yogurt day and the blue treaty

today seemed like as good a day as any to expand sullivan's diet a little, so i busted out the yogurt. and i must say, baby yogurt is pretty delicious! it is made with whole milk, so it's very rich, and the flavor we had was pear. why don't they make pear yogurt for adults?

the yogurt is pretty runny and created quite a mess. halfway, sullivan started refusing it so we switched to bananas, ate that for a while, and went back to yogurt. all in all, he ate half a banana and almost a full container of yogurt. AND some watered down juice. bravo!

sullivan is fascinated with blue, and has really started grabbing at him. blue tolerates it pretty well, but has learned to stay out of arm's reach.

except in the kitchen.

from when we first put sullivan in the high chair, it took blue all of two seconds to realize that there was an opportunity there. this little creature will be eating! i wonder if he'll be as stingy with his food as the other two are...

blue did some casual recon for a while, scoping out the baby feeding from the comfort of the rug in front of the oven, and eventually he crept closer and closer until he was sitting right next to the high chair. sully was delighted of course, and immediately reached his hand out to grab some of blue's scruff. this was exactly what blue was waiting for. before sully's hand could grab anything, blue licked all the peas and brown rice off his pudgy little fingers.

sullivan loved it. he squealed and smiled and leaned farther over so blue would like more of his hand, which of course he did. what a fun game! puppy!

now i have to either send blue out of the kitchen or make him lay down on his bed so sullivan can't see him. but i let their little routine unfold today so i could get some pictures, and here they are:






ahh, my ham of a son. as soon as i whip out the camera, he stops what he is doing to smile. he seriously LOVES the camera. it is very hard to get any candid shots, so the following series, once again, took forever. once i finally got him all excited about blue, i was able to get some shots.

here, sullivan did his first reach out. see the apprehensive look on blue's face? he isn't too sure, but he knows that little hand is covered in pureed goodness.

blue is finally getting what he came for, and sullivan is getting some blue attention that does not involve him grabbing at ears, tail, paws, etc.

everyone is happy! sullivan gets some serious blue kisses (and a thorough hand washing afterwards), and blue gets to sample some mashed bananas. i love this photo.

sully's diaper trick

yesterday, sullivan peed on me. TWICE. both times he was fully clothed, and it was not a slow seep that took me a while to notice, but a definite trickle. how could this be possible? have i become a lazy diaperer? are the diapers themselves defective or something? so many possibilities, none of which made sense. and then, as i was holding sully on my hip later in the day, i saw him perform a sneaky little manuver. i have documented it in photographs below.

note: when sullivan sees the camera come out, he turns into quite the ham. all smiles and giggles and wiggles. this took forever; i felt like a wildlife photographer allowing my subject to become familiar with the camera so he would forget it was there and just act naturally. i will let him explain it in his words:

'here i am, casually relaxing on my changing table. or am i? note the position of my right hand.'

'here, i have a grip on the velcro of my diaper, pinky extended for proper form.'

'as you see mother dear, i just take the velcro like this, make sure i have a good grip, and....'

'TAH DAH!'

'i will demonstrate fully clothed, since it is much sneakier this way. next time you think i am patting my belly, i will really be prepping to share a little pee with you. enjoy.'

the ear phenomenon

i just couldn't resist getting a shot of him with the sun shining through his ears. as meredith put it, 'they're quite something.'

day at the park

today we went to the park and enjoyed the lovely weather. it is a bit warm, but under the shade of a liquid amber tree, with a little breeze, it was heaven. sullivan sat happily on the blanket, playing with his toys and occasionally lifting his head to feel the wind on his face. he went on the swings for the first time and was very underwhelmed. i don't know that i was expecting squeals of joy, but maybe some wide 'this is crazy!' eyes?!? instead i got a stink eye and one smile. but i DID catch that smile on camera. :)

and how beautiful is this baby boy? it crushes me sometimes.

photos!

I am back with photos, as promised. These are not from the aforementioned zoo visit, but a more recent trip we took with auntie mere.

Sullivan was exhausted after a few hours and found a comfortable spot to crash in meredith's arms.

my favorite zoo creature, the okapi.

camels chewing their frothy saliva. delicious!

mom and babe eating a little mid morning snack.

zoo day

thursday sullivan and i used our new membership to the zoo for the first time. we arrived around 10 or so and stayed until about 11:30. now that i have gone once, i have learned a few things that will come in handy on future trips:

1: Get there early! the earlier the better. like, i think next time i will be in the parking lot waiting for the doors to open at 9. i keep forgetting how famous the san diego zoo is and how people plan their vacations around going there. it is a crazy busy place. and all the school groups! craziness. but the school groups didn't get there until a little bit later, so 9 am is key.

2: i need to find some discreet feeding areas. i had been walking around looking at animals and before i knew it, sullivan was hungry, and he was hungry NOW. i found a bench under a walkway across from some plants, which i thought was a prime spot because there were no animals near there. but apparently, this plant area is the place where a lot of walking tours start, so when i sat down it was pretty empty, but within 2 minutes there were hoards of people walking up and down the sidewalk waiting for their tour to begin. and i had my little nursing cover AND was partially protected by the stroller position, but the noise of all those people was distracting sullivan from the task at hand so it took forever. i wonder if a semi secluded place even exists? will do some serious hunting next time.

3: the gorillas are amazing, but getting there with a stroller is completely different than just walking. to avoid all the stairs, you have to go through the aviary which has like 5 sets of double doors to make sure the the birds don't escape. i don't want to stop seeing the gorillas, because there is a 5 month old baby i am dying to see, but i think i need to find a way to open the doors while pushing a stroller that does not involve the use of my butt as a door stop.

and while i do love the zoo, it makes me a little sad. like my beloved elephants, who spend their whole lives walking in the wild, are confined to this space that is what? the size of a football field, maybe? and the lions were lounging in a barren enclosure the size of a basketball court. i know the san diego zoo is amazing and the animals are well cared for and the endangered ones will live long lives instead of being poached in the wild. but how is it to be a polar bear living in san diego? i don't know. i don't know...

pictures to follow when i get on the other computer.

mom group

a friend of mine invited sullivan and i to her mom group that meets every tuesday. her son is 15 months or so i think, but the other moms that were going to be there had younger ones, closer to sullivan in age. i though, sure why not? ryan has been harassing me to do something like this and this was the perfect opportunity.

this week the group was meeting out in rancho santa fe, where two of the women live. i have only been there once before, but i was excited to go because it is such an incredibly nice little town. the houses are all amazing, and not right on top of each other, which i love.

this house did not disappoint. it was not anything too flashy ( i considered taking pictures, but if i had gotten caught, that would have been lame), which i think is why i liked it so much. it was one story with dark wood floors and an open floor plan. much bigger than my house, but not extravagantly huge. inside in a nook off the kitchen, there was a play area for the kids, completely sealed off and carpeted. i think it used to be a breakfast area that they converted. it was so nice because you could plop the kids down there with a bunch of toys and they couldn't get themselves into too much trouble. i'm trying to figure out where we can do that in our house....

the woman who owns the house, amy, has a son name kyle who is almost nine months. and the other woman, tiffany, has a son who is four months. we all chatted about the different stages and how we are all adjusting to motherhood. i had been very nervous on the drive there, like i was driving to my first day at a new school, 'what if they don't like me? what if i don't like them?' etc., but they were both very nice and welcoming, which was a relief.

after we chatted in the house for a while, stacy had to leave, so amy, tiffany and i went for a walk with the babies around the block. we walked side by side down the street without a problem. it was beautiful and sunny, and the only sounds i could here were birds. so nice!

now i realize why rancho santa fe is so desirable. i had thought it was just a snobby, pretentious town full of big houses and ridiculously expensive stores in the too-perfect village, and while that is partly true, there are also great little neighborhoods with understated houses on big lots with ROOM BETWEEN NEIGHBORS! i didn't see any street lamps, so i would imagine that you can see a lot of stars at night.

so the mom group was a success! even sullivan enjoyed himself; it was so cute to watch him react to other babies.