2 more teeth!

Two more upper teeth protruded today on either side of the front teeth!
That's why he's been drooling so much in the last few days--it's always the sign of a coming tooth.
To add to the food diary: he ate a bowl of red beets for lunch and after dinner he had apple for the first time (not counting the licks that he got from my apples--now that he bites, I don't dare let him lick the apple anymore).

mango

Baka reminded me that he already tried mango in LA a couple of weeks ago, and loved it. Well, today I bought a box of mangoes and put it on the floor temporarily. Nikolas crawled to it and jumped on the mangoes and started touching and licking them as if he was going to eat them by himself. I had to peel and puree one and he had a little bit just before bedtime.
He was a good boy today. We played in at home, we also went for a long walk in a different neighborhood that was pretty nice, smelled like pine trees which I love, and Nikolas slept during the entire 1.5hr walk, which hasn't happened in Gainesville yet but regularly happened in LA for some reason... he fussed so much when I put him in the jogger that today I used the Maclaren and it seems like he likes it better! Strange.
Oh, he caught a cold. His nose is stuffy and his voice is a bit rough (sneezes and coughs a little too), but he doesn't have a fever. I wonder if this is the effect of the flu shot on his immune system.

yogurt, cheerios, sippy cup

We tried all those things today:
First I let him play with Cherrios in a bowl of water. He chased them around and was able to grab them, even occasionally using thumb and index finger only, although mostly full fists, but he didn't realize they were edible. Why does he put everything in his mouth except for real food?! Ok, we'll work on that more this week.
Then, during our evening walk I gave him his first sippy cup filled with water. I got one of those Gerber bottles with handles. He was able to hold it and put the correct (and then some incorrect) parts of the bottle in his mouth, but I think more water ended up on his clothes than in his mouth, so I had to turn around and change him before finishing my walk.
Finally, he got a taste of yogurt before bedtime, and of course, is there anything Nikolas will refuse?!

Flu shot (we are back in Gainesville!)

I took Nikolas for his first flu shot. It was quick and relatively painless. I took the opportunity to weigh him at the nurse's station and he weighed 18.5lbs. No idea how that translates into percentiles for the US.
The only reason I took him for a flu shot is to help get him protected during the trip planned for the Christmas break. I just that hope my baby is as good on those flights as he was during out flight back from California! I initially tried to change my ticket to be on the same flight as Robb from Atlanta to Jacksonville, where we are both changing planes (Robb arriving from Moscow and us from LA), but I wasn't allowed to make the change over the phone. Well, so we showed up at LAX bright and early in the morning for our 8:30am flight when, just as I was asking the person at the gate if I could have a seat with more leg space, it was announced that due to some mechanical problem all of us would be redirected to other flights. I asked again if I could be accommodated to catch Robb's flight in Atlanta (didn't matter when I left LA), and since I was first in line, the lady at the check-in was nice to arrange this for me. She even tried to let me sit next to Robb but there were no two seats next to each other. So this turned out just perfect! There was no way otherwise that Robb and I could fly together from Atlanta to Jacksonville, and who knows how long we would have had to wait for each other in Jacksonville to drive to Gainesville together.

After I was booked on a noon flight, I called mom and dad and they turned around and returned to LAX to keep us company. We had coffee and lunch together at the airport, took some more pictures, they played some more with Nikolas, it was great!

Then, on the plane, I held Nikolas in my lap with the table pulled down right in front of him, and I handed him some plastic cups and bottles with water to play with them. That was the latest discovery: I could hand him my keys or a water bottle with a little bit of water in it, and there was entertainment right there for at least half an hour, if not more. He is getting very good at hand motor skills (still good with his feet too). He holds objects, no matter how tiny they are, passes them from one hand to another, and always, when he encounters a new object, holds it in one hand and wiggles his wrist so the object waves around a few times, as if he is checking out how heavy or how elastic it is...! There is a special determined and absorbed look on his face as he does this. It's very funny.

He managed to fall asleep in my arms once and another time while I stood holding him. And not for a bit did he get fussy! I couldn't believe it.

In Atlanta we met daddy :) and flew together to Jacksonville. Nikolas provided entertainment for everyone around us. By this time he was getting tired which meant he got pretty loud with his happy, energetic shrieks. They could easily be misinterpreted by giddiness, which it probably was, but it's the kind that happens just before once passes out into deep sleep.

Back at home he slept in bed with mommy because he got terrified lying in the playpen under a large fan, I guess, in addition to the new smells and new surroundings. The playpen was in our bedroom until Robb moved Nikolas' furniture back to his freshly painted blue room! I didn't know what shade of blue to expect and I was nicely surprised to discover my favorite summer blue :) It gives the whole room such an interesting, deep and calming effect! I arranged the furniture in there a few times in the last couple of days, until I found the perfect arrangement! Now I really like it, and it seems like Nikolas does too. I let him crawl around the living room, kitchen and his room pretty freely (I still have to move the Nordic Track out of the way), but I think we've done a good job keeping the area child-safe.

two more teeth today

Upper left and bottom left just peeked out today.

Here are some photos taken during the day.

Self-taken photo of mommy and son playing on the floor at home:

Nikolas investigating grass quality at the Balboa park:
Mia is trying to hold Nikolas--and he is jumping, as usual:
In the evening we visited Mina where baka stopped by to pick me and Nikolas up:
The two boys are nicely playing together...:
Then out of nowhere, here comes a kiss (or a bite!):
What, why is everyone looking at me and laughing???
Haha, now you are making me laugh too... :)
Especially when I see how shocked Kiki still is :)

pics from the past few days (Venice, Malibu beach)

I forgot to mention:

Last Saturday the grandparents, mommy and Nikolas spent a majority of the day on Venice beach and Santa Monica. We all enjoyed the stroll and the weather couldn't have been better for it.

Yesterday the two of us went with Mina, Emma, Kiki, Enida and her boy Tristan to Malibu beach. We hung out at the Village first where there is a nice little playground for bigger kids (the two little ones could still peek out from their strollers), and then we crossed the street and sat on the beach for a little while. Emma and Tristan were so cute together! Bummer I don't have any pictures of them. I finally put some sunscreen on Nikolas for the first time.

Nikolas and Kiki, with Mina and Emma in the background:

Before we headed home, we stopped for lunch at the fish and chips place right on highway 1 in Malibu that I'd definitely recommend to anyone who likes fish. The little ones were both asleep, which makes any lunch more enjoyable :)

peekaboo

Nikolas knows how to play peekaboo!

I was checking my email in the office this morning while he was playing in the living room. When he spotted me, he crawled to the hallway entrance and stayed a bit hidden behind the wall, then peeked out--I said 'chuuu' (my version of 'peekaboo'), at which he gave me a huge smile and then hid again, then peeked again.... We played for a couple of minutes and it was hilarious and so awesome to see that he really was playing the game!

The other thing he played with today was the spongy puzzle that he entirely took apart and spread all over the living room, it looked like a tractor passed through the room--what a mess! The pieces came handy for chewing--they are just soft enough that they don't hurt his gums but hard enough to massage his gums that will produce more teeth any day now. I think I can already see the other front upper tooth just under a thin layer of skin.

He climbs everything now. The coffee table is a major attraction since it has, up until now, housed a remote control, newspapers, a story book, often a cup... all those things he'd love to put his hands on! Of course, chairs, sofa, etc. are just as good a support for climbing. Check out his right sock :) At least it's on, he hasn't bit if off his foot just yet!

cevapi

Today we had a second installment of our family lunch at our house. We had Mira, Julio and Divna over, as well as Lela and Mico, and Mina and Dragan with the kids.
Tata made cevapcici for an appetizer, which were the favorite as usual. The funny part was that while I was holding Nikolas and eating cevapcici, he leaned towards my face and opened his mouth wide to bite my mouth! He was reeeeally attracted by the smell of cevapcici that I feel bad that he'll have to hold off tasting any meat until a bit later... I don't think I'll wait until he turns one but at least until he has tried more veggies and fruits. So far he's had cereal, squash, avocado, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, peas and beats (the last three were not his favorites), and occasionally he's had a bit of melon juice.

More of Santa Barbara

Now that the little one is crawling very fast and climbing anything he can climb, we had to design barricades to keep him confined to one place from time to time. He was surprisingly entertained on his own there even when no one was paying much attention at him (ok, that doesn't happen very often, but he still didn't call for mommy). He played with his toys and practiced climbing and walking along the barricade. He is especially working on sitting down. So far he has realized that he needs to grab something lower and somehow bring his butt down, but he hasn't realized that he needs to bend his knees to do that, so he continually spreads his legs sideways instead and eventually falls back on his butt (sometimes he ends up in split and demands to be rescued, outch!).

This morning he successfully passed from Lela's to deko's arms without losing balance on his feet,

and continued to walk and jump:

Saying bye to aunt Lela before she left for work (can I keep her necklace to play with it?):

Just to add another photo, here is one from last Sunday in a little cafe on State St.:

First tooth (Santa Barbara)

Nikolas' first tooth appeared today! I noticed the outline yesterday on his right-hand upper gums (surprisingly upper rather than lower) that was getting whitish in color, and today the actual tooth showed up.

Can you see the tooth?

Deko, Nikolas and I arrived in Santa Barbara yesterday to visit aunt Lela. While Lela was at work today, the three of us drove to the UCSB beach where we spread a blanket under a tree to keep the baby skin protected from sun. Then I brought Nikolas to touch the sand and the ocean water--he wasn't too thrilled with either the wet sand or the cold water.... but he enjoyed the grass a lot, as seen on the second photo below. From time to time I had to keep him from stuffing the grass in his mouth.

Checking out the beach....

Hello there!

Yummy grass!

Lunch on the beach...