I just can't get enough

This last one makes me laugh...his hair was going crazy because of the static, and he's had this obsession today about sticking out his tongue.

Fun Food

Brooks enjoys sucking on wagon wheels, but he has been taking too big of a bite lately. So the other night I decided to break them apart into smaller pieces and put them on the table for him to grab. He loves this! He grabs the pieces with his tiny little fingers and tries to make it to his mouth. Some times he'll get distracted by the other pieces on the table, so he ends up dropping one piece just to grab another. And when he gets a piece in his mouth he actually does a really good job "chewing" it. It's totally cute! Tonight we went out to eat ($1 mini margaritas and Mexican food), and I brought some wagon wheels to break apart and give to Brooks to chew on so he wouldn't get bored. He gobbled up 3 wagon wheels and would've eaten more if I had brought any more. As soon as one was in his mouth, he was grabbing for another piece. He was getting a little greedy! When our food got there I thought it would be nice to share some of my black beans with Brooks. I put a pile of the beans in front of him, and he loved grabbing them and shoving them into his mouth. (And for those of you thinking that I put food down on a dirty restaurant table, I will have you know that I totally washed it down first.) So, Brooks pretty much ate the entire time that we were at the restaurant. It was amazing! Some times I look at his belly and wonder how anything else will fit in there.
[For those of you who are wondering what the heck a wagon wheel is, I added a picture as a visual aid.]

He Definitely has his Moments

I was reading my friend's blog the other day, and she mentioned that you always see pictures of smiling babies. This kind of leads others to think that babies are always happy, or pictures of smiling babies are easy to get. Let me quote my friend, "Babies DO cry, they DO get sick, and they DO get mad sometimes it is what they do and that is why they are called babies. So don't be fooled by all the happy babies and think that every baby is just blissful 100% of the time because it is just not true. The smiles just make it all worthwhile kinda like it is GOD's way of reassuring us that these are His priceless gifts." I couldn't have said it any better, which is why I used her quote (thanks Jen).
Brooks is actually a pretty happy baby. I know I don't have my own to compare, but I see other babies, and it seems to be that Brooks could be labeled 'a happy baby'. He's pretty chill and relaxed, and rarely fusses. Lately he's learned to throw little tantrums when things don't go his way. Usually these happen when I take something away from him (cell phone, remote, water bottle, or something else that doesn't really belong to him). I try to replace the item with something that he'll enjoy, but some times it's too late and he is too upset to realize that the item has been replaced. At home it's easy to just let him throw his fit and then come back to him. He throws he head back and arms up in the air and just screams! It's a funny site (at home), but out in public it is embarrassing. Now, he's really own done it once in public. We were at a restaurant the other day and Chad was letting him suck on a cucumber. Well, he loved it. When it became a chocking hazard, it was taken away...and then came the tantrum. Chad took him outside with his paci to calm him down.
The point being that Brooks has many faces, and he definitely has his moments. He was fussing in his highchair the other day to get out, or something, I'm not really sure why he was fussing. So, I thought I'd get the camera to prove my point that no baby is perfect. The funny thing is that once I got the camera out to take the picture, he stopped. I'd turn around and he'd fuss, then I'd spin around to take the picture and he'd be fine again. Ironic. But I did catch him in a fit. You can see from the pictures how it progressed.

7 months old

Can that be right? Is my son really 7 months old? Has it really been 7 months since I lived in the hospital and then met Brooks for the first time? Where is the time going?! Brooks is growing bigger everyday. He still doesn't really have any "chunk" to him. But - he is definitely growing. Here's some things that he is doing these days:

* He sits up extremely well
* Rolls over with ease
* Sleeps 11+ hours a night
* He eats carrots, green beans, applesauce, peaches, squash, rice cereal, and oatmeal. Although he's not much of a fan when it comes to bananas and avocados (we'll keep trying). And sweet potatoes seem to give him gas.
* He gets up on all fours
* He babbles using the /m/, /b/, /d/, and /p/ sounds mixed in with some vowels
* He likes to drink from my water bottle (or try at least)
* He throws temper tantrums when you take a "toy" away (by "toy" I mean my cell phone or something else that's not his)
* He's laughing more and more
* Peek-a-Boo is a fun game
* He's finally grown into appropriate size clothing (6-9 mos)

I throw in that last one because since birth, Brooks has always been in smaller sized clothes. At first the preemie clothes were even too big. Here's a picture of the outfit he came home in (premie) and a pair of p.j.'s that he's wearing now (6-9mos). I can hardly believe that he used to fit into that little outfit!

He was in newborn sized clothes for what seemed like forever!

And now he is wearing 6-9 mos. Here he is posing for his monthly chair picture in one of my favorite 6-9 mos outfit (thanks Lindsey):

Snowshoeing

We went out last Saturday to go snowshoeing with some highly experienced friends. Well, we've had some really warm weather, and apparently the mountains have as well. There was plenty of snow, but not enough to need our snowshoes (that was kind of the whole point). We ended up carrying our shoes and just hiking. We went with our friends Nate and Kristen, and their little girl, Tenley (aka Brooks' girlfriend). Brooks is still too small for the backpack, so we had him in the Baby Bjorn. Chad carried him up the hill and he did great. On the way down he screamed for about 30 minutes straight. He was SO tired and apparently cold. When we got down his little lip was quivering. I felt so bad. Despite my best efforts to bundle him up, the shadows and wind were too much for the little guy on the way down. He ended up falling asleep in the car and slept for 3 hours once we got home. He was tuckered out! Hopefully we'll get out again soon and actually have some snow to walk around in.

Ready to get Movin'

Brooks has just discovered that he can lift his body off the ground. He is starting to practice "crawling" just like his daddy used to. He gets on all fours and sticks his butt up in the air. He is so proud of himself when he does this. He can move his feet in this position like he's going to crawl, but his hands are stuck to the ground like glue. He'll figure it out soon enough. For now, we just get a kick out of him trying. It's too cute!

80 Degrees!

That's right, folks! It was close to 80 degrees in Denver today. We totally took advantage of the warm weather and went to the park. I wore jeans, a tank, and sandals - and I was actually hot! It's fun on those warm days when you can be outside enjoying the warm sun, and still see snow in the background. Brooks had fun swinging and hanging out on the blanket, and Kansas had fun chasing his ball and eating pinecones.

Honesty

Honesty is something that is very important to me. In my classroom, I make sure that the kids always tell the truth. Sometimes it's hard for them to tell the truth because they know that they might get in trouble. But they know about integrity, and they do a pretty good job telling the truth. Well, this morning I got a little bit more truth than I bargained for. Let me paint the picture for you. Today I wore a brown skirt with a white button-up shirt and my mustard yellow ballet shoes. I had one little girl come up to me and say, "Mrs. Hoffman, you look funny in those shoes!" And the little girl next to her added, "Yeah - (haha) and they don't even match!" Talk about a good start to my day. The kids just say what they're thinking. The other kindergarten teacher has been teaching there longer than I've been alive (seriously), and she told me that one day she bent over and a little kindergarten said, "Oh my Gosh! That is the biggest butt I've ever seen!" She said she went on a diet the very next day.
Sometimes honesty is not what you want to hear.

A Snowy Day

In the morning, the first thing I do is look at my window. We live on church property, and there is a time and temp sign outside that I always like to look at. On Monday morning, I looked outside and saw a blizzard. It was 25 degrees and snowing like crazy. I watch the weather a lot so usually I know when we're expecting snow. The weathermen seemed just as blind sighted as I did. There was already a couple of inches on the ground before I left for work. The drive was treacherous (good thing I only live a mile away). It was done snowing by lunch time. Chad has been sick lately, so I got out and shoveled the walkway. I put Brooks in the Baby Bjorn and got to work. I felt like a pioneer woman out there with the shovel in my hands, and my baby strapped to my chest. We also took some time to play in the snow, and Brooks made his first snow angel.

New Hat

That's pretty much it! Not much to say - just check out Brooks' new hat. I love it!

Just Practicing

So - in a short amount of time, Brooks has become an expert at sitting up, and is now getting into the crawl position. He loves being on his knees, but has a hard time getting there by himself. We usually put him on his tummy with his knees on the floor. Then he rocks back and forth. He gets a big smile on his face like he's done something amazing. BUT - he does actually get up on all fours. He gets himself in a push-up position with his butt up in the air (no pictures yet). It's hilarious! It's exactly how his daddy crawled. It won' be long...

Yummy

When I was little, my mom used to give me a big dill pickle to suck on. She said that I would gnaw on the thing for hours. Well, to this day I still love big dill pickles. I was eating one the other night and I gave Brooks a little taste to see what he'd do. I was anticipating a crazy face, but instead he loved it. It was hard for him to hold by himself, and when he'd drop it he'd get really mad. But he just sucked on it as long as I'd let him. It was so cute.

Christmas...Round Two

On Christmas Day we flew down to Corpus Christi to be with Chad's family. Brooks was such a trooper on the flight, considering that he was up for about 6 hours straight. We got up on the 26th and had our second round of Christmas. Brooks opened lots of presents with his cousin Brodie, took a nap, and then woke up and opened more presents. We spent a week down there - and had tons of fun. Brooks got so much attention from everyone, but especially Brodie. Brodie is his 2 1/2 year-old cousin, and he is absolutely in love with "Baby Brooks". He would hug and kiss him all the time, share toys, and try to console him when he was sad.

It was so warm down in Corpus that we also got in the hot tub a couple of times. Brooks has finally grown into his swim suit, and he looked adorable. He loved the water. He learned how to splash and he couldn't/wouldn't stop. The good thing is that since birth we have been dumping water over his head so he is totally comfortable with water in his eyes. We hope he'll grow up to be a swimmer like his daddy and Aunt Jill and Aunt Joy (the Hoffman's are like fish).



The week was filled with lots of "firsts":
First trip to Corpus.

First time to meet great-grandparents.

First bath in a big tub.

First experience playing with grass.

First time on a swing.

First time down the slide.

First time for four generations of Hoffmans to get together.

It doesn't get much better than that!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was perfect! Gammy and Pops were here and Brooks had a blast opening presents. He pulled gifts out of his stocking (with some assistance), and helped Daddy unwrap presents. He was a very happy little "elf". He got a basketball goal, a piano, rattles, clothes, shoes, etc. It's so different having a baby at Christmas. I loved the presents that I got (Chad got me a gift card to a spa), but I was more excited about Brooks and enjoying every moment of his first Christmas. There will never be another first Christmas - and that's really special and sad at the same time. My little boy is growing up so fast!