One, Two, Three...FOUR Monkeys

Traveling Bobble Head

This can't be comfortable...

We put many miles on the car last week. A trip to Traverse City, home for a night, then to Chicago for a long weekend. Then I traveled to Petoskey and back on Monday. So, about 1100 miles on the car later, it felt great to be home! I must say, we have a great little traveler on our hands. He doesn't mind sleeping in hotels (although he's in his familiar pack-n-play). And I think he likes kicking/flipping around on hotel beds during the day. Here, he's enjoying sitting amidst all the fluffy pillows with Dad.

Ah, finally back home to play with all of my toys we can't travel with. And this tummy thing just gets better and better every day!

Half a Year and Rollin'

The moment we've all been waiting for...the time when Gavin would start to semi-enjoy tummy time. Over past several weeks, he's become a pro at rolling from back to tummy. And within the last week or so, he doesn't despise being on his tummy so much. In fact, I captured this picture of him smiling while on tummy...

The one scary thing about his ability to roll is that he is now doing it at night in his crib. And during nap time. Usually when I go to feed him the morning, he is now belly-side down. And this picture was taken after a nap the other day...

While it is a bit freightening, I suppose if he is able to do it on his own, it is not so dangerous. I still worry though.

So, what else is Gavin doing at a half a year old? He loves laughing, smiling, playing and just life in general. He still is a very calm, happy-go-lucky little guy. He's almost sitting on his own -- he can make it 5-10 seconds or so on his own before tipping over. It is amazing to see how much stronger he grows every day. It won't be long until he's sitting completely unsupported for longer periods of time.

He also is learning to clap. Whenever Brad or I clap or sing a song with clapping (Like "Pat a Cake"), Gavin holds his hands together and makes a wave like motion with his clasped hands...all the while smiling and laughing. And he only does this in response to us clapping, so we're assuming this is his first attempt at copying our clapping. Isn't he just so smart?

Gavin is also enjoying more and more standing and "jumping". And tickling is just the greatest! There is nothing better than the sweet sound of your little one giggling up a storm -- it makes me smile just thinking about it!

He babbles endlessly "mamamamamama", "babababababa"....no "dadadadadada" yet.

We took Gavin yesterday for his 6 month well-child, on exactly his 6 month birthday. He is now 14 lbs 3 oz and 26 inches long. So, he remains in about the 50th percentile for length and has dropped slightly from the 10th percentile for weight. Our little string bean! But he is just so healthy and reaching all of his milestones as expected. And he even flashed a few smiles and babbles for Dr. Quiroz yesterday.

Solid food have been interesting. If he's not in the mood to eat, he lets us know. So far, we've introduced rice cereal, sweet potatoes, applesauce (which resulted in the most tart, sour looking face you've ever seen -- so they are on hold for now) and most recently bananas.

What an incredibly fun and rewarding age! We're very blessed!

I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Weiner...

Can you believe this? The Weiner-mobile is "staying" at our hotel in Traverse City. How often do you see that? And we got to meet the driver, who took our picture with the amazingly famous ride. No tour of the interior though, bummer! I have a feeling these photos will be funny ones for Gavin to share with friends in the future...and probably slightly embarrassing. I thought it was fun to see this semi-famous ride up close! Weiner-rific!

6 Month Photos!

We took Gavin to JCPenney today to have his 6 month photos taken. Can't believe he will be 6 months already on Tuesday! I'll blog more later next week on what it's like at 6 months. In the mean time, I wanted to share a few (well, more than a few) of our favorite pics from today. It's so hard to narrow it down!

Gavin was an absolute angel, as usual, for the photo session. He was even smiling and laughing the whole time we placed our order, which, given my love for photography (even though I'm not that great at it), took a while. What a fun day capturing the delight of our little guy at this fun age!

We thought it would be fun to capture a few summer photos. And the beach hat just looks so cute on Gavin that we couldn't resist including it! These are some of my favorites!

Sweet Potatoes

All smiles for the first veggie experience. Laundry is going to be so much more fun now!

Genius!

Albert Einstein

Meet...

Baby Einstein

Photo Dump...

So many pictures, so few posts. Here are a handful of photos that I've been meaning to post...time to catch up!

Brad took this picture of Gavin on one of our favorite blankets (thanks Thatchers!). When I was checking out the photos that Brad had taken that day, he said he thought that Gavin looked camouflaged in this picture -- a blue onesie with brown "dots" on a blue blanket with brown dots. It's like "Where's Waldo"...can you see Gavin?

And, big news a couple of weeks ago, our little guy has FINALLY successfully rolled from back to tummy. I walked in from work last week and just missed the big event by about 3 seconds. I did have a chance to grab the camera quickly and snap a few shots. The only problem is that he still doesn't enjoy being on his tummy, so while he was amazed initially by his ability to roll over, it was short lived and turned quickly into frustration. I think he is going to skip crawling and go straight to walking.

We were in Traverse City again for work and had a chance to stop at the beach. Here are a couple cute beach pics...

Can you do this?

Yes, that's a foot...with big toe serving as a pacifier.

More Rice Please!

Gavin's first taste of solids went well. Overall, I think he liked the experience -- probably wondered why we were feeding him funny tasting milk with a spoon.

More ended up on the bib and his face than in his stomach...

The final result...

Ready for Solids?

Something tells me this isn't what they mean by "solids"...

...we'll be trying some cereal tomorrow instead. More to come on how it goes, and pictures of the big event!

Retro Toys, Pools, and Nature

Standing is quickly become one of the favorites in our household. If Gavin is anything like his dad, he has a mere two months (per Grandpa Mark) to master the skill of walking. Something tells me it will be a bit longer than that.

My mom dug out (literally) some of my and my brothers' old baby toys. I still remember spending many a hour playing with some of these, now, retro toys. Check out that spinny thing in the front of the picture. Gavin really enjoyed playing with it...along with my old radio. Not quite an iPod...

The highlight of the weekend? The little toes made their first dip into the pool at Grandma Mary and Grandpa Fred's. Rave reviews!

Little toes, big toes...


And Gavin got a close look at some of Grandma Mary's flowers (and the crunchy grass he was sitting in). Such great textures to feel!

Tongue-y Time

Still doesn't like tummy time, but adores tongue-y time...