daddy, daddy!

Not only can Julius say "da-da," he actually uses it to refer to me! His favorite situation is to be held by mommy and entertained by daddy. I'll talk to him for a second, and after I walk outside his field of vision, he'll look all around and say, "dada? dada! dada!" Every time I walk away he'll call for me again!
The best part of this is that he can be happy to see me when I get home from work, telling me "dada!" when I walk in. I remember when Sylvia was first able to tell me she was glad I was home. It's still the highlight of my day.
The worst part, though, is that he'll look for me sadly while I'm at work. "Dada?..."

Shortly after writing a draft of this post, I held Julius for an hour to get him to sleep. Appparently he loves or is bored by early-80s Genesis: if I wear him in the carrier for a while and sway around while Abacab plays it puts him right to sleep!

going, going...

julius has been scooting and pushing up for a little while now but recently he has added backwards crawling to his catalog. it's entertaining to watch how quickly he's able to get around and to know that this is only the beginning.

we re-arranged the livingroom, after taking down the christmas tree, to make more room for crawling, scooting and rocking. the only con here is that occassionally he looses his balance and falls flat on his face.

oh, and another milestone--blowing rasberries and talking. his babble is becoming more fine tuned and he's also learning that blowing rasberries is funny. he loves to blow them on me when i'm trying to nurse him to sleep, what a silly boy!

baby talk

We decided to call "hey" as Julius' first word. He says it often enough, in the right context, and with consistent inflection.
However, I'm pretty sure he also said something like, "heeey, daa, ah wuuh uu."

domo arigato mr roboto

lately julius' movements have become more tight and fast. he's in an amazing stage where each move is so carefull constructed that you can almost predict what he'll do next.
he notices the phone in your hand and then you see his eyes widen as his arm pulls backwards. fast and quite robotic, his arm propels his hand forward and *smack* contact with the phone(or whatever object is in question.)

i just love to watch him go.

colds

julius has been super congested lately so i've been taking him in a steam shower with me to try and break up the congestion a bit, it's been working.
tonight i sang to him and held wore him in my solarveil sling and he started to nod off, it was incredibly sweet.
just holding him in the warmth of the shower while he slept.

little man's first cold

julius has been congested for a few weeks now but just recently he's developed a cough as well. today he had a visit with the doctor where we learned that he has an ear infection, too. it's a little crazy to think of him as being sick because other than the obvious cold symptoms he seems to be his happy, normal self.

i feel as though i can learn a lot from julius. he's encoutered a lot of trouble in his short time here on earth but he just dusts himself off and gets back up again. or, better yet, he doesn't let anything get to him all that much. it's quite remarkable.

on a side note, i cannot believe my baby is almost 6 months old! it's crazy!

picture post

studio portraits for christmas:




showing off his smile over thanksgiving weekend: