Trying to find time ...

I haven't been keeping our little family album as up-to-date as I'd like, partly because I'm procrastinating less and working more (grin), and partly because I'm trying to spend less time on the computer. Those are both good developments, I guess, but I don't want this project to fall by the wayside.

What's new in the past week is that Peter's walking as much as he can. Although he started in January, now he's walking more than crawling, and likes to walk laps around the house, especially holding on to a big person's finger or thumb. He leads.

We also installed black-out blinds in his bedroom, and moved his bedtime from 7 pm to 8 pm as part of a plan to improve his sleeping. It's worked quite well. He's not too cranky before bedtime (we've been entertaining him with home renovation projects: papering the inside of kitchen cabinets, installing blinds), and he manages to sleep through until 5 when he has his first breakfast, then back to sleep until 7 or so. What a relief.

Something else that's new is that Peter's been talking much more, or rather imitating in most cases. He's saying ba-ba again (bye-bye) spontaneously, and da-da of course, and then some other syllables that sound like hot and cold (ot, old), thank you (I can't quite spell this one, it's more like a two syllable grunt), and all done (a-da). These are real words. Then there is lots of repitition (spontaneous though) when he hears a word in our conversation, or when we speak to him. He seems to speak a lot on some days, and not so much on others.

His first birthday is in a few weeks. I'm torn about party plans. I want to do something special and fun, but also something that won't leave either of us frazzled and worn out. We also have lots of friends with babies around the same age or a bit older, and we'd love to include them in celebrating. Maybe two parties? A tea party for babies and mummies one day, then dinner for the grandrelatives and cousins from out of town. Either way, theme parties can wait.

YouTube video test

Well, this is five months old. Peter seems so different now, though he still likes this game. If this works, I'll try to add more video again soon.

giving mummy a Cheerio

giving mummy a cheerio
Originally uploaded by pkellyspurles.

He's pretty generous with his food, though I like the Cheerios to be new rather than drooly.

Cooking with baby 2

Cooking with baby 2
Originally uploaded by pkellyspurles.

After practicing whisking (with a whisk and an empty bowl) a few times, Peter finally got to try his hand a few weeks ago on a chocolate souffle. He did just great.

Cooking with baby 1

Cooking with baby 1
Originally uploaded by pkellyspurles.

We're still cooking when we can. Last Sunday, we made pizza from scratch. Peter seemed interested but skeptical as I mixed and kneaded the dough. He put his hands in the flour just as I took this picture. The pizza was really good: homemade sauce and crust, onion, fennel, mushroom, red pepper, and goat cheese.

building instead of knocking down

building instead of knocking down
Originally uploaded by pkellyspurles.

We're still playing with blocks, and Peter has begun to show interest in stacking rather than knocking down. I notice that he doesn't always place them flat side down, but tries to see if they'll stand upright on a corner. When he does this, he presses them together hard as if to make them stick.

Dancing

I'm not sure dancing is really the right term -- bopping, maybe, is better since Peter's really just bobbing his head and shoulders up and down, or swaying back and forth while he's sitting in his high chair. We smile, and so he smiles too while bopping. Peter does it while listening to the canned music from his car toy, and often when Ron hums or sings. He doesn't dance to classical music, even though I've tried to encourage him.

There seems to be something new every day. A few days ago we noticed that he's started (rarely) repeating words from our conversations. Last week it was banana ("bamama"), and then "ish" the other night. (Ish means "sort of". I'd call it an idiosyncracy rather than slang.) He's also talking in long, fully inflected babble phrases, though he hasn't quite given up on "bap." Ron says that he heard Peter saying it under his breath again the other day" "bap, bap, bap, bap." "Dat" seems to be outmoded now, though I think I might have heard it make a reappearance tonight.

Something else that isn't really new is that Peter's eating a lot of table food, as opposed to prepared baby food. He's not picky, which surprises me after his initial reaction to green beans. He eats almost everything we do, though not wheat, eggs, dairy, nuts, fish, or shellfish yet. Tonight he had his supper (sweet potatoes, I think, corn, and maybe bananas) and then shared mine: broccoli, tofu, and sweet potato curry over basmati rice (from the tofu section of Joy of Cooking).

Art

Art
Originally uploaded by pkellyspurles.

The little munchkin worked on his art last night, mostly with the right end of the pencil on the paper. When I got the camera out to take a picture of it, he abandoned the pencil for the camera. Here, he's having a fit because I took the camera away from him.

The fort

Fort
Originally uploaded by pkellyspurles.

I built a sofa-cushion-fort for Peter one day, and then mentioned to Ron how much he'd liked it. Ron built a dramatically more complex one a few days later, with steps up to the sofa, and two exits. Peter crawled all around, peeking around the corners and out the doors, and laughed until his tummy must have ached.

Boxing Day

Cynthia, Pat, and Peter
Originally uploaded by pkellyspurles.

Ron's family visited, with hugs and presents. Peter has enjoyed playing with this little car, and especially likes to dance (well, bounce and bop) to the musical sound effects. (Note to inventors: we'd like someone to invent a baby toy ipod, so that we don't have to listen to the Muffin Man song aaaaannnyyyymoooore.)