Yummy in the Tummy

We were going to hold out until 6 months, like the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends, but this boy was just not having it. After sitting in his booster seat and watching all of us eat while we were at the beach last week, he was determined to have something of his own! So, on Monday afternoon he had his first taste of "solid" food (although, powdered rice mixed with a little bit of milk isn't really very solid!).

After a few eager spoonfuls, he started having second thoughts. About 1 teaspoon was all that interested him! He was happy to have a few sips of water, though. Lately, whenever you are holding him and a glass of something liquid (in our house, that's usually water) he grabs the sides of the glass and moves it toward his open mouth. He must be getting to that mimicking mommy and daddy stage. At any rate, it's cute, and he's more than willing to try it with his own cup!

And he couldn't end the meal without a little spoon banging! We think maybe he's going to be a lefty. . .

By Wednesday, he had this eating thing down pat. He saw that spoonful of goo coming his way and he opened right up. He has devoured the entire bowl each day since, even helping out with the spoon!

And cleansing his palate with some finger gnawing between bites of rice. . .

There's no mistaking his love of mealtime!

Ahhh, more of the beach. . .

I finally got the rest of the pictures uploaded! They are in no particular order, just random times throughout the week. Here goes:

Grammy and Grandpa bought a booster seat for Hayden to sit in at the table with us. He hasn't started eating solid foods yet, but he did enjoy his time at the table. The first time we put him in it, he discovered that banging his toys on the tray was TONS of fun. He'd bang, then stop and look at us, give us a little grin, then start banging again. He knew he was being cute! Time for Mom and Dad to work on our poker faces. . . I'm sure it won't be so cute in a few months (when he constantly bangs things!):

We had "bocce ball championships" every afternoon on the beach. The young cousins were quite intent on monitoring the location of each ball and keeping track of who was the closest!

Hayden enjoyed some time with his Great Aunt Phyl:

And his second cousins (yep, I looked it up to be sure that is what they truly are!) enjoyed splashing in the cold surf, then running to the sand, diving in, and rolling around until sand covered every inch of skin. Ahhh, little boys. . .

Just looking cute:

The family photo:

Watching Dad fly his stunt kite:

Doing LOTS of snoozing:

(hiding under the blanket!)

(resting under the cabana):

(and "melting" onto Grammy):

The first day at the beach, Dad took Hayden down to check out the waves. He was fascinated by all that water, but was quite content to just observe from his perch on Dad's arm:

The second day at the shore, Grammy took him down to actually touch the water. She sat down on the sand to dip his toes into the surf. Right at that moment, a rogue wave attacked, getting him a little wetter than he wanted!

The next day, though, he checked out the water with Grandpa and there were no rogue waves in sight. A few toe touches on the wet sand were okay with Hayden this time!

On Sunday night, Daddy, Grandpa, and some cousins drove up to Philadelphia for a Phillies game. Hayden wanted to be sure Dad counted him as a fan, so he dressed up for a photo op:

So, those are the highlights from our trip! We had a great time!

Ahhh, the beach. . .

300 pictures and at least 30 that are worthy of sharing. . . it's going to take me a while to get them all posted! I'll start with at least a few for you now. We're still recovering from a long return flight home on Sunday. Hayden was extremely tired on the flight and for those of you without babies at home and who might not know, an extremely tired baby does not fall asleep easily. He didn't scream the entire flight, but a good 45 minutes. I did feel bad for the other passengers around us, but I actually felt worse for my baby. He was so exhausted and looked like he was completely miserable. Luckily, I think we all recovered today and we'll hopefully be back to our routine in no time.

The challenging flight was a small price to pay for a great trip. We spent the week on the South Jersey Shore in the town of Stone Harbor with Hayden's grandparents, Rich's aunt, her children, and grandchildren. We had 2 houses between the 18 of us, but we met on the beach each morning and set up camp:

Hayden had his very own beach lounger, the inflatable duck!

He spent more time relaxing in relatives' arms than his quacking lounger, though. Here his with Daddy and Grammy:

He loved our walk down to the beach each morning. I think he knew where we were headed as soon as we loaded him into the stroller! Here he is, looking adorable as ever, on the way down to the beach on three of our mornings:

And a final picture for now, posing in the lifeguard's boat at the end of the day. When I fully recover and unpack from our trip I plan to spend some time figuring out how to photoshop Rich's hand out of the picture, but for now I hope you'll just enjoy that beautiful smile!

Family Vacation!

It's back to reality for us. . . back from a week in a little house a block from the ocean--a house with no computer or internet connection--in a town where you can reach everything you need with no more than a 10 minute walk. The first few days were rough for this blog-addicted girl, but I must admit that now that we've left, the days did pass a little too quickly. And it was very nice to not to step foot inside an automobile for seven whole days (or to have to strap Hayden into his carseat)!

We're not home, yet, though, so I'll just tease you with a couple pictures of the past week. Here we all are--18 total--grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, cousins-once-removed, and more!!

And a tiny pair of feet not quite sure about the cold Atlantic water. . .

Four Generations (and more!)

We've traveled to Pennsylvania for a summer vacation. And this is truly a "family" vacation! We're staying with Rich's parents and will head over to the Shore tomorrow to spend the week relaxing on the beach. His Aunt and all of her kids and grandkids will be there, too. I think the relative count for Hayden will be 11 (just on his Dad's side of the family)! Although next week will be a "Shertzer Week," we did make time for a "Fitch Day". My grandma lives about 2 hours away, in the same town that my parents grew up in. So, we loaded up for a drive to see some of Hayden's Mom's side of the family.

My parents actually decided to come visit, too, so we had 4 generations gathered on the family matriarch's front porch: baby, Mom, Grandpa, and Great-Grandma!

Hayden loved his Great-Grandma!

He also got to meet Grandpa's brother, Great-Uncle Bob.

He loved that beard!

His Grandma's brother, Great-Uncle Chuckie also stopped by to say hello!

The final visitors of the day were his Grandma's college roommate and her husband, Alexis and Charlie.

A very full, very fun, very special family-filled day!