4 Generations

A little over a month ago, I had the chance to bring Titus to visit his MorMorMor and we had a great time. My mom and I traveled up and stayed with John and Keiko for a night on each end of the trip and two nights with MorMor and Grandpa in between. We had a blast. First Uncle Mark and Aunt Rita came for the day on Sunday.

Then MorMor and I went to her water aerobics class... I was on the younger side of the ladies and she was on the older side, but she still swims circles around all of us. I'm very proud to be her granddaughter - I hope to be as in shape as her when I'm her age!

Titus was a big hit - especially in his UVA outfit (which we brough in honor of my cousin Mike who is a student there right now - Uncle Mark's and Aunt Rita's son).

We also had a chance to watch some (very, very) old videos of MorMor and Mom from when they were growing up... even one of my mom when she was in the first couple of weeks of her life. It is interesting how much I see her in Titus' face now that I saw those videos!

And probably the absolute highlight for me was hearing lots of stories about my mom's dad from MorMor - how they met and all about their relationship. They sure were a pair - both were quite adventurous and daring.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip and one I hope we can repeat again soon!

Titus' first syllables

Titus is right on the cusp of starting to verbally communicate, and here's how it sounds. Note the practice rounds of opening his mouth before actually letting a sound come out.

A Solid Day

So I finally caved in today and gave Titus his first solid food... rice cereal. It was an exciting time and went much better than I anticipated... and by better, I don't mean that he consumed very much... I only spooned out half off what I made, and I would be willing to bet that less than 1% actually made it to his stomach. In fact, I questioned towards the end of this "meal" if I should have just dumped the bowl of food over his face and down his shirt right off the bat so as to have been more efficient in achieving the result :) It was better in the sense that it was actually a lot of fun and not a lot of stress (which is what I had pictured).

So here are a couple of pictures from our first adventure with rice cereal:

And if you want to see more detail of our fiesta, here is a video to chronicle the event a little more (it's less than a minute long - don't worry, I didn't record the whole meal :)

6 months (a couple of weeks ago)

As Strider kindly informed you earlier on our blog - Titus had his 1/2 birthday on January 29. Graham and I have been a bit nostalgic at the idea of Titus getting bigger and no longer being an infant... so I've been putting this post (and other things) off in hopes of keeping him tiny forever. It's not working though and in the last couple of weeks, Titus has had some big things to celebrate. He's now almost completely self-sufficient in sitting up (he still tips from time to time), can stand with an inanimate object and he has two teeth! He's such a joy to watch as he grows and discovers all kinds of things. It gives you such a great appreciation for things in life to see the pure joy and delight in his eyes as he sees things for the first time.

Here is a 6 month photo (same chair as always) and some others of him learning to sit and stand:

We had his six month appointment yesterday and learned that while he's still growing like a weed in height (92nd percentile), he's not so large in weight (only 16th percentile) and so I must force myself to enter the realm of solid foods with him. Stay tuned for the first feeding post - coming next!

Titus the Tiny Tiger

Some of you know that my favorite name for Titus is some variation of his full nickname: "Titus the Tiny but Titanic Titan of Titanium." I may have to change that now to "Titus the Tiny Tigrous Titantic Titan of Titanium" -- Tigrous being an adjective I just made up that means "(1) of or like a tiger; (2) having teeth." So there you have it: the announcement that Titus has teeth! We just discovered this last night while hanging out with our friends Jessica and Todd Smartt. Pretty cool discovery.

I hear in baby circles that this is a pretty big milestone. Titus and I have already agreed (albeit, his consent is tacit) that he won't grow up to be a little boy, so I have a feeling Titus is already defying our agreement. Oh man... all at once, I'm 1) so excited to see him as a little boy, where we can start to converse with him and watch him learn so many things; and 2) so not looking forward to him being bigger than he is right now, where we can just hold him all the time and he doesn't want to be put down. So we cherish these moments, because before we know it, he'll be off and married and talking about the same stuff regarding his children. I know, I know -- getting way ahead of myself. But parents are allowed to be sappy about their own kids. :)

Being 6 months has its perqs

Now that Titus is 6 months old, I'm feeling more liberty to use and defy gravity with him. This will in later months take the form of me tossing Titus in the air, with Katie having to hold her tongue amidst tensing with fear and sighing with relief. But for now, it's just me bringing him quickly up and acting like I've dropped him. He seems to like it:

P.S. For those English police officers out there - or those who think they are - think before you correct my spelling of the word "perqs." :)

Graham / Daddy

titus

titus is 6months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STRIDER