Aaahhhh Video

Here's video of the latest and greatest! Thought I'd follow up from the earlier 'photo only' post.

First Chunky Food

Serif will be 8 months old on Tuesday so we decided to go ahead and try him on his first Stage 3 chunky food tonight, Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce with Beef. This was the reaction I got to about every bite. He kept eating it though so I think he liked it. Normally if he doesn't like something he'll cringe, tense up, make a loud 'gghhhmmm' noise and is now getting to the point he'll spit it out. I think with this he was just discovering all the little chunks of pasta in there and trying to figure out what exactly he's suppose to do with them. He did get pretty intense with gritting those teeth so I think he was getting the concept of learning to chew. The little guy only has 4 little teeth but they sure can make some awful noise! We cringe every time he does that!

Swim Lesson #1

Serif started swim lessons on Wednesday and this photo pretty much sums up how it went. He cried, or should I rephrase that to say he screamed, the whole time! Despite the drama he did well. He's learning to hold his breath under water, front swim, grab the side of the pool and back float. They start teaching lessons at 6 months but Serif was the youngest in his class (he's 7 months now). I'd say the other kids were 1-2 years old. Everyone did great and some had more 'moments' than others (hehehe Serif taking top notch in that category).

In Serif's defense I will say he was woken up twice from his nap to get to the swim lesson not to mention he's been a little under the weather this week. Once we arrived at swim school we all got in our swim attire and immediately got in the pool. One of the first things he learned was to sit on the side of the pool while holding our hands, then we'd have to pull him off the side and let him fall in the water. He would fall, go under and naturally come back up and gasp for breath. We then pulled him around the surface of the water to make it like he were swimming. This is so he gets use to the idea of a frontward swim motion. (this was actually our warm up when we got in the pool too). We would end at the edge of the pool where we would pull him up and put his hands on the side of the pool so he can learn to grab on. We then would turn him over to his back and pull him around the pool so he could learn to back float. The trick with this move is to only hold the back of his head with one hand so he would learn to not have any other support there. He did well with this but did tend to pull his knees up to guard himself. The instructor said this was very normal and just natural instinct to protect oneself from danger. He will learn to relax as he picks this up better.

Jeff and I went to Target this week in preparation for swim classes and we purchased our first kiddie pool. We filled it up only about a foot deep so we could play with Serif in there and get him more use to the water. We got him in there on Thursday night and he loved it! We played more like it was a bath but then we also worked with him to get use to floating on his back. Here are a few more photos.

Here, he's not too sure about this.

He's beginning to gain confidence and trust.

Finally relaxing and doing very well!Finished with pool time and all smiles. He had so much fun!

His new trick from month 7 . . . stretching upside down.

Mom and Serif Time

I've been working so much overtime lately that I've actually been able to take the week off (with the exception of Monday). It's been so nice and it's made me realize how much I miss him. Working that much overtime has left me with some days of only spending maybe an hour with him. Yuk! I'm super appreciative of the work, but am ready for things to slow down . . . just a little.

Generation to Generation

The week that my Mom (Serif's Mimi) died I noticed she would lay with her feet crossed all the time, even to sleep. I asked her if she'd always done that or if it was just comfortable right now. She said she's always done it and that it's just comfortable and just comes naturally to do it. I found it a little amusing because I did the same thing but didn't realize I may have picked it up from her until then. I noticed early on that Serif had a tendency to cross his little feet like this too. I catch him doing it when he's just laying around, napping or even asleep at night. It doesn't matter if he's on his stomach or back, they just cross. It's funny how things work like that. It's one of those things that makes me stop and think of Mom everytime I notice either of us doing it. It makes me miss her.

Aaahhhh

I was riding in the back seat with Serif the other day and he kept making different noises (like 'AH, AAAH' from the back of the throat - how do you spell that?) What perfect opportunity for me to get a good photo of those new top teeth! Of course coming from Mom here, too cute to pass up posting.

Fish Lips

I was feeding Serif his lunch yesterday and he kept making funny faces and making all kinds of noises. He was eating squash, of which he loves, so I know it wasn't a reaction to the food. It's just been his thing lately. So I showed him how to do fish lips. Well, would you believe that this photo was taken this morning when i was feeding him his cereal and pears for breakfast? Ha ha ha. It was hilarious! I did not expect him to pick it up so quickly, but there you go. A fast learner I guess . . . or maybe not in the mood for pears? Nah - he likes those too. Just being funny I think. He's so much fun.

Serif's Poster Part II (finally)

we finally got Serif's Hatch Show Print poster framed. i'm not sure how much we explained back then but this is one of Jim Sherraden's monoprints. he's taken four blocks from other individual pieces/posters to create this unique one.

it's divided into quadrants with the Hatch logo in the middle.


the amazon woman,


the panther woman,


dancing girls,


and 15¢


it's so big we had to hang it sideways - for now.


the coolest part was even though Jim couldn't create us a custom piece, he customized it by adding "To Serif" and signing and dating it again. thanks Jim!


and Serif seemed to like it!

i like daddy's car

i got the privilege of taking the boy to daycare today so this was his first ride in the beetle. he seemed to enjoy it.

Heaven On Earth

Jeff posted this and then told me I could write something if I wanted to. Well, you know me I have to record everything.

Sunday night we went to see Riders In The Sky. They were kicking off a summer concert series at a little amphitheatre in Crockett Park in Brentwood. We met up with our friends William, Karla and Fox and brought a picnic dinner and blankets. It was perfect weather and felt so nice to be able to take Serif to his first concert (with the exception of all those I went to while I was pregnant with him. hehehe). Anyways, the concert was a lot of fun and there were lots of kids there in their cowboy boots, hats and 'get-up'. It was so fun to watch the kids go down the hill and to the stage where they would all dance around foot loose and fancy free. It made us look forward to getting to watch Serif run down the hill to enjoy a little dance with the band. He's already got his boots, we'll have to get him a hat! HeeHeeHee, he'll be our little Buckaroo!

About half way through the show Jeff looks at me and says, 'This is what heaven's going to be like'. I smiled and laughed a little and thought how cool of a thought that is. He always makes me think and always has these clever little thoughts to share . . . one of the things I love about him most.

Nice Fauxhawk - Part II

If you'll remember, there was an earlier post that we did the day after Serif was born titled 'Nice Fauxhawk'. A lot has changed since then but he's really never been able to wear his hair like this because it's too fine and fuzzy. Well, his hair's finally growing thicker and longer so we decided to play with it a little after his bath. We realized we could get it to stand up but the real kicker was the fact that it falls right back down as the hair dries. So . . . I guess it will still be little bit before he really gets to wear it like this. That's okay though, I enjoy the crazy fuzz right now. Everything's going so fast that I don't get too anxious for stuff to change. I just soak up what I can every day.

The other top tooth is here!

This tooth has been making Serif's gum swell for the past couple weeks. Early this week we had a few fussy days as the tooth has made it's way through the gum. It amazes me how quickly it shows up once it breaks through. What you couldn't see last weekend, you can see really well this weekend!

7 Months!

Can you believe that Serif is now 7 months? Hmmmm. So crazy fast! This is one our favorite photos that Jeff took on Sunday (a day after he turned 7 months).

Another update - We took him back to the doctor on Monday because we noticed the 'Croupy' cough coming back and his breathing was getting bad again. Here's what we found out:

The doctor thinks he has a 'reactive cough' which basically means a mild case of Asthma. He said if that's what it is then it typically goes away by the age of 2. So that's good news. We have to monitor him for the next week and see if the cough is gone by next Monday. If it's not, we have to put him on Singulair for a couple weeks and see how he does with that. Perhaps this could be allery related. By the end of those 2 weeks it will be Summer and all of the 'allergy season' stuff should be gone. Hopefully his coughing and breathing will be better by that point. If it's still not better then we will have to resort to breathing treatments. We're praying for a good report soon and that we won't have to go that far with all of this. Keep Serif in your prayers that this will all clear up soon!

The Godby Boys and NASCAR

Enough said.