14 Months Old and Cruisin'

Trixie, Sander, Halle, Lucy and Arcadia in Westport

Sander was able to celebrate turning 14 months old in Westport, MA amongst great friends: Nat, Rachel, Halle and Trixie. We enjoyed a couple of days at the ocean and the highlight for Sander was the boat ride Nat took us on. He squealed the entire time and is now nicknamed: seagull boy.

He moves faster and faster with each day, his walking has almost turned into running. Sander said "yes" recently for the first time when Matt asked him if he'd like more mango. No more news words but lots of effort on creating new sounds, especially when he is feeling passionate about wanting something or telling us something. Another tooth took all month to pop through all the way. He now has five! Spinning in a circle is a new talent Lucy helped him to learn. Climbing up onto everything he can has been a past time as well. I can't ever turn my back!

Toddlering at 13 Months

Sander has been doing so many new things in the last two weeks so I hope I am remembering everything here. One of my favorite things he does is blow out of his cute lips as if he is cooling some food off when we do it for him. In fact, tonight, when I said he would have to wait because his food was too hot he blew on his own without me signaling. It is amazing how much babies take in at this age and understand - I constantly remind myself he understands more that I think. He signed for fan for the first time yesterday. We have a fan going in the bedroom for white noise and we have to talk about it every night when I put him to bed. He looks at it, makes his gargle sound, points at it and smiles.

Sander has been standing for several seconds at a time and he has taken one step here and there. We think walking is right around the corner. Lucy started walking at about 13.5 months and he seems to be following in her shoes. He enjoys pushing Lucy around in the doll stroller, it is hilarious!

Sander LOVES his dada. He waves his arms up and down when he sees dada, cries when he leaves for work or even when he leaves the room, and wants to be held by him every time he gets home from work, immediately, or intense shrieking occurs. Sander still says "deh" for dog and is now saying "teh" for cat. He will baby sign for any animal with the sing for dog by panting. So adorable. He makes a cute sound that is hard to spell out when he tries to say "quack quack quack", it is somewhat of a gurgle. Sometimes when I am attempting to put Sander down to sleep he abruptly sits up post-nursing, giggles and does raspberries somewhere on me. He loves being super silly. It runs in the family. Anyway, this is typically a cue that sleep is not going to happen any time soon. He will point to the door, bounce and make a cute sound that says he wants to go play. Usually he wins.

I wrote the above post last night before Sander turned 13 month old. Today he started walking right as we were getting ready to head out to Hermit Island, ME! It was quite an exciting and happy distraction.

The Seven Month Old Charmer

All bundled up for play time in the snow.

This little guy weighs in at a whopping 13 pounds 4 ounces! He's such a little peanut.

Full of smiles, grunts, drools and cuteness, Sander melts our hearts. 

Speaking of hearts, he tugs on mine every time he says "mama" which is his latest new skill.

At seven months Sander is combat crawling and rolling everywhere...and he gets into everything. Everything then goes into his mouth.

Mama and Sander take a break while watching Lucy play in the snow.

Lucy and Sander's first time sledding together.

weeeeeeee!

At the bottom of the hill. Canute was very excited.

Sander likes to inspect food, suck on it, smear it around, and sometimes eat it. In a desperate attempt to enjoy and relax while eating my own steak dinner with both arms free, I handed Sander a big strip of porterhouse steak. He was al over it! Needless to say this kept our little guy busy and happy during dinner and beyond.

Checking out the steak.

Check out the two finger technique!

Here are a couple of videos taken the morning of Sander's seventh month. It is hard to get solo videos so he can show his stuff but I have to say, it is so precious to watch videos of both Lucy and Sander together.

6 Months Old!

It's hard to believe that Sander is already 6 months old! I want to push the stop button and enjoy this babyhood for longer. It is such a fun age. Plus, I know this is the calm before the storm. While Sander cannot crawl yet, this baby likes to move. He moves nonstop. I can only imagine what our world will be like when Sander is on the move!

Canute loves these kids so much.

Sibling love.

So Sander now weighs 13 pounds, he is 27.5 inches long and his head is 18 inches. 

He is in the 7th percentile for weight, 70th percentile for length and 85th percentile for head. He has just recently started trying bits of frozen or fresh food in a mesh bag. His latest was blueberries and they were a hit.

Trying some frozen blueberries from Knoll Farm. Sander thought they were delightful.

As you can see Sander was moving too fast to get a clear shot. He flaps his arms around and laughs quite a bit, it's great.

Sander pretty much moves nonstop if he is awake. He also loves to laugh. I think one of Sander's favorite activities is getting put on the changing table (he instantly starts laughing and squealing), getting his clothes and diapers changed, and getting pampered and cleaned up in general. The laughing and squealing is hilarious. We all laugh with him because it is so very contagious. What a fun little guy. He gets frustrated when he is playing and drops something. He loves stuffed animals and has taken to a couple of Lucy's - she actually is really good about letting him play with them.

Inside a round tumbling mat at the gymnastics academy. Lucy asked to have their photo taken.

Yesterday we took a walk down the road, as we do most days, and Lucy came up with a new song. Sander thought it was the best thing he heard all day (as did I) and you can see his reaction below. Having two kids is constant entertainment.

Lucy makes Sander giggle a lot...

Weeks 7 and 8

Proud and happy mama enjoying snuggle time with the little guy.

Proud and happy dada enjoying snuggle time with the little guy.

A couple of days after Sander turned 6 weeks old Matt and I watched him roll from his back to his front, intentionally. Hmm...this is not the norm. We then proceeded to watch him squirm quite successfully to the edge of his activity mat with super strong legs, like a wiggle worm. We joked simultaneously, "He's already crawling!" It seems we have another very strong, healthy and active baby on our hands. He's been rolling from his back to his front a couple times a week and then enjoys falling asleep on his tummy. Coos and other adorable vocalizations have begun as well!

The above is a typical morning at our house. Lucy and I enjoy some time together cooking breakfast while Sander observes and enjoys our tunes. I am not sure why the quality of the video is not as good as usual.

A few days before Sander turned 7 weeks old

7 weeks old and feeling good.

Quite content.

Sander has become very adverse toward being in his car seat. The poor guy cries the moment we get in the car. Our trip (without dada) to CT this past week took 7 hours both ways rather than the usual easy 4. It was very difficult for mama, Lucy, and Sander. We made it through and just stopped about every 30 minutes. Lucy was so sweet in the back seat telling Sander "It's OK little man, it's OK." Bumps are upsetting to him and unfortunately there are a LOT of bumps on the highways, not to mention all the dirt roads with pot holes around where we live. We're hoping he grows out of this difficult issue soon. It is hard to see him get so sad and not be able to help him right away. It's just a good excuse right now to relax at home and be happy together in the lovely weather without venturing out as much in the car. Walks are so much better!

Playing patty-cake with Grandma Nono.

His first game and he loves it!

At Sandy Beach in CT sporting a sun hat which actually fits his wee head nicely.

We really enjoyed the art walk together in Waterbury today and Sander slept peacefully the entire time in the wrap receiving many compliments from people as we passed by. Who doesn't love seeing a tiny new baby all scrunched up and cozy? Guess what happened on our drive home though...not so peaceful. Luckily it is a very short drive.