Grampa Sam

After Grama Deborah, and Grandma and Grandpa Sanchez
came to see me, Grampa Sam arrived!
He just returned from a trip so now he can add
these photos.

Grama Deborah had to go home,
but I loved talking with her on the phone.

Grampa and Aunt Sarah went to the Winter Olympics
in Vancouver and bought me some gifts.

Here's my Mukmuk. It is soft, just the right size, and there's plenty
to chew on.

And my Vancouver hat.

I hope I can attend the Olympics someday.
But who knows? I may even become an Olympian.
I'm an excellent kicker already.

Here we are, mugging for the camera at Bayou Bend.

We also went to Hermann Park.
Thanks for coming, Grampa!

21 Weeks Old

Here I am, quite comfortable now in my Judah arm chair.

21 weeks old. My, my!

However, I don't take this milestone too seriously.

Jewel-Tone

Grama Deborah is always calling me her
"Jewel-Tone" Baby
with sapphire eyes, ruby lips, and
an opalescent complexion.

Just between you and me, I don't know what
she's talking about!

But if it makes her happy, I'm happy.
What do you think?

With Momma and Daddy

I have the best parents ever!

They promised me lots of hugs!
This is super!

First Solid Food

Momma decided that the time had come.
What are you putting in my mouth, Momma?

Rice cereal?

Hmm? Should I or shouldn't I open up my mouth?

OK. I can trust you. This tastes pretty good.

Tumba!

Last summer, my Great-Aunt Charlotte hosted a baby shower for my Momma to celebrate my arrival with all her Chew relatives. 

There, Auntie Sarah gave Momma an outfit for me that she had gotten while traveling in Mali for work.  At that point, she didn't even know that I was a boy, but I think she made a fine choice.

This weekend, Auntie came to visit me in Houston so I made sure to wear the Mali outfit.

Don't we look grand?!

Being a Nephew

This weekend, I was so lucky to have two spectacular people come to visit me at the same time.

Auntie Sarah AND Grauntie Janet!

They took me to the park.

They made sure that I looked my best all weekend.  Here, I paired my African outfit with my American summer hat. 

Momma LOVED having her Auntie in town...

...and her Sister, all at the same time.

There's no one in the whole world like my Auntie!

She thinks I'm so special and vice versa.

I'm coming to believe that my preferred role in life is that of nephew.   Thanks for coming!

The Grand Finale

Here are the last batch of photos that my Grandpa LeRoy took of me a couple of weeks ago.  He's been working on them to make sure that my eyes "pop!"  I think he did a terrific job!

Thanks, Grandpa!

Compare and Contrast at Five Months

I have reached an important milestone:  I now am five months old!  At this point, I can safely say that I am happier to be outside of the womb than inside.  (For a while there at the beginning, this was not always true, even though I did appreciate all of your kisses.)  To mark the occasion, Momma took some photos of me in some familiar places so you can appreciate how much I've grown.

Here I am in my swing when I was 1 month old! 

And here I am in the same swing at 5 months!

Me in my chair at 7 weeks...

And here I am in it at 5 months!

Here I'm lounging on the bed at 12 weeks.

Et voila!  Same place, about 11 weeks later!

Au Revoir le Ballon

Once upon a time, there was a ball.

It was the kind of ball that people use at the gym to make their ab muscles stronger.  A few years ago, when I existed only in the mind of God, Momma and Daddy inadvertently bought such a ball as part of a yoga set. 

It turns out, these balls also can be used during labor to help tolerate the contractions. So when it was time for Momma to get ready to deliver me, Daddy inflated the ball and they took it to the hospital.  It helped somewhat during labor. 

When they brought me home, the ball came too.  They didn't deflate it.  Instead, they used it to soothe me by bouncing me on it.  I LOVED it.  In fact, it was the sharpest tool in the Judah-soothing-toolbox.

As you can see, everyone pitched in to calm me down by bouncing me on the ball.

Here's Auntie Sarah bouncing me when I was pretty bitty.

Here's Grandpa LeRoy taking a moment away from cooking to bounce me.

Here's Uncle Simeon bouncing me when I met him in Arizona over Christmas.  Oh yes, the ball had to travel with me.

 

Here are my cousins playing with the ball over Christmas in Santa Fe.

Uncle Dan was kind enough to bounce me when the ball and I traveled to Maine last month.

Here's Grandma Deborah using me to do her weight-bearing exercises on the ball.  I'm not sure what that means, but she said it has to do with building up her bones and thanked me so it must be good. 

Anyway, she needed to take a break from bouncing me.  You see, bouncing on the ball seems easy at first.  And it truly is easier than bouncing me without a ball.  But as time went by, Momma and Daddy got pretty sick of it.

And to tell you the truth, after countless hours of bouncing, I got kinda sick of it too.  You see, for most of my life, either Momma or Daddy or someone had to bounce me in order for me to go to sleep.  Every nap.  Every bedtime.  Every time I woke up in the middle of the night.  If I was going to go back to sleep, someone had to bounce me.  They call it a "sleep assocation" in all the fancy sleeping books Momma read.  I called it "heaven" for a while there.  But then, it started to drive me nuts.  So one day, Momma and Daddy said, "Enough!"  And they stopped bouncing me.

Much to their suprise, I was pretty relieved.  In fact, I slept for 8 hours and 45 minutes straight the night that they stopped bouncing me to go to bed.  Can you believe it?!? That stretch beat my previous world record by about 4 hours and 45 minutes.  Momma was so excited she took a photo of her baby time tracker. 

This development happened about two weeks ago.  For a while, Momma kept the ball inflated just in case I regressed.  Silly Momma.  I may be little but I'm a quick learner.  Now I go to bed on my own without any bouncing.  So Momma put away the ball.  Here I am posing with the deflated ball one last time. 

Au Revoir le Ballon!  Thanks for all the good times...and thanks to each and every one of you who bounced me over the past several months. 

More Fun with Grandpa LeRoy and Grandma Helen

As promised, here are some more wonderful photos that we took when Grandpa LeRoy and Grandma Helen came to visit.

Here I am with my grandparents.  It's so nice of them to come to see me during their Spring Break!

Grandma Helen and I were practically wearing matching outfits.  Don't we look nice?

It's wonderful to have my Grandma hold me so tight.

Getting kisses from Daddy is the BEST!

I love to play in front of my mirror.  As you can see, everyone joined in the fun!  After that, Grandpa LeRoy took some photos of me.  He got the light just right, don't you think?

I can't wait until their next visit!