This Is K-Doll

We started the day with roasted bananas and blueberries from our favorite Tyler Florence cookbook, Start Fresh.

The color was amazing! This photo doesn't do it justice. It was the exact color of my tank top! It tasted absolutely divine, too. I'm going to make a smoothie with some of it tomorrow morning for my breakfast.

I was feeling overly ambitious and decided to make lemon poppy seed muffins, too.

After Odin's morning nap we met up with our friend Jaimie and her three week old baby, Hazel. We walked for over two hours, down to the lake and through some nice parks. Odin was very interested in what Doctor (the dog) was doing the whole time.

I have no idea what he is looking at here. Maybe the guy on the jet ski towing an empty inflatable boat behind him. Weirdest thing I've seen in a while...

Hazel was a perfect baby and slept the entire time! I forgot how much newborns sleep.

Odin was also a perfect baby and didn't make so much as a peep during the whole walk. He just loves looking at exciting new things! Here he is practicing his fine motor skills with his puffs.

Playing with the cat in the kitchen. That spaghetti spoon was actually a cat brush today. Don't worry, I scrubbed it extra hard and used super hot water when I cleaned it.

Oidn skipped his third nap for the first time ever, so we went to the park across the street. His new favorite thing is grass, and eating it, as we found out last weekend. And as I found out three days later in his poop.

We walked all over the park (Odin isn't crawling yet, but he loves to walk -with help- everywhere!) I'm going to need a back transplant soon! We walked through the fountain in the background of the picture, and it was such a nice relief on a hot summer day.

My month-old pedicure is holding up pretty well. I also have the beginnings of tan lines from my flops!

Odin's first time in a real swing.

And he found something to chew on! Everything in the mouth, I swear. ( P.S. We love our Robeez from Aunt Jenny! They are perfect for developing feet and budding walkers.)

I stuffed his blanket between him and the front of the swing so he couldn't chew on the dirty rubber anymore. Problem solved!

He had such a great time! Afterwards, we walked over to the big kid swings and I held him in my lap as we swung gently back and forth. There was a little girl swinging next to us who absolutely loved him, and kept showing off on the jungle gym to make him smile. Then we went home and had a video chat with Grandma and Grandpa Rakoczy. Such a fun summer day!

I know I am way overdue for an update, and there is so much to post, but here is what we've been up to the past week. Odin had his 6 month checkup last week, which was really 6 1/2 months. He is 14lb 6oz and 25in long. He is still in the 5-10th percentiles for height and weight. He gained 2lb in the past two months, so his doctor is pleased. He is a small baby compared to others his age, but he is following his own growth curve nicely, and is proportionate for height and weight.

As far as milestones, we are hitting them left and right! Odin still isn't a fan of tummy time, and doesn't stay there long when we put him on his tummy. He almost always immediately rolls over! He can roll over both ways, but so far only rolls once and then stops, so he doesn't go very far when he does roll. He loves standing up though, and has super strong legs. He's also pretty good at sitting up, and can sit by himself for maybe 30 seconds until he sees something he wants and then starts to topple over. I have a feeling he may skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking.

We introduced solids about a month ago, and there is so much information out there that I wasn't sure what the best way to do it was. So after a few days of oatmeal and no reaction, I tried carrots, then bananas, then sweet potatoes (with a five day wait period in between each one). After a few days of sweet potatoes he wasn't having any of it anymore, not even the oatmeal, so I asked his pediatrician about it at his check up. Apparently I'm supposed to stick to oatmeal until he's eating 4Tbsp at a time, then increase that to twice a day. After he's consistently eating two meals of 4Tbsp of oatmeal a day, then we can move on to other solids. Blah. So we're just doing oatmeal right now and so far he loves it, but only in the evening, haha. I don't know why, but he won't eat any for breakfast. He might just not be hungry in the morning after nursing so much when he wakes up. Anyway, I did get a taste of what it's like to make my own baby food, and it wasn't so bad. The carrots and sweet potatoes were also freaking delicious!

Still no teeth yet, but Odin is teething hardcore. The pediatrician said his top gums are really swollen, and it's ok to give him Tylenol at bedtime for the next 2-3 weeks until his teeth come in. I know he's in a lot of pain and wish I could give him Tylenol around the clock. He bites anything he can get his mouth on: Sophie, fingers, his toes, cell phones, my nipples, and cold water bottles are among his favorites. He has been a drool factory as of the past couple of days, so hopefully those teeth are right around the corner!

Despite his teething he is such a happy baby and so much fun to be around! He pretty much only cries when he is tired, and is generally a fun, snuggly, happy baby. He recently started doing this fake cry when he wants attention. It's pretty funny that he figured out how to do that! He's been doing a fake cough for a while, too, to get us to laugh. He is such a ham! This past week he has started giving us an exaggerated smile, with squinty eyes and wide grin. It's so cute!

Things that Odin loves: He loves reading books, and right now his favorites are Ten Little Ladybugs, Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?, The Foot Book, and Michigan ABC's. He also loves trying to turn on and off lights by using the light switch. He is such a smart little guy! We have a lamp in the bedroom where you have to turn the knobs at the base of each bulb to turn it on/off, and he reached for it and tried turning it all by himself! He loves the blue canary night light in our bathroom, and we have to say good night to the birdie every night. He loves being outside and going for walks, or just looking at the flowers and plants in our courtyard. When we put his hat on he knows he's going outside and kicks his legs like crazy. He is so good any time we take him anywhere. He just loves looking around and seeing new people and things, even if he is a bit stranger-shy. I usually carry him in the Moby when we go out, so he can just snuggle into my chest when he needs to.

Odin and Spaz are starting to become somewhat of friends, if you can believe it! The first few months of Odin's life Spaz wanted nothing to do with the baby, or with us for that matter. He used to run away when the baby cried, and rarely stayed in the same room as him. But now Spaz walks up to Odin and rubs his head on the baby's hands or feet and lets the baby pet him or yank his fur or twist his ears or grab at his face. He loves it! And Odin always looks for the cat and wants to follow him around the apartment and pet him all the time. It's crazy. We are super impressed with how chill Spaz has been. We were worried for a while that we would have to find him a new home. Anyone who knows Spaz knows how insane this is. He's basically a killer attack puma around people he doesn't like, so the fact that he's so chill with Odin is amazing to us.

What else has been going on... I started going to a mom's group that meets at the hospital every Friday from 11-1, and it's a lot of fun! There are a few babies Odin's age, and a few that are 2-3 months older. The group is led by a board certified lactation consultant, which is awesome. She is such a great resource! We also have a lot of new moms with brand new babies, and it's crazy how tiny they are! I can't believe how much Odin has grown in 6 months! Anyway, all of the moms are really nice, and it's nice to get out of the house, and it's good for Odin to be around other babies too. Also the cookies are delicious and we get parking vouchers. It's nice to have something to look forward to each week, and it gives me an excuse to get out of the house.

Last week Odin became a cousin, I became an aunt, and Scott became an uncle! My brother and his fiancee had their baby girl! Madelyn Elizabeth was born Friday, May 25th and she is absolutely adorable! I can't wait to hold her! It was crazy timing too, because Jon and Laura had just moved into their new house. They spent their first night there, and the next morning Laura's water broke! So, great timing, Madelyn! Welcome to the world! We can't wait to meet you!

For Memorial Day Scott had a four day weekend. It was so nice having him home! It seems like forever since we had nothing going on, and got to hang out with just our little family. Sunday we walked to the beach and hung out for about an hour, and Monday we had Scott's brother Erik and our friend Bryan over. That was all we did the entire weekend! Very low-key, but nice for a change. As you can tell by my lack of posts, we have been super busy. I'm sure things aren't about to slow down anytime soon, either! Here's a recent video and pics from my phone (and a few from Scott's phone) from the past week:

I am so blessed to be his mommy! This is one of my most favorite videos of Odin ever. He is like this all day, except for when he gets tired. He is such a fun guy! (And yes, that was my phone battery dying halfway through the video, haha.)