Holden celebrates Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Deuter, deuter!

For Holden's birthday he received this great Deuter backpack carrier from Nanny & Grandmaman. After a week of Holden being sick and then a week of me being sick, we were finally able to go out and give it a whirl.

Here are my 2 favorite guys out on the track:

Belly Laugh

A few nights ago I squirted Stephanie with one of Holden's bath toys and Holden laughed harder and longer than we have ever heard him laugh before. It was hysterical. A good knee slapping, body trembling, belly laugh is the only way to describe it.

Of course, we did not catch it on video. We tried to recreate the scene the next night on video and while the laugh doesn't quite compare to the one from the night before, its still a pretty good one. There is no better feeling than having your child happy and laughing.

My favorite part is around the 20 second mark.

Holden took his first steps last night!!!!

Last night Holden took his very first steps. The last few days he has started to stand on his own unsupported for a couple of seconds at a time. Last night, he got up and stood there for about 3 seconds, then came barreling into my arms, about 4 steps!!! He was soooooo excited and had the biggest smile on his face. Both John and I were there to see it, which made us both so happy. I had a nice little cry after that. My baby is growing up so fast!

Happy (early) birthday Holden!

Holden had his birthday party today (his birthday is actually this Weds). The whole family showed up!* We had a little party to celebrate this big milestone.

It was a great day. Holden had lots of fun. He loved having everyone around and was full of smiles and laughter all day.

Here's who was there:

Nannie (Danielle)
Grandamaman (Nicole)
Grand-daddy Zadie (Barry)
Uncle Gerry
Aunt Lisa
Cousin Cole
Cousin Keira
Paul (2nd cousin to Holden... or 3rd?)
Kay (great-great aunt to Holden!)

and of course:
Mommy (Steph)
Daddy (John)
and HOLDEN!

* Aunt Paula and Uncle Jeff couldn't make it down from Woodstock. We really missed them! Can't wait to see them soon.

On with the pictures!

Steph designed a Wall Juice tattoo to decorate. Here's Holden the morning of his party showing off the tattoo:



Let the party begin! Holden gets a kiss from Cousin Keira:


Holden gets his first gift, a great wooden activity center from Aunt Lisa, Uncle Gerry, Cole & Keira. Cole drew Holden a beautiful card too!



Aunt Lisa and Holden called each other in the morning to make sure they matched:


Cake time! Steph made great vegan chocolate cupcakes. They were amazing!


Holden's first true taste of sugar... he liked it! Ate the whole cupcake in 3 minutes flat!!


Playtime!





Holden gets a bouncy spinny zebra from Zadie. He loves it!


Bouncing:

First snow

This is from a couple of weeks ago at our first snowfall.

Holden was not impressed.

New photos

*nom nom nom*




With William the bee:

Holden was a turtle for Halloween!

Holden walking...... sort of..... with assistance

We apologize for neglecting the blog lately. So as a special treat, here are some videos of Holden playing with his walker. He just started using it for its intended purpose, rather than bonking his head against it from a crawling position - something he had been doing for the last couple of weeks. Special thanks to Aunt Lisa who provided the baby walker.

Here's Holden walking:

Another video of Holden walking:

Wipeout

Attack!

Holden swimming

We took swimming classes this summer. Holden had a great time. Here we are doing a front float.

"Free time" with Curtis at the end of the class

... and with daddy in our fabulous baby pool.

Holden at the park

Rest in Peace, papa Churchill

John's dad passed away on July 1 after an unexpected battle with cancer. We miss him very much, and will love him always. Holden will miss seeing his "papa", who loved him so much. We wish we had had more time with him.

Prunes!

We tried prunes today. More gagging, but he seemed to like it anyway. At least, he didn't complain and opened his mouth. But he still gagged!!

Gagging:


In other news, I'm well on my way to converting many of my playgroup friends from disposable diapers to cloth diaperers. Some were already there, and since hanging out with those of us that do it, most of the others are starting the switch. Yippee!! Cloth is awesome! It's great for the environment AND saves you oodles of money!!

Food Update & Bathtime Fun

We are continuing to try feeding Holden his sweet potatoes. Today we had a bit of a breakthrough and he ate a whole icecube size serving. He didn't love it, but he ate it!! It's the most he's had so far. Usually he only took half a teaspoon before freaking out. We think it may be a texture thing. We bought an avocado to try next and as soon as it's ripe that's what he'll be eating!

Holden finally showed some interest in the bath! Usually when we take a bath, John hops in with Holden and holds him while I wash him. He usually has no reaction to this. Not happy, not upset. Just... bla. Yesterday we put him in the tub on his own and he seemed to have fun! Here are some pics and a video.

Fun with Food. And tears too!

Holden tried something other than breastmilk last night! Sweet potatoes! At first he seemed intrigued by the whole thing, but by the end of it, it was tears. I think he needs some time to get used to it. Most of it ended up on his face and clothes, and not much went down his throat, and there were a couple of gags in there *ha*.

This morning we tried again, and it wasn't much better.

Hopefully he'll get the hang of it and start enjoying it soon.




Here's a video before he started getting upset:

6 months already!

Holden turned 6 months May 19. Time sure does fly!! 6 months ended up being quite a milestone... Holden has started sleeping well during the day (2 naps a day over an hour long each! And a third "cat nap"), he is showing signs of starting to crawl (pulling in his knees and balancing for a couple of seconds on his hands and knees), and he got his first cold! Thankfully it was a teeny tiny cold.

Holden likes:

• sucking on his fingers (ALL the time!!!!!)
  
• being carried is his sling, which I love as well!!
• naked time!
• being tickled
• being bounced
• rolling around on his playmat with his toys
• jumping in his jolly jumper
  
• his carseat
• sucking on tags
• big hugs
• raspberry zerberts
• when we sing
  

Holden doesn't like:

• getting his clothes on after naked time
• getting his nose aspirated when he's stuffed up
• being tired
• being hungry
  
• ... that's about it! He is generally very very happy!