A video collage

6 months young

Neither one of us can believe that Brandon is 6 months young today. It seems like there have been a lot of milestones in the last few weeks - he is starting solid food, he cut his first tooth and we all agree that teething sucks the big one and his second one is attempting to poke through as well, he is rolling from his back to his front and can push himself backwards quite quickly (likes to get himself yammed underneath our TV stand.. which of course means I am a bad mom because I watch him and kind of laugh, and then rescue him), he can do raspberries, and well, he continues to charm us completely. I am sure that I have overlooked something! He has been a lucky duffer in the last few days - he got spoiled by Auntie Nej and the Boys with a special delivery box o'goodies and by his Auntie Mare (and Uncle Sean although he didn't come out to play) tonight . How sweet is that???

What happened to Tigger????

Well, I know that our kid is big.. but seriously folks??? Tigger sure did seem a LOT bigger 5 months ago....

Assume the position.

Now why does this engine only go in reverse so far??? LOL

Not so big anymore...

If those pads are 36" ... he doesn't have much farther to go does he??? If I am measuring correctly, looks like he grew an inch last week!! Can you say that he has hit that 6 month growth spurt and then some??? Will update stats after he visits the doc next week.

Learning to Eat.

Food is my friend. I see posts in the near future with food from ear to ear. Having the portable "high" chair on the floor was shortlived as the bowl got knocked over a few times. Having the chair over the kitchen floor is a much better idea! So far it has only been rice cereal, but bananas loom on Brandon's horizon! I started feeding cereal about a week ago, I was planning to wait but I was getting tired of him staring me down every time I ate!!!

Hawaiian Twins

The sources of many of my smiles.
ps thanks Wyatt!! Great shirt!!

Styling and Profiling!

Our first walk in I can't tell you how long and the weather was *fabulous*. It was also a great day to hang with my dad, err, the guy we now call Poppa. It is amazing watching your parents interact with your children, how their faces light up, and see so much new life is infused in to your family and so many experiences which will be new again!

A changing smile....

Today was a big day in many ways and it seems like we have settled in to today's version of what is normal. Brandon has been a bit off lately, go figure, so we have been blaming it on teething... turns out we were right! Zee first tooth has emerged!!! What really surprised me is that you can see the outline of both bottom teeth through the gums... who knew???

Striking out....

This weekend Brandon hit a few milestones. Some great, some not so great. We made it through our first real episode of diaper rash and I am glad that it is done. It wasn't all over and truly awful, but bad enough!

As well, the last few weeks have been indescribeable. Brandon was diagnosed with hydrocephalus and went through surgery just before Christmas to correct this. If you want more information about this, drop me a line and I can explain better. Suffice to say that Brandon pulled through with flying colours, and is well on the path to recovery. He is a happy, developing 5 month old that is hitting his milestones and smiling all the time - nothing has changed. This experience was so many things and it is still not always easy to talk about because there are only so many times that you can rehash an event before you need to just stop talking about it and move on. In a nutshell, Ken and I discovered untold wells of strength between us, felt nothing but love and support from our family and friends, and received the best care imagineable. Everything was already said and done before we had the chance to fully realize what we were going through and then all of a sudden it was time to start healing and celebrate Christmas because even though this is something you cannot expect to experience, we couldn't have asked for a quicker resolution or better care. Our health care system can and does work!

Up until now, Brandon has been doing what I affectionately call "accidental rolls" from his front to his back. Yesterday, Brandon mastered the art of the roll from laying on his back to his front! The first time neither of us noticed. We figured it out when Ken asked me if I had moved Brandon before going and doing a load of laundry... I hadn't so we rolled him back to his back, and waited to see what would happen. Soon enough, he was on his belly, propping himself up on his arms and checking out the world. Of course, discovering that we are enthusiastic parents, we repeated this journey a few times, just to make sure :]

Being a parent is a true learning experience. You have to learn how to support, how and when to back off and let things happen, and understand that normal really is a subjective experience and that babies (just like us) will do things in their own time (among so many other things). Belonging to the parenthood is humbling and enlightening and has given us both new insights to go along with the bumps along the way.

Geared up to watch some hockey

Brandon got this cool hoodie for Christmas and we decided to put it to good use (along with these fabulous socks) for Ken's hockey game tonight. It was great to see the hockey crew, shoot the breeze, and well, Brandon charmed them all with his never ending smiles.

I like books

Speaking of books... more and more signs that we have a baby are appearing around the house as Brandon's presence infilitrates everything. I have had to make room on one of the bookshelves for his books! It isn't just about me, or us anymore! I love seeing all the books that he is accumulating, and some bring back memories of my childhood, and some are all brand new for him! We have been paid forward a few, and it is cool to see his collection grow so quickly. I hope that he will enjoy books as much as I do, although I would settle for him enjoying to read and escape in to a book here and there!