I am so tempted tonight, if Paul II cries a little around 11pm, to get him up, dress him up in his little tuxedo and take a few pictures. Then dress him back in his night clothes and put him back to bed. But I know that won't happen. So I'll wait until he wakes up tomorrow to dress him in his tux. It'll be so cute.

I am so proud of the little darling. He crawled today. Not very far and not very fast, but he finally crawled! He was enamored with the DVD remote, so I placed it a little farther away and he crawled to it. Paul I and I were so excited. I figured out the blanket I throw on the floor is holding him back. It slides with him on the hardwood floor, so he doesn't get any traction to move forward. After New Years we'll finally get a rug for the living room so I can stop putting down big play blankets and let him have an area he can develop his crawling. I can't wait.

Well, I tried the Zwiebach toast again today. I was watching Paul pick up all his toys and shove them in his mouth, one by one. After each one he'd make a face, like they just didn't taste all that great. Figures, when I give him the biscuit, he looks at me and it, as if to say, "What the heck do I do with this?" Figures. But he did much better with trying to eat it. Of course I had to hold it again and he still moves his head back and forth between gumming it. But he moved his mouth to it more and a little more rapidly than before. Even though the first bite or two he made a very disgusted face. The stuff actually isn't too bad, just plain. I had to hold it in my mouth while I opened the door for hubby and had a quick taste.

Of course, when I wasn't looking, hubby said Paul II picked it up a few times and tasted it himself. What a good boy. He's also getting better with his solids at supper time. He doesn't fight me, except for maybe the first bite now. Even then that's not that often and he'll just open his mouth for the food. I've been letting him grab the spoon and help me guide it into his mouth, so he gets involved and a little practice as well. Tonight he tried Vegetable Chicken dinner and ate a nice portion. Tomorrow we'll finish it and his green beans off.

We're also trying to get him to walk. I know that's insane, but I'll deal with his mobility as it comes. I just want him to progress well. A few times I and Paul I have lifted his arms and shifted him in a walking movement. He doesn't know what we're doing, but he smiles a lot and that's good at least.

We've also been doing a few sit-ups. I pull him up and have him do 20 sit-ups. I'm hoping he'll gain some muscle memory and be able to sit up on his own soon.

I was very proud today, when he scooted a little. He knocked one of his balls across the floor and jerked and pushed himself forward to reach it. He did such a wonderful job. Maybe he'll crawl finally. He's such a great boy.

I swear that little bugger is driving me nuts! Paul II still isn't mobile, he just kind of shifts and shimmies around. But he's getting better at the shimmy. Must have been all the "Shimmy, shimmy, shake, shake" I had him dance. I figured it would be safe to work on a jigsaw a step or two away from his play blanket in the living room. It takes a bit, but eventually I see this little hand grasping the frame of the puzzle. Then I have to move him back again. And boy does he hate that. He tells me a thing or two for not letting him break up my puzzle. Of course, I won't learn and keep the puzzle there. I'll just keep moving him back. I also like it to encourage him to crawl.

I'm such a stupid mother. At night, when he's sideways in his crib, I move him back the right way and fix his blanket. But the other night, I moved him too soon. He was still a little awake. So I froze like a deer in the headlights and hoped he wouldn't see me. His head started to turn and I remembered I had his blanket in hand. So I had a real clever idea. I held up the blanket in front of me. That way he wouldn't see me. After a minute I realized how dense that was. Okay, so his visuals skills aren't the most developed yet, but I think he'll notice if a blanket is hanging in the air. So I tucked him in real quick and hightailed it out the door. Well, I won't try that one again.

Christmas went pretty well today. Unfortunately the little one has a bit of a fever and wasn't in the highest spirits, but a little cranky. But the holiday was good enough for me.

Paul I woke me up around 9am, after he and Paul II had been up for a while. I was angry they waited so long to wake me. I was also irritated they didn't wake me properly. Paul II was supposed to be held up on my stomach and jumped up and down, as Paul I spoke for him, "Mommy! Mommy! Santa came!" Okay, so we're a little weird always talking for our son, but that's us.

Instead, he was in the living room on the floor, bottle propped and sucking away. Once he was finished, the torture began, the poor boy. I had him help with as many presents as possible. He helped me rip maybe 5-6 gifts open. Most of it was clothing, as each of our families probably thought the other would buy toys. And then most of the clothes were for 6-9 months. Unfortunately Paul II is 7 months and tends to grow into the next size about 1-1.5 months early. So we have to wear all these outfits ASAP to make sure we get use out of them.

My aunt did buy him a small wooden maraca. It's been her unending quest to get him a rattle, when after he was born, she found no old fashioned hard rattles. They're not considered safe anymore, so it's all stuffed animal rattles. Well at least it's not in America. The German airline gave him a rattle when we came back from Austria. But he likes his rattle from his great aunt and has picked it up a few times. For him, that shows interest.

My one sister also bought him a little dragon. It's about the same size as him right now and it has lots of rattles and crinkles on it for him to make sounds with.

Well, at least "Santa" got him some toys. We picked him up a fabric block with pictures on each side. When he flips to a different side, a different song plays, or we can switch it to say a rhyme. There's a big rubbery ball that has the alphabet as buttons. Each letter plays a different song, as does rolling the ball. Later we can flip the switch to letters or letter sounds. Finally there's a plastic birdbath. There's shapes and a few buttons. Again, everything triggered plays music, but can be switched to teach numbers, colors and shapes. All these toys will grow with him. Right now they're all set to music and he already enjoys them. He was cooing up a storm earlier with the birdbath and ball. Also, the sound quality on these toys are so much better than when I or my sisters were babies. The tone is clear and musical, not tinny or high-pitched. There's one song on one of his toys I actually like when he presses.

We had our goose dinner. It was blah. Goose reminds me of greasy dark turkey meat. We much prefer duck. I set up the food processor and shredded a little meat to try to make some baby food so Paul II could try as well. I didn't quite do it right and it was still WAY too solid for the baby. So we tried to give him a little bit of the goose flavored water in the mixture. No go. But he was more interested in his bottle at that point.

Well, I bought that food processor and intend to use it. Now I just have to figure out how to make the baby food properly. We only have three more jars and I don't want to have to buy too many more tomorrow. I'll figure it out, I usually do.

Today was a slow day, I was busy on the computer for most of it. But I did have to go see my boss and give him and a coworker pumpkin bread for Christmas, also to pick up a small gift from my boss. But I was lazy. I like our jogging stroller when we're walking around, but it's a very big hassle for me to pull it out of our storage area and up the building steps. Then I have to have our son extra bundled while he's in it, as it's been so cold out. So today I was clever.

Paul II was bundled into two layers of clothing and I put on the baby carrier. After I threw him in, I put on a cute little hat. Now came the final step. I put my coat on around us and zipped us in. I could only imagine what this bulge looked like, so I hurried to the bathroom mirror and nearly collapsed. it was the funniest sight I had evern seen, this little head popping out of Mommy's chest and looking so confused and aggravated at what Mommy had done to him.