First step taken in Banning

I think we can officially say that Nikolas took his first step today. Last week back in Encino he started practicing getting up against a sofa or someone's leg. On Thursday when we came to visit deka (pradeka) Dusko in Banning he was able to stand up by himself, but his knees were still wobbly and he kept looking down thinking of the best way to come down. He was also not quite sure of the best position of his legs from which he would push up.

Today he was already much more confident. When he stood up against the sofa close to me, he took a few steps sideways to reach my leg. By the end of the day his sideways distance stretched to as long as a meter, and coming down and getting back up became child's play :)

Not to mention his lack of interest in crawling: why crawl when one can walk and reach more things that way?

We had a very full and joyful day overall. Baka and deda came from Encino to take us and the family from Banning/Palm Desert area out for lunch, to mark Nikolas' visit. We were joined by baka Rada and deda Pero, Shawna, Dave and Dillan, teta Maca and cika Craig, teta Ankica and cika Kamenko, teta Radojka and cika Slavko, and of course deka (pradeka) Dusko.

After lunch the five of us went to visit baka (prabaka's) grave in the Weaver Cemetary to water the flowers and take photos with her great-grandson.

I need to add a couple of videos of Nikolas in front of a mirror--it's too funny. I wonder what goes on in his mind when he sees his reflection--but he licks it every time....

(Even though the second video below shows up black in preview, it will play when you click on the play button.)

7-month 'birthday' (plus standing up without support, climbing out of Bumbo seat, etc.)

Someone turned 7 months old today :)

We spent most of the day on the Manhattan Beach. The weather was just perfect. Nikolas was very happy checking everything and everyone outside of his stroller, and later he had a special treat of being carried on grandpa's shoulders. He kept jumping like he was riding a horse with his infinite energy and shrieking his usual Nikolas shrieks :) I put some sunscreen on his face for the first time, but he ended up red in the face anyway, which turned out to be--from carrots! (I didn't know that carrots could turn baby skin red until now!) His skin is already back to normal a day later.

Mina, Dragan and the kids came over for dinner later that day, and Nikolas and Kiki were very cute playing together around Bumbo seat. I tried it on Nikolas--I wanted to see if he was able to get out of it by now. It's a handy thing to have to keep the baby confined for a bit, which we have no way of doing these days. It took just a couple of minutes for Nikolas to wiggle his way out of the seat! I guess Bumbo won't be one of our investments this time around....

By the way, that's not the potty trainer that the kids are playing with--it's the Bumbo seat.

Our boy can almost balance on two feet. He came up to me while I was sitting on the couch and stood up. I took one of his hands and held it looselywhile the other was in the air, and he stood solidly. Then I let him go and I don't think he noticed that he wasn't supported--he stood for a second or two before his knees wobbled. I don't have those photos yet, but I have videos of him getting up to standing:

Carrots

Nikolas loved the carrots even though I didn't mash them well enough (the mini-chopper is not the way to go, we'll have to get an immersion blender or something like that).
I also gave him a lick of an apple, ok, many licks as I was eating mine, and he couldn't get enough of it. I plan to hold off the fruit until he has tried more veggies.

I spent today at home in Encino and a lot of that time the two of us were together on the floor, Nikolas climbing up my leg to a standing position. He is getting better at it and is definitely very motivated to master it, that's all he wants to do. Of course, he still likes to be picked up and bounced as before. And he babbles more than just last week. Maybe it's the influence of Mina's kids. We spent a lot of time together with them yesterday and playtimes like that is so good for the little ones. I bet it will be no more than a week before Kristian crawl and Nikolas says 'mama'. He still sticks to 'baba', 'dada', 'yaya'... I didn't actually expect that pulling himself up would come so soon.

Standing up and playing in the kiddy pool for the first time!

He did it today!

We were sitting on the floor at Mina's place with Mina, Kristian and Emma, and while Mina and I were chatting she pointed to Nikolas as he was held on to my legs and started pulling himself up.
Wow!

We had a very nice day altogether: in the morning we walked to Mina's place which only took 15-20min and then walked with her and Kiki to Coral Tree Cafe for lunch where Nikolas was thankfully asleep most of the time, and even when he wasn't, he was very calm. Then we picked Mia up from school before we walked back to Mina's place. Kiki and Nikolas played on the floor a lot. Later that day we were back at Mina and Dragan's for a dinner party together with their good friends, so kids got to play some more. Nikolas and Emma got along especially well--they've had this special bond since we were here in May :). At the end of the night he passed out in the crib back at home without crying (for the first time since I got here, finally; new bed again!).

Here is a photo of Nikolas playing in the kiddy pool (ok, inflatable boat since the season seems to be over for kiddy pool in the stores, and all we could find was a little inflatable boat, but it works out perfectly) in my parents' backyard for the first time yesterday.

Here he is standing up:

Now we are really crawling!

This morning Nikolas figured out how to crawl for real, with synchronized leg and arm motions! That allows him to move with more speed and agility, so now "his area" of the living room and beyond is ever expanding, meaning I have to meticulously clean more and more of the floor surface...
Also he is completely stable when he sits (he barely falls over anymore, and when he does we know it because he hits the head on the hardwood floor--it must hurt quite a bit).
Now that he has mastered motion and stability, he can focus better on reaching for things and it seems like in no time he'll be able to pull himself up. The other day we lowered the mattress from highest to middle level in the crib, and I think it should really go to the lowest level soon. At least by the time we get back from L.A. at the end of October....

Moving around

Yesterday this little one spent a couple of hours playing by himself on the floor, even though I was in his sight and there were no other people to distract him from mommy! He discovered that he could get up to sitting position by himself as well as come down and he kept doing this for a long time. He'd crawl to a toy, pick it up, then sit up and play with it until he became interested in something else. He actually managed to crawl to the Exersaucer and get all the way inside the 'bowl' at the bottom of it and back out, just to reach his favorite teether that fell there earlier. I saw him later sitting back on the blanket, holding the teether in his mouth and giving me this big smile, all proud of himself :)
His crawling has progressed from 'military crawl' to a 'worm crawl'. He'd get up on all four, bring his knees close to his chest and then push his torso forward and lie down on his belly, and repeat. So now, instead of pushing with his legs sideways, he goes up and down, until pretty soon he realizes that he can just move his hands forward in sync with his legs.
He loves to sit up. I watched him trying to figure out the best way to get down from the sitting position. Right now he lowers himself over his legs as they turn to the side and so the leg closer to his chest gets stuck underneath him for a bit--he is working on that one.
I'll add some photos here soon....

squash

Today we had squash for the first time.
He liked it--pictures say it all :)

First we have to check out this new thing, the high chair!
Here comes the squash....
Not so bad, huh? I see that smile :)
I can feed myself, give me that spoon (it works great as a teether, too)!

Actually, let me have the whole bowl, spoon-feeding is taking too long!

6-month check-up

August 29th

At his 6-month appointment Nikolas was at 16lbs 12oz and 26.5 in.

The nurse gave him the last in the series of shots that he's been taking since birth, and this time he didn't get the fever like at his 4-month appointment. He just cried for a minute and that was it. Dr. Grooms said that I should feed him yellow vegetables first (squash, avocado, sweet potato, carrot (yellow? oh well... it was on the list anyway), then yellow fruits (banana, pear, apple), then greens, but not leafy vegetables yet because of nitrate contents. Veggies should come before fruits so that he wouldn't develop preference for sweeter stuff right away and reject veggies later. Meats, milk, honey and nuts (esp. peanuts) will wait until he is at least a year old. Citrus will have to wait, too. She recommended vitamin drops to make sure Nikolas gets enough iron (Polyvisol, 1mg daily).

Dr. Grooms also mentioned that we shouldn't use the ExerSaucer for longer than 15min at a time. Oh, and it was such a relief not to have to hold him all the time when he wanted entertainment: holding him really started taking a toll on my lower back! To fill in for the ExerSaucer I now play with him on the floor more, imitating his crawl, reading to him, etc. We got this plastic fence that encloses Nikolas' area of the living room (which is the entire middle of the living room floor, of course!) that's covered with soft blankets and toys. Here are a couple of photos of Nikolas on his territory:

August 25th:

August 31st:

I also play him music, and his favorites are a couple of classical pieces: Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (From "A Space Odyssey" movie) and Ravel's "Bolero". During the first one he quiets down and doesn't take his eyes off the stereo, and during the second one he dances and sings. As much as I try, I can't get him interested in Yugoslavian children's songs that I grew up with :(

Here is a cute one from this morning when he sat on daddy's shoulders for the first time while mommy was boiling squash that she willlater today: