Our friend Stacie in Brooklyn took this picture of her sweet new babe, Annabel, and I had to share it. Not only because Annabel is such a cutie-pie but because this is kind of the essence of newborn babydom, no? Congrats Stacie and Jerry! We can't wait to meet her.

9 months old tomorrow

Less than a week later and he's practically an old pro...

Nothing like a good cuddle with your baby.

Turn, turn, turn...

Augie in spring at 8 months

Augie in fall at 3 months

Traded in the leaves for cherry blossoms

First swing!

We went to the little park down the street and August got his very first swing ride. He looks pretty nonchalant here but there were giggles aplenty. He also got to watch all the other kids n' babes doing their thing, which his new fave thing.

Deer Lake Park

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Standing by himself, taking little steps while you hold him, crawling backwards, and he rolled over to Chris this morning and said "da-da" clear as day. Were thinking it may have been purely coincidental but you never know. It's so fun to see that he's at the stage now when you ask him where Mama, Dada, birdies, trees, Sophie, the fishies and his Little Monkey are, he looks right away at the right thing. Little sponge. 

Happy little man

Month 8 photobooth

So, yeah. Between travel and sickness and life, we missed last month's photobooth but here's month 8 in all its squirmy Augie glory. As you can see, he's harder to hold on to these days. He's working on his 8th tooth, standing, taking steps, and seems to want to skip crawling altogether. He's such a ham and discovers more of the world each day.

look who's standing

Just figured it out last week and now he's super into it. Doesn't hang much in the PP but it's great for safely practicing standing with soft landings. 

cherry blossoms, eight months

They've officially exploded in our neighbourhood! August had his first close encounter yesterday and sniffed, touched and tried to eat a few. Augie turned 8 months old yesterday. I can't believe how quickly the time's gone. 

More from New Hammy

Fireside tête à tête with Uncle Adam

Hangin with G Pa

First sled ride. Looking pretty skeptical, folks. 

chris' rocking horse, then and now

A few from New Hampshire...

....many more to come. We've been home for a week from our trip to see Grandma and Grandpa in New Hampshire but I haven't had time to update the blog because August has been really sick with bronchiolitis. It's made him wheeze and cough and sniffle like an old man. We took him to emergency on Saturday because he sounded awful and was so miserable with the congestion. All is well, though, and he's rounded the corner to easier breathing. There are few things worse than seeing your little one so sick. 

New England was beautiful! Sunny and cold and a lot of fun. Augie loved spending time with G&G Hall and meeting his Uncle Adam and Auntie Beth. We went hiking, sledding, hot tubbing, shopping, lunching and lots more. Augs was teething most of the week (he went from three teeth to six in one week!) so he was fussier than usual but despite that, he was a total dream during our 10 hour travel days. Amazing. 

love my little imp

Happy 7 months

So many new tricks, obsessions and fun things. Latest stuff Aug's into that make him happy, laugh hysterically or stare in wonder:

-Fake sneezes

-Watching us wriggle our eyebrows

-Counting on fingers

-Trying to drink from cups

-Watching us talk to each other about adult stuff

-Wrassling and horsing around

-Giving big, sloppy wet kisses

-Laughing into empty bottles

-Naked time (obvs)

-Sitting in his new high chair

-His shiny fish mobile from Nana and Papa in Mexico

-BOOKS. Especially any by Karen Katz!

-Pictures of baby faces, other babies

-Story time at the library

-Songs

-And my favourite new development of all: sleeping through the night! It's been three weeks and boy oh boy, it's a brand new world.

Month 6 photobooth

somebody's a ham

That's right. Fake laughing into the water bottle just because it sounds cool and amplified. He did this for five minutes straight.

Gonna make a list soon of all the random new things that make Augie giggle.

New Osh Kosh overalls---thanks Grandma and Grandpa Hall!

recycling

Finally found a new use for the giant, worm-like pillow that saved my achy body during pregnancy. August now uses it to practice sitting up with a soft landing. More lounging than sitting up so far but hey, baby steps.

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