First Farm Trip

We took Truman to the family farm for the first time Memorial Day weekend. As you can see, we all enjoyed the trip.












































After all that excitement, he was tired:

Truman at 6 weeks

Truman's now 12 pounds and big enough to wear the adorable glasses my college friend Chryssa sent him. He also seems perilously close to outgrowing the bouncy chair.

How will I survive, you ask? How will I get things done I can't do while holding him?

Easy, he now spends several times a day content cooing and attempting to roll over on the floor. He's also more interested in assisted sitting now.

Growth

Every time someone sees him, they comment about how much he's grown. I know he's growing, but looking at him today it really hit me how much bigger he is now — not just in size, but maturity. The two of us are getting better at understanding one another.

Here he is at birth:



and now:

Super Truman

Truman has always loved kicking his feet and using them to push on things, especially while nursing. But in the last week he has shown more interest in, well, standing. Heavily assisted standing, of course. We thought the result looked like he was preparing for superman-style flight last night.





p.s. Thanks to Tiffany and Mary Dawson for the awesome onsie (and other gifts). Not only is it adorable, but it was made with transition cotton (it was grown by farmers who are transitioning their fields to grow cotton organically).

Walking Around the Lake

What a Minnesota thing to do. We used to take the same walk around Lake Susan when I was pregnant. Today the little man got to see the path for himself.



(Yes, I dressed my baby in tie-dye and stripes. Hey, it's the only age he'll be able to pull it off.)

Reflections

Truman's sleeping peacefully on Joe so I have a few minutes to write.

I've been surprised how naturally motherhood has come to me. Caring for Truman isn't necessarily easy, but it is also not difficult. In fact, I would say that those qualifications aren't even in the same ballpark as all the other words I would use to describe my experience of being a mother so far.

It's joyful and frustrating. It's simultaneously the thing I feel most comfortable doing and the thing that makes me realize I have so much to learn. It's enigmatic.

There's simply something so amazing about caring for him day after day and being here to see him grow minute by minute, hour by hour, week by week. I've started to understand why parents brag about simple things that sound absurd to non-parents. It is a big deal to us when our children smile or hold up their heads or recognize our faces. These are the milestones of infanthood and they mark a passing from a time when Truman was here with us but existed more as a figment of our imaginations and dreams than as a real person to a time when he is clearly his own little man. And I will admit that it has taken me some time to fully internalize his existence as a person — not just as a baby we were going to have or a baby we have, but as Truman.

But when I look at him I realize this is true. Now he is a tiny reminder of how small we all being our journeys in this world but someday he'll be a kid and a man.

Every morning when we wake up I talk to him and smile at him. This week he started smiling back. I look forward to that smile every morning.

What Happens When Mom's a Photographer

He tends to look so old and big in pictures (it's those long legs!), so I was looking for a way to capture how small he is now as an infant. I was inspired by a photo some of my favorite photographers had taken of a baby in a wheat field. This was taken along the path across from our apartment in a patch of tall grass:

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a ...

... big toothless grin!

Someday

He'll sit in this chair:



and talk on the phone, like this:

Music Time

Truman loves music. Yesterday Joe called from work and said, "we should play some music for him tonight." Later, he sang to the boy.



Then Truman started looking for his second dinner =)

Snug as a Bug in a Rug

Truman snuggled up in a deep sleep while I hung out with some other moms yesterday.

How He Spends His Days at One Month

Thinking, looking, listening:



Eating, snuggling:



Digesting, spitting up, burping;



Sleeping, dreaming:



Planning his next move:



He also coos and is working on a very cute smile. He now tracks things with his eyes and is engaging with us more. Every morning he and I spend a few minutes looking into each others eyes and studying each other. He continues to play with his feet and hands and is getting better at holding his head by himself.

He seems to like being around people more than being at home with just Joe and I.

(All photos taken with my mother's day gift, a new point-and-shoot.)

Bath Time

And an outtake:

Truman Tummy Time

Say that three times fast.












He has also started to coo. It's extremely cute.