Chad has been a busy bee!

I know you've just been dying of the suspense of how Chad did at his first meal at the Melting Pot.  Well, he spent about 2/3 of the meal doing this:

Yes.  He is chewing on the granite.

Meals at the Melting Pot can take about two hours because there's a lot of courses and the meats take some time to cook in the oil.  So we were a little worried about how he would handle sitting there for so long.  We had reservations for 4:00, so there wouldn't be too many other people and we wouldn't have to wait as long for our food.  And we brought Chad's purple cat, because he loves chewing on its tail.  We also brought him a bottle with a slow-flow nipple and let him feed himself so it would take awhile and distract him. 

That's some little broccoli pieces on the table in front of him.  He likes broccoli when it's pureed, so I offered him some raw broccoli.  He was not a fan of either the stalky part or the fuzzy top part.

All the families with babies were corralled in a smaller room so we would only annoy each other.  A meal at the Melting Pot involves lots of plates and utensils, so we had to be very careful to keep everything away from his end of the table because he would try to intercept the sauces when we passed them to each other.  We made it through the cheese, the salad and half of the meats and veggies before Chad started to get bored.  We had to play Pass the Baby Back and Forth for the dessert course.

When I was talking to Chad's teachers about his meal, another mom dropping off her baby sort of sniffed and was like, "I don't think I would take a baby to the Melting Pot."  Pfftt.  I think she's just bitter because Chad is sooooo much cuter than Elijah.  And he's better dressed.  Maybe she should spend a little less time criticizing other people's restaurant choices and little more time trying to make a cuter baby.  Plus, someone "accidentally" took home one of Chad's bottle tops yesterday, and I have a strong suspicion it was her.  But I digress...


On Saturday, our neighborhood's social committee hosted a potluck cookout at the park near our house.  I'm not one to pass up a chance to eat free watermelon, so we slathered Chad up with about a half a tube of sunblock and made some Oatmeal Scotchies (note: we were the only ones to bring a homemade dessert) and trekked up there.  Chad started to get bored with the adult talk, so we took him over to the playground for a bit, and he had his first swing ride!

I'd like it to be known that there's a blanket between him and the swing because it was a lovely but hot Carolina day and we didn't want to the hot plastic to scorch his precious little heiney.  Not because we're freaky germophobe parents.  In fact, I didn't even blink when he started teething on the swing.  Gotta build up that immunity somehow.

The swing was the clear favorite, but we tried some other parts of the playground as well.

I don't think he was too into the slide. 

The rocking whale got a few smiles though.

By then it was getting hot so we went back to the pavilion to cool off, and make use of the face-painting station.

Someone mistakenly called him a tiger, but he is obviously supposed to be a puppy.

Chad had a sitting up breakthrough this weekend!  On Thursday night he was still just tripod-ing and face planting.  But suddenly on Friday he decided it was time to sit up tall and proud, while playing with a toy with both hands and reaching for things around him.  It was like he'd been doing it for weeks, and he didn't understand why I was so excited and taking so many pictures.

He can do it without his clothes too.

And here are a few other random pictures of what he's been up to lately:
Sleeping with the Grinch:

Sleeping while hiding under his blanket:

Playing with his blanket when he's supposed to be napping:

Lounging while he watches us on the treadmill:

And dressing up like a wolf: