The Golden Gate

I hadn't realized that we had this picture.
When my Dad came up for Anthony's finalization we made a day trip up to Sausalito. On the way we stopped on the north side of the Golden Gate bridge. I prefer stopping there as I love the views of the city. The fog was pretty much rolling through so no views for us. It was windy, too. Anthony was pretty much enthralled by the scene. He was sitting all the way up in his stroller (which meant he was pulling the back up more upright than it normally goes) checking everything out.

Front yard Friday

My friend Kathryn took this picture of Anthony at last week's front yard Friday. What is front yard Friday you may ask??

Well, about once a month we pull out the barbecue and card tables and congregate for dinner in Paul and Sarah's front yard. Everyone brings their own main dish and a side dish or dessert to share. The adults hang out and chat and the children** run around and play together. It sounds like Mayberry. Heck, it is like Mayberry. But, its one of the great things we love about our neighborhood.

**About the children: in a 3 house radius of ours (10 houses total) there are 10 kids aged 4 and under. There's a few older ones, too. You don't have to travel very far for the kid quotent to increase exponentially. We know Anthony will have tons of little pals to run around and cause mayhem with!

Anthony's New Wheels

Our next door neighbors are heading to England for two years. (They've promised to come back.) We're definitely going to miss them, they've been great friends to us.

We've agreed to "store" their tricycle and wagon. Anthony seems to enjoy being pushed around on the trike. He really liked the bell. (We're going to return the Hello Kitty bell to its rightful owner and replace it with something slightly more gender neutral.)

Fun with Photoshop

I've always been fascinated with hand-colored images. We no longer have a working darkroom (and its been awhile since Bob shot with actual film.) However, a recent issue of "Photo Techniques" magazine had some techniques that I think work pretty well. Of course, it can be overused, but I've been having fun.

This picture of Anthony in his orange shirt (with the feet!) is one of our favorites. Here is the original.

I also played with one of our favorite images from our wedding.

We're walking, we're walking....

Here's some more video of Anthony practicing walking. Still no signs of unsupported walking (he can't really stand unsupported more than about 1 second), but he loves pushing his little walker toys around the house. I think he's going to do a number on our walls/baseboards/appliances before he's done.


I haven't bothered to videotape him cruising furniture yet, but he certainly does it. In this bottom picture he pulled up on the near side of the rocking chair and cruised over to the window. He loves hanging out in the window watching the action, and of course, pounding on it.

By the way, these red jammies are my favorites. I especially love the little pockets on his tushie.

He's a wiggling!

Up until a week or so ago, Anthony had ZERO tolerance for tummy time. Well, he could maybe handle five minutes or so and then he would start complaining.

Last weekend, of course, he discovered that wiggling and exploring was good for something. Well, until you find yourself wedged under an end-table, trapped by the sofa.**

He's making some progress in getting his little behind up in the air. Generally he just belly scoots around and backwards, though.

**He was really protesting, but I made him smile for the camera anyway. Mean Mommy!!

Figuring out his toys!

Anthony is now starting to figure out the elephant stacking toy that Aunt Julie and Uncle Dave gave to him. At first, he just dismantled the elephant and rings. He would chew on the elephant's ears and shake and pound the balls. Well... He pretty much shakes and pounds everything when he first gets it.

But, as of a couple of days ago, he figured out the putting the balls into the top of the toy.

Enjoy the short video!

Artwork

Last week Anthony was in back-up daycare, paid for by my work. (At $250/day!!) He usually comes home with some sort of art project. The top project is sponge/finger painting. Effy said that Anthony did NOT like fingerpainting.

The second project is his "foot painting", which he liked better. Notice that it comes with a picture of him actually doing the artwork.

















The third project is a flower painting that Bob, Anthony and I did together as part of the adoption study. We were videotaped doing it! (I believe that part of the study was less about Anthony and more about how we worked together.) I handled the "baby wrangling" and Bob handled the paint. Anthony didn't really enjoy having goopy paint on this hands then, either.

This one is for Allie!

Bob's cousin Allie got married less than a week before Anthony's due date. Since the wedding was in Texas, we were forced to miss it.

Allie and her new husband sent Anthony Texas Rangers duds. At the time they seemed impossibly large, but sure enough, little dude grew into them!

Don't tell Allie, but Grandpa is actually going to teach Anthony to be an Angel's fan.

Rejected!

We've been really struggling with Anthony eating solid foods. Basically he'll happily eat a puree, but he won't eat cheerios. If we give him a baguette end, he'll gnaw on it a little, but if a piece comes off he'll gag and throw up. In the last few days he started to act like he was figuring out how to chew.

Our pediatrician's office suggested giving stage 3 foods a try. I didn't think it would work as he doesn't like lumps. But, I'm gave for everything once. I didn't expect Anthony to be sticking his tongue out trying to get the offending food off!

Baby in a Box

Nope, Anthony did not come from diapers.com, but about 300 diapers did!

(I'm a big fan of diapers.com, their prices are good and they offer free shipping. If you decide to order from them, let me know and I'll refer you for a $10 discount.)

First Camping Trip

We took Anthony camping in Yosemite with friends this weekend. The trip did not go as planned (does it ever??), but we still had a good time.

First deviation from plan: we planned to arrive around midnight with a sleeping baby in his jammies. Unfortunately, we discovered that Anthony gets carsick, so we arrived with a naked baby in need of a sponge bath. (Bob, Alex and lee got our car unpacked and tent pitched by the time we were done, though.)

Anthony learned a new trick: rolling over from back to front. Its about time and as I expected, he just needed motivation. In this case, his motivation was to wiggle around and explore the tent. (We just had him sleep in our little backpacking tent with us.) Truthfully, despite his new found skill, he didn't sleep any worse Friday night than he would in a hotel room.

The real sleeping problems were yet to come--the rest of the weekend he really didn't nap. He was SO tired. At bedtime we had Riley push him around the campground in his stroller. Finally he fell asleep and fortunately the stroller fit inside the tent vestibule. It was still a rough night, though.

Things that did go well--we had a nice lunch and nap in Tuolomne Meadows, we had a nice time visiting with friends and Anthony LOVED riding around in his little backpack. (I need to get a picture.)

We're going back to Yosemite with Celisa and her kids in another week. Anthony will be a pro at the camping thing in no time. (No backpacking until he can walk and is out of diapers.)

Fun with Flashlight

In preparation for our Yosemite trip we let Anthony explore Bob's Maglite. Not just is it shiny but it tastes good, too!

Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum

Anthony has turned into quite the little drummer boy. If there's a table (or suitable substitute) he'll happily pound away. He pretty much played the drums through his whole finalization hearing!

It's official

Yesterday we finalized Anthony's adoption. Yeah for all of us!!!

It was a bit of a formality as there has been no doubt that Anthony is our son. It does feel really good for it to be official, though!

The ceremony was relatively brief. We were sworn in, said that all of our documentation was correct and that we did want to adopt "the minor child". The judge declared that it was in "the minor child's" best interests and declared it approved. Afterwards we took pictures and Anthony got a celebratory toy.

We had lunch at the Tied House downtown to celebrate. Anthony had a french fry, a true celebration as Mommy hadn't planned on teaching him about french fries until he was at least 3. Anthony ate it succesfully!
My dad was able to come up for the ceremony. We had a nice weekend together including a trip up to the Golden Gate bridge and lunch in Sausalito. We were very pleased he was able to join us!

The humorous bit of the morning. Anthony's certificate says that he has all the rights AND responsibilities of being a Moragues. We haven't decided what his new responsibilities should be yet.

Ten Months Old!

Time for the monthly update...

This month's tricks are pretty much mobility centered. Anthony can easily pull to standing on his "Me Do It" chair and push it around the house. He can also push his walker around. He hasn't mastered pulling up on anything but that chair, but I'm sure that will come fast. (He can't quite reach the top of the coffee table from sitting, which probably doesn't help.) As you saw in the previous post, he can also stand one-handed for a decent length of time. He can also transfer from one piece of furniture to another.

On the social skills front, Anthony LOVES to clap his hands. The best part is that everyone around will join in! He's been doing it for almost 3 weeks now. We've yet to capture it on video, though. The first time he clapped was with my friend Kathryn at a concert in the park.

We'd been making progress on bye-bye. He was so close, and then discovered clapping. Evidently clapping is good for all social interactions. Hopefully as the novelty of clapping wears off we'll go back to bye-bye.

Anthony has another favorite game: he'll growl (for lack of better word) at someone and they'll growl back. Evidently that is a pretty neat game, too! (The appeal escapes me.)

I've realized that Anthony's taste in toys has changed pretty dramatically. He has ZERO interest in "baby toys". Toys with wheels are a lot of fun. He especially likes his Fisher-Price Peek a Block train and the fun noises it makes. Anthony enjoys his Peek-a-Blocks in general. The best part is when I build a tower for him to knock down. The Sassy Poppin' Push car is a lot of fun, too! He also enjoys pushing all the noise buttons on the Retro-Rocket.

On the lack of progress front: still no interest in actual solid food. He's also losing interest in his pureed food. I'd say his dinner consumption has easily dropped in half, maybe more. That may be because he's growing teeth, so we'll see if he picks up again soon.

Push Toys

In just a week, Anthony has gone from just being able to push a chair a few feet to having a lot more confidence.

I scored a new-in-box riding walker at a garage sale a few months ago. Anthony loved it fron the start, especially opening and closing the "hood". He doesn't understand how to make it go as a riding toy, but he can push it around in walker mode.

(He can only do it on the carpet, I'm pretty sure if we put him on the tile he'd lose control and crash.)

I'll have more walking video soon. It makes me smile!

Look Mom, One Hand!

Anthony's balance is really improving. He can stand only holding on to one hand for a minute or so at a time.

His increased balance is really aiding in the mobility department. He can pull up on his little chair, push it to where he wants to go and then transfer to the new piece of furniture and cruise.

One of his current favorite locations is my bookshelf. As you can see, I kind of have a minor problem of too many books. I've got a bad feeling a lot of them are going to end up in boxes. Anthony already seems to enjoy pulling them off the shelf.