Sick baby

Poor A woke up with the sniffles. It's gotten progressively worse over the course of the day. Little guy was miserable this evening, and I could barely get him to nap. He napped at the grocery store (so probably about an hour) and then M was able to put him down around 4 (another hour).

I was at my wits' end this evening, though, and couldn't get him to nap for anything. Finally, I decided to lay on the couch and snuggle with him. He seemed to like it, but wasn't going to sleep. Then I put him on my chest. He seemed to like that even more, but still no sleep. Finally, I shut off the light over my head and he was asleep within minutes.

Our son has not napped on either of our chests since he was probably about 3 months old. Although we very much love it, we didn't want to encourage bad habits. So, it was nice to get to do that tonight. I learned by this that my son's feet are always moving. I've noticed that he moves his foot at the ankle while he nurses, but he apparently does the same thing in his sleep. Too cute!

Mommy's Photo Shoot

I got this idea to get this cup and saucer planter from Walmart from one of my Mommy boards. Here are the results, along with some other props I got there. The last one was from another day, but I thought it was cute!

Playdates

This week, we've had two playdates. We met some new mommies and babies through meetup.com. It was a really low key playdate at someone's home. The hostess has a son who is only 2 weeks younger than A--they seemed to be fascinated by each other. There was also a 10 month old and then some older kids. I'd really love to find a playgroup here in our town so that we can meet some moms and babies A will go to school with. Short of starting my own meetup group, there doesn't seem to be anything out there like that. Even the Moms Club international doesn't have a chapter in our town, but instead, our town is part of the Moms Club in another local town. Hopefully we'll meet some kids in the neighborhood once it gets warmer and everyone is out more.

We also had a playdate with Best Bud and Prom Date. Best Bud is really cruising! Unfortunately, A makes a sound that seemed to drive him crazy--he would start crying every time A "talked."

We haven't seen Prom Date in a few weeks, but she has gotten so much bigger! She's still a peanut compared to the boys, but she also can hold her own with them.

Bubbles

Since A enjoyed the bubbles so much at Gymboree, I figured we'd try it at home. He had just woken up, so surely that had an effect. I sat him down on the kitchen floor and blew the bubbles at him. He didn't seem to "get" it as well as he had there, but he eventually was reaching for them and had this "Where did it go?" expression on his face. My bubbles aren't as good as theirs--the bubbles at Gymboree are the kind that are a little harder to pop. I think the kind they make for cats does the same, so maybe I'll check those out next time we're at the pet store.

First sporting event

Last night, we took A to his first sporting event! A friend of ours is on his college's swim team, and they had a meet at Rutgers. A did really well, especially considering that we had to wake him from his nap to go. He didn't sleep from that time (4:30) until we got home (7:30).

He did try to snuggle like he does when he's sleepy, but he didn't go to sleep and he didn't really fuss all that much either. He got incredibly warm--we had him in lined jeans and a long sleeved tshirt. I was very glad that both of us dress in layers every day.

M is starting to recognize (finally!) that A looks more like him than me. He saw the blog entry below with our baby pictures and he finally saw it. I still don't think he looks like M did as a baby, but I DO think he looks like M did around 3 or 4.

Snow

We got about 4 inches of snow on Friday. We took A out in it, but he started acting like he wanted a nap the second we bundled him up.

CIO Night 3

Ahhhh, uninterrupted sleep. A slept from 7:45 until 5:30 this morning. Then I fed him. He woke again at 7--I fed him again. He's still sleeping at 8:45.

Hopefully the time span will get longer as time goes on, but at least he didn't wake at all while M was sleeping... that's a step in the right direction!

CIO, Night 2

As we got into bed last night, I told M that hopefully A wouldn't cry for the whole hour.

He ended up waking up around 2:30. I let him cry for 12 minutes, and he stopped about the same time I got back in bed. M said "We CAN'T get that lucky." About half an hour later, he started to cry again. We waited 12 minutes again, and M went in to him. Sometime after that, I fell asleep and he had stopped crying by the time I woke up... not really sure how long that was, and don't remember looking at the clock when I woke.
He then slept until 6:30, at which point I fed him. He's starting to stir now, at 8:30.

Not bad!!

CIO, Night 1

We've been doing the Ferber method for naps since A was four months old. At nighttime, however, I always assumed him to be hungry so I'd get up and feed him.

A few nights ago, he started a new trick of sleeping until 11 or 12, then waking every 2 hours after that.

So I decided we'd give the old Ferber method a try for night time. He slept until around 2:30, and we had to go to him a total of 8 times--after 10 minutes, 12, and then repeating at 15 minutes. He finally got himself back to sleep after a little more than an hour.

It became apparent exactly WHY he was waking all those times--he wanted some Mommy cuddling. When M went in for the checks, he cried (and loudly) but not nearly at the volume as when I went in.

A little nervous, I went in to check on him at 6:30, waking him as soon as I opened the door. Feeling guilty, I fed him. Other than that, though, he is sleeping as late as he normally does.

Mango, Take 2

So M tried to give A the mango again for lunch. Success! Apparently, he just wasn't hungry this morning. He gobbled the whole thing down!

We also took him out in the snow this afternoon. He was super tired, so our pictures didn't come out fantastic, but we were afraid it was going to start raining so wanted to make sure we got them in.

Movin' on up...

This month has been a busy one. I organized and repacked all of A's clothes up to 3 months. I'm starting to fill his 3 months + sized clothes bin with his 6 month sizes. I went shopping for 6-12 month clothes. And finally, we dropped his crib. We also passed on his swing and Bumbo. We'll be passing on his bouncer seat.

My boy is getting so big!

There IS a food he doesn't like.

Inspired by Best Bud's mom (who makes her own baby food) and overwhelmed by the large amount of sliced mango we bought for ourselves at Costco, I figured I'd give "making it" a try while depleting our supply of mango.

I read that it could be mashed with a fork, but that didn't work for me so I popped it in the food processor and then put in old tubs.

I warmed it up this morning and A made the WORST face when I gave it to him. Thinking it was just new, I gave him some more. Next thing I knew, it was all coming back at me. Yuck. I then tried mixing it with some jarred bananas; maybe it was too tart for him. That came back too.

Oh well; I guess we'll try again tomorrow!

Another Gymboree picture

Stolen from Best Bud's mom!

Gymboree Part 2

We went with Best Bud and his mom to Gymboree in Princeton yesterday. Although we got there late, we had a great time. I still wish it wasn't so expensive, but alas...

A loved the bubbles (I have some pictures) and when the parachute went up and down over his head. He's also doing a great job at standing when he's holding onto something, but can't get there on his own.

Hectic

We've had a hectic day, and it's only noon!

The day started with my big boy waking up earlier than normal. Somehow he knows that it's Tuesday and he has to be well rested to enjoy swimming class so he wakes up early. **sigh** We got to class and he fussed from the moment we got in the pool. Not the entire time, but for most of it. We got out after 15 minutes, which was ok because we had an appointment to keep.

Despite the silence from the backseat for the car ride, A did not nap on the way to the doctor's office. Do you see a meltdown on the horizon?

We got to the doctor's office ten minutes before our appointment time. I don't know what time we got into the room, but it was close to 11. We didn't even see a doctor (it was catching up on shots since we switched practices), and still didn't get out of there until 11:45.

He had 2 shots and an oral thing (which he LOVED!) and his weight is the same as it was at our last appointment. They didn't measure him for height.

We go again when he is 9 months old!




I don't know why we buy toys; we should just buy a roll of crinkly paper from the doctor's office! Once again, I don't know why the sound isn't transferring. I hear it on my cell phone and I hear it when I play it on the computer, but I don't hear it on here. it's nothing exciting; just the crinklies.

Gymboree!!

We did a trial class today at Gymboree, along with Best Bud and his mom. It was SO much fun, both for A and for me. It was great to see him socializing with other kids and the exercises we did brought lots of smiles to his little face.

All that said, the price of the class is exorbitant. If I was working, perhaps I could justify the class, on top of A's gym membership so he can take swimming. But I'm not, so I can't, and it would be a hard sell even if I was (to me, not to M!).

This is one reason I'm considering Moms Club International--their mission states that they want to keep their dues low because they know that the decision to be a stay at home mom requires a financial sacrifice. It's really hard to strike the balance between getting A socialized with other kids, trying new things, and meeting other moms, and not paying a zillion dollars to do so.

Pictures and video from the swings

I don't know why the sound didn't upload too. :(

Swings!

Since today was a 60ish day (in February, WHAT??), we decided to go for a walk. It was A's first time in the stroller without the carrier, and he did great--he was very interested in seeing the world go by.

So on our stroll, I decided to see how long it would take to walk to the park. Then I decided to go see the swings. This turned into seeing how wet the swings were. The baby swing was not that wet, so in A went. He started yelling with displeasure until he got a big PUSH, at which point, he cracked up. He loved it!!

I took some pictures and video on my cell phone, so I'll upload those here when I can.

Compliments

I've gotten used to hearing "I can't believe those cheeks" (and all associated comments regarding wanting to bite them, etc) and "Wow, look at all that hair," but the comment about my son that makes me the happiest to hear is how beautiful his eyes are. I just love his big brown doe eyes; they are the prettiest eyes I've ever seen.

"I'm the CATman!"

My boy is the Pied Piper of kitties. I didn't think anything of it when our own cats seemed to like A... they're our cats; I would HOPE they would like him. Catcher was a fan of curling up with my very pregnant belly and Mitten is an all around lover. But then we went to Best Bud's house. Best Bud's two cats nuzzled right into A's hand and were rubbing up into him too.

He is really good about petting them too--we've been practicing on Mitten since he was about 2 months old. He sometimes grabs her fur, but most times, he pets her very nicely. We try with Catcher as well, but he often runs away first.

We noticed today that Mitten turned her back to all of us. I read somewhere that this is a sign that a cat trusts you, so M said "Wow, she trusts him!" because A was right at her tail.

I know that children are naturally interested in animals, but it's so interesting to see that they are interested in him too!

Hands and knees

A is progressing toward crawling. Today was the first time I saw him get himself up on his knees by himself. He is tolerating time on his tummy for longer and longer periods and pushing himself backward (although not crawling backward).

NO!

Now I know that it isn't possible for my son to already have his first word. I know that it is just coincidence. I know that he doesn't even hear the word NO all that often, but here's what happened.

I was feeding A his dinner last night. I started to clean his face (you know, the spoon across the chin move) when he turned his head away from me and said what sounded like a very firm NO! I said to M, "Did that sound like no to you?" and he said it did... (I'm not sure how much he was really paying attention at the time since he was in the other room, but that's not important).

Man, I knew this kid was strong willed but my goodness!!

Himself

Proof that A looks only "like himself," as my grandfather apparently always said.

Daddy at 7 months (with his mommy)

Mommy at 6(ish) months (with her great grandmother and on Daddy's first birthday!)