Contrast I

Proof that our son is growing and we change our sheets at least every five months! The top picture is from last week and the bottom picture is from mid-July.

The pacifier

We have a few pacifiers in the house -- two or three are just loose and one has wooden beads on a rope attached to it so we can clasp it to something (like his shirt) to keep it from hitting the ground. Saul discovered last week that the pacifiers without the string are great for more than sucking or teething. They also make for silly faces! Below are pictures of his new "trick".

Daycare fun

I've noticed in the last few days that Saul is really in tune with older kids. He loves to watch them at the coffee shop and was particularly interested in neighbor Ella (almost 5) and Jessica's little girl Sophie (almost 3) today. It made me realize that he's around two older kids at day care three times a week and is paying close attention to them. Oscar turns two soon and Violet is about 18 months. Corbin-a June 2 baby-is there, too. Corbin's moving around a little more than Saul right now. Of course, we found Saul spending some very determined floor time this last weekend trying to figure out how to keep up! This involved laying on his belly, arching his back and moving his arms and legs as quickly as possible ("swimming") with deep gutteral noises for full effect.

All of these thoughts reminded me that Marian, Saul's daycare provider, has kindly sent us pictures on a number of occasions so I thought I'd post some to share.

Playing on his 5-month birthday.

Playing outside on a cool afternoon.

The happy guy at play.

A teething baby

Saul is teething . . . again. It feels like we just got through his bottom two teeth making their way up and now he is definitely working on his top two teeth. Before we were fine with him using our fingers to gum but now he has more than gums and his teeth are sharp! Uncle Jeff can attest to this. He rode in the back seat with Saul the other afternoon and loudly hollered, "Ouch!" after kindly (and ignorantly) letting Saul nosh on his finger.

We keep finding ourselves comparing Saul to a puppy. But it's true! Between the whimpering, chewing on anything in sight and the cuteness-factor, the comparison is definitely there. Here are a few picture of Saul chewing on anything in sight this weekend.

Chewing on his book

Chewing on his pacifier.

Chewing on his chew toy . . . I mean teething toy!

Saul loves the shower!

In the midst of Saul's three weeks of a snotty cold, ear infection AND teething, we discovered that the steam from Aaron's shower in the morning was a great way to get his stuffy nose flowing. Saul and I would hang out in the steamy bathroom (easy since we have no fan) and use the shower curtain to play peak-a-boo with Aaron. A few times, I would hand a naked Saul in to Aaron to let him get enveloped by the steam and to just make it fun. We found he loves it!

To rinse off the overnight diaper dampness this morning, Saul got to join Aaron in the shower and embrace his nakedness! Don't worry, we cut off the photo in just the right spot.

Lulled to sleep

The stroller has proven to be a place that induces sleep. Saul may be awake on the walk to Jim & Patty's, but he'll definitely be asleep on the walk home. Only once was he awake on an entire expedition in the stroller, and that was on a walk to Trader Joe's and back sometime in late-September. He must have just woken up from a nap when we started out.

These pictures were taken last Saturday morning when I walked/jogged during Aaron's dragon boat practice. I couldn't resist stopping to catch both my breath and these pics of Saul.


And, for comparison, here is a similar shot in August, when the weather obviously impacted Saul's attire.

We're going live!

I've given up on trying to catch up and, as Michelle said recently, "Just start!" So, here we go - I'll send the blog address out to everyone after this post and then see what happens.

Aaron has the flickr page with Saul pics, but there are stories and other things to share that I think will be easier to do this way.

This four-day holiday weekend is so nice. We went to Barbara's for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, back to an old tradition from before Alexandra left for college - and now she's a college graduate! Saul had a place setting at the table in his hippo highchair and a nice wooden spoon. He didn't eat anything, but clearly found the company entertaining.

Below are a few pictures from earlier in the day. His face is so expressive! I couldn't resist posting a few of the Thanksgiving morning photo shoot.