Yes indeed! The resource misappropriation continues!
Jory's grandmother bought him this blanket/rattle combo. Zanzibar drags it through the house and hides it in his lair like he's a lion on the savanna. At least someone's enjoying it!
I never get tired of these car seat pictures:
I'm pretty sure the cats know what goes on here, but they still sit on the changing table!
And this is a beautiful, soft, delicate play mat with fuzzy embroidery and a few lovely rattles. Oh yes, and a giant black cat!
Jory had a breakthrough last week - rolling on purpose. It's great that he's getting control of his body, but now we really have to keep track of him when he's near an edge!
For the past few weeks, Jory's been giving us some definite signals that he's interested in real food. He insists on sitting up at the table with us, despite the fact that he can't really sit up by himself just yet, and he intently scrutinizes the process of the food leaving the table and moving to our mouths.
Our pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to try him on "solid" food - meaning rice cereal diluted in breast milk. Frankly, I don't see how this sludge is supposed to inspire him, but I guess this is the way it's supposed to be done. Whatever that means.
Of course we don't have any baby spoons, and the closest thing I could find was our set of measuring spoons. So here it is, Jory's first time eating "solid" food, as well as his debut into the world of spoons.
And here's the end of the great adventure:
And finally, the mess! I don't think he's been this dirty since he was born!
Finally got around to trying the famous Five Guys burger while we were in NJ a few weeks ago:
Jory enjoyed the sensation second-hand, although he got a little crotchety when mommy was taking too long to actually savor her food:
Comparison with In-N-Out? Five Guys is more expensive but has quite a few more options. If they did their fries animal style ... but of course, as long as these burger joints are divided geographically, a hard choice will never be necessary!
It's pretty impressive to see how Jory's motor skills change over time. Just a few weeks ago he was totally enraged by "tummy time," probably because he has a giant head and a skinny neck. He'd strain and scream and just barely manage to bob his head around.
Now look at him! What an improvement!
He's also starting to push himself up on his arms to get his chest completely off the floor. He'll probably be wiggling around in no time ... and the cats' lives will have become even worse!
We had a lot of travel recently, including Jory's first four - four! - plane flights. Fortunately he didn't have any trouble at all with his ears ... most of his screeches were due to boredom.
He even had a flight alone with mommy, and while traveling alone with a baby is very tough, we were lucky to have a baby with hair that everyone wanted to touch!
The above picture is my favorite of this series, before things started to deteriorate:
Fortunately, Jory managed to sleep for four hours on the empty seat next to mommy!
We're trying to brainwash get Jory excited about scuba diving and the ocean as soon as possible. You've already seen how much he enjoys his sea creature flash cards.
We've moved on to peppering his wardrobe with marine creatures (thanks Devaki!) and he owns two rash guards, two wetsuits, two swim diapers, and a life vest. The wetsuits and life vest are too big for him just yet, but he'll grow into them!
It's really amazing how everything made for babies - everything! - really appeals to cats too.
Yes, that's a Baby Bjorn in the next picture! Ours is only rated to 11 lbs, so our 14-lb cat technically shouldn't use it. Tell that to him, though:
And finally, another video of a cat (the other cat!) savaging the baby's activity mat. I can't really blame him - the toys are small, plushy, they squeak, and they swing. Made for cats.
Now that he's gotten a bit chatty, I also wonder what on earth he's trying to tell me. Occasionally he furrows his brow, clasps his hands, looks right into my eyes, and babbles very intently. I don't know why he's so worked up about goo, ah-goo, or hooooo, but it's surely important.
Well, his first ex-utero hike ... he did some high-altitude hiking last June in Colorado.
On our last full day in Cambria, it took us 4.5 hours to get out the apartment because someone was having a volcanic melt-down. We finally dragged ourselves north to San Simeon, had a very yummy lunch, and then decided to hike San Simeon Point even though we were completely exhausted. I mean, it's vacation, right?
During lunch we made the discovery that we could just flip Jory around in the Baby Bjorn without any restrapping, so Jory had the full view of our hike along the beach, up the cliff, and through the forest. When he was awake, that is.
It got a little chilly toward the end, so we did the natural thing:
