Little Drummer Boy

We just got back from a trip to Colorado this past weekend, and while we were there we thought it would be nice to give Stanley a toy he knew from home - the pots and pans.  We sat him down in Lele and Grandpa Tom's kitchen with a small pot and a wooden spoon while we all hung out waiting for dinner.  He seemed to know what to do from there.  I think he's getting the hang of it.  More to come from the trip, but this has been waiting in the wings for a bit now. 

College Buddies

So well said by April. Take a look at the two friends...I'm sure happy the boys are like long lost college buddies since April and I know each other from college.

http://ericlehman.blogspot.com/2012/04/stanley.html

Chatterbox

Julia and I got married at the "Chatterbox Club" (a women's clubhouse in Rochester, NY) in 2008.  Now, it appears, Stanley wants an honorary membership.  He has started talking quite a bit lately.  He will just sit there talking and making sounds for quite a while.  They range from bbbllrrrbblll's to lots of ga-gaaa-GAAAA's and some hhhmmmmmmm's.  Seems like he is exploring his range right now.  We'll keep you posted, but you can check it out in the video.

Self Occupation

Stanley has been getting much better at playing all by himself lately.  It used to be that when we sat him down in the living room with some toys and walked away, we had 5 minutes tops before he was bored and screaming for some attention.  Now, he will often just sit there with a toy or two for a good 10-20 minutes just playing, crawling and chewing.  He will usually start chatting to himself (or whomever will listen) and making strange noises, but seems generally happy just roaming around and playing on his own. 

It's fun to see him get interested in things for more than about 20 seconds.  You can see a bit of what we are talking about in the video.  We've taken to using this time to cobble together a quick dinner or pick up a little, but often it devolves into just sitting there watching him play (while trying not to let him see you watch him).  Kind of defeats the purpose, but oh, well.

Dad gives the bath.

And you end up with this.

How do you keep those cheeks Stanley

Yesterday, we went up to the hospital where Stanley was born and had him weighed. I have been noticing that he is not gaining weight like he used to be and that he is thinning down with all of this crawling.

I was pretty surprised though. On March 23rd, Stanley was 18 lbs 1 oz. Yesterday, he was a whopping 18 lbs 4.5 oz. For about a month of growth Stanley has only gained about 3 oz. I do not have any stats on his height, but I know he is growing taller because his head hits the bottom of the table when he stands up.

The women at the hospital store asked how Stanley was eating. She suggested that even though he isn't eating much solid food at 7 months, he will be eating pizza like all boys when he goes off to college.

I'm just amazed Stanley still has his big cheeks.

Mom, Did you know that pine tree twigs
 are not good eatin?

Nice Weekend

It was a really nice weekend here in San Francisco. It was about 75 degrees here on Saturday and then about 70 today. We got out to enjoy the weather and made it up to Twin Peaks to catch the great view. It did become evident that we have gone soft with regard to the heat, though. Midway through Saturday we started to complain that it was too hot and that the AC in the Subaru just wasn't good enough. Yikes...

Sick Stanley, Healthy Stanley

This last weekend Stanley had a pretty bad cold with a very runny nose that made it hard for him to breath many times.  Saturday night he (and Julia) didn't get much sleep because he was feeling so rotten.  Most of the day Sunday, then, he was tired and wasn't really smiling much.  Just not his normal Stanley self.

The three of us went on a walk with Shawn and Violet Sunday afternoon and Stanley took a short nap on the way home in the stroller (this is after a 3 hour nap earlier in the day).  Upon waking we could tell that he was feeling much better and his runny nose had stopped almost completely.  Stanley was also much more vocal, humming and chatting away like he normally does, and the smiles returned.  He spent the rest of the evening playing with his toys and crawling around.  It is good to have the happy smiley Stanley back.  Bad news, though, now we have his cold.  Thanks Stanley.

My little baby growing up

Stanley seems to be growing up too quickly. When I look at some of these pictures, he looks like a little boy and not a baby anymore. Tomorrow he turns seven months old! My has time gone by very quickly. As I'm typing here he is standing up next to my leg and his head is just about to touch the bottom part of our table. Plus, he is so chatty. More on his specifics tomorrow.

Here are my big kid photos...

Stanley loves to read; he particularly loves magazines.
Here though he taking after his dad and reading cook books. 

Enjoying his play area even with a gate. 

Visit to Andrew's house

On Saturday we all drove down to mountain view for the day to see our friends April, Eric, Andrew and Brian. Well, let me back up a little bit. Before we went over to sat hi to them Julia went on her favorite bike ride up Moody Road in Los Altos. While she was gone Stanley and did the grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and the Milk Pail.

After Julia's ride we drove on over to April and Eric's new house to have lunch and say hi. Stanley and Andrew played together quite a bit while we all chatted and lounged around. Their be house is fantastic and we all loved cruising around in the big back yard. Take a look at the pictures and video below.

 

Video below

Uh oh

I'd say we might be in trouble. Stanley had already thrown the remotes and DVD's on the ground.

Food Update

Stanley's eating is so so. Today he played with his food, but didn't eat anything. Until we figured out what Stanley like, we thought we would feed him from jars. However, turns out he just really likes home cooked food. (So does him mama). Steve and I made him fresh carrots with cinnamon on them. He didn't eat any from the inside of the bowl or from the spoon, but I'd say it was a success since he licked the bottom of the bowl clean. As a side note, thank goodness his hands and face were covered in carrot. It meant that the bottom of the bowl actually had quite a bit of carrot on it. 

I'm also wondering if Stanley is slow to loose his gag reflex. If any amount of food gets in his mouth that he doesn't lick off, he gags instantly. I hear this goes away between 4-6 months, but Stanley still appears to have this quite strongly.  

Stability

Just two weeks into crawling and Stanley has become very stable. He is able to hold on to items with only one hand. He can easily climb up on almost anything that is about his height (coffee table, couch etc). Today, I found him standing by the couch and reading a book with both hands. At the end he took his hands off the couch and held the book and he squatted down to the floor using the couch as to prop him up. I mean don't get me wrong--he wouldn't be able to stand stable for any time at all if he wasn't holding on to something. However, he is also able to hold on to one of my hands and stand for quite a while. 

Steve has also been working with him on going up(he's good at this, though he over thinks it a bit and gets scared) and then going back down. He has become quite good at going back down first with his feet, then going to his knees and then putting his hands on the floor. I trust him going up and down on the bottom stair, but I wouldn't trust him at all with two stairs. 

While pushing up, it is funny to watch sometimes that he will use his head as a 5th appendage. Apparently steve says it is a tactic used in climbing also. 

Stanley didn't have much time just sitting, he went from laying down to crawling. However, his sitting has gotten much more stable also. Below he is playing with pots and pans while I am busy cooking in the kitchen. He seemed quite occupied for basically the entire cooking session. 

Happy Again

Stanley had a rough Saturday night and Sunday. We aren't sure what was up. At this age it could be gas, teeth, growing pains. Poor little guy. But it also meant for a rough night and day for mom and dad. Thank goodness we have our happy chatty baby back.

How'd you get there Stanley

I came into the room just in time to see Stanley's hand sliding away from view. Below I've pull him out a bit before we could take a picture.

Indiana

Stanley had another adventure on the plane this past week--his 5th round trip in his 6 months. Unfortunately, his great grandma Lillian died and so the three of us flew to Indiana on Wednesday for the funeral. It was a very nice ceremony. Unfortunately, Stanley didn't get to meet his great grandma; I'm sure they both would have enjoyed meeting each other.

The trip was pretty simple, but it turns out to be much harder to travel with a mobile boy than with a little tiny baby we had on the previous flights. Stanley really wanted to crawl or walk around the plane. Steve and I both separately held his hands and had him walk down the aisle of the plane. He would spend a few seconds giving each person a big wide mouthed smile. If the person didn't give him any attention, he would continue with his walking, but if the person gave him a reaction back, he would stop and smile and laugh away with them until it was time to keep walking.

Stanley's really racking up the list of states visited so far:
NY, Hawaii, CA, CO, Indiana (I'm not including layovers in airports which are Illinois and Virginia.)

1st concert

Today Stanley heard his first concert. It seemed appropriate that it was at the farmers market and the singer was around 12-14 years old. However, he was quite good and captured Stanley's attention for around 30 minutes.

I like mashed potatoes

Apparently we were trying the wrong foods. Or maybe he's a sucker for the "Texas Roadhouse" restaurant.

Standing Stanley, Part II

Today after I came home Julia said she had just put Stanley down for a nap.  He seemed to be fussing a bit, but that is normal.  About 10 or 15 minutes later he was still fussing, so I decided to go in to comfort him and see if that would put him back down to sleep.  I walked it to see this, however:

He didn't seem like he could really fall asleep standing up like that, and didn't look the least bit tired.  I guess this means we have to lower the crib mattress down.  Yikes.

Xylophone

Stanley likes to bang on things.  He will sit at the table with us and just slap his hands down on the table for fun.  He will also smack the water in the tub, splashing himself in the face. 

We decided we could capitalize on this "talent" of his with a new toy.  We stopped at the toy store on Sunday and got him a nifty wooden xylophone.  It is pretty out of tune, but the colors are nice and it seems pretty durable.  Stanley took to it right away and began banging out some tunes the moment we handed him the little mallet.  Take a look for yourself.

The new park

Today we went to the new park that opened up in town. It is amazing! There is something for every age. As you can see, we were not the only ones that thought to head to the park today.









Stanley really enjoyed the brand new sod that they just put in. He crawled around enjoying looking around at the long grass leaves. He enjoyed seeing his stroller from a different view. He pulled himself up to standing using the front tire. It must look very different because it kept him quite entertained.

We met up with Zuri and Carolyn also. It is amazing to watch the two kids that are only 2 days apart. Zuri eats like a 5 year old and Stanley crawls. On the other hand, Stanley doesn't eat solids and Zuri doesn't yet flip over.

My Crawling King

Since Thursday, when Stanley really starting crawling, he has been developing his new skill quite quickly. We figured we had about a week to work on protecting our stairwell. But, I was talking with my dad (Papa Doug) on my way home from work Friday afternoon and he mentioned that I should protect our stairs right away. His comment was very timely. On Friday evening, Steve and I were cooking and Stanley was on his living room play mattress. I kept looking over at Stanley and he was doing just fine. Then I took a glance over and Stanley was about 2 feet taller than he normally is--he was on the second stair! Yikes.

No pictures of this--I grabbed him in one quick woosh.

On Saturday afternoon, Steve opened up our back door to let Stanley venture out. He enjoyed leaving the house and spending some time on the mat. But, he didn't venture too far, he stayed on the mat and then returned into the house.

He is quite careful. I've watched him pull up onto the stairs or the chairs. He is very careful to make sure his hands are well placed. He tries and tries and then finally when he knows when he will be ok, he makes his move. The only time that he has fallen is when he pulls up onto his round toy that moves--the toy moves to in a circle and Stanley goes down leaning on the toy.

He also has picked up the skill of pulling himself up. Take a look at the video below. Here he is pulling himself up to standing.