Videos of Theo

Look what Theo learned to do this past weekend!  We were so excited, we clapped, smiled and did it back to him and now he won't stop....



And in the interest of full disclosure, he's not happy all the time....

Beer drinking and Babysitting.

typical Nevada City

This past weekend, we drove up to Grass Valley to visit our friends, Todd and Delia and their son, Max.  We met at an open house for BluHomes and then visited the Brewery/Bakehouse in downtown Nevada City for a late lunch.  

Afterwards, we went around the corner and enjoyed some ice cream (no photos!) before heading to Todd and Delia's house.  Lulu and Max played with all his toys.  They kept wanting to put Todd in "prison," and I kept busting him out with "parole" for good behavior.  During his furloughs from prison, Todd, Walter, and Delia enjoyed tasting some beer that Delia brought home from the store.

While they were drinking beer, I was stuffing my face with sourdough bread and cheese.  And we kept ourselves busy preventing Theo from whacking his head on the floor.

Bubbles Playdate

Lulu had a playdate with her friend Scotland today.  Scotland attends a private school, so her spring break was a week after Lulu's.  Her mother works during the day, so Scotland is spending the entire day at her grandparents house and they were hoping Lulu would enjoy a playdate so that they had a bit of a break!

The girls tried out the super bubble wand out on the driveway and had a great time.  Lulu was wearing her rain boots because we had a big system of thunderstorms (complete with thunder, lightening, and small hail!) come through Sacramento today.







Once Walter and Summer (Scotland's mother) came home from work, we all went out and enjoyed pizza at RoundTable for dinner.  It was a really nice afternoon!

Gibbons Park Swings

Walter and I put Theo in the stroller and all four of us walked over to Gibbons Park for some afternoon exercise today.  It was a beautiful day and beautiful weather so it felt nice to get out and stretch our legs a bit.  While Walter pushed Lulu around in the tire swing, Theo had an opportunity to enjoy the baby swing for the first time!





And I captured a little video of the event, too.

Theo's first taste of yogurt

Let's just say that he was not enjoying his first taste of yogurt.  This is plain, whole milk yogurt with very, very little sugar.

Trip to Texas Recap.

Lulu, Theo and I flew to Texas to see my family over Lulu's spring break from school which happened to coincide with my father's birthday.  We had a great time visiting with Umpapa and MauMau, Nanny, and seeing the cousins over dinner.

We surprised Umpapa at school on his birthday with a red velvet cupcake and a candle in the teachers' lounge.  He was surprised!

MauMau, Lulu, Theo and I saw two movies at the local movie theater, including one of them in 3D.  We saw the "Cinderella" movie which was really very good (directed by Kenneth Branaugh) and the movie "Home."  I liked that the movie showed an African-American heroine with a strong, loving bond with her mother who showed the alien, "Oh," how to be brave.  And Lulu and I were both excited that the movie was based on a book so we will have to look for it when we get home and see if we can find it in the library.

We also went shopping.  Nanny wanted Lulu to bring her doll Samantha with her so that they could go clothes shopping together.

And Theo ended up with a little something from Nanny, too!

We also ate ice cream at Braum's, a local institution (which isn't to say that it doesn't exist everywhere in Texas because it does, but mostly that it's a local gathering place).

Lulu also got to ride in the critter with Umpapa out to the tank to feed the fish and Clyde, the beagle, came along for the ride.

Lulu and MauMau also visited the zoo, but I don't have any photos of that visit because Nanny and I were running her errands and letting Theo sleep in the back seat during that time.

And Theo had lots of cuddle time with Nanny and Umpapa.  This was Nanny's first time getting to see Theo and I think they got along great, don't you?













Umpapa and Theo had some man-on-man time on the floor just being silly.





Clyde wasn't entirely sure how to handle a new baby in the house and was pretty anxious when either Umpapa or MauMau gave Theo any attention.  Luckily, he wasn't able to notice that much because Lulu keep running him ragged with her demands to play with him.



Nanny babysat for me once.



And we shared plenty of meals together, including one at Taco Casa, a fast food Mexican joint.









Perhaps the most important meal was on Sunday evening when we drove down to Weatherford and met my brother and his family for dinner to celebrate Dad's 66th birthday.  I haven't seen my brother in three years, since the last time I was in Texas.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get together long enough for the kids to play together because they had an engagement earlier and it was a school night.  Lulu was finally starting to warm up to Rachel when it was time to go.

I am kicking myself that I didn't make Mom jump into this photo, too.  :(

And we also went into town and visited my Great Aunt Margaret Ann at her store.  She is my Grandma Chalmers's only surviving (and the youngest!) sibling, but she is getting on up there in age and starting to slow down quite a bit.



Slowing down seemed to be a theme this visit--there was lots of sleeping and none of it by me.  Theo kept me up most nights from about 3am until 6-6:30am.  Not fun.  (go back and look at that photo of me in Braums)





And, I finally got to see/meet my parents' cat, Smokey, who joined their household after my last visit to Texas.  They think he was dumped or abandoned by someone and started feeding him and he has made himself right at home.  He's a very sweet, friendly cat who drools on you when you pet him.  Not at all like Dido in other words.





All in all, we had a good visit and I think Theo definitely enjoyed his first visit to Texas!

Easter Egg Hunt in Texas

When we woke up this morning, Lulu had found a sack of empty Easter eggs my mother had lying around and she had hidden them all over the house.  So, when my Dad came home from work that afternoon, we had to have an Easter egg hunt.  Best of all, she had hidden "treasures" inside some of them, so after all the eggs had been collected, we had to sort through the treasures and see what everyone found.

Theo at 7 months.

Theo turned 7 months old!  I can't believe over half a year has flown by so fast...They say "the days are long but the years are short" and man, are they right!

Let's see...what's our "Baby Bruder" up to nowadays?  Probably the biggest change is that he's no longer sleeping from 10pm until about 6am without waking up any more.  He's been waking up sometime around 3-4am to nurse before Walter brings him to bed for me to nurse him again at 6am.  I think that's probably because he's grown a LOT bigger and needs the extra milk to keep from feeling hungry?  As long as we don't fall too asleep and remember to put him back in the cradle, I don't really mind the early morning wake-up.  Those nights that we're really tired and forget though?  Ugh.  Theo treats my proximity like an all-you-can-eat milk bar and I'm constantly nursing him from 3am-whenever I wake up.  Not fun.



And he is bigger!  His weight is about 19 and a half pounds now.  I've tried measuring him and I think he's between 26.5 and 27 inches?  It's really, really hard to tell right now!  So, I think he's catching up to his sister after his premature start.  He's definitely heavier than she was and he's almost as long/tall.

He's sitting up much better over the past month or so.  He still can't sit himself up yet, but if we help him get started, he's getting pretty good at sitting on his own...until he's not and suddenly crashes over!  So, we have to be careful where we put him so that he doesn't crash over and bonk his head on something hard.  He can roll over from his tummy onto his back but he doesn't seem to be that interested in rolling from his back onto his tummy at the moment.  I did notice recently that he's sometimes moving his feet like he wants to crawl when he's on his tummy, so I think our days of having him stay put are numbered...  If he could figure out how to gain some traction between his knees and feet and the ground, then I think it's all over!



And he's discovered his feet.  He loves his feet--it's really hard to change his diaper now because when we put him on the changing table, he instantly grabs his feet.

He loves his mama.  He's going through a bit of stranger anxiety at the moment (fun, fun!), so he definitely looks for the familiar people in his life.  His face lights up when he sees his sister and she can always make him smile.  And giggle.  We have to chaperone them though because as he gets bigger, she wants to play more actively with him, but he's too heavy for her to really lift.  So there's lots of playing together on the floor under adult supervision.



He's still not really napping.  He will take 20-30 minute cat naps in my arms, but he wakes up as soon as I try to put him down in his crib.  So, once he wakes up, he claims my attention for most of the day.  If I want to get anything done (like this blog post, breakfast, or showering for example), it has to be done between Walter and Lulu leaving the house for school at 7:30am and Theo's waking up (usually around 9am).  I can put him down for 15-20 minutes on his playmat on the floor and he will happily entertain himself for a while, but when he's done, he's DONE.  And letting him entertain himself is most successful in the morning, after he's awake and before his noontime catnap.  All of which is to say, once Walter comes home, Theo gets plenty of Daddy-Time because I need a break!



We haven't started him on solid food just yet.  He grabs at our plates when we hold him in our laps, but he doesn't seem to be that interested in what's actually *on* our plates.  I have given him a couple of spoonfuls of my (plain, whole milk) yogurt and he is not a fan!  His face(s) were hilarious!  I am not particularly anxious to get him started on solid foods just yet, to be perfectly honest.  I would rather start those once we're back from our trip.  The hassle of dealing with baby food in hotel rooms and wondering exactly the ingredients are in commercial baby food in a foreign country?  Ugh.  Been there, done that (with Lulu back in 2010).  And he seems to be more than satisfied with the amount of milk he's been getting.



Speaking of our trip, in preparation for our departure, Theo has had an early MMR vaccine.  The CDC recommends that infants traveling internationally who are older than 6 months get an MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine at least one month prior to travel.  Unfortunately, it doesn't count towards his regular vaccination schedule, so the poor little guy will end up with an extra dose of MMR.  But, better safe than sorry when it comes to measles, especially with all the outbreaks (including here in California!).  The increasing immigration from Africa and the Middle East into Europe makes this a reasonable precaution, too, I think.  I did not get him vaccinated with his MMR during his 6 month check-up though.  I made an additional appointment for him to come back and get his MMR and his second/booster flu shot separately.

So, that's our little guy at 7 months old.  Can't wait to see what the next month brings...