Tooth!

Del Walls has his first tooth!

It appeared a few days ago, making its presence known with a little stab during a naptime nursing. Yipes!

So, the day it showed up, I took pictures:

No thanks.

I said noooooo.

OK, man, ok. Be stingy with your tooth…

Today I tried again:

You wanna show them my tooth…?

…

WHAT PART OF NO DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND?

Tough luck, peeps.

Del at 6 months

This might be my favorite stage yet, in spite of the new set of challenges of changing sleep patterns and teething that strike about now. Del is getting so playful, opinionated and “interactive”. His interests and personality are beginning to emerge and every day reveals some new little thing he learns or discovers. Also, I did a set of 6 month photos that I am very proud of.

A few new facts about you, Del:

• You’re sitting up! It’s just the most adorable thing ever, and happened almost overnight. After just a week or so of helping you balance, you had the whole thing down. The coolest part is watching you fold all the way to the floor, then lift yourself back up.
• You weigh 17 lbs 8 oz. – staying right in that 50th percentile range.
• You are getting too chubby for your Bumbo chair, but it’s still in use. I think we’re going to need a full on high chair soon though!
• You are Mr. Social, always interested in people you meet, and you hate to go to sleep when people are over. You like to be in on the action.
• You are still nursing – which I think puts us in the minority of moms and babies who nurse past 6 months. I love nursing and you’ve gotten very good and comfortable with it. It’s very easy and natural, and I look forward to several more months of this.
• You’re eating solids now and you seem to love this new adventure. So far you’ve had sweet potatoes, bananas, avocado, pears and carrots. You loved everything but carrot – the carrots made you grimace and spit.
• We have to much more deliberate with your sleeping these days to make sure you get enough sleep. You’re a light sleeper during the day – I blame the construction across the street, but it might just be your little Rabbit temperament. And we’re working on getting you to accept an earlier bedtime. It has not been easy.
• You love swimming!  Thanks to Dad’s bathtime practices, you are so relaxed and happy in the water that you lay on your back and kick like mad. With Dad’s help, you are even  beginning to float on your own, to the amazement of your parents and the other parents at the pool.
• You still love Somebunny for naps and bedtime. And now that you’re rolling around and sitting up, even more toys are fun to you. You especially like the mirror on your playmat, and a set of fabric blocks that Don & Linda brought to you.
• You’re a little jabberer but no words yet. I am pretty sure you know some words though – when I say or sign milk, you nestle down to nurse. We are going to begin working on some more signs now.

My little Red Bean, here you are at 6 months:

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Six Months, a little slideshow

Hey girl.

I can hardly believe our baby is six months old already! The time has gone by so very quickly. There’s barely a moment to soak in one phase of babyhood before another  begins. Tonight we had family photos taken with Auntie Kristi, so I’ll post those as soon as I get them back. I plan to shoot some six month photos of Del of my own too. In the meantime, here are some favorites off my iPhone from the last few weeks as Del has approached the six month mark!

 

 

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Del meets his G.G.!

Our recent trip to Tulsa put us just a couple of hours away from my grandmother’s home in Oklahoma City. Though Grammy doesn’t like driving by herself, she braved the turnpike and drove up to Tulsa, where she spent the weekend with her long-time friends who live there, and we got to be together for two lovely afternoons. It was her first time to meet Del! He’s so lucky to have a great-grandmother on both sides of his family. I love these pictures of Del with his G.G.

 

My baby ate!

Tonight Del Giacomo Walls ate his first solid food! I made fresh steamed sweet potato and mama’s milk puree, and we set Del up in his Bumbo seat to have a taste. He LOVED it. I am so proud of my little guy. He ate happily, played with the spoon himself, and, because our child is hilarious, he licked his tray between bites! After his bath (sweet potatoes are sticky!) he snuggled up and nursed and fell asleep. Oh my little baby, soak in all those vitamins. This mama is one happy lady.

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Del at play

Tummy time is a whole new ball game now that he can roll over. That, and he discovered the mirror – I’d love to know what he’s thinking! (Probably “who is that chubby hot guy?”)

Note, one of his toys is hanging from his toes.

Mother’s Day

Zach did good. Here’s how my Mother’s Day started:

Inside the card was an adorable surprise:

Then one of the artists awoke:

(Not pictured, Dad who had the more active roll in the sweet artwork. Not to mention the clean up tasks afterward.)

Also part of my present, tickets to a 9am showing of Dark Shadows with my fellas. We were there before the doors  even opened. I had’t been to a movie in, like, six months!

Afterward we had chips and guac, and margaritas (Del just had milk):

(Not pictured: long, lazy naps once we got home.)

Del at 4 months

My baby is changing so fast! I just managed to shoot his 4 month pictures and wow! (Ok, I also got a new lens for my camera today so am not only gushing over my baby but also over the lens.) But this is the mommy blog, not the photography blog, right? Here’s our little guy – look at the differences since last month!

A few new facts about you, Del:

• You are STRONG! You like to stand on your chubby little legs with someone helping you balance.
• You weigh 15 lbs 3 oz.
• You really like your Bumbo chair, and sit in it on the kitchen counter while I clean or cook.
• You’re interested in almost everything, and look intently at trees, television, pictures of yourself, and your mom and dad.
• You are still nursing like a champion, and love to snuggle in bed to nurse and nap.
• You’ve been much more restless at night lately, waking often to eat. But still just cat naps during the day most of the time. Which can make it hard to get housework or photowork done sometimes.
• You hang out with dad when I go to photo shoots, and you kind of give him a hard time sometimes. But you take your bottle well, and you like when he takes you on walks.
• You like lots of toys now! Your special ones are a soft white bunny from Auntie Kristi (named Somebunny), a cloth rattle with bright pictures on each end, and the playmat on loan from your friend Violet.
• You’ve started making a whole new sound: screeching. You love to do it, it’s loud, and sometimes you scare yourself. Other times you make yourself laugh.
• And you laugh A LOT! Things that make you laugh: if someone screeches back to you, being bounced on the bed, being bounced while you stand up with help, and sometimes just mom making silly words and faces to you.
• You can hold and chew on your toes, and you love doing it. It’s so adorable.
• You still don’t really care for long photo shoots.

So, Red Bean, you, at 4 months:

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Del’s Three-Month Photo Session

Yesterday, March 8 was Del’s 3-month birthday. I am amazed by how much he has changed from that skinny, squirming newborn, so amazingly fragile and tiny. Though still a little guy, he’s now chubby and chattering, curious and demanding and engaging.

Some stats about you, little man:

• You can hold your head up well, and you look around almost constantly.
• You weigh 13.7 lbs
• You hate tummy time but will tolerate it for 10 minutes or so, as long as I stay nearby.
• You love to look at books with black and white pictures, and we read the same two almost every day.
• You like when your dad reads to you, and you like to sit with him and watch tv.
• You are having a growth spurt right now, which means you’re eating like crazy, especially in the evenings.
• You really love going for walks – stroller or sling. We use both and you’re always content.
• You’re sleeping almost entirely through the night – you have been for almost a month now. You go to bed around midnight and wake around 6 for a meal, then sleep again till around 7:30 or 8 am. Sometimes you’ll even nap one more time after that. But then, nothing but cat naps during the rest of the day, unless I sleep with you or carry you in the sling.
• You like the mobile over your bed. You smile and jabber at it.
• You like to have music or radio on during the day.
• You’ve just adopted your first toy – a striped burp rag that you grab and shake and put in your mouth. So far no other toys interest you much.
• Though you don’t cry much, you’ve gotten pretty loud and put those lungs to good use when you need them.
• You smile a lot, and are just beginning to laugh. It’s hard to get you to laugh, but you often laugh in your sleep right as you fall asleep. It’s insanely adorable.
• You don’t really care for long photo shoots.

And here you are, Red Bean. Our little munchkin. This is what you look like at three months old:

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NYC Weekend

Once more my belief that I have the best baby on the planet is reinforced!

Cheeeeese

Zzzzzzs

Last weekend, we took the train up to NYC. We’re used to traveling, the two of us, with nothing but a back-pack each. So obviously, we had to make some adjustments, since the little monkey can’t carry his own stuff yet! Zach has this crazy Pelican Case that looks like it’s made for carrying weapons, but it’s all hard-sided and indestructible. Perfect for hauling through the streets of NYC, bumping up curbs and through puddles of dubious origin. We packed up in that, along with back-packs for what we would want access to on the train. My backpack was half diaper bag, which worked out pretty well. And we left the stroller here – New York’s subways have NO ELEVATORS! (This shocked me.) Turns out it was more than fine to stick with the sling – Del was happier, it was easy to shift from carrying to nursing, and I didn’t have to manage the stroller in the streets, subway, friend’s house and hotel.

The train ride was great – if I could magically make all travel train travel, I would do it. And Del was a dream, sleeping, eating and enjoying snuggles with his daddy. It was totally the hip mommies train, too – across from us was a mom with her adorable little girl in a sling. Baby was wearing a t-shirt that said “Brooklyn”, and mom was wearing flowered print top, bell bottom jeans and worn out brown Chucks. She had a book called The Real Vegan in her bag. Me, across from her, with my knitting out. We each nursed our babes during the ride. Go Mom Power!

Once in NYC – and after we’d satiated our craving for the awesome food at Salsa y Salsa in Chelsea – Zach went to his improv class and I took on the metro subway with baby in tow to my friends’ home in Brooklyn. Recall, NO ELEVATORS in the subway. (I am still shocked.) Here’s a bit of the brilliance I feel I owe entirely to iPhone: I’d left home with one less knitting needle than I needed for the project I was working on. TapTapTap on the phone and I have my choice of five knitting shops in Brooklyn. TapTapTap, I’ve narrowed it down to shops in walking distance of the metro subway line I’d be riding to my friends place. Checked the websites of the nearest shops and opted for one of the two. Hopped off the train at the right stop, found the shop, bought my needles, nursed my kid, and grabbed a cab for the last 3/4 mile to my friend. I felt super competent!

The Golden Eye - Old Tom Gin, Ginger Liquor, lemon juice and a cherry. It rocked my socks!

You’ve already seen the awesome photos I took with Jordan and Amanda when we got there. (Yep, shot with Del in sling!) Then we enjoyed their hospitality and Jordan’s formidable cocktail mixing skills, and some pizza, till way too late!

At Murray's

When we finally got back to our cute room in the Chelsea Star, we were exhausted! Del slept on his sheepskin, placed in a chair wedged safely and snugly against my side of the bed. The hotel was noisy though, so we didn’t sleep really well. The next morning we were up and ready to go, starting our day at one of our favorite Chelsea bagel shops, Murray’s. After breakfast and coffee, we walked up to UCB Theater for Zach’s class performance.

Improvising often involves impromptu cultural references, like this Lion King moment.

UCB was founded by students of the “father of improv” Del Close, the fella from whom we borrowed a name for our son. Upon discovering this, staff on hand that day declared Del the unofficial mascot and heaped him with adoration.

Post-show, we hung out for a beer with Zach’s class mates, then got a delicious lunch at a Persian place nearby, and grabbed snacks for the train ride home. Thinking about it later, we realized we’d had bagels from a Jewish deli, kabobs from a Persian restaurant, and on the train home, wine and bread. Covered three major world religions in one day of meals.

It was a great weekend, and I was thrilled that Del was such a good traveler. It also felt good to get away for the first time since he was born, and to see that it doable (especially since we have THREE weddings to attend later this summer).