melt hearts much?

full convert

Contrast and compare with the food pics from a few weeks ago, if you will.

As of last week, Aug kicks his legs, flaps his arms and goes "hummm" the moment he sees a little bowl of baby food. Mashed banana, apple sauce with a bit of cream cheese, stellini star pasta, yams & brown rice. Three little meals a day for our happy little munchkin.

We've been really busy since last month and the result has been a quick slide back into August waking to eat every 2-3 hours each night. It's taking a toll on all of us so we're working on getting us back to one or two feedings a night. Promise to catch up on here with other Augie news, videos, and pictures for all you grandparents out there...

ps, I know there are books and pediatricians that say not to introduce any dairy until one year but this awesome site http://wholesomebabyfood.com/ debunks some of that old wisdom and points out that mild cheeses like ricotta, cottage, and cream are very safe. Stellini pasta with butter and parmesan is the first food for many Italian babies, for example. Of course, if your family has a history of lactose intolerance/allergies, etc, then you'd want to be more cautious.

nice chompers

6 months old

Really?? It feels like we blinked our eyes, half a year passed and suddenly our little guy isn't quite so little anymore. Watching him grow is the best thing ever.

August eats solids! Sort of.

Hmmm...

The yuck face....

Yuck face redux...

The "Uh, you're actually gonna try and feed me more of that stuff?" face.

August's reaction this morning to homemade apple sauce that he devoured with smiles just last night (he also ate fresh yams and rice with relish [ed. note: relish as in gusto, not the condiment].) Today's a no go. Not forcing it, though, so one solid meal a day for now is just fine.

Augie looking through our living room window at his very first snow fall. 

Chris recently reminded me of the awesomeness of this song that Bowie wrote for his newborn son

month 5 photobooth

twinkle twinkle

The expression Augie gets every time his dad walks in the room

Seriously. The kid LOVES his daddy.

ps, so ginger in this shot!

pps, disregard the horrible polka dot pajamas and robe.

august's first driving lesson

After witnessing the ease and glee with which he grasped the steering wheel, I'm certain that boys will most definitely be boys.

Cue theme from Jaws

obsession du jour

just augie being augie

Not looking too thrilled to go on our daily walk but he got into it. It's been beautifully cold and sunny here, giving us a much-needed respite from the constant drizzle.
Nom nom nom. 24/7, man.
Finally, witness August's fave new thing: sucking on faces. Every time I pick him up from his nap, he turns to me with a smile, grabs my face and plants his big, soppy mouth on my cheek. He made his first realization that he could make us laugh by doing it, so he does it over and over, turning to Chris for amused approval.

August and me at the park with Celia and Charlie last month. Back in the days when we were getting about 4 hours total of fragmented sleep a night, for two months straight. Yeah. We were both a little rough around the edges but I love this picture. It's one of the only ones of the two of us that I didn't take myself.

Going through some old pix today. Holy moly teeny tiny Augie.

hangin' with charlie & august

month 4 babybooth!

5 days before his 5-month bday but better late than never...

where does the time go?

Our nearly-5-month-old is looking sorta strawberry blonde these days! The biggest news lately is that he's sleeping MUCH better and so are we (hallelujah, dudes), thanks to the sage advice of Dr. Michel Cohen and my friends Megan, Amy, and Celia. After almost two months of hourly waking to nurse, we decided August needed to learn to soothe himself to sleep. He's a much happier baby as a result and nothing could make us happier than that.

Aug went for his 4 month well baby checkup last week and he's definitely tall (like 90th percentile tall) but kinda skinny at just over 14 lbs. He's doing great, growing so quickly and laughing lots.

august ♥'s the geetar

more from the weekend...

august's first road trip

We drove 5 hours to Salmon Arm to visit Nana and Papa this weekend. The car rides went surprisingly smoothly--Aug was happy to sleep for half and spend the other half playing with toys, stopping to eat and stretch his little legs, and admiring the view. He definitely had had enough by the last hour when we came home, though. Poor babes. We had lots of fun with the fam, though, and Augie just loved Nana and Papa's house in the country!

first sitting!

He started doing this in our Mother Goose class this morning. It's 'The Prop' rather than a full solo sit but he's well on his way to wobble-free sittin'! Go Augie!

augie's into books

...eating them, that is. Well, he does love his bedtime reads and pop-up books and not just for chewing. Pretty much everything goes in the mouth these days.

a boy and his gram's dog

Here's Augie hanging with my mom's dog Riley and his Auntie Kari. He thought Riley was pretty damn awesome and of course, he loves all his aunties to bits. Lucky boy.

the famous maxwell noggin

Not the best illustration of it, but we think August's cranium is very similarly shaped to my dad's. Yes, the famous Maxwell clan 'heed'.

Tough time last week. Chris was very sick with bronchitis (thought it was the dreaded swine flu at first), then Augie and I caught a cold bug that we both managed to fight off. Nana and Papa came to the rescue for a few days and hung out with Aug while I got some much-needed rest.

Emperor Augustus has taken to waking up every hour nearly every night and will take nothing but nursing to get back to sleep so I'm running on very little sleep. The ongoing obsession, it seems. Digging into the arsenal of baby sleep books now. Any tried and true solutions welcome!

our little pumpkin

oot and aboot

Augie's loving the fall leaves and colours on our daily walks. The top picture is our street as it nears its full autumn glory.

4 months tomorrow! Little pumpkin continues to roll over with a little more finesse, figure out how to grab things more precisely, and stick anything and everything in his mouth. He loves people and has big smiles and chuckles for everyone. His first Thanksgiving last weekend had a limited menu, naturally, but he loved hanging with his Gram n' Gramps, aunties and cousins. He'll get two Thanksgivings annually with the American one coming up next month, lucky boy!

pretty psyched

What you can't see is that he's butt naked from the waist down, which only adds to his delight.