Ducks Galore!

I finally got some pictures of one of our duck feeding sessions at the pond near our house, and this one was particularly entertaining! There were about eight Canadian geese visiting this day and they decided to venture over for some Sara Lee White Wheat bread! This was in addition to our regular, smaller and way less intimidating mallards. I have seen some Canadian geese visit our pond before, but they tended to stay away from humans on the opposite side of the walking trails. Not this time. When I saw all of them get into the water and float our direction from across the pond, I did get a little nervous. They are huge and I know geese can be aggressive. I have never seen Canadian geese be interested in being fed, but I guess this particular flock had been fed before (which probably isn't a good thing that they are domesticating but oh well, we enjoyed them).
When I ran out of bread, I had brought some dog food..FYI, Canadian geese do not like dog food. I think it was too small for them to pick up in their beaks (it was the tiny-bites dog food). This occasion was made more exciting by the fact that the wind was blowing against us which kept the bread from reaching the water, so the ducks and geese proceeded to get OUT of the water to get the bread..the little mallards, not so scary....the giant geese, SCARY!!! I was envisioning the geese trying to empower me to get hold of the bread and I pictured myself having to fend off the biting heads to save my child!! Luckily, they had similar timid personalities as the mallards. They still new I was boss.
They are so impressive! Kyler seemed to really enjoy it b/c they were flapping around and competing for the bread, so we heard lot's of squawking. Wow, thank you God for giving us this up close glimpse of your wondrous creation! I had to keep Shiloh tied up in the distance for various reasons. She completely freaked when the ducks got out of the water towards us.

Out to Feed the Ducks

Kyler's favorite activity (or maybe actually mine) is to go to the pond near our house and feed the ducks. There are about 8 of them and include beautiful male and female mallards (with the green heads). Occasionally a couple seagulls swoop in and their flapping movement makes him belly laugh. The coy under the water are bright orange and I am sure he wonders what they are under there, but they are too slow to get the bread from the ducks. I will try to get some pictures of actually feeding the ducks but here he is on his way out.

Kyler at Six Months!

Kyler is finally able to sit for extended periods on his own. He is rolling over like crazy (back to tummy and tummy to back). He is eating up lots of pureed foods like applesauce, pears, squash, & sweet potatoes. I think he actually prefers that to the bottle but he still has to get most of his nutrients and fats from the bottle. In one of these pictures, Kyler is wearing a beautiful sweater that was homemade by one of the nuns in New York. His Aunt Jeanne procured that for him..isn't it wonderful? He matches his little Irish bear that he got for Christmas.

Five Month Pictures

The months are just flying by! The first picture shows Kyler in his Jumperoo. He loves it. He spends lots of time in there throughout the day!Hmm..some milestones he has down include rolling over. He did this the first time at around 6 weeks but now immediately rolls over when placed on his tummy. He LOVES to stand and loves to be in his Jumperoo to jump. We have been giving him puree fruits and cereal once a day. We might bump it up to twice a day now that more of it is actually being digested vs landing on his bib.

The Day After X mas

It's Italian food night at the Truglio's house. Yum! Kyler had some fun bonding with Great Grandpa Poppy.

Christmas Day

Kyler woke up at the Hood household and we opened gifts around noon (that is the last Christmas that will ever happen!). Then we headed over to the Roth household for more Christmas fun.

Kyler's First Christmas Eve

Jamie's family had their annual Christmas Eve gift/white elephant swap. Once again, it was a total blast. Jamie gave the most practical gift, fluorescent light bulbs as his gag gift..wow, exciting. Poor Melissa wound up with that one. We felt bad, so we gave her some extra gift money afterward. Jamie wound up with an MRE (given out during one of the hurricanes), so justice was served. Kyler opened his first gift ever that night and he was, of course, very interested in eating the wrapping paper..so colorful, it must be yummy!

Puree Introduction!

We were so blessed to be able to spend time with both families this Christmas and get together with some old friends too. We started out visiting Jamie's family in Nederland Texas. Grandma Hood (Jamie's mom) helped me out with feeding Kyler some pears and rice cereal (as we have been given the okay by his pediatrician to introduce puree fruits and cereal). He wasn't too sure about this new texture as evidenced by the picture! After breakfast he was pretty sleepy and was ready for a nap..Time for Uncle Jeremy to put me to sleep.

Bear Cub

I finally got my child a warm hat for the winter. I had the hardest time finding a decent one anywhere..the stores only seemed to have hats for girls (or hats with giant cartoon characters on them)!

Merry Christmas!

Kyler had some Christmas pictures taken. I feel bad b/c we are not doing Christmas cards this year b/c I never got around to it. It just takes so much time stuffing all the envelopes and putting on all the labels and stamps. Jamie has been out of town for work the past month and I was sick all last week with food poisoning (courtesy of Jamie's deer sausage). Thank you mom for coming into town to help with the baby! Anyhow, there has been no time for anything but the minimal. I think one of these pictures would have looked really cute too in a Christmas card, so I am kind of sad about it. Oh well. Thank you to those of you who have sent us cards. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Kyler's Four Month Pictures

He is getting big! Hitting all milestones. We'll find out tomorrow at his 4 month check-up how much he weighs but I am sure it is 20lbs..at least he feels that big to me when I am walking up the stairs!