Mini-Golfer Daniel

More fun for Daniel today...my little mini-golfer and I went mini-golfing with Grandma Cheryl and Uncle Brian after lunch. Daniel was very chatty the whole time and such a good sport. He was just taking it all in, watching the ball, enjoying the nice breeze, and having a good time. And even with my handicap (namely wearing the baby), I didn't do too badly- Grandma and Brian scored 45 and I scored 46! I even got a hole in one once! Yay, Mommy! We all really had a lot of fun! Thank you for playing, Grandma and Uncle Brian! Let's do it again soon!

Climbing to New Heights

And I mean that literally! It's only 7:30 in the morning and Daniel's already climbing the stairs...for the FIRST time! (Needless to say, he's now taking a nap already...climbing is tiring work!)




So it's a well-known fact in our house that Daniel LOVES shoes. Perhaps it's because we never let him have them because Ewww. Anyway, we always put shoes we've just taken off on the stairs, so he can't get them. Daniel must know this. After playing with his toys for a bit at 7:15AM this morning, he started his exploring around the house, going down the hall. So I went and sat on the stairs like I usually do to watch him explore. Then Daniel almost immediately came scooting toward the stairs, started pulling himself up on that first step (he's tried this before- but not very often and not with so much success), and then he shocked me by reaching up and putting his hands on the next step and starting to pull his left leg up to the next step! OH MY GOSH!!! I leaped up and supported him and he managed to pull himself up to that next step. And then he tried to stand up on that step and reached for the next step to do it again!!! The prize- my shoes! I let him get them. Then put him back down on the floor and moved the shoes up one step higher. He immediately started to try climbing AGAIN! I made Ben get the camera then! And, yes, Daniel got to the prize again, climbing even one more step higher. I cannot believe how he already figured out how to climb the stairs, obviously with lots of help, but really I wasn't pushing him up, just supporting him so he didn't fall and he actually never even wavered or wobbled- and this was first time going up the stairs. Yikes! Now after all that hard work, he's napping and I'm off to shower!

Have a good day everybody!

Double Digit Daniel- 10 months Old!

These are the two sweetest pictures of Daniel with his Mickey pal this month. True to his 10 month old, increasingly independent, and mobile nature, Daniel makes taking his picture an interesting adventure. Note the fun outtakes below...You can tell he wasn't really in the mood to sit next to Mickey! We do better now with more candid pictures, than posed pictures these days...and that's fine. We'll take what we can get! He's still such a cutie!



I cannot believe my little guy is 10 months old...I feel like I say that every month. It's just wild to be able to say "I have a 10 month old son!" Just a little over 8 weeks until Daniel is one! Unbelievable! :)

Our biggest update is how independent and mobile Daniel is getting. He is really squirming lately any time we try to change his diaper or change his clothes. Even at bath time he's squirmy! This has been an interesting change for us, just in the last week. Daniel scoots all over the place and this keeps him quite busy as he explores the house. Sometimes he takes toys with him as scoots around, sometimes he finds "toys" on his adventures too. It's fun to see him travel and you can almost see him thinking about where he's going to go and how he's going to get there. Too cute. Daniel also knows where Daddy is now too- and he knows how to get there- just down the hall and around the corner into that fun room with all the "toys"- yep, he makes that journey often now, with Mommy trailing right behind. Gates going up soon...but for now, I like that he can explore as long as we're right there. I want him to know where things are.

"Real" crawling may come soon...Daniel can rock on all fours and has for some time, but then he usually just flops back down on his belly and scoots. BUT this week, we've seen him start to crawl- he can move each limb at least once, so he's moving forward just a tiny bit, but then he flops back down and scoots as usual. All in good time...we shall see...

Daniel pulls himself to standing at least a few times a day. Sometimes he just gets to his knees, sometimes he gets himself all the way up. I love seeing him get to his knees to look into his toy crates- something about that is so cute. I think it's because it means he's more independent and he can find his toys and he can choose and get his own toys. It's so sweet to watch him. My little guy is growing up. Daniel does his gymnastics "body arch" ALL the time. This really is funny to watch, especially if his clothes have things dangling (like those fake drawstrings on his shorts) which he tries to reach for while in that position!

On the standing note, I also noticed the last two days that Daniel has figured out how to sit back down after standing- if we're holding him. He just sort of plunks himself down. If he's standing and holding onto something, he tends to just fall back down which doesn't seem to bother him much. AND yesterday, I was holding his hands while he was standing and he was absolutely mesmerized by this toy at therapy and he actually let go of my hands- I was so surprised and of course stayed right there so he wouldn't fall- but I thought to myself, how brave Daniel is getting. My goodness.

Daniel is eating better- he likes squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots, and he thinks pears are just okay. We're going back through foods we've tried before to see if he likes them any better now that he's doing better eating with a spoon or his Nuk brush, so we'll see how that goes. He likes his sweet potato and sweet corn puffs, too, but the banana ones are not such a hit just yet. It's so cute to see him feeding himself. He can use a pincer grasp to pick up the puffs and starting last week we noticed that he can even bite the puffs, too. And these puffs are pretty small- so that's great control. And I have to say- right on track with 10 month old development from I'm told. :) Yay, Daniel! We are taking a break from his feeding therapy since he's doing so well...we'll see what the doctor thinks in a few weeks when we go back for a follow-up now that he's been in therapy for a while. But we're glad we're moving forward! Now we need to work more on the sippy cup.

Daniel still loves putting everything in his mouth and he still LOVES music. Anything that makes sounds or music is a hit. His face just lights up- I love all the expressions he makes with his face these days. I could just stare at Daniel and watch him all day...wait a minute, I already do!!! It's the best! He has also started to wrinkle up his nose, which is so cute. This makes it look like he's fake smiling too- you gotta see it. I'll try to get a picture one of these days.

And oh my gosh does Daniel LOVE his Daddy these days. We've really noticed an attachment to Daddy in the last couple weeks. (Of course Daniel's always loved us, but this is cute!) Ben will come into the room and Daniel will make a beeline- and a quick one- right to Daddy. It's so cute to watch. And if Ben is moving around the room, like the kitchen to get his lunch or to get his keys to go run an errand, Daniel will literally follow Daddy around scooting the whole time and Daniel has even mastered taking short cuts, under the kitchen table for example. We get such a kick out of this. It's gotten so we have to distract Daniel with toys or feeding so Ben can even leave the room, otherwise Daniel cries, even when I'm right there (though this doesn't happen too often- just a few times this week). Daniel has even mastered the whole grabbing Daddy's shirt just in case we try to pass him to Mommy! This is such a change for Daniel lately...but then, we all know how special his Daddy is!

That's all our news for Daniel's 10 month update! Each day is sure a treasure with Daniel and so many new things are happening...what fun it all is!

Storytime at the Library

Daniel and I have been going to storytime at our local library the past couple weeks. It's called "Lapsit Storytime" only there's not so much "lapsitting" with my very mobile and lately quite independent 10 month old! I just think it's too funny that they call it "lapsit." Daniel likes the music and songs, of course, and the books are moderately interesting to him. He's more interested in scooting around and looking at the other children. It's quite cute to see him watching the other parents and kids- he gets such cute expressions on his face. The storyteller has a puppet that she uses to greet the children along with a song and Daniel likes this. Yesterday, Daniel even got a rattle to shake during one of the songs- He LOVED this. You can see how excited he was to play! And the best part- we got to keep it, and it's become a hit toy in our house- for the moment. I'm sure he'll move on quickly!

Some Fun Pictures

I like baby butts and I cannot lie!!! :)
By the way, they call these shorts?!? Too funny!


Daniel's latest adventure...climbing through our end table. He did it quite well, actually. No help needed! Aiyiyiyi!


What a GREAT smile! Notice, Daniel is standing up, too!


Daniel discovers the air conditioning vent (he has always loved to bang on it, but now he's discovered that air comes out too...and it makes his hair blow which is too darn cute! :)


What's up, Doc?! Daniel strikes his Bugs Bunny pose while eating carrots!


This is what our family room looks like most days...and this was first thing in the morning, too! Daniel dumps his toy totes and surveys the toys to choose one, or maybe two or three or eventually all of them! :)


Can I just say how cute it is to see my son on his knees?!


Daniel LOVES his Daddy!

Hope you enjoyed this little collection of random moments in Daniel's life this past week!

Standing Up!

Standing up is so much fun!

Daniel says...watch me do it!
Enjoy the video!

A Grand Day at the Zoo

Ben and I decided to take Daniel for his first visit to the zoo today! We had a great day...nice cool weather with a little sunshine, fun animal visits, lots of great walks, and a wonderful little boy who was so good the whole time. We were there for almost 3 hours, just enough time for the three of us. We used the stroller for a short while, and Daniel was quite serious and just taking it all in, and then Daniel was in the baby carrier, where he was much happier and chattier! We walked all over the zoo and saw lots of animals. Daniel's favorite places were Tropic World with the monkeys and apes and The Living Coast with the big fish tanks and the flying birds and the penguins. You could really see him watching the birds and the fish and he was looking all around the jungle by the monkeys. But mostly he liked the snaps on his baby carrier and didn't really seem to notice the animals- no surprise there. Still, it was such fun to take Daniel to the zoo for the first time! And even better- they didn't try to keep my little monkey! :) He of course fell asleep on the way home! Can't wait to go again...especially when he will really start to notice the animals.

Enjoy some pics below and don't forget to click below to see more pictures in our zoo album!


So Big! Or really small, depending on how you look at it!


Checking out the monkeys!


Daniel and Daddy are eagles! These holes were such fun! :)


Ben tries to feed Daniel to the wolves!
Very cute, Daddy!


Daniel and Mommy watching the monkeys


Daniel "waves" bye bye!
Well, at least it looks like he's waving!

More pictures in the album below!

A Grand Day at the Zoo

Naked Baby!

I couldn't resist sharing my favorite thing- Naked Baby! Top three pictures are from yesterday morning, just after Daniel woke up- note the bed-head! And he's so happy as always! Bottom pic is from this evening, after a minor incident with Daniel's clothing and just before his bath anyway, Daniel was playing around and tried again to pull himself up on our footstool and in one fell swoop he did it! He did it so fast I just barely got the picture- he was so pleased with himself, it was too cute. I managed to snap the picture, but as you can see he's already reaching out for his daddy! We were all so excited!! Yay, Daniel!

Enjoy Diaper Daniel in the video below, too!

Silly Picture Day

No real news for you this week, so I thought I'd share some SILLY pictures of Daniel I've taken over the past week or so. Enjoy!


There's a cute story behind this one- that's what makes it silly: Our camera has a really bright orange light that you can see when the button is depressed and ready for the photo shot. And when I take Daniel's picture, he will sometimes notice the light on the floor, on him, on the toy, etc and will try to play with it. This time, the light was on his belly so he was poking at his belly and I got this cute shot! Maybe you had to be there...but I think it's cute.


Too funny!


I think we have a frog in our house!


Okay, this was a completely accidental photo shot and it really doesn't look comfortable, but what a funny picture! Now that Daniel is quite good at scooting around, he's been climbing over things that are in his way (although he's really very good at going around things too) and he was just going over his piano (green and blue toy) and I was trying to get a picture of the climbing when he just launched and flopped! He didn't even bat an eye (and certainly didn't break his neck or back like it might seem given the awkward angle!). We thought this was too funny!


Under Daniel's tunnel...between the legs, head upside down on the floor.


One of Daniel's latest fun things to do is to drop toys in the bottom of his exersaucer. It's quite fun apparently and there will often be several toys in there at any given time. Yesterday, he decided he wanted to go in, too. So there he is climbing in, and in the picture below, he's about to climb out the other side, but first he has to chew it of course!


Other funny things:

Daniel's really been doing a lot of raspberries again lately- so much that the entire front of his shirt is sometimes soaking wet!

Daniel LOVES to drop things now- especially from the exersaucer!

Daniel is such fun to play peek-a-boo with these days, too, and he will belly laugh! (if in the mood!)

Bath time- Daniel just figured out the other night that if he leans forward in his bathtub and holds himself up with his arms, he can wiggle his legs around and make this squeaking sound on the floor of the tub. He will do this several times! Guess it's pretty interesting... I got a kick out this. It's just so fun to see Daniel discovering that he can do new things!

Food Adventures

In the spirit of getting Daniel to eat more, we're sure letting him get messy and we're trying to get creative! We mashed up a real banana right on his tray and let him play around with it- he obliged, but as you can tell he wasn't too keen on it. (But we did all enjoy eating outside on our new deck! Notice we even wheeled out the highchair!) We've also given Daniel a large apple chunk and he sure goes to town on that- licking it, gumming it, and he even manages to get a few very small pieces into his mouth- some stay there and some come right back out. Yesterday we had therapy with Julie again- we'll see how it goes- she basically just feeds him much like we do at home, though we are learning a few tricks- whether it's worth 4 months (her recommendation) of tricks and actual help is yet to be determined, but we'll give it a shot. I'll do anything for my little guy! And Daniel was VERY cooperative yesterday- ate quite a bit actually. We got our own "Nuk brush" like Julie uses, because Daniel LOVES that thing, and that really helps get him "warmed" up and gives him a taste of foods before trying the spoon. We did some squash today... and I have to say the Nuk brush worked it's magic (but, shh, this is a secret- don't tell Daniel!). We'll keep at it... Our little guy is sure a good sport!

New Tricks!

Here are some great shots of Daniel's 2 newest tricks! Daniel now does these "yoga" like head-body tunnels, as seen in the top picture. He just started doing this over the weekend. It starts out as a "baby push-up" and then turns into this yoga-like position with his head on the ground and then he just flops back down. It's quite hilarious to see and I had to share it.

And yesterday, Daniel pulled himself up to his feet!!!!! It was so fun to finally see him do it! He's really been trying- on his toy crate, on our footstools, on us, and so forth. He can't hardly reach a lot to really try since he's still so small, and that's why I think the red toy crate was perfect for his 1st time- though it kind of has squishy sides and isn't very sturdy, but he managed. Daniel's pulled himself up on the crate to look into it and he can pull it down, but this time, he just kept hanging on and managed to pull himself up first to his knees and then up they popped and suddenly he was on his feet and "standing"! Daniel was kind of at a right angle and leaning into the crate, but he was surely on those little feet! I was so excited and can't believe I even managed a picture! He's working so hard these days to do so much...he's a very busy baby!

Snack Time!

Daniel had his speech therapy evaluation today to see how we can help him eat better, eat from a spoon, eat more period. I thought his outfit was fitting...it said "It's snack time!" The therapist's name is Julie and we will continue to see her every week for a few weeks. Daniel is doing well with finger foods and she was encouraged by that. He performed wonderfully for her- he was pretty cooperative and tried everything for her and yet also managed not to make liars out of us, too. Thank you, Daniel. So, she pretty much got to see what we're seeing at home, plus she shared a few of her ideas and tricks. Boy she did let Daniel make a mess! (we're supposed to do that at home too- and we do to some extent but me not being a person who even likes playdoh or even touching meat to make meatloaf- this is hard for me!) And Daniel loved her teething stick with the bumps on the end. That was a big hit! She liked all the things we're already trying to do or have tried and gave us some more ideas, too- and she didn't seem to think there were any oral motor issues with his tongue or chewing or swallowing, but rather he perhaps just has sensory and texture issues. So we'll keep trying some things at home, mommy will relax and let Daniel make more messes, and we'll go see her again and see how things go. That's our update on food!

Check out Daniel's late afternoon snack below- his feet...and boy were they slobbered!