Summer Time Fun!!!!!!

Blaze and Daddy enjoying the pool.  Blaze truly has no fear of the water and is getting to be quite the little swimmer.  Look out Micheal Phelps!!!

Time flies...

We are right around the corner to Blaze's first Birthday!  We have booked our flights to visit Papa and Grandma in Niagara Falls.  Grandma is so excited...she thought she was going to have to wait until mid-October to see her little sunshine again.  It should be such a nice trip.  I know they will barely recognize Blaze.  He has grown leaps and bounds since early April when they last saw him.  Skype is great, but it just doesn't match the feeling of being together in person.  Then we will plan our next trip later in the year, which will be to visit Gerry's Mom and his daughters Jessica and her family and Kristin in Nova Scotia.

I thought that it felt like I had  no time to update the blog before, but now...forget it!!!  Blaze is crawling all over the place and getting into everything.  We can't take our eyes off of him.

Under my jumperoo

Some have suggested a gated-in play area or playpen, but I don't want to restrict him.  He has so much fun exploring and if it means that I have to spend every single minute with him, well then so much for blogging and everything else.  This only happens once and I want to remember and experience every single minute of it.  I work all day and it leaves such limited time together, so home equals Blaze and family time.  Hence the reason I am writing this while he is sleeping and its Saturday night and I don't have to get up at 450am for work. 

I keep telling myself I will just do some short blog posts with photos, but that doesn't happen either and not to mention that almost a month ago our computer decided to die, SO no pictures to access.  Its been a busy month and a half with Blaze growing, our stove dying and needing to be fixed (certainly not from over use for those who know me), computer dying and needing to be replaced, Mommy turning 40 (and having a mini-meltdown about that), Daddy and Blaze's first Fathers Day and even his first 4th of July fireworks show, and those are just major events.

 

Watching the fireworks intently

Like I mentioned earlier, Blaze is crawling all over the place.  When he hits the tile he gets up on his hands and feet and does a crab crawl.  He really moves fast like that too.

We have started covering outlets and moving all the low breakables and are going to be purchasing gates very soon.  He hasn't officially found Neyla's doggy door...YET, but we are keeping a very, very close eye on him.  He is pulling himself up to stand and as soon as he started to crawl he would crawl to us and pull himself up for us to walk him all over the house.

He didn't take long to figure out how to pull himself up in his crib and thus it currently looks like a beaver has attacked it.  He has chewed from one side to the other, and Oh so proud of himself.  We quickly lowered the crib that day.  Not that it has stopped the chewing, but hopefully a tumble over the top!

He flips and turns and kicks on his change table and is almost too tall for it.  Its like Wrestle Mania IV trying to put a diaper on him.

 

He loves Neyla's big bed and will crawl over and join her in it!

Can I trade beds?

He likes pulling himself up on his jumperoo and playing on the outside of it.  He is definitely giving Neyla a run for her money.  He has found her tail and figured out her fur is easy to grab.  Neyla is so awesome.  We are so proud of our little rescue dog.  She takes it all like a champ and when she has had enough just gets up and walks off.  

He is trying all sorts of new foods and drinks.  Fried, mashed and sweet potatoes, spaghetti, wieners, scrambled eggs, crackers, grilled cheese, lots of fresh fruits and veggies and even slow-melt Popsicles.   He has a very sensitive gag reflex so we have to watch or he will gag and spit up some of his food.  But it doesn't phase him much.  He does pretty good with his 4 little teeth.  He is picking bit-sized foods up and getting them into his mouth consistently, that took a little bit of practice.  And of course, he still does great with his sippy cup. 

My very favorite accomplishment happened just the other day.  After 2 months of saying DaDa, he finally clearly said MaMa!  It was so amazing! Well that, and also that he gives us kisses on the lips when we ask.  Open mouth kisses, but they are SO darn cute!

He continues to be such a happy, happy kiddo!  He is learning the word, 'No'.  And is pretty consistent about stopping when we say it in a stern voice.  He thinks about it first though.  We can't help but giggle at him.  He is so mischievous and very stubborn.  I am convinced he gets those traits from his Daddy. 

He is such a people person.  He loves seeing his Nanny when she has been away for a few days and loves people watching and smiling and hamming it up.  He loves women and loves looking at himself in the mirror (what a typical boy).  He is full of smiles when we take him out and people stop to comment on his happy nature and adorable smile.  He will go to anyone who wants to hold him and he just stares very intently checking out their entire face then will laugh and cuddle once he figures they are safe.  His smile lights up a room and its from ear to ear.  You can't help but smile when he does.  We just love him to bits!

He continues to sleep through the night and we try really hard to ensure he gets 2 good naps during the day, but Blaze doesn't always like to cooperate fully and then its early to bed that night.  We learned a valuable parenting lesson about only putting a diaper on for a nap.  We had come in from a family swim and decided to just dry Blaze off and put a diaper on since he was pretty exhausted.  After a while I heard him playing and decided to go in and check on him only to find him buck naked with his diaper at the other end of the crib, and all smiles.  He is such a stinker.  Thankfully I didn't have any messes to clean up.

Blaze's 9 month check up went great!  Even better for him since he actually made it out without getting poked with needles.  The Doc said he is still lean and that's okay since he burns so much energy, constantly jumping and moving.  He is now 18.5 lbs and 28.5 inches long.

He officially graduated to the "'big boy bath" a month or so ago.  We bought an Elmo mat and a Sesame Street blow up bumper that goes around the whole tub.  He loves being able to move and crawl and lay back.

Swimming class continues weekly and Blaze is SO relaxed and calm in the water.  Coach Bryce gets such a kick out of him in class. 

We take him out back in our pool as often as possible and he loves it!

We have certainly gotten our money's worth out of our annual Zoo pass and make frequent visits.

 Blaze and Blaze the goat!

Blaze had his first huge play date right here at home.  We invited our friends that we haven't seen in so long.  Our fellow India surrogate friends Sarah, John and baby Savannah (the old woman of the group, already over a year old),

Our fellow local blogger friends, Bobby, Greg and baby Sabrina (just had her first birthday)

and Gerry's ex-coworker and our dear friends, Chantelle, Cyndi and baby Xander (the baby of the group already 6 months old).

It was a day full of food and fun.  We swam and played and just caught up on so much.  All the kids swam and it was great to see all the little smiling, giggling faces in the pool.  Some for their first time in a pool and others old pros at swimming.

Now THAT was a party!!!

We have finally starting completing the finishing touches on the nursery.  I covered these plain white letters with animal prints and now that we have recovered all of our photos from the old laptop, I can work on his growth chart.  I am going to put little framed photos next to his various heights.

 

We did some spring cleaning of Blaze's closet and clothes, and packed away everything from clothes, to shoes, to hats.  This, believe it or not is just newborn to 3 months.  He still fits his 6 months clothes. 

 

Well hopefully that gives you a little insight into what has been happening in the life of our little man, our beautiful boy, our MIRACLE.