Nom, Nom, Nom... Food is such a messy thing!

(Day 2 of eating solids, way less messy, & in a brand new high chair!)

Blake's 5 month rite of passage was the introduction of solid foods and a brand new high chair! I have to admit I was both excited for this day and dreading it as well. I was excited because it was something new and exciting for Blake and Mommy, plus baby's first food is a huge milestone. I was dreading it because I have heard that it is super messy and takes forever, and of course it meant that hitting another milestone meant that my little baby was growing up!

(Day 1 of eating solids...
"I don't know about this mom...")

We started with runny rice cereal which he really did not like too much, he didn't like the mashed up banana I served with the rice cereal either. I have heard from other mommies that when babies start to eat food they really love it, so when Blake was less than thrilled I thought I would just wait a little bit longer. But before throwing in the towel I would give it one more try the following night. I had noticed that Blake really did like solid foods, I had given him pizza sauce and frosting (okay, I know, not the best baby foods... but I swear I was only giving him a teensy weensy bit!) So I decided to thicken up the rice cereal and start with some green beans. HE LOVED IT! He ate the whole thing, which was half a tub of green beans and a tablespoon of rice cereal, plus 4 ounces of milk to wash it all down!


(Hmmm... Ummmm...)

(I don't think my messy baby likes it...)

It is now the end of the first week and he is eating the whole tub of food, plus cereal, plus milk! I am so serious when I said he was a little beefcake! Right now it is only once a day and I will start giving him solids twice a day when we start introducing fruits and oatmeal. Surprisingly, aside from the first feeding, which was a feeding explosion, Blake really isn't that messy. And, he is also able to hold his own bottles... I swear I have such a good baby!

(Hey mom... Look a new trick... I can hold my bottle!)

Torticollis, Therapy, and Tummy Time.

(B & Goose on Mommy's birthday San Francisco trip.)

When I took Blake to see Doctor Benjamine about his latest eczema outbreak, he noticed that Blake's head was tilted in addition to him never wanting to look to the left. He diagnosed him with a minor case of torticollis. Torticollis is basically the term that describes Blake's inability to turn the other direction, from what I gathered from the doctor, it was a neck muscle thing and that his case wasn't too bad. What I gathered from the internet is that it is pretty common in babies and many different things can cause it but it is very fixable. So, Doctor Benjamine referred us to a physical therapist.

(Baby B & Daddy doing tummy time.)

Blake's first physical therapy appointment went really well. Erin, (the PT) showed us some stretches and excercises we have to do with him and told us we are going to have to do tummy time at least 30 minutes a day. She said that he is a little behind since he doesn't roll over and the ability to sit up is very common in babies like Blake who would just rather sit up then roll over! Baby B was a total trooper, as he always is, he didn't make a peep when she was wrenching on his neck, or showing us odd positions to carry him in to help correct his head tilt. He didn't even cry when she had him on his tummy. (If you are wondering why we never really did tummy time with Blake it's because he used to HATE it... He would scream and smother his face into the ground. Even now he only tolerates it and does it for maybe ten minutes at a time.)

(This tummy time stuff is hard business!)

It has been two weeks since we have seen Erin. Blake is doing so much better. He has a better range of motion looking to the left and can roll over really well with just a tiny bit of help. Hopefully we can get him caught up and get him to look in all directions! =)

(There's a whole new world to the left!)

Another Month Down...

(B & his Valentines toy on Valentines day.)

Blake has turned 5 months old this month and time has sure been flying by! Unfortunately he still has eczema & his doctor also diagnosed him with torticollis which I will explain in another blog entry. There are no new stats to report as he won't get them done again until his 6 month appointment but we did see his doctor for his ezcema and he was 17 pounds, 7.8 ounces. He is becoming quite the little beefcake!

(Mommy's little Chunk after his bath.)

I absolutely love watching him grow because everyday is something new and exciting. He is getting to be very very good working with his hands, he picks up his toys and puts them in his mouth, and he can push cars across his high chair tray. He still loves his swing, duck & goose, his jumperoo, and the tv (though we try sooooooo hard to get him to not look at it! The sneaky little guy can find a TV anywhere!). He is really starting to like his Fisher Price Little People animals, and like I said he still loves his swing but we had to make it a little more interesting!

(Wow! It's like a whole new swing!)

He has really really discovered his feet and will bring his legs up, almost creating a half-ball to grab them. He is still not rolling over, but he will roll over to one side & he is super strong and can sit up on his own! And the best thing of all, he is a total ham! He will smile when the camera or phone is put in front of him! He also grew out of his whale infant bath tub so we got him a bigger quacking duck tub... He loves it!

(Hey mom, check this thing out!!!)

(Ooooooooh, feet...)

I know I say this in almost every entry but time really does fly! He is almost half a year old, soon he will be walking and crawling and talking...

(Baby B, sitting up all by himself...)

If only I had another hand...

So much has happened since the last time I posted that it will take a few blog entries to catch up! But let me start here in the present! As we speak I have Blake in his jumperoo, daddy is playing Battlefield on the XBOX, and Blake has me in hysterics! Currently he is giving me his 'fake' cough, smiling, one hand on his hanging elephant, the other on one of the 'play stations' on the jumperoo... There is also a dangling teether elephant that he so deperately wants to put in his mouth, but, he doesn't want to take his hands off anything else:



(I got it... I don't need another hand!!!)

Well Baby B, we all wish we had an extra hand every once in a while!!! =)

Mom... Are you Serious?!?!

(Ummm... What is this?!?!?)

This blog entry isn't as exciting as previous ones, so bear with me. I thought this evening was humorous... Baby B however, not so much!

In the last two weeks or so Blake has learned a new trick... How to scratch himself! Very relieving for B, not so much for his skin! He scratches his chest, his knees (which are a new discovery this week!), and apparently his face at night. Much to my dismay every morning he has a plethora of new claw marks on his face, some of which are open wounds. I try to clip his nails every time he is in the bath tub, which is every other night, but those puppies grow like crazy.

While the Eczema on his face is clearing he still scratches which led me to take drastic measures; I bought him mittens. Apparently, only newborns have the ability to scratch themselves because I only found mittens in 0-3 month size, but they work!

(Hmmm... Socks on my hands???)

So tonight I got him ready for bed, lubed him up, & put those mittens on him! Having a lapse of judgment, I put them on him prior to feeding and bedtime and guess where they went... Right into his mouth, which meant that I had to put on a new, not-so-wet, pair on him! He looked at them and gave me this facial expression that said, "Ummmm.... What the hell are these for? I am NOT an Eskimo..." Poor kid.

(I guess i'll try them out!)

(This picture is from the package of Blake's new baby spoons and is totally random, but it is our life in a nutshell!)

My Funny (Little) Valentine...

(Blake 'driving' the rental Altima...)

Baby B has quite the personality and he has been totally making his mommy laugh like crazy lately. For example, today he was sitting in his swing while I was writing a message to an old friend I had found on facebook. The battery in his swing died and he had stopped swinging. I looked over at him a minute or two after his swing had stopped and he had this look on his face. It was a sideways glance, half-mad, half-content. If he could talk i'm pretty sure he would be saying "Fix this thing mom..." I couldn't help but to let a little laugh escape, poor kid inherited his mom's facial expressions, and with that facial expression he wouldn't have to say a word. To add to his already funny expression, he had one arm around Adrian the Alien, so not only was Blake giving me a face, I had alien eyeballs staring at me!

Tonight in his bath he would kick his feet and make the biggest splash and then just laugh. Blake is getting way too big to be in his infant tub but not big enough to sit in the bathtub by himself. He was making a total mess, like there was more water all over the mirror, counter, floor, and mommy then there was in the tub. I decided to use my stern mommy voice to tell Blake no when he splashed. Yup, it didn't work... (not that I thought it really would! ;) ) He would splash, I would tell him 'No!', he would look at me like 'whatever, mom...', and start laughing. I just couldn't help but laugh too! If this is any indication of what he is going to be like, I am going to have my hands full with a little mini-me!!!

Since Noah was bumped up to a different shift at work he can no longer spend Valentines Day with me. But you know what, it's okay. Instead, I get to spend it with the funniest guy I know! =)

Goo, Goo, Goo.

(B & the spreading eczema...)

Tonight after Blake's bath he was chatting with me in a "goo, goo, gurgle, goo, gurgle, goo" fashion. Funny about the 'goo, goo' talk is that Blake has been covered in goo this whole week. Blake has always been a very, dry little guy... Since day one. He came out peeling, unfortunately, the thing about his dry skin is that it turned into eczema. It started on his chest, spread to his sides, and then up to his face, neck, & ear. Then it flared. He has been so red and itchy, and we have tried every cream! We have tried Aveeno, Aquaphor, & Mustela. It was a no-go. Dr. Benjamine told us to use Hydrocortisone and we could apply a lotion over it if we wanted to. Thankfully it seems to be working, on the down side he looks like he face-planted into a vat of Crisco! For a while there I was afraid to take him out in fear that people would think I gave him some weird rash. Eczema or no eczema, he is still one cute, albeit gooey, little man.

(Eczema at it's worse... =( )

(Gooey Baby B looking a little bit better.)

Lions, Tigers, and Birds...

(Baby B on his walk around Capitol Park, Duck & Goose in tow...)

We have had some pretty good weather recently, so Noah & I wanted to get out of the house for the day. We decided to take Blake on a walk around Capitol Park followed by some lunch and a trip to the zoo. Nothing too eventful happened on our walk around the park, we did see some squirrels that were eating some oranges that fell off the most amazing orange trees! After our walk we went to Original Pete's and Blake got his first taste of 'people' food! Noah is proud to say that Blake's first food was pizza!!! Well, not exactly... I dipped my finger in some pizza sauce and let him lick it. It didn't go over too well, he made a yucky face and that was that! Guess you start with runny rice cereal for a reason! ha ha!

(A Squirrel eating an Orange...)

After lunch we took Blake to the zoo, which was his very first trip there! He LOVED it, especially the birds. He loved the flamingoes and these big black weird looking birds that were playing with a box. I swear he could have watched them forever!

(Blake's First Trip to the Zoo! 01/24/11)

He got up-close with a giraffe who decided that food on the other side of the fence tasted a lot better & we got to watch the lions in their den. He had such a busy day he was passed out by the time we hit the gift shop. But no worries, mommy picked him out a baby giraffe to take home!

(That giraffe behind us decided that the plants behind us were tasty... He was on his way over!)

(Baby B all tuckered out!)