Five on Friday: Baltimore Adventures And Solid Food

It has been a crazy summer with three different trips – a grandparents’ visit, a wedding, and a funeral, and after all those adventures I am so glad to finally settle in and just be HOME for a few months.  I love summer but fall always comes just as I’m ready to settle back into a routine.

Anyway, here are a few pictures and updates from our last week or two!

1) My Grandmother’s Funeral

My grandmother passed away a few weeks back and we flew to Baltimore this past weekend for her memorial.  She was an amazing woman – intelligent, generous, passionate, and deeply invested in her family and her community.  I loved getting to celebrate her life and the legacy she created with my dad and all of my extended family in Baltimore. We spent the morning after the memorial visiting the house where my dad grew up, a beautiful home on a few acres that my grandparents built shortly after WWII.

This house holds so much history and it was pretty amazing to walk through it and explore a little.  My family in Baltimore goes all the way back to Francis Scott Key (the writer of our national anthem!) and that house holds all sorts of fascinating antiques.  A few years back they found an old, historic looking book, took it to get appraised, and realized that it was Martin Luther’s ORIGINAL personal prayer book.  How insane is that? That one was donated to a museum but my grandfather’s study still holds so many incredible books.

We were able to choose a few books to take back with us and I can’t wait for them to arrive once everything in the house is packed up.  I have so many memories from this house and I am excited to have a few little pieces of my grandparents’ life in our home in KC.

2) Seeing Family

One of my favorite parts of this trip was that we got to see lots of my Baltimore families. We stayed with my sweet cousin Kate and her hubby and adorable baby and it was so much fun to catch up with them.  It was the first time any of them had met Caleb and I loved getting to show him off, even if he was a fussy sick little guy at times.  Seeing my cousins also reminded me that Caleb’s red hair actually does run in the family – my cousins Dave and Tom have hair that looks JUST like Caleb’s. How crazy is this?!

3) Baltimore Adventures

We didn’t have a ton of time to sightsee, but Jordan’s one request was that we have some Baltimore crab.  He and my cousin (in-law?) went to a local seafood market and picked up two dozen steamed crabs.  They spread them out on their back table and went to town! I tried a bite or two but let the boys do most of the work. Hopefully one day we’ll be able to come back and spend some time exploring the city!

4) Solid Foods

We let Caleb try his first solid food once we got back from Baltimore and it is TOO stinking cute.  So far he’s only tried pureed bananas and pears but he seemed to like them both after some initial confusion and silly faces like this one below.  By day three he was actually opening up his mouth and swallowing versus just mushing things around with his lips and fingers, so I’d say we’re making progress! I’m so excited to introduce him to alllll the yummy flavors the world has to offer.  Any moms out there have tips on what their littles liked best?

5) Teething Babies

Oh my heavens, y’all.  Just when Caleb is starting to sleep a little better and stretch out his naps a bit, he gets hit with another cold and what I think might be teething.  He’s been congested for over a week and the last 3-4 days has been SO fussy – he won’t be put down and has occasional bouts of screaming with big ol’ tears, which is not like him at all. It is so pitiful! I spent a lot of time this week snuggling this kiddo, giving him extra nursing and loving, and trying to distract him from his hurting gums with frozen toys and little outings.  I’m hoping he gets better or pops out that tooth soon because it sure is pitiful!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Here’s hoping we get some cooler fall temperatures and beautiful nights!