I went swimming!

We are staying at a nice hotel, and it has a pool. One night Uncle John, Aunt Kati, and Grandma Lyn took me out to the pool to go swimming. It was so much fun!

Here I am with Uncle John, getting ready to get in the pool.


Then I stood on the top step and Uncle John splashed with his feet.


After a while, I sat on the step and Grandma Lyn splashed some water toward me.


Then Uncle John and Grandma Lyn helped me swim through the water.


The best part was kicking and splashing myself!

Strong mommy

My mommy is a strong lady! Here we are together, showing off our muscles.



Aunt Kati says my mommy is strong in a lot of other ways, too. I think she's right about that.

Look what I found!

Down at the end of my legs, there are these things Aunt Kati calls my feet. Yesterday, I found them and started grabbing them by the toes. Maybe someday soon I will put one of them in my mouth!

Party at my house!

Last night, there was a party at my house. Bunches of people came to celebrate everyone who had a birthday in August. Aunt Kati made a cake and put the first initial of all the August birthday people on it. There was even a D on it for my daddy!


These are all the August birthday people getting ready to blow out the candles. Dr. Matt from the Health Center, Aunt Kati, Charlotte, Elise, Randy, Lachlan, and Philip.

The party was a "potluck" which means everyone brought food. They said it was yummy, but I ate formula. After everyone ate, some people played music and my friends Lachlan and Mariah danced.



I hung out with my friend Dave and listened to the music.



It was lots of fun!

New milestones

Aunt Kati said today that I hit two more "milestones". Like I've said before, I am just having lots of fun, even though everyone likes to call it "learning". I think Aunt Kati just likes to use the word "milestone" because it reminds her of her college classes in child development.

Anyway, here are my two latest accomplishments:

1. Sticking out my tongue! I find this really fun and have been doing it a lot for the last few days. Aunt Kati says I should enjoy it now, because when I am older it will be considered rude, not cute.



2. Laughing even when no one is tickling me. I now laugh when someone else laughs, pulls a silly face, or smiles at me and says things which seem funny to me. Apparently this is different, and therefore a new milestone. And here I thought I was just having fun laughing.

I'm older!

I'm four months old today! That's older than I was yesterday! Here I am with Squeakers the bear, so you can see if I look different from when I was three months old.



In this picture, you can see my band aids. Apparently, when you turn four months old, the doctor is required to stick you with a needle five times! Aunt Kati said it's called "getting vaccinations", and it's good for me, but I was NOT a fan of the process. I got over it quickly though, and now I'm no worse for the wear, except for the band aids!

I love octopi!

I have told you (here in this blog) before about my octopus who hangs down above me when I am on my tummy time play mat. He is really cute and is always smiling at me, so I like him very much.

Recently, I have made friends with ANOTHER octopus. This one plays music, and says the names of the colors when you press the buttons on his arms. I like him a lot too, and it makes me laugh when Uncle John tickles my tummy by making the octopus dance on it.



Both of my octopi are from Baby Einstein. Uncle John says he wants to get me all the Baby Einstein toys, since I love the ones I have so much. Aunt Kati says that, if Uncle John knew how many Baby Einstein toys were available, he wouldn't want to get ALL of them for me anymore!

Strong arms and neck

One of my new favorite things to do is to pull myself up with my arms. Now, when I do that, I can keep my head straight and level with my body, instead of dropping it back. Am I strong or what?

I can fly!

For someone who has only been on the planet for about 4 months, I've done a lot of flying. I flew from Colorado to Oregon, then from there to Hawaii, and from there to North Carolina. Next week, Uncle John and Aunt Kati and I will fly to Colorado to visit Mommy (and Daddy is coming to see me too!), so I'll get even more frequent flier miles.

But I have another, more fun way that I like to fly too, and I get to do this one much more often. Check it out:




Grinnin' and gigglin' is a big part of this flying. And sometimes I drool on Aunt Kati, too!


Coming in for a landing...

Aunt Kati says that my mommy also used to love flying this way when she was a baby, and that when she was older she would also fly on Aunt Kati's feet. I'll do that when I'm big enough!

Am I going bald?

I can't see the back of my head (of course!) and I don't understand about mirrors yet (Aunt Kati keeps trying to explain, but as far as I can tell that's just another baby in there), so I don't know for sure...but it certainly feels like there is less hair than there was previously on the back of my head!



Aunt Kati says not to worry about it, that this is normal for babies my age and that I will get more hair, possibly a different texture and/or color. Uncle John says this may be merely the first time in my life that this happens to me, so I might as well accept it!

Our friend Sundae sings a funny song called "Bald Headed Men" during the Wednesday night Ocrafolk Opry show, and at the end of the song, she lists several bald guys (some local to the island, and also famous ones like Patrick Stewart). A bunch of island ladies sing backup on this song with Sundae, and when she lists the bald guys, the ladies respond by singing "love him!". Our friend Marcy (who plays the guitar while Sundae and the other ladies sing) says that maybe they will add me to the list, because everyone certainly loves me, bald or not!

Pushups

I like doing "pushups" during my tummy time.



Aunt Kati says that I'm lucky I don't have to do pushups on demand, at the command of an officer, like Mommy might sometimes have to do at the Air Force Academy. Speaking of the Air Force Academy, here's a shout-out to all the graduates (especially my Daddy) and current cadets (especially my Mommy):



And speaking of Mommy, Aunt Kati found some pictures of her being silly on my play mat, and we can't resist posting one here!

A special message

Practicing standing

Everyone says it will be a long time before I can really stand on my own two feet, but in the meantime I like to practice. Aunt Kati and Uncle John have to hold me up, because my balance isn't very good. But my legs are really strong!




Standing makes me smile!

Dressing up

I got all dressed up last night, and went to dinner at Cafe Atlantic to celebrate Aunt Kati's birthday. She said I was the cutest diner in the whole place, but I think she might be a bit biased. I was pretty darn cute in my "sailor" outfit, though. Check it out:

I'm a pirate!

These pictures are a bit old, but it's fun to post silly pictures every now and then, so here goes. Mommy and Aunt Kati and I went to Teach's Hole, the pirate shop here to learn about Blackbeard and buy some booty! I got a cute onesie which says "poop deck". Funny, huh? I also got a book called Pirate Pete.

This picture is the educational portion of this blog, where you can actually learn something you might not have known about Blackbeard before.



Yes, that's right, Blackbeard the pirate liked to hang out right here at Ocracoke, less than a couple of miles from Aunt Kati's house!

Okay, now that we have that out of the way, let the silliness begin!


That's what I would look like as a pirate.


Aaarrrggghhhh!

I am still pretty new here, but I've learned that life is too short to take yourself seriously all the time. So I think you should take every chance you can to put your face in these goofy things when you find them. I'm only a few months old, and I have already done three! (See the first one here).

And here's the third - and definitely the silliest - one:

So many new friends!

Since I have been here on Ocracoke, I have met many new friends. Here are pictures of some of them.


Some of my new friends are furry. This is Savannah. She, and two furry boy kitties named Jakes and Jamie live here with Uncle John, Aunt Kati and me.


Here are my friends Caroline and Mariah Daisy. They come to visit sometimes and I share my toys with them.


My friend Emma loves to hug me!

Those are just a few of the bunches of new friends I have met. Lucky me!

Putting things in my mouth

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that another way I can learn about things is to put them in my mouth. Aunt Kati says that this only applies to certain things and that it is not an appropriate way to learn about things like bugs. I guess she has a point there.


This picture is of the first time I ever put something in my mouth.


One of my favorite things to put in my mouth is, of course, my bottle!


I also sometimes put my thumb in there, too.

Peter Rabbit

Aunt Kati and Uncle John took these pictures of me in my Peter Rabbit outfit, with my Peter Rabbit books. Then Aunt Kati read me the story of Peter Rabbit. I liked it!

Practicing sitting

I am getting really good at holding my head up, and I like to practice sitting on people's laps.



If I get tired of holding my head up, I can lie down in whatever comfortable lap I happen to be in at the time, which is nice too.



Sometimes I get REALLY tired from sitting, and I fall completely asleep!





I also have a cute orange chair, that Aunt Kati calls "Connor's Bumbo seat" that I like to sit in sometimes.