swinging party

So Cassidy is figuring out how to crawl forward. It turns out that there just needs to be something in front of him that he desperately wants to grab on to. In this case, that thing is Flannery, who he's quite infatuated with. She's quite patient with him, letting him grab and poke her. I think she realizes that he's number one, and that the way to work herself back up the cuddle pyramid is to be nice to him.

We also went out to Holly Park last weekend with Carrie for a ride on the baby swings. Cassidy really liked them, although it's hard to tell from these photos. He also enjoyed seeing Carrie again and making sure that she was still a member of his fan club.

eight miles high

Today is Cassidy's eight month birthday. His front teeth finally(!) broke through the gums -- this has apparently eased the teething pain a little and left him in a particularly silly and chatty mood. Lots of giggling and squirming around. These pictures show his more thoughtful side as he prepares for a little pre-dinner snack of peaches.

my son cool

Cassidy has about 58 teeth coming in all at once, apparently, which has dampened his natural charm a little, although he's still pretty sweet. His upper gums are all puffy and there's a bunch of little white visitors poking through.

He's also learned how to get into a sitting position from his tummy. He puts one leg into sort of a half-lotus position (all that baby yoga is paying off) and then pushes back with his hands. (try it yourself.) He's quite pleased with himself about this.

He's also started vocalizing quite a bit. He already made little baby sounds from time to time, but now it's pretty common - we get a serenade of 'bagagabladabla' most mornings over the baby monitor. I'm sure Shakespeare is just around the corner.

We're also starting to notice that, some of the time, Cassidy looks more like a little boy and less like a baby. Time flies.

dinosaur jr.

As Cassidy reaches the 7 1/2 month mark, he's learning and doing all kinds of new things. He's quite good at sitting up on his own, and is figuring out how to get into a sitting position from his tummy.

Holly bought him some new plastic dinosaurs that he finds quite delicious. They go with his matching dino overalls; he's turning into quite the junior paleontologist. He's also been enjoying the collected works of Sandra Boynton; they're as fun to read as they are to chew on.

Holly also got him the super-cute Steal-Your-Face shirt for Father's Day. He can be seen here modeling it in the ten seconds he had it on before he discovered that he could eat the applique.

whole lotta bagel love

Cassidy got his first taste of whole-wheat bagel today; as you can see, he was less than impressed. We also took him out to Brisbane for a walk, which he was much more fond of.

baby sang bass

Since our last installment, Cassidy has had a bit of a cold, which kept him down for a few days, but he's bounced back nicely, and can be seen here taking a bath, sucking on an ice cube, helping me plan dinner whilst rocking his Johnny Cash onesie, modeling his Technicolor Dreamcoat, and generally practicing his come-hither look.

inchworm, inchworm, measuring the marigolds

Cassidy will be seven months old tomorrow. He's getting very close to crawling; he can do a sort of 'commando crawl' in which he works himself around in circles, and is developing an inchworm-style approach in which he puts his butt up in the air and his head down, and then lunges his head forward. It's very cute.

For Fourth of July, we took him out to Strybing Arboretum in Golden Gate Park for a walk and a chance to model his new sun hat. He's also been learning some guitar; right now, his style leans more toward avant-garde free-form improvisation.