The Daddy Diaries: Adventures in Solid Foods

Kai has turned into a champion eater and explorer of all things edible. It seems that he'll eat just about anything, as evidenced by the raw onion he grabbed and sucked on while Lauren was making dinner the other night. When Lauren took it away, he got upset and reached for more. Some of the more run-of-the-mill foods he's tried so far are: avocado, carrot, quinoa, zucchini, oatmeal, sweet potato, rice pasta, banana, watermelon, spinach, lentils, and blueberries. It's hard to decide which foods make the biggest mess, but I'd say that sweet potato and watermelon are right up at the top of that list. He needed a bath immediately following both of the meals pictured below....

Happy Birthday to Me! or...Thank You!!!!

I feel so very loved and special. Thank you to my wonderful husband who absolutely accomplished his goals of surprising me for my upcoming 30th birthday, and of making me feel so good on this occasion...The video, audio, and e-mail submissions were lovely, and what people had to say at the party was so generous and kind and nice.

Bob knows me well, and truly, I do love public praise and surprises and being the center of attention (hey, I can admit it about myself! :) ), so his request for people to share why they think I'm so fabulous was pretty much the perfect gift! And yes, I was totally, completely surprised. It actually scared the bejeezus out of me when I walked into the house and saw so many people all yelling, "surprise!" It was also just so fun because there were multiple babies and kids here, and well, I loved that.

A special thanks to Deji for driving to NH to pick up a cake that would agree with Kai's tummy via me (dairy- and gluten-free).

I have to say, I'm really looking forward to actually turning 30! (August 12, in case you're wondering!).

Molars?!?

Have we mentioned? Kai is teething. But he's approaching the process in a very individualistic manner. No sign of his front four teeth, but we've seen white pop through in the back where molars go, and there are big swollen lumps where canines and incisors live. During our most recent visit, our pediatrician exclaimed, "Oh! I know this happens but I've never seen it! Let me feel!" Kai obliged.

Our generally chipper fellow has definitely been slightly less chipper with all the activity under his gums.

The Daddy Diaries: Photojournal Edition

Bath time in the sink!



Splashing is a necessary and fun part of bathing.



Play time with friends Jenny & Sophie.



(back row from l. to r.) Lauren, Kai, Jenny, and David. Bob's knee and Sophie in foreground.



Solid foods are messy!



Gnaw, gnaw, gnaw. Carrots are good for teething. Especially when your first tooth to break through is a molar. Yes, seriously.



Kai liked his bowl more than the avocado on this day. (don't worry, the chips are for Lauren)



Avocado soul patch.

The Daddy Diaries: Our Little Geek

Kai often appears fascinated when Lauren and I are typing - sometimes we let him play with the keyboard. Usually that just means a lot of space bar pressing, but occasionally he does something quite unexpected.

Just a few minutes ago, he began banging on the keyboard and somehow managed to open a new tab in Firefox with the version 3.0 release notes. Which was quite impressive. A bit more banging and he bookmarked the page. Which was amazing. Then he printed the release notes. Clearly, he's much more advanced than we give him credit for. We'll see if he wants to read them (or more likely, chew on them) later.

More true to form, Kai now writes:
,,hj n .

,,hj n . indeed. I know you're smarter than you're letting on.

The Daddy Diaries: New Milestones

Our little bear is growing up so fast. For the last few weeks he's been consistently rolling over from back to tummy (he's been doing tummy to back for quite some time). His new favorite bedtime game is to roll over. And over. And over. He's also begun rolling over in his sleep.

About a week to ten days ago, he just woke up one day with a new level of alertness. Both Lauren and I noticed it independently. When he looks at us or at other people or objects, he just seems more focused and intense. We look at him and there's just something there in his eyes. He knows. I don't know what he knows exactly. But it's there.

Within the last week, he's begun flailing his arms in a new and....interesting....way. And I swear that he hits me now to get my attention sometimes. Here's a recent vid of the flailing:



Just two days ago, he started profusely babbling consonants, including many we'd never heard him utter before. There's a bit of that in the previous video, but here's an more extensive sampling:



Don't know what exciting new tricks are up next for him, but we'll let you know when they come....