Splish splash takin' a bath

Daniel loves bath time.  Ever since he was 10 days old when his cord fell off and he could finally graduate from sponge baths to tub baths, his eyes light up at the sight of the tub and the chance to splash. Mommy and daddy have different bathing techniques, where daddy actually gets INTO the big tub to face him in his little tub.  I call this the "super splash zone".  I, however, lean over the edge of the tub allowing only the upper part of my body, arms and face into the "partial splash zone." 

Daniel's whale tub had a removable "hump" that held him up before he could sit up steadily.  That allowed primarily for kick-splashing.  Now that he's a sitter, the hump has been removed and he's a hand splasher.  He's also getting more toys to play with in the tub, but the most fascinating toy is the big tub drain and faucet.  The bath tonight involved quite a bit of climbing and gymnastic attempts to get out of the little tub and into the big tub.  Blackmail pictures were taken of perfect plank poses made in attempt to get out, but they involve baby bottoms and will be saved for future girlfriends and prom dates.  Below is a short splash/dolphin imitation video.  The real splashing calls for a water-proof camera (or a more distant camera man).

Grocery shopping

Daniel is a good companion at the grocery store. He likes looking at everything. He even likes to hold my list...until he discovers that it's "funny" to rip it...and then eat it. Oh well, I think I remembered what I needed

Clean up crew

I seem to have a lot of posts about Daniel's eating habits, but he's definitely his father's son and loves loves food.  He loves to study you while you eat, he loves to try to pull your plate/glass/mug towards himself so he can get a taste. He loves anything with fruit in it (momma's boy) and will normally eat 3-4 meals of 3-5 oz of food. 

Puffs/cheerios are a new fan favorite too, he's not so great at actually getting them into his mouth, but he'll "chew" them if you pop one in for him.  Right now the puffs he picks up either stay in his fist (and he sucks on his fist) or they fall to his side in the seat.  Connor waits patiently for a puff to make it to the floor, which they haven't yet, or until Daniel gets out of the high chair and there are 6-7 puffs in the seat waiting to be "cleaned up".

The video below is of an extra special clean up where Connor not only got a few stray puffs, but also some bits of chicken that didn't make it into Daniel's mouth.  Connor thinks he might keep this kid after all.

8 months old!

  
My big 8 month old is looking more and more like a little boy every day.  I dressed him in a special Chinese New Year outfit today even though he's a day late for the official "new year".  His top, which is a 12 month size(!!!), is of a lizard for year of the dragon (dragons are kind of lizards, right?) and his year of the rabbit slippers, which were promptly pulled off after this picture, were purchased after the new year last year by my friend and former-office-mate on a trip to Indonesia.  I should have been on that trip, but I was 7 months pregnant and trekking to the other side of the world was not exactly "encouraged".  I take this special month birthday photo in the same spot every 24th so I can see his growth.  I'll post the previous months' shots at some point, but besides being a great sitter, and now army crawler, Daniel is using his word, mamamama, for nearly every emotion/need/desire/frustration (video of that coming soon too).  He's also learning to mug for the camera.  Right before I took this he was starting to tear up and get frustrated ("mamamama") and as soon as I pulled out the camera he instantly smiled and looked right at me.  Is flashing a cheeser considered a baby milestone? 

Milestones: the army crawl

While I try to get a good video of Daniel saying his first word "mmmm...mamamama" I did want to post one of how mobile he's getting with his army crawl, especially when incentivized by something flashy like my laptop. Which has become a favorite thing to hit and bang.  

Around Christmas he was just getting around sliding on his tummy in his fleece pj's on the hardwood floors (and doing a good job of cleaning up all of the dog fur).  Now he's doing some rocking on to his hands and knees but mostly using his upper body strength to pull himself along.  He can even move fairly quickly on carpet, unless he gets distracted with the texture.  Slightly scary how fast he can get places, but I know soon, when he's climbing, I'll long for the days when he was "just" scooting.

Big traveller

Helping mommy with some last minute packing

Daniel did a great job on his first plane trip!  Mommy and daddy were busy entertaining him for the 5 hours to LA, but there was another baby, who was 9 months old, on the other side of the aisle and they were fairly fascinated with each other too.  We flew on Virgin America (first time for all of us) and I was very happy with how friendly they were with the babies from check in to the on-flight crew.  One of the flight attendents was a source of great entertainment for him...of course she was cute and blonde, so maybe he takes after his Papi.



Daniel was a big fan of the Virgin touch screens!



I have another half day of work meetings in Santa Monica and then I'll go out to meet Daniel, Chris and Grandma Mary in Glendora for the weekend before we head back on Monday.  Daddy and Grandma are having fun and we're attempting to keep Daniel on east coast time, which means breakfast at 4am PST.  He'll get to meet lots of California friends while he's here and on Saturday morning he'll get to "meet" another girlfriend who is due to arrive in early April.  He's very excited to have a California girlfriend...especially if she'll be a blondie like her mommy.

I also survived my first night apart from the D-man.  It's helpful to have a boss who did a lot of travelling with small kids (and is encouraging of pumping) so she took me out to dinner last night so I could have some fun, even though I was completely exhausted.  And today will fly by with meetings before I get to see D this afternoon.  But first a run on the Santa Monica Strand.

Landing in LA...look at the mountains!!

Grandma Mary

Daniel had a wonderful visit with Gradma Mary the last few days.  And as luck would have it, we're getting on a plane in two days and heading out to LA for Julie's work and for a quick visit.  Can't pass up someone else paying for one of the plane tickets!  That way Grandama can show off the real live Daniel, and not just pictures and videos.

Grandma and Daniel were able to get a whole day together on Friday while mommy and daddy worked and he learned how much fun the game "paddy cake"can be...especially the rolling it and putting it in your tummy!

Daniel was a very good boy for Grandma and kept to his schedule pretty well, ate lots, and gave lots smiles and belly laughs.  He became so comfortable with her that he even challenged her to a wrestling match to try to get him dressed in the morning.  This picture to the right (unfortunately not so clear from my phone) was taken just when Grandma was about to leave and showing him his stuffed Schatzie and letting him know that he'll be meeting the real thing on Thursday. Oh boy!