lil smarty pants

I absolutely CANNOT belive how big my little man has gotten over the last few months. Today at church someone asked how old Nate is, and I realized that he's almost 4 months old. Seriously, where has the time gone???? He's just tooo big. Holding his head up on his own, recognizing me, Dan, my dad, cousin Lilly and Spencer. And today I noticed that he knows exactly what's going on at lunchtime. I was getting ready to feed him and as soon as he saw my reach up under my shirt, he got all excited and strated making little fishy faces, opening and closing his mouth. He figured out what I was doing and what it meant for him! I love my little guy, all 15lbs of him. That's right, 15 pounds!! He's ginormous! And while I love seeing all the new things he can do, and watching him grow, a part of me is sad that he won't just stay my tiny little baby.

Picture marathon of Nate and his cousins

A week and a half ago, when Nate rolled over for the first time, his cousin Elara was spending the morning with us. She is such a sweetie! She's a little older than Nate since she was born late in September.
I thought it was so cute. They both rolled onto their sides and started babbling at each other.

And they had tummy time

And when Nate gave up in frustration, Elara looked over and offered moral support. "Come on Nate, you can do it. It's easy"

Both enjoyed a bit of binky time as well

And this week we've been watching Lilly, she's quite a bit older. She's already 7 months old, whereas my little guy (my 15pound giant little guy) is only 3.5 months.

Lilly was fortunate enough to be born with a full head of long, luxerious hair. "Hey man, what's up with your head? It's all bald!"

At this point, I'm getting Nate dressed to go to the zoo. When I left to pick Lilly up, Nate started crying, so Dan got out the formula and mixed him up a bottle. Turns out he wasn't really all that hungry, so I took the mostly full bottle, set it aside and started dressing Nate. Lilly crawled over, picked up Nate's mostly full bottle and went to town on that bad boy! Way to go Lilly, that'll teach Nate to leave his bottles laying around!

The animal in the back is a wallaby. This was soooooo frusterating b/c everytime I got the kiddos to look at the camera, or smile or anything, the wallabys in the background would hop away.

Lilly, 'hatching' with the other osteriches

Nate was almost eaten by a lion

And the two sweetest, most precios pearls

The monkey started out in the bush behind them, then jumped onto the rope RIGHT NEXT TO DAN & NATE!!! Literally less than a foot away.

So, that's pretty much what we've been up to lately. Nate and Elara had a good time together.
I'm glad he has a cousin so close to his own age. And Lilly is always fun to hang out with. She's working on her 3rd and 4th teeth!!! So cute when she smiles and laughs. Nate can't wait for summer to get here so that he can go visit his other cousins, Madi and Jack!

first food

Nate is getting waaaayyyyy too big. The night before last, I mashed up some of the zucchini we had for dinner and fed him a couple of baby bites. After he got over the initial shock of a different texture and taste, he seemed to really enjoy it. I had been thinking that I want to put off solids for as long as I can, but I think Nate is reay for them.
It's so weird. With Devon I remember being told that babies don't need any solids until they are 6 months old. Now everyone is starting solids at 4 months. And I powdered that little bottom whenever he started getting pink. Now I hear that powder is bad for babies b/c they can inhale it and it can bother their lungs.
I just feel weird that my mom info is already outdated. I mean, Devon was only born 5 years ago. Shouldn't I still be in the know?

Big Boy!!!

This is my 3 month old baby, holding up his own bottle all by himself!!! This happened while I was on antibiotics for a week. Dan was feeding him on our bed when Nate reached out and pushed Dan's hand away, and held up his own bottle all by himself! All by himself!!!!

craziness......

Ok, I know that I've been a major slacker around here lately. What can I say? I can only support one online addiction at a time! LOL...anyway, I have recently discovered the wonderful world of babycenter.com groups and messaging boards. And it takes a lot of time to keep up with all 3257 people on all the boards I'm a member of.
Although I have been busy in real life too. Monday, Dan and I watched Elara in the morning, and we had SO much fun. She was such a happy, fun little girl and the two kiddos had a bunch of fun together. On a related note, Nate rolled over for the first time on Monday. I know that he's been mobile for a while now, but I've never seen it. He's just always in a different spot and different position when he wakes up vs. when I put him to bed. So, on the one hand, I was really really excited to see him roll over. But, his timing sucked. I was holding Elara, sitting on the ground with my legs crossed. Nate was on a blue mat, covered with blankets when he rolled over and fell onto the tile! I freaked out and managed to scare both babies into a frenzy of tears and screams, but Nate wasn't hurt at all.
In other news, my brother, Spencer, has decided that he wants to be a chef, so Dad bought him a Williams Sonoma cookbook. We decided to make braised lamb shoulder chops, that took over 2 hours with prep/cook time. So, when we were all done and we plated up the food it looked delicious. The meat was sooo tender and the sacue was delicious. The only problem: neither of us had ever eaten lamb. Turn out, we don't like lamb. So, after all that, we ended up going out for McDonalds! Good times. At least we got a funny story out of it, and Dad really loved it.

grapefruit

I've got to say, I LOVE the sweet, deliciousness of grapefruit. They're 3 for a dollar at Sunflower Farmer's Market right now and I've been averaging 2-3 per day. It's just something about the yummy goodness that I can't resist.
My advice for today: eat a grapefruit. It will make you happy in your soul!

check out this cool giveaway

This stroller is so super nice. Everyone needs to check it out. It's really customizable, and seems like a top-of-the-line product. I may not need it right ths minute, but I still hope I win b/c in the next 18months I bet I will use it! :)

http://inevergrewup.net/giveaway-25-bumbleride-indie-stroller/