Yesterday Julian got his first taste of big boy food. If you can call rice cereal food. It looked like gruel to me. I shot a couple of videos for posterity. The first shows the first few bites. The second shows a few minutes later after he's starting to get the hang of it. It seemed to me like he did pretty well for a rookie. No gagging or anything. I think a good proportion of it even ended up in his stomach (eventually).
In other news, he turned 5 months old yesterday. I can't believe it's already been that long. I suppose we'll be saying that a lot over the years. "I can't believe he's already 5 years," etc. Even crazier, his new cousin Devin will be a month old tomorrow. (Yes, my brother Jeff and his wife Cindy had their baby boy last month. I gave them a month-long grace period to get the word out before I stole their thunder on our blog. I figure the cat is probably out of the bag by now, and only 3 people read this blog anyway. Congrats to them!). You know time is flying when you are marveling at how fast it's gone by with your kid brother's kids. I can't wait to get them together.
Hola amigos. I'm just doing a quick follow up to Melissa's post from Sunday. As she mentioned, it's finally warming up here. It turns out that J loves the outdoors. He's been getting to go out in the yard at daycare and apparently loves it, and he got to go out for a "hike" with Mom and Dad last Sunday. After living in the new house for almost 4 months, we finally found our way to the trail by the stream that forms the northern boundary of our neighborhood. It turns out that we live right along the fall line, and the Northwest Branch has some pretty good rapids as it drops through the area down to the coastal plain. There's a ribbon of woodland and a trail along its course through the area. There's even a sign describing how Theodore and Mrs. Roosevelt liked to hang out there back when they lived in DC in some big white house. I cannot emphasize enough how pathetic it is that we are only now discovering this. We live a lot closer to this park than we ever lived to Boulder Creek. We are sorry excuses for Boulder expats.
Anyway, Julian had a blast. He's gotten a lot more interested in his surroundings lately, and I think he enjoys the sights and sounds of the outdoors and the feel of the breeze on his skin. He started giggling when we got out of the car and loaded him in the Baby Bjorn. He even napped when he got tired. I feel like this is all stuff Mel said last week. At any rate, we plan to get him out more and more now that the sun is out and he's big enough to enjoy it.
Greetings! We're still here, and trying to keep y'all posted as often as we can. Julian (and work) has been keeping us pretty busy, but we sure don't want to lose you, our faithful audience, and so we shall keep at this blog thing.
We've made it through two whole weeks of daycare with only minor traumas. And those traumas have been largely mine. Other than some napping difficulties Julian seems pretty happy with the babysitter. Bottles and feeding have become a new temporary obsession of mine, since it seems hard to truly feel like I'm keeping up with the little guy when I have to pump at work. Next weekend we'll be starting him on some food - most likely rice cereal - so that may help a bit. Also we hope to get some good photos out of that milestone.
Jules has been starting to really enjoy riding around in the Baby Bjorn. This weekend he has spent some time checking out the world from Dad's chest-height and is pretty tickled by it. Here is a video of him busting out some giggles while helping to set the table:
Another big first - Julian had his first "play date" this past Saturday. Friends of ours from our Bradley childbirth class (see earlier posts for Chris' commentary on Bradley class) came over and brought their baby boy Noah, who is only 3 days older than JD (but about 3 lbs bigger!). They seemed to have a great time just interacting with each other. Noah tried to show Julian that it's pretty cool to hang out on your tummy, and Jules tried to show Noah how to suck your thumb. A good time was had by all. It was also a nice play date for his Mom and Dad, who very much enjoyed the company of other adults/new parents. We even talked about subjects other than our babies! The weather here is finally perking up and we can see the spring light at the end of the long winter tunnel. We took Julian out for his first hike today to celebrate the sun being out and the temperature peaking around 60 degrees. Turns out there's a pretty sweet trail right by our house which follows the Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River. There are waterfalls and everything! Again, he was in his Baby Bjorn and loved it! He giggled as we walked along the trail, presumably enjoying the new experience of sun and breeze on his baby skin. Then, once he got tired of it he fell asleep. Anyway, stay tuned for pictures of that adventure - as soon as we download those.
Raising little Julian is quite an adventure, and we want to share the special moments with all our friends and family. Check back often to see photos, videos, and stories of our little guy. And the occasional commentary on our new life here in the Old Line State.
