Week 42 - almost caught up!

Well, we finally got a week of pictures ready to go in (almost) real time.  This week Brian cut his 8th tooth through, so he has a balanced set of 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom now.  Hopefully he'll get a break now for a while.  He's also gotten good at putting our extra change in the change jar (need to get a video, very cute!) and has perfected waving.  We're working on high-five, but don't quite have that one down.  Here are the pictures from this last week, in no particular order.  :)

Grandma Brenda bought Brian Bambi.  This is a view of his own private chair for movie watching.  And next to that is a picture of him perked up watching the forest animals jumping around to the great music.  It'd been a really long time since I'd seen Bambi.  What a fun thing to experience with him!

Random closeups ...

On Sunday morning, it "clicked" that when we put food on his tray, he can pick it up and put it in his mouth.  Before this he'd put toys (and rocks, and carpet fuzz, etc.) in his mouth with no problem.  And he'd eat food we'd put in his mouth.  But he wouldn't pick up food and put it in his mouth.  One funny thing - the morning he decided to start feeding himself he decided he didn't want to eat from the spoon anymore.  Now I have to feed him his "food" before he feeds himself or he won't eat it!

Here are a few shots of our foodie after some peas and carrots, or was it spinach and squash?  I can't remember.  :)

Sunday after church we had lunch with our friends Nathan and Isabel (and Sophia and Nico) and my parents.  Here is a picture of Papa Chuck holding Nico, and Gram Amy holding (a sleeping) Brian.

Our little man has turned into quite the helper around the house.  First he was helping me with the dishes ...

Then there was the laundry.  He was really helping me out here!

We've put up a baby gate at his bedroom door for when we just need our hands free for a few minutes.  He's like a little jailbird.  As soon as he hears the gate click, he crawls over at top speed, stands up, squeals (or cries, whines, screams, you get the idea) for a moment then proceeds to grab the bars and shake the gate.  Thankfully it holds pretty well, and he usually gets bored and goes back to playing.  It works best if you can sneak out while he's distracted.  :)

Here is Brian smiling and holding the Kimmy bear.  He still picks this one up from time to time.  Thanks again to Kimmy, who gave him to me for Brian a long time ago!

Brian got his first Lego's this week!  And Cory had a great time playing with them.  He made a quick dog for Brian, who of course decided to eat it!  The first of many Lego sets, and Lego play dates with Daddy, I'm sure.

Random pictures while playing ...

We got Brian a new toy that is a musical table - very cool jazz/bluesy music for us to listen to!

Our little Rock Star got a Mohawk in the bathtub the other day!

Our sweet boy sleeping on my arm one afternoon...

Here is a progression of pictures.  I had just woken Brian up from a nap (since he'd been sleeping for almost 2 hours and it was already 5:30).  He started out watching Star Trek with me ... look what happened ...

Here is a smattering of pictures from the local playground.  There's one of me helping Brian slide down the small slide. 

And here are a few of us at the big spiral slide... 

He really did have fun, just looks a little unsure in the last picture

And here's a cute one of him playing in the Rhino one evening while Gram and Papa Chuck watched him so we could go to a movie.  (Thanks again!)

Brian and I go for a walk almost every day.  Most of the time we just go up to the mailbox and playground (a decent hill to walk up, as I'm not used to the elevation here yet).  One day I got fired up and decided to walk up the road that we live on toward the mountain.  I only went until I wasn't sure where the sidewalk went (about 5 minutes) but it made for some pretty views.  There was a storm rolling in over the mountains. The hill doesn't look like much, but trust me, it was hard work with a stroller.  :)

(Looking roughly South or maybe South East)

(Looking more South or South West)

(Looking over the mountains to the East)

(Looking back down the hill we walked up)

Brian playing with Papa Chuck!