Truman Takes Some Steps

That's right, you read the title correctly - Truman has started taking steps! And tonight we were lucky enough to capture it on tape. This is actually two very short videos put together - enjoy!

Truman Bounces a Ball

Truman is really starting to imitate our movements lately. The other day we were bouncing one of his sensory balls and he came over and wanted to try!

Fav Fotos Friday

Recently Truman has started testing gravity by pulling himself into a standing position and then letting go with both hands. No walking yet, but we're thinking he's pretty close!

Tonight we gave Truman his first taste of whole milk (at the recommendation of our doctor) and he made this face. We're not sure if it's good or bad, but it sure was cute :-)

How Truman carries his toys around the house:

Cutie

I still maintain that Truman has the cutest profile EVER :-)

8th Tooth!

Two nights ago Truman's 8th tooth broke through! It's been so close for almost a month, and now he has 4 top teeth and 4 bottom - adorable! If you look close you can see it in this picture (it's on the bottom right):

Papa and Truman

I love these pictures - especially the first one. Can't you just feel the love??

Sunday Snapshots

We love our boy!!! (And yes, he is wearing a Halloween bib in the middle of January)

Hat Hair

Last week after our swim lesson, we put a hat on Truman as we were leaving the pool. Well, turns out we shouldn't put a hat on him when his hair is still wet or this craziness ensues! :-)

Tall Boy!

It feels like every day Truman is growing taller and taller. When we measured him last week he was up to 30 inches! It's been fun to watch our round little baby boy get tall and skinny. (Check out his use of tippy toes in the last couple of pictures - he really wanted a book that was on his desk!)

We're Back!

Wow, has it really been 10 days since we last blogged? Sorry about that everyone! Life has truly been a little wacky around here. Last week we got about 6 inches of snow, which equated to 4 snow days for our local school system (welcome to the south!). Then this week our family has been hit by a stomach bug (seriously, can we ever just not be sick?). But now we are back on track and ready to blog! So expect several posts in the next few days as we try to catch up on all things Truman! In the meantime, here are a couple of cute pics of our sweetie:

Jarred Baby Food

So lately we've been getting a bit worried that we haven't been feeding Truman enough meats (we tried blending chicken before, but the texture gets strange when you freeze it and then try to reheat it). Anyway, we decided a solution would be to use jarred baby food just for meats. As I've mentioned before, Truman is not a picky eater in the slightest. In fact, we've never seen him turn down any new food - that is, until we tried jarred baby food. Truman wanted no part of it! After trying one bite he closed his eyes tight, turned his head, and wouldn't eat it. Honestly, it was adorable! And we don't blame him, the food looked pretty gross. I guess it's back to cooking for Mom and Pop!

Playing Outside

So for those who don't know, NC has been hit pretty hard with snow lately (well, it's at least a lot for NC). In fact, school has been cancelled every day this week so far. On Monday when it started to snow we took Truman out - he still loves being outside and he had fun walking (with the help of Mommy) around the backyard.

Fish Face

Lately, Truman has been working on perfecting his fish face - he's getting pretty dang good at it!

Table Foods

Now that Truman has a mouth full of teeth we've started introducing more and more table foods. A few days ago we were eating dinner and decided to share some of our steamed broccoli with Truman. We put a few small bites onto his highchair tray. After examining the broccoli, he decided it looked good enough to try and put it into his mouth. The verdict - he loved it!

A Boy and His Books

Our little boy is such a reader, and we are LOVING it! Truman is constantly going over to his book corner and bringing us books to read to him - it is seriously the cutest thing I have ever witnessed. Here is Truman picking out some reading material (oh, and check out how long his hair is getting - isn't it cute?)

Swimming Lessons Are Back

Swimming lessons started back up this Saturday (yay!) and Truman continues to love being in the water. He has now mastered the art of splashing, and as soon as he entered the water he was splashing Daddy. The new camera seemed to work really well at taking pictures of the boys in the pool - enjoy! (p.s. I love how determined Truman looks in the last picture!)

Melkam Ganna (2 days late)!

Melkam Ganna is Amharic for Merry Christmas - Friday was Ethiopian Christmas and we were so excited to be able to celebrate with Sweet T! We decided to make our first traditional Ethiopian meal. On the menu was Yesimer Wat (a stew made with lentils and tomatoes), Shiro Wat (a stew made with chickpeas, potatoes, and carrots), and, of course, injera (the traditional bread served with Ethiopian food). We also decided to put up a Christmas tree - while that's not traditional for typical Ethiopian Christmases, we have heard that in Addis Ababa it's becoming more common for families to have trees. We decided to decorate our tree with ribbons in the colors of the Ethiopian flag - I think it turned out cute!


Anyway, the meal turned out a lot easier to make than expected (thanks in large part to Shea prepping all the veggies earlier in the day). It just felt so nice to be making Ethiopian food with Ethiopian jazz playing in the background and our sweet baby boy playing in the kitchen. The Shiro Wat was delicious (thanks for the recommendation, Tera!), the Yesimer Wat was okay (I think next time we'll use more berbere, which is the traditional blend of spices used in Ethiopian cooking), and the injera was really good! (sure, it wasn't "true" injera because we don't have access to the grain tef which is the main ingredient in injera, but our imitation wasn't half-bad!). Truman also got his first taste of Ethiopian food. While the Shiro Wat was a bit spicy for him, he seemed to enjoy the Yesimer Wat! Here are some pictures of our spread and our boy trying his first Ethiopian food:



After dinner we gave Truman his gift - we hadn't given him anything at Christmas in NY and went small this year, giving him a puzzle (we're not huge on accumulating lots of material things in our house - except books, of course!). Customarily children are given clothing at Ethiopian Christmas, so we're planning on starting that tradition next year. Here's Truman enjoying his gift, which makes animal noises when you put the puzzle pieces in the correct spots: