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.