The Circle of Life - Farewell to Grandma Kahn

My Grandma Kahn died from pneumonia yesterday after several difficult years she'd had in her life - both mentally and physically. I am so glad we all got to see her in March when we were up in Washington State, and that she got to see Christian. She was very frail at the time, and held Christian for as long as she could before she declared he was too heavy for her. It was a precious moment to see her with the baby. ------------------------------->

My Grandma Wieland died in April 2002, and so ... both of my Grandmas are now gone. And all of Jonathan's grandparents are gone.

It got me to thinking about the circle of life. We are all born ... we live ... and eventually, we die. It happens to every single one of us.

I know from old pictures that when I was born, most of my great grandparents were alive. I only have memories of three of them. Christian will have no memory of at least six of his great grandparents ... five of whom died before he was even born.

Christian will not have a relationship with our grandparents, who made such an impact on our lives. And one day, Christian will grow up and (hopefully) have children, and those children likely won't know much about Christian's grandparents. And Christian's grandchildren probably won't know Jonathan and me at all, especially since we are older parents.

And so the circle of life goes on ...

Jennifer

Christian's Laughter

Its so hard to capture Christian on video when he's laughing. Once he sees the camera, he becomes fixated on it and the laughter stops. But I was able to sneak a video of this moment he had with Jonathan.

Christian Turns Seven Months Old

Christian loves to sleep on his side!

Here is the latest news on Christian, as he turns the big "seven months" today:

• He's cuter than ever ... that's the first thing to be said. :)

• He now weighs over 18 pounds. Yikes!

• His menu of solid foods now includes: rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, carrots, apples, pears, bananas, sweet potatoes and chicken (of course, they are all the "baby variety": strained, pureed, etc.). He likes all of them, except for the chicken. The poor kid gags several times with each bite. So, I give him a couple of bites of straight chicken and then I dilute it with some rice cereal and he eats it with out gagging. At first I thought it was the texture that bothered him, but now I think its the taste. Despite the gagging on the chicken, he does a good job at eating his food. As soon as he's in the high chair, he knows what's coming and as I walk up to him with his food dish in my hand, he smiles and starts getting all excited.

• He's doing so great with his regular cup at meal time ... its another thing he gets all excited about - he reaches for the cup as it gets near, and that tongue starts looking for the water. :) And, he's really got the hang of his sippy cup now. I'm so impressed!

• We took him into our jetted tub this weekend and we all had a nice relaxing hour soaking in the swirling water. We think he's going to be a water baby when he gets older.

• He continues to be very vocal. His latest talent is a high pitched screech ... and to him, its a happy noise. It hurts mommy's ears, but he gets a kick out of being able to make the sound. And his laughter ... oh, it makes us crack up! He has the greatest laugh you ever heard!

• He's still rolling all over the place. He sticks his butt up in the air while on his knees, but hasn't figured out that to crawl, he needs to get his chest off the floor. His energy is endless.

• If he's in the mood, he can sit up for a few seconds on his own. We need to work with him more on that, and he'll quickly catch on. He's a fast learner.

• He's become very good at standing up with a little support from us!

• EVERYTHING goes into his mouth. He explores his world with his tongue. He likes to stick his thumb in his shirt and pull it to his mouth (makes for some very wet shirts). He also likes to put his feet in his mouth. SO CUTE!

• He's really into grabbing these days. His favorite things to grab: Daddy's glasses and Mommy's hair.

Christian just has an amazing little personality. He is such a happy baby. He typically goes to sleep happy, and almost always wakes up happy. He babbles in his crib for a while when he wakes up ... and can look up high enough so that he sees just over the crib rail and so he sees when Mommy or Daddy are up and about ... and a huge smile comes to his face.

And there are days he doesn't even cry a single tear. Whatta kid!

:) Jennifer