{ I Love My Feet }

Do we have a poster boy for Gerber or what? That smile is like gold. I need to start marketing our munchkin. Why would he not flash a single one of those during family pictures? Oh right, he's a kid.

Ahh progress! We are getting so much done around here these days. Crafting, packing, gaining weight and just generally crossing stuff off the list.  Let's do a quick recap.

Peanut is rapidly gaining weight, now that we're feeding him more food. He gained 10 oz in one week to be exact. And that was a week ago that we had the check up. He's a jolly old 12lbs now. We'll see how he's tipping the scales June 1st at the second weigh in.

This success is due to his, now eager, eating of the extra bottles of formula that he's given on top of nursing. He also has now decided that he loves eating things from a spoon (or just eating the spoon itself). After that first failed attempt with the rice cereal I waited a week and then tried again, this time thickening the cereal. That did the trick! The side of the box said to water it down so much for the first feeding but he just kept spitting it out. Now with the thicker cereal he slurps it up and then smacks his lips while he swallows. I think my favorite part though is how he leans. He's still not able to sit up all the way by himself so we have to make sure to hold him somehow while he dives for the spoon. He'll dive so fast to get his mouth around it that he tips over to the side like so. I started letting him hold my pinky finger on the hand that's holding the cup and he holds on with an iron grip and stays upright. I secretly like it better this way. I love when he wants to hold my hand.

Short side story. I was with some women the other day at the Temple visitor's center and we were watching one of the videos. The other lady was holding Peanut while I was sitting next to them. He kept reaching out and holding my sleeve, even though he was quiet and content on the other ladies lap. It was like he wanted to reassure me that he still loved me best. Ha ha. What a charmer!

Next update: The Peanut has officially found his feet! He has finally figured out how to get them to his mouth is what I really mean. When I put him on the changing table I get his diaper off and the first thing he does, whether I've wiped him or not, is whip his feet up, grab them with his hands and start to giggle. He also loves to do this when I put him down in his crib. He lifts his legs high in the air and gives one of those little manipulative smiles saying, "I'm just so cute, look what I can do with my feet, are you really going to make me go to bed right now?"  The very nicest part of this is he is becoming much more self entertained ever since he found those little friends, with wiggly toes, at the bottom of his legs. Which means, I have been able to get this art piece (the one in the picture above) done. It has been cooking in my brain for some time now.

I have been trying to come up with crafts that are made from completely recycled items except for maybe paint and paper, and then whatever else I have lying around the house. So for this piece, I cut Rob's dead tennis balls in half and made a caterpillar "D", then took some broken dowels I found and made them into little twigs and then cut out leaves from green paper and folded them a little to make them 3-D. I made some homemade canvases out of paper mache and pizza/Omaha Steak boxes and wa la. Here is the finished product. I am so happy with it. The green and blue together are my favorite. I hope Des likes them because those colors are all over everything in his room.

So there's a quick snippet of life on the east coast for now. I'll make sure and post some videos the next go around.

{ Family Photos }

My amazing sister came to town again this weekend and was kind enough to take some family photos for us. We are trying to decide which picture to blow up and put up on the wall and we need your help. Here are our favorites. What's your vote? As a side note, I think it's hilarious that our usually very smiley baby wouldn't crack a single grin during our little photo shoot. Also anyone know any way to tone down the brightness behind us? This was the only time that day that it stopped raining, so we had to take it.

{ 4 Months...Revised }

Our little guy is 4 months old! For the first time in his long life, I got pictures on the exact month date. Not that this is of any importance but I thought I would share anyways. At his scheduled check up these were the stats:

Length: 25inches
Weight: 11 lbs. 6 oz.
Status: Healthy, Happy and Small

So somehow the post we already posted about this seemed to go missing so here is the repost with a few updates...Our handsome little baby was officially underweight this check up. He moved from the fifth percentile (yes 5%) to the third (yes 3%) percentile for weight. It's so funny that he is so tiny since he was in no way premature. I think the premies out weigh him now. He is however, growing taller at an exceptionally rapid fiftieth percentile rate. The nurse asked me which NBA team we were hoping he would play for. Her vote was the Miami Heat. As Rob and I would love to retire to Florida that didn't sound like a bad idea.  Anyways, as for the weight problem, we were told to start supplementing a few more ounces of formula along with his regular feedings.  The first day he refused to take a bottle, which was extremely annoying as he has never ever had that problem before. He's taken countless bottles since the blessed day he entered this world. The next day he decided that a bottle was OK again and we haven't had a problem since. Temperamental! The doctor also said we could start him on solids. Here are the fruits of that effort...

More food on the face and hands then in his tummy.  I deduced from this experience that he probably isn't quite ready yet. He sure did like sucking on and grabbing the spoon though. Rob thinks he would just rather have steak and mashed potatoes and none of this rice cereal junk. We shall see. We have a weight check tomorrow so hopefully he's made some progress tipping the scales in the right direction.

And while we're talking about food...Rob made the most delicious pie for my Mother's Day dinner. You can find the recipe here. It's all from scratch. Rob has come exponentially far in the cooking department. This pie was heavenly along with all of the rest of the dinner...and he looks darn good in an apron.

{ Delicious }

What could be more delicious than the Bumbo? Maybe his feet. I can see him eyeing them thinking, "I'm coming for you next...or maybe right now...no definitely next. And as a side I'll have a suck of my hands or Mom's hair, or my blanket, or my lion, or my sleeve, or Dad's arm...Do you have anything else I can sample?"  I particularly enjoy the voraciousness ($5 Word) with which he chews on that thing. Oh and this is how he eats these days. Eat...get distracted...eat for another minute...look at Mom's face...eat again the minute Mom looks straight at my face...stop eating when Mom looks at her book.