Hau'oli Makahiki Hou (Happy New Year!) Seth has had a very busy month since we last blogged, and there's plenty to tell about. Little Seth is looking more and more like a little boy and less and less like a newborn these days. Here's a photo of the family together, with Seth giving a kiss to his mommy.

When we last wrote, Seth was pushing up and seemed ready to start crawling. Sure enough, he started moving around just a few days later, at about seven and a half months, going after toys on the floor that interested him. It was so cute to see him making these big strides with his arms as he figured out how to crawl. He's gotten faster and faster, and now can pretty much move faster than we can! He will follow us all around the house if we let him.

No sooner was he crawling than he became interested in pulling up on things. Seth started grabbing on to his exersaucer, the couch, his pack-n-play, and any other sturdy object over a foot tall. It was quite unbelievable the first time we saw him pull himself up in his pack-n-play and peek his little head over the top. Though not very steady on his feet, he loves standing up, looking around, and wobbling around. He occasionally lets go and "stands" for a few seconds before flopping onto his bottom. It's never long before he pulls himself back up again to play some more. He likes to hold onto the side of our ottoman with one hand and drop a toy and pick it up repeatedly. His balance is definitely getting better and better. He also likes to "walk" around if we hold his hands or his sides. We have a feeling he is going to be an early walker!

The holidays brought visits from many family members, which was a lot of fun. Sarah, Forrest, and Mira flew out from California, so the two youngest cousins got to meet for the first time.

Auntie Lissa also flew in to visit, and had a wonderful time doting on her niece and nephew. Meanwhile, Grams and Papa were both on hand to see their children and grandchildren. Everybody stayed at the farm for about a week, and we had a nice, relaxing visit with everyone.

We returned to Suffield the next week to catch up with friends and relax at home. We saw Geema, and have plans to see Grandpa Joe and Grandma Nancy soon. The Wethersfield girls got together to visit, and the three babies (Kayla, Seth, and Isaac) got to play together and with everyone else. It was fun to see the ladies, including Jill, who was in for a visit from Maryland.

A few days later, Chris and Cathy (friends from college) came up from New Jersey to visit and see Seth. We had a great time with them, and they enjoyed seeing Seth perform his new tricks.

Finally, Michael and Meredith stopped by to see us on their last day on the East coast, and we had a little time to catch up with them as well.

Seth has been babbling away, and is saying more and more. He says "ba ba", "da da", "fa fa", "dog, dog", and more, though he doesn't know what the words mean yet. We are teaching him a couple baby signs, so we are waiting to see if those catch on. He has been teething for quite some time, but still no sign of those teeth peeking through.

Seth has become quite the eater. In addition to breastmilk, he has had rice, barley, oatmeal, pears, apples, peaches, bananas, prunes, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and peas. We've just started giving him small pieces of whole banana (as opposed to babyfood), and he is not quite sure what to make of the texture yet. Today, we gave him some home-made pureed chicken for the first time. That is also a work in progress (we'll have pictures of the face he made up soon)! We have plans to introduce beef, yogurt, and cheerios over the next couple weeks.

We are back into the routine of work and daycare, for the most part, despite the normal illnesses. We've just finished converting our office to Seth's playroom, and none too soon for Seth. He loves his new toys (thanks friends and family!), big soft rug, toy box, and bookshelf. He loves to pull up on everything, take the cloth bins out of his toy box, and pull all the books out of the book shelf. He's not quite sure what to make of snow, but I'm sure by next year Jason will have him sledding and making snowballs!

We hope you are all doing well, and we will write again soon (hopefully!)