Hanukkah, keys and smiles.....

I have to admit my photos have not been as much in abundance as of late. It's been a busy end of year, so starting in January I will try to get better. We have a new family camera so I will start take photos with that instead of my iphone. 


First off, I gave Sasha his first dreidel, er..chew toy. He did not seem at all impressed with my Hanukkah songs and dreidel spinning. He did however think Jingle Bells was hilarious when I sang it to him. Go figure. 

Dreidel..Dreidel...Dreidel

Sasha is not a fan of putting on clothing. He despises sleeves most of all. He would be happy in muscle tee's, but that's not really an option due to the weather and um, our style. Getting him in his winter coat is somewhat of a challenge so I have a few items to entertain him while we go through the process. He is chewing on his own baby keys since he always wants mine. But his most favorite, which is sitting in his lap, are tic tacs. They make a wonderful rattle and he never notices I am putting on shoes, coat and a hat until I take away the tic tacs. Whew. Once we are dressed and out the door, he's a happy guy. He loves to be on the move like his mama. 

Got my keys, ready to go....

Lastly, I just love this photo. I can't get enough of Sasha's smiles. He is most happy playing with his basket of blocks and books. He can't get of them. 

I love my blocks. 

Have a happy and healthy New Year and see you on 2012. 

Happy Holidays!

It's been a busy few months around our house. I have been working on a freelance project for since the summer taking up every minute of my time not spent with Sasha. Somehow Sasha is going to be a whooping 8 months next week - how did that happen? Every day I look at him I have to say "you are soooo big" and I mean it. He grows right before our eyes. His hair seems to be growing in abundance as well. 


It's been so fun to have a baby around for the holidays. You really get to appreciate everything new through his eyes and it makes you remember that it's all about friends and family. Sasha loves the lights, the crinkle of wrapping paper and the cheesy holiday music. What Sasha does not like is putting on many layers of clothing, but you can't win them all. 


A friend of mine loan me a santa costume that her little guy wore to go see the big Santa. I thought it would be great fun to get Sasha in it and do a holiday card. As previously mentioned my little guy is not a fan wardrobe changes, so we made it as far as the hat. Basically Sasha staged his own photo shoot. Somehow he found the pom pom and thought it was hilarious to pull his hat off. So we just went with it and could not stop laughing. I don't know if you can see the t-shirt but it says "rocker baby", this was a baby shower gift from my friend Michele. Alas, Jingle Bell Rock came to life. 


Have a wonderful, happy and healthy holiday from the Burling's. See you next year. 

Feeds Self Cracker

At Sasha's first doctor appointment five days after he was born we were given a yellow pamphlet to keep track of his health record. On the inside of the pamphlet there's a chart that highlights average growth and development for the first six years of life. For some reason, we chuckled at the development listed as "feeds self cracker".  At five days old we couldn't even fathom Sasha eating let alone holding a cracker. 

As I mentioned before Sasha is well, what can I say, he's a foodie. He loves everything we give him and always will try everything. We just started to introduce him to organic snack food as a means to get him comfortable picking up his food and feeding himself and it's fun. As his pincer grip develops and his little fingers and adorable thumb continually practice picking up everything he can get his hands on, he is still not quite grabbing a sandwich with both hands, but getting close. 

The other day a fellow mommy turned me on to Baby Mum-mum's, an organic rice rusk. This is basically a rice cake for babies shaped like a long oval so it's easy to grasp. So of course I went to the health food store the next day, got a box, opened box, put Sasha in his high chair, gave him a mum-mum, he loved it....end of story. 

Today when I gave Sasha his mum-mum it broke in a few pieces. I picked up a piece to hand it to him and he got very upset. He thought Mommy was taking his mum-mum. Once I helped him get the small piece back in his mouth, he stopped crying. Someone does not want to share their mum-mum's. 

In case your wondering why Sasha looks so different in these photos, it's because, well, he looks different. He's growing up before our very eyes and we are convinced he often grows overnight. 

Who cares what this is, I love to eat...

Look at me feeding myself, such a big boy.

Those two teeth come in handy.

Blocks Blocks Blocks

I know it may seem like a simple thing, and that's the beauty of it. Blocks, they are simple delightful toys that allow children to do a variety of things depending on their age, ability and type of block. When I taught kindergarten my students adored old school wooden blocks and would get creative for hours, adding in little animals, telling stories, using all one color, using a variety of colors and expanding onto to their neighbors buildings and so on and so on. 


When Grandma Gail was visiting from Florida she of course wanted to buy some toys for her darling grandson. So I said he needs (not wants) but needs blocks. Off to the toy store for some sort of er chewable blocks. 


At first Sasha wasn't so impressed with the block, but like with other things, I keep trying every day in short increments with new things until he starts to show interest (or not). Sure enough on the day that I started building block towers and showed Sasha how to knock them down he was sold. Visions of tiny toys around our apartment abound. 


There's something sweet about these simple blocks with no lights or sounds or gadgets. Other than Sasha's wild Jumperoo he tends to gravitate towards small items that he can manipulate as his fine motor skills continue to develop. I love watching his tiny fingers and hands grab and pull anything he can reach. 


Here's some photos taken over the course of a week or so.

Why do you keep scattering these around me?

Well, they do taste yummy.

Hmm, this is kinda cool..

Ah boom...now that's fun...

Where did the blocks go???

Sitting up and stuff

Sitting up is fun!

Happy Happy Autumn!!! 

I'm not sure when exactly it happened but Sasha is now sitting up unassisted for long periods of time. He was doing short stints a few weeks ago, but then falling fairly promptly after being propped up. Then one day I noticed he just started to sit for 5, 10, 15 and nearly 20 minutes at times. It's super cute and has opened up a new world for him and playtime. 


Oftentimes when I go to plop Sasha down he tends to make his legs as erect as possible taking in the view from up high. Perhaps he will walk before crawling since standing seems a whole lot more fun? I guess its his baby prerogative as to how he gets around. Sasha continues to talk up a storm, and at times he yells so loud I think he's going to hurt himself. Fortunately it hasn't happened yet.


Since we got our high chair it's a who new ball game around our household. Sasha proudly sits in the kitchen watching us make our coffee, breakfast, clean up, rattle pans, run water, etc. He loves all the action and most importantly loves to be close to the food, not to mention throwing everything on the floor for mommy to keep picking up. 


Also, with the leaves finally getting more colorful I decided to put my sitter upper in the leaves for a few photos as you can see from the above photos. I learned very quickly that Sasha loves to not only sit in the leaves, but eat the leaves. He loved frolicking around in them and it made me think how fun snow is going to be. 


Here's a few photos of the big boy in various sitting positions. 

   

He was having so much fun I hated to take him away from his snack of dried leaves.

Full on sitting with toy.

The awesome high chair before breakfast.

And after breakfast...plain yogurt..yum.

Happy First Halloween

As a child and well into adulthood I was never one for Halloween. I am not really the dressing up type and never really got into it. But I do like candy. Having a child I realized I have to change my attitude, since most kids (with the exception of me) love Halloween. What can be more fun than getting free candy and dressing up? 


Sasha got invited to his first Halloween party on Sunday. Mind you, his parents did not get invited to any. Nice that our child has a busier social calendar than us. We've been so busy that we got in that "ugh, we need find something for our child to wear mode" and felt like real parents. After many a conversation of costumes ranging from John Cougar baby camp (Ari's idea) to a farmer with a John Deere hat ($20 was too much for a hat to wear 2 minutes) to a lion (Mama had no time to knit a hat) we wanted something easy, comfortable and well not too expensive. 


Ari stumbled on this adorable skeleton costume from Old Navy. When it arrived I was thrilled to see it was basically a onesie made out of 100% cotton. Success - comfy, affordable, cute and glows in the dark. Then to top it off we added the red shoes that were a gift from my sister-in-law from when she was traveling in South America. Fortunately they fit perfect.


Up from nap, in the outfit, off to the party. Wine and cupcakes for the grown ups, floor play for the babies. A wonderful first Halloween. 

The not so scary skeleton.....

6 Months

I'm not sure how it happened, but Sasha turned six months yesterday, incidentally the same day my grandmother turned 92. (Don't tell I posted her age, we should all look so good and be so alert at her age) Sasha continues to bring endless joy and laughter to our lives. There's so much going on with him right now I thought I'd just give some highlights and photos of what's going on in his wonderful baby world. 

At Sasha's six month check up he weighed in at 15 pounds 5 ounces and measured 26.5 inches in length. He's in perfect health, that's all I need to know.


The most exciting news is Sasha's non stop chatting. While he may have his dad's good looks, there's no mistaken this is my kid by the way he babbles on and on. We took a family vacation to Vermont at the beginning of October and stayed in a very rustic cabin. Out of no where Sasha started to roar, showing off his inner mountain baby. He is constantly trying out new sounds and seems quite pleased with himself as are we.


Sasha also is becoming quite the foodie, eating everything from chicken to peas to yams (his favorite) and everything and anything I give him to try from my plate. 


He is also dabbling in kissing. He grabs our face and plants a wet one on the ole lips. Sasha must be mimicking all the kisses he gets. 


With this beautiful fall weather we continue our daily walks. Sasha loves to grabs the colorful leaves and watch them spring back into their original place. 


He continues to roll around on the floor and as of late has taken up baby Pilate's. He lies on his back and raises his head and legs, it's hilarious, well, at least as his parents we think so. According to our doctor he is strengthening his core. I suspect he wants to look good for next summer when he wears his swimsuit. 

This is the actual day, October 22nd, when he turned 6 months

Playing the keyboards, he loves music

Literally, foot in mouth;)

Loving his jumperoo and jumping in general

Introducing the sippy cup and two (count 'em) teeth.....

On the Move

It was inevitable that my little guy would be moving much more as he nears his sixth month. Sasha has spent a great deal of time practicing his baby push ups, airplane and some other fancy moves that tend to show off his incredible baby upper body strength. Each month he gets stronger and stronger in preparation for sitting up by himself and crawling. 


We noticed that there must be a whole lot of practicing going on in Sasha's crib. Sometimes we peek in on him and he's on side, then one minute later he's on his back then two minutes later he's at the opposite end of his crib on his belly.  He really utilizes his crib bumpers and ultra soft mattress as he is often nestled up in one of the four corners. 


Lately as we play on the floor I noticed Sasha tends to push back with his arms and raise his tush to get around his play mat. I also noticed that he often will do an entire 360 with such subtlety I have to question myself "did he really start out there and end up there?" It's such a pleasure to watch him plot out his move in order to be able to grab whatever toy he has his eye on. 


Here's a tiny preview of what goes on several if not most of the day on Sasha's play mat. 

Sasha likes to start with showing off his strong arms

Next up, a little airplane to strengthen the old , err young back

Hmm, a toy has been spotted across the play mat 

He contemplates his move

Success

He's feeling proud and taking it all in

First food tastings

At Sasha's four month check up six weeks ago I asked the doctor when we can start to introduce solid foods since Sasha started to show some interest in our food. Our doctor told us that we should let him taste everything and anything we eat so when he starts to eat his palette will be broad. 


Considering we love food and want our son to love food I really ran with the idea of the tastings. The first thing I let Sasha try was a strawberry. While he was in the tub I let him taste a strawberry and he loved it. Next up, half a grape, which he also loved. Mind you when I say taste, I merely let Sasha either lick the piece of food or I put some on my finger. Visions of him eating strawberries in the tub may have crossed your mind...I think we are heading in this direction. 


Next up, I let him try yogurt which he also loved. Hey this is fun, how about I try letting him lick some hummus and salsa off my finger - both he loved. When I gave him a lemon to try he gave the official sour lemon face.


We did many tastings his fourth month and he pretty much liked almost everything I gave him, so we decided he was ready to take it to the next step. I mashed up bananas for him and he was grabbing the bowl since I wasn't getting the spoon in his mouth quick enough, mashed yams he couldn't get enough of, avocado, not his favorite, but still didn't hate it. 


I figured since he was jumping right into food I should let him try the standard of all babies first foods - rice cereal. As I mixed up the rice cereal, I thought to myself "this looks disgusting". Well sure enough my little guy thought the same thing.

Um, yuck, where's the good stuff mom? 

However, he seems have a strong interest in pizza. One Sunday, while at our favorite local pizza place we decide it would fun to see how Sasha reacts to a giant slice. Within two seconds his little hands were grabbing my slice and getting shoved into his mouth. Clearly he's a real Brooklyn baby who knows a good slice when he finds one. 

Now we're talking..no more rice cereal please

Mr. Tooth

Much like everything else with a new baby you never know what will happen on a given day. Sasha had been drooling like mad and chewing on everything including his little hands as often as he can. I just wrote this off as baby stuff knowing he was in the oral phase.

To my surprise about a week and a half ago I discovered that Sasha got his first tooth. I took him for a walk in the stroller and when I went to pick him up, there was no longer that delicious toothless grin. There was however the most adorable one tooth grin I ever saw. My little baby at the time was not even five months old and had his first tooth. I must have looked at it and touched it a dozen times before Sasha decided to put Mommy off limits from his mouth. 

There was something about this tooth that really set me back. I was filled with joy and emotions difficult to describe. This tooth seems like something so special and monumental that it made think that when he starts walking and talking I can't imagine the way I will feel.

This past weekend I discovered tooth number two poking it's way through. I have read that teething can cause a baby to be fussy or have fever or have trouble sleeping, well not our little guy. He's been a champ and never even fussed which was why I was so surprised he had a tooth not to mention number two on the way.

I only see that darling tooth when he smiles, it's so adorable and adds to Sasha's undeniable charm. It was very tricky to get photos of said tooth, but I (and Ari) finally did. See for yourself. 

There it is, bottom right. 

If you look real close you can see it...

What Goes Up Must Come Down

I knew the day would arrive, when exactly it would arrive I wasn't quite sure. The day I speak of, is the day that Mommy becomes a well a ball girl to some extent. My sweet baby has learned that what goes up must go come down. I'm referring to toys of course. Sasha throws it down and somehow the toy gets put back up to its original spot. Just to see how it happened, well, Sasha tries it again. And low and behold, Mommy, aka, the ball girl, picks it right back up. 

I was envisioning this little game to happen once Sasha starting sitting up unassisted and started playing with blocks. I pictured my little guy building a tower and then knocking it down over and over again and I would hunt for the pieces. What I didn't expect was for this fun little game to happen now. But then again every day is a surprise. 

That's the best part about having a little baby is you get to see the day through their eyes. Every time Sasha wakes up or gets carried to a new room he scans the area as if it's the first time he's seeing it. I wish I could be more like him and be more in the present.  Right now we are both learning from each other. Sasha learned that if he throws the toys on the floor they will miraculously end back up on his tray and I learned that that I love my job as his mom/ball girl.

Mommy puts toy on tray...

 

 

 

Sasha grabs toy....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sasha proceeds to drop toy...

Sasha wonders how toy got on floor....

Sitting Up?

As you've read in previous posts I keep Sasha on a tough baby regime, not really tough, there's plenty of kisses and hugs in there. But now it's getting tricky since he's moving all around. Somehow he is able to do 180 degree turns by using his upper body strength, his tush and he knees. We chuckle every time we look in his crib and he's in a new position. How did he get there? All we can think is we will need to start the dreaded child proofing of our apartment sooner rather than later. 

In addition to moving all around on the floor we've been practicing sitting up.  Sasha loves sitting up on the coach, his special chair and anywhere I hold him. He loves this new perspective of the world. The past couple of weeks I've been helping him sit up on his own showing him how to balance on his arms. Of course he always topples over immediately, except for this one day he stayed up. Well he stayed up long enough for me to take some photos. I was screaming "he's doing it, he's doing it!" and Ari came running in the living room not wanting to miss a new development. And there was Sasha balancing on his very strong adorable baby arms.

He's so proud of his new skill....

The Swinger

It didn't occur me that Sasha could go on the bucket swing at the playground until my friend who has a baby 3 weeks older said she took her son on the swing. So of course living across from the biggest playground in the park, what did I do? You guessed it. The next day, I took Sasha to the playground and put him in the bucket swing. 

And the next day, I took Ari and Sasha to the bucket swing. As you can imagine we were the very proud parents of our four and half month old baby in the swing. He was the best swinger, there were no babies who could swing so fierce. Truth be told, he sort of sat there and smiled at me and Ari took photos and video.


As we walked Sasha around the playground, showing him all the stuff we couldn't believe that by this time next year he too will be running around the playground and we'll be chasing him with our cameras. 

This seems like fun...

Smiling at Mommy

Maybe this is not so fun

Get me the hell off of this swing!

 

More Local Field Trips

As I've mentioned before having a baby in New York is wonderful. There are so many things to do that are just a subway or a walk away. I look forward to when Sasha is older and we can hit all the museums and explore the city. For now we mostly keep local in Brooklyn. 

A few weekends ago we decided it would be nice to go to the beach for a walk. We thought Sasha would enjoy looking at the ocean, little did we need the ocean would put him to sleep in seconds. We picked up a couple sandwiches and then we got on the subway en route to Brighton Beach. Sasha really likes the subway and now he just flat out stares at people. So many colors and patterns on the train, it's like ongoing entertainment at every stop. 


Now please don't make fun of how we have our child covered at the beach. If you haven't noticed both my husband and son are a bit on the fair side so I need to make sure they are both not exposed at all to the sun.

Below is Sasha after a long walk on the beach. He had a nice snooze and Mommy and Daddy got to catch up with some adult conversation.

Next up for a local field trip was the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a mere 25 minute from our house. On a random Tuesday, which is also the free admission day, we took a nice walk to the gardens. As usual when I put Sasha in the carrier he fell asleep, but he did wake up towards the end to take in the beautiful trees and flowers. He really likes when we walk on the outside of the park since he loves looking and listening to all the cars. I know he's excited when he says "oh oh ewe ewe" and bobs his head from left to right. 

I know I've said this before but we are so lucky to have access to so many great activities just outside our door. We can't wait until it's apple orchard and pumpkin picking season, for this we will need to explore outside the neighborhood. Yes, I have fall on my mind.
 

Mr. Rock and Roll

For about a couple weeks now Sasha has been rolling from his back to his front. This is fairly common for babies his age and considered a gross motor development and a precursor to crawling. Now when babies, at least ours, learn a new skill they like to practice. Apparently our darling son is an overachiever since not only does he like to practice during the day, but also at times during the wee hours when he should be counting sheep. 

Rolling is a new found hobby for Sasha, not quite as popular as sucking his hands, but pretty darn close. I've read that babies like to practice new things that they've learned in their sleep, and why should our little guy be any different. We had a few nights where Sasha woke up crying since he ended up on his tummy and wasn't quite sure what to do. For now he can't roll from front to back only back to front. 

At Sasha's four month check up (he's now 25.4inches and 13.5lbs) last week our pediatrician told us we should flip him on his back and leave his room immediately. Well, that may work for other babies but our little guy is well, how do I say this, but sorta obsessed with rolling. 

On the few nights Sasha woke up here's how it went down. Mommy places Sasha on his back to start the night, Sasha ends up on belly, Sasha cries, Mommy quickly puts Sasha on his back, Sasha rolls onto his belly, Sasha cries, Mommy quickly puts Sasha on his back, Sasha rolls onto his belly, Sasha cries....you get where I'm going with this. After about 20 minutes Mommy won or the little guy exhausted himself. 

Below is some live footage from an attempt at nap time of how this goes down. Please note that Sasha's sheets are not stained and I am not a bad mother. I had just put new sheets on his bed and he drooled all over them while, well, rockin' and rollin'. 

Taking a little break before he gets to his tummy

Success

Repeat (please note the crying portion was eliminated)

Alas, on his tummy again...and so on and so on....

Apparently barrel rolling is next which means a full roll from back to tummy to back. We can't wait for that!