The Great Explorer

Ayden made another developmental leap today! He "left" us three or four times to go exploring on his own. Up until now he'd explore but wouldn't stray very far. Now he'll round a corner or leave a room without even looking back. That is in our own house, though. He definitely still stays close in other places. I wonder if he was taking notes over the weekend while he was playing with all of his cousins :). He has also started playing pulled up on his knees a lot which is so adorable. He's getting pretty sturdy and very rarely falls these days, though it does still happen occasionally.

 Here are a few clips from Ayden's day today:

As for David's and my day, we managed to do this...

The gal who bought our office furniture is coming to pick it up tomorrow so we, or maybe just David :), cleared it all off, broke it down and moved it to the garage. Things always get worse before they get better when you are reorganizing and right now that room looks like a war zone! Hopefully we can take time each day this week to gradually get things back in order.

In Baby-Led Weaning news, Ayden is regularly taking bites of food and is actually swallowing a lot of it! He had been extra fussy the past couple of days and kept making straining and grunting sounds but for some reason the source of his issues didn't dawn on me until this evening. He hadn't pooped in at least two days! No wonder he had been so fussy and making those crazy growl like straining noises. In hind sight I feel like an idiot for not putting it all together but in my defense, he's coming up with new sounds and facial expressions all the time. Why wouldn't he explore his ability to growl, right? As with any other first, now we know and will be able to help out sooner next time. The funniest part is that less than 10 minutes after I said, "David, you know what his problem is? He hasn't pooped in two days!" Ayden proceeded to fill his diaper more than EVER before and it actually smelled a little like poop... All of this tells us that he is actually ingesting food! A little constipation is normal at first and isn't anything to be too concerned about. Breast-fed babies are used to only having the quickly and easily digested milk in their little systems and it takes a bit for everything to readjust to the new foods that are being introduced. Obviously each additional day he would have gone without "going" would rise more and more concern but a couple of days is normal at this point in his journey to solid foods. I do have to admit that I'm going to really miss the odorless exclusively breastfed poop (yes, I just said I'd miss poop. Motherhood is so glamorous...).  Sorry, no pictures for this one...

Ayden has his 6 month checkup, at almost 7 months, on Tuesday and that's really our only big commitment this week.  Now David and I are going to share a Paleo fudge pop, read some Catching Fire and go to bed!

~Sarah