Happy Independence Day!

What is more American than an adorable baby with a baseball butt? :)

Christian Turns Eight Months Old

If its even possible, Christian continues to get more and more cute each day. Its so amazing to watch him develop new skills. This week, he showed us he can hold his "bottle before bed" all by himself. We probalby shouldn't have been surprised, as he's become quite good at holding his sippy cup. But when he held his bottle (that Jonathan usually holds for him), we were quite impressed!

I had previously posted that Christian is crawling. But let me clarify that is it more like "slithering." He moves along the ground like a snake with arms ... or like a dude in Army basic training who is moving along the ground on his stomach, propelled by his arms. But when determined to reach somehting - like a telelphone or a remote control 0 he can move quickly. When we're in my office togehter while I work, he's taken to crawling towards me. I don't realize he's come so close to me unitl I feel his pudgy little fingers on my feet.

This week, Christian started lifing his arms and reach towards us when he wants to be picked up. Its sooooooo cute!

And he's eating great ... he's already eating the "Stage 3" babyfood that has chunks of food in it. He also enjoys his "Gerber Puffs" (think Cherrios that are star shaped and more light / airy), his teething biscuits, and the zwieback toast.

He has two teeth now, and that has made for a few uncomfortable breastfeeding moments. OUCH!

Our Happy Foursome

Auntie Liz Comes to Visit

My sister Liz spent the weekend with us ... and Christian just loves his Auntie Liz!

It was a nice, relaxing weekend. We did some shopping, ate some great food (The Chocolate Maven now famous after Giada De Laurentiis' visit), all feel asleep watching "Bee Movie" and just talked and laughed.

We've been fortunate that we've been able to visit with Liz so frequently. Of course, she was there when Christian was born (and gave him his first bath). She came to see us for Thanksgiving, then we went to Phoenix in January and visited her. She traveled with us to Washington State in March and now she came to visit in June.

We're hoping to see her on a more regular basis ... provided it becomes more convenient (stay tuned for some potentially exiting news on that front).

Thanks for coming out Liz! We had a great time!

Need a Giggle today?

Christian Starts to Crawl!

First it was the excitement of a new tooth ... and now, just a few days later, we're happy to announce that Christian has started crawling! His belly is still on the ground, but he's certainly moving to catch something he wants!

I had been shopping at Target and returned to the car to find Jonathan had tried calling me four times. Naturally, I was concerned ... as I tried to call him, he called me for the fifth time. He told me Christian had something to show me, but I needed to hurry home so could see it before Christian went to bed. And what an exciting show I came home to!

And so I now present to you: Christian crawling along at 7 1/2 months:

Christian's First Tooth Makes its Debut

The other day, I noticed a spot on Chrstian's lower gums, and I ran my finger across it and could feel a tooth in there somewhere. So I knew it was coming. I was waiting for him to get feverish or cranky ... or drool a lot ... as the tooth progressed. But none of that happened!

Today I was giving him some water from his cup. He was "gumming" the cup, as usual ... and today I heard a "tapping" noise as he did it. I knew right away what it was! I felt on his gums and sure enough ... a cute, precious little tooth has appeared!

Jennifer

A Clever Boy

Christian is so amazing. His mind is constantly working to figure things out and its neat to watch him do it. His latest thing is figuring out that he can lift the rug up - pretty exciting for a seven month old! I was able to capture a few seconds of it today.

Christian's new "Jumperoo" arrived today. It took him just seconds to realize he can jump up and down. He's so very happy! Until now, all of his activities involved laying on the ground in one way or another. So being able to jump up and down on his own is a whole new world. He is all smiles!

And over the weekend, he got very good at sitting up by himself. Here he is today.

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

Here's to Long Weekends!

Ah, the coveted "Three Day Weekend." No matter what you do with the three days, the weekend is worth its weight in gold.

We kinda just hung out ... went to church, went on some walks, etc. We just enjoyed being a family.

Huge kuddos to Jonathan who devoted a lot of time this weekend to closing "Le Chatel Lucero: A Pigeon's Paradise." A family of pigeons had made their home under our master bedroom deck. There they lived for well-over a year ... making a HUGE mess on the deck. Nasty.

Jonathan removed the deck planks, and cleaned up all the nastiness underneath ... including a dead bird. EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW! But that is what daddies and husbands to: they clean up gross messes and dead birds and kill spiders.

He blocked their entrance to get under the deck, so after a few days, we're hoping they discover a new home elsewhere. They are still hanging around on the roof wondering what has happened.

We discovered this weekend that Christian can drink out of a regular cup! As stated in a previous blog entry, we're by-passing the bottle thing with Christian and going straight for the sippy cup. He's gotten quite good at grabbing the sippy cup and putting the spout in his mouth and gnawing on the spout ... which gets some water into his mouth. But he quickly loses interest and moves onto the next exciting distraction.

Concerned that he wasn't getting enough water, I decided to give a little cup a try. And it worked! He knows to seal his lips around the cup and to swallow. I was amazed! He enjoys the water and reaches for the cup to get more. So now I feel better knowing that he's getting some water in his system.

Jennifer

Need we say more?

A Little Chuckle ...

I was reading a list of what celebrity moms consider to be "essentials" ... and this made me laugh:

JESSICA ALBA

Though she's not yet a mom, Jessica Alba knows what she's going to need when her little girl arrives: "A night nanny! Or someone to take care of the baby at night when the baby first comes home, to help you get acclimated," says the expectant actress.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ... or you just suck it up, be a parent and deal with it like billions of other mothers (and fathers) have througout time.

Geeze ... celebrities ...

:) Jennifer

Christian's Six Month Checkup

Here are the stats from Christian's six month checkup:

Weight: 17.2 ponds (50th percentile)
Length: 25.5 inches (25th percentile)
Head: 47.5 cm (100th percentile)

He's grown by 3/4 of an inch and 2.2 pounds in the past two months.

Christian is still not crawling, but he rolls all over the place. He can sit up on his own for a few moments before tumbling over in a move that would make any stuntman proud. :)

He's doing okay with his rice cereal. I try to give him cereal in the mornings and evenings. Sometimes he's in the mood for it, other times his mouth is closed tighter than Fort Knox. We can introduce one new food a week (to help us better detect food allergies). And so this weekeend, we'll start our little sweet pea on some sweet peas.

We've been working with him on the sippy cup (we're going to bypass using a bottle for water / juice, etc. and go straight for the sippy cup) and he's starting to grab it and bring it towards his mouth. Our one advantage is that he likes to bring pretty much anything to his mouth to chew / suck on ... including the sippy cup.

Christian continues to sleep through the night - yay! He pretty much wakes up any time after 5:30am. And he's usually babbling to himself or making some other self-entertaining noises. So, we just stay in bed and listen to him in his crib ... its so cute! And there is nothing better than peering into the crib and having a happy, smiley baby look up at you first thing in the morning.

Jennifer

Christian Turns Six Months Old and Eats Like a Big Kid

Christian turned six months old on May 2, so it was time to start him on "solids."

Of course, I did all sorts of reading in my books in the weeks leading up to this milestone. So I was prepared for him to resist the rice cereal. However, he surprised me and did remarkably well! Tonight's dinner marked his third rice cereal meal, and he ate most of it!

I think the huge red mark on his cheek is from the stroller harness rubbing against his face (we had just taken a walk prior to dinner). Either that, or he's having a reaction to the rice from the first two meals over the weekend. They say that rice cereal is the least offensive "solid" out there, so I really hope its not the rice.

As any parent can tell you, it sure is a messy experience. And this is just the beginning ... :)

Lastly, we got our new camera ... so we hope the picutres, and especially the video, will turn out much better from now on.

Our Little Swimmer

We took Christian for his first dip in a swimming pool this week. He was sooooooooooo cute!

Our Third Anniversary

Today marks our third wedding anniverary. My goodness, three years have gone by quickly!

We celebrated the grand occasion by going out for a nice sushi / sashimi dinner here in the D.C. area. It was the first such dinner I've had since before becoming pregnant ... and it was WONDERFUL!

We sure have come a long way in the past three years. We went from two single apartment dwellers in ABQ to a couple who owns a home in Santa Fe, has a fabulous dog and the most wonderful baby ever! God has certainly blessed us!

Taking a Baby to a Nice Restaurant

We only have two restaurant options at this hotel: a pub and a nice resturant. We planned to have dinner with a colleague of Jonathan's, so we opted for the nice restaurant.

We arrived to find only one table was occupied by people. I was relieved, because Christian was a wee bit cranky tonight. The hostess sat us in a "quiet corner," but I knew that wasn't enough distance between us an the other restaurant patrons. I suggested she could move us to another part of the rather large restuarant, but she told me she had to seat us in that section.

Long-story-short, we decided not to interrupt the people already eating dinner, and opted to eat in the pub. I'm sure the hostess was relieved.

The pub had more people and was a bit louder, so we figured we'd be okay. But in addition to Jonathan's colleague joining us, her boss and an acquaintance of her boss also joined us. It quickly became apparent to us that Christian would be a distraction for one and all.

The waitress was very kind and boxed up our meals and we returned to the room.

Have you seen those commercials on TV that say, "Having a baby changes everything"?

Its true. :)

Jennifer

We made it!

Christian was fabulous during our flights yesterday. The only problem was Christian's diaper blowout when we got to the ABQ airport. But the nice thing was that Jonathan just ran the soiled clothing out to the car so I didn't have to carry it across the country.

It is so incredibly green out here! Coming from Santa Fe, it as if we walked into the Garden of Eden. I recall a co-worker's sister once came to Albuquerque for a visit and he told me she proclaimed, "Those poor people don't have any trees out there!" And I thought, "Well, of course we have trees ... look around."

But, now I see what she's sayin'. In most of Albuquerque / Santa Fe, the trees you see were intentionally planted by somebody at some point in time. We are, after all, living in a desert. But out there, the trees just grow "wherever." I suppose if you're used to seeing trees like this, its not that fascinating. But since I live in a brand new neighbornood where everybody just has "baby trees," I am just amazed at the trees out here.

I had a bit of an "incident" this morning with Christian ... and it just broke my heart. I had placed Christian in the middle of the king sized bed and he was just happily hanging out. So I sat down at my computer to get some work done. A few minutes later, I heard a "thud" and looked to see Christian wasn't on the bed anymore. He had a delayed reaction to the fall, and it took a moment for him to start crying. I picked him up so quickly that I don't even recall what position he was in when he landed. Fortuantely, he was fine and his tears lasted for a brief time.

He's become quite good at rolling around and using his legs to push himself backwards when he's on his back. Obvsiosly, he can move himself a longer distance than I was aware of. I am so thankful Christian wasn't hurt.

He's one tough little kid ... and already very energetic. Christian is "all boy," he definitley isn't delicate. I'm sure we'll be in for a lot of adventures as he gets older. :)

Jennifer

Those Traveling Luceros

We're off again! Tomorrow we depart for Washington D.C. for a few days because Jonathan has a conference to attend.

Christian is just about two months older than he was when we flew to Washington State in March. He's much more energetic these days! So, this trip should be interesting.

I know I've been slacking on the blog postings, so I'll try to get some pictures up of our trip as we go along.

Wish us luck!

Jennifer

Christian: Then and Now

Aw, just look at our chunky little baby with his big ol' head (and I write that with complete love and adoration for the lil' guy).

Christian continues to bring so much love and happiness and entertainment to our lives! He's got an amazing little personality and is all-smiles these days.

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Jonathan's birthday was on Sunday, so I'm a little late in getting a "Happy Birthday!" posted for him.

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Jonathan's parents, brother, nieces Rebecca and Brianna, and niece Ashleigh, her boyfriend Jorge and their kids Lexi and Anthony all came to visit this weekend. So that is my excuse for the late posting. :)

Christian and Brianna

Anthony and Christian

second cousins

Lexi and "Uncle Monkey"

Christian and his "Uncle Eldon"

Anthony and his "Grandpa"

Anthony and Christian again

April Fool's Day ... The Joke that Wasn't

I've had several people who read the April 1 blog entry e-mail me to offer congratulations for being pregnant again.

I thought the statement in parenthesis at the bottom of the entry would clue people into the April Fool's Day joke, but I think they just got so excited to read that I was pregnant that they didn't notice my reference to the date.

So I apologize to those of you who truly thought baby #2 was on its way. If it makes you feel any better, even Jonathan believed it momentarily. :)

Jennifer

A Funny Little Milestone

My baby books talk about how at this point, Christian should be doing "raspberries" with his mouth. He hadn't been and then out of the blue, he started ... and seems to really impress himself with his new-found talent!

Makes for some really wet clothing ... but its oh-so-cute for now!

(As always, the sound quailty is poor ... the camera clicks are too audible and Christian can't be heard clearly. We're getting a new camera soon)