New foods journey continues...

Well even though he's enjoying those prunes in this video, he is definitely over them.    He's also worked his way to sweet potatoes and he's a HUGE fan of those.  Next up is pears or peas....we shall see, can you stand the suspense?  I need a life, I know :)
Here's Nate in his high chair that we've finally gotten out.  He looks so small in it, it's like the ole days when he looked like a little peanut in his car seat....which on a side note gets crazzzzy heavy as Nate keeps gaining weight.  I want to invent some legs that can pop down with wheels to get him to and from vehicles and what not!  Doesn't he look like a patient, eager, little student....he's such a faker!  

 

Here, the baby I've come to know and love came raging out and his hands a swinging, trying to get the spoon and feed himself or just take the spoon and chew on it.  I'm not letting him grab the spoon and gnaw because he obviously thinks that is fun and a game, but sometimes the kid is pretty strong!  I think he would rather take all the food he kind of pushes out of his mouth and shove it back in with his fingers and eat it of off them.  That is super appetizing, I know!

I'm not a neat freak by any means, but Nate's need to shove his fingers in his mouth at all times, especially while eating drives me bonkers.  He then gets the food all over everything, his clothes, his hair, his ears, his eyes.  It's a blast.  Normal baby stuff but we're now back to changing his outfits as often as we had to in the early days when he would pee through everything!  Oh well, it's a good thing we've had so many wonderful people give us clothes so he has plenty to sift through.  I suggested mini-baby handcuffs to hold his hands back but Trisha thought that was inappropriate :)  How weird!
Oh how he loves his squeaky toy ducken.  Joe and I can't decide if it's a duck or chicken so he has been christened ducken!  Nate can be in the middle of a screaming fit and if you start squeaking that toy he will start laugh/crying, it's actually pretty funny.  He eventually calms down with a few squeaks.

 Tomorrow after work I'm taking Nate to meet Joe and some work friends at the State Fair.  I'm excited for some fun fair foods and people watching!

Prunes and the Park

Well, we've added more foods to Nate's diet than just rice cereal.  We have moved on to prunes!

Some feedings he's in love with the new food and other times he despises it.  For the most part he's gotten a handle on the whole spoon feeding concept.  He still makes a disgusted face the first time we put any food near his face.  I think it's usually because he's a little bit surprised.  We're finally breaking out his high chair to have another piece of baby furniture in the house!  The doctor said we should stick with introducing one new food every 4 days or so to see if he's allergic to anything.  So, far pretty good on the prunes. 
I took Nate on an early morning walk the other day and we tried out the baby swing.

He had a good time even though that last shot doesn't seem to show it!  I think he looks like a bald little Buddha in that second picture.  He liked the swing but he doesn't like to go too high yet.  There was a dog that got away from it's owner and started going crazy so I think by that lost shot he wasn't too thrilled.

No worries....toes have been found!  Nate is very in to kicking his legs up and has almost gotten the toes in his mouth!

 Well, this is just funny to post....or cruel....depends on you sense of humor :)

I mean, they can't all be beautiful right?  Trisha made a loud noise at him and that is what was produced.  Kind of an awesome blackmail picture for when he's older!

This one above is his signature eyebrow raise.
Here's just nice, smiley, chubby, and cute.

Nate's moved on to his 6 months clothes and is fitting in to them nicely so he's already catching up to where he's supposed to be.  He and I have both been a little sick over the past few weeks so full night sleeps have not been happening.  We seem to be over the weird August colds now so hopefully we'll be nice and healthy!

6 months doc update

So here are Nate's statistics.  He gets to be on two charts because he's just so darn special!
Weight - 15 pounds 4.5 ounces
Length 26 inches - I think she maybe gave him a half an inch or so due to extreme squirminess
Head circumference - 16.5 inches

For a 4 month old baby- which is how the doctor views him.  She says for the preemies you follow them and their development from their actual due date.
Weight - 50th percentile
Length - 90th percentile
Head circumference -30-40th percentile

For a 6 month old baby
Weight- 10th percentile
Length- 50th percentile
Head- 10th percentile
So, he's right on par for his due date age which is great and it's so cool to see him gaining on his 6 month old chart as well! 
6 Month battle scars below

Well, how exciting those stats are.  I'm not really too hung up on all those percentile thingies...just thought I'd share them.  He's healthy and chunky which is just fine with us!  In a wonderful turn of events, Nate has not been overly cranky or fussy since the shots.  He slept a bit longer the first day but now is back to normal.  Besides some bruises on his legs he's good to go.
  Our doctor really is great and such a fan of him.  She takes him out of the room every time to two of the nurses who have gotten to see him since his 4 pound days and of course he charmed em!  This was before the shots mind you when he still was happy as a clam.  He really gave us all that "bite me" look after the shots :)  I really feel like a traitor in that moment but oh well, he'll get over it.  He did his usual scream with no noise coming out, then we put the nuk in and he was fine in 10 seconds, but definitely eyed us all up.  Next check up is at 9 months where thank goodness, no shots will be administered.
Nate has now figured out how to outsmart his arm and get fully from his back to his stomach.  This latest hurdle was just figured out in the last day or so!  It's dark and a little fuzzy but hopefully you can make it out.

Nate got some fun presents from his Aunt Trisha and Kristi for the big 6 months.  He has a new squeaky toy because Bella the dog thought that little ducky was hers to play with...now there is a new duck in town!  Last week my co-workers also threw me a surprise baby shower which was a blast and Nate was overly spoiled with toys and clothes to set him up for winter.  I was totally shocked and have never had a surprise party before so I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of flattering :) yah, yah, I know it was mostly just to see Nate!
My high school friends are coming up this weekend to hit the town so I'm very excited for that!  Poppa Joe is on duty Saturday night, then Grandma Jeanne is up for a few days to help Trisha move to her new apartment.  Should be a busy fun weekend!

6 Months...what what!

I can't believe the little bugger is 6 months today.  Well, I'm lying because it's currently 10:30 pm on Monday night but close enough.  We have his 6 month checkup Tuesday at 8 am.  SOOOO not excited for the shots again but hopefully he won't react as bad as last time.  We are excited to see how much the little chunker weighs though! This will maybe be a longer blog since I haven't blogged in a while...yes mom, I know.
We had a great time last weekend at Ryan and Lindsay's wedding.  Nate stayed with his Grandma and Grandpa Olson while mom and dad had a good time at the party!  Here's a picture of Nate and Joe back at the house.  I believe there may be a similarity to the way they sleep :)

 Last week Kristi and I took Nate to this little lake near our house.  They have what is called a "splash pad" for little kids.  Basically it's a bunch of different spouts with water coming out with different pressures and patterns??  Not really sure how to explain it but here are some photos.

I know he looks a little bored but he was actually kind of intrigued by the whole thing.  He's a nature boy and whenever he's fussy we go outside and he calms down like magic.  I'm not sure we can do that in December though because Children's Services may take him from us if we do that :)  He did like the water though, even though it was pretty chilly.  Here's Nate with Kristi at a different spout.

This is the shot where Kristi has yanked Nate away because the soft little water spray turned in to a full on fire hose type of spray which got both her and Nate.  He didn't seem to mind at all!

After the splash pad, we headed to the little man made lake for his first time in the sand.  He was very intrigued by the whole feet in the sand situation.  Later he relaxed with his tigger towel.

Nate's been working on his eating of rice cereal.  This happened the other day when I came home to find Joe feeding Nate with no bib, and mostly putting cereal anywhere but his mouth.

He was over it by the time I took this video.

Here's another video Trisha took of Nate working towards rolling over.  This was a few weeks ago.  He's still working on going all the way over from his back to his stomach.  That one arm really slows him up and he can't figure out how to get around it.

 Here's a few from home...now all you Packer fans calm down.  We got a few Bears onesies for Nate and couldn't resist a 3 generations Ruf household Bears photo.  Keep in mind Grandma Jeanne and Joe wanted nothing to do with it and Grandma almost wouldn't take the photo!  I think we look schnazzy.  I'm sure there is at least one Bear fan out there who agrees...probably only one though :)

Now, relax again Packer fans because Nate does have a few Packer outfits he's been given and I'm sure eventually he'll be placed in them.  He needs some new spit up rags anyways :) I kid I kid.  It's funny because we Bear fans aren't really a big threat to you all, now are we!  He's going to be so confused because he also has a bunch of Badger and Gopher gear.  He's like a little sports United Nations kid!
Here's a few photos from when we went to brunch for Trisha and Beaner's combined birthday celebrations.  Joe was teaching Nate how exciting food can be.

Someone actually thought it would be nice to get a photo of mom and Nate for once!

These next photos are of this past weekend at our friend Cassi and Tom's house for their son Garrett's 2 year old birthday party.  Needless to say, there was a big boy playing in the bouncy house.

Hopefully you can somehow zoom in to the extreme joy that is on Joe's face...it's pretty hysterical.  It took a little coaxing to get him in there but he was pretty thrilled by the time he was in.  Garrett's little friend Max was so excited Joe was in there and to throw him about.  He just kept throwing his arms up and saying up, up!

Here's Garrett and Joe in the middle of their somersaults.

Now, I realize those have nothing to do with Nate, I just find them entertaining.  I'm not going to lie either because I got my butt in that bouncy house too and had a little fun.  I flashed back to a time where a certain 12 year old Megan and Ms. Kelly Hyland may have broken the giant inflatable burger that was in front of the Burger King one summer by my house after rough-housing a bit too much :)  We may have been afraid the police were coming for us as we got our behinds out of that deflating burger and ran home!  ah, memories.
I'll let you know this week how the doctor appointment's go and how Nate is stacking up!