Happy Halloween!

Thanks for sending the costume Ama!

Anchorage

We were in Anchorage last week for the Alaska Bird Conference. Dave was giving a talk and Leo and I decided to tag along and visit some friends in the Big City. I had thought about presenting a poster at the conference. I don't know what I was thinking. I'm glad I didn't! My head just wasn't into it. I think I listened to 3 talks. Hard to focus having Leo there. Leo watched Dave's talk and decided to voice his opinion about Dave's analysis on Steller's eider duckling brood survival. Not sure if he agreed with his Papa!

It was great to see everyone!! The weather was fabulous, we managed to get out and go for walks on the Coastal Trail. Eat good food. Do a little shopping. And Leo did great in the hotel. He slept in the pack and play and improved his crawling skills while we were there. I tried to take him to the poster session but he was melting down quickly. His early bed time doesn't jive with evening social events!

oops. This photo is from right before we left Anchorage

We ran into Signe, Melinda and Hamish at the Anchorage airport! Nice surprise. Hamish is ~ 6 weeks younger than Leo.

Doing acrobatics in the bed instead of napping

At the Teriyaki Box with Heather

Snow City Cafe for breakfast with Ann

Teal the squirrel :)

At NPRB office with Carrie

Our friends Ayme & Jim had their son Liam on the same day Leo was born. Our birth stories are almost identical! And they are also synchronizing their development! We finally got to visit with them and it was wonderful to meet Liam and have the boys meet each other.

With Jim at the conference

Liam wants to hold hands

Ayme & Liam

Liam & Leo

I love this photo. Liam wants to smooch Leo!

Naomi came by for a visit

Practicing his ape walk

 We went to JP's house to visit with the Manning-Pearces and Wilson-Flints

Teal aka Elton John

Coal, Eliot, and Teal

 The Solbergs were also in town from Cordova!

I could hear Peter as we got closer to the park: Higher! Higher! Higher!!

Swans at Westchester

Ann & Maggie

Peter really likes Leo!

Leo brought himself up to sitting position from crawling yesterday for the first time with toppling over. He's army crawling at break neck speed. We have to keep both eyes on him now. He's got rug burn on his knees and calluses on his toes from crawling around so much! But he loves his mobility. He's gets bored quickly with his exersaucer and jumparoo. Need to find some other activities that will keep his attention!

October

Seems like his growth and development really accelerated this month! Super mobile on the floor now. Have to keep an eye on him. He's already gotten into the paper recycling box. Loves to army crawl around and chase after toys and my toes. Time to baby proof the house. He weighed in at 19lb 5 oz last week.

Where's my cigar?

Lots of drool

Thanks for my Ling Ling Potsticker hat Auntie Ann Riddle-Bernsten!

Hanging with Dad

Auntie Mo came up for a visit!!!

Leo loves cuddling with Auntie Mo. We miss you!

Stretching. Funny. He stretches just like me.

We can't get him to suck on a pacifier but he'll suck on the head of the rubber ducky.

Loves story time before bed

Just up from a morning nap

Out for a walk in the neighborhood

Getting ready to head out

He outgrew his infant sling in the chariot! Looking forward to using the ski kit this winter.

Started sucking on his toes a couple weeks ago

We are trying to get him on a schedule, he's only napping 30-45 min at a time right now:
0700 Wake/Nurse
0730 Activity
0900 Nap 1
1000 Nurse
1030 Activity
1130 Nap 2
1230 Solid food/Nurse
1400 Walk/Nap 3
1500 Nurse
1530 Activity
1700 Nurse/Nap 4
1745 Get ready for bed (bath, singing, story time)
1830 Lights out
1900 Sleeping

He's been sleeping for 7-9 hours, then always waking at 0500 get him back to sleep for 45 min, wakes at 0600 and get him back to sleep at 0700. For some reason he has a hard time sleeping until 0700 but he is definitely not ready to be awake for the day at 0500 or 0600. Neither are we!! Hopefully, as his brain matures he'll learn how to sleep until 0700 and also nap longer. But I'm already starting to feel human again!

Solid food

According to the books, Leo met all the qualifications at 5 months for starting solids so we thought we'd give it a whirl. We started with rice cereal he was pretty interested the first day, ate the entire tablespoon. But couldn't get him interested the next 3 days. Not that I blame him. Rice cereal. Or really, breast milk with a little rice cereal probably isn't too interesting. I was also feeding him between nursing and that probably didn't help. He was more interested in his big boy chair. Next, we tried sweet potatoes. That went over better the day I fed him at lunch before I nursed him. He ate the entire tablespoon. This week peas! He likes his peas. 1 tablespoon/day so far.

Here comes the spoon!

Open wide

Hmmmm

Uhhhh rice cereal

Crazy for sweet potatoes!

Peas yeah! Notice the peas behind him on the chair. How it got there I'm not sure

I do it myself!!

5 months

He is starting to sleep a little better at night. Usually is down for the night between 7-745P. And is taking his last nap of the day between 430-530 which makes it hard to socialize at night. He has been waking around 200 lately and then at 500. Dave has been feeding him at 200 so I can get some more sleep. It's been nice but I'm still so tired. I guess it will take a while to recover form 4.5 months of serious sleep deprivation. The other night he skipped his 200 waking and slept for a 9.5 hours straight! Go Leo Go!

He likes to rock on his hands and knees and just yesterday he started getting up on his hands and feet 'Ape walk' and is starting to pull himself across the floor with his hands.

Sitting up like a big boy

We started some rice cereal. Really, it was breast milk with a little rice cereal. First day was successful. He hasn't been that interested since. I think we'll try sweet potatoes next. I'm toying with the idea of Baby Led Weaning, we'll play it by ear.

mmmmm rice cereal

 Thanks Auntie Ann for my Ling Ling Potsticker hat!