All Over the Place

Ian is getting into all kinds of things. And eating lint, chips of paint, and Cherrios that fall out of his pants. And probably other tasty morsels that he gets to before I realize it. (Before you call Poison Control, let me say that I did find the majority of the soggy paint chip on his cheek. So he didn't swallow the whole thing.)

A new way to enjoy his excersaucer. This "sleep sack" is adorable, isn't it? It only slightly impedes crawling.Helping me sort the mail.

Stuck in the coffee table.
Climbing over everything. Pulling funny faces

Too Old for His Bed

This is one of those posts that prove parents think everything their child does is adorable.
Ian was taking a long time to fall asleep at his morning naptime, and was making all sort of strange noises in the meantime. So I peeked in, and saw him proudly sitting up, reaching over the side of his pack 'n play.
Two days ago he began both going from his tummy to sitting, and pulling himself up to a semi-standing position, so I knew it was only a matter of time before he would be ready to climb out of his pack 'n play bassinet. Sad day. I have really liked that setup. But seeing him discover how to look over the edge of his bed was so fun. He is adorable. (See, I told you this was going to be one of "those" posts.)




Eventually he pulled himself up to his feet. That was a first! Obviously it was time to makes changes in his sleeping arrangement.

Before I removed the bassinet, I had to get a video of Ian doing the funniest thing-- the bassinet will rock and swing with little effort, so Ian revs back and forth to get it to move. So cute.
A second video is of Ian climbing up the side of the bassinet.

8 MONTHS!

8 months old and the cutest he has ever been. He is crawling all over, climbing, and starting to pull himself up onto things. He likes flapping his arms, blowing raspberries, and giving High Fives (he even gave one to the pediatrician!)Check out his tooth in that last picture. He now has two on the bottom. We are so proud.

Scott took him in for a flu shot on Saturday, and Ian weighed in at 19 lbs. 13. (right Scott?) The little guy is getting taller and thinner all the time, and hasn't really gained more than a pound in the last 5 months. His eyes have settled on being blue-ish green-ish brown-ish.

Hangin' with Dad

I know Ian looks forward to seeing Scott all day. The hour before Scott arrives home from work each day is Ian's fussiest time. I am sure Ian feels like he just can't wait any longer for his daddy to come home and rescue him from his mom, toss him around, and make him giggle. And oh the shrieks Ian lets out and the look on Ian's face when Scott walks in the door... you can tell he's been anticipating Scott's arrival. But such a great dad really deserves that kind of reception!

Here Ian is playing his new favorite game-- peek-a-boo!

It didn't work

I changed our blog settings so search engines like Google wouldn't "crawl" our site. But Site Meter says Google is still sending people our way.

Recent searches resulting in a trip to our blog:

"dry ice" rostov shipping
Ferberization
"cantelope drink"+recipe (apparently I am not the only one who spells canteloupe incorrectly)
Inventor of BlueBell Ice cream

Apparently I use all the right buzz words.

I know you only come here for pictures of Ian. More soon, I promise.

Mystery Solved

My mom is a genius. Several weeks ago she suggested that perhaps all the random visits to our site from around the world were due to key words on our blog, such as Blue Bell Ice Cream, or Houston Temple. Well, turns out she was right!

Site Meter tells me that many reffering URLs for our blog include Google searches for none other than Blue Bell Ice Cream. See for yourself. Try out some recent searches that landed strangers on our site in a matter of 3 or 4 days:

Blue Bell Ice Cream Tours
Blueberry ice cream factory + brenham (we are the first two sites listed for this one!)
Blue Bell Ice cream factory Texas

Somehow this makes those visits less creepy. Thanks Site Meter.

Laughing Baby

Here is a video of Ian laughing. Apparently watching me blow bubbles with a wad of gum is the funniest thing ever. Please pretend you can't hear my chewing and nerdy laughing behind the camera.

7-Month-Olds are Messy Creatures

Ian enjoys feeding himself. Lately he likes to spit food into his hands and then smear it back into his face. He is especially enthusiastic about oats and yams. I think we need to invest in some bibs. And a hose. How 'bout a hug?

Happy Holidays!

Check out this little clip of us dancing.

He's CRAWLING!

This morning Ian crawled for the first time. We're so proud! He has been so close for weeks now, and this morning he crawled almost as soon as I set him on the floor. He must have been practicing in his sleep! Here is a little video of him demonstrating the skill.

Well, he'll be awake and crawling again in 9 hours-- we'd better hurry and baby-proof the house!

More Video

He's not doing anything too exciting, but he sure is a cute little boy! I am very proud of myself for figuring out how to post video clips.

Ian's New Glasses

New Teeth & Near to Crawling

My sister tells me I am irresponsible for not posting more pictures and updates in the last few weeks. Forgive me.

Ian has a TOOTH! After a few days of fussiness, refusal of food, and then incredibly long naps, Ian's first tooth broke through! It is on the bottom right front. We tried in vain to get a picture of it. Once it pokes up a little higher it should be easier.

In other news, Ian likes to feed himself, with a little help. I put food on a spoon, hand it to him, and he puts it in his mouth. And elsewhere... Here he is feeding himself oat cereal. He is great at getting up on his hands and knees and rocking. He often falls on his face because he is able to inch his legs forward but can't figure out how to move his hands forward. He can also push himself backward. A few days ago I left Ian practicing his crawl on our bedroom floor. I came back a few minutes later to find him like this! A few minutes later and the bed would have swallowed him completely!

Being Ian's mom is so much fun!

Recipes

Check out some of my favorite recipes on Telestial Kitchen. My new favorite recipe, chicken lasagna, is there. I also just posted my recipe for Fried Bananas. MMmmmmm....

Just to confirm any suspicions you may have had,

I am ...
Superman

Superman 100% Spider-Man 70% Robin 62% Green Lantern 60% Supergirl 55% Batman 55% The Flash 50% Iron Man 50% Wonder Woman 45% Hulk 40% Catwoman 30%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

-Scott

H A L L O W E E N !

Check out these adorable animals. (Do bats and fish count as animals?) We later had an adorable kangaroo, two Dorothys, Pebbles, little-bo-peep, a cheerleader and a clown.

Scott and I had some friends in the neighborhood over for chili cheese dogs and cider on Halloween. I think this is my new favorite Halloween tradition. MMmmmm... chili cheese dogs....

We didn't have nearly as many trick-or-treaters as I expected. There are at least 50 kids on our block alone, and so I figured we would get about twice that many kids at our door. Apparently most of the local churches had a Halloween party that night, so we were left with 3 big bags of unopened candy. Darn. : ) We did use about 4 bags of candy though.

A Puppy and the Fall Festival

Our neighborhood association put on a Fall Festival this weekend. It was very well attended, but there wasn't much for a 6 month old to do. So we made an appearance, saw our buddies the Harveys, and then went home.

Ian's costume was a big hit though. Some people mistakenly thought he was a sheep, a stuffed animal, a bunny rabbit, and a baby girl. But he was in fact a baby boy dressed as a puppy. It was fun to dress him up, and he really acted the part by sticking his tongue out for most of the evening.

The bat in this picture is Ian's buddy Matthias, who is about 4 months older than Ian.

New Friend

This caterpillar was waiting for us on the threshold of the front door after Ian and I took an afternoon walk around the block. His protective coloration gave me a good clue about where he might like to hang out, so after our photoshoot I put him in a bush outside our front window.