Kazoo Baby Kazoo

I was cleaning our house this week and found a kazoo that Esten got in his stocking at Christmas last year. I showed it to Rowan and played my best kazoo for him too. He took it from me, stuck it in his mouth and started playing it. Like this:

If you ever need a kazoo player we have one for hire. He is booked through the end of the month but has some open dates thereafter. And also if you find yourself in need of paper shredder, we have one of those too.

Social Butterfly

I've been looking for a playgroup to take Rowan to for a few months but was getting discouraged by all of the hoops people on the mommy boards want you jump through. So I had just laid the idea to rest until Esten and I went to Ben and Jerry's for dessert one night. There's a big fountain in the middle of the shopping plaza and we were walking around it to work off some of those calories, ha! This couple with a baby walked out of Atami, a sushi restaurant, and we started talking to them. Come to find out Jennifer knew of the Friends from La Leche League playgroup. So I took Rowan the next morning and one of the moms there invited us to another free activity called Music Makers. And then I found out about a free program at the library called Babies and Books. So we've been socializing. It's fun for both of us, Rowan gets to play with other babies and I get to talk to other moms. Rowan is an observer. The first day he stayed close to me and observed what was going on for 20 minutes or so. Then he was off, taking toys from other babies, begging other moms for their snacks and introducing himself to the group by sitting in the middle of our circle in this pose:



clapping and turning all the way around while screeching at the top of his lungs. He is the loudest baby in the group. Here is a picture of him playing with his new friends.



Unfortunately he has payed the price for his social behavior of sharing toys with his new friends, with a cold. His nose is runny and he has a little cough. So this week we're skipping our playgroups but we'll be at Babies and Books Monday morning.

Rowan learned how to clap. I've been trying for months to teach him to do it so this was a BIG deal for us. We listen to music in his room while he is playing and he has picked a favorite song. He claps at most songs, but Five Little Monkeys steals his heart. He usually stops and stares at the stereo while clapping and humming along to this one. Other songs get a periodic clap and smile. This is a video of him clapping from a week ago. Since then he has perfected the clap.

Rowan has his top, front two teeth now. It was rough but they're in. There appears to be a gap between them but we'll have to wait and see. He had his 9 month check up yesterday. He's ~ 21 pounds and ~28 inches long. I wouldn't say he likes the doctor's office so therefore the nurses do what they can to get an estimate. Can you believe he'll be 1 in a few months? I'm about 50% finished with his birthday banner and we're thinking about party plans.

The Gorge

Let me explain my long hiatus from blogging. There is a little curious, button-loving almost 9 month old baby who won't let me. When I open my computer his eyes light up and he immediately crawls over to abuse my keyboard. So it's only while he is sleeping that I'm able to use the computer and I usually have his naps booked. By booked I mean every second is being used to frantically wash the dishes, cook, clean, etc... I previously relied on his exersaucer and johnny jumper to occupy him but he isn't in to being confined anymore. He is crawling all over the place, pulling up on everything and standing all by himself. He even took a tiny step the other day. He may be over confident in his standing skills so I am watching him like a hawk these days. He also has started eating much better. He eats anything we are eating or something close to it. Pureed foods are NOT popular with this baby. He prefers chunky foods. My mom told me I also had nothing to do with baby food. Today he ate blueberries and oatmeal for breakfast and chicken, barley and steamed apples for lunch and dinner. He still eats relatively small amounts but he is finally interested. He also has a expanded his vocabulary, to include not only Maaama, but Daada, Naana, Yaaya, Baaba and lots of car noises. One really cute thing he is doing everyday is crawling to the bathtub to take his bath. Esten always strips him down while I get his bath ready. One day he just took off to the tub before he could get him undressed. Now he does it every night and when he turns that corner into the bathroom he has the same delighted look in his eyes that he has when I open my computer.

We just got home from a vacation to Washington where we reunited with some of our best friends. We all met at our friends Joel and Clint's grandmother's lake house. She was such a saint to let 14 of us stay with her. Then we traveled via 12 passenger van and minivan to The Gorge to camp and see Phish. It was an amazing trip and we had a blast. It was Rowan's first camping trip and he did really well. The time change made things a little difficult but he's a trooper. We saw Phish two nights and the first night Rowan stayed up and danced (jumped) for about 30 minutes, the second night he passed out before they even came on. This is from his dancing night. I made those Huck Finn's.

Mama and Ro.

Still dancing.
He loved the tent. And yes, we used disposable diapers for our vacation. His carbon footprint grew a wee bit but it's still smaller than most.
This is a group photo of the crew. We had a baby and pregnant mama with us.

Rowan eating his shoe. One of two pairs that actually fit him. Most shoes are too tight due to the chub on the top of his feet.
Family photo at The Gorge.
This was Ro's first beer. He loved it and slept through the night. Only kidding, it was not open but he liked it because it was cold on those gums. Oh yeah, since last time, Rowan has two teeth! The bottom front two. They are adorable.

Thunder Thigh Giggle

He calls me Muuum.

Some things you might hear if you were a fly on our wall today would be: "Baby Boy, you're going to fall", "Rowan Mason, be careful", "Rowan, how did you get there?", "You can't pull up on that, it's going to fall over." I think you may get my point. He is getting really brave with this pulling up thing and uses his crawling skills to get him to whatever it may be that he wants to pull up on. Oh yeah, he says "Muuuuum" now! My mom heard it, I've heard it and Esten has too, although he will probably never admit it. So far the only time I've heard him say, "Muuum" is when he is tired or hungry so therefore, I think he knows what he is saying. And tonight I'll leave you with some pictures from our family photos. We had them taken by Butterfly Chaser Photography. Sarah did an amazing job and even put together a video compilation of some of the photos. Those eyes and thighs...

All Images Copyright Butterfly Chaser Photography

Here We Go

Rowan is officially crawling. He has been inching around for a few weeks but last night and this morning he is mobile. We had a party this past weekend and our friends Bo and Elizabeth brought their son, Isom, who is well on his way to walking. Rowan LOVED him and told him that by screaming in his ear, pulling his hair, and poking his eyes. He really thought that Isom was a super fun toy. Needless to say I'm looking for a playdate for Rowan very soon. He should know that he is not the ONLY baby in the world, right? I think Rowan picked up a few new moves from him too, like crawling.



We took Ro to Fredericksburg a few weeks ago to swim. We were keeping our fingers crossed that he would enjoy the pool since he cried about his baby pool we bought him. Fortunately for all of us, he enjoyed every second of his swimming. He splashes until he is choking on the water, catches his breath and resumes splashing all while kicking his little legs under the water.



Esten and I have a wine barrel that we planted some strawberries in this year. They were doing really well until this sweltering heat came upon us. We would have a few strawberries at a time and they were really sweet. Rowan took interest in them when Esten was picking them while holding him. Esten let him try the berry and he took a few "pecks" at it and made the decision that he liked it. He then continued to suck on it until he was practically gone. Then when we went to Fredericksburg, Esten was picking some blackberries and Ro loved those too. He's a berry baby.






For Father's Day this year Rowan and I made Esten a tie. Rowan helped by letting me work on the tie while he napped or played. I found the pattern on one of the blogs I read. It turned out really nice and he says he likes it. I know, I know a tie is the one of the worst gifts ever, but it's a tradition to give dads ties. So we did. A lot of love went into that tie. This picture is not the best but you'll get the idea.



We had some family photos taken this past week so stay tuned, they should be finished in a few weeks.

Half a Year Old

Here are some recent pictures of Rowan. He is still not crawling but determined he will. No matter how many times he face plants it, he'll get up again and continue to try. These pictures are from our front yard yesterday at lunch. He was picking and eating grass, a big step considering a few months ago he would cry if you put his feet down in the grass. And I suppose eating grass is better than the post it note he ate last week. Oops!



We've been trying to get Rowan to start eating solids, with little success. Somedays he'll eat and somedays he won't have anything to do with it. I don't force him to eat if doesn't want to but try to offer something to him everyday. Last night he was attacking the spoon for carrots. They were so good that he thought it was essential to smear them all over his face. Ian was taking advantage of this and getting in a few licks of carrots off of his hands. Rowan loves dog attention so I see him feeding his food to the dogs in the months to come.

And these beauties are from our garden. I made stuffed bell peppers last night. This is the first year that Esten and I have actually had enough peppers to make a meal. There are more to come too along with the eggplant.

Rowan's sitting up skills are much better now. He will sit up for long periods and play with his toys. Here he is playing with his favorite flower chime. That toy is a hand me down from Mara and I have to say it has been put to great use. Maybe someday he will be into the trucks, trains and dinosaurs...

These two are best buds. Pablo surprisingly tolerates all of the pinches, pulls and pokes from Ro. And if you leave Rowan alone for a few minutes, you'll come back to Pablo sitting beside him keeping a close eye. Pablo is Rowan's keeper in his little chihuahua world. Their relationship may change when Rowan can chase him, we'll see. Oh and the poor cat, Rowan sees him and screams at the top of his lungs. I suspect Rowan will be chasing him too. The cat is beginning to realize that the screams are screams of interest and scurries away at the sound. Rowan is more and more fun everyday and it is so hard to believe that he has already been here for six months. Time is racing by.