Kyle Meets Zach!

Kyle had a blast the last couple days playing with his new buddy Zachary! Ryan, Lisa and Zach drove down from Maine for a visit this weekend. Zach is just 17 days older than Kyle, so it was really fun to watch them play together. Babies at this age pretty much play in parallel, but they did seem to interact quite a bit too! Kyle loved when Zach pushed him around in his wagon (but quickly became devastated each time the ride ended).

Zach is such a mobile little fellow...cruising on everything, including going up and down the stairs like a pro. And boy can he work the camera!! When we put the boys on the chair for a photo together, a very smiley Zach proceeded to inch closer and closer to Kyle, and even reached out to hug him at the end...ADORABLE!

Thank you so much Ryan and Lisa for making the trek down...we know how much effort is involved in packing up a little guy! It was great to see all of you, especially Zach...he is such an adorable, sweet little boy :)

Index Finger Food

Here's a video from a few days ago, right after Kyle discovered that he can feed himself! His index finger method probably won't work very well with mushier foods, like bananas. So we definitely need to introduce some more textures soon, before he gets too set in his index finger ways!

Happy 11 Months!

Happy (one day belated) 11 month birthday Kyle!! This happy photo was taken just minutes before our day took a major turn for the worse...the hard drive on our computer crapped out. Fortunately, I had backed up about 3 weeks ago and am THRILLED that we didn't lose any photo files (those taken since I backed up were still on my xD card...phew!). We did lose some stuff and I'm not looking forward to the whole process of getting a new computer up to snuff. But it could have been a LOT worse. Note to all of you reading this...BACK-UP YOUR HARD DRIVE FREQUENTLY!!

Now getting back to Kyle...11 months has brought about a few milestones for him. His top two front teeth have poked through (and once again, he fortunately seemed unfazed by this event). He has also (finally) started putting his puffs in his mouth like a big boy! His preferred method of self-feeding is to get the puff to stick on the tip of his index finger and then place it on his tongue. Very good fine motor control that little guy has! He's up to about 23 lbs 10 oz, which is still right around 70th percentile. Can't believe he's almost one!!!

47 Weeks!

In case you've lost track, today is Kyle's 47 week birthday!! The only reason I know this is because we still do the weekly photos, which forces me to track his age in weeks. But I think this little Monday photo ritual will come to an end in 5 more weeks, when he hits the big "1".

Not much is new on the Kyle front...he is just a very happy/easy little fellow! But I fear he's on the cusp on transitioning to one nap a day. Some days he takes a 2+ hour "non-nap", where he just plays happily in his crib but doesn't actually sleep. I feel pretty certain that one mid-day nap would be plenty for him at this point, but I'm not ready to give up one of those two windows of "downtime" during my day. Heck, he's only been on a regular 9 and 1 nap schedule for about a month...I should get to enjoy it for a little longer, right?!

Alex Benes!!

Seeing videos of Evan the future American Idol inspired me to dig out this video of Alex, doing his best Elaine Benes imitation :)

Swinging!

I forgot to post about our fun afternoon at the Carpenters on Wednesday! Jared loved swimming in the pool (in between rain showers). He executed several cannonballs flawlessly but couldn't quite nail the flip (all his attempts resulted in painful-looking backflops!).

And Kyle had his first outdoor swinging experience and loved it! He was very impressed with cousin Rachel swinging/pumping all by herself beside him. He started wiggling his little piggies all around, like he was trying to imitate her (or it could just be his usual piggy wiggling).

Very fun afternoon capped off with pizza and yummy dessert treats...thanks Carps!

Fun with Nonnie!

Kyle had a fun visit with Nonnie the last couple days. He liked showing off his "big boy" crawling (no more army crawling) and reading stories with her. And we all enjoyed a post-dinner walk around the neighborhood last night. And then he seemed surprised and happy to see Nonnie was still here when he woke up this morning! Kyle's so lucky to have two wonderful grandmothers :)

10 Months!

In honor of Kyle's 10 month birthday, we had some professional photos taken (the one above was our favorite). And we got lots of copies to give out to anyone who wants one!

Here's a quick rundown of Kyle at 10 months:

• Just within the last couple days, has graduated from "army crawl" to real crawling (reverts to army crawl when he excitedly chases after Benson...must think it's faster). And sorry Ca for the delay in communicating these milestones :)
  
• Weighs 23 lbs 2 oz (72nd percentile)
• Sleeps from 7pm to 5:30ish every night (wish that was more like 6:30ish...).
  
• Eats three "meals" a day...a jar of Stage 2, a yogurt, and a bowl of multigrain oatmeal (still nurses about 4 times/day too)
  
• Favorite game is "fetch"...he throws a toy and then fetches it, like a puppy dog! Especially likes playing fetch on hardwood/tile, because it's louder.
• Still just the one tooth (and it hasn't made much progress in the last couple weeks)

And that sums up little Kyle Smiles at 10 months :)

A Long-Overdue First

So as of a couple days ago, Kyle had never set foot (or stroller) in a restaurant. As a newborn, he wasn't the kind of baby who would sleep obliviously in his carseat while being carted around, so we didn't attempt it those first few months. And as he's gotten older, he clearly likes to be "on the go", so we couldn't really envision how we'd keep him content (stationary) and enjoy our food simultaneously.

But yesterday, we gave it the old college try. We met Grammy at Vivian's, a VERY casual cafeteria-style restaurant (ideal atmosphere for our first attempt). And it went about as we envisioned...Kyle was fidgety/fussy, but not hysterical. He liked looking around when we first got there, enjoyed the jar of food that we brought, and was amused by the red balloon that Vivian gave him. But other that that, he was pretty restless. Oh, he also perked up when Marti popped in after her workout...he hadn't seen her for a few months, so he was excited.

It was a fun "first" and yummy meal (thanks Grammy!), but it confirmed what we already knew...dining out with Kyle is just not very enjoyable at this stage. So we'll stick with takeout and occasional date nights for now.

Fun with the Fairbanks!

We had a fun visit with Jon, Kristen and Conor yesterday. After a rainy start to the day, the afternoon was gorgeous! So we BBQ'd and sat out on the deck and visited. Kyle enjoyed throwing Conor's cars around (and Conor was a very good sport to allow it!). Once the bugs started getting bad, we went inside and the boys had fun playing with their daddies.
After a few happy photos, we got a little greedy and tried to get a group shot. As you can see, Kyle and Conor REALLY enjoyed this photo shoot...