The last picture on yesterday�s entry speaks volumes about Nathan�s personality. His forehead is scrunched like that quite a bit. He gets that from me. I have a tendency to do that also. He is so serious too. Yesterday evening I took him outside and sat him down on our (prickly) grass. He just looked around for ages with that scrunched forehead and zoned type expression on his face. I was busy dead-heading my flowers and pulling a few weeds here and there. He just stared at everything with that same expression as yesterday�s last picture. From time to time, I would be in his line of site and I would smile REALLY BIG and he would grin at me, but quickly look away and start back with the serious expression again. He really takes everything in. I don�t know what, if anything, he does with all he takes in, but he takes in anyway. I have started signing �milk� to Nathan. Reading Alice�s entries about Arthur signing milk (Yay Arthur �what a clever boy!!) has convinced me that this will be helpful to me if Nathan understood and made this sign to me when he is wanting to nurse. I actually started it a few days ago when Alice first posted a great link connecting her readers to an actual demonstration of the milk sign. It is a FANTASTIC website showing how to make lots of different signs. Anyway, Nathan would watch me each time, but show no emotion. Now when I make the milk sign, he starts kind of huffing and reaching for me. Of course during this time I am undoing my bra - so he knows what is coming, but I think he is already starting to associate the sign with nursing. I am also trying to be consistent in making the 'eat' sign right before feeding him solids in his highchair.

James will be quite busy studying for the next 2 months. He takes the Florida Bar exam on July 26th. He is tied up just about EVERY week night for the next month and a half with a review course from 6p � 10p. YUCK. I will be all alone in the evenings after putting my baby to sleep. I do hope to get stuff done in the evenings though � like cleaning, laundry, eBay listing, maybe start a baby album. Of course I will still hang out at the computer and read all about the little ones and their mommies from Diaryland.

Today Nathan and I went with James to go pick out glasses. James has been having some problems with focusing up close lately. He works on the computer quite a bit and will have LOTS of studying to do. So, he went to the eye doctor and learned that he is a bit farsighted and needs a prescription for reading and such. He has never had glasses before. His vision has always been excellent. I wear glasses, but my vision is not too bad. Hopefully Nathan will not need glasses till he turns 38 like his daddy.

Nathan is still doing GREAT when it comes to putting himself to sleep and staying that way. He nursed happily this evening and was wide awake when I put him in his crib. He smiled at me and never made a peep before going to sleep. It is so hard for me to believe that this is the same little boy who used to protest when I would try to put him in his crib ASLEEP. I am so happy that I got to the point of NOT being able to function well with his previous sleep habits. If I wouldn�t have gotten to that point, I would still be experiencing the deep frustration of getting him back to sleep 8-12 times a night. I am so proud of my little love! He is growing up and learning to do things by himself. He refused his late afternoon nap on Tuesday and Wednesday (it was too late for me to be trying to get him to nap anyway). Today I was able to put him down a little earlier for that 3rd nap and he drifted off peacefully beside me on the floor. (I turned away from him because he kept trying to pull my nose off and his nails were sharp....) When we woke up, James had to leave to go to class. I meant to get up and finish fixing dinner before James left, but I overslept. Anyway, I had 2 large sweet potatoes in the oven all ready to eat. It just so happens that this morning I fed Nathan sweet potatoes for the first time (Gerber 1st foods). He was NOT thrilled with them. I tried again at lunch. He still wasn�t interested. So, as I was cutting into my baked sweet potato, it occurred to me that maybe Nathan would like a bite of REAL sweet potato. So I put some on a plate, mashed it with my fork and mixed a little breast milk into it. It was full of TEXTURE. I had no clue how Nathan would respond. HE LOVED IT! He looked up at me as if saying, �Finally I get to eat what you eat�. He is always watching me when I eat, but I am always eating stuff he can�t eat. Of course, I put LOTS of margarine, brown sugar and marshmallows in MY portion of sweet potato, but he didn�t seem to notice that. So, he likes real food with TEXTURE. What a big boy. Here I have been trying to shovel soupy Gerber and beechnut stage 1 foods into this 6 and � month old and he readily accepted real food tonight. Did you know that sometimes a baby needs to be offered new foods up to 15 times before they accept it? They just get a bite and decide they don�t like it and won�t eat much of it, but if you give them a bite or two the next night, and the next night and so on, they usually will change their mind about it and actually LIKE it after 2 weeks. Of course that can get expensive if you are buying jars of baby food that are only good for a few days, so, I am going to start making his food very, very soon and freeze the small portions that I will need for him. I have been reading about little Alex in Megan�s diary and am so impressed with her eating habits. She eats spinach, chicken, and Mac and cheese. If there is one thing I do not want Nathan to become, it is a picky eater. I have read that you can help to avoid this by offering a large variety of foods over and over again. So, that is what we are going to do.

Well, it is after 9pm and I need to tidy up before James gets home. Here is Nathan in his highchair after eating REAL sweet potatoes. He is such a big boy! I just love him.