Thanksgiving Owen style

This was our Chocolate Peacan Pie. Erin made an Eggnog Pumpkin Pie that we unfortunately didn't get any pictures of.

Rubbing the turkey down w/ the herbed brown butter, which included fresh sage, thyme, and some rosemary. Both on top, and underneath the skin for optimum coverage.

Some of the aromatics I used for the stuffing. To help keep it moist and infuse w/citrus and herb flavors.

Removing the trussing off of the finished product. A perfectly smoked turkey. Which I have to say came out as well as I could have hoped, and w/out a hitch. It was moist, tender, and had the perfect combination of flavors.

Six months just flew by....

Can you believe it? Emery is Six months old! His fifth tooth broke through two days after the last one. FIVE teeth! Wow. Three on bottom, and the two front teeth.
We went to his six month well baby check up this morning. Just as I suspected, he's very tall (surprise, surprise). The nurse had to measure him twice to make sure she got it right, the first time she said he was off the charts. He's 28 inches long and weighs 20 pounds 8 ounces. He still has 2 pounds and 2 inches to go before he's too big for his car seat. Dr. Toledo seems to think that his weight gain will level off now and he'll continue to keep getting taller. She also mentioned that he may be a walker before he crawls since he enjoys pulling and standing so much.

I guess that being an 'Attachment Parent' isn't very common at The East County Health clinic. I walked in wearing Emery in a sling on my hip and everyone just stared at me. I guess they were trying to figure out how the thing worked, I don't know. Then when they asked if I brought his shot records their eyes conveyed disbelief when I said we weren't doing shots. Finally, after the nurse had finished the weigh in she told me I could put his diaper back on. I proceeded to put one of my homemade wool diaper covers on Emery and she said, "No, no don't get him dressed!" I responded with, "This is just a diaper a cover."
Are we just completely alone in the way that we're parenting Emery? I don't get it. All of these things make perfect sense to me, it's like second nature, so the fact that I come into contact with people who have no clue as to why or how we do the things we do, it baffles me.

Now that Emery has reached the 'magical' six month marker, I feel like I just need to give him as much food as possible. He enjoys eating very much. Dr. Toledo suggested that since he has a mouthful of teeth that he could 'do more' than other little ones his age. I agree. He shocks me sometimes. Yesterday he grabbed lettuce from Owen's plate, I gave him a slice of cucumber and he sucked a hole in the middle of it so at dinner, we gave him a few asparagus spears which he loved!

I don't like giving him food when Owen isn't home because I'm terrified that when he does that gagging thing that he's really choking. Owen is really calm about it and is so good at scooping whatever it is out of Emery's mouth (I'm afraid I'll shove it in further). I guess I just need to get over it.

I would just stick with the jarred baby food that we have but there doesn't seem to be enough texture for him. I hesitate to thicken it with rice cereal because I read somewhere that the iron fortified cereal hinders the absorption of the naturally occurring iron in breast milk. Can anyone confirm this for me?

We got Emery's Halloween costume yesterday. His Grandmommy Young made it for him, and it is sooooo stinkin' adorable. I would post some pictures but we haven't had a chance to put it on him yet, and I can't find the USB cord for the camera. I still need to make my costume, but Owen's cowboy costume is good to go. I'm excited!

Milestones.

So, I guess I could fill you in on what all our little guy is capable of now right?

At his last check up in August he was 18 pounds and 27 1/2 inches. He is due for another check up this month so I'm very interested to see how much he's grown. Once he reaches 22 pounds we have to get him a new car seat. :) Fun!

He's been rolling over for quite a while now. He's quite efficient at it and can actually manage to get wherever he wants to by rolling. He can also manage to get himself into some trouble. For example, he rolled himself up in a blanket here and couldn't figure out how to get un-rolled.

He sits up. This he hasn't quite mastered yet, but he's getting there. Everyday he manages to hold himself in a sitting position a little bit longer. In this picture he was doing a pretty good job, and he was also very proud of himself.

Here he figured out the joys of sitting unaided and making noise by banging on something!

He pushes himself up on all fours. I'm sure he'll be crawling soon. We really need to get on that baby-proofing stuff. Purrscilla is also getting more and more weary of the nearly mobile little one.

And with all of his teeth, he's very interested in anything he can get his little hands on. Like this juicy pineapple that he grabbed out of Daddy's hands.

Finally, one of my favorite new developments, he gets bashful!

We love him madly!