2 months, I mean 8 weeks.

TWO MONTH BIRTHDAY!

for some reason people start notating time in weeks rather than months the first day you find out your pregnant. There is always of course the 9 months that we hear about, but other than that, it's a lot of "weeks". I know theres good reason for it, its a lot easier to say 7 weeks than one month and 3 weeks. but it does take getting used to. I am more fluent in baby time now and understand when people tell me that there 13 weeks pregnant and what not.

another thing that i have noticed is that all the baby books refer to a baby as she.
"if she gets fussy, try this..." its always she. for that i dont know why. He is a lot shorter. yes one letter but still a third shorter. mmm, im tired. i find myself thinking a lot about things to say for this blog. great things. good topics. but at the end of the night my mind has been drawing a blank recently. I am very busy with a lot of things and pretty tired and yet, i think i used to be more busy and even more tired.

I can't explain it really.

Akello is a joy and I just love those first moments when i see him when i come home from work or when i wake up in the morning.

Theresa told me the other day that she looks at akello and she feels as though god had forgiven her for all her sins. As if to say that the slate was wiped clean, we were blessed with akello, and then God said, start again. Theresa said she had been thinking alot about soldiers in general and how everyone is a child to someone. and not matter how old or how tough one marine can be, he's someones baby. and to loose a baby.....

She went on to say, that children are the only thing that grounds us as a people. We are born, beautiful children innocent and growing....and then the world shapes us...and then we become adults and our outlook changes and we become selfish, (we are human) but then...a child comes into our lives and it brings us back, it grounds us, gives us perspective.
Her comment really touched me. I found it to be profound.

Speaking of god, we are excited to bring him to church on sunday, he is over the 8 week hump and we are now comfortable taking him into large public areas.


Akello has let us have dinner together for the past two days. its been nice. usually we take turns eating. we put him in the carseat on top of the table and he just hangs out and tells us about his day as we eat. a squeek here and a little giggle there.

He loves to look up. at the dinner table he looks up at the light fixture. I was surprised it held his intrest so much for not moving at all, and then i realized that there is a mirror in the light so as to reflect the light from the bulb and maybe he sees us move in the mirror, since we dont turn on the light when he is under it. He is loving on his mobils. The mobil above the bed is his favortite.

here he is talking to the one over his changing table


Theresa told me that its good to give him 20 minutes of solitary play time, and when he turns one, about 45 minutes a day. Thats usually where i will put him. under that mobil above his bed. One time i got down there and looked up, to see his point of view. That mobil is pretty cool. soon i will film it so you can see.

Montessori recommends that when designing a nursery room to get down on the floor, at babys level and to see things how he sees them. Would a bunch of toys piled up in the corner instill a sense of order? hmmm.....

Theresa and akello get around a lot and have been going to a class there or a playgroup here, or ....
as last sunday, Micah's birthday party!


Later that day,
Jannete and Larry came over for dinner and brought with them an awesome dessert.
hAGEN DAZZ Mango sorbet, with fruit on top. what a healthy (im guessing) dessert


jannette and AK


Sorbet. Recommended

oh did you know...Hagen Daz is a completely made up name. it doesnt mean anything. in fact i think its an american company, I remember in college reading this book on branding, and this was one of the case studies. The guy just wanted a name that american consumers would think sounded european so he made up a name, added a umlat and ta-daaa!!

silly americans! (i think he was an immigrant)

anyway i digress,

oooh, so the bouncy seat arrived days ago. Akello digs it. it looks really cool. It has 3 levels of incline. in the picture below it is sitting up, hence him falling into the support sling.


on the picture below he is at full recline, so i took off the support. We are just using full recline for now



We like to play with him using a silk black and white scarf. i will roll it up in my hands and make it dissapear and then pull it out of my fist like a magic act or something. Soon he will be able to appreciate the texture.






Laura stopped by to visit with her little ones Paloma (above) and Nadine (with laura below)



too cute!


Laura is a montessori teacher and longtime freind of Theresa's. Theresa has learned a lot from her over the past two years as she has volunteered her time with her school so as to observe and learn montessori stuff. When laura pulled up, we were totally impressed with her mobile mobil. Check this out!!




at one point all the babies were together and theresa snapped this hilarious picture!


It was really neat to see paloma as an awesome young child, a model of how we would love akello to be. Paloma would make a mess, and Laura would say something like, "do you want to clean up your mess. You did that, do you want to clean it up, and paloma would just hop right to it. it was really cool.

We like to go on walks, its good for all of us. It puts akello to sleep, Theresa and I can talk and catch up, and its good excercise.
On this day it was a bit sunny so we put on his hat


and then he was asleep


nothings as cute as baby low cut ankle socks