Category Archives: milestones

0

everybody poops

|

Another thing that I need to catch up on:  My little man is potty trained.  He’s been for… oh, a couple months now?  He was potty trained right after he turned 2, which people never stop telling me is highly unusual – especially for a boy.  Well… it’s not so unusual for OUR boy, no?  *smile*

A couple people have asked how we did it, upon noticing the lack of “diaper bulge” when we’re out and about, but I have little advice to offer.  As always, I simply followed his lead.  When we was around 6 months old, I considered trying “elimination communication” with him and purchased a little red potty.  It’s been sitting in the bathroom since then.  I was too lazy to do the elimination communication thing, though, especially since he was, at 6 months, “a late starter.”  The only advice I can possibly think to offer, then, is this:  Don’t be shy.  Chris & I have not been at all shy (ahem) about bathroom habits.  Felix has seen everything & has always tended to wander in and hang out.  Since his little red potty is in his bathroom, he would often sit on it and wait.  I’m sure that has much to do with it.  We never pushed and never made a big deal out of it.  I did notice that he found the whole idea pretty interesting (I know, strange, but we’re talking about toddlers here) and liked sitting on his potty.  Then I found out that, in order to go to preschool, he needed to be fully potty trained.  So I started letting him run around the house sans diaper and pants and would occasionally ask if he wanted to sit on the potty.  After only a couple of days, he was totally in to the idea.  At home, without his pants on, he just started going to sit on his potty whenever he had to pee.  Flash forward to now – he never wears diapers during the day, even when we’re out and about.  We’ve been out for entire afternoons and he will always ask to go.

Poop (just what you want to hear about, right?) was another matter.  For a couple of weeks, it seemed to frighten him and he would get frantic whenever he’d feel like he had to go.  For about a week, he drove me mad by asking me to “wipe” him every 5 minutes, for hours on end.  And then he’d poop on the floor, which cracked me up.  I didn’t care that he pooped on the floor, I just didn’t like the endless demand of “wipe wipe wipe?”  That lasted for a couple of weeks and then he started going on the potty.  Another couple weeks of letting him run around without pants all day (because that was the next hangup) and then I eased him in to wearing underwear (toddler boxers briefs!  CUTEST THING EVER) and now it’s all exactly what you’d expect from a civilized, socialized person.  And I will say… having a potty trained kid, at 2 years, is freaking awesome.  Life truly is grand, after diapers.  But other than “don’t be shy” the only other bit of advice I have doesn’t work for everyone because it seems like parents just get obsessed with the process:  don’t stress out, don’t push.  This all happened, for us, because we didn’t care that much.  It was “if you want to, here’s the option but if you don’t want to, cool.  Do whatever.”   I mean, I had a little internal pressure going on about the preschool thing but I knew that the worst case scenario would be that he’d start a little later than we wanted.  No big deal.

0

book worm

|

Oops. Oh, look… over a year has gone by since I properly updated last?  So much to catch up on.

My first order of business is: the kid loves books.  LOVES BOOKS.  I remember, months and months and months ago, being disappointed because I would sit him on my lap and try to read to him, but he had no patience for it.  He just wanted to flip through the pages, himself, and look at all the pictures on the pages.  Now, he cannot get enough of being read to.  It all started with a set of “mini masters” books that I came across at a cute little store that I love called “Burnt Sugar” in Fremont.  The “mini masters” are little board books that feature a particular artist (for example, Van Gogh) and several of that artist’s paintings, accompanied by (sometimes random) rhymes that tell little stories about each of them.  Felix, at just barely over 2 years old, can identify great works (such as Starry Night) by sight & name and walks around begging, “Read Matisse?  Read Degas?  Read Monet?”  And he pronounces them correctly.  “Read Gauguin?”  Freaking awesome.  (I started this post a couple months ago when he was just a month over 2 years.)

So we started reading him the few books we had laying around, for him, which I quickly got sick of.  I headed over to the library and picked up about ten more books, which will have to be traded in for new ones, soon.  He LOVES BEING READ TO.  Within a couple of weeks, I’ve already gotten sick of the library books I brought home.  I have never seen a 2 year old with the ability to sit through so many books (and some long ones, at that) – but I mostly pick up longer stories, because he seems to like those best.  He sometimes sits on the couch or our bed, flipping through each one while reciting all the words to himself, which he’s already memorized.

Did I mention he just turned 2, a few of months ago?

I’m trying to keep track of the books we’ve read & his favorites (this blog is, after all, meant primarily as his “baby book”, electronic version).  I don’t remember the earlier “baby” books, but no matter.  The stuff we’re reading now is far more interesting.

The first “mini masters” books I picked up were a set (from Burnt Sugar).

Mini Masters Boxed Set : The set includes Dancing with Degas, A Picnic with Monet, A Magical Day with Matisse, and In the Garden with Van Gogh. While the “stories” for each book are pretty simple (usually about frolicking and seeing sights during the day then going home to bed or to rest), they aren’t terrible.  Plus, it’s fun to review so many great works while teaching your little one about art.  Felix seriously has several words from every page of every book memorized, already.  After going through these 4 books, I sought out a few others and plan on getting the few more that are yet remaining.

 

 

 

 

 

Painting with Picasso: Another from the “mini masters”, see above.  This one wasn’t in the set, but there’s about 10 other “mini masters” books I need to pick up.  I think the Picasso book is my personal favorite.

 

 

 

Skippyjon Jones: This book cracks me up.  It’s about… well, I’m not really sure what it’s about.  It’s about a cat/kitten that likes birds and likes to pretend he’s a dog (specifically, a Chihuahua), but that pisses his cat mother off – so he gets sent to his room to think about how he should act like a cat but starts fantasizing about being a member of a gang of chihuahuas, instead.  And he saves his chihuahua friends by busting open a bumblebee full of beans.  BEANS!  Seriously.  Right?  What the hell is all that?  But it’s uproariously fun to read (I’ve been trying to give him some Spanish here and there) and just too wacky to not be fun.  Felix loves it and loves to yell out the Spanish rhymes as I’m reading.  Since starting to write this post, I’ve picked up other Skippyjon Jones books (there’s several), all of which are fun.  I’ve used of all my possible renews at the library, so we’re going to have to purchase this one.

More “mini masters” I’ve picked up:

I expect that when I finally get around to taking him to to see the Gauguin exhibit at SAM (Seattle Art Museum), he’ll be running around pointing to the paintings and reciting the poems from books.  Or calling out the names of the the painting.  And everyone around us will think, “My god, who is that genius child?” cause… he kind of is.  *smile*  He also sits through Olivia Saves the Circus, The Snowy Day (which he was reciting when he went outside during our Big Snow Storm) and various Eric Carle books (of The Hungry Caterpillar) fame.


I also enjoy Bruno Munari’s Zoo, which we’ll have to purchase & check out more of that author’s books.  The illustrations are quite unique.

 

 

 

I have been speaking some Spanish to him and he loves to randomly ask “como estas?” throughout the day.  I’ve also been listening to French language podcasts in the car (both to brush up & relearn my own French as well as for his exposure) and with perfect diction, he says, Je t’aime maman!

His speaking, in his own language, is out of this world.  I don’t really have much to compare him to, I only see the looks on people’s faces when he speaks.  Though we occasionally bump into other people with kids his age and I’m struck by how very different his manner of speaking is.  Longer sentences, clear pronunciation, huge vocabulary.  I told him we were going t see the chiropractor again, today (for me, not him), and he spent the morning saying, “Ride to the chiropractor!”

He starts Montessori preschool in exactly two weeks.  (Be still, my beating heart.)  I would love to keep him home with me, every day, for another couple years.  People keep going on at me about all the freedom & time that I’ll have, but that’s just not the sort of thing I think about.  I haven’t been aching for “freedom” or more time.  This kid is so easy going & such an independent player that I tend to sit around thinking I have too much time on my hands that I’m not using very wisely.  I love these days with him.  But no… I saw the readiness and realized that the best thing, for him, would be to start preschool, now.  So off he goes.  I have yet to tell him how much fun he’s going to have without getting choked up, every single time.  Pretty much everything we’ve done with him has because I’ve simply followed his lead.  This kid… he’s something special.

0

yet more words and other things

|

More things that Felix says, off the top of my head (still forgetting a zillion things):

Bye bye (often said as he races down the hall when he hears Chris opening the gate to leave for work.)

He says Jenn and Denise, for our sitter and her sister, who also watches him.  Coffee when he sees our coffee mugs.  Milk.  Smoothie, as soon as he sees me break out the blender for our morning smoothies – though it sounds like moo-ey.  Chocolate, which he loves.  Water.  Swing.  Mail (he loves to go outside with us to get the mail.  Especially on rainy or busy days when we haven’t otherwise gotten outside.)  Socks. Slippers. Bird (for actual birds in the sky and my favorite red bird necklace.)  Cat.  Truck, which seems to sound more like “dot” and bus.

Bath and bath time (which sounds like “bad time”).  He often races to his bathroom, bangs on the door and says bad time bad time bad time when Chris gets home from work.

Dinner.  Outside.

More (milk, water, smoothie).

Blankie.  Ami (“ah-mee”), which has somehow come to mean all of his stuffed elephants.  Bear.

He also repeats another million words right as we say them, with perfect or near perfect clarity.  Unfortunately, this means that he occasionally walks around saying, “Sh*t sh*t sh*t”. (I’m working on that.)

Oh, and my favorite, of course – I love you, which is sometimes accompanied by a sneak attack hug.

And then there’s all the routines and habits that he knows.  Like after we change his diaper, we go to the bathroom to put his (cloth) diaper in the bucket.  Though we’ve started changing him in the bathroom and letting him sit on his toilet for a few minutes, which he actually seems to enjoy.  On one hand – it’s early for typical potty training, but we’re way late for “elimination communication” potty training.  So I figure, since there’s really no pressure now, there’s no harm in introducing the idea to him and seeing what happens.  Honestly, I suspect if I hadn’t been so lazy about the elimination communication training at a year old, he’d be potty trained by now.  So I suspect he’ll be potty trained early & easily when we really do it.  He’s smart and he picks stuff up quickly, understands concepts without much trouble.

We’ve visited one Montessori school so far, and will be checking out a few more.  Yet again, we were told that he seems incredibly (read: above average) bright, very independent and observant, and yes, yes he has MANY more words than most kids his age.  Not only that, but also that usually, only the parents can understand most of their child’s words and language at this age, but that everyone can understand Felix because he speaks so clearly.

I’m really eager to get him into Montessori school, I think it’ll be really really good for him (he’s explored about as much as he can at home – though we will be getting out more now that the weather is getting nicer again.)

I’ve also realized that he demands manners and patience.  For example, when he opens the drawer and pulls out the tv remotes – if I yell at him (as you tend to do when someone gets into something a zillion times) to put them back, all I get in return is a mocking grin.  So I sigh, change my tone and say, “Felix, please put the remotes back.”  And then, “Thank you, now please close the drawer.”  So long as I say please and am polite, he’ll do anything I ask.  Kid isn’t even a year and a half years old yet, and already keeping me in check.  Point taken, kid.

Oh, but he will also announce when he’s doing something he shouldn’t.  I might be in the bedroom and he’ll be in our room and I hear him saying, “No no no no no!”  So I go in and find him rifling through drawers or carrying a pair of my glasses around.  Let’s see if he does the same as a teenager!  ha!

He’s a delightful kid, all around.  I sometimes forget he’s just a toddler because he seems so aware and so … well, wise.

He has his first swimming lessons in June – I can’t wait.  I think he’ll do well with them because he looooooooooves water.

And then, just like that, I’ll be writing about him going off to college in Spain or some such.  Sigh.

 

0

Time

|

Oops.  A lot of time has passed since my last update.  The thing is, it’s a lot easier to update when they’re LITTLE and there’s not as much to say.  Then one day, you wake up and OH MY GOD, THAT’S A LOT OF MILESTONES.  I didn’t realize it’d be like this already.  By “like this” I mean, he seems so grown up.  I have to stop calling him “baby” because he’s not.  He’s a little boy.

He started full-on walking right after his 1 year birthday, as predicted (by me.)

In fact, this past week it seems he discovered that he can also walk backwards and he does it often, at completely random moments.  It’s pretty funny to watch.

I think his vocabulary is about to explode – he’s had his repertoire of onomatopoeia words (like “Boom!”) and “Uh-oh” was his first word, months ago.  Whenever I ask him where his froggy is, he runs towards it, saying “baahdee baahdee!”  He’s recently started repeating “pee!” (and even peed when I said it, in the bathtub, a few nights in a row.  I still can’t tell if that was coincidence or not?)   A couple days ago it sounded like he said “monkey” after me, but not again.  This morning he was playing with one of his “noisy” toys and when he pushed the yellow key and the voice sang out, “yellow!”, he said, “Yoh.”

There’s so many I’m already forgetting them all. Regardless of any words that we understand, he talks a lot.

I took him to the KidsQuest something something Museum the other day, which *I* did not like, at all. No point in mincing words, there were a lot of brats there.  One kid pushed him over & away and while *I* was pissed, Felix just got up and walked away, calmly, not a care.  Anytime any other kid would get in his way or grab something he was going for, he’d just change course.  He’s rarely interested in objects and toys when we’re out, anyway.  He just walks and walks and walks and walks around and around and around and around.  I took him out of the little kids area (for crawlers and new walkers) and into the other area, where all the big kids were running around.  (Luckily, it wasn’t that crowded so I didn’t have to worry about big kids running by and slamming into him.)  He seemed to enjoy the “big kids” stuff a lot more.  More to see, more buttons to push.  And the WATER, he loved splashing his hands around in that.

But KidsQuest is an indoor area, attached to a mall, of all things – I don’t really like that atmosphere.  Yesterday it was sunny and blue, so I decided we needed to get outside and took him to the zoo.  *I* thought he’d enjoy looking at all the animals, but nope – what he loved was all the open space, so he walked and walked and walked and walked and turned around and around and walked and walked.  He just loves to look around and observe.  The one animal he was interested in was the peacock.  There was a peacock running around, loose, and Felix wanted to run right up and grab it.  I had to hold him back a few feet and Felix fought me the entire time, eyes glued to the peacock.  For the rest of this winter season, we’re sticking to outdoor stuff.  Even when we’re at home,  he walks and walks and walks and walks, stopping only occasionally to flip through a book or play with his workbench.

Oh! And yesterday, the babysitter told me that she was reading to him from a book about colors.  When she got to the “pink” page, he pointed to her fingernails – which were bright, bright pink.  He didn’t do that with any other page.  Coincidence?  I think not!

I also taught him the “monkey” gesture (one hand on head, one hand scratching armpit) and the monkey, “ooh!  ooh!  ooh!”  Now when I either make the noise or say “monkey” he makes the gesture.  We’re working on elephant, next.

He’s an excellent eater.  (I realize this can change and he could turn picky, but the thing is, I don’t care.  We’re not going to make an issue of it, he’ll eat or not – all I care about is that what he DOES eat will be healthy.  He’s not going to be one of those kids who gets picky, so we start giving him junk and processed foods just to get him to eat.  I do plan on including him in meal planning and decision making as he gets older, so I think that will help.)  He still loves his raw milk, which I am happy to let him drink a few times a day because it’s good for him.  He also loves water – whenever I fill his sippy cup, he dances around excitedly until I hand it to him.  That’s pretty much all he drinks.  In the Fall, I gave him some apple cider occasionally and in the summer, I’ll give him some fresh squeeze orange juice or some such, but he eats bananas and oranges and real fruit, so why bother with sugary juices?  He loves the bananas and orange slices.  Apples in his oatmeal, with raisins.  Pears.  Strawberries.  Blueberries.  I’ve started making baked oatmeal, so that we make it once and just heat it up every morning, he enjoys that with a little raw honey and yogurt.   He likes quiche (this morning he had some broccoli cheddar quiche with his oatmeal).  Oh my god – he does not like cheese.  This befuddles me.  How can you not like cheese? *shrug*

People have said things to us like, “Oh, just wait until he’s such and such age and he’s got personality!”  I want to ask them what’s wrong with their kid, but this one has had big personality from the get go.

We (I?) waffle back and forth about having another one.  One one hand, sure.  On the other hand – Felix has kind of set an impossibly high standard.  He is such an easy going, independent kid.  He amuses himself all day (sometimes pushing me away if I try to play with him – just like he does if I try to help him over a small obstacle when walking, “I can do it myself!!”) and he sleeps from 8-9:30 in the morning!!!!  If he didn’t nap much the previous day, he’ll sleep till around 9.  But otherwise, he averages around 8:30.  My worst nightmare, when thinking about having children, was of having to get up at 6 am every day.  UGH.  What are the odds of getting another one that sleeps until after 8am???  What are the odds of having another one that is so easy and independent as this one?

And CUTE?  I know his cuteness is because of his genes, but c’mon – I think we used up every ounce of cute available on this one.

0

9 months

|

Wow, really lagging here – too busy livin’ it to write it, I say.

It’s a week past, but Nugget had his 9 month check up.  I’m so grateful to have found a naturopath pediatrician.  I get 110% support for the raw goat milk, an easier & modified vaccination schedule and just an overall sense that she matches my own beliefs about health & what’s good for us.

felix2She took some blood and tested him for anemia & his vitamin D levels today.  She does this with all babies, since so many people, including babies are vitamin D deficient these days and she likes to catch it early.  I’m pretty sure he’s far from being vitamin D deficient – I make a point to get him outside & into the sunshine almost every day.  On particularly hot & sunny days, if we get out between 10 and 2 and we’ll be out for awhile, I wait about 15-20 minutes to put sunscreen on him, so that he can get the most potent amount of vitamin D & sunshine possible.  (Myself, as well.)  Since we live in the Pacific Northwest now, getting enough sun is definitely something at the forefront of my mind.  I also asked her about giving him some of our fermented cod liver oil in the winter (another thing that’s good for combatting vitamin D deficiency) and she was all for it.  I’ll have to figure out how to get it to him, though, seeing as the capsules are too big and I doubt he’ll want to taste that in his milk.  Blech.

He’s grown another inch and a quarter in the past 3 months – he’s now at 29 and some odd inches.  He’s a little over 20 p0unds.

He wasn’t happy about having blood drawn from his finger, nor happy about his 2nd DTAP vaccination, but he was a champ.  I don’t think he cried once .  I was surprised, as I thought he’d be pretty miserable since his top two teeth are starting to come in now, also, and I suspect that’s the reason he had kind of a crappy night of sleep last night.

felix7His top two teeth!  His bottom ones came in completely last month.  (I think it was last month?  I’m losing time already.)  We took him to the Ricicli photo shoot (you know, cause HE’S A MODEL, NOW!) and it made me nervous, for a moment, to see a 7 month old who was already crawling & could get herself up to a sitting position.  Only for a moment – I remember when I was worried that he didn’t roll over much before and then suddenly one day, BAM! he’s all over the place with the rolling.  He sits, but doesn’t get into a sitting position by himself yet and he scoots around from one end of the room to the other, without crawling.  Within the past couple weeks, he’s started to get up on his hands & knees and rock back and forth – which means in the next couple weeks, I’ll just wake up one morning and BAM! he’ll be crawling all over the place and driving me mad.  I watched him with the other babies at the Ricicli photo shoot and he’s definitely an observer.  While the other ones rolled around, smiling indiscriminately and grabbing at everything, he just sat there, watching watching watching and taking it all in.  He did occasionally reach out and touch others, but only when their backs were turned.  (Typical boy.)  They say that easy going babies tend to take longer to do things like crawl, walk, etc – while he is incredibly easygoing, I think he’s also so busy thinking that he tends to forget to move.  He gets that from me, for sure.

(And pssst… I have it on good authority that he’s showing signs of being a “gifted” child.  Just confirming what I already knew…!)

650He is also quite the little piggy.  I see how much other kids eat, then I see how much we give him.  I asked the pediatrician, and she waved me off.  “He’s growing beautifully.”  In other words, don’t compare.  He loves peaches, apples, pears, cherries, yams, peas, green beans, carrots (orange AND purple), avocado and… I’m sure I’m forgetting something.  He’s very interested in food and seems to get a little angry when we’re eating stuff that he doesn’t get.  This weekend, I think I’m going to add oatmeal (to go with his peaches or blueberries) and maybe a little spice like cinnamon.  I had asked the pediatrician about food and she made a good point – there are so many different things done across so many different cultures.  Who’s to say which is right?  He’s hungry, he loves to eat… so we’ll just keep going.

Whenever I brag about how much he eats & what he loves, people inevitably tell me that “yes, he likes it now, just wait…”  Well, I’ve read many an article that said kids are far less likely to be picky eaters when they see where the food comes from and are connected to it.  Felix has been to farms, farmer’s markets… we’ll get chickens sooner than later… he watches me cook every night (and will help me cook, as well as help us decide what we all eat, as well.)  So, I feel pretty confident about how picky he’ll be -or not be.

Yes, he is in the phase of being suspicious of strangers.  He especially doesn’t like people getting in his face, or several people at once and as far as I’m concerned, that’s normal.  I STILL hate people getting in my face or groups of people.

0

6 months

|

Dear Felix,

HOLY CRAP, you’re 6 months old.  And… Wow, really, it’s only been 6 months?

015Today, you had your 6 month check up, one day after the fact, and you’re still growing like a week and a picture of good health.  So when you’re older, and you hear people say  that goat milk isn’t good enough for babies, you can tell them that YOU were raised on it – raw, no less – and just look at you.

(Because I’m sure this is the type of conversation you’ll have as an adult, right?)

You are 17 pounds – which is now right smack in the middle of average, which is more than fine.  And you’re over 28 inches tall which is way above average.  How’d you get to be so tall?

So far, you like every fruit that’s passed your lips.  But you have not like broccoli nor lunged for avocado like you do bananas.  I’m kind of surprised at this.  I had it in my head that you’d be all about the vegetables.  You do, however, have a very “if you want me to eat it, I will” attitude about it – but you make sure I know that you’re doing me a favor.  Yup.  You’re my kid.  Oh, are those faces supposed to make me decide to stop giving you broccoli?  Not going to work.  But hold on to that, you can guilt me for it later.  When you’re 5, you can complain about how you let me feed you broccoli even though you didn’t want it, so I should let you x, y, z.

Today, we’ll try cauliflower, because it can’t be all about fruits, Nugget.  I can’t possibly see how you could have a problem with cauliflower – it tastes like potato and how could you not like potato?

Yesterday, I saw a video on that stupid “Momversation” thing about “Do you have to play with your kids?”  I feel sorry for other mothers who say “Do I have to play with my kids?”  We like to play with you.  We can’t wait to play with you more.  When you’re bigger, we’ll do things like go to the zoo, the waterfront, etc AT LEAST every other day.

031Anyway.  The people in the “don’t play with your kids” camp claimed that playing with your kids too much would make them “too dependent” on you and not imaginative enough.  Not self-sufficient enough.  I think this is bullshit.  There’s so many other factors and quite frankly, that attitude doesn’t give enough credit to each child’s individual personality.  But I guess I say that because you already show quite a lot of independence and seem pretty good at amusing yourself already.  If you want us to play with you, and to show us things & talk to us about stuff & share whatever it is that seems to be going on inside your head all the time, we’ll be more than happy to oblige.

(I do think, though, that people who claim to not want to play with their kids because they want them to be self-sufficient, etc are making that up as a cover for the fact that they just don’t want to spend a lot of time with and energy on their kids.  Period.)

But there I go on my high horse again, and I fear you’re going to be that kid that annoys everyone by telling them, “Well, MY mom said…”  You’ll probably often end that sentence with something about how I said that if their moms really cared about them, they’d do x, y, z.  Or how one of their teachers is an idiot.

Ahem.  Yes, I’ll be THAT mom.

Your dad?  Well.  He seems to be the reasonable one, but he named your giraffe “Jihad.”  I’ll get called into school about things like that, too.

You & me are going to have to have a talk about this sleeping thing soon – we’d like a little after 7am consistency, please?  But other than that, you’re incredibly easy.  It feels like it was really hard the first few months but I don’t know if YOU were all that hard.  We were just terrified of you.  On your very second day here, we had to drive you to the pediatrician – ON THE FREAKIN’ LA FREEWAY.  It was awful.  I’m surprised I didn’t have a heart attack right then and there.  LA sucked.  LA still sucks and I hope you don’t ever have urges to go spend a few years in the city where you were born.  All I wanted was to get you out of there.

I was afraid to drive with you, afraid to let you cry, afraid of going out in public with you because I didn’t want to bother everyone or be completely frazzled out in public.  DUDE.  That was the stupidest fear because you’re really quite good when we’re out.  Dazzlingly so.  Especially when you & I flew to Pennsylvania alone – oh, I saw the looks on people’s faces when they saw me sit down in the boarding area with you, and you were cranky because I’d woken you up at 3 am.  People went out of their way to talk to me & compliment you at the end of the flight.  You were born to travel & be on the move.

We drove aimlessly for 3 hours one weekend – well, 3 hours away and 3 hours back.  You just sat in the car seat & stared out the window or slept.  You got a little cranky, momentarily, which was understandable because you were all wet & hungry.  But once that got taken care of, you were fine.

Anyway.  That drive on the LA freeway.  The midwife & one of her assistants made a huge fuss about how small you were and they got me all worked up and worried about it.  I’m kind of annoyed at that.  I’m kind of annoyed at some people’s handlings of us back then.  Had you weighed one more pound, no one would have worried much, and I can’t see that one pound makes much of a difference.  Plus, you were small but there was nothing weak & or unhealthy about you.  I’d say you were better off than most babies who weighed more at the get go.  There also seems to be a lot of “small babies” on both our sides of the family, so perhaps it just runs in the family and they should have stopped getting on my case about “how I ate while pregnant” after the fact.  (I did not eat a lot, because I, strangely, had no appetite.  But I tried to make it count, what I ate, plus I drank lots of raw milk & used lots of butter… plenty of fatty things.  Including me! hahahaha  I gained a lot, but little of it seemed to go to you.  So.  In hindsight, I’d have snapped at them to get off my case.)  Which is also why I feel a little smug, now, because you are above average in everything.  Including personality.

You don’t feel so fragile anymore – though, you never were, really.  WE were the ones that were fragile.

You have a slightly nerve-wracking habit of liking to pull a blanket over your face to fall asleep.  Sometimes it’s the ONLY way you’ll fall asleep.  It’s fine during the afternoon when I let you fall asleep, then immediately move the blanket off your face.  But often at night, I feel a need to keep checking or have to be yanking it off your face throughout the morning.  This is a habit we need to start breaking.  Though you have a thing about rubbing your face on anything soft.

We’re taking hours of video of you just making faces & blowing spit bubbles, etc.  You have a vast repertoire of noises.  You do have one noise that almost sounds like you’re saying, “Momomomomomomom,” but we’ll see.

YESTERDAY! Your actual 6 month birthday!  I put you in the stroller “like a big boy” for the first time.  I think you were a little dazzled by the new view.

You’re starting to sit up now, and you try REALLY hard to get yourself up to a sitting position while laying down, but you’re not quite there yet.  You’re grabby grabby grabby and I think if I need to make this many adjustments just because of your grabby little hands, dear god… the crawling…

We had our first encounter with a large group of people and I feel like I let you down there.  You were tired & cranky and I absolutely do not support the passing around of babies and the fact that I just stood there and let it happen is… strange.  Very unlike me.  But you can be sure I’ll back you up, at all times, in the future.  If you ever say no to someone and they don’t respect that, you tell them, “Don’t MAKE me call my mom over here.”  I’ll open a can of verbal whoop ass on anyone who doesn’t treat you like the individual that you are.

I think some people are kind of surprised that I’m good at this parenting thing.   My favorite compliment & thing to hear is when people say things about what a strong bond I seem to have with you.  People actually say that to me all the time, and it makes my day.  We like to speculate and make jokes about “he gets this from me, he gets that from you,”  but at the end of the day,  it’s all you.

And if you never learn to like broccoli, I promise not to make you eat it too often.

0

bananas for little monkeys

|

I’ve given Nugget one or two tiny little bits of banana before, but yesterday & today, we fed him a pretty good-sized chunk (smashed.)  He made faces as if he didn’t like it – or just didn’t understand this new texture & flavor, but if you waited too long in between bites, he’d start yelling & kicking his legs around, then lunge towards the spoon, grab it with both hands, and shove it right into his mouth.\

seattle-002seattle-003seattle-004seattle-014seattle-015seattle-016seattle-020seattle-021seattle-022

0

14

|

No, not weeks, but pounds.  Speaking of cranky (see previous), someone has been very much so the past couple days.  3 month growth spurt?  Indeed.  In his 12 week newsletter, I’d said that he’s stayed only a little over 13 pounds for the past couple weeks.  But we weighed him again and he’s just an ounce or two shy of 14 pounds.  We should really start measuring him, too, and see if he’s taller than 25 inches yet.  (I’m pretty sure he is.)

0

Balls!

|

We closed on Thursday afternoon, got the keys on Friday afternoon, and went over to check it out again today.

Remember we mentioned that the previous owners had tax liens against them?  Quite a lot?  Well, turns out the electricity was cut off, in addition to the water, because they didn’t pay their bill.  (Not a big deal for us, we’ve already called and taken care of it.)

But when we arrived today, we found collection notices on the door.  Fun. I’m waiting for the day, when I’m home during the afternoon, and I have to explain to some collection officer that I’m not who they’re looking for & I’ve no idea where the previous owners are.

Then we looked out in the backyard and MAN, was I peeved.  Part of the contract was that they had to finish clearing all their shit out of the house & the garage.  Weird little odds ‘n ends they’d left in bathroom drawers, piles of crap in closets, a spare fridge and the overflowing piles of junk in the garage.  I’m thinking that, considering how close to foreclosure they were, they weren’t in the best of moods, plus probably a little angry that we paid them $20k less than they asked for – but that was only fair, considering the house needs a whole new roof & a bunch of cosmetic work.

Well.  They cleaned out the garage, the closets, and the drawers, but…

balls

Click on the image to zoom in.  Or not.  Can you see all the little colored spots all over the yard?

“What’s with all the fucking balls?” Chris said.

Balls.

Balls!

Somehow, they’d managed to leave balls all over the backyard.  Footballs, soccerballs, kickballs.  10-15 of them.

Were they trying to make some kind of statement?  In all the clearing out they were doing, how could they not take 2 minutes to round up a few balls?  Seriously?

We’re cracking up about it, and it’s pretty damn funny, but I’m also kind of pissed off.  I mean, come on.  BALLS?

balls2balls3balls4balls5

The balls, to me, say “Make sure you have the locks changed.”

So here’s my new kitchen, the kitchen that I fell madly in love with.  They put a bit of money into the kitchen, it’s pretty new – double oven, built in microwave, relatively new refrigerator, shelves that slide out in one of the cabinets and a LAZY SUSAN for spices!  Sigh.

house1house2

One of the bathrooms has this absolutely hideous countertop.  When I first saw it, I thought they’d splattered mud or something all over it, but it was just the pattern.  It will be replaced eventually, but it’s not a priority.

sink

Then there was one of the downstairs, kid’s bedrooms – we had a lot of fun speculating on the holes:

punchpunch2

So, like… angry teenager?  Drunk wife?  Someone kicking BALLS! around in the house?

There’s a great little deck upstairs, off the kitchen.  I’d like to get another dog again some day – the deck is perfect for, say, wet days when you want to leave the dog outside until his paws are dry?

deck

And there’s a treehouse in the backyard.  It needs some work, but I figure we’ll just tear it down and build a brand new one for when Felix is old enough.

treehousetreehouse2

The downstairs “rec room” is awesome.  The one half will be left open, as a space for me to do yoga in.  When I’m not doing yoga, there will also be a projector on the wall, on that side, for video game playing & such.

rec

And there’s a decked off area in the backyard, also – perfect for barbecues, playing with Felix, or just hanging out.

Oh – and in addition to the balls… the cleaned the freezer out, but really, we should just toss the whole fridge.  The freezer smells like they put something dead in there and forgot about it for… oh, about 10 years.  Bleh.

It’s a shame, for their situation.  This house has TONS of potential and they barely scratched the surface.

As for us, it’ll just be SO NICE to unpack and not have to move again for quite some time.

1

8 weeks

|

Here’s the “weekly newsletter” as we begin the 8th week.  Two months.  To which I say, “Wow, two months already?” and “Really?  Has it only been two months?”

Last week I confirmed my suspicions about him needing/wanting his space when he sleeps.  This week, I’ve determined that it has something to do with his arms.  I need to get more photos of this, but when you spend some time with him, you notice that he’s always throwing his arms out wide.  He loves to have those arms out.  Maybe he’s just showing that he’s ready to embrace the world.

When I set him down on the couch, next to me, to doze – if he’s against the back of the couch & can’t have both arms out, he won’t sleep.  But if I move him diagonally across the cushion, so that he can, he’ll sleep.  He’s not a big fan of being cradled against you – he prefers over the shoulder ( to look around) or up and down on your knees – where he will throw those arms out.

I’ve also realized that it’s best for me to keep my hair pulled up at all times.  He’s begun clutching at everything – if you hold him, he’ll clutch at your arms & shoulders or, in my case – my hair.  Ouch.

Since determining that Little Mr Independent wants his space & letting him sleep in the basinette (next to our bed), he’s been sleeping 4 + 3 intervals at night, on average.  After Chris leaves for work, he’ll generally go another hour and a half or so.

We got a digital baby/toddler scale last week and he was up to 11.9 pounds.  Probably about 11.12 or thereabouts by today.  Inititally, he gained a lot of weight, fast – which was a good thing.  Now it’s slow & steady.  Also a good thing.

I know that eventually, I’ll miss these days and wish he were a baby again, but I’m really looking forward to interacting with him more.  I want to read to him and take him to kids’ museums and the zoo.

felix-148But I know what my mom would say – he’ll grow up too quickly, enjoy every moment without looking ahead so soon!