A real baby! Sitting in the kitchen in his (new) high chair, stuffing something in his mouth. Just what we all expect from a baby!

This little piano makes a really nice tone, except for the orange key, which is slightly out of tune. Anyway, I’m not going to say that Art “played” the little piano, but, in his curiosity, he did purposefully swat at it making notes sound for a few solid minutes. Then he got crabby and needed a diaper change.

Well, before we went to North Carolina for the Garvin Family Reunion Art started doing daily “sit ups”. It looks like a Pilates move called The Hundreds. When he does it I put my fingers in his hands and he pulls himself up to sitting. He’s even learned how to set his feet so the move pulls him completely to standing! (Video to come when Ben gets back in town. I don’t know how to put it online without him.) Anyway, this is a really fun development. The other fun thing is that he stomps his left foot while he’s standing, which he started doing a couple days ago. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. He hasn’t done the right one yet, but I’m waiting for it.

Here’s a couple pics of him standing up. I wish I had a series of the whole process, but I can’t take the pictures and pull him up at the same time. Darn!

Art made a new friend while we were delayed in Cincinnati – Keaton. Keaton is almost five months old. It was a good thing they met, too, because our bags didn’t make it to North Carolina and when Keaton’s mom saw us befuddled by the baggage claim she gave us a bag of diapers, a change of clothes, and a couple baby blankets.

This is a real mountain of fresh, clean laundry waiting to be folded. I shudder to think what it will look like when we ever have another kid!!!

We’ve been out of the blogosphere while at the Garvin Family Reunion. We had a great time. There were 25 Garvins, Garvin-in-Laws, and Step-Garvins staying in a twelve bedroom North Carolina beach house. Art handled himself quite well amongst the crowd. Sometimes he got overwhelmed and cranky and a lot of the time he was kind of quiet and just taking it all in, but eventually he got back to his normal, smiley self. It was nice for Ben and me because there were so many willing Art-watchers. We took naps, played cards, and even flew a kite on the ocean beach with our Art-free time.

I’ll post more later, but here’s a couple pics of Art with his Garvin relatives. There’s Art enjoying the sun with his cousin Mindy, left, her daughter Caitlin, and Art’s Aunt Ashley on the right. Then a sly shot of Uncle Josh and Art taking a nap together. Finally, there’s Art hanging out with his cousin Mira, who lent him her swing for the weekend.

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I’ve noticed Art looking at his feet lately. He has discovered his feet! Pretty exciting. I’ve tried bringing his foot up to his hands but he’s not interested yet. I just want to see him eat his toes.