Happy 5th birthday!

Today my big guy turns 5! 5 years old. I can't believe it. He's the greatest thing to ever happen to hubs and me. He's just awesome and amazing. Gmom Dino and I took him to the toys r us yesterday to pick out a toy. We had a toy to return that pleasantly was $30! So we had a store credit and a $5 coupon. He did a great job. First, we stopped at the customer service desk and got a free balloon. Then we walked through the whole store. I let him out everything into the cart and said we would lay them all out and then he could choose one at the end. I think this made all the difference. No arguments. No whining. And he did such an amazing job. He choose a giant boat that has a giant shark, giant shark catching crane, two cars and a helicopter. Also, a bucket of safari animals and a tube of marine life. So today it snowed and big guy got a snow day birthday. He played all day with gmom Dino. They went outside to shovel, though he was playing and kept Dino company. Little man and I went to the supermarket, they stayed home. When little man ate lunch and took a nap, they played. We had a nice pancake dinner and finally watched a little tv, bath and bed. Overall, a really wonderful day for a really wonderful boy. Happy birthday baby!

This might explain the good sleep

The past week little man has been sleeping awesomely! Big naps. Sleeping through the night. Joyous. So also this past week, little man has figured out how to clap his hands. Which is so precious. He holds his right hand steady and hits the left hand do all the clapping. It's really funny. And the other great accomplishment? He started the week by pulling himself onto his knees. But Saturday morning, he pulled himself up to standing! Yes, now we are in serious trouble!

time for some cute

I just had to show some serious cuteness today.  It's freezing and nothing like seeing cute kids to make you feel all warm!

weigh-in

Yesterday we went to BF group and (finally) made it to 18 pounds!!!  haha!  I mean thanks little man for throwing me a bone and after doing 1 oz a week, finally getting to this coveted 18 pounds.  Oh well.  Still a month before the 9 month well visit and we shall see about the length, as he's taller than other babies who are his age or older than him.  Long and lean.

Yo Baby

So, we conquered eggs.  And we have moved onto yogurt.  mmmm, yobaby yogurt to be exact.  Full fat.  delicious.  creamy. delicious. um, it's really good! Anywho, in yet another example of how my boys are completely different babies, little man was not so thrilled with yogurt.  I had wisely put the majority of the 4 oz into a tupperware container and gave him the teeniest spoonful.  At first, he was eating it, but then he was giving me that face again!  Like, "I'll eat this because you are giving it to me, but I'm not going to like it!" Then he just started turning his head.  sad.

At dinner, I tried again, but this time I started off with giving him his oatmeal with sweet potatoes and then mixed the yogurt in.  Much more successful!  And last night I did the same thing, and he ate it more happily.  whew!  Yogurt is what I eat everyday for lunch, as does big guy because he started eating it at 8 months! So, another healthy eater in the works I suppose.  But I'm guessing it's going to be a while before those 4 oz are consumed in one sitting.

Eggs

Yesterday, little man had his first batch of animal protein- the all mighty egg yolk!  He really enjoyed it!  I mean, the fact that there may have been some bacon drippings on it might have helped.  But he did a really good job.  And so we will have it for a few days, then we can try french toast and other egg related food products.  He's getting to be such a baby, so proficient at picking food up and eating.  It's just so cool to see.  But also kind of bittersweet because he's getting older.

aquarium

Over winter break we went to the Adventure Aquarium in NJ.  I had gotten a discounted year membership through AAA, like 46% off, which is pretty good because it's a pricey place to visit.  So, we had to go to the aquarium to pick up our membership before the middle of february, and since it's open 365 days a year (!), we decided to visit on new year's eve.  It was a really great visit.  Everyone was in good spirits and we got there a little after it opened.

We took our time and did about half of the aquarium in the 3 hours we were there.  Most popular were the fish, sharks, hippo and little man really appreciated the jellyfish. Also, we ate a lot of soft pretzels!  Big guy was really awesome.  He and hubs went to see the 4-D shark movie while I fed little man in the nursing mother's room.  Which was cold and loud since you could hear everyone walking by, but at least it had a door that locked and a comfy chair.  Funnily enough, we only took pictures the last ten minutes we were there, in the cool shark tunnel.  I'm so glad we have a membership, not only for the discount, but now we can go more than once a year.