June had us testing your mettle as a traveller (your dad refers to your mom's family as "road warriors"). Early June was Portland and the middle of June found us in Wisconsin, where you saw the places and people of Fort Atkinson, the place your grandma and pa Gehred lived for 15 years before moving just a few miles from you here in South Bend. Anyway, the end of June brought a marathon of a trip, a challenge of whether you could keep up with your "warrior" grandparents. 10 days. 5 states. And a foreign country. Time of departure: 2:30 a.m. Welcome to travel with your grandparents. First stop on our journey was Madonna House in Canada to meet your Aunt Teresa who is part of the community there. You were practically glued to Aunt T, as she held you every chance she could. So you got a lot of attention not only from her, but also from the other members of MH (about 100 of them). Thankfully stranger anxiety hasn't started with you, yet - instead you were soaking it all up!
From Canada we went to Valatie, NY to see your Great-Uncle Peter (who is also your mom's godfather). It was technically your second visit there (though last summer you were in-utero). Uncle Peter is a Holy Cross Brother, and he lives at St. Joseph House in Valatie with about 30 other Brothers, including a few who worked with your dad at Bishop MacNamara high school in Washington, D.C. Their warm hospitality (and good food!) always make it an enjoyable place to be.
Here we are in front of St. Joseph's in Valatie. St. Joseph is the special patron of the brothers, and Br. Andre Bessette, a Holy Cross Brother from Canada who will be canonized in October, was known for having a great love for and devotion to St. Joseph.
Next on the travel circuit was Rochester, NY, where your Grandma Gehred is from. Her sister, your great-Aunt Barbara and her husband Larry were celebrating 50 yrs of marriage, and their 5 children, spouses, and 15 grandchildren, plus other family and friends were on-hand for the occasion. We stayed with cousin Maria and her family, and her youngest son Silas (pictured above) took a shine to you and was your special playmate for our time there. He even woke up early the day we left to say good-bye.
Since June was such a whirlwind we tried to keep July on the mellow side. The name of the game has been trying to be more consistent with sleep and get you on some semblance of a schedule. We're coming along on that front. There have been some other milestones as well. On the vigil of your feast day (St. Benedict, July 11th), we started you on solids! You were tentative at first about the whole deal, but got into it, and now you're eating like a champ, at least your rice and oatmeal cereal. The peas from a jar also went down easily, but you broke your mom's heart by rejecting the green beans she grew for you in the garden and prepared with love. After two more tries (and a little trickery - mixing the green beans and peas together first) you did indeed eat the beans. We've also added sweet potato to your menu, and the list will keep growing....
You also cut your first tooth (bottom right front). It's sort of like a little dagger, and you are loving to bite down these days - ouch - which I suppose means more may soon follow.
Other fun little developments are that you're rolling with the best of them, you're sitting up better (though you can't sustain it for long without a little support) and you're "talking." Da-da was first said by you, appropriately, on Father's Day and seemed to be your favorite utterance. I think I heard ma-ma once or twice in June/July, but in these first few days of August ma-ma has been repeated often and has surged ahead!! Of course we can't yet claim that you are attributing meaning to these words - maybe that will be the news in the next blog post......
