Graas Family Blog

Last weekend, we drove to Louisville for a stay of almost 36 hours. The drive itself took 24. Anyhow, little boy did amazing; Jon and I were the ones who suffered. I don’t think we felt normal until Thursday of this week. It was a great visit: Kristen’s 7th birthday; Michelle & Max in town; no line at the DMV; and a case of bourbon to take back to NYC.

Emil’s recent game is hanging in the kitchen with me while preparing something or another. He is pulled up near the KitchenAid and bangs around with an assortment of safe, I think, kitchen objects. He kept getting distracted when I took a picture and would drop whatever he was holding. But, pretty cute.

The third adventure this week is his increasing stability while sitting. It went from 2 seconds to 15 seconds. Record sitting was about half a minute, but frequently his grabbing at things and trying to look around make him tilt over.

The fourth, and most important adventure happened this afternoon. Emil had his first taste of food. We opted to try avocado, since it didn’t require much preparation other than smashing it up with breast milk. He did much better than we expected. He was opening wide for the spoon but seemed to just be moving the green goo around in his mouth and maybe half of it was swallowed and the other half on his face, legs, hands, etc. Eventually, mealtime was over because he started to ignore me completely. So successful and we have more avocado for tomorrow. Next will be sweet potato, banana, regular potato, steel cut oatmeal, and more!

On Tuesday Emil went for his 6-month visit. He was 17.1 pounds, 26 inches long, and had a head circumference of 43.25 centimeters. According to his growth charts, I don’t think he has had his 6-month-growth spurt, because he fell behind how he usually inches up the percentiles or even staying right around the 5oth percentile. Anyhow, she was pleased with everything and showed us how to work more with him sitting up in the monkey/tripod position. He has gotten much better at it just this week since working on it, so hopefully it won’t be long before sitting completely upright! He also hasn’t rolled from his back to his front, but seems to be interested in what is behind him, but not enough to swing the legs or stop holding onto one of them at the same time.

The second change is a reaction to when he can’t do something he wants. I had finished reading a book to him and he was having so much fun holding the book open on his own. I thought, this would be a cute picture so I leave and get the camera. A few seconds later I hear Emil burst out crying. Apparently he dropped the book. As you can see below, he wasn’t happy about his lack of strength!

Again, she thinks a tooth will be popping through in the next couple weeks, so it might be a fussy household shortly with a growth spurt coinciding with a tooth breaking through!

I had a comp day on Wednesday, September 2, so we headed up to the Bronx to check out City Island. It was a random little island that is part New England and part the Bronx. We strolled around the entire island and stopped for a couple snackers and beers before heading home. Somehow, I didn’t take a picture of the water, but there are some cute ones of Emil practicing his standing with Dad.

While he sits in the Bumbo he seems to prefer playing with whatever non-baby objects are lying around, like my purse, instead of his rattles and things. But seems to enjoy it, especially when taking pictures: