Hi Camera

If Stanley could speak, I'm sure he would say 

"I always want to look good in front of a camera.  I will push my dad right out of the way to get the camera to focus on me."

It is a good thing you live in a digital age Stanley--we will continue to take lots of Stanley photos. 

Pacifiers

I was worried that Stanley would use his pacifiers for years. He just loved them for a few months starting when he was 1 month old. For a while I thought we would need to take them away from Stanley at some point later down the road. However, Stanley stopped using them to suck on about a month back. I asked Halima if I should put them away and she said that Stanley likes to use them as a chew toy.
Halima knows well. Tonight, I gave him one.

At one point, he was even holding it like an ice cream cone and eating the round edge as he held the part normally in a baby's mouth.

Crawling Update

He has it down and his speed has increased dramatically today. Tomorrow, I'll try to capture it earlier in the night. Tonight, we were video chatting on the computer with Papa Doug and Lolo, so this crawl is when Stanley was getting tired of crawling over and over across the same part of the carpet.

Just two days ago, Stanley could barely lift his arms and move them. Once in a while today he lifts them so high that it looks like he is swimming. What a difference a day makes to a baby.

6 months 1 week and 3 days to crawling

Stanley has been moving all about with his strange method of walking his feet to his hands and then using his head as a 5th appendage. But this evening, he finally figured out crawling!! Hurray!!

I was too excited to watch his first crawl that I did not even think to video it.  As a result, this video is from a bit later when he didn't do quite as well. However, you can tell that the crawling is developing.

Stanley really is enamored by the black hard marble that we want to keep him away from.  How appropriate that he already loves the things we don't want him to be on.

Eating saga

Despite the fact that Stanley is 'obese', he is not an eater. He loves to nurse, but our food trials have not been very successful. We have tried rice cereal, avocado, and pears. Tomorrow we will try sweet potatoes.
The avocado and rice cereal really did not go well. The pears usually are ok for the first bite and then he is done. Ironically, the little boy who always have his mouth wide open, closes his mouth completely if he sees food on a spoon.

At one point, he had eaten his one bite of pears and was done. I tried to get some in his mouth and as he moved all about with his mouth closed I ended up smearing pears all over his nose and even got them in his ear.  He knows when he doesn't want something.

Stanley and Papa Doug at the table

Papa Doug capitalized on his one chance to
get pears into Stanley's mouth

 Now, don't get me wrong, Stanley loves to eat anything and everything that isn't food. He enjoys his metal spoons (without food on them). Based on the below picture, you would think that he would want to eat meat. But, Stanley would much prefer the head of his wood monkey than his pears.

I'm sure this phase too will pass. 

The cute little thief

We have been a bit behind on our blogging. Our excuse for being behind is that Lolo, Papa Doug, and Flounder were here visiting. We had such a wonderful time, that there was just no time to blog.

Sunday, Papa Doug and Stanley had an afternoon together while Mimi and Lolo went to a museum and Steve and I went on a bike ride. The museum and bike rides were nice, but Papa Doug and Stanley had a fantastic time around Noe Valley. They ventured to the swings and played at home on the kids mattress we put in our living room.

 Papa Doug comes up with lots of little games that Stanley just loves. For example, he has Stanley flying high on his foot or he pushes a little rubber toy car against the stairs and then the rubber car bounces back at them. Stanley is mesmerized by these little games.

At one point, Stanley was playing by himself and Papa Doug was reading the newspaper on the chair right near by. All of the sudden, Doug felt a little pick-pocket. Stanley had scooted over and was picking Papa Doug's pocket. Stanley was more interested in the handkerchief than the money farther down; this cute little pick-pocket will learn which thing to take soon enough.

Lolo stayed an extra day and got to spend some added time with Stanley. It is wonderful to have Lolo and Papa Doug around. It is so nice to spend time with them, and even more amazing, the laundry gets done, the dishes are done, Steve and I eat wonderful home cooked food, and we always have wonderful cookies to eat for dessert. 

 Stanley liked spending some time with Flounder. Now that he is living in CA, hopefully we will see him more.

Even cousine Katya and Aunt Mimi came to visit.

Crawling Progress

Stanley makes strides every day trying to crawl.  He's certainly not there yet, but he gets a little closer every day.  You can see below that he doesn't really have the best technique.  He likes to straighten his legs out a lot and almost stand up on his feet with his head on the floor.  I'm not sure he really understands the mechanics of the whole thing.

But then, he also has moments of near brilliance where he seems to really get it.  Here he makes a pretty convincing movement.  It is only one "step", but it is the first movement that we would really say is recognizable as "crawling", per se.  Take a look.

I'm sure he'll keep moving on and will eventually get there.  We'll keep you posted.