Starting to sit up!

Sweet potato explosion aka Playdate!

Benjamin had his friends Emma, Aiden and Audrey from school over this afternoon for a play date. We had McDonald's happy meals and the kiddos played in the backyard. Favorites were the horsie swing, the sandbox, the rebounder and the tee ball stand.

While the older ones played my friend Darcie and I visited and I prepared to feed Hacob his sweet potatoes for lunch. Unfortunately, when I went to shake up his jar of food, I forgot that I had already shaken and loosened/unscrewed the top about 20 min earlier when everyone else was eating lunch. Sweet potatoes flew EVERYWHERE within about a 10 foot radius as I shook the jar and the lid flew off!!! Darcie and I laughed and laughed and I think even Jacob (who had also gotten flying food on him) was more amused than shocked as he watched us two grown ups almost pee our pants ;)

6 months!

Jacob is 6 months old today! He is an exceptionally happy baby, always ready to share a smile. He makes noises to get your attention and then smiles with his whole body because he's so excited that you looked over at him. He LOVES his food, and makes "mmmmmmm" sound with every bite. It's hilarious. He eats homemade foods and organic store bought baby foods. I have puréed for him: sweet potato, carrots, avocado, mango, banana, apple, pear, prunes. He also eats rice, oatmeal and multigrain cereals, blueberry, raspberry, squash, green beans, peas, and more.

He sleeps through the night still and nurses 4 times/day. He does a funny thing when nursing ... His free arm he swings hard back and forth, sometimes hitting me, sometimes catching his fingers in my mouth. He keeps his fingers there and seems to like hearing me say "wawawawa" :)

Ben's picture request

"Mommy can I get in the crib with Jacob? And you can take my picture with my brother."

5 years and going strong, my love!

You + Me + The Beautiful Life we have created together ...

Imagination

I am loving Ben's blossoming imagination these days. One of the first signs of his new powers of imagination appeared about 3 weeks ago. He had balled up a white paper napkin and held half in his hand with the other half in a poof on top. "I made an ice cream cone!" he announced and pretended to lick and enjoy it. Today we were playing outside and he brought me over to our "garden" and told me that he made me a birthday cake (mulch) with candles (sticks). He sang me happy birthday, told me to blow out the candles, clapped and gave me a piece of cake. We both pretended to eat our cake and declared it to be very yummy. Then we repeated the ritual for Benjamin's birthday. He seemed quite proud of his creation and glad we could enjoy the moment together.

He is also acting out scenes from Peter Pan a lot these days, and the sword and hook (aka "the fighters" as in, "get your fighter mommy and play with me! On guard!") game is his favorite. He likes to pretend to be Captain Hook and Peter Pan.

First teeth!

A few days ago, I noticed the telltale blister looking things on Jake's bottom gumline, and yesterday, they broke through! The two teeth are coming up evenly at the exact same time. Jake has been drooling a lot and got a lil rashy around his mouth and cheeks but has not been terribly fussy. He seems to be handling it all very well. He does love gnawing on my bent fingers tho :)

Forget something?

Tonight Benjamin saw Jacob taking a bath in the small infant bathtub, and he said he wanted to do the same. So we let him have his bath there. Afterwards, he got dried off and then took off running. Then he realized something was missing. "Oh, I need to put my shoes on!" he said.

First solids!

Jakey had his first solid foods today ... A few bites of rice cereal! It was hard for him to swallow it, but he seemed really interested in it and was making funny faces mixed with lots of smiles. Benjamin saw the preparations and said we were having a party for Jacob. He was very excited ("I'm excited, I'm excited, I'm excited!!!") and asked if we could have a candle and sing a song to Jacob before he had his first solids. He chose to sing Happy Birthday to "granjacob" :)

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We had a beautiful birthday weekend. Mom and Dad came to visit and treated us to a fabulous seafood dinner at Bonefish Grill. Everyone decorated and had a nice celebration with cake and all when we got home. Benjamin helped sing and celebrate and on a birthday card he did what i would consider his first signature ...that was so special. On my actual birthday, we went to Lake Grapevine for a picnic lunch, kicking the ball around, and feeding the birds. It was a beautiful day. Benjamin picked a flower for me.