Happy Fivemonthiversary, Vake!

Happy Five Months, Vake!

Vake is getting so big so fast! At five months, he weighs about 22 pounds and is about 27 inches long. He can sit up by himself if you help him get to the sitting position and if he can rest on his hands. He loves to stand up with assistance. His favorite toy currently is the exersaucer and the Lamaze butterfly is a close second.

Vake is the happiest baby I've ever known. He loves to give smiles away for free. He seems to be recognizing the people that he sees the most often and he is in love with his nanny, Taren. She had Friday off, and when she walked in the door to babysit on Saturday, you would have thought it was Christmas morning based on the smile on little V' s face.

He's getting more curious about the world around him. He is enjoying toys more and more and is starting to take an interest in the dogs.

This is the last month before he starts solid foods- that's going to be an adventure!

Almost Five Months

Tomorrow when we wake up, it will be Vake's five monthiversary. It is so hard to believe that so much time has already passed since the day that my favorite little person arrived. Time seems to be moving at roughly eight thousand times the speed it did before he came into Eric and my life.

Here's a picture of the day we left the hospital. It's unbelievable to think about how much my perfect little person has already changed and grown since that day.

Little V- you and your father are the best things that have ever happened to me. I am so lucky to be a part of your life.

More Overalls and the End of the Day (which equals the End of Vake's Patience)

Vake was so cute today, wearing his sweet little overalls with the sailboats on them. He's very into sucking on his fingers/hand right now so I snapped a picture of him right before he took his bath tonight in that pose.


The other new development in Vakeland is that he will now end his nap/nighttime sleep prematurely by rolling himself over to look at the precious mobile. Unfortunately, he cannot figure how to roll BACK over so he winds up screaming and his naps get cut totally short.

By 5:30 or so tonight, my little friend was exhausted. And not his usual charming self at all.

We Are Family!

Our friend, Jay White, gave us the fantastic gift of a family portrait- for those of you who know our house, I've got this dream of having the back hallway totally filled with black and white pictures- I've done most of one wall but haven't started underneath the banister. I think the temptation with the first child is to totally fill all the walls in his first couple of months of life- thus leaving you with no wall space for the first t-ball picture, etc...
Anyway, I think this picture of me is ok, but not great- but WHAT A GREAT EXPRESSION from little V! I mean, he is just hamming it up for the camera- so cute!

Doin' it Myself

Vake's started holding his own bottle. Not for very long, but he's definitely able to recognize that a bottle equals mealtime and he has started directing them to his mouth and then trying to hold them there!!!

He was super-tired when we took this picture after his bath and before bed tonight, so please forgive the upset expression on his little face!

Happy Fourth of July!!!!

Happy Fourth of July! Eric, Vake, Mary Sabra, Neil, Martha and I packed up and went out to Shrinemont in Orkney Springs for a bluegrass festival. We met up with Anne and Dennis. Mom, Eric, little V and I are so excited to have them only 2.5 hours away!!! Yee-haw!!!

This year, the bluegrass festival had one of my favorite bands, the Seldom Scene. They played a lot of songs that I love- the only one I wish they had played that they didn't was "Last Train From Poor Valley" but they did play a lot of songs from Act 1 so I just sang along. They played under this shelter...it was such a funny mix of old Episcopalians and younger hippies.
The crowd was definitely laid back and the weather could not have been more perfect. The Seldom Scene played for about 2 hours and this other band that was actually pretty good too, the Farewell Drifters, played for about two hours- the concert went from 3 until 7.

Here's a great picture of Anne and Vake...he was very excited to get to hang around with cool Aunt Anne. Little V was very patriotic in his flag smock.

Vake loved being with the people- he didn't take very good naps at all- he was way too interested in everything that was going on. He especially was interested in staring at his quilt from Grandma Sue. Everytime I put him in the tripod sitting position, he would lean way over to try to see the pattern of the quilt.

As I said, we could not have asked for a better day weatherwise. Here Vake and I are- he's apparently trying to mash my cheeks into submission.

Vake also seems to have my skin, not Eric's. Our pediatrician has suggested that we be really careful about sunscreen until he hits six months- so I put this cute little blue hat on him and we just tried to be cautious about too much sun but he didn't show any signs of being burned today- that may be that we didn't go out to the field until about 3:15 or so...

By the end of the show, my little buddy was tuckered out and was ready for a snooze...but we all had a GREAT time!

Big Boy Bath and Meeting and Greeting

Just as my little V-man and I had gotten used to a bath routine downstairs in the kitchen, he outsized his little infant tub. It's funny, I find that I like reclaiming rooms from the baby gear- I am just as happy not to have his bath stuff on our kitchen counter. (As another example, we packed up the pack and play to take with us to Shrinemont today and to get that space back in the dining room is tremendous and inspires me to buckle down and put the infant swings in the basement storage once I make sure that Taren's ok with that.) On the other hand, and I guess it is because I didn't have Vake until I was 34, with each step forward we make, I've got this visceral sense of loss. Now, fortunately, that loss is balanced by increased responsiveness from him, or more skills, or whatever, but I've got this sinking sense that I am going to wake up tomorrow and we will be packing him up for college and I just don't want to miss anything.

So with the outgrow of the infant tub, we've got a problem. Most babies can sit in it until they are old enough to sit in the bath independently. Unfortunately, Vake still cannot do that. I've got to mount a hunt for a supportive bath seat that will work in a claw foot tub. At Walmart, I got him this little sling but he's really too big for that already too...

Here he is in the sling inside the tub- isn't it crazy how long he already is?

And here's my little man with his towel on getting dried off and ready for bed.

And in other news, we've moved up yet another diaper size, which seems unbelievable- he wasn't in size 3s for very long. Mom and I got these Huggies "overnites" in an attempt to get him through the night in one diaper. When he woke up this morning, his clothes and his sheet were totally dry so these may wind up being a big success. The size 4s start at 22 pounds so I am optimistic that they will hold him for awhile. They just seem humongous.

Vake, as usual, was in an awesome mood this morning. I am trying to take a video of him spinning the globe on his exersaucer- he's pretty good at it but I think he is hip to my taking pictures of him so he just hams for the camera now.

As a reminder to the West Coasters who might have to make reservations, his christening is going to be on Sunday, September 27th- which is also Anne Monroe's birthday! We're going to have a lunch here afterwards- I am actively campaigning for Christopher's Cart chicken salad (it is this delicious cart downtown and you can order their chicken salad by the pound for parties, etc...)

Hope everyone has a really Happy Fourth of July!