Five firsts in one week

First #1: Tate has figured out how to crawl.
For about the past month, Tate has been in a pre-crawling state, up on his hands and knees--moving backward or just rocking back and forth. This past week he has discovered forward motion and every day he become a quicker and more efficient crawler. This is nice because he is much more content now that he can better satisfy his curiosity and this is not so nice now that I have to be extra vigilant about keeping the floor clean and baby-proofed. He can find any random piece of paper, small toy or otherwise chockable item quicker than I can pick them all up, he's a sly one.

First #2: Tate can sit unsupported.
Right about the same time he started crawling, he began putting himself in the sitting position and remaining stable. Before this time, I would always put a pillow around him while he was sitting up because he would inevitably fall backward and hit his head. He still has had a fall or two this past week but otherwise will remain sitting until he sees something else he wants to play with and crawls away.
First #3: Tate wants to pull himself up on everything.
Okay, I was pretty excited about the previous two firsts. He can crawl around, sit up and play which keeps him entertained for much longer than ever before. The pulling up on things would not be a problem except that he is still quite unstable on his feet (as you can see in the picture he looks like he's in the process of falling). I'm not ready for this stage where you have to follow them around the house, ready to catch them from a head-banging fall at any moment. Right now I try to keep an eye on him and redirect his attention to toys on the floor, etc, or just stick pillows in positions that will hopefully catch his head when he comes crashing to the floor.

First #4: Grant has a big-boy bed.
Sorry no picture yet. I'm planning on posting one after I get the cute bedding I've been looking at. We actually got bunk beds that convert to two twin beds. We set the top bunk with the side railing up for his bed so I think Grant thinks it's just a big crib. He hasn't even tried to crawl out (although he easily could) but I'm not complaining as he stays in his bed for naptime.

First #5: Tate is finally in the crib.
That's right. After 6 months of life Tate can say goodbye to the hard, uneven boards of the pack-n-play and say hello to the soft, comfortable mattress in the crib. He is even starting to sleep better. The past couple of nights he has not awaken to eat until 5 am (he usually wakes around 3 or 4am) and then went back to sleep until 8 am. I'm hoping the trend will continue until he's just sleeping right through the night. I guess we will see...

This picture is not a first but I figured I needed a picture of Grant on here as well as Tate. One night we were going to say our prayers and Grant insisted that George kneel down to pray as well. They both made it through the whole prayer :)

Happy Anniversary!

This is actually a few days late, but better late than never! We celebrated our 5th anniversary on the 19th and got a night out on the town the weekend before (thanks Scott and Carol for babysitting!). This year was my turn to pick what we were going to do so I decided we should hit up German Village in Columbus and try out Schmidt's Sausage Haus. I'm not one to gravitate toward German food (and especially not sausage) but I saw a clip about this place on the Food Network so I thought we'd give it a try.

Here's Ryan with our spread and a fork-full of knackwurst and sauerkraut. Ryan got the all-you-can eat sausage buffet which had all their famous sausages and brats along with German and American side dishes. I decided to get ethnic and got the Weiner-schnitzel with spatzel and german pancakes. And the verdict: mine was better. Americans don't eat many sour foods and that was the predominant flavor in the food we got. They even gave me a lemon to squeeze over my dish which I thought made it more delicious.
Here's a lovely shot of me stuffing my face with weiner-schnitzel. Yum! (Come to find out, weiner-schnitzel is not a sausage, like you might think. It's veal cutlets, battered and fried. Who knew?!)

Ryan was really into the first couple of sausages, but then the sauerkraut and fat started to get to him. This pic shows the sudden wave of nausea that hit him at about brat #4 (don't worry, the nausea didn't last too long:). He said most of his food ended up tasting like you would except buffet food to taste.
So that was a little dissapointing but it was a lot of fun to go and experience it all.
Afterward, we went to a bookstore in town that they had made out of one of the historic buildings. The whole store was several levels that had been made into 32 rooms of books. The rooms were pretty small and all connected by narrow hallways and staircases. You had to weave through the maze of rooms, hallways, and staircases to get through the place. There were people on their cell phones trying to find other people in the maze-store, with references to landmarks like "I just went up the double-staircase by the pirate books and am now in the room with horse books and car books. Where are you?" It was a pretty fun set up. And Ryan and I love meandering through book stores so we had a blast.
Thanks honey for being such a wonderful husband. You've made these past 5 years incredible. I love you!

Tate eats solids, sort of

Tate is now six months so we decided it was high time for him to try the deliciousness that is rice cereal. There are actually two parts of this video, at the beginning of his feeding and near the end. Hopefully tomorrow he will take more than three bites before gagging.

He's quite a singer

Grant felt like singing one evening so we kept giving him requests. We didn't even know he knew this whole song, I guess playing the Primary music CD helps.