Playtime with my cousins!

We recently returned from a trip with Aunt Meg, Uncle Chris, Lucie and Ryan, and Gigi and Papa for Uncle AJ's graduation. Yay Uncle AJ for finishing school! It felt like a real summer vacation with lots of sunshine and trips to the beach and park. Tate always enjoys playing with his cousins Lucie and Ryan. They fetch him all the toys he could ever want and entertain him with giggles and smiles. In addition, Tate receives hand-me-down toys, books, and clothes from them. His recent favorites are their disney pop-up toy and Lucie's pajamas. Now that it is summer, I haven't been able to find any warm and fuzzy pajamas in Tate's size. Luckily, Lucie came to the rescue with her yellow and pink ensembles. We thought Tate looked especially cute in the yellow flower print. A man in touch with his feminine side!

The Graduate(s)

The latest blog entry is an obvious plug for Uncle Andrew, who is graduating from college this weekend (Congrats Uncle AJ!). This past week, though, Tate's been doing some graduating of his own.

At the start of the week I was pleasantly surprised to see Tate has evolved from eating pages in books to turning them. Every book we read now is a race between Rachel or me finishing the page and Tate turning to the next. Fortunately we've committed such favorites as Squishy Turtle, Where's Spot, and Pajama Time to memory so we can keep up with our little page turner.

The true pomp and circumstance arrived later in the week, when Tate started crawling and sitting up on his own. He's been getting close to crawling for a while, but now his preferred method of transportation is the commando crawl vs. the roll all over the floor. His other trick is sitting up on his own. It was a little startling the first morning we went into his room and saw him sitting in the corner of his crib.

The pictures below are of Tate crawling to the bookshelf to grab Aunt Meg's recipe book and our smiley little guy sitting up on his own.

A new toy - the sippy cup!

We introduced the sippy cup to Tate a few days ago. It was doctor's orders; poor Taters had a little constipation from all the starchy vegetables and cereals in his new diet and our pediatrician recommended water. At first Tate loved to turn the cup upside down and chew on the bottom. Any cup that claims to be "spill-proof" is lying! Tate would soon be soaking wet. Now he manages a little better with the spout, although it still doesn't appear that a lot of water is actually going down. Oh well, his latest trick is to sit in front of the sippy cup, bend over, and pick it up with his mouth instead of his hands. Our sweet little doggie!