We're here!!!!

We're finally at Auntie Ambers! We got here late last night and now I'm napping off the drive.


I'm just counting down the minutes until I open presents now!

I'll be back to report all my Xmas goodies tomorrow!

Giving my immune system a a workout

So mommy and I caught the flu. :(

Not the stomach flu like we had before, and not a cold, but the regular old, feel poopy for days, aches and pains, fever and chills flu. But we're on the getting better end of it now. We have the luck this year! But on the upside mommy says that I've been a strong healthy boy through it all so it's just making me stronger, and I haven't had any complications through any of it, and she read an article that kids get sick on average 6 times a year so I guess I'm not doing too bad.

What really stinks is mommy called my doctor like a million times about a flu shot for me and every time she'd call they had just run out or were doing it the next week (walk-in only, no appointments) and they never really got their stuff together for it this year. We're very disappointed.

Other than that we've just spent the week taking turns, resting and shopping and resting and shopping...

Here are a couple of pictures of me during the week, ones my square hands climbing up to stand and the other is me eating a powder mini donut (I REALLY like those) :)

Well I'm gonna go get more rest now. Only 5 days left until gifts and only 3 left until I see Auntie Amber!!!

An hour and a half...but I got to see the jolly fat man!

So tonight we went to the Valencia Town Center mall to see Santa and do a little more Xmas shopping. We waited an hour and half to see St. Nick, but we made it!

See what a good boy I was? And how him and I staring lovingly into each other's eyes?

I haven't posted in awhile because mommy lost the card reader to put my pictures from the camera onto the computer. She finally found the cord last night that they haven't seen since they bought camera though.

Here's daddy and I dressed like twins (not on purpose, but once we noticed we didn't change, it's too cute because we look so much alike) Xmas shopping for my cousins earlier this week.

And here's a cute couple of me after I feel asleep on my baby piano that I thought I'd throw in too. It's hard being so multi-talented.

Well I'm pooped now so I'm gonna go rest. See ya later!


P.S. Less than a week until I see Auntie Amber...YAY!!!!

Shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone

Wanna hear a secret?

Last night in the middle of the night I woke up and mommy and I hung out for a little while. She got a little hungry so we shared a couple of powder sugar mini donuts in bed...at like 3:30 in the morning! It was soooo cool.

Mommy said not to get used to it but every once in awhile it's okay to be a little bad. And we had a good time so that's all that matters right? A few mini donuts never hurt anyone.

Dance like no one is watching

Today daddy and I were looking for kids music on the TV to dance to and we stopped on the Kids in Demand channel...then we discovered one of the coolest shows EVER!

They sing and breakdance and pop-lock and the orange guy even has a boombox!

The music sounds like daddy's music too, all technoy! And there's a robot. Mommy loves robots. He has all kinds of cool circuit boards in the background when its just him too.

Usually I am only allowed to watch Sesame Street, in the mornings during my first bottle before breakfast. Occasionally I get an episode of Bob the Builder (2 to date) or maybe an animated movie, like Cars or Happy Feet on a weekend if mommy and daddy are really busy. See, I LOVE TV. I'm always trying to watch it, I take the remote and try to (sometimes successfully) turn it on, or crawl from where ever I am to see it, but mommy turns it off or moves me. So this was such a delight! I also love to dance and love music so this is just the bestest thing ever!

Well, I'm gonna go dance some more. I've learned a new bouncing move I wanna work on!

See ya!

Baby Jail

TGIF! Friday means daddy doesn't have to go to sleep early and we get to play a lot for the next few days. He's my new favorite obsession right now. He's always been around, but I just recently realized how cool and fun he is! I've even been turning to cuddle him and wake him up instead of mommy in bed.

Speaking of bed, since I had the tummy flu I've been sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed (with my Boppy, and not on the edge...no rolling off or being rolled on top of), and have decided that I'm not leaving. Mommy was up with me until 3am last night trying to get me to sleep in my own bed. I'll go for it when I first fall asleep in her arms and she puts me down in it without my knowledge, but once I wake up there I'm not having it and won't fall back asleep anywhere, not even in her arms, except the big bed. I know exactly what will happen if I do(I'm smarter than anyone realizes). So today mommy had me playing in my bed (which I call "baby jail") a lot to get me used to it again and make it somewhere I enjoy being. I do, but only to an extent.

I'll play in it for awhile.

Then I try to break out.

Then I get upset.

I don't know if you can tell but I'm crying in that picture.

Hahaha! I've got mommy so wrapped around my little finger. I was outta there within a minute of starting to cry and I'm willing to bet toys that I end up in their bed tonight! She told daddy it's a process and eventually I'll be back in my bed. Riiiight.

Well I'm off for the night. I'll be back tomorrow if I get some time after playing my little heart out with papa.

And oh yeah, just a warning to other babies out there...if your parents try to get you to watch something they "loved as a child"...just act like you're asleep. They put on some Frosty the Snowman rubbish tonight...and oh jeeze was it boring! They did the same thing to me at Halloween with Charlie Brown. I made it through about 5 minutes of each of them. Bleck! Give me Elmo or give me nothing! Elmo in Grouchland...now that's a fine film!

Old wisdom and California winter

Well, after 2 different kinds of diaper cream and a powder it seems it was nakedness and oatmeal baths that worked to clear up my diaper rash in only a day. I can't complain about the treatment either, I loved the little sitz baths every few hours, and mommy used baby oatmeal so it would dissolve in the water better and it made ever more baby soft! I also loved pooping on mom during one of my diaperless naps. :P She was holding me as I was falling asleep and felt something moving in her hand. Guess what it was? LOL!

I'm sure the warm 75-80 degree weather helped too. That's December in California folks! It gets chilly in the evening though, it was between 50-60 degrees through the night. I guess it won't be this year I see my first snow, but we got some great waves at the western facing beaches this week! Ha! Four seasons? Who needs 'em?

Mini Mitnick

I was on the computer with daddy again today. It was fun! I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm gonna get Vsmile Baby for Xmas. ;)

Little hax0r baby/code monkey.

Oh yeah, and they took away my cell phone while I'm teething because I drool too much and mommy is a big old paranoid weirdo about the battery leaking into my mouth. At least daddy still satisfies my electronics cravings with the big boy machine!

You know what's a pain in the butt?

....Diaper Rash!

Even though mommy changes my diaper neurotically, and even though she uses diaper cream with every single diaper since I was just a brand new little bugger it still got me. :(

We don't know if it was the spaghetti I ate (they say tomato based foods can cause a rash), the extra drool from my teething on top, or the new wipes (we just switched from Pampers sensitive to Pampers Swipers) but something got to my little bum and now its red and sore and it sucks.

The only good thing that has come out of this is a few extra short cool baths during the day and lots of naked playtime (I LOVE being in birthday suit!) She put oatmeal in one of my baths too, which is weird because I always thought that was to eat not sit in, but whatever, it still splashed just the same! I even got a little nude nap today.

Mommy took everything out of my pack and play, and left it with just the pad that's pretty much water (or pee) proof and a couple of cloth diapers under me and let me revel in my bareness.

So its getting a little better, tonight it looked much less than this morning, and hopefully it will be gone tomorrow. But now I'm gonna go to bed, rest is just about the best thing for any baby ailment mommy says. I just can't believe my luck lately, a cold, then a tummy flu, then a diaper rash during round two of teething. I guess its better to get it all out of the way before our Christmas trip to see Auntie Amber though, right?

The return of Aristotle

Wow...I've been gone awhile. Busy baby I am. Well, that and lazy ;P

So what have I been up to...I've been playing, crawling everywhere I shouldn't be, climbing over things, pulling up on whatever I can get my hands on, trying more table foods, saying "dada" to go with the "mama" I've had down for some time now (mommy finally believes they're real words now since I use them differently depending on where I am and who I want) and I've mastered getting on and off mommy & daddy's bed.

About a week or so ago I started on my stage 3 foods, and they have all kinds of new flavors, like broccoli and carrots and cheese (which smells like death but after a few bites I found to be very yummy) and Lasagna. I'm not always a fan at first, but in the end I gobble them down!

So after mommy saw that I could eat those little chunks without choking she stopped being so paranoid about table foods. (I've eaten my Gerber puffs for months and never choked on those, but she's been weird about other stuff). Well I got a little on Thanksgiving as I said in my last post, and I've had little bits of rice or beans or cheese, but last night I got all kinds of food at the buffet we went to. Oh yeah, btw, buffets rock! I kept eating and eating and eating until mommy and daddy made me leave! I had kidney beans and carrots and corn and green beans and ham and roast beef and mashed potatoes and candied yams and spinach marie and red jello and yellow cake with pink frosting and chocolate cake and carrot cake and hot fudge cake and lemon bar and vanilla froyo. (I was only allowed one bite of each cake though, which sucked because they were sooo good!) It was so awesome. Never ending food...it's like it's Xmas already! Weird though, I've been thinning out even though I've been eating more. I guess it's all that crawling!

And oh yeah, I stayed with a babysitter for the first time! Grandma couldn't watch me at the last minute the night of daddy's company's holiday party at Social Hollywood so I went to his friend Shaun's house and stayed with Shaun and Keelie for a few hours. We had fun. We looked at Graffiti books and ate Spaghetti. And Keelie has a little baby in her belly so we also looked at a book about that. And they have kitties too so I had new little critters to pet. Their kitties are a lot bigger than ours though, but just as nice! Mommy looked very sad when she left and attacked me with hugs and kisses when she got back. She's strange. I did miss her too though, I started getting anxious right before they got back but I held out like a big boy most of the night!

So I think that's it for now. Here are some random pics of me from the last week. Enjoy!

My square hands look weird in this one, but my face looks cute!
(They call me Spongebob "squarehands" because my little mitts are square.)

Isn't my foot just freakin' adorable?

They're delicious too, in case you were wondering.

Meat buzz
(I get this from daddy!)

See ya later!

Feeling better and feasting

So we are all feeling better now, and my appetite is almost as big as normal again. This is good because I got to participate in my first Thanksgiving!

I started to feel a little better on Wednesday but we still took things easy to prepare for Thursday.

Then Thursday we went to Glendale to daddy's uncle Micheal's, my great uncle, and visited with a lot of family. I got to meet a lot of my relatives I have never met before, my great aunts and uncle, my second cousins, and I got to see my Grandma and Steve again, who I LOVE and my great grandpa. My little 2nd cousin Angie who is only a few years older than me and I played a lot. It was nice to have someone little like me around.

It was fun. I played with Steve a lot and grandma too.

Then we ate. I got to try mashed potatoes, and candied yams, green bean casserole, corn casserole, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie! I finished with eating my puffs on my own so mommy could eat some of her food too.

It was very fun. I got pretty tired by the end of the night though. We were out late. I took a small nap but with all the people it was hard to sleep. I was a really good boy though. Even though my separation anxiety is starting to kick in I had no stranger anxiety and was not cranky or fussy at all. I showed every one what a good sitter and crawler and stander I am. Nobody could believe how young I was and everyone kept saying how much I look like daddy!

So that was my Thanksgiving, and we are all feeling better, so I'll be able to post more often again. I just can't believe how bad it sucks so have a cold then a stomach flu right after. That was bad luck, but at least it's over now and my little immune system is stronger for it!

Well, I'm gonna go play now. Daddy's been home for two days and has two more off so we're playing A LOT this weekend. Bye!

Strike 3

Now that I've stopped getting sick mommy has started. :(

This stomach flu sucks!

She really needs sleep too, she was up all night watching me last night making sure I didn't choke in my sleep.

Spoke too soon

So I caught daddy's bug. I threw up a lot last night and through this morning. I got it all over my bed, then all over the bath mommy gave me to clean it off of me. :(

We went to my Dr. and he said to cut out food altogether for 24 hours and try an ounce of Pedialyte an hour gradually increasing it up to about 4 ounces, and once I start keeping it down add "constipating foods" like bananas, applesauce and rice cereal.

So that's what we're doing. No pictures or anything until I feel better. Sorry.

I gotta get more rest now. I'll be back in a day or two. Bye.

Swirly Goodness

Tonight I had

I love Pinkberry. I usually don't get it because the first time mommy and daddy let me try it I started freaking out like a wild animal for more...and more...and more. Mommy is the same way, just less loud about it. She calls it crackberry. So they try to get it when I am with Grandma, but tonight we all went and got some and mommy shared hers with me. It's SO yummy! I can't get enough. I don't even mind making mommy stand in line for 20 minutes. :)

It was so yummy. I already said that huh? So anyway, daddy changed up his normal kiwi/strawberry/yogurt chip combo by replacing the strawberries with pomegranate. Mommy tries different stuff all the time, and a lot of times just likes it plain, but tonight had strawberry/raspberry/pomegranate. Pomegranate is their seasonal topping right now. In the summer it was lyche, which mommy loved, but she wouldn't let me try. I like her cocoa pebbles/banana/coconut combo the best.

So that was our Caturday.

Sorry, shameless old pic post.

Oh and Daddy is feeling better by the way, and mommy and I haven't shown any signs of catching his tummy flu (fingers crossed)!

So, I'm gonna go rest now. G'night!

Loudness

I saw a helicopter today. It was much different than the ones during the fires, and it was very low, which made it very loud. That's about all the was interesting today.

Oh and Daddy's sick with the flu. I hope he feels better but I think I'm gonna keep my distance because every time mommy calls my doctor for my flu shot they say they're out. We don't have a shortage this year so thats just bad planning on their part. Worst part is...daddy got his shot weeks ago at work but still caught a bug. :(

Bookaneer

Yesterday daddy, mommy and I went to the library! I got to be a Bookaneer just like Elmo! We didn't get to take any pictures inside the library, mommy thought it might be rude, but here's a picture of me on the way there in car:

It was fun. We read If I Ran The Zoo by Dr. Seuss. I even sat in a big boy chair all by myself for the first half of it, but then I got wiggly so mommy put me on the kiddie carpet.

I also started drinking my formula out of my sippy cup. Mommy says I'll be off the bottle completely before Christmas. I've always drank my juice from my cup but now I'm starting to drink my formula from it too. Right now I still like my morning and goodnight bottles though, its a comfort thing. But she says she doesn't want me to have an attachment to them.

Oh and you wouldn't believe what happened last night. I was taking my bath and having fun, and I kept standing up in it like I've been doing lately. Mommy starting saying that dumb word "no" again, and like always I ignored it. But then...oh man, you won't believe this...when I stood up again SHE TOOK AWAY MY BATH TOYS! I was flabbergasted, but I just went along with my bath and splashed instead. Then, I stood up again, she said "no" again, then and I stood right back up and....UGH! SHE RINSED ME OFF AND TOOK MY OUT OF THE BATH!!!!! I usually get ample time to play before and after getting washed, but not last night. Last night it got cut short. She said "Mommy's not being mean, it's just not safe Ari, and you have to learn no" then took me out and dried me off! How unfair is that?

Earlier in the day I was throwing my toys out of my swing onto the floor to illicit her reaction (I like to watch the effects of my actions right now, like what it sounds like when I hit toys together, or drop them, or getting mommy to bend down and get my toys and hand them back to me after I throw them) and after I did it a few times and she said that "no" thing, instead of picking them back up and handing them to me, she just took me out of my swing and put me on the floor next to them! I have figure out what that word means quick because it always precedes circumstances I don't like. :(

On a happier note, I've been practicing my standing more lately. I try to pull up on whatever I can reach, even if its mommy or daddy's faces (hehe). I've been practicing my stepping a lot too. They let me stand up with the coffee table last night and helped me balance a little as I cruised to the end of it. For some reason I suddenly have an itch to stand and step whenever I can. I just wish I could get that balance thing down.

Speaking of that, I'm gonna go practice now, I'm getting a little restless. Bye!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Peekaboo!

I'm back! And with big hair! LOL. Mommy and I were messing around with my hair again today. She says its getting so long and it's so soft she can't help it. I don't mind, I think it's relaxing to have it combed.

Sorry for the time away, but as I mentioned in my last post I was battling a pretty nasty cold, and I was not very happy about it.

Mommy explained that I was sick because a virus was inside of me, and they were like the bad guys. My body, however, has its own army to defend me against them, but I had to eat my healthy foods and get plenty of sleep to help keep my little soldiers strong enough to fight well.

So, I ate my fruits and vegetables like a good boy to help keep them in top shape. Well, I also wore a little bit of them too...

I also got plenty of rest.

That's me sleeping today actually, in mommy's arms, but I got even more naps when I still had the sniffles.

Between those though, and my juice and extra formula, I recovered in only a few days. I never got a fever from it so I never had to go into the doctor, and I'm too little for cold medicine, so we just waited it out, and I survived. :)

Now I'm back to being a little monkey. Since I learned to crawl I've had mommy chasing me everywhere! I've also learned how to climb...which is soooo fun! So many new things I can do now, and they're all coming so quick!

My practice in my walker has also made me explore standing and trying to cruise more. Today when I was standing up holding onto a tub I started stepping and it started sliding forward.

It was the coolest thing! I never even got scared and sat back down, I went a few steps then it hit the TV stand. I totally would have gone further if there was nothing in my way! The cool thing is that now the Tonka Scoot & Scoop has been added to my Christmas list since I showed mommy how much I'd love it. :)

And oh yeah...I'm 7 months old today!

Well, I gotta go, I've got places to crawl and people to climb on! Bye!

The long awaited crawling video

I'm very sorry I haven't posted for a couple of days again. The router has been messed up and daddy's been working late so mommy and I only had the internet here and there.

So here is the video of me crawling, as promised. Now keep in mind this is literally about 1 minute after my first successful attempt, so my technique is a little odd, but I assure you it has improved immensely over the last few days. Practice makes perfect right? The angle is a little off so it's hard to see my belly lifted, but it is.

*Fair Warning: TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME. Mommy is on the phone with Daddy in the background as she is recording this and she is screaming like a crazy lady. (She does that a lot).

Also, here are some of the pics I promised of me being super cute in my new walker:

Well, I've come down with a nasty little cold (no fever, so the nurse at Dr. Connolly's says not to worry) so I need to drink an extra bottle to keep my fluids up and get some more rest.

Bye!