Arlo is seven months old today--my, how time flies! He's still working diligently on figuring out how to crawl and erupting his first few teeth. I'm happy to wait a little longer on the crawling (we haven't childproofed the house at all yet), but a break from the teething would be nice!

Here he is at 29 and 30 weeks. We took the 29-week photo a day early, because we were busy driving down to California on his actual 29-week birthday. We took the 30-week photo in our hotel in Ashland on our way home. As you can see, Arlo is really good at sitting up on his own at this point.

We spent the last week and a half in California, visiting our families, which was great! We decided to drive down instead of flying, and I was a little worried that Arlo's sleeping would be messed up by the long car rides and unfamiliar surroundings. He cried a couple times in the car, and he had a few extra middle-of-the-night wakings, but all things considered, he did great! When we were in the car, he napped in his carseat with a blanket draped over the handle, and when we were at our hotel and with family, he slept in his Pack 'n' Play. We kept our normal sleep routines (book, song, and blankie), which I think helped preserve his sleep schedule. Or maybe we were just lucky :)

When he was awake in the car, he was pretty easy to entertain. When he got tired of staring out the window, I handed him Freddie Firefly (or hung it from the carseat handle), which kept him entertained for a surprisingly long time. I only had to dig into the rest of his toy stash or sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" a couple times. The hardest part of the trip was changing Arlo's diaper in the car. The passenger seat of our Matrix folds down into a little table, so Patrick changed him on a Thermarest on top of the table. It was a little unstable. Arlo kept trying to roll around the front seat in the middle of messy diaper changes, but Patrick kept him pretty well contained, and our car upholstery made it through the trip unsoiled.

We split the drive over two days, stopping over in Ashland. We only got a quick glimpse, but I would like to go there again when we have more time to explore. We stayed at the Ashland Springs Hotel, a nicely restored old hotel located downtown. We ate dinner at Larks on the way down to CA and at Standing Stone Brewery on the way back. Both meals were good but kind of hurried, because it was close to Arlo's bedtime, and he was super wiggly and grabby. We also had a nice breakfast at Morning Glory, with only a moderate amount of baby food-grabbing.

Not surprisingly, this vacation was much less leisurely than our pre-baby adventures. I learned a valuable lesson our first night in the hotel--when traveling with a baby, you should always book a suite. We failed to do this and ended up in a small queen room, with just enough room for Arlo's Pack 'n' Play next to the bed. That meant that after 7pm, all the lights had to be off, and we had to be very quiet. I ended up sitting on the cold, hard bathroom tile, knitting, since it was the only place in our room where we could have a light on without waking Arlo. Luckily, we were able to upgrade to a suite on our way home, and it was a much nicer experience (we even got to watch a little TV after he went to bed!).

After a quick stop in the Bay Area and a lunchtime visit with my coworkers, we headed down to my mom and Alan's house in Atascadero. My dad, Vicki, and Lianna all flew out from Colorado. It was so nice to have everybody together for a few days! Our family has been through some tough times this year--both Lianna and Vicki were diagnosed with cancer and went through treatment earlier this year, and I'm ecstatic to report that they're both in complete remission now!--so it was extra special to spend time together. In addition to being reunited with his grandparents, Arlo met his Auntie Li, great-grandma, and great-aunt Susie for the first time. Luckily, he got over his stranger anxiety pretty quickly and enjoyed hanging out with everybody.

Auntie Nance couldn't join us, unfortunately, but we all got to talk with her over Skype, which was lots of fun :) And she sent a big batch of her annual Christmas cookies, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

We kept things pretty low key--Patrick and I didn't endeavor to make a big Christmas dinner this year (though we certainly ate well--Arlo got his first taste of Alan's homemade tortillas, and he seemed to like them very much!). My mom made her traditional coffee cake for (early) Christmas breakfast, Arlo wore his Christmas jammies, and we lounged around the living room and opened presents.

Arlo received so many thoughtful presents from both sides of the family. My mom knit him a little stripy sweater that is almost an exact replica of a sweater that she made for me when I was a baby. I love it :)

We kept things simple with our gift-giving this year and mostly gave homemade jam and photos of Arlo. I packaged them up in brown paper bags decorated with little paper snowflakes and butcher's twine. I like how they turned out.

I managed to make a few knitted gifts this year. I made Vicki a pair of mitts, similar to the pair I made for Lianna last year. I used Malabrigo wool, so they're soft and cozy.

I offered to make Lianna a hat, and she requested a pointy earflap hat, inspired by Arlo's sweet baby cap. I ended up modifying the Thorpe pattern to add a point, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

After a couple days at my mom's house, we drove up to Palo Alto to spend Christmas with Patrick's family. Arlo got to spend lots of quality time with his Grandpa Rick and aunts and uncles, and he got to meet Oscar, Jay and Heather's cute little dog. This was his first time being in close proximity to a dog, and it went well!

I haven't found really good sushi in Portland yet (admittedly, I haven't been trying very hard), so I wanted to visit Akasaka while we were in town. We ended up going twice (my sushi cravings cannot be denied!), and we got yummy burritos at La Cumbre. Arlo got to try some fun new foods at Akasaka--tobiko, agedashi tofu, and pickled ginger (he ate a whole slice, possibly unintentionally). Arlo is way more advanced than Patrick and me--we didn't try sushi until college!

Patrick's family's tradition is to have a big dinner on Christmas Eve, and although Arlo didn't get any ham (delicious, but too much salt for a baby), he did enjoy munching on green beans, rolls, and scalloped potatoes. He also got to watch everybody make pie crust cookies and helped by drooling on the container of sprinkles.

I decided a few months ago that I would make Arlo's Christmas stocking, but I didn't start knitting it until the first night of our road trip. Luckily, it was made with worsted weight yarn, so I was able to finish it in time for Christmas Eve. I'm really happy with how it turned out! I put Arlo's initials on one side and his birth year on the other, the same as Patrick's stocking. I'm thinking about lining it with fabric so it won't stretch over time, but it's not like it'll be used very frequently, so maybe it's fine as is.

I may have mentioned before that Patrick and his siblings all have ornament starter boxes that their Grannie made for them when they were young, so that they'd have special ornaments to hang on their trees when they were grown-up. I love this idea, and I decided that I'd like to make an ornament for Arlo each year (and make one for our tree at the same time, so the ornaments will be familiar to him). This year, I knit two little snowman ornaments. So cute!

I wasn't the only one thinking about ornaments. Patrick's family made Arlo a starter kit of Christmas ornaments--some from the family collection, and some new purchased and home-made just for him. It was such a thoughtful present! Serendipitously, Patrick's cousin Kelly sent Arlo a special family ornament as well. It's just so nice to have these little pieces of family history to enjoy every year. I'm sure Arlo will be glad to have them when he's older.

Arlo had a lot of presents waiting for him on Christmas morning. He opened the first one (with his Aunt Meg's help), but then Patrick and I took over.

We headed back home on the day after Christmas. Patches seemed ambivalent about us being home--I think she was enjoying her baby vacation, especially since Lori takes such good care of her when we're gone!

I'm torn about what to do next year--it would be great to have a non-traveling Christmas, since we haven't gotten to experience Christmas in Portland yet. On the other hand, I loved visiting our families for the holidays. Everybody is so sweet with Arlo, and it's great seeing him interact with them. Maybe we'll end up trading off years--one in Portland, one in California--similar to what we did when our families lived farther apart.

Seeing all the beautiful scenery on our road trip (and learning that Arlo handles traveling pretty well, at least for now) made me want to go on more adventures in 2011. I'd like to start taking annual family trips to the same places every year--maybe rent a cabin in the winter and go camping in the summer. I really like the idea of establishing new traditions that we can share with Arlo (and any future siblings) as he grows up. It makes me smile to think that something we haven't even started doing now might be commonplace and comforting to Arlo eighteen years from now. I'm excited that we have the opportunity to shape his childhood--I hope we do a good job!

Arlo at six months old, including a clip of him laughing for the first time. I love it!

Arlo at Six Months from Caitlin D on Vimeo.

As a followup to last night's post--we found our first really good recipe in The Food Matters Cookbook tonight. It's the pasta with smoky roasted sweet potatoes and bacon, and it's both easy and delicious. Yum!

Here's Mister Arlo at twenty-seven weeks (we love it when he makes that "O" face!):

And at twenty-eight weeks, at rest and in a happy blur:

Arlo's doing great and is so much fun (I feel like I say that in every post, but it's true!). He had his 6-month checkup last week, and everything looks good. He hasn't gained much weight in the past month, but our pediatrician thinks this is because he's too busy rolling over and sitting and doing all the other fun stuff that 6-month-olds do. His weight percentile hasn't changed from his 4-month visit (still steady at 50th percentile), so I've decided not to worry about the slow weight gain this month. We did plenty of worrying about his weight in the first six months; I'm hoping to take a break from that for a while!

Arlo also had his first eye exam last week. It was free, as part of the InfantSEE program. Since Patrick and I are both pretty nearsighted, I figured it was worth having Arlo checked out early. It was a pretty quick visit--the doctor held a little toy horse in front of Arlo to make sure he followed it, and he looked into Arlo's eyes with a little flashlight (both before and after dilation). It turns out that Arlo is actually a little farsighted right now, but the doctor said that's common in babies his age, and he should grow out of it around 6 or 7 years old. It's good to know that we don't need to worry about glasses for a few years, and since we did dilation at this appointment, we won't need to dilate his eyes when he goes back for his next visit at 3 or 4 years old (when he might be a little less willing to have drops put in his eyes). I was worried that having his eyes dilated might freak Arlo out, but he didn't seem to mind it.

Arlo continues to make exciting advances in mobility. His big achievement this week is that when he's on his tummy, he's able to pivot around in a circle. A couple of times, we've found him rotated 180 degrees from where we left him when we get him up from a nap. Fun!

His napping has continue to be kind of crappy for the past few weeks, with at least one nap a day cut short at 35 or 45 minutes. I don't think it's because of teething anymore, since he doesn't seem to be in pain. He just doesn't want to sleep--there are too many other exciting things to do! I'm hoping he'll go back to taking those nice long 1.5 hour naps, but I'm not holding my breath.

Arlo continues to enjoy feeding himself a wide variety of food. He seems to like purees (go figure), like steamed squash and mashed potatoes, probably because they're easy to swallow. And he really went to town on some steamed broccoli the other day, gnawing off the tops of a few florets. Broccoli face!

In other news, we have a new magnolia tree in our front parking strip, thanks to Friends of Trees and my favorite crew leader, Patrick (this is his third year volunteering with Friends of Trees). He wears the safety vest and hard hat well!

Last week, as part of my cold-weather babywearing strategy, I knit myself a cowl using some super-soft yarn that Heather gave me last Christmas. I wanted something that would keep my neck warm without too much bulk, and without any buttons (since Arlo's face is right there). This cowl fits the bill perfectly--it's warm and soft, and since it's neutral it goes with my crazy pink jacket.

In vaguely related crafty news, this pile of fabric and notions from Bolt makes me happy every time I look at it :) I'm planning on using the bias tape and stripy fabric to make a birthday bunting for Arlo. I wanted to make one before he was born, but that didn't happen. Now I just want to finish it in time for his first birthday. I still have five months--I can do it!

In food news, I've been doing a lot of cooking from Mark Bittman's Food Matters Cookbook recently. His premise is that we should reduce the amount of animal products in our diets (using them more as garnishes than central ingredients) in order to help the environment and improve our health. A lot of his recipes looked good (plus it's easy to meal-plan when you have a fun new cookbook to page through), so I've been working my way through a bunch of them. Most of the results have been unexciting--not bad exactly, just not the kind of food you look forward to eating. Still, it's a nice cookbook to turn to when you want to eat healthily. I'm planning on doing some more cooking from it, to counterbalance all of the yummy holiday treats I've been eating!

Speaking of treats, I was very happy with how this German apple cake from Rustic Fruit Desserts turned out. It was easy, pretty, and tasty. Hopefully I'll have time to make it again this winter.

Here's a run down of the Food Matters recipes I've tried so far.

• Baked pasta with Brussels sprouts, dried figs, and gruyere: A little on the dry side, but otherwise very nice! I'd make it again.

  

• Fried chickpeas: Enjoyable!

  

• Whole wheat bread with squash puree (eaten alongside my mom's split pea soup and some roasted beets with feta): The flavor wasn't that exciting, but the bread was nice and moist. (My mom's soup was yummy, as always)

  

• Mushroom stew with beef chunks (accompanied by more oven polenta): Even though I went to the trouble of making my own mushroom stock, the stew turned out kind of bland and watery. It didn't make for a very satisfying main dish, but it would be okay as a first course or as a light lunch accompanied by a grilled cheese sandwich.

  

• Roasted parsnip spears with shallot glaze (I added the shallots during roasting instead of making a separate glaze): Very nice! Arlo liked them too.

• Brownie cake (made into muffins, reduced baking time to 20 minutes): Nice and fudgy (especially after sitting overnight), but the flavor was kind of weird because of the secret ingredient (prunes). These kind of grew on me over time--I was a little sad when they were all gone. If you're looking for a healthy chocolate muffin recipe, these aren't a bad choice.

  

• Pasta with silky cabbage, oranges, and chickpeas: Not awful, but not exciting. I like my pasta with a little more sauce to it.

  

• Drumsticks, cabbage, and rice, stuck-pot style: The chicken and cabbage were nice, but the rice was a little chalky and didn't stick to the pot. I might try it again with a smaller pot and slightly higher heat.

• Creamy cauliflower mac: Not as good as real mac and cheese, but fine for a healthy weeknight alternative.

• Meat-and-grain loaf (for the meat, I used 2/3 beef, 1/3 pork; for the grains, I used bulgur and steel-cut oats): The loaf wasn't very exciting (I think I undersalted it) or structurally sound, but the buttery mashed potatoes (recipe from America's Test Kitchen) made up for it. I might try the loaf recipe again, topped with a ketchup and brown sugar glaze, to add a little more interest.

  

• Pasta with mushrooms, chicken, and red wine: Not bad.

  

• Rice casserole with escarole and little meatballs: Even with little meatballs (yay!), this casserole wasn't very exciting. I might try it again with pork meatballs, instead of beef.

  

Here's Arlo at twenty-six weeks, wearing the sweet corduroy overalls that I bought before he was born. I love the crooked baby smile :)

We had a nice Thanksgiving at Patrick's Aunt Lorraine's house. Patrick and Arlo got all gussied up in collared shirts for dinner. Arlo fills out his fancy shirt and pants much better now than he did at Erin's wedding!

Patrick's cousin Jennie was in town, and although Arlo was wary at first, he warmed up to her by the end of the night. He has definitely been exhibiting some stranger anxiety lately, but he seems to get over it pretty quickly.

We brought an apple pie to Thanksgiving dinner (the same recipe I've used in years past), and Patrick cooked up some simple and tasty Brussels sprouts.

This was our first time keeping Arlo out past his bedtime since establishing his sleep schedule. We weren't sure how he would handle sleeping in a strange place, but he did pretty well. He wasn't too excited about taking his afternoon nap on the floor in Lorraine's bedroom (when I put him down, he cried and kept trying to roll under her bed), but he eventually gave in and took a quick nap. Patrick had better luck at bedtime--Arlo went to sleep in his carseat without too much trouble, and he only woke up briefly when we moved him to the car. Once we got home, he slept in his carseat until his 10pm feeding. Good baby!

The day after Thanksgiving, Arlo came down with his first cold (and I caught it soon after). I think we got off easy this time--he had a runny nose, but it didn't interfere with his breathing much, and he has been sleeping normally. His nose is still a little runny, but hopefully it will clear up soon.

Arlo had his six-month birthday on Tuesday. Crazy! He's growing and developing so quickly all of a sudden. Every day he's able to sit up on his own a little better, and he's starting to get his knees under himself when he's on his tummy (next stop: crawling baby!). When he's on his back, he has started scooching backwards by pushing off with his feet and arching his back. It's kind of risky, since he can't see where he's going, but I guess babies don't worry about things like that--that's why they've got us around.

Now that Arlo is 6 months old, we've started feeding him solid food, using the baby-led weaning approach, like I mentioned earlier. It has been going really well so far, though Arlo has done a fair amount of gagging, which isn't fun. The baby-led weaning book says that it's totally normal and that he'll grow out of it soon, but it's still pretty unnerving. Whenever he starts gagging, I tense up and start panicking about whether I'll have to do the baby Heimlich maneuver, but it has never come to that--he either swallows the offending piece of food or it falls out of his mouth. We've only had to intervene twice, sweeping a piece of food out of his mouth when it was too big to fall out on its own. I think once we have a little more experience with Arlo feeding himself, I'll be able to relax and stop worrying about him choking every time he takes a bite.

Apart from our initial nervousness, having Arlo eat food with us has been great--messy but entertaining. This past week, he has tried sweet potato oven fries, quartered Brussels sprouts, penne with a little melted Gruyere, Fuyu persimmon slices, toasted English muffin, squash puree, and oatmeal. At the beginning of the week, he was mostly sucking on things and then letting them fall out of his mouth, but when we gave him sweet potato spears on Wednesday, he did a little chewing and swallowing, which surprised Patrick and me. It was so cool--he stared really intently at me as I took a bite of sweet potato, and then he started copying me and chewing his sweet potato too. Babies catch on quickly!

One area of confusion for me is which foods he can eat now and which we should wait to introduce--there's so much conflicting information about food allergies out there. It seems like the current belief is that there's no point in withholding potential allergens, because this won't affect whether children will get allergies later. But there are also plenty of websites and books that recommend avoiding citrus, egg whites, wheat, and nuts (among other things) until he's over a year old. We're going to talk with our pediatrician about this next week, but since we don't have a family history of allergies, I think it's okay for us to give him pretty much anything, apart from honey and foods that he could choke on. We'll see.

Arlo did get a little rash around his mouth after eating the persimmon, which I suppose could mean he has a persimmon allergy, but I think it's more likely that it was due to his sensitive skin--he had persimmon smeared all over the place, and I probably didn't wipe it off as well as I should have. I've heard that the acid in oranges can cause a rash around the mouth, so I'm guessing something similar might have happened with the persimmon. Still, maybe we'll wait until next fall before he tries persimmon again.

We don't have a high chair yet, so this past week we had Arlo sit on our laps while he was eating, which worked pretty well until it was time for cleanup. It's kind of a struggle to clean off his hands and face, because he tends to flail around and get food all over everybody's clothes. We should be getting a high chair this weekend, which will be nice. I think the high chair will let us contain the mess a little better, but I'm still prepared to wear my apron at mealtimes for the next few months (years?).