Rain, Rain Go Away

It was a rainy icky weekend so we snuggled in bed as long as we could and then found ways to amuse ourselves...

Hunter had his first piece of french bread which he loved gumming, we played in his new pea pod tent, and we even tested out his duckie bath tub (with Jack supervising, of course)!

Dancing with Turtle

The Paraplegic Crawl

Now added to his repertoire of wiggling, turning and rolling to get from one place to another, is what we fondly refer to as "the paraplegic crawl".

Here kitty, kitty

Jack continues to torture Hunter...

High Five

Ryan has been working on this one for awhile!

When Daddy's Away...

Mommy will Play...DRESS UP!! Hehehe!

Don't judge me. I had just finished making a tutu for a dear friend of mine who is having a baby girl, so I thought I'd try out the fit on Hunter.

If it makes you feel any better, he didn't seem to enjoy the experience AT ALL! (I know that brought much relief to Ryan when I told him!) The only time I could even get a half smile from Hunter was when I coerced it out with a stuffed animal. He was definitely looking at me with eyes that said "Mom, I cannot believe you are making me wear this thing" and probably a lot of 4 letter baby words as well!

I still think the pictures are hysterical and cute!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

We took Hunter for his first trip to the Baltimore Aquarium and his high pitched squeals of delight could be heard throughout the building. He loved watching all the fish move behind their glass tanks, and often tried to reach out and grab them! We are not sure if there was any one thing that he liked best, but he certainly squealed the loudest when he saw the stingrays swimming in a pool beneath him.

And here is one fish that took a special liking to Hunter:

"I Pinch!"

Hunter has been perfecting his pincer grasp while feeding himself puffs!

Roll Play

7 Months Old!!

Another month has gone by and our little squirt is now 7 MONTHS OLD!! This past month, like the other months, seems to have gone by so fast until we stop and think about all that has happened and how much Hunter has grown. All it takes is a quick tour of the collection of pictures taken in the last 30 days and the realization that none of his size 6 month clothes fit him anymore...

Some highlights from the last month are that we endured an insane amount of snow and Hunter's worst illness to date (see "blizzard of boogies" entry). Luckily, the illness didn't last as long as the snow, which is still in piles throughout the neighborhood. His greatest development of the last month has undoubtedly been in the "talking" department. Hunter has really taken to babbling, and his vocabulary has expanded from just grunts and giggles to a variety of consonant sounds. That is not to say that he doesn't still grunt and squawk like a bird on a daily basis though.

The other area (not surprisingly) that he has shown a lot of growth is in foods! We have been steadily pushing the boundaries of Hunter's palate, and we have yet to find a food that he will refuse to eat. Hunter has tasted most of what the fruit and vegetable world has to offer, and we're now moving on to exotic things like yogurt and pasta. He is also now able to feed himself small pieces of cereal from his tray at dinner. He has also quickly grasped how to drink from a cup (not a sippy cup) a real cup! We're both a little surprised that we still have not seen any sign of teeth in his mouth, but imagine that they will start poking through soon enough.

Hunter sits up unassisted, rocks on his butt back and forth, quickly grasps items large and small, transfers them from hand to hand, and is currently perfecting his pincer grasp. He is also learning object permanence, so it's not as easy as it once was to hide something from Hunter that we don't want him playing with...now he goes looking for it.

Hunter has not yet reached full mobility. While he has shown promise for crawling over the last month, he still hasn't quite put the motions together. We think he certainly has the strength, he may just need someone his own size to show him how to do it. Some people have suggested recently that he is just going to skip crawling and start walking soon... we will soon see!!!

Most importantly, the past month has just been another genuinely amazing month of parenthood. The thing we are starting to notice with our son is that whatever age he is at the moment is clearly the best age a kid can be. It certainly can't get any better than 7 months old right??? It's such a perfect age... he's so cute... so loving... so full of energy and fun to watch... he's sleeping through the night... has such a great laugh... We'll let you know next month, but our guess is that we'll think the same thing about him being 8 months old.

Up next... Hunter's first trip to Vermont where he will get to watch Shaun White tear up the half pipe at the U.S. Open, and hopefully some warmer weather at home here in Maryland so that we can work in some more outside playtime...