Friday at the Garden

Boy Friday was not being especially photogenic yesterday. Mostly he just grimaced, squinted, and refused to remove his sucky.



Who can blame him, though? It was hot, sunny, and he was tired. He does enjoy flowers, though, and his word for flower now resembles "flowee" rather than "sha-ee" - what he used to say.

Friday is getting really good at colors, too. Poo-pie (purple), yay-why (yellow), gwee, oofta (that's orange), boo, why (red, I think). He says both one and two, but isn't too clear on other numbers. And he even knows some letters! I bought some alphabet pasta soup thing from Target, and it was a noisy meal. He kept picking up the letters and telling me what they were. Especially "W" - not sure why he likes that letter so much. He can identify E, P, W, O (but he often calls it "eye" because, you know, it's a circle, so it must be an eye). Daduee is vitamin - he really enjoys getting gummy vitamins after dinner. mukum is milk. seewee is cereal. And today (actually, yesterday too) he insisted on the pik bowl (pink). Not sure why he needs his seewee and mukum in a pink bowl, but hey, that's ok with me.

This kid is weird, though - he likes strong flavors. Like see saw (soy sauce) - if you give him rice, he'll insist on seesaw with it. And he enjoys ju (juice) - grapefruit juice! The kind without any added sugar, too! Vinegar? sure! Why not? So, you really can't assume he won't like something just because it's a bizarre and strong flavor. In fact, he won't eat lightly flavored cheeses. They have to be strong - he's not overly fond of mild cheddar. Sharp is ok, but he'd prefer parmesan.

Oh, and now that his yellow duck bath deflated, we went through a couple of days where he'd stand and cry "all done!" over and over. That was short lived, though, and now after dinner he says "bat!" for bath. Really enjoying throwing water EVERYWHERE. I think some hit the ceiling yesterday.

I just pulled the crayons out again (he ate a piece the last time I had them out), and he's really enjoying coloring! He does color on the tile, too - but it cleans up easily. He is also majorly obsessed with choo choos. He can say Toby and Thomas (these both sound like slight variations of "too-be")and Gordon (gordo). Of course, he doesn't have Toby or Gordon (we have Percy and Victor in the wooden set). When Friday wakes up in the morning he runs to his room and says "choo choo! choo choo!" until I turn on the DVD. I would like to change how much he watches...

Is it almost May?

I can't believe it will be May on Friday! It actually looks like spring on our street - the trees have leaves! As of oh, two days ago. It's crazy how quickly they grow. Spring and Fall are so much more ephemeral than I remember.

We've been trying to give Boy Friday more finger foods at meal times, however he still seems to want yummy pureed fruit. And yogurt. He LOVES yogurt. And he dislikes wearing a bib.




He didn't get it off that time, but he's thrown it on the floor twice in the last two days.

Friday is still working on his crawling moves - he keeps pushing his rear up into the air, but he can't get his belly off the floor yet. He doesn't seem too interested in standing, either. When I try standing him up, his legs just bend, and he won't grab onto anything. Of course, he seems to like keeping his hands free and ready for action. When he was learning to sit, he never went through the "tripod" stage where the baby props himself up with his arms. Nope, just from flopping over to sitting without support!

Although I realize we aren't ready for him to be super-mobile yet, I would like it if he would NOT fall on his head from a sitting position. He just doesn't catch himself (you know, he's just so interested in those socks and that toy way over there). Once he gets onto the floor, he can't get back up, either. Perhaps the slow progression is due to my attempts to prevent him from falling on his head too often (wood and tile floors are not the softest surfaces, you know). Seems plenty happy to me, though (um, aside from his shrieky moments).

Eight Month Doctor Visit

Today we went to the doctor for Boy Friday's 8-month visit. He's been rather cranky lately and we suspected a tooth or two might be coming in. Yep! They aren't in yet, but apparently FOUR teeth are coming in. All four upper incisors! No wonder the little guy is having so much trouble sleeping.

Boy Friday hasn't grown very fast lately - just one inch in length in the last two months, and less than one pound in weight! Now he's at the 10th percentile for weight, 40th for height. And I thought he was going to be huge based on how big he got in the first couple of months!

He's moving around quite a bit now - no crawling yet, but he can definitely get around. Not too speedy yet, either - which is a good thing! The doctor says we can phase out the pureed foods, and move on to mainly finger foods. The little dude has gotten really good at his pincer grip and putting little puffs and o's in his mouth (and he seems to enjoy it).

DST = Time Confusion

We have now been on Daylight Saving Time for a week. I am no longer used to springing forward, as I must have been as a kid (did I even notice then? I suspect I worried about when to change the time and being late for something. I don't think I knew it was supposed to be at 2 am. Plus, I was always late, so really, what was there to worry about?) It's rather strange to suddenly have the sun go down around 7 pm. I keep thinking it's only 5 or only 6, then realize it's 7 or 8! I'm not sure I like it. If it were mid-summer, I suppose that's ok - but when will the sun go down THEN? Nine? Yikes.

Ok, ANYWAY - we took advantage of the 70-degree weather and went for a short walk this evening (it was around 6 pm in these photos).





And here's what the Little Dude has been working on lately - putting food into his mouth and chewing! He still has just the two bottom teeth, but he's certainly getting the hang of the chewing. He was grabbing these faster than I could turn on the camera - so there is only one left already!