An Important Announcement...

I've been a little lax about posting, what with preparing for Christmas and all... it's funny, though... I keep hearing about how Santa and his reindeer will climb down the chimney on Christmas Eve to deliver all of our presents. First of all, we don't have a chimney; secondly, most of our gifts seem to be coming by UPS and the postal service. Oh well, maybe Santa is trying to streamline his operation.

On to my big news: I turned 6 months old this past Saturday!! My half-birthday passed without much fanfare, just a nice, relaxing day. I thought it was about time that I post some more compare and contrast pictures, to show just how much I have grown. This picture was taken when I was exactly 1 month old:

Even laying down, my little feet didn't reach the end of my tub, and my washcloth easily covered my hips. Check me out now:

Pretty soon, that little monkey washcloth just isn't going to be enough!

I still spend lots and lots of time trying to figure things out... here I am staring intently at my hands:

My hands have been getting me into some trouble lately, when it comes to sleeping. I have gotten really good at taking my binky out of my mouth, but I'm not quite as adept at getting it back in. Mommy May is starting to train me to put myself to sleep, rather than being rocked, which is fine, except that I keep pulling out binky and then fussing. Hopefully, in a few more weeks, when I can pop it back in, things will settle down.

Last, but certainly not least, I am big enough now to sit up in the shopping cart when I run errands with Mommy May!! We don't have a good picture yet, but we'll keep working on it. All Mommy May has to do is strap me in and then give me a book to read. I love books more and more everyday! Here I am reading to Daddy May:

I hope everyone has a great Christmas (or whatever tradition you celebrate)!!

Clownin' Around...

I have learned to laugh. Full-on belly laughs and squeals. Mommy May says it's the sound of pure joy. It's still pretty new to me, and, so far, only Daddy May knows the secret to getting me to laugh. Try as they might, I refused to laugh for the camera, so you'll have to settle for me being cheeky yet again:

Daddy May and I were embarrassed to be caught wearing the exact same outfit, so we hid from the camera. Hmm... I think Daddy May and I need to rethink our strategy:

And, because I know you can't get enough, another look of complete and total suprise:

I pretty much have that one perfected, no?

Evan Almighty...

Prepare to be amazed, because I am on a roll!! Every day, I get stronger, more aware, and better with my hands.... just look at this picture Nani took the other day:
I've been working on grabbing my baba for a while now, but I only just learned how to hold it up myself.

I also posted recently about my new foot fetish. I have been working feverishly on learning how to suck on my toe. Here's a close but no cigar:

And... Eureka!!

Boy, that felt good! But I have more intellectual pursuits, as well. Who says Mommy and Daddy May have to read to me every day? It's so much more satisfying to read to myself:

Being brilliant sure is exhausting... I make sure to take plenty of breaks:

Well, that's it for now. Only 15 days till Christmas--can you believe it?!

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch Mommy May

Today was kind of a funny day. It started out all right, at least on my part, but I got the feeling Mommy and Daddy May weren't very happy with me. I am a big believer in early to bed, early to rise. That makes Saturday and Sunday mornings a little challenging for us, since I'm ready to get up and play at 5:30 am, while Mommy and Daddy May really want to get some more sleep. The struggle generally goes on for an hour or two; then, just when Mommy and Daddy May throw in the towel and decide to get up, I go down for my first nap of the day :-)

Once we were all up, it was playtime!! I got to spend some time in my jumper before we headed out for errands. Mommy and Daddy May have been toying with the idea of getting a picture of me with Santa (who I hear is a really nice chubby guy in a red suit), so, just in case, they got me dolled up. I was less than amused when I found out I was wearing antlers:

We went out and ran our errands, and we actually did come across Santa, but he was ducking out the back of the store. Apparently, there was some sort of emergency at the North Pole.

While we were out, we went for a quick bite to eat, and I got mistaken for a girl yet again. It happens more often than we would like. I know I'm pretty, but do I really look like a little girl?!

We came home and had a pretty nice afternoon, and we all had a nice, long, family nap. Then we just hung out and played, until Mommy and Daddy May got a little too silly for my taste. At first I tried to wait patiently for Mommy May to get done and give me a little space:

When she kept playing, I had to get a little more vocal:

No means no, Mommy May! I forgave her a few minutes later, of course... I even gave her extra hugs and kisses at bedtime, so she would know that I could never stay mad at her.

I Only Open my Mouth to Change Feet...

I am having a blast with my newest playthings... my feet!! Now, I've always had feet; I just never really noticed them before. I wrote a post a few weeks ago about how I've gotten really good at holding my feet up into the air. I have since graduated to grabbing them:

The ultimate goal, of course, is to suck on those sweet little piggies. That part is still a challenge at this point, though I did manage to get my toe into my mouth once. I also started to chew on the adorable slippers Uncle Trav got me, until Mommy May intervened and took them off.

More to come soon on my adventures in footsie. For now, I will sign off with a photo of me & Monkey, hanging around. I spend a good amount of time like this, sitting up and playing and watching Mommy May doing mommy-type things, like folding laundry and picking up:

Not so Fast...

In addition to the ongoing commentary around my adorableness--no, really, people literally stop us on the street to tell Mommy and Daddy May that I am beautiful--everyone is also surprised to see how grown up I look for a 5-month-old. Obviously, my size must be a factor, but I think it might also be my slick fashion sense. I make being a boy look good:

By the way, that red t-shirt was a gift from my Tía Indira, who lives in Costa Rica but bought me the shirt on her honeymoon in Paris. That shirt is even more of a world traveler than I am. ¡Muchas gracias, Ina y Ernesto!

Here is another picture of me, aptly titled Ballin':

Don't get me wrong, though, I am still a sweet little baby at heart!! Check me out giving Nani a big, sloppy, open-mouthed kiss:

If I could lay one of those wet, slobbery kisses on all y'all, I would... cause that's how much I love ya!!

Trip to the Park, Part Deux...

The weather this weekend was particularly nice, so Mommy and Daddy May and I took full advantage and headed over to the park. I pointed out the way, in case they had forgotten:

Daddy May and I had a nice photo in front of the little kid slide (there's another section of the park, designed for big kids, that has even bigger slides). Even the little slide is still too big for me, though!

Daddy May snagged the camera and snapped this quick pic of Mommy May and me. Too bad Mommy May blinked, though:

Then it was time for my favorite activity, swinging! Mommy May started me off:

But, after that, I did a pretty good job keeping myself going:

Mommy May goes back to work tomorrow, after 10 glorious days home with me. I sure will miss having her all to myself, but, thankfully, she gets another couple of weeks off for Christmas. Yay!!

♫ Oh, Christmas Tree ♫

We had Yin-Yin and Nani over today to work on trimming our tree... another phrase that gave me pause, as I didn't think our tree needed a haircut. Then I realized we were just going to decorate it! Here I am, barking out orders on how the tree should look:

And, looking on sternly, while everyone got down to business:

Here's our tree, all dolled up:

Mommy May is still not feeling too great, and Daddy May was super tired (you can thank me for his sleepless night!), so they kept out of the pictures for today. No doubt there will be many more chances for photo ops with our cute little tree!

Black Friday 2008...

Today was my first experience with the phenomenon that is Black Friday. Here I am at the start of our day, ready to search out big savings:

And, here I am, less than 10 minutes later:

What can I say? I'm a baby! Mommy May has a cold and wasn't feeling too great, plus we didn't really need much this year, so we kept things pretty low key. We headed out around 8:30 am, and we just went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and Longs Drugs. We got a few cute things, and we saved some money.

I didn't really understand all the hoopla about Black Friday, until we got home and heard the news reports. Some employees got trampled to death by overzealous crowds?! Two people shot at a Toys R Us?!?! Believe me, I love toys as much as the next baby, but I wouldn't want Mommy or Daddy May to risk their lives to get me something. I mean, come on, people. Was Thanksgiving only yesterday? I guess some people just didn't get enough turkey.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Today was my first Thanksgiving! I still don't quite understand all of the history behind this special holiday, but I sure had a good time! Mommy May even got me this snazzy outfit:

If you look closely at my shirt, you can see that Pooh Bear is dressed up as an Indian, and Tigger is a Pilgrim. I know, I know--adorable!

I was still sleepy for most of today, but it's ok, as I hear that's a pretty common phenomenon for this holiday. I took lots of good naps, but I also spent a fair amount of time visiting and playing. I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Nani in the morning, and then we had some special visitors this afternoon. Yin-Yin and her good friend, Uncle Paul, come over for dinner:

Uncle Paul and I spent some quality time discussing the merits of chewing on toys:

Then, of course, it was finally time to eat! Here's our modest but tasty spread:

The plan was to take a picture of me with all of the food and the cooked turkey, but, alas, I was sleeping when it all came together. I did sit at the dinner table with everyone, though, and I even had a little taste of potatoes and yams! Here I am in my high chair, where I was dubbed the Turkey King:

Young as I am, there is already so much that I am grateful for... what a wonderful tradition, to have an entire holiday devoted to being thankful! I hope that everyone also had a great day, and, to all of you loved ones who couldn't be here to share this special day, know that I held you very dear in my heart.

Never Nurse on a Bike...

To be perfectly honest, I've had a rough couple of days. I have been super, super tired all the time, taking way more naps that I normally do AND going to bed very early. When I am awake, I just want Mommy May to hold me, and I get really cranky and fussy as soon as she tries to put me down. Also, I have been having a lot of trouble with breastfeeding again... we're not sure why, but I'm just not happy with the milk. Mommy May said it might have to do with cycling, which confused me completely, because I don't see what riding a bike has to do with nursing... plus, I don't think we even own a bike.

Anyhow, after my 3rd nap of the day, I had a small block of time where I was more like my regular self. I spent some time goofing around with Cousin Laura:

Then I tried to eat some more of my toys:


Finally, before crankiness and exhaustion overtook me once again, I lit up the room with one of my big, big smiles:

Toys are Edible, Right?

Today was another nice day. I was pretty sleepy for a lot of the day, so I ended up taking 3 solid naps AND going to bed early. Mommy and Daddy May were busy for most of the day, reorganizing and cleaning and doing laundry, but they still made plenty of time to hang out with me. We even took a nice, long family walk in the afternoon.

While they were working, Bunny-Bear and I worked on our sitting up skills. Bunny-Bear wanted to work on spitting up instead, but I explained that that wouldn't be very nice. His name is Bunny-Bear because he's a bear in a bunny suit... obviously!

Well, today I guess I officially left my newborn-ness behind. Daddy May broke down my swing and put it in storage. Then he got out one of my bigger-kid toys, which I immediately attempted to eat:

I try to eat pretty much anything I can get my hands on. I was afraid that I was weird or something, but, apparently, that's something all babies do. Phew! Mommy and Daddy May both said they used to have a stacker toy like mine, though mine is a bit modernized. I would be very interested to know how many of my readers also remember having a toy like this!

How was your Saturday?

Today was another great day! We had planned to go to the city to see Yin-Yin, but our plans changed when Daddy May found out he had to go in to work. Instead, Mommy May and Nani and I made a quick run to Costco. I guess we're all set now for something called Thanksgiving... I'm not sure exactly what that is, but it seems to have something to do with Pilgrims and Native Americans getting together and eating turkey until they were sick.

Anyway, I keep on getting stronger every day, and here I am sitting up all by myself again:

I held myself up for almost 5 minutes before I needed to rest. Daddy May was there to support me, just like always:

Then, before bath time, I spent some quality time on my changing table. I still love playing on it. Yes, I actually like hanging out there, and I have loved getting my diaper changed since birth. Whenever I am cranky or fussy, giving me some quality time on my changing table always cheers me up. Obviously, now that I am starting to roll over, Mommy and Daddy May have to keep a very close eye (and hand!) on me, but I don't mind. Here I am, with a froggie that Yin-Yin got me before I was even born:

I totally love that frog! He ribbits when I squeeze his tummy, which always makes me laugh! That Yin-Yin, she always gets me the best toys!!

Swinger...

Mommy May has all of next week off in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, so we get to spend the next 10 days together! Yay!! We had a pretty special day today, hanging out and having fun. I started the day by practicing both sitting up and looking like an angel:

Mommy May and I went for a nice long walk this afternoon, and I went to the park for the first time! There were lots of ladies with kids there, although most of the them were Asian or Hispanic, while all of the little kids were white. I was a little confused until Mommy May taught me the word nanny. Then I got even more confused, cause I have a Nani too, but, finally, I figured it all out! I was about the same size as most of the kids there, but I was by far the youngest!! No one could believe that I was only 5 months old. There was a little girl there, smaller than me, and she was almost 12 months. Here I am on my first swing:

To prove that I actually did swing, here's a little video. Nevermind Mommy May's baby talk; she gets a little too excited about stuff sometimes:

Boy, swinging like a monkey sure tuckered me out!! I had lunch there at the park and then passed right out:

A Quickie...

Just a quick, short post to remind everyone that... I turned 5 months old today!

It was a pretty good day, over all. I spent the day over at Nani's until Mommy May picked me up in the afternoon. Then we came home, and I had a little time with Mommy and Daddy May before bath and bedtime.

Mommy May wanted to somehow commemorate this day; this picture of me smushing my face into my bumper is the best she could come up with:

I guess you could call it my signature move!

Mr. Wiggles...

Just when you were impressed by how great I have gotten at babbling, smiling, and sitting up... I go and add another skill! Well, I haven't quite mastered said skill yet, but I am working on it! Pretty soon, I'll be crawling and scooting myself all over our place. For now, you'll have to settle for me wiggling my chubby little thighs back and forth:



I really love hanging out and playing on my little blanket. Here I am acting out a scene from Snow White... don't worry, Mirror Mirror assured me that I am, indeed, the fairest of them all!

Oh, Happy Day...

Today was super fun!! Mommy and Daddy May and I had a leisurely morning and slept in till 8:30, which, for us, is totally sleeping in. I got dressed and ready, then I hung out and had fun playing while they got ready:

We headed up to Nani's house, because Mommy May had a lot of work to do on Nani's computer and brand new Tivo. While we were there, I worked on a brand new skill--sitting up all by myself!

Soon, though, I started to get a little tired of holding myself up:

Then I pretty much gave up:

It's ok, though... I actually enjoy falling over. No, really. Sometimes I fall over on purpose and then start laughing.

I had a couple of good naps this afternoon and spent lots of quality time with Mommy and Daddy May and Nani. And, as you can see, I also made a new friend:

My little seahorse lights up and plays lullabies when I hug him--don't you wish all of your friends could do that?!