6.5 months old. Look at little Augie sitting up so well... and eating a delicious coaster... lot's of fiber in thoes, I suppose.

my 2 sleepy boys
6:30 am
Monday, August 29th

Possible picture titles:

Grampa bought us a high chair

We are getting good at eating peaches but we hate peas

Daddy is quite skilled at feeding, taking a picture and staying clean.

Give me that!

just about everynight I get into bed and say to Jeff...

" I think that I love Augie more today, I really do. I feel differently. I didn't think that I could enjoy him more and, yet, today I actually feel really strongly that I have grown in my ability to love him."

And Jeff usually says "me too"

How does this happen? How does our love multiply? How are we given the strength to continually care for this needy little one and --- AMAZINGLY--- enjoy it more? Even when he needs us more, and wiggles more, and cries more? He communicates and wants and DEMANDS and I love him more.

I feel so grateful that God gave us a taste of what it is like to adore creation. I am so glad it is found in this sweaty, teary, loud, wonderful six-month-old. The funny thing is, this is not even a list of complaints, it is a list of delights. Is it strange to say that I even love to hear him cry? Is it because I know that he needs us and that is the best feeling in the world? or because God gave us the maturity to respect Aug's only form of communication?

I even want to quickly end this entry, and go spy on his sleep...

kel

Daddy calls it "baby crack"...

popularly known as baby einstein videos. If you haven't seen these and you are planning to have a baby any time soon you will know what we are talking about.

We were going to be perfect parents once.

All organic food,
wooden "classic" toys
and no TV
ever.

Then we had hurricane Augie.

I suppose that all babies have this blessed quality of curiosity. To only like something for about 26 seconds and then want a new activity.

so these videos have been a godsend.


And since they are some what educational we don't feel too bad about the several times a day we have to sit down with our inconsolable little one to have a brain break.

When he hears the music there is an absolute hynosis- and he will watch them for an hour... not that we... um... have ever let him watch ... for an hour that it... or have fallen asleep on the couch while he bounces away in the little chair skreetching with joy at the screen. Hypothetically he would watch for an hour I am sure.

Ahhhh technolovalium


Look, even Jeff is enjoying reviewing
his colors and the puppet shows.


Love to all

Kel



PS- we were 15lbs 26 inches and healthy as could be at our last Dr. visit. Guess that hour didn't hurt too much.

Getting ready for our new tooth. It will be in any day now. See how cranky it makes us!

6 months tomorrow

Augie loves the water... just like big Augie

Love Kel

something that strikes me as wonderful lately is the way that our entire lives mold around our wonderful son.

As I approach my first day back at work tomorrow, I won't lie. I have the mommy guilt.

I am leaving my baby. I am leaving and I feel even more guilty that I feel excited to have some "time to myself". This is the catch 22 of parenthood.



But as I pick up the house tonight, go in to look at our little man about a hundred times just for the joy of it, I am smiling at the way that Augie changes who we are in such neat and subtle ways.

Everywhere in our house, our cars, our lives there are "pieces of Augie". His shampoo, his paci, his little comb, his sippy cup by our big cups, his rice cereal by our coffee beans

I even found 2 pacifiers in my desk drawer at school.

You might not think it, but I love these little relics. They are wonderful love notes reminding me what a blessing it is to have our little invader.


The color of his world that gets to be our world now.











One day I might even learn to love baby Einstein videos... Although I doubt it.
Today, though, as he squawked delight at the screen filled with puppets and I wrote lesson plans, think I felt more happiness than I can remember

ever.







I love you Aug.



Mommy

Almost 6 months
Big Yazoo with little Yazoo
The First veggie... Yams... yum!
I guess it's time to get a highchair

Summer time


Augie loves to be outside. So do I but I forget. One of the best things about having a little boy is that I am forced to slow down and do things that I would not do. I cannot be the productive person my pride wants me to be. Sometimes I resent this, but today I really had a chance to enjoy it.

We went outside and sat under the tree in our front yard, in the shade. Augie's attention to things really makes me notice. Today as we lay in the grass I saw tiny white spiders, and ants, and beetles in their own world. Going about the business of doing... what ever they are doing. I thought about being little and looking through the blades as if they were a giant forest.

I lay down and watched the sunlight through the tree- and was a little sad that I couldn't remember the last time I had done so. I really enjoyed playing nothing with my son outside today, and being very slow and deliberate about the nothing that we were doing. I remebered to have an imagination.

I wonder what he sees, how he sees it.

Kel

Last night we went to our Uncle Eric's birthday party... and we had to dress up like superheros.

Augie was Drul- an evil super villain who can paralyze his opponent's with a special blend of ubber slobber- by the end of the night he was covered in drool, runny marker and strawberries (Jeff!!!)

Mommy was Lactacious- a milk squirting diva... and I am proud to say that I think I made everyone just a bit uncomfortable all night long wearing my nursing bra on the outside.

(not pictured) Daddy was Beauty Rest- a jammie wearing lazy superhero.

One of the best parts of our life right now is the community that supports us- I love going to church and get-togethers and passing the little man around. His eyes light up when he sees his many baby sitters and toy givers and clothes buyers. I totally agree with Hillary when she says "it takes a village". We have about the best village around.

xoxo
Kel

5 months


Jeff, Reagan and Augie sharing a moment in the sun. They have to compete for the "good space by the big window" Reagan usually wins.
The genetic oral fixation...
Jeff's favorite restaurant the Dillon Dam Brewery on the 5th of July. Notice the very patriotic outfit.


Already reading with daddy, such an academic


I took this picture a few min. ago. It is the best experience to just watch him sleep. To look at Augie and think, everything is peaceful and perfect. To know that my cells and genes and hopes created this perfect little man. I feel so responsible and so helpless and so enamored and joyful all at the same time.







Love, Kelly

Amazing. Life with our son is amazing.

Thanks for being a part of it.

If you have an invitation to this blog you know that
a. I am obsessed with blogs
b. I am obsessed with Augie
c. I want you to have a chance to reflect with me (us) on life with the little man.

I am really excited to keep a web-diary of his life. It is fitting in so many ways. I can get away with it when I am really supposed to be doing work. I can share it with you... and, let's face it, technology is going to affect our kids and grand kids in a way we can't imagine. I also like the idea of pulling up this weblog 16 years down the road when I am throwing things at my mouthy son and reminding both of us how good life it together.

As I run I write little journals in my head. They rarely get down on paper... but here are some thoughts I have had lately:

I love my son. He is the hardest, most wonderful, most fulfilling, most draining, most rewarding creation. I am so pleased to be confronted of my selfishness with this little man taking all of my time and energy.

I love my husband. He is incredible. He loves me so much--- I can't believe what a help he has been. He is the best daddy. I am sad that at times in the last 6ish months my selfishness and emotionalness has gotten the better of me. I take it out on Jeff and I am sorry. I have to invent things to get mad at him for... and I do a bang-up job of it. I love you Jeff.

I love my parents. They get smarter with every new thing that Augie does, and I have to figure out. They love me, and Jeff, and Aug. I am surprised they made it through 2 of us.

I love my brother. He and Kristie support us so continually.

Loving Augie makes me able to love more. I am so grateful to God for him. I know better what God feels when he worries about us, or hurts for us.

Thanks for reading... feel free to contribute at any time, or just see the pictures and enjoy.

Kel
PS- for the oldest post, start at the bottom and work your way up. Check back periodically to see new entries.

4 months

3 months

2 months