hey ladies

'hey ladies, hows it goin?'  rad like dad indeed.

evening walk

every evening i take our stinky dog for a walk.  i usually try to give diana a break after a long day by taking our son with me too.  i pull out the papoose and strap our boy to me!  we used to go for long walks in the summer (back when i didnt have to be to work in the mornings), and he would go in it and face in and fall asleep almost immediately.  well, now he wants to see the world so he faces out. the walks with us three guys are fun, but every once in a while diana comes along!  we dont go far, we just walk around the block, but it sure is a nice stress reliever, a chance to let go of all the work stuff and transition to home stuff.  when diana comes its a nice time to chat, i get to hear about her day and  about her day with ledger and hear about if he has learned something new that he can show me when we get back home.  i've got to enjoy it while i can because when the weather starts to get colder i know it might just be the dog and i again, and he isnt nearly the conversationalist as the wife...

stretchy

every day ledger does something new.  some days its a little thing like a new noise, some days its a big thing like finding his feet.  and some days, like today, its a strange thing!  when diana or i held him today he just wanted to stretch himself out- not exactly sure why, but he is all about stretching now!  he arches his back and flails his arms around, which is funny, but makes it hard to hold him. i wonder how long this will last?...

sleepsy

one of my favorite things to do is just hold ledger while he sleeps.  he is just so cute and cuddly that i cant get myself to set him down!  he takes quite a few naps a day, so he finds all kinds of places to fall asleep.  i'm pretty sure he had just finished his prayers and then fell asleep in this picture...
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bouncy seat

now that we got rid of the couch in favor of a smaller love seat, we brought ledger's bouncy back in the house.  he's also a bit bigger, so he can almost reach the ground when we put a pillow under him...  when we put him in there he really loves it!  that thing has so many colors and play things that he gets super excited to go in it, he's not all that bouncy yet, but it will come.  he can usually handle being in it for about five to ten minutes, but then he gets a bit upset.  i think he just gets a little over stimulated and needs a break- i can understand that because if i were in that thing i would go nuts from all the sights and sounds!
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yummy feet

'look what i found!'  recently ledger has been exploring more and more.  not just the world around him, but he has also been exploring how he can use his body.  he is always grabbing his own hands and playing with them, well that exploration has moved down to his feet!  usually we keep socks on his feet.  we do this for a couple of reasons: 1. because its starting to get a little cold out and our house does a terrible job of heating the living room, and 2. his feet are gross!  he has, unfortunately, really sweaty feet!  they are always wet and, as a result, kinda stinky...  but when we take off those sockies, he sure does love to stick those sweaty toes in his mouth!  the funniest is when he realizes how gross they are and grimaces when he first puts them in his mouth!  come on buddy, thats how you know they dont belong in your mouth...

crackers!

our boy has recently taken an interest in what mom and dad eat.  'sure, milk is fine', he seems to think, 'but i want what you're having!'  as i was sitting with him i was having a few wheat thins.  he decided that he wanted to have one too, so he reached out and grabbed one for himself!  he wasnt entirely sure what to do with it next, so he did what he does with everything- he put it in his mouth!  diana and i are starting to think that maybe its time to incorporate more food into his eating- he sure seems ready for it!
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reunion after party

after everyone left the reunion, we decided to go to barbara's pad for a little while before we had to head home.  lissa came along, and so did miranda and levi.  we had a great time laughing and talking.  it had been the first time lissa got the chance to see barbara's place, so she got the whole tour and everything.  unfortunately we couldnt stay long, you know, work the next morning and all that.  but we had a bunch of fun with everyone- and jeffry lee even took a minute to clean out the viruses on my computer!  hurrah!
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the plunge

after lunch everyone wanted to do a little swimming out off the boat.  after waiting the recommended 30 minutes (we dont want any fatalities after all, right?), we took out the boat to enjoy the beautiful weather.  as the designated captain, i drove us out into the middle of the lake and everyone got a chance to play in the water.  never one to miss an opportunity to be ridiculous  jeffry lee decided to dive in by jumping off the back of the boat!

mini reunion

with grandma in town, the family planned a mini reunion to all gather up to see her together.  we headed over there sunday and got a chance to spend some more time with her- and she got a chance to spend more time with ledger!  everyone in the family was enamored with our little guy.  what is really nice is that ledger is so comfortable with anyone and everyone.  there are babies who cry when people they dont know hold them, well ledger is just the opposite- he grins from ear to ear when he gets to meet new people!  what a blessing!  during the reunion i hardly got the change to see him, he was passed around all afternoon, well, after he got his nap that is.  he was such a happy boy getting all that attention!
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great grandma visits

diana's grandma lives down in florida and recently made a trip up to see us.  the last time we saw here was back when we took her to disneyworld, so its been a few years.  she's not feeling her best due to severe arthritis, but wanted to make a trip up to see everyone.  one of the important people on her list to see was her newest great-grandson ledger!  she flew in to the gary airport where diana's mom and david picked her up.  they drove over to our house to show her around and get to spend some time with our little guy.  when i got home from work we had the opportunity to go out to eat and have a great time talking and catching up.  it was really fun to show her where we live, whenever we talk to her or send her letters we talk about our place and our son, but now she will be able to put a place and a face with our stories!

new cupboard

when mom and papa stopped by the weekend before, we picked up a new cupboard for the bathroom.  well, i finally got around to installing it!  we used to have one of those shelving units that go behind the toilet, but it was so big and bulky that we wanted something new.  the old one was just too big and made our already minute bathroom feel even smaller.  with a few tools and a lot of frustration, i finally got that thing up on the wall, even without the stud-finder working properly!  it looks great and opens up the bathroom a ton- now our five foot square bathroom feels like its five and a half feet square!  oh, the luxury!

froggy

our little guy just keeps growing bigger and bigger!  its been a ton of fun watching little ledger grow up a bit.  granted, he's still only six months old, but compared to the little guy we left the hospital with, hes old.  it has been so much fun watching him learn about the world around him and learn about himself too!  he's grabbing his feet, reaching for stuff, and really looking around and taking everything in.  often i will sit with him in my lap and play- which is a highlight for both of us!  well, the way he was sitting, and his green outfit, just made me think that he looks like a little froggy ready to bounce around!

bye bye couch

lissa came to visit for a few days recently- something diana has been eagerly counting down the days for since they first made the plans!  those two had a great time together, they got to catch up, relax, play with ledger, and diana's favorite: go thrift store shopping!  well, they happened to find a once in a life time deal: a beautiful, barely used love seat.  diana and i had been talking for months about getting rid of our couch (ok, years...), it was old and uncomfortable.  you know those couches that have the bottom that seems to have caved in and when you sit down it feels like it has just eaten you?  well, that was this couch.  also, with all the baby stuff that is going to be adding up soon, we knew we were going to need a bit more space in the living room.  when they found this love seat the snagged it up!  there was just one rather large problem: how do we get it home?  it was a bit of a rush job, we needed to find a vehicle that day or else the thrift store told us that they would put it back on the show floor if we didnt pick it up by 5:00pm!  yikes!  there is no way we could fit it in our car, so i asked around at work if i could borrow someone's vehicle.  i finally found someone who let me borrow their full size van, so i headed over the the thrift store to pick it up, hoping that it would fit.  fortunately it did- barely!  i crammed it in there and headed home.  i could only drop it off in the driveway and let it sit there because i needed to quickly return the van.  i have no idea what our neighbors thought as this couch sat in our drive way for a half hour...  when i got back we moved out the old couch and cleaned up all the strange items that had gotten lodged back there over the years.  after much work, including taking the door off its hinges, we got the old couch out and put it on the curb.  we wrestled with the new love seat and got it through the door and in its place.  when we put everything back it looked great- as if it had always been there!  now we were able to fit everything nicely in the living room and even had a bit of extra space for ledger's bouncy and all of his toys.  great find girls, way to go!
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bibs

he's finally big enough to fit into the one piece of clothing that diana has been so excited for: some bib overalls!  as you can tell, he is almost as excited as his mom about getting to wear them!

papa and ledge

it had been a couple weeks, so it was high time for papa and mom to come down to visit again!  we always love having them stop by for the day!  as you can see, ledger is always thrilled to have his mema an papa around.
we decided to do something a bit productive and take advantage of papa being around:  we went over to home depot and had papa help pick out a good cabinet for the bathroom.  after that we went out to eat and had a bunch of fun with our little guy!
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ledger's new toy

the other day diana took ledger out shopping.  they both just needed to get out of the house for a while- cant blame them there!  while they were out, diana checked out the baby isles to see if there was anything we needed.  ledger is just starting to get excited about toys and playing around with stuff, so diana took him down the baby toy isle.  she showed him a few different toys and one of them got him really excited!  i'm not entirely sure what it is, but ledger sure loves it!  this is the first toy that he got to pick out for himself.