Late April, Early May

I'm sure I'm the only mother who feels this way about her 5-month old baby, but he is becoming more and more delightful every day! He smiles and laughs more, especially at things you didn't think would make him laugh! He laughed at Nana out of the blue one day. She was sitting next to me and talking to me and Uncle James, and he just laughed at her. She said, "Are you laughing because Nana is just so funny looking?" and that made him laugh more!

This past Saturday he started to give us kisses! Since he was born I would lean in and say, "Give mama kisses!" and on Saturday he grabbed my face and initiated the kiss! He gave Daddy kisses, too. Interestingly enough, he seems to be shy about them. When he knows he's on display (if we're trying to show someone else that he's kissing us), he usually won't do it! He gives them freely in private, though. I passed in front of a mirror, stopped and said, "Isaac, look! Who do you see?" He got very excited, turned and grabbed my face, and kissed me! It's amazing the emotion you can feel when your baby initiates the affection. For the first few months you kiss on them and love on them assuming they love you back. Then they smile at you, and then laugh, but something about those kisses is magical, even if they are a little bit messy! :o)

OK, on to the pictures! Here are pictures from late April. Many of them are photo shoots, but we did have a couple of exciting things in there! Carlos' best friend, Jack, and his wife, Pam, came out to meet him for the first time. That turned into a bigger party than I anticipated! Uncle Mark, Aunt Janae, and Nana also came and we grilled burgers and hot dogs. As anyone who's been to our house knows, that's quite a crowd for our little place! We had a great time.

He also participated in his first church picnic . . . sort of. It was supposed to storm pretty badly, so we had the picnic inside the school where we meet for church. There were games to play outside, but Isaac and I stayed inside so he could nap and I could chat with some of the ladies. That was another really good time.

Here are pictures from early May. He is learning to play with toys, instead of waiting for the toys to play with him! While I don't mind being the entertainment, it's been fun to watch him play and entertain himself. It's fun to watch from a distance what amuses him and how he amuses himself! He's been playing in a "Jump & Go" that hangs in a doorway, and it has lights and music. At first he didn't think he liked it, but after figuring out that the music and sounds were fun instead of scary, and that he wasn't just hanging in thin air, he started to like it. Now he looks across the room at it, as if to say, "Any time you're ready to let me play in that thing, Mom, I'm ready to go!" He also has two different play mats that have toys hanging over him that he's started to play with.

We celebrated my first Mother's Day at Uncle Jesse and Aunt Tanya's new house, which is absolutely beautiful! They just put in a new saltwater pool, so this summer I imagine we'll get plenty of pictures there! You'll also find some pictures of crocheted ducks in this set. I crocheted these for Lillie Mae for her 2nd birthday and discovered that crocheting toys is incredibly fun for me! I've also crocheted a couple of baby blocks, but I need to re-upload the picture I took. So for now, you'll see my little ducks that I'm so proud of.