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