Look what I can do now!

Mom got more than she bargained for when she checked on me with the video monitor during my morning nap.  Instead of a peacefully sleeping baby she found this.....

Naps have just become that much more challenging! We haven't seen him actually pull himself up just the end result but I am guessing that is going to become his new trick pretty quickly. And when his crib arrives on Tuesday it is getting put on the lowest level.  We were so proud when we saw him do it we let him skip his morning nap. 

7 Months....

It is hard to believe that John David is already 7 months old.  He has changed so much over these past 7 months and is growing more and more into a little boy.  Over the last month he has adjusted to his new house in Brussels and is back to sleeping through the night and taking two good naps a day (most days).  He took his first ride on a train when we went to Brugge and is a seasoned traveler on the metro and tram lines of Brussels.  He still has a really good appetite and has started pureed meats, which are going to take sometime to get used to.  By far his biggest milestone was starting to crawl last week and now there is no stopping him.  He loves to get into everything: electrical cords, phones, remotes, nightlights, humidifiers, recycling (I think you get the idea).  Pretty much anything he isn't supposed to get into he is drawn to like he was laser guided.  We love to feed watch the ducks in the pond around the street and go for walks in the forest.  We now play in the bath as opposed to just tolerating it and loves to try to drink from the cup we use to rinse him like a bog boy.  We we go out to eat now he sits in a highchair instead of being held and plays with his toys.  One of his favorite games is dropping his toys on the floor and watching Mom or Dad pick them up, over and over again.  Just yesterday he received his first haircut from Mom and Dad.  It isn't the greatest but at least his hair is out of his eyes and his grandma will stop bugging his mother about it.  And finally we had our first play date this month.  First with Amanda and her daughter Julianna and then with Maren and her daughter Julia.  He already has a thing for the ladies it seems.  Below are a few recent pictures.

First play date with Julia

Watching the Longhorns with Dad

Playing with the curtain sheers (one of our new favorite games)

New Haircut!

Bathtime for Baby Boys!

        

And away he goes....

John David has a new trick that he would like to share with you.  He unveiled his only a week shy of 7 months and now a whole new world as opened up for him.

It's Offical......

WE HAVE INTERNET!!!!!!!!! Never thought the day would come but it has arrived.  We now have internet which means we now have Vonage so you can call us at will.  Ok when I say at will I mean you can call us during normal waking hours in Brussels.  So to clarify, because there is always one....We are 6 hours ahead of EST, 7 hours ahead of CST, and so on.  To make things a little easier I have included this handy What time is it in Brussels link for your convenience. There is nothing worse than hearing the phone ring in the middle of the night.  Your mind aromatically thinks worse case scenario.  So don't be the guy or gal who makes our hearts stop in the middle of the night!

Ok off to enjoy surfing the World Wide Web!

Day Trip to Brugge

On Saturday we took a day trip to Brugge, Belgium which is about an hour by train from Brussels.  The weather was absolutely wonderful and Brugge is an incredibly picturesque town.  We went up and walked around a little, had a great lunch and then came home around dinner.  Brugge is considered the "Venice of the North" and has little lot of cute little canals winding through the city.  Below are a few pictures from our trip.

Waiting for the Tram

First Train Ride!

Checking out the Belgium countryside

Main square in Brugge

Big Boy chair at lunch

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying our first waffles

Waiting for the train home after a successful day!

John David 6 Months

Last Monday we went to visit John David's new pediatrician in Brussels for the first time for his 6 month well visit.  She was very nice and has a very nice office on the first floor of her residence about a 20 minute tram/metro/walk from our house.  She said that he looked perfect and seemed to be developing great.  She gave him his last shot until he is a year old and he took it like a champ!  Here are his statistics: his weight was 8 kg 15 oz which is roughly 18.57 pounds and his length was 67 centimeters which is roughly 26.38 inches.  That means he is between the 25th and 50th percentiles for height and between the 50th and 75th percentiles for weight for both the US and Belgium babies.  I don't remember the head circumference sorry but I do remember it was between the 25th and 50th percentile.

John continues to be a very happy and health baby.  He is so close to crawling.  He likes to get up on all four and rock back and forth like he is just trying to get up the nerve to let loose.  He is in the process of mastering "scooting" especially backwards and finds himself all over the family room floor often stuck with his legs around the coffee table legs or under a chair.  We continue to enjoy our solids and have moved into 2nd foods.  Our favorites continue to be sweet potatoes, apples, carrots, green beans and bananas and we prefer oatmeal to rice cereal now.  He is really into toys that have lights and music especially his Baby Einstein "piano" which also says the colors and numbers in English, French and Spanish (gotta start early).  We still like to read with Momma and Dad but really just enjoy turning the pages.  Grandma and Grandpa gave him a book about Monkeys where you can push a button and the monkeys hoot and holler and that is an especially big hit.   John loves any and all paper and if he manages to get his hands on it he promptly rips it to pieces.  I have lost a lot of magazines that way.  We are getting better with our naps now that we have been in one place for more than a few days and he is in a proper crib.  At night he still sleeps great but has recently been waking up between 2 and 3 am to "play" and that is getting a little old for Mom and Dad who do not want to "play" at that hour.  I am sure it is still his body adjusting to the time and his little wake-ups are getting shorter and shorter each night.   Oh and our teeth continue to plague us and they are just refusing to break through. The Pediatrician said his gums were swollen so it is only a matter of time but they sure are sore.  We use a lot of Ora-gel and Sophie the giraffe gets a lot of chew time. 

Just Chillin

Hanging out in our new stroller at the train station

Dad and John David enjoying some of Belgium's finest

Reading

Just finished dinner in our new highchair

Beautiful blue eyes

Hard at work with his Piano

Just figured out how to get our own toys out of the toy basket

Eating breakfast with Dad

My two favorite things a torn up magazine and the piano

Hard at work ripping up a magazine