Chase is 6 1/2 months old now. He's a really happy baby, and always makes us smile. Just so we remember, here's what he's up to lately:
Eating: He's still breastfed and not so great with a bottle, although he can do it when need be. He started solids a few days before his 6-month birthday. He now eats rice, barley, squash, avocado, and banana. Avocado seems to be his favorite. He loves to drink water, from sippy cups and especially from a regular grown up cup. We make all his food. The barley and brown rice we just add extra water and puree, the squash we steam and puree. Then portions we won't use in a few days go in ice cube trays until they freeze, and then the cubs to a freezer bag, and we just pop them out and warm them up as we need them. A recent discovery is that solid foods result in solid turds. We're still getting used to this, and it takes both parents and a bath to clean him and his diaper up. Recently, we were giggling as we watched his face and listened to him toot. A few minutes later we were shocked as we cleaned up, "What if he does this when we're out somewhere?!" "I just don't know," said the bewildered parents.
We started him on solids mainly because he showed so much interest. No Chase, you can't have ice cream just yet.
And here is Andrew giving Chase his first taste of something (rice) other than milk.
Sleeping: He naps twice a day, from about 8:30-10 and 12:30-2/2:30. He used to be a good sleeper at night, but not for the last month or two. We're working really hard to fix that. He just wakes up and needs help going back to sleep quite often. Some nights he sleeps through the night (I'd guess about once per week), but most often he's up a lot, sometimes every hour. We're working on a lot of things, but the main ones are sticking to our routine (you mean we have to be home by 7pm and for all his naps on a Saturday?!), and putting him down before he's asleep (he's only good at falling asleep in our arms, which is a challenge the 5th time in the night). This morning we celebrated because he slept 4 hours in a row, something he first did at 4 or 5 weeks of age! I must mention that right now he's sleeping in his teddy bear sleeper and is just heart-melting. He's just so lovable it makes the lack of sleep bearable. He's finally seemed to outgrow swaddling over the last few weeks.
Playing: He's just a happy little guy. At the moment, he loves to sit up on his own and play with cloth blocks (well, suck on them, just like everything else). He's starting to get into stuff now, like grab the pen when I write, grabbing our plates, patting the keyboard if we type near him. Over the weekend, we set him in a bed of stones, and he picked up handfuls of them, and we were surprised that he didn't put them in his mouth, like everything else he gets ahold of. How did he know he shouldn't eat stones? He's rolled and rolled (2 months ago he earned the nickname "the Human Steam Roller" from his cousin Noah), but he's bored with that now, and would much rather sit. He loves story time and laundry time (folding clothes is great fun!). He's mesmorized when I play the keyboard, and he loved when my dad played guitar for him. He enjoys all his grandparents, aunts, and uncles, but you should see his face when Grandma B starts cooing and talking to him. And Andrew can get him giggling and laughing like no one else. There's tickling and tossing and the happiest noises you've ever heard.
Talking?!: He babbles and coos, and yes, you can laugh at us, but Dad and I believe he says words. Twice now, he's looked at Andrew and said, "Dada." Two syllables, not even dadadadada... like he often does. He says, "Nummnummnumm" when he wants to nurse (more like a noise than a word, but certainly communication). Around 5 am this morning, Chase decided it was playtime. As to not encourage playing at night, I lay down next to him in the dark with my back to him and pretended to be asleep. He did all he could to get my attention (or maybe I was just the only thing he could play with), he patted my back, shrieked, and then he said, "Mama, HHIIIIIII!!!" It took everything I had to show no reaction, but I stopped breathing and my heart may have skipped a beat or two. I would have thought it a coincidence (and yes, you can keep laughing at me), but we say hi, dada, numnum, and mama to him in context quite a bit. And yesterday I said HHIIIII to him all day long.
Chase isn't the only one in the family!
Oliver is just as cute and fun as ever.
Andrew's enjoying his vegetable garden. He's really done all the building, digging, planting, watering, and other tending. We've had beans, tomatoes, basil, and more. We also have some humungous squash, but... we also joined a CSA (community supported agriculture), and we get weekly deliveries of veggies (salad greens, garlic, eggplant, peas, beans, beets, kale, swiss chard, all kinds of stuff). They have a ridiculous amount of squash, so much they have to throw some out, so we're just letting our garden squash get as big as it can on the plant, since we have no use for it. Andrew collected all the basil and made lots of pesto and froze it so we can enjoy it all year long. We're also enjoying all kind of berries. I've helped a little, but Andrew's been good about picking blackberries. Then he freezes them and can have them all year too. Jen helped me make some of the strawberries into jam. Andrew's also been riding his bike with Scott (they're training for the Peach of a Century!), and doing some work on his Subaru (replaced the busted mirror, peeling hood scoop, changed spark pulgs). He was even nice to me when I backed it into our fence a couple days ago (minimal damage).
Here are some of the vegetables.
I've been working on notes for when I go back to teach (28 September). We found a nice lady a few blocks away who will take care of Chase while I'm away. I know she'll love him, be attentive, and take great care of him, but I'm going to be so heartbroken to be away from him. The longest I've been apart from him so far has been less than 3 hours. I will work 4 days per week (Tuesdays off), and all my classes and office hours are between 8am-2pm. Because I'm doing so much preparation over the summer (during Chase's naps), I shouldn't have to do too much more work outside of those hours. I will do some grading on Tuesdays during his naps, but that should be most of it. Also, both of his naps are during the hours when I work, so that helps minimize the playtime I miss. I think it will be hard at first, but good for our family after a few weeks. Please pray for us!
My sister, Kate, and her husband are expecting a new baby in just 2 weeks! They'll have 2 boys less than a year old. Pray for them!
My mom recently said goodbye to her guinea pig, Squeak. He lived a good life and got lots of love and attention, including hand feedings for quite a while. 
Through one of Sachiko's friends, I met another family with a 9-month-old son. Here we are walking at Bush Park. 
Here's some hiking fun with cousins. Eric, Sachiko and family visited Salem. They whole family and Grandma and Grandpa Boes went hiking with us. Chase seems to enjoy being in the backpack.
We also went hiking with the Bradleys at Hearts Cove. Just beautiful. Wow Tiffanie, what a leap! Uh, oh - Scott and Megan still have to make it, with babies on their backs!
Here was one of the views. We could here and see sea lions.
Chase is 6 1/2 months old now. He's a really happy baby, and always makes us smile. Just so we remember, here's what he's up to lately:
