A Month of Many Firsts

Houston self-feeds himself some Mum Mums.

January has been a big month for Houston. He sat up alone for the first time on January 6. He still needs some coaching to get started, but he’s getting better all time, and has also become great at standing with assistance. He self-fed for the first time on January 7. He especially loves eating Mum Mums, Gerber Puffs and toast.

Houston's first snow on January 17, 2008.

Houston experienced snow for the first time on January 17. It didn’t last for long, but I think he thought it was okay. He said his first “big-boy talk” on January 19. Just out of the blue, he began stringing babbles together in “sentence” form with different inflections and intonations. And then on January 20, his conversations featured his first audible word: Dada. Although his sentences also include plenty of “baa baa” and “blah blah,” Stephen is still pretty proud about the whole thing. His favorite toy at the moment is his Jump-n-Go. You should see that boy go … he’s like a blur of wild motion, happy screeches and flying drool. It is quite the sight. Houston will be 7 months old this coming Saturday. It is truly incredible how fast his first year is going!

Houston plays with Mommy on the bed.

Stephen and I are still working diligently on installing laminate. Granny and Grumps visited a few weekends ago, so that Stephen and I could do the office. Then Gramsey and Papa are heading to town tomorrow, so that we can do the nursery. Then all we have left after that is our bedroom … thank goodness! It has been such a huge undertaking, but I must admit, it looks awesome.

Tis’ the Season

Houston donning his political onesie!

The political  season, that is. Yes, Houston is our little politico, thanks to the awesome onesie given to him by Ashley Bahen.
Well, our boy still has the sniffles a bit, but his cold is much better. I just keep the cool-mist humidifier going in his nursery pretty much non-stop and make sure his nostrils are kept as unclogged as possible, so he’s surviving the fall/winter weather fine thus far. He’s been eating solids twice a day since my last blog about it (turns out my pediatrician said I was doing it right!) and we’ve also added in both fruit and juice once a day. In fact, he successfully ate his first pureed turkey yesterday; he had tried it a few days before, but totally hated it (the cats liked it, though). All the November photos are now available in gallery.
Other big news is that Stephen and I were recruited to play Mary and Joseph in our church’s Christmas play. No, Houston will not be playing baby Jesus ’cause the guy who’s in charge of the production doesn’t want to deal with the possible stress that that would entail. Going to play practice on Monday nights throws Houston off of his sleep schedule for the next day, but he has been a trooper. Plus, it will have been worth the hassle when mommy and daddy win their Oscars!
And the last bit of news if that we’re finally replacing our impossible-to-keep-clean cream carpet with Pergo laminate flooring. That project will start later this week with us ripping up the nasty carpet, reinforcing our subflooring and laying down the underlayment. Gramsey and Papa are visiting to assist with this task; Papa will help with the labor and Gramsey will tend to Houston so that I can help Papa. And then our pals Greg and Meredith are coming over on Saturday to help us install the flooring. I’m sooooo excited; this has been a dream of mine for about a year now and it’s finally happening. Now when Houston pukes on the floor or the cats track in their muddy paw prints, the clean-up will be a breeze!

Houston at two days old with Grumps and Daddy!

There are now more old photos of Houston’s first weeks at home available in gallery.

Houston with Daddy and Papa in late July 2007.

And here are the rest of the Houston photos from July 2007.