26 weeks

A day late this week, but it's still technically the weekend so I'll give myself a pass. Settle in, this is a long one.

What a busy week we had again! I almost can't remember back to last Monday! I'll start with a couple pictures from earlier in the week of K sitting in his crib with the help of his Boppy. He really is hit or miss with the sitting.


I actually dressed him in this, not Rob.

A couple pictures I took after taking his 6 month pictures. I just can't narrow some of these down when he's so darn cute in all of them.
He didn't feel like sitting on his own so I held his knees with my feet.


Then we moved up to the changing table where he does some of his best sitting. (Don't worry, I have the wide angle lens on, so I'm basically standing right there.) It's funny that his changing table has been a location for him to practice many developmental milestones.




A very common Kasper expression





I already wrote on Friday about Kasper's Dr appointment. We need to give that boy more food! He's just not all that interested sometimes. I tried to feed him a lot this weekend, nursing and also 3 solid meals a day. After the Dr appointment, we headed over to his new Spanish immersion daycare to meet the teachers. The teachers speak only in Spanish around the kids and also teach them sign language using the Spanish words! As someone who had a Spanish minor in college and studied abroad in Spain where all my classes were taught in Spanish, I am so excited for Kasper to learn a second language so young! Every week, each room (infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers) has a different topic that they learn about. When we toured the center back in October, one of the pre-school rooms was learning about camping! The parents get a sheet to take home to help the kids practice the new words. In the infant room, they work on a new sign each week. In addition to the wonderful things K will learn and be exposed to, the center diapers in cloth diapers that they provide AND wash and feed only organic foods. I think I'm in love. So as we were walking around seeing where our mailbox is, where to drop off milk, etc, we left K with the group who were in a circle having music time. The teachers were banging drums and singing a song in Spanish where they used each kid's name. They even used Kasper's! At one point we looked over at the circle and there was Kasper Williams playing a tambourine!! It was hilarious!


Ok, enough gushing. I hope the day goes well tomorrow and Kasper adjusts to his new place. I know he'll miss his old teachers and the jumping toys they had. He's a pretty adaptable baby. I just hope they can get him sleep.

The weekend was our oyster and it was wonderful to look forward to! Luckily it turned out to be just as wonderful as I anticipated! We started the weekend right with some waffles.

Psych!


This weekend Kasper really enjoyed doing 2 new things. Sticking out his tongue and screeching. In lot of the pictures I took this weekend his tongue was out or he was mid-screech. He would even stick his tongue out if you did it first.



Kasper started sweet potatoes Saturday and I think this is his favorite food so far. He LOVES them!

Sweet potato tongue. (Side note, I can't wait until we get in the new house and the poor baby can use a real high chair for meals!)


Hugging Mama tongue.


Helping us pack!


Can you believe he's only in the 20% for weight?? Look at those rolls! He's in his swimsuit because we were getting ready to go SWIMMING!

We headed over to the pool at my sister's apartment for Kasper to take his first dip!





He loved the water and spent over a half hour in the pool! He splashed around and kicked and just enjoyed floating around. I'm not that surprised since he seems to really dig his baths but I didn't think he'd actively enjoy swimming. It took a lot out of him and he napped for awhile while the adults got some sun.


We met Grandpa Steve, Carol and Carol's son and daughter-in-law Bryce and Susan for dinner Saturday night at Wise Acre (where we went for Father's Day). It was a delicious place to go for dinner as well! We always enjoy spending time with Bryce and Susan - they live in NY so we don't see them often. Actually, the last time we saw them was New Years Eve! The day before Kasper was born!

Sunday was nice and low-key. Rob went to play disc golf while Kasper and I fought each other on his nap schedule. (He won.) Like I said earlier, I tried hard to keep Kasper well-fed and tried to feed him a couple meals of solids. At daycare, they'll give him breakfast and lunch, so we'll just have to give him dinner!
More sweet potatoes. Again with the pictures, but I love him so much and want to have all these pictures here.




Screeching




Captain Adorable

Classic, classic Kasper faces here


He looks like a little person!


My parents stopped by en route to the airport on their way to Alaska for a couple weeks! Next time we see them, we won't live in this house anymore. Sad. Kasper was giving up the fight on naps at this point.


This morning Kasper took a 2.5 hour nap (!!) which gave Rob and me a chance to do some good packing. When he woke up, I lathered on the sunscreen, put him in the stroller and Rob took him for a run up the chain of lakes to where we were meeting some of my co-workers for a picnic. It was a PERFECT day and I was glad to have an excuse to be outside this afternoon! K was a wonderful baby as usual.




And now it's now! What a perfect long weekend. Equal parts home with routines and enjoying the great outdoors with a healthy dose of friends and family. Let's hope all of us can sleep through the fireworks that are due to begin shortly! I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

We even got into the spirit by lighting off $2 worth of fireworks we bought at Target! Go Independence!




Notice how proud Rob is in the background of all these. I just wanted to try different camera settings!

26 weeks - Tongues and screeches for sure.

6 Months

Kasper -



You are 6 months old already!! 6 months ago, I was worried you'd stay a needy baby forever! Time really does fly and it's crazy to think that in 6 more months you will be a whole year old.



According to your Dr today, these are your stats:

Weight: 15.8 lbs - 20%
Length: 27.24" - 75%
Head: 16.5" - 10%

You are really sliding down the weight chart, my friend! The Dr is "concerned but not ready to do anything yet." You are staying on the charts for both your length and head size, so you're clearly growing. I was obviously stressed about it, but she's the Dr so I'll have to trust that she knows what to be really worried about! We all think it's because you're such an active baby and are too busy to take in enough calories throughout the day. It's my new goal to get you to eat more. I really, really like your Dr. She's so calm and can settle some of my (many) neuroses.

What else are you up to?

You still love daycare. According to your teachers you are a wonderful, happy baby while you're there. (I think you save your whining for when you get home.) Jumping is still your most favorite thing to do followed closely by rolling around on the floor. Now that you can easily roll every which way, you can make your way around a room in no time! You do like to stop along the way to grab at things and have a little nibble on them. Your time at this daycare is now over and you'll start at a new place after the 4th. Your Papa and I have very mixed emotions on the change, but I think that it'll be good for you.

Developmentally, you're currently working on being able to sit up. If you're in a mood to, you can sit for quite awhile! The stars have to be aligned just so, though. Most of the time you're maniacally trying to eat your toes or grab at something just out of reach. I wouldn't trust you to stay sitting if I were to walk away. I can tell you would like to be sitting because you strain to sit up when you're laying down. Maybe it'll click one of these days.

You're now a month into solids! I have to admit that we're not the most consistent with feeding you food. Sometimes you get 2 meals a day, sometimes 1. You always get rice cereal for lunch at daycare but at home we don't have a regular schedule. You often like to stay sleeping in the morning so we have only enough time to change a diaper, put on clothes and nurse before rushing out the door. Then when we get home, you would rather sleep again because you prefer not to nap at daycare. We'll have to figure out food soon since you'll eventually have to subsist on something other than breastmilk. Since the AAP recommends being exclusively breastfed until 6 months, I don't feel like you're too far behind. And since you're a skinny fellow, I'd like you to get as much of the calorie-rich milk you can to bulk up a little. There - I've made myself feel better about your diet. As far as what we have given you, you enjoy rice cereal and avocados the most. You will tolerate bananas but until if they're barely ripe. I think it's the consistency that gets you with the bananas. I hear you. I've had a tenuous relationship with bananas as well.

Grandma Sandra recently sent us some details from when your Papa was your age since she keeps good notes:

On July 5th, when he was 6 months old, he had his first food -- bananas and rice cereal. The next day he was upset and we took him to the Dr. on July 7th and he had a fever of 102.6. It was a throat infection and he got V-Cillin K.Tempra which he didn't like at all. He rolled over on July 10th and had more rice cereal and banana lots of days. On July 13th I wrote that Robert could sit up by himself for about 5 minutes at a time. July 23rd we added beef and on July 29th, carrots.

Looks like Papa was doing a lot of things you're doing. He was also eating beef! Hahahaha! That makes me laugh for some reason.

Your transition to the crib has stuck! You've taken all of your naps and spent every evening in there this past month. Without a swaddle even! We start your bedtime routine around 7pm. Sometimes with a bath sometimes without. It depends on how done with your day you are. Your baths are in the big tub now since you've outgrown other bathing locations. You love to kick and splash around in the water. Not surprising since you are NEVER still. After the bath, we slather you with lotion as you wriggle all around your changing table grabbing at things. You get a double stuffed diaper, pjs then nurse until you're nice and sleepy. We lay your down in your crib around 7:30-8 tired but awake with a paci and your little lovey blanket. We generally don't hear a peep from you as you make yourself comfortable and fall to sleep. For the most part you are able to sleep through the whole night until 6:30 am. Sometimes you wake up hungry at 3 or 4 but you'll eat and go right back to sleep. On the weekends we'll bring you in bed with us when you wake up and we can all sleep in a bit. I love opening my eyes and seeing you sleeping right next to me and smelling your sweet baby breath. You look so peaceful. And be thankful for this time when you aren't waking up with morning breath - you have the rest of your life for that.

You are a SUPER active baby. Always grabbing at something or hitting or pulling. It's sometimes a challenge to feed you by nursing or with a spoon because you are too busy grabbing everything in your reach. The calmest we've seen you was this month when you had your first illness. You had a fever for 5 days which had you laying pretty low. The fever was attributed to your first ear infection! You had a round of amoxicillin which brought you back to feeling yourself.

You continue to be such a good baby. You are so social and happy for the most part. We spent a lot of the month house hunting and you were a total trooper with all the house showings. Routines and schedules suffered this month but we all made it through. Hopefully when we move in 2 weeks we can get back into a routine.

Stay cool, peanut. I love you and love you.

Mama

Some more photos from our session. He's a lot more interested in the monkey now!















Here comes Lois to see what all the fuss is.