::real food::

Kris and I (well, mostly Kris) have been learning a lot about children's growth and development and their dentition and that sort of stuff.

In all that someplace we heard a rumor that maybe the current best practice for starting babies on solids may not include purees. So we had to get a book about it all and read it through.  It's called "Baby Led Weaning"  It was an interesting read--the method is so different than we usually do these days--so different than we did with the boys, but it really makes sense.

Basically it says that all babies really need for about the first year is breast milk anyway, and when we stuff them full of purees it doesn't teach them to eat the way they really need to--self regulate fullness, explore tastes and textures, etc. So the recommendation is to just start giving babies solids, and if they can pick them up and knaw on them that's great. They'll only end up actually ingesting a bit of the food, but they'll end up actually eating a little more every time they try. And they'll get to try a bunch of different things which should help them be better eaters in the end.
Well, really there's more to it than that, but that's my understanding of it in a nutshell I guess.

ANYWAY. So far since Sunday Lucy has held and chewed on/sucked on:
a plain waffle
apple sticks
toast
a banana
Yes, it makes me very nervous that she's going to choke, but the book says that babies gag reflexes happen much higher up on the tongue than adults, so there's a lot of warning before a baby actually chokes.  And the food is much more likely to just get pushed out by their tongue than to end up way back in their throats anyway.
 

She's totally enjoying it. And really, who wouldn't rather feed themselves and get all soggy, sticky and disgusting rather than let a parent stuff mushed up food into your face while keeping you clean and tidy.

She only ate about a pinch of this banana, but she sure had fun working on it. She's just getting too big too fast, it's killing me!

::::

Our sweet babysitter Victoria took Sandy with her on a grocery run for me on Monday.
I got this photo texted to my phone:



She's a great girl and I feel lucky that we found somebody who thinks the kids are as cute as I think they are.

::six months!!::

In celebration of Lucy's six month anniversary last week I'm going to post something fun that I've been hanging on to for way too long.
Here is our sweet Sandy when he was a little less than two months old. He's wearing this darling little star suit that I just love. It was one of the pieces of clothing that I bought that could work for either  boy or girl. He was such a cute little chunker. Those cheeks and the double chin!! Here is our Miss Lucy in the same little adorable suit. She's about two and a half months old here. There are the blurred kicking feet. She is such a kicker. It's definitely one of her most favorite activities. She is such a sweet little thing. So what do you think? What are the similarities and differences? Could you get the two kids confused? Aren't they both SO CUTE?!?

::headed home::

Heading home was long. We were slow and we didn't make it very far the first day because all the hotels in Flagstaff were sold out so we had to stay the night in Phoenix.

But there was one interesting thing that happened. When we drove though In-n-Out for shakes I told Kris I wanted a "Napoleon" shake and he ordered it for me. The drive through guy was like "Ok, one NeoPOLITAN shake." Kris was totally embarrassed and I was laughing so hard. If only I had done it on purpose it would've been the best prank ever. But I'm way too tired to think that fast.

We did finally make it home. Here's Lucy half way through.

And at home. The kids are always so happy to get home after a trip and Lucy was no exception.

::the leftovers::

I forgot to post about one of the most important things from our vacation! As I mentioned in an earlier post, Max worked his little behind off and earned enough money to get his dream lego set. We spent the entire week helping him put it together. He was in heaven playing with it. There were a lot of really fun minifigures included and the whole little state fair set folded up and packed onto the two little trucks that were also built as part of the set. It's one of the more fun and interactive sets I've seen. I didn't get very many good photos. Max was so proud and happy when we finally got it all put together. He did the bulk of the building besides a few very irksome parts that Kris and I helped with.

  And there's the ride in motion! I'm so proud of Max for working hard and earning his awesome toy, and for sticking out the building of it, that was really challenging. He's a cutie. I'll have to take some better pictures later.

::friday--the last beach & ice::

The last day of vacation is the best and the worst all at the same time.
It's so sad because your vacation is ending, but it's so great because you still get to be on vacation for ONE MORE DAY!!

So anyway, it's hard to decide how to spend your last day wisely. We definitely were challenged by this and solved the problem by just not deciding at all what to do but letting life just happen to us instead.

In the morning the baby actually took a nap, which is always unexpected, and I needed to go on a run, so I did that. Then we got all ready and headed out to the beach--a different beach than we've ever visited before. This beach is called Windansea beach and it's in La Jolla.
We always like to go out of our way to drive by it when we're in that area because it's so picturesque. It has a reef that causes a pretty big break at one spot, so big blue waves are very visible from the car when driving by.
Kris and I always thought it would be fun to go, so we did. And it was great, very gorgeous, lots of interesting rocks and different looking formations. But man the waves were strong. They were pretty big, they were breaking basically right on the beach and they were intense. So Kris didn't get to try the surf break, he just had to stand right on top of Sandy the whole time, watching to make sure Sandy didn't go out to visit the dolphins and whales. At one point a wave knocked Sandy over backwards on the way in, and then on the way out it grabbed him and started to pull him into the water while he was still backwards. Kris said he tried hard not to rescue Sand _too_ many times, if Sandy could possibly save himself, but this was one of the times he stepped in.
Because of the reef there was also some strange stuff going on the surf, there was one wave that regularly came in sideways and ran into one of the regular waves and made like a swirling vortex of terror--which of course Sandy was drawn to like a moth to a flame. You can sort of see it in this photo. Gorgeous though right? Max was in heaven there in the waves. He loves getting manhandled by the ocean. There was only one point where he got washed out to where he couldn't stand. He had his boogie board with him so we talked him through swimming himself back into his comfort zone. He's a good swimmer. The colors in these photos are so gorgeous. They make me want to go back!! I was parked in the beach tent because it was so hot and sunny I knew that if Lucy was out of the shade she'd burn right up. So I stayed in there and hung out with her. She likes me. And she likes to puke on me.

We called everybody back for lunch at some point, Kris was glad to have a little break from the life saving. These photos are all like exact repeats of yesterday's, but just at a different beach, it's cracking me up. (Max looks like he's holding a guy in his hand, that's weird.) (And now the guy that Max was holding has 3 arms, WHAT?!) It was really hard to keep Sandy sitting and eating. He just wanted to go and play again SO SO bad. So I had to talk him into jumping for me again while Kris ate his lunch. I was hoping he'd redeem himself from yesterday. So far so good. Doesn't he have the cutest look on his face here? But big brother is always there to show up the little brother, holy cow Max! This one just looks weird. This one is superb I think. And last but not least--excellent.
That seagull behind the boys thought we belonged to him and he was patroling the perimeter waiting for the boys to drop food for him. They didn't disappoint.

After the beach we went and got cleaned up and got food of course. We had gotten Hawaiian food at a couple of different places during the week, but we ended up going for some more because Max remembered that we hadn't been to his favorite Hawaiian place.
It's his favorite because of the shaved ice. He loves it. So here are the requisite pictures of tired boys out to linner. Making funny faces. They were soooooo hungry that they could hardly wait the few minutes until the food was done. Sandy got a teriyaki hot dog and Max got pineapple slider burgers. Yeah, yum. And here they are deciding on the flavors for their ices. Sandy got the most disgusting combo ever thanks to Max's help--strawberry cheesecake and cherry. I can't remember what Max's combo was so it must not have been quite so disgusting. And then we took Max back to the looney bin, since he was only checked out for the afternoon. Haha just kidding, but the stinker sure does like to make faces. After we enjoyed our outing we went back and didn't get as packed as we should've. Just as it should be. It was a great trip. I'd do it once a quarter if I could.

::thursday--even more beach::

I once again struggled deciding what pictures to pick and post, so I just went with all the good ones.

On Thursday we went shopping for a little bit in the morning so I could get some jeans at the mall and then went down to the beach. Kris had a surf lesson and I was in charge of the crew.

But wait, actually, first we had breakfast. This is usually unremarkable, but today Kris was getting Sandy some cereal and Sandy started to cry and whine as only a 3 year old can. He didn't want THAT bowl, he wanted a GLASS bowl. Which of course, was what he already had, a glass bowl, since people who own vacation rentals often aren't smart enough to make sure there's some plasticware for kids. Anyway, 3 yr olds, oy.

So we were at the beach and Sandy with his newfound bravery ("Dad, I could even suwrf now!!") was just down there having fun. I was pretty thankful for the little lifejacket that we bought from the surf shop (after we rented it for a day we realized it was a need). The waves were just perfect for Sandy to play in, the break was pretty far back and the shallow part of the waves was longish. So he could jump and splash and swim in the water. But I still had to keep an eagle eye on him to say the least. So I sat with Lucy in the beach tent: (See Mom, that's a beach tent). I kept Lucy in the shade of the tent so she wouldn't get burned and kept my eyes trained on Sandy. I never once had to run down and save him, so that means he did pretty well staying in the "little waves."
When they came up to eat lunch I got a little break from my vigilance. (Yum, sandy cracker sandwiches) But of course the lunch break didn't last long and they were back out in the waves as soon as possible.
I got Lucy to go to sleep and nestled her in one of the beach chairs. That's rather miraculous. She's not a great sleeper, and especially not great outside of her perfectly ideal situation.
While she slept I was able to stay halfway between the waves and the tent so that was nice. But soon enough she was up. Yikes.
I forced the boys to come up to pose for me to give me another break from watching for Sandy. They did some jumping for me. This is where I really struggled with choosing which pictures to include . You'll have to pick your favorite. (How did I catch both of them with their eyes closed?)
I found out that Sandy just doesn't jump. He tries, but that's all it is, a try. So this was tricky. And Sandy's timing was off. I'd count to three and then say "Jump!" Max would jump, Sandy would watch him jump and then jump. (Love Sandy's laughing face in this one).
And don't think I'm not impressed with Max's crazy high jumps just because I haven't mentioned them. I just expect awesomeness from him. Especially in his beach jumps. Ready for the Sandy successes? Kris finally got done with his lesson (which was great, by the way) and came back to take over the watching duties. We played for a while longer and then headed back to the condo to clean up so that we could enjoy the BYU game.

When Kris got back from his lesson Sandy ran up to him and said "I LOVE the WAVES!!!" And that makes me happy because that's exactly how I wanted him to feel by the end of the trip. And now, we just need to teach the little guy to swim. ASAP. And here's Sandy riding on the wagon on his way back from the beach. He claimed that he wasn't tired, that this way was just more comfortable. Yeah right!