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.....