Days to Remember:

May 11th – FIRST mother’s day (not counting in utero one last year).  Even more special was this was the first time my older (step)son acknowledged me on mother’s day.  He made me a card and wrote “I’m in love with you” all over it!!!

May 15th - Kale also clearly knows the “Mama’s hungry for Kale’s Belly” game and anticipates a tickle as soon as I say “mama’s hungry”. 

May 15th – He seems to sort of sometimes understand “no” and “be sweet” or “be nice”. Those are words/phrases I repeat over and over.  If he doesn’t understand yet, he definitely will! We’re working on getting him to respond to his name. it would probably help if we stopped calling him “boogie” all the time.

May 18th – MILEONE: Sitting up, but still toppling a little.  We’ve been practicing every day and today he can sit up for a while without toppling. We still need to be there, but he sat up long enough for me to get the video camera and film him! 

May 18th - FIRST oatmeal cereal and he smiled every time he took a bite – I guess he really liked it. I tasted it and it was definitely better than the rice cereal. 

May 19th – FIRST sippy cup experience – he likes to drink water from his sippy cup – he also likes to drink water directly from a water bottle too.

May 28th – First grocery cart ride sitting up in the front of the cart like a big boy.

June 4th – MILESTONE: FIRST rollover back to front!

June 7th – MILESTONE: FIRST tooth - bottom right (if facing him).

June 9th – FIRST veggies - green beans (see video)!

General:  He still loves acoustic rock – it’s amazing how when the right song comes on, he gets really calm and happy.  He loves guitar – listening to it, looking at it, touching it, and daddy even let him lick it once!  He’s learned to whine and shriek and seems to like making these new noises quite often.  Sleeps about 12 hours with a bottle in the middle (but the times constantly change).  Still naps like a teeny baby – he doesn’t want to stay up for more than 1.5 hours.  He’s taking about 30-32 ounces of milk a day.  Still only taking about 4 ounces at a time (and now 2 teaspoons cereal/4 teaspoons formula mix twice a day) and eating every 2.5 hours until about 9pm and then he sleeps until about 6am (sometimes waking up in the middle wanting to come to our bed – depending how tired I am, I let him or put him back into his own bed). Then he takes a bottle and goes back to sleep until between 8-9am.  He loves our bed. He definitely has happy dreams and nightmares.  Sometimes in my arms, he starts giggling, other times, he wakes up screaming and then I talk to him and soothe him and goes right back to sleep.   He’s a great snuggler.  In the mornings, I bring him to the bed to try to get him to sleep a little a longer if he wakes up before 8.  Sometimes he just lays there for 30 minutes or longer playing with my face while I try to sleep.  Other times, he lays on his side and lets me hold him close and he goes back to sleep.  I love morning snuggle time.  Thinking about it makes me want to go get him from bed right now and snuggle him!  People still tell me that he’s such a happy baby and always comment on his big eyes.  They seem amazed how much he smiles and coos at them – I tell them he’s tricking :)! Mommy and me group is wonderful.  I always look forward to it (and I usually dread outings).  I love talking with the mommies and Kale loves the outings. He always takes a long nap when we get home.  We’re starting music class next week and we’ll be going swimming soon too!