New Developments

Recently we've had a few new developments, and by far the most exciting (especially for Tristan) has been that the little guy is now eating solids. For quite a while Tristan has been oohing and awing over our food, but it was his enthusiasm Monday morning (and the thought of Paul leaving) that made me expedite the process. Since we didn't have any rice cereal in the house we tested his taste buds with some mashed banana-which he loved! I have since bought cereal which isn't as much of a hit, but he still gets very excited about eating from a spoon.

The little guy snarfed down the bananas like he'd been doing it all along.

It was fun to see how excited he got over having his first batch of non-milk food.

He looked up at Paul as if to say "Thank you so much Daddy". I was so glad Paul was able to experience this before he left for the States again.

Tristan has been scooting and rolling everywhere trying ever so much to crawl. One afternoon as Tristan hung out with Paul in the office, he managed to get himself stuck under the futon. At first he was really enjoying this new spot, but after one last roll he had become wedged into a spot where you could only see his little blue eyes peering out. The poor little guy shrieked as he was horrified at what he had done. I'm embarrassed to say that Paul and I had a good laugh at our little guys expense and didn't let this incident pass without getting a few pictures.

This is when he was still enjoying himself.

The next few pictures show the progress that is taking place with the crib. The little guy is sleeping in his crib now and this particular morning had woken up without crying. Paul and I heard him giggling in his crib and well...it was and still is picture worthy. He may have only done this twice thus far, but now I know its possible. I was so excited to wake to a happy boy that I had to take a few pictures.

Check out his mad scientist hair and humongous smile. This was definitely the highlight of my day!

I think the poor little guy got a little freaked out to see the camera so early in the day.

The next bunch of pictures don't have to do with boy wonder and his amazing ability to develop at lighting speed, they just document today's trip to our local Dinosaur Park. These pictures are posted especially for my brother Ben, who growing up was the biggest dinosaur lover. To this day, he's the first person I think of when watching Jurassic Park or simply driving by these large beasts. As funny as it sounds (because he is now 19) I would still want to take him to this park upon his trip to beautiful Germany.

One of the funniest parts of this park was that they had some dinosaurs that I had never seen or heard of. I joked that these were German dinosaurs and that's why I had never heard of them. This first one was really peculiar looking. It looked like a cross between the horse and giraffe. The Germans say its in the rhinoceros family. I don't really get that, but I'll have to trust the experts.

The next German dinosaur is this freakishly weird beast. As I walked among these odd creatures I felt as if I was in bizarro land. There really was the most odd "dinosaurs" and I couldn't help but feel a little ignorant. "Why hadn't I heard of any of these dinosaurs?"

This German dinosaur looked to me like a relative of Big Foot but the experts say that he is in the sloth family. Once again it was weird to see such a new dinosaur this late in the game. At my age I thought I was pretty up to date on my dino knowledge, but I guess not.

I was starting to get worried, but when things were looking bleak... finally, one I know! Don't most little boys have a version of this scary guy? I'm pretty sure Ben did.

Another famous (American) dinosaur.

This guy's my favorite. Whats really neat is you can see him from the nearby highway.

One last dinosaur for Ben. I hope you like it!