Blabawabaoyoywabadabamamablabladad

So, Nate officially said both "Mama" and "Dad" during his extensive babbling yesterday. Of course, he had no idea that those words had any connection to me or Chuck, but we think that if we praise him enough, he'll figure it out. When babbling, he looks much like a toothless, gummy old man -- it's pretty entertaining.

Raging with Joe and Rachel

Nate enjoyed having his Uncle Joe and Aunt Rachel in town last weekend. They came with us to the Great Grill Off VI, where Chuck tied for third place with his Anazasi "We're All Human Beans" Burgers. Yet again, Nate played the role of social butterfly, flirting with the ladies and giggling with his daddy. He seemed to adore Joe while he was visiting, which was really cute because I think that Nate looks a lot like Joe did as a baby.


At his five-month doctor's appointment, Nate's head is still in the 97th percentile, which is OK because it remained stable. Just as I suspected: giant brain = giant head, duh. However, we've been noticing a dark spot in Nate's iris since he was about a month old. We always assumed that it was simply because his eyes were turning from blue to brown, and that is likely the case, but our pediatrician said we should see a pediatric opthamologist just to confirm. His appointment isn't until the end of October, and we're not too concerned because as his eyes get browner, the spot is less noticeable.



Nate can pretty much sit up on his own now, though we have to watch him closely because he has no qualms about falling over. In fact, he thinks it's funny ... until he bonks his head.

My own personal comedian

Nate has really taken to his father's humor. In fact, all he has to do is look at Chuck and he starts to laugh. I suspect they just entertain each other all day long while I'm at work. Nate especially likes the songs we make up for him, and for some reason, he thinks that "So Long, Farewell" from The Sound of Music is the funniest thing he's ever heard. One day in the car I had to sing that eight times in a row to keep him from crying.



In the past few weeks, Nate has become a pro at solids. He's had rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash and bananas. We're trying to hold him off on fruit until he has a good variety of veggies so he doesn't get a sweet tooth. He likes everything except the carrots -- which prompted lots of funny faces and even a little bit of gagging -- but we'll keep trying! As fun as it's been, solids have begun to yield some pretty stinky poos.

We weighed Nate today and he is almost 20 lbs! That makes him the size of an average eight month old. It is amazing to think that he was just 8lb. 11oz. and 20.5 inches when he was born -- so tiny. Now I understand when mothers say they miss their little newborn babies when they grow up. But I must say, this little personality that is developing is so much fun. And I don't miss waking up every two hours. In fact, Nate has been a great sleeper over the past week, sleeping 7-8 hours for the first stretch almost every night.

He loves to stand up holding onto something and he can sit unsupported for a minute or more. And he's starting to creep -- he can squirm around enough to spin himself in a circle ... though there's been little forward progress. I heard they tend to go backwards before they go forwards, and I'm a little nervous to have my bold little man on the move anyway.