Weeks 24-28 (Jan 14 - Feb 17)

Wow, that was a fast 5 weeks, or 6, but who's counting?!

The BIG EVENT of this interim was G'Ma Pat's 70th birthday and birthday party / weekend. I took the day off, a Friday, and Aldo and I drove down to enjoy the day with G'Ma.  We first joined G'Ma at a wonderful lunch with 5 or 6 of her girlfriends.  I'd previously met most of these wonderful women, but some faces were new.  It was great to hear their stories, and they were kind even though Aldo was a bit fussy. G'Ma helped to put him to sleep.

G'Ma let me take over the afternoon to run some errands...so to Costco and Ikea we went.  Aldo tolerated these two quite well.  Afterward, at 5, we were in the parking lot of both the gymnastics for John's kids, and the Mimi's for the 6 o'clock dinner reservations.  We enjoyed seeing the 'cousins'.  Really, I think Aldo most enjoyed finally having a moment fully reclined and to play with his toes.  We also saw Joeanne, Kim's mom, which was wonderful and fun, as it had been awhile.

The big surprise was that Audra and the girls came to joint the Mimi's party.  I missed the surprise moment as I had to go back to the car for my nursing wrap, but I hear it was funny as G'Ma registered that Audra and the girls were there.  We had a nice meal and Aldo fell asleep after much bouncing by G'Ma.

The next day the whole family went to JC Penney's and had photos taken.  I wish I had one to post here as they truly came out great.  I think G'Ma had fun.  It was a lot of work for Aldo and I, but we had so much fun seeing and meeting everyone.

The following photos, taken in the meadow here at Lake Forest, were taken Sunday, following G'Ma's birthday.  Aldo has been 'testing' everything with his tongue and I captured it on camera!

 There's a lot to tell about Nathan and Aldo's short visit together. The twins came over Saturday night, the day after G'Ma's bday.  It was hysteria (from my perspective, tired as I was) but somehow Nathan managed to have some sweet, intimate moments with Aldo.  Like the one to the left.  The way Nathan played with Aldo was amazing...he really wanted to learn how to care for Aldo, not just play with Aldo or make him laugh as you would expect.  He noticed Aldo didn't have teeth yet, tried to pick him up once and then later said (Kim, was this you talking?) "I don't want to pick him up until he's a toddler."  There were other sweet moments, but my favorite was when I left the two of them as pictured here, for just a moment, and then returned.  Nathan said, "Can you watch Aldo now, I need to ask my Dad something."   Ahhhh, what a sweet big cousin.



On one of our walks I had Aldo covered up to avoid the sun and to help him sleep.  All that was sticking out from under the various covers was his cute little hand holding his favorite rattle.

Here's one of the purchases from Ikea...a blanket for Aldo to roll around on.  It's perfect for tummy time if only Aldo would do tummy time!  Nope, he still rolls to his back if you put him on his tummy.  So no, no crawling yet.  That said, he is sitting up very well now.

Hey cool guy.  We need smaller glasses as the arms are longer than his head and, as you can see, they rest on his cheeks not his nose.  But still, so cute.

In the picture below, Aldo is just a little over 6 months old.  He had his 6 month checkup and he did great.  His head size and length (2'3") remain in the 50th percentile, but his weight (16 pounds) was low.  I blame this on the sticky poop.  We've since gone back to focusing on his milk intake.  And recently we've eliminated rice cereal, replaced with oat cereal.  Aldo had his shots too, but you would barely know it.  He cried for just a moment during the shots and then later, he barely showed signs of discomfort.  He will not have shots at his next visit, which is at the 9 month mark.

One fun change is that Aldo is now bathing in his own tub in the bathtub, following the removal of the shower doors (and install of the new tile, and frog).  He's not exactly giddy in the bath but he is very, very curious.  Bath time is now part of his bedtime routine.

So, we are only recently in a routine.  Up at 6, down at 8:30, up at 10:30.  Play.  Then down at 1:30, up at 3:30.  Play again and then start the bedtime routine at 6-ish to be down around 7 or 7:30.  We have incorporated 'white noise' and lullabies to help Aldo get his rest, and it is really helping.

But the big news is that FINALLY, Aldo has cut a tooth.  It is a bottom, front tooth as everyone said it would be.  He's still suffering as the rest come in.

This photo, and this change, happened only today.  Here is Aldo, eating in his high chair.  He would have benefitted from the chair earlier but I had to get it out of the closet and set it up, so it took me awhile. But here we are!

I'm late getting Aldo settled for bed.  He's spent the past 45 minutes watching Baby Einstein 1.5 times, from the comfort of his Ikea blanket, surrounded by toys.  He's a little hyper so I hope that means he'll go down eventually for a good night's rest.  Oh, he is not sleeping through the night yet.  For about a week, following his new routine, he woke just twice in the night.  Then we got down to just once in the night.  Now we're back to two times...I blame his teeth.  Goodnight all.