Week 34 (Mar 24 - 31)

Spring weather has arrived, and with it Aldo and I are getting outside more often, or more easily.  Pictured below is Aldo at the Lake Forest Glen condo playground.  I've been staring at this playground, from the window of my home office, and wishing for a little baby to play with there for quite some time.  And now here he is!

Touch - or kiss - your toes!  Aldo enjoys putting his toes in his mouth.  He even enjoys licking the bottom of his feet.  I have to agree with him, his toes and feet are really fun.

 My little, playful angel.

 There is a story here.  First, the reason I took this photo was to document Aldo feeding himself with his hands for the first time.  He's holding, and chewing, a piece of apple.  But I also captured his little tears, and by so doing captured another 'first'.  The first time mommy messed up and made Aldo cry.  I was putting him in his high chair and, as I had been fearing I would do one day, I trapped a little of his skin in the buckle.  Oh...so sad.  I'm sorry Aldo.  Thankfully, he didn't complain for long and the sore is already healing to the point of not being there, after just 24 hours.

Aldo in our morning routine - I get ready, and he watches his mobile.

As promised, Aldo at his activity table.  Look who's standing!

Ok, this has the potential to be really positive news.  Below is Aldo at the beginning of our first run.  In fact, I think this was my first real run in nearly 2 years.  I kept it easy, staying close to home, on pavement, and mostly on the flats going slow.  It was wonderful.  But now I am inspired to create a new routine for us.  Aldo looks tired here because he's only been awake long enough for a hug, a diaper change, some breakfast and a little time in the crib while I got dressed, and then...we're off.  He was awake the whole run, which is perfect because this allows me to still enjoy making use of his nap time (like right now!) and he gets to look around.  This could be good....

EASTER PHOTOS ARE HERE - All I'll say is...it was a good day!

Week 31, 32 and 33 (Mar 4 - 24)

Two weeks back I had tried to load a sweet little video of Aldo and his new laugh, which goes something like:  "Heh.  Heh heh. Heh heh."  It is extremely funny and as of late, Aldo enjoys laughing often.  Ask Gma Pat, because all she needs to do is (fake) laugh for Aldo to laugh, which makes Gma really laugh, which makes Aldo laugh more.

Here are a few shots from Gma and Gpa's in Folsom.  Aldo eating in his high chair, sleeping on his side (fairly new event), enjoying a book at bedtime with Gma, and Gpa kisses from Gpa's easy chair.

I sent this photo to Gma and Gpa in Georgia with the note, "something's different?".  They couldn't figure it out....can you?

Answer:  Aldo is not using the car seat along with the stroller.  He is a big boy!

Below are some fun photos from our Baby and Me class (4 total, one got dropped to the very bottom).

I just found this to be sweet - Aldo's toy basket.

We got our haircut this week by LeiAnn, and she decided to give Aldo a faux mohawk, pictured here.  Aldo was much more wiggly this haircut than the first.

I think Aldo looks adorable in this outfit, so I took a picture of him while he was watching Baby Einstein.  The jacket is for a 6 month old and so, as of today, I am removing it from circulation.  Oh well.
Below is a picture of Aldo after he successfully rolled off his play mat.  I helped him to not bump his head on the hard surface, but otherwise it was all Aldo.  He is not crawling yet but he rolls back-and-forth quite a lot.  He is also trying hard to sit up.  I'd say that the reason he doesn't succeed at either is that he doesn't practice with his arms and so they are weaker than the rest of his body.

This is Aldo's iPod toy.  He has learned to change the music by pressing the button.

Our Swedish friends from Maui, Eva and Sophia (and normally husband Gary, formerly of the East Coast), were visiting for the annual winter getaway.  I hear that this year Sophia got two trips to the snow, with the first to Whistler.  Here we met for drinks at the Lone Eagle Grill, which is lakeside in Incline Village.  Aldo was a trooper, and enjoyed gazing into the fire, but he was up well past his bedtime and uncomfortable for it.   I appreciated the night out with friends.  On Saturday, they came over to our place and Aldo was in great form, laughing over everything and enjoying the sweet care of Sophia.

You may have heard me refer to Aldo as the sock Houdini - no sock can contain him?!?  Well, he is proving to be the slipper and shoe Houdini as well.  Luckily, these were one-time events.

From left to right, Owne, ?, Brian, Aldo, Brendan, Chloe, Mason, ?.

Some changes worth noting follow.  Aldo shows his excitement now when the little worm and music introduce a Baby Einstein episode.  As noted above, he sleeps on his side now.  He is greatly enjoying reading and so this is now part of his day and night time routine.  Here's a reading story.  This past week I was reading Hey Diddle Diddle, with added animal sounds, and Aldo liked it.  But when I switched to Goodnight Moon, he pushed the book away, leaned forward, and grabbed Hey Diddle Diddle.  He continues to choose his night time reading.  I am really enjoying our bedtime routine.  Oh, and he is very helpful turning book pages - seriously! Lastly, he is quite vocal, with variations of Mah mah mah, Blah blah blah, and dah dah dah.

Joy!

Weeks 29, 30 (Feb 18 - Mar 3)

I have so much to report that I am sure I will leave something out.

As you can see from the first three pictures, Aldo joined me at the office in Sacramento.  We had two weeks where Aldo was in the office for one day each.  He did great, although I found the second week much easier than the first, which is odd because I crammed more into the day in the second week.  Aldo got to meet some of my office buddies, including Cynthia, below.  I am proud to report Kizel's remark of, "It looks like he really wants to tell you something."  One of the stops we made this week was to the AT&T store to purchase a new, iPhone 5.  It takes great photos!

In this photo, Aldo is sitting up in his car seat/stroller so that he can watch the passing cars on Fulton Avenue.  So strong!

 Now this was a wonderful day!  Pictured here with Aldo and I are Laura and AnnMarie.  We had a ski day at the Nordic center, followed by an absolutely wonderful BBQ.  We were all starving!  Laura's big news is that she and hubby Alastair are expecting, and it is a boy due almost exactly on Aldo's First Birthday.  They are destined to be playmates.





Good morning Aldo.....sleepy head.

 They make these baby outfits with tons of room for girth, but not enough room for leg growth.  I released Aldo's feet so that he could sit up.

Here's some fun. Meal time is now a very big deal for Aldo and I.  Cindy Banson, lactation consultant as well as Colleen Willford, nurse practitioner, have explained to me that solids at this age are not about sustenance.  Instead, they are about practicing eating.  Practicing sitting up, taking in food at the lips and getting it to the back of the mouth, using utensils, drinking water, and just having mealtime with family.  So with that in mind, we now have two mealtimes a day together, at 10:30 and 5:30, roughly.  The pictures below show Aldo considering his spoon and then getting excited when he has it right.  And a photo of our first meal together...I had ginger tempeh with asparagus, and Aldo had apples and plums with yogurt.

Oops...out of order.  I have this photo as my iPhone wallpaper.  This was another walk to Skylandia pier.

This past week Grampa John and Grandma Kristine were in town to help take care of the cousins while their Mom had parent/teacher week responsibilities.  So they were able to watch Aldo for me during my two days in Sac for work.  It was their first time being alone with Aldo for so long and they did great.  Here's Grandma Kristine reading Aldo his goodnight story (a new addition to our routine).

There is a happy ending but just look at my new car.  So sad.  I won't go much into the details but know that Aldo slept through everything; the accident and the 45 minutes on the roadside waiting to speak with the CHP.  We (followed by 9 other cars and a semi-truck) hit a large piece of metal debris that had fallen off a vehicle on I-80 in Auburn (no injuries).

I don't think I've ever seen Aldo so giggly as he was this night.  He was laughing and screaming; just really using his vocal cords.  And kicking all around trying to roll off the couch, or so it seemed.  Stosh just rode 78 miles (and 7,000 feet of elevation gain) from Downieville to Tahoe City, so excuse him if he has helmet hair.  His sister, Amanita, is buying my old Subaru so Stosh came to switch out the cars.  Lucky Stosh that he got some laughs too.

Aldo is trying out his GQ face....good job!

The last item to not forget is that Aldo and I are attending a Mommy and Me class with Cindy Banson in Truckee.  We're fortunate that it fits into the routine so that we can get out and play together.  I really enjoy seeing the other babies and their progress and personalities.  Aldo is still not crawling but other babies at 5.5 months are crawling well.  Oh...Aldo has now rolled on to his tummy 3-4 times, usually on my bed.  Then he does some crazy face scooting thing that he thinks is crawling, but I admit it gets him where he wants to be.  I'm not sure how we can get him to strengthen his arms.  I also set up his activity table.  I'll photograph it next week.  It helps him to practice standing, which he loves to do.