We went today and had professional pictures done of Chance. He was very good for the entire sitting. We put him in a new outfit that is so cute on him. There are some of him in a little baby sized chair and sitting on his own and then we stripped all his clothes off and took some naked baby pictures of him. At first he didn't want to smile for the lady but after a couple minutes he started smiling and then would smile everytime she made a sneezing noise. We got to view the picture a few minutes later on the computer and they were all just gorgeous. We got to bring the proofs home but have to wait two weeks to get the rest, I can hardly wait. I want to show them all off now. Oh well. When we came home he still had his outfit on so I sat him on the bed and snapped a few pictures myself. Who needs a professional when you've got such a photogenic baby? And believe it or not he was actually kind of grumpy when I started taking these. He loves the camera and the camera loves him. On the 7th of July Scott's Grandpa is coming over and we are all going to go back to the same studio to get family pictures taken, there will be 6 of us. There will be 4 generations that day and I am excited about the opportunity to get those pictures taken. To have them to show off and to show to Chance when he gets older. He has started making a new kind of smiley face, I didn't capture it here in these pictures but we got it in the professional ones. He doesn't open his mouth so much he just turns his lips up in a smile so wide that his eyes squint and his nose wrinkles, it is absolutly the cutest thing you have ever seen in your life. He also blows raspberries a lot and will now blow them back at you if you first blow them at him. He's still working on the crawling but he is getting his butt up in the air more and more and is starting to inch forward. We sat out on the grass yesterday and he really liked that, today it was raining but if it is nice tomorrow maybe we will go out again. He has been going with Grandpa Von to get the newspaper in the morning and the mail in the afternoon which he really likes. He loves being outside no matter what the occasion. We have planned to go to a park with a picnic on Sunday. That should be a lot of fun.

A bunch of pictures from the other day. Chance turned 6 months old on the 21st. He is so big and so little all at the same time. Thinking about before he was around is strange, he is a whole little life and just sitting there on the floor trying to crawl around. It's a big concept to get your head around. He is really interacting with his world. He walks in the walker everyday and does tummy time for a while everyday too. He is going to start crawling any minute now. He pushes himself up really far with his hands and has started getting his knees under his hips. He rocks back and forth but doesn't go forward just yet. He pushes backward though and the other day got himself under the doggy bed. He pushed himself back till his legs were underneith it and then he couldn't go anywhere so he just gave up. You can see what I mean in the pictures. He has had two visiters and was good with both of them though with the first one she was holding him and when I left the room he would get upset but he was fine as long as I was there. This may be the beginning of stranger anxioty, I'm not sure. Scott's Mom has two dogs who are very nice and have been getting along very well with Chance (doggy beds). There is a picture in here of him trying to grab the camera. He tries to grab everything and of course he puts it right in his mouth. He loves paper, he will crinkly it and chew on it, he loves everything about paper. Any kind of paper too, he doesn't care. He will pull newspapers off of the table and papers out of my purse. There was a piece of blue note paper onthe floor and he wiggle over to it and grabbed it rather than any of his toys that were sitting all around him. Two days ago Chance was so tired and ready for his morning nap he started falling asleep on my shoulder and he started ot do it again this morning. He hasn't gone that in months, he is so cute I can hardly stand it. He has really been talking a lot lately, squealing and aahs and oooh. He is so funny, he also uses his cough a lot, I think he has just made coughing part of his everyday sounds now. I have too many pictures and not enough to say to make them all pretty on the page. Oh well.Since the carpet is sort of the doggies spot I have been putting down a blanket when Chance has his tummy time the other day when I put it down Alfie didn't want to move so here's a picture of what happened and one of Madeline just for good measure.

This is a picture I have on my memory card from when were still in New Orleans I went in to find Chance asleep using Joe Joe the Monkey as a pillow

Joe Cool

Chance was a very good baby today. He just hung out most of the day. Then we went on a car ride through the beautiful mountian roads. Through little towns and beside the rivers. It is a little cool but it fits the mountain scenery perfectly. I was looking for a way to occupy Chance the other day and so I put my sunglasses on him. He just wore them without a fuss at all and he looks so cool in them. He's just the cutest.

Hello, everyone we are in Portland, Oregon. Chance did well on the long flight he didn’t cry but he talked a lot. Thankfully we were sitting next to some very nice people on the plane who didn’t mind talking to Chance at all. We are having lots of fun up here. It is cooler than I thought it would be but during the day that makes it the perfect temperature. Chance turned six months old yesterday. The first couple days his sleep was a little off from the time change but yesterday and today so far he has been doing very good. We got him a walker and some other toys for Grandma G’s house and he has been having lots of fun with them. In the neighborhood there are two little parks and yesterday we went to one of them. Chance slid down the slide (with a little help), he made big smiley faces when he got to the bottom. Today we went for a car ride to a nearby geocaching event and he was very good in the car both ways. And got to munch on a chocolate chip cookie at the event. these pictures are from two days ago when we went out on the front walk here at the house with Chance in his walker wondering around in his little sun hat which is just too cute. Then one of Chance and Scott, Scott is wearing his Father's Day shirt, we celebrated a little late since we all couldn't be together on Fathers Day itself. Scott flew out today, he will be in Buffalo and Newark for the week but then he's flying back to Portland and we will stay here one more week. It's so nice having people to help and to talk to.

I am posting the 6 month update a little early because we are going to visit Scott’s parents from June 19th to July 8th and I want to tell everyone how own little guy it doing. I have copied the six month milestones and am happy to report Chance does every single one of them. He is sitting up without help from me or by using his hands to hold him up. He doesn’t laugh out loud very much but he ‘talks’ quite a bit. He talks to Rosco and to me and to himself. He isn’t really crawling yet, when I put him on his tummy he can move every direction except forward. But just today I noticed him wiggling forward a little. He is always reaching for objects in front of him but can’t quite make it yet. He is still very social and doesn’t have any anxiety about strangers. He rolls from back to front and front to back easily and often. He understands his name and Mommy and Rosco I know that he understands what the bottle is and pacifier is and now the spoon he also knows that he sleeps in his room. In the morning when I get him up and ready then we go out in the living room to have his morning bottle if I forget something in his room like the boppy pillow when I go back for it he starts to cry because he thinks I am going to put him back in the crib.
The other day he was looking at me through the mirror and then he would turn his head and look at me and then look at me through the mirror and then look at me. It was like I was in two places at the same time, he was so cute trying to figure it out.
I have been trying to teach him to stay away from the garbage can when in his walker and it is starting to work. When I say ‘no’ he stops and looks at me like he is trying to understand but just doesn’t quite get it yet. Then, of course he goes right back to the garbage but it is a step in the right direction.
When he drops his pacifier he tries to put it back in his mouth but usually picks it up by the wrong end and tries to fit the hard plastic part in his mouth. Well he has figured out a better way he flips the pacifier nipple side up and pulls it close to him then when on his tummy he lowers his face over the pacifier and grabs it with his mouth. I think this is ingenious.
He is almost too big for the car seat and I think we will have to look into getting him a convertible car seat soon and by soon I mean a couple weeks. I weighed him at home today and he weighs 20 pounds he is very tall as well. He is completely out of 3 – 6 month clothes and fits into most 6 – 9 month close but just today I tried on a 6 – 9 month outfit and it is tight from neck to buttons so that one won’t last long. His tooth hasn't made an appearance again yet. His next Doctor’s appointment is on July 9th. We are looking forward to the trip, I will try to update as much as I can from there which should be often because I am bringing my laptop and they have fast internet.


Body Movement
* Lifts chest and most of tummy off floor by pushing up on extended arms.
* Rolls from back to tummy easily.
* Rocks and kicks a lot. Rolls around in delight.
* Sits erect briefly, using hands on floor for balance and support.
* Bounces when held erect. Likes seeing the world when standing.

Eye-Hand Coordination
* Uses one-handed purposeful grasp to shake, bang, put object in mouth, then finally drop it. *Enjoys dropping objects repeatedly to learn the noises they make.
* Uses whole hand to rake in and pick up small object.
* Regularly reaches for objects out of her reach.
* Grabs and sucks on her own and your body parts to differentiate herself from you as two separate individuals

Thinking Skills

* Follows your direction of pointing. May point at new things.
* Babbles and "talks" to toys and to himself in mirror. Intently listens to his own voice.
* Understands your speech by the tone of your voice.
* Recognizes names, basic words, familiar household sounds.
* Enjoys manipulating other people's faces by poking, pulling and studying them to understand his separateness from them.

Emotional Development
* Very sociable -- smiles, laughs hilariously and enjoys being with people. May be more selective about with whom she socializes.
* When she can't do something, may become frustrated, whine or explode in rage.
* Smiles at herself in the mirror (but does not recognize it is her reflection until she is more than one year old).
* Is very curious to explore the world around her.
* Plays by herself longer because she can sit better now.
* Appears to make decisions when choosing to play with toys.

I bought Chance one of those things you can feed babies real fruit with. It is easy to grab and kind of shaped like a pacifier but at the end where the nipple would be is a little mesh bag. You can put whatever kind of fruit or vegitable you want in the bag and he can chew on it with out you having to woprry about him choking on big chunks he might bite off or seeds. I put some banana in it because he has already eaten banana and I know he likes it. He wasn't quite sure how this new contraption worked but after he mushed the piece of banana up enough so he could taste it through the bag he really liked it. I held it for him so he could get the hang of it. He would chew on it and then pull away when he got some banana in his mouth like he was supprised. Then he would come back for more because it was so tasty. He's funny like that. Also, our new baby food flavor of the week is carrots! He loves them. He smacks his lips and then opens his mouth wide for another bite. The carrots is the first baby food that I think I might be able to eat on a regular basis. The rest of the don't really taste good at all. But the carrots actually taste like carrots and they are rather good if I do say so myself.

Last night I put a load of laundry in the drier but I forgot to go down and get it before Chance woke up from his nap. Also, last night was bath night and I needed a few things out of that load to give Chance a bath so there was only one thing to do. Take him down with me to get the load of laundry. But how could I carry him and the laundry basket full of laundry back upstairs? The only thing I could see to do was put him inside the basket and fill it up with the clean warm laundry and carry them both upstairs, so I did. He didn't seem to mind at all and even let me take these pictures of him after we got back upstairs. He is such a good baby. He is just too cute 'lost' in the pile of laundry.

Sitting up

Everyday now we do a little tummy time and a little sitting time. I lay him under his play gym on his back, he lays there for a few minutes but then will roll onto his tummy play there for a while looking at himself in the mirror or just looking at the brightly colored pictures on the mat. He moves around in a circle and pushes himself backward but still not much int he forward department. However it won't be long, he pushes himself up high with his arms and pulls his feet up but he doesn't push with them yet he just lets them go and plops back down onto his tummy. After he gets tired of tummy time I sit him up on the edge of the play gym. He sits up all on his own for a few minutes at a time. Sitting close to the gym he will grab for the hanging toys and grab onto the bars that the toys hang from. The bars are soft and springy so he likes to chew on them a lot. He will fall over a few times but likes to sit up so much that I sit him back up and he will sit up again for a few minutes before topling over again. He will do this three or four times before becoming tired of sitting.

Kissies

Everyday I give Chance lots of kissies and sometimes we play a little game of it
I say "Mommy give Chance a kissy"
then I give him a kiss on his cheek
Then I say "Chance give Mommy a kissy"
and I press his lips against my cheek

Well this morning when I gave him a kiss then said "Chance give Mommy a kissy" he opened his mouth and leaned toward my cheek I did it three times and he did it every time then I got out the camera and he did it again and again. It is so cute. Here's the link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiCVA64Lxks

I have been saving big cans for a while to use for repotting plants. The other day I bought some

good dirt so we were ready to start getting our hands dirty. I put down some newspaper put Chance in his
Bumbo chair and set out all the supplies. He was very good while I put our plants in bigger pots and cans. He watched everything I did and I talked to him while he played with his rings. Also, I had read in a magazine that you can give a baby a piece of bread or a cracker to keep him occupied, the article said not to worry "He won't eat it anyway" implying he would just gum it. Well, I gave a cracker to Chance while I was working with the plants and he ate all of it except the little piece that was in his little fist he couldn't figure out how to hold on to it and eat it too. Let me remind you he still doesn't have teeth he just mushed it up so well he could swallow it. This last picture he is blurry because he is trying to get his rings off the ground and he can't quite reach.

We took this picture of Chance the other day right after his evening bath. When I was little I had this little golden book called Baby Dear. It is actually about bringing a new little baby sister home from the hospital but I bought it for Chance. We have read it a few times before bed. These pictures at the bottom of the page are from that book. All wrapped up in his little hoody towel, Chance looks just like the picture.

Update on Chance's tooth! It's gone. It had been a little white nub for weeks and then Friday we pulled his lip down to see it and his tooth had sunk back down into his gum. I've read that this isn't uncommon. So I guess we'll have to wait a little longer for his first tooth to officially come in. He is always making new noises and now smacks his lips and makes a very breathy laugh a lot. He is getting so good at tummy time, I can see him trying to crawl. His brain knows he wants to go forward but when he tries to move him body forward it just won't go yet. He is a very happy baby and is almost always smile at someone or something. These are pictures of him under his play mat making faces for the camera. The smile in the first one is his new smile most of the time his mouth isn't open at all he just straightens his lips out and it makes his cheeks look so pinchable. He also rolls both ways very well now so he can move around by rolling. His hair doesn't look as red as it used to and since he rolls around in his crib now his little bald spot is starting to fill in with new hairs. He is eating less formula now and two "solid" meals a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. We have moved on from just rice cereal. Now he eats rice cereal with bananas as well as green beans, sweet potatos and this week we started peas. Now that he is getting the vegies he won't eat just the plain rice cereal but he loves all the vegies we have tried so far. He eats them and opens his mouth for more. Personally the green beans are the nastiest thing I have ever tasted but he loves them. I have been introducing a new food per week and so far he has liked them all.

My Mom came to visit for the weekend. Which was great because I need all the help I can get to help me keep my sanity. On Saturday we went for a cariage ride through the quarter. Mule drawn carriages give tours through the quarter everyday leaving from Jackson Square. Chance loves being outside and he loved the the carriage ride. It was fun getting to hear some history that I didn't know before. Chance listened to the tour guide and looked around with a big smile on his face for the whole ride. I know he was completely enthralled by the ride because he never tried to wiggle off my lap he just moved his head from side to side looking at everything. After we got back home he took a big long nap.