Big Boy

Dax sat up in the cart at Target for the first time this week! We usually bring him in his car seat, but it is getting heavy and he wants to explore more so we tried without it this time. Dax did great! He started to get tired after we had been shopping for a bit so I ended up carrying him for a little while, but overall it was a success. I can't decide if I am happy for his new experience or sad that he is less and less "baby" every day.

6 months

It's Dax's half- birthday! He is halfway to a year old. 6 months. 182 days. Every way I say it sounds just as insane. Yet, while I can hardly believe it has been that long, when I look at the little man he is clearly bigger, stronger, smarter, and sweeter every single day.

Read on to learn about our little monkey's 6th month:

Dax continues to eat solid foods every morning and evening in addition to nursing. He has had rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, sweet potato, yellow squash, avocado, peas, zucchini, and apple. While he has not disliked anything and eats well, sweet potato is a clear favorite thus far.

Our first time making food for Dax with the baby bullet

He has progressed in his eating, but not so much in his rolling skills. After about a week of rolling over nearly every time we placed him on his tummy, Dax stopped. Now he will do it occasionally, but prefers to fuss and get us to flip him when he's tired of tummy time. Stubborn like his mama :) He does, however, have a new trick. He can sit up! He topples over from time to time, but he got stable pretty quickly after we started letting him practice.

Sitting with his friends Anora and Alex - you may notice that Dax took notes from his other friend David earlier this summer as he is snuggling up to Anora

Sitting has given him a new perspective of his toys and he will eagerly reach for anything that is close. Sometimes he can't quite reach. That doesn't stop him, though. Our little smartie has figured out that if he pulls on the blanket, it will bring his toys closer to him. Almost every time he plays now, he ends up with a pile of toys and the blanket scrunched up around him. It's pretty funny and very cute.

Dax also continues to show interest in people. We saw the slightest bit of stranger anxiety when a friend of ours was over a few weeks ago, but for the most part he enjoys company. Mom and Dad are still his favorites, though, and it is fun to see him light up when we play with him.

Dax was across the shelter at the annual Anderberg family picnic, but was still happy to see Daddy!

He also lights up anytime we are outside. This is not new, but seems to be a noteworthy part of his personality. We can just imagine him in a few years - running around our yard playing with frogs and toads, chasing turkeys, and coming in covered in grass stains. For now he is content just looking around at everything.

Exploring at the Arboretum

One of the best parts of playing with him, whether we are inside or outside, is his laughter. Shortly after he started smiling he would light up and we could tell he was on the verge of giggling. Then, he would let out a little chuckle for awhile. Now, it's a full-out belly laugh and it is the sweetest sound I have ever heard. Check out this video of our happy little boy. (He does love his jumper, but was laughing because I was tickling his legs - and if you can believe it, he was even more hysterical before I started taping him)

It has been another amazing month. We thank God every day for blessing us with Dax as our son and it brings us pure joy to watch him grow and change.

This month's photo shoot was a little more interesting. I don't anticipate it will get any easier as he gets more and more interested in the world around him!

 And, of course, we have to give a look back at how fast the little bug has grown!

Happiness

I love our family!!

Thank you so much to our friend Sarah (http://www.thelifeinart.com/) for getting a good family photo!! She also took some others while we were at the wedding in Texas so I have updated my Texas post from a few weeks ago. Check the new photos out here.

Celebrations!

This was a week of celebrating! There were a lot of special milestones for us and the people around us that called for recognition. First, Eric and Dava came up to MN for a reception with all of the people who are special to them up here. We snagged them for an extra evening and tried out our brand new fire pit for the first time!

Then, July 12 was our 4th anniversary. It is amazing how fast time flies and I am so grateful to be spending my life with Jake. Of course, Dax made this year a little different and it was both our best and least exciting anniversary thanks to the little man. We did not do much on the actual date, but Jake took work off on Friday and we went to the Como Zoo and Conservatory.

We also like to follow the traditional gifts for each anniversary and for year 4 it is flowers and fruit, plus the modern theme is appliances. Well, we bought ourselves a water softener and then tried to be creative with the traditional. Jake bought me a bouquet of beautiful flowers and suggested the trip to Como and I made him a "bouquet" of treats with corny sayings on them. We also made chocolate fondue with some fruit for dessert. It was kind of silly, but a nice low-key celebration honoring our love as well as our new life as parents.

This weekend brought several birthday parties. We made a trip down to Rochester to celebrate Claire's first. It was fun to see good friends and the birthday girl was so sweet. She definitely enjoyed her smash cake!

Our sweet boy slept through most of the party (after refusing to sleep on the car ride) so he was a little groggy

Then we drove back just in time for Jake's grandpa Harry's 80th birthday. It was a very different party (no animal theme, ball pit, or juice boxes), but was still so fun.

Finally, I got to celebrate my great friend Trish's upcoming wedding with a bridal shower. It was beautiful - decked out in her colors orange and pink with delicious food and fun games. It made me even more excited for the wedding!

Kayla, Steph, Trish, me and Elizabeth

We wish Eric & Dava, Claire, Harry, and Trish & Blair many many more happy years and look forward to enjoying each celebration that comes up throughout the years together.

Happy 4th of July!

"All American Hunk" :)

Sleeping like a baby?

Awhile back I posted about how our sweet little boy turns into a wild man at night. We never did find a way to keep him swaddled and decided that it was time to teach him to self-soothe while falling asleep rather than assisting him with keeping his crazy arms in. Well, he has just that: crazy arms. He would calm when we put our hands in to give him a pacifier because he would start to play with our fingers rather than flailing around. However, we wanted him to put himself to sleep so we tried giving him a blanket to calm his hands instead. It seems to have worked and he is so cute with a blankie!

While the blanket calms him, it also worries us because he snuggles it to his face and then falls asleep. Thus, we are checking on him more often. And with that, we have noticed that he still enjoys exploring every inch of his crib while he sleeps. Jake said recently, "I wonder if, when it seems like he hasn't moved much, he has really turned a full 360 degrees and is just back where he started." :) Last night I decided to document his travels when I checked on him (and I had kind of a restless night's sleep so it ended up being a good opportunity to see what his night is like)...

8:10 PM - Shortly after he fell asleep, pretty much where we put him down.

8:45 PM - It looks like he's wiggling around, but he was actually still asleep in this new position.

9:25 PM - I moved the blanket so it wasn't over his face, but he scooted to the edge himself.

10:15 PM - Now his feet are actually out of the crib, but he still hasn't moved very far.

After that last picture, I took the blanket out and scooted him back to the middle of the crib so he wouldn't wake himself up when he realized his feet were stuck between the bars. I did not take a picture, though, because I didn't want to wake him up for my benefit and he was already a little restless from moving him. I wish I had a photo, though, because a few minutes later...

10:25 PM - He rolled to his side and rotated his body!

10:55 PM - Now he's completely sideways.

11:55 PM - Leg out of the crib again. This time he woke himself up.

Again, I turned him around back to his original position. I also gave him the blanket back in hopes that he would fall back asleep quickly. Somehow I forgot to take a new "original" picture again, but he was back into the position he started the night in. That's when the real fun started...

3:00 AM - Sideways and on the other side of the crib - now he's really moving!

3:35 AM - Rotated again.

5:30 AM - I got to wake up to this happy boy! What you can't see in the picture is that he had turned on his mobile and was happily watching it spin.

I think it is probably easier for him to move when he is not swaddled, but it is still a mystery to us how he can move so much. Crazy little dude.

5 months

5 months?! All of a sudden our newborn peanut is a 5 month old! People aren't kidding when they tell you that time with a baby goes fast. However, I feel beyond blessed to share my time with the sweetest little man in the world. Dax has had some big milestones and changes over this past month...

Every day it is getting more and more fun to play with Dax. He loves interacting with people and enjoys playing games with us. His favorites are pat-a-cake and this little piggy. He is also starting to enjoy peek-a-boo, though I don't think he completely understands object permanence quite yet.

At 4 months he was starting to show interest in toys, but now he reaches out for anything that is near him. He prefers things that he can easily hold onto and EVERYTHING finds it's way into his mouth. While last month the pediatrician said he was not teething, I think he has to be now... he will chew on anything and drools even more than he did before. We shall see.

His revelation that toys are fun has also made tummy time increasingly more bearable. He will hold his big head up like a champ, observing all of the toys in front of him. He has also started reaching toward them and is becoming playful while he is on his tummy. He even pushes up on his arms occasionally so it is clear that he is getting stronger every day. Although he gets tired of it somewhat quickly, we are thrilled to be over the hump of it being torture for him.

Dax is a roller now! Several weeks ago he rolled from his tummy onto his back one time. A week or so later he did it one more time. Slow learner I guess ;) This week, though, he started to do it consistently and even showed Daddy his new trick after work! Check him out:

He still prefers to be upright; being carried around to see the world or working out his strong legs by standing with minimal support. He is still not quite big enough for his jumper, but we put a pillow and then our wii balance board underneath to prop him up so he could use it. He was content at first, but has now learned to bounce more and seems to love it.

Another new place that Dax has discovered he likes is his high chair. We started by putting him in it to play while we ate dinner. Then this week we started to give him rice cereal! It was a big change for the little guy, but he transitioned really well. He ate it easily from the beginning, though he did need to figure out what to do with his tongue. His second day trying it brought on some really funny faces, but he continued to eat well. Hopefully he will do just as well with every new food we introduce.

His high chair is so fun!

First time trying cereal

Less sure the second time :)

So, our big boy is getting more social, pushes up on his arms, rolls over, eats solids, continues to work his vocal cords and finds new sounds to try all the time. While it seems impossible, we think he also continues to get cuter each day.