleeping so soundly that he didn't even wake up when I put him in his carseat.  When we got home he woke, ate, and slept another 3 hours.  Guess the trip really wore him out!

We all had a great time, and can't wait for next year's trip!

11 months...1st birthday just around the corner!

It's hard to believe, but in less than 30 days my little baby will celebrate his first birthday.  He's beginning to look less like a baby and more like a toddler, especially in pictures.  Here's his 11 month picture.  It was with our video camera, so the quality's not the best, but you can see how big he's getting:

For comparison, here's his 1-month picture:

Compare where his head and feet are in the two pictures!  He looked so little in that carseat as a newborn, now less than a year later he's just about outgrown it.  In fact, in my car I've already been using the convertible seat for a month or so.  But Kevin prefers the infant seat, so we'll keep using that in his car for as long as we can.

New developments

A few weeks ago we got him the Fisher-Price Stride-to-Ride Dino push toy.  He seemed hesitant about it at first but recently learned how to stand up and walk while pushing it.  He's got a similar push toy he plays with during the day at Grandma's. 

Here he is pushing his dino:

This is obviously an encouraging step on the road to walking but it's hard to predict when he'll take those first independent steps.  Could be tomorrow, could be another week, could be another month.  I'm still predicting that he'll be walking by his birthday but we'll see.

He still babbles a lot and has been making the "mama" noise more.  I still don't think he's referring to me when he says it but it's music to my ears nevertheless.  The first word might be coming soon, it'll be fun to see what he has to say.

Eating

Daniel's appetite for solid food has really increased a lot in the past few weeks.  He seems to enjoy just about everything, even foods you wouldn't consider "baby foods" like fish, kale, and shiitake mushrooms.  Blueberries and "orange stuff" like sweet potatoes and carrots are probably the favorites, and Puffs snacks are a big hit in our house too.  These days we generally eat meals together as a family.  Daniel either gets bite-sized pieces of what we're eating or some variation on it.  It's great that he can self-feed now so we can all eat at the same time instead of having to eat in shifts with one of us eating while the other feeds Daniel.  It's a little messy, but he does a pretty good job.

He has learned an unfortunate new trick in the past few days though.  The other night I was feeding him by myself and I put some cut-up pears and cauliflower on his tray, then went back to cutting up more.  I looked up and saw that most of the pieces I'd put on his tray were gone so I thought, "wow, he's really eating well!"  Then I happened to catch him dropping a piece on the floor and looked down to see a pile of dropped pieces on the floor!  He started to do it again so I gave him a stern face and said "no,no!"  He looked me in the eye, smiled, and proceeded to drop it anyway.  Really, defiance already?  I thought I had a little more time before we got there...

In other dining news, he's still as enthusiastic a nurser as he's ever been.  In fact, when we sit down on the couch to nurse he'll sometimes crawl over and try to start before I even get settled!  He drinks all the milk I send for him during the day and apparently wants more sometimes.

I set out with the goal of breastfeeding for at least a year and we're definitely on track to make it.  I don't plan to pump much past the 12 month mark, assuming Daniel takes to cow's milk, but I'll continue to nurse him morning and night and on weekends for as long as he wants to.  Maybe the day will come that I'm ready for that chapter in our relationship to close, but right now I still enjoy it and cherish those moments with him.  I'm certainly doing it for him, but I get as much out of it as he does.

Sleeping

Not a ton to report here.  He still sleeps well at night and naps quite well in the morning but less reliably in the afternoon.  Any given day he's fine with just the one nap, but

missing the PM nap on a regular basis makes him cranky and overtired in the evening.  So, to try to preserve that nap, we're trying the "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" approach of limiting the length of the morning nap and moving his bedtime earlier at night.  So far we've had mixed results, but one day he slept 11.5 hours at night, napped 90 minutes in the morning, and napped 2+ hours in the afternoon.  Then again, today he wouldn't nap in the morning but took a 3 hour afternoon nap.  Maybe we're moving toward just a mid-day nap.  I guess we'll know more in a few weeks once we see what's working and what's not.

Coming attractions

This next month will be a big one for us.  First, we have our first vacation as a family of 3, a 4-day trip to South Padre Island with our good friends Marko and Nicole and their son Alejandro.  Padre was an annual trip for my family when I was growing up and I hope it'll become a tradition for us too.  It's the comfort food of vacations.  It's not exotic and it won't likely be the trip of a lifetime, but it's as relaxing and comfortable as eating ice cream straight from the tub while lying on the couch in sweats.  There's no ambitious agenda of sights to see or things to do, which makes it perfect with babies.  We'll just get up, eat in the condo, go down to the water, nap, go out for lunch, then repeat in the afternoon.  In the evenings after the boys fall asleep the adults can enjoy sitting out on the balcony looking out at the waves, refreshing drink in hand.  It'll be a great trip and I've been looking forward to taking Daniel since before he was even born.

Then, in a few weeks we'll celebrate his first birthday with a swim party for his little friends.  We're hosting a joint birthday party along with our friends Charlotte and Alden, whose son Justin turns 3 a week after Daniel turns 1.  We have a lot of mutual friends, so we thought, why not combine forces to host one big party?  It should be a great time and we're looking forward to it.  We'll also have a small dinner party that night so Daniel can celebrate his birthday with his grandparents, godparents, and aunt and uncle.

We have two big milestones just around the corner, walking and first words.  Wonder if either one will come this month?

Pumping update: tales from the supply room

Deficit worries...

So Daniel is 10 months old, I've been back at work 7 months, and I'm still a twice-daily inhabitant of the repurposed supply room, aka the Mother's Room , at work.  Daniel still hasn't had a drop of formula since the NICU, and I still have over a gallon of frozen milk in storage. 

Which is all great, but there is a bit of trouble in paradise.  For the first 8 months or so I was pumping not just an adequate supply but a surplus, so that I could pump for the Mother's Milk Bank 3 days a week and still build up my stash.  But somewhere around the 8 month mark my cups stopped running over and seemingly overnight, I went from surplus production to deficit. 

At first I thought it was just a temporary drop but came to realize it was a permanent adjustment to Daniel's increased solid food intake.  It took me by surprise but I guess it shouldn't have; in comparing notes with friends, it sounds pretty common among moms who nurse past 6 months.  I've started taking fenugreek and drinking mother's milk herbal tea.  Not sure if they're helping much, but I'm doing everything I can.

The good news is that I have enough of a stash that even with about a 6-12 ounce deficit per week, I still have enough milk to continue feeding Daniel 12 oz of pumped milk a day until his first birthday and perhaps beyond.  The bad news is no more pumping for the milk bank.  I've got about 150oz in storage already allocated to the bank, and at least for now I'm still planning to donate it, but I'll keep it in the deep freeze till we cross the 12 month mark and successfully introduce cow's milk.

In hindsight, I should have stopped or limited by milk bank donations once Daniel started eating at least 2 solid meals a day.  Maybe for the next go-round I'll taper off donating once solids are introduced and then stop donation pumping altogether once we increase solids.  I think we'll finish okay this time, but now I know what to do differently next time.

Pump up while we pump
When you're a working mom, you don't have a lot of extra time, so you have to be a super multitasker.  Which is why I'm surprised it didn't occur to me sooner to take advantage of my pump breaks to sneak in a little exercise. 

A friend of mine at work is also a nursing mom and we both use the Mother's Room.  Last month she mentioned that she was thinking of bringing an exercise ball that we could sit on when we use the room.  So I built on her idea and brought in some dumbbells so we could get an upper body workout too.  Obviously when you've got tubes running from you to a pump on a table, your range of motion is somewhat limited.  But I've found I can get in a pretty good workout in 11 minutes, working shoulders, triceps, biceps, back, and abs.  I'm not saying I'll get that beach body just from pump break workouts but every little bit helps!

10 months old already?!

As Daniel's first birthday draws closer and closer, I can't believe my baby is growing so quickly.  It's amazing to think that 10 months ago he was a newborn, unable to even support his own head, and now he's crawling, standing, cruising, and feeding himself.  It is truly amazing how much a baby develops in his first year of life.  I already catch myself wanting to say "when he was a baby" even though he won't outgrow that label for awhile.

No huge milestones this month, but he did have his first plane trip (and first trip out of state) when we went to Tennessee to visit my brother.  More on that later, once I get pictures from my mom's camera in a few weeks.  For now, I'll just say that he handled the flights pretty well and generally had a pretty good trip.

News
This month brought his 5th tooth, on the top to the right, with the 6th (top to the left) on the way.  He has become more proficient at crawling and now has added the hand-opposite knee "cross crawl" to his repertoire in addition to his "butterfly stroke" scoot.  He is also pretty adept at cruising along the hearth, coffee table, crib rail, or bathtub.  He hasn't made any efforts to take a step yet but he is certainly mobile. 

And he can really scamper up the stairs now!  Here's a video:



He is still a pretty vocal little guy too.  He likes to babble ("dadada" is still a favorite) and has just started making a grunting noise and saying "brrr"...basically a raspberry without the tongue action and its accompanying slobber.  And he has learned to shake his head in response to us doing it or saying "shake, shake, shake."  He smiles while he does it, so he looks happily disagreeable!  He has also taken up picking his nose...sigh.

Sleeping
No big changes here.  Still falls asleep unassisted most of the time and sleeps straight through from 7:30-8pm until 6-6:30am.  The other morning he slept till 8, so I got to sleep 9 straight hours for the first time in ages.  That was a nice treat!

He still seems to do well with 2 naps a day, but will sometimes refuse to take one of his naps.  We've adjusted the times forward a bit so he generally goes down for his morning nap by about 9:15, up by 11:30, then down for the afternoon around 2, up by 4:30.  He doesn't sleep the full time each nap, but most days he will go down for 2 naps.  We're having some success with moving his morning nap up to preserve the afternoon one, but it seems fairly certain that when he moves to a single daily nap, it's the afternoon nap that will go.  Which will make it hard to go to church for awhile but should otherwise work well for us.

Eating
He still nurses first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, and takes 2 6oz bottles during the day when I'm gone or nurses twice more on weekends.    He eats 3 solid meals a day and while he was doing well with homemade purees or Plum brand organic blends, he has recently made it clear he wants to feed himself.  The past 2 nights we've cut up chicken and dried apricots and given him that plus some cooked brown rice and he has happily fed himself, and done a pretty good job of it.  He's still a pretty eager diner and likes most everything he tries.

He'd be a bit embarrassed that I'm sharing this (but hey, what are moms for if not to embarrass our offspring?), but he was having trouble for awhile with constipation.  He'd strain to have a BM and tense up and cry like it was really painful.  We tried a few things but juice and a water-Karo syrup mix seem to be doing the trick for now.  It was no fun seeing him in pain :(

Pictures
Every month(ish), we've taken a picture of him in his infant carseat to track how big he's getting.  This month we got the standard picture plus a variation on it showing off his new skill:
 

Look, I'm standing!




10 month picture









































And, one in his Easter outfit:

Guest post

The DFW Cloth Diaper Group blog administrator requested some guest blogs from working moms, so I wrote a column which ran today.  It's part of a series in which working moms address some of the main obstacles working parents who want to CD face.

Here it is: http://dfwclothdiapergroup.blogspot.com/2011/05/i-cant-use-cloth-my-caregiver-wont-be.html

9 months old: up and onward!

In this case procrasting a few days  2 weeks on the monthly update paid off, as I now have several more updates to share.  Every Monday when I take Daniel to my mother in law's house she swears he's changed over the weekend.  Usually I just think, well, that's just grandma talking, but in this case she would actually be right.  He really did change a lot over just a few days!

New developments
About a week ago Daniel learned how to pull up to kneeling and standing.  He showed this new trick off for the first time last Saturday afternoon when I went in to get him from his nap (which he didn't take, having decided to spend that time making noise instead).  For awhile when he'd see me come in he'd crawl over to the side and reach through the slats to grab me, but this time he crawled over, kneeled, put his hands on the top rail, and pulled up to standing.  We both laughed, and he was especially pleased with himself.  Then I thought, time to take down the mobile and lower the crib mattress!

Also, we can now crawl up the stairs.  When we first tried a few weeks ago he needed a little help but has steadily improved, and now he can climb the full staircase unassisted (albeit heavily supervised).  Which means it's time for Kevin to install the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs!

And, we have 2 new teeth.  The 2 top middle teeth both cut through last weekend.  And as I'll mention below, we have some new developments in dining.

In other news, he's become quite a bit more vocal and can make the ba, da, la, ma, na, and ya sounds as well as a high-pitched gurgle and a lower growl.  He can also make a clicking noise and loves to blow raspberries, even if-especially if-he has food in his mouth.  Cute as it is, we've decided it's probably best not to encourage it!  He isn't trying to say any specific words yet but he has a lot to communicate!

We also got Daniel his convertible car seats once we finally saw them on sale.  We installed the one for my car but will see how we like it before we commit to it for sure.  It's definitely in our future, but Daniel is still well within the weight limits for his infant seat so we can keep him in that for several more months.  But we don't really use his old seat as a carrier anymore anyway, and never really did, and we're wondering if he may be more comfortable in the convertible as it gets hotter.  He's only ridden in it once so far so we'll have to report back next month once we've used it more.

9 month checkup
This month we had our first checkup with a pediatrician closer to the house and overall we were satisfied.  We liked the previous doctor, but we didn't love the long waits that were a feature of every visit so we decided to try another option.  I liked that the office had separate sick and well waiting areas and we were taken back within 5 minutes of our appointment time and saw the doctor within about 15-20 minutes.  Overall we liked the doctor...she wasn't enthusiastic about our choice to delay some vaccines (example: not giving Hep B at birth because D had no risk factors for it) but she seems willing to respect our decision.  We'll see how the next appointment goes.

Daniel weighed in at 17lb 1oz, so he had only gained an ounce from last month, but he grew a whole inch and a half to measure in at 28in.  He's definitely on the lighter end of the weight percentile chart but the doctor wasn't concerned.  He is eating well and the picture of health, and when your parents were long skinny kids...odds are you'll be a long skinny kid.

Eating
He nurses first thing in the morning and right before bed and takes 2 bottles and 3 solid meals every day and is a healthy eater.  I've heard that some babies start to lose interest in nursing around this age but D is as enthusiastic as ever.  In fact, now sometimes when I'm arranging the nursing pillow he gets impatient and crawls over and tries to latch on!

Daniel is enjoying a nice variety of foods and seems to like thicker textures.  I still make foods for him, but we're also really liking the Plum brand baby foods.  I like that they use organic foods, whole grains, and go beyond the basics to include things like quinoa, lentils, spinach, and pumpkin.  Daniel seems to like just about everything he tries.  He can self-feed himself puffs (like Cheerios) and grabs the spoon away to feed himself.  While he's a bit messy with it, he does generally hit the target pretty well.

He is also drinking fairly well from a sippy cup.  We tried some with a spout but he seems to prefer a straw instead.  He can pick up his cup, bring it to his mouth, drink from it, and put it down, all unassisted.

Sleeping
The good news is he still sleeps quite well at night, going down by 7:30 or so and sleeping till 6 or so.  The less-good news is, he isn't consistently getting 2 naps a day anymore, but he gets cranky when he misses one so it seems clear that he still needs 2.  We had been doing well putting him down from 9:45-12 and then again from around 2:30-4:30, but lately he hasn't been sleeping in the afternoon.  We're thinking we'll try to nudge his morning nap up closer to 9 and get him up by 11 or so, then try to get him down for the afternoon by 1:30-2.  Hope it helps...it might just be that he's resisting naps right now so he can practice his new tricks and he'll go back to his old patterns soon enough, but we'll see if adjusting forward a bit helps.

Pictures
A few weekends ago we had some pictures taken in the bluebonnets.  Daniel was more interested in taking in the scenery than smiling, but I think the photographer still got several good shots.  Here are a few: