He's Ticklish! He's Giggling! He's Holding Toys! He has Discovered his Voice! He's 5 Months!

Nathan turned 5 months old on May 21st. He gets smarter and cuter every day as Dan and I fall deeper in love with him, if that is even possible. There are a few great milestones now. He is not only grabbing toys but holding on to them. If I pick him up when he's holding a toy, he doesn't let it go. I think it's great because it is good for his hand strength. I try to always put something in his hand, whether it's a rattle or a ring. His grip is incredible! He is also pulling on my hair or any part of my clothing he can get his hands on. And when I try to pull away, he pulls harder. One of the cutest things he does with his grip is when he rides in his car seat, he holds on to each side, like he has handlebars. He is learning by touching things too. When Dan or I feed him, he touches our chin, lips, nose, cheek, or hair and we can tell he is really concentrating and listening as we tell him what he is touching. It's also neat to hold him because he almost hugs us back.

Nathan is becoming ticklish in his under arms, feet, and neck. He doesn't react all the time but does many times. It's funny to watch, although it must be rough to be tickled and unable to get away. The first place that I noticed he was ticklish was on his neck when I was giving him a bath. So cute!! It's hard to resist!

Nathan has developed the cutest giggle ever. There are some things we do that just make him giggle and giggle and giggle some more. He loves to bounce so any time he is in the position to bounce around, we oblige. Sometimes he gets so happy when he's bouncing that he literally squeals.

Now that Nathan has discovered his voice, I feel sorry for our neighbors. For some odd reason, when Nathan lays on our bed he likes to look up at the ceiling and scream! He's not upset, just happy and wants to hear how loud he can be.

Our baby is looking like a little boy these days. It's great watching his development.

Nathan's next doctor appointment is June 25th when he goes in for his 6 month checkup.

Kisses!
Toni

S O L I D S!!!

Today Nathan had solids for the first time! Food of choice... Beech Nut rice ceral. He did awesome!! His Mother's Day gift to me.

Kisses

Toni

New Adventures

These past two weeks were big ones for Nathan... starting with him discovering both his hands and his feet! He loves to grab his little toes and stare at them. He also likes to hold his hands in front of his face and stare at each cute stubby finger. I would love to know what thoughts are racing through his head as he ponders the meaning of each appendage.

Last weekend, the 3 of us headed to Monterey and Big Sur. We left Saturday around 3pm and arrived in Monterey about 2 hours later. It is so beautiful there! Monterey is south of the bay area and is home to marvelous sailing, golfing, fishing, shopping, dining and relaxing. It is also home to the famous Monterey Aquarium. We can't wait until Nathan is older and can appreciate going to the aquarium. Unfortunately our time in Monterey was sidelined to a minor emergency. As most of you know, my troubles early on with Nathan learning to nurse led to me pumping 100% of the time. Well... my suggestion to those of you that haven't had children yet and who want to breastfeed, be sure and have your baby learn to nurse immediately so you won't fall victim to what happened to me. At some point on Saturday during our packing, one of my cats, likely Scout, bit the tubing for the pump. Much to my dismay, this fact was undiscovered until I tried to pump in the hotel room in Monterey. Dan immediately jumped into Mr Fix It mode. He found a Walgreens and purchased epoxy glue and duct tape. Unfortunately again, these items proved unhelpful. Without going into gross detail on how a breastpump works, essentially there are 2 motions that have to function in order to be effective and when there is a crimp in the tubing, the "in" motion fails. This was realized when during pumping, so much strain was happening with the "out" motion that milk ended up going through the tubing, into the machine, before I could stop the pump... thus rendering the pump useless. Once again, Dan attempted a fix by taking the entire pump apart and drying it out. Still... nothing. There we were, 9:00 at night, and I was disgustingly engorged without relief in sight. Having food for Nathan was not an issue because I had packed some formula, just in case. We hopped on craigslist to see if anyone in the Monterey area was selling pumps. We found 2 in Santa Cruz, which even though Santa Cruz is about 35 miles north of Monterey, it was worth it. I emailed both to see who the lucky winner would be for our Sunday purchase. It was Nathan's first night in a hotel room so he was bright eyed and bushy tailed. I literally was pushing him around the room in his stroller at midnight trying to lull him to sleep. Finally he drifted off around 12:30 on Sunday morning. I then went to bed... miserable. For those of you who have pumped/nursed, imagine going almost 18 hours without doing either.

Later in the morning, we were rescued when we discovered a Target in Monterey. Even though I would be purchasing a double pump later in the day, I absolutely could not go any longer without relief. So... I headed to Target and purchased a manual pump. Believe it or not, the manual pump is not that bad. We ended up checking out of the hotel around 12:30pm and headed to Santa Cruz. We met the seller, bought the pump (which is practically brand new and less than 1/3 sticker price), and went on our way. Now... our ultimate goal for the weekend was Big Sur so even though that meant backtracking a while, we did it anyway. And we were SO glad we did!! It was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined! We are going to go back before too long because we did not have much time there. It is about 1 hour south of Monterey so we were pretty far from home. Nathan LOVED the beach and pictures are attached to prove it. Nathan's first road trip was a success!

The last of the big events for Nathan was his first day of day care this week. He went both on Tuesday and Wednesday and did fabulous! He was better off than me, of course. Dan is in San Diego this week. I documented the day with pictures too. We chose an in home family day care situation that was referred to me by a friend whose children and grand children went/go there. 2 generations of success stories were enough for me! My biggest fear was that Nathan would be the one crying and screaming the whole time and turns out, he was gentle, sweet and loving! And napped wonderfully. I had glowing reports of him when I picked him up. My work day inched by as I could not wait to pick him up. When I arrived... as soon as his eyes met mine, he smiled so big and started cooing! When I picked him up he played with my hair and just loved on me. When we got home, he sat in my lap and did not budge. Eventually he conked out for 2.5 hours! He is in excellent hands and I am very comfortable with my decision.

Kisses and coos!

Love

Toni and Nathan