Only 8 Months

I think that typically I would prefer to do a baby update at 9 months. That just sounds like a more momentous amount of time, but if I wait until then, Felix will have been doing all this stuff for basically forever in baby time.

Felix is a crawling machine and has been for over a month. Beckett did the worm/tummy slithering for months. Felix has been off the ground from the get-go. Unfortunately, I can't say that crawling around has made him happier. Now wherever we go he crawls after us, crying. He would like to be held almost all the time. Unfortunately with a 20-pounder that is just not possible.

 

Because Felix is crawling he is into all of Beckett's stuff all the time. We hear a constant stream of "No, baby. No. No." I am a little sympathetic to Beckett's plight. Felix is basically babyzilla.

Not only is Felix crawling, but he is pulling himself up. Already. This started at about 7 and a half months, and I have been complaining ever since about how Felix is in such a hurry to grow up, but I just looked at old posts to see that Beckett was doing the same at this age. It still seems to early to  me. Why the rush baby Felix? Be a baby. Now he's working on figuring out how to get back down. (Update: A day, maybe two, after I made this post and he can get back down with no problems.)

Basically the day very Beckett learned to stand on his own he was no longer interested in this baby trick. Felix is obviously still a fan.

Felix has 6 teeth. He is becoming quite the little Sunny Baudelaire. "And the baby bites." He is not biting while he nurses, thankfully.

I started feeding Felix baby food around 5 and a half months, and I was largely unsuccessful. I thought he just wasn't interested in eating until Nate discovered that it was not the food itself but the manner in which it was delivered. Felix has no interest, in fact he is quite against, being spoon fed. He must feed himself. This is completely foreign to me because Beckett had a very strong gag reflex that made him very reluctant to try to feed himself. We were feeding him baby food until well after his first birthday. Just 6 months ago Beckett would frequently ask me to spoon feed him. Annoying, I know. A baby that feeds himself is nice in some ways, but also very messy. I have to be a little creative when I think of things he can eat. And yes, we do have one of those net things.

Felix can also bite! I say this with an exclamation point because I don't think Beckett learned how to bite until he was 2 and a half. Seriously. And we wonder why it's so difficult to feed our older child. Felix also recently learned how to drink out of a sippy cup. Hallelujah! He never did figure out a bottle.

 

Felix keeps getting beat up by his brother. I have a feeling this is the beginning of years and years of separating the boys. It's amazing how quickly the older brother adoration kicks in, but it's also crazy how quickly the older brother feels the uncontrollable impulse to pick on the littler brother.

They look an awful lot alike to me in this picture.

It looks like Felix is going to be another brown-eyed boy.

Harper's Ferry

If you hadn't noticed with that last post, we are doing our part to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War (1861-1865). We followed up our trip to Antietam with a visit to Harper's Ferry. This trip was even more sesquicentennially than Antietam; we were there for the commemorative events. Nestled at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah River, Harper's Ferry is incredibly picturesque.

Beckett's favorite spot was the train station. It has been serving passengers since 1894. We saw several trains during our visit. It was very exciting, as in cause-the-neighboring-table-at-the-restaurant-to-giggle-and-then-offer-suggestions-for-future-train-tourism exciting.

 The fireplace in the train station was dubbed a tunnel.

Harper's Ferry is built on a hill. Lots of uphill. Lots of stairs. It made for some extreme stollering.

Because we were in town for the sesquicentennial, we got some bonuses: militias in costumes, period music, decked out horses.

B listens to old-timey music

Harper's Ferry has a number of historic buildings and little museums. We toured the John Brown Museum. We certainly couldn't miss it after living in Kansas--also known for John Brown's exploits.

John Stuart Curry's mural featuring John Brown is in the Kansas State Capitol.

John Brown raided Harper's Ferry in 1859, hoping to initiate a slave uprising. The building below is now known as John Brown's Fort because it was Brown's stronghold in that 1859 raid. The building has an interesting history. It's actually been moved four times.

Below is the Harper House. The town founder, Robert Harper, began building the home in 1775. It has served as a residence, a tavern, a rental property, an abandoned ruin, and is now an exhibit.

The church that is so prominent in the Harper's Ferry skyline is St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church. It's been around (in one form or another) since 1830.

Harper's Ferry is also known for hiking. The Appalachian Trail runs right through the town.

Harper's Ferry also claims to be the start of Lewis and Clark's trek. I say claims because it seems like everywhere we go (Omaha, St. Louis, Kansas City, Washington, D.C.) is the so-called beginning of the Lewis and Clark Trail.

This daytrip wouldn't have been complete without throwing rocks in the water, one of Beckett's favorite pass times.

And ice cream. Our very last stop before heading home was a fabulous soft-serve custard shop. I had pumpkin and Nate had chocolate. Beckett tasted both. This was his first time eating ice cream, not because I wouldn't let him eat it but because he has always refused to taste it. Crazy, I know. 

Antietam

Last fall we went to Gettysburg. This year we went to Antietam. Antietam was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of combat on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army's first Northern invasion and led to Abraham Lincoln's issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

My experience, and I've been to WWI battlegrounds in Europe as well as a few Civil War battlegrounds in United States, is that the battlefields are strangely peaceful, beautiful, and still, sometimes eerily so. Antietam was no exception.

We visited Antietam at approximately the same time of year as when the battle took place. We learned how some of the fighting took place in the corn fields that were fully grown and almost ready to harvest.

Beckett is walking away from Dunker Church. It was surrounded by a large group of Confederate soldiers.

Near the battlefield is Mumma Cemetery. The first person to be buried here died in 1797.

This path is known as the Bloody Lane Trail.

Antietam has a really cool observation tower.

This is how Beckett smiles now. Yeah, we've reached the goofy-fake-smile milestone.

We got out of the car and took a little walk when we reached the Lower Bridge, otherwise known as Burnside Bridge.

This is where General Burnside's troops fought. (Yes, he's the man to whom we owe the term sideburn. Do you want to see why?)

Battlegrounds like Gettysburg and Antietam are nice to visit with a young family like ours because most of the touring can take place in your car. You can drive to the sites and then get out and do a little walk when you want to. We walked over Burnside bridge.

It was a little rainy. Beckett liked using the umbrella.

We took some pictures by the wildflowers.

Here's the site of the final attack.

Our last stop was at the Antietam National Cemetery.