Finally WALKING!!!

The day that I have been waiting for, and everyone has been warning me about, has finally come!!! Aaron is walking. He is now walking all around the house grabbing on to the walls and furniture if he needs them to regain balance. He is so cute because his walk is almost a march and he has his hands sticking straight out. I will try to get a video up soon, but for now, here is a picture.

Thanks Uncle Brian and Aunt Jen for the extra encouragement that Aaron needed. It seemed as if he forgot for a couple of weeks that he could walk at all.

Summer Fun

Last Thursday Aaron and I checked out Brian and Jen's neighborhood pool with Jen. Aaron didn't like it much at first, but then started having a good time.

Not so happy at first

What a cool dude.

Swimming with Aunt Jen

Not a big fan of floating

More fun swimming!!!

Aaron playing piano

Here is our little musician!

Sign language

Recently I have been introducing more sign language to Aaron. I started introducing it when he was 9 months or so. He wasn't very interested at that point, so I stopped. For a while now Aaron has been doing his version of "more". Its really nice because he can let me know what he wants without screaming or whining. Don't worry, we still get some of that. He also signed all done, which is mainly used when eating. A couple of days ago I taught him "please". To sign please you rub your hand in a circle on your chest. As you can see from the video, he just rubs his chest, but we know what he is saying. Sometimes he will even make a "p" sound. So, I am going to continue to teach him sign language as I think it will be very helpful until he can talk good. He is saying more and more as well. Most of the words are approximations (thats a big word for me!!), or just the first syllable. As of now he says; mama, dada, night night, mo (more), bye, hot, hey, milk, ball, out, bath. I do have to admit that ball and bath are pretty much the same "ba" and out and hot are very similar. I just know what he means due to context.

Luckily he is learning to communicate more and more, but when it comes to walking...he wants very little to do with it. He took his first steps almost 2 months ago (by himself). Now, he could walk across a room, if he wanted to. But he won't. Every time I try to get him to walk, he just plops on his butt. At this point, I am just hoping he will walk by the time he enters kindergarden. Until then, I guess I better start lifting wieghts so I can keep carrying him around.

Aaron working out

This was Aaron's hair style when he woke up today. Since its a cold rainy day, we are staying in and the hair-do will probably stay all day (and we will be in our PJ's).

Caleb came home for a long lunch. Aaron loves watching Caleb do some pull up on his new pull up bar that he put up in the office. So, Aaron wanted to give it a try.

Ready...set...go...

Almost there...

I did it!!!

Aaron and "Michael" (not Aaron Michael)

Here are a couple pictures Caleb took one night when Michael (Caleb's dad) was over. I don't think there are many things sweeter than Aaron cuddling. Thankfully he is getting sweeter and sweeter...he likes to cuddle more and I (and everyone else) am enjoying every minute of it. Michael still has not picked out a name...if he isn't careful, Caleb is going to teach Aaron to call him by the worst grandpa name ever.

Baby bottles

While procrastinating on some of my new favorite websites I learned about BPA in bottles. Basically, the type of plastic they use can leak dangerous levels of toxins into the milk. This is the case when there is warm liquid in the bottle or if the bottle is ever put in the microwave or dishwasher (which I think 99% of parents do that). Well, after doing some research, I decided I did not want to take the chance with it. This is still a somewhat controversial topic, but I guess plenty of other people feel this way as well. SOME Babiesrus (and toysrus) stores are giving store credit for any bottle that has BPA in it. The bottles can be used and you do not have to have the original packaging or receipt. So, I called BRU here in Greensboro and they confirmed they will accept any bottle (and sippy) as long as they are currently selling the bottle and you have ALL the parts. I just got back from returning all my Dr. Brown bottles and walked away with a gift card for $45. I had some other bottles and sippy cups that they do not sell that I will now be throwing away. They were very nice about accepting the items and I did not have any problems at all. From what I have read online this varies by store. It was well worth it for me to go up into the attic and get all Aaron's old bottles out of storage (I was saving them for the next kid, which will have BPA free items...WE ARE NOT PREGNANT though...just thinking ahead). There have not been any recalls for any bottles concerning BPA but I figured since BRU is helping me to not take the chance of having to use bottles with BPA I would take advantage of the opportunity. The following websites have some helpful info about BPA and bottles/cups that do not have BPA in them.

http://freebies4mom.blogspot.com/2008/05/bpa-free-bottle-update.html
http://safemama.com/2007/11/22/bpa-free-bottle-and-sippy-cup-cheat-sheet

After learning about BPA I started questioning myself on my knowledge of chemical and other things that could be harmful to Aaron. Honestly, I am pretty skeptical of some of the concerns people have things about. But the more I think about it, I am going to do some more research on some of the controversial chemicals and things that some people are concerned about. I doubt that this will cause me to switch the the all natural/organic side, but I could see some things that I change. I mean, Aaron is sooooo little, I don't think I want to take too many chances. So my next areas of research will be about laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, bath/body items, and carpet cleaning. If any of you know of some good places to do my research or any other specific things this mom (that has been to naive) should be concerned about, let me know. Feel free to pass along the info about the bottles and BRU to any other mom's you know.