Willem's 1st Snow

Last week, we traveled to Billings, Montana for work. It is a beautiful town and we arrived to 70 degree weather. The next day the temperature dropped and it began snowing at night. Willem bundled up to head out to dinner. We pointed out the snow but he paid no attention to it.

Willem is 6 months old!

Last Friday Willem had his 6 month birthday! We can't believe how time is flying by. Willem is loving eating his solid foods, especially applesauce. He sits up very well now in his tripod position. If he is on his back he usually rolls right over to his stomach.

The latest development is that he's getting into the crawling position. He'll get up on his knees, especially if he's frustrated and is just starting to scoot in the last day or so.

We went to his 6 month well check appointment on Thursday and passed with flying colors. He's up to 27.25" and 15lbs 6oz.

Willem's hand, eye coordination is also improving, he can now bring the pacifier to his mouth and everytime he gets it in he glows with pride:)

Besides that, we are settling into our new life in St. Louis. Willem and Jason went to the Parkway South Homecoming Parade today, it was Willem's first parade. He enjoys people watching. Whenever he sees something new he studies it before engaging, so he was rather pensive.

Pumpkin Picking

This weekend was filled with new experiences for Willem. He is so active now and wants to move, move, move. He loves joining us at the dinner table and tried oatmeal, applesauce, bananas and carrots. He didn't love the carrots but he likes everything else so far.

Willem is sitting up pretty well now so he was able to sit in the grocery cart for the first time. He loved looking around and watching us do the shopping.

Then on Sunday we went to the Kirkwood Farmer's Market with Grandma to pick out our pumpkins. He enjoyed playing with the hay and tolerated posing for some pictures.

(Jason stayed home while we went to the market so he'd like to comment that we found the ugliest pumpkins to pose Willem with)

Willem is eating bananas!!

On Tuesday, Willem tried bananas for the first time! He was so excited, for weeks he's been showing interest in the food we are eating and has been grabbing at silverware and this week he's joined us at the dinner table.

The first day we gave him banana he made funny faces but ate quite a bit and kept asking for more. Today there were no funny faces and he ate twice as much and was grabbing for other food. Tomorrow we're onto oatmeal:)

We have settled into our new home

This past weekend, our family relocated to St. Louis! Our friends in Iowa helped us load up the Uhaul and away we went down to St. Louis. Willem has settled in very well and is loving his time with his grandma. His new home is like a giant playhouse for him as there are so many new things for him to look at.

Pilot's License

I obtained my pilot's license yesterday. I flew down to Burlington, IA to meet up with C.D. "Tom" Tomkins. Tom is a FAA Pilot Examiner and used to fly P-38s in the South Pacific in World War II. Tom asked me some questions about flying and then we went for the checkride. About an hour later we landed and Tom told me I passed and gave me a temporary pilot's license.
This is a picture taken at Green Castle Airfield. Terry, left, was my flight instructor. Don, right, is the owner of the airfield. Behind them is the Cessna 150 (5219Q) that I used for my checkride.
Today, Seth was brave enough to be my first passenger as a licensed pilot.
I took a picture of our neighborhood from the air.

Willem's 1st Ear Infection

Willem went to the doctor yesterday to get his 5 month shots, he took them like a trooper. While we were there the doctor discovered he has his 1st ear infection. Luckily he seems to only be irritated by it at night, so hopefully the medicine will help. He doesn't yet value the bubble gum flavor of amoxicilin though and gives us a disgusted look as we feed it to him.

Our growing boy...

Willem is such a little character, he keeps us laughing all day long. Whether he's sleeping in one of his funny poses or giving us his googly eyes in the bath, we have been having a lot of fun. These pictures aer from the week of 8-24th, we'll get some more pics posted soon.

Catching Up

The Weiss family has had an exciting past few weeks. Grandma Watkins visited for a couple of weeks and whoa were we spoiled. During that time Willem began to tolerate his baths much better due to his daily bathing routine. He also decided to start rolling over which is a huge milestone! And he began sporting a faux hawk. Grandma had a big influence on him. Since he began rolling over, sleeping has been more challenging as his body doesn't stay still any longer. He's found some interesting positions to sleep in but ultimately he likes to be right up against the railing in his crib. Yes, we know he isn't supposed to sleep on his stomach and he doesn't do this regularly, but on this day it was the only way he could nap. Willem has also gone on a few road trips lately. His Tia Julie started medical school so we all attended her White Coat Ceremony which was very nice. During that weekend he got to catch up with Paw Paw Torry which he greatly enjoyed. The following weekend we drove over to Des Moines to check out the Iowa State Fair. It's supposed to be the biggest State Fair and it was quite a sight to see. Willem was a bit young to take in all the sights, but we had a great time. The highlight for Willem was going to Babies R Us and getting to check out the exersaucers Grandma had researched. After trying out a few, we took one home that has entertained him greatly for the last week. Then last weekend we drove down to Columbia for a Girls Weekend. Willem was the only boy attending, so as you can imagine, he received quite a bit of love. The weekend was a blast and definitely something to make an annual event out of. We were sad to leave Grandma in Columbia as our two weeks had flown by, but we will be seeing a lot more of her shortly when we relocate to St. Louis. This weekend, we took it easy. Willem got plenty of floor time to show off his rolling over skills. He's also into scooting around but his arms just won't coordinate with his legs. (Jason and I are not ready for him to be any more mobile so we are just fine with this). That's what's been going on with us lately. We really enjoyed having this summer together to introduce Willem to some of our favorite things and spend lots of time with the family.

Catching Up

The Weiss family has had an exciting past few weeks. Grandma Watkins visited for a couple of weeks and whoa were we spoiled. During that time Willem began to tolerate his baths much better due to his daily bathing routine. He also decided to start rolling over which is a huge milestone! And he began sporting a faux hawk. Grandma had a big influence on him.

Since he began rolling over, sleeping has been more challenging as his body doesn't stay still any longer. He's found some interesting positions to sleep in but ultimately he likes to be right up against the railing in his crib. Yes, we know he isn't supposed to sleep on his stomach and he doesn't do this regularly, but on this day it was the only way he could nap.

Willem has also gone on a few road trips lately. His Tia Julie started medical school so we all attended her White Coat Ceremony which was very nice. During that weekend he got to catch up with Paw Paw Torry which he greatly enjoyed.

The following weekend we drove over to Des Moines to check out the Iowa State Fair. It's supposed to be the biggest State Fair and it was quite a sight to see. Willem was a bit young to take in all the sights, but we had a great time. The highlight for Willem was going to Babies R Us and getting to check out the exersaucers Grandma had researched. After trying out a few, we took one home that has entertained him greatly for the last week.

Then last weekend we drove down to Columbia for a Girls Weekend. Willem was the only boy attending, so as you can imagine, he received quite a bit of love. The weekend was a blast and definitely something to make an annual event out of. We were sad to leave Grandma in Columbia as our two weeks had flown by, but we will be seeing a lot more of her shortly when we relocate to St. Louis.

This weekend, we took it easy. Willem got plenty of floor time to show off his rolling over skills. He's also into scooting around but his arms just won't coordinate with his legs. (Jason and I are not ready for him to be any more mobile so we are just fine with this).

That's what's been going on with us lately. We really enjoyed having this summer together to introduce Willem to some of our favorite things and spend lots of time with the family.

Rolling Over

Last week Willem started rolling over. He doesn't like to lay on his back anymore and immediately starts rolling over when put down. He is very good at going from back to stomach, but seems to have some trouble getting from stomach to back. Video evidence will be posted soon.

Willem's first county fair

On July 22nd we went to the Johnson County Fair and met up with our friends. Willem was a trooper in the Baby Bjorn. He loved the food (check out the picture) and loved checking out his surroundings. We even checked out all of the animals and Willem seemed intrigued at times but mostly ignored them. By the end of the fair he was wiped out. Willem doesn't have a problem sleeping out and about!

Overall we had a good time, Julie loved the animals, I tolerated them and Jason chowed down on the fair food. We had such a good time that we're planning on checking out the Iowa State Fair this coming weekend.

The week of July 23rd

The last few weeks has been a whirlwind. Willem got his last week with Julie full time and now his Grandma is here with him. He has changed a lot in the last few weeks. The next few posts will show you what all we've been up to.

Here are a couple of good pictures Julie took while she was here. Willem's new thing this week was sucking on his bottom lip. We don't know why, but he seems to enjoy it. We think he's found a way to not be dependent on the pacifier.

Willem also loves to read but isn't into being dressed as you see in the pictures. So instead of playing dress up, Julie posed Willem with different props, he seemed to have a good time.

While Julie was here she would come and visit me for lunch on occasion which was a nice treat. Willem loves going out and was pretty good on the car rides to Cedar Rapids. He is definitely missing his Tia Julie!

How cute am I?

We just couldn't leave these pictures out this week. Yesterday our friends baby boy was Baptised so Willem got dressed up for the occasion. (He's outgrown his 0-3 months close and we wanted to get one last wear out of his dress outfit). He just continues to be so curious and alert, his eyes are always wide open, soaking up his surroundings.

He is also already showing his Dutch heritage as he was fascinated by the Dutch flag he saw at a friends house.

We have so enjoyed the last three months but were sad to pack away those clothes and realize how much he has grown and changed.

I see you camera...

Willem totally knows what the camera is now so it's hard to catch an action shot anymore without him turning around. But that also means the pictures of him are getting better and better as he smiles at the camera. This weel Willem has really enjoyed sitting up while being propped up by the pillows. He has also been loving his time with Tia Julie. He is definitely going to miss her when she leaves.

The last picture was taken Friday night (hence my after work look). As Jason noted, Willem was acting like a baby kangaroo, curling up into a ball. He seems to be doing well being apart for the day but always makes sure to reconnect when I get home.