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Sunday, January 04, 2009
The Funniest Thing in the World
Tonight John thought it was absolutely hilarious to "mail" his plastic letters by putting them in my mouth. :)
Friday, January 02, 2009
9 Months Old
The weekend before Christmas, John started doing what I call "making proclamations". He walks around hanging on with one hand and raises the other hand in the air as if he's saying something important. (You might also say that his Italian is showing, since he talks with his hands.) Sometimes the raised hand is more of a raised finger, as he's started pointing at things. Too darn cute.
For our entire trip east, he would not allow anyone else to hold him, and pretty much would not let me out of his sight. A big disappointment for my aunts, who hadn't seen him in months and wanted to hold him. :(
December 30 was his nine month visit with the pediatrician. He is 28 inches tall and weighed in at 17 pounds even, a gain of a whole pound in two weeks! (I KNEW he was having a growth spurt!) He is officially on the weight chart between 5th and 10th percentile. Doc said she'd like to see him between 10 and 25, but also that she'd like to see her own son there and he's not -- in other words, not to worry because he's doing just fine. We are hoping that the weight gain will continue but who knows. Other than that, we were given the okay to feed John pretty much anything and everything ("the world is your oyster... but don't give him oysters"). Not that I haven't been doing my own thing as far as food is concerned, but it's nice to feel validated from an expert, so to speak. :) He got caught up on his shots plus the first dose of his flu shot, and took it very well.
Naturally our doctor wanted to know what "baby tricks" he's up to these days... is he crawling? No, we said. He doesn't crawl, he's too busy learning to walk. (And indeed, she was impressed when he demonstrated by trying to run away from her across the exam table.) So we head home, and what does our little stinker do that afternoon but get up on all fours and crawl! I could hardly believe it! Video is posted, of course. ;)
Not that he *likes* to crawl. I think today he was starting to get the idea that it might be a useful way to get around... but for now, crawling is still a last resort to get to [usually me] so he can stand up and walk around. Even so, we now officially have a fully mobile man, and Joe's first act once this happened was to put up the last baby gate. (Much to the dismay of the cat, who is apparently unable to jump over them, and thus is locked out of either his food or his litter box for most of the day.)
John has also (finally) figured out how to get his knees under himself and push up to a sitting position. Tonight in the bathtub he got up on his hands and feet and seemed to be trying to stand up on his own... we'll see tomorrow if he starts trying that on dry land. He's been starting to let go and stand on his own for a few seconds, so I'm thinking first steps might be this month -- we'll see though.
He "talks" all the time now, and it's almost starting to sound like words, although they don't mean anything yet. He talks to us, and he also talks quietly to himself while playing on his own. He says "ott", "oot", "duc", "nom", "hi", "dada", "nana", "yesh", "oss". We talk back, either repeating his sounds or naming whatever he's holding or looking at. My dad says he sounds like he's going to be a talker like I was (as opposed to a grunter like my sister). ;) He's also screaming, a very high-pitched squeal that can be quite loud. He started doing it this week every time he would see the cat, and now he just does it whenever, for fun. Oh, boy. (I can't wait until he does it in the middle of Mass. :P )
While visiting my parents last week, he started dropping Cheerios on the floor to see if the dog would come.
He loves to eat, pretty much anything. The only things he seemed not to like were avocados, although he refused chicken a few times, and he also isn't keen on plain yogurt now that he's had yogurt with stuff mixed in. Still, as I have friends with babies the same age who spit out their vegetables and refuse any food from a spoon, I realize we've been lucky with food so far. He gets a lot more finger foods now, but still eats well from a spoon too. He's crazy with finger foods: he'll take handfuls and stuff them in his mouth, so we have to be careful to only give him a few pieces at a time. Today Joe showed him the whole cup of Cheerios, and John slowly reached 2 fingers in to pick one up -- then at the last second he shoved in the whole fist and grabbed as many as he could, the little piggy. :)
He does so many funny things these days, we just can't get enough of him. I can hardly believe how fast the time has gone... somehow it's 2009 and we're starting to think about his first birthday. *faint* A year ago we were just starting childbirth classes and I was worrying about whether I'd fit into my dress for Jana's wedding. It would be funny to see a picture of myself from then. :)
Happy new year everyone, and I hope it brings wonderful things to all!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Merry Christmas: the long-winded version
I didn't take any video of John's first Christmas, and I wish I had, especially since most of the few pictures I took are blurry. Ah well, guess I'll have to rely on memories.
We were supposed to leave on December 22, my grandmother's birthday, but were delayed in our travels by a day, due to our car deciding that what it really wanted for Christmas was a new pair of sensors for the anti-lock braking system. (At least, I think that's what the problem was.) That Monday also happened to be pretty snowy so the weather may have kept us back even if the car hadn't. Since the car's ABS light came on while we were heading to the in-laws' on Sunday, we ended up staying the night there so Joe could bring the car in first thing Monday. The aforementioned snow meant snow day for local schools, including the one where Joe's mom works -- so she got to stay home and spend the entire day playing with her grandson. One might say that Christmas came early for her. (And for me, since I got to sit around and watch goofy holiday specials while they played.) ;) So it was a bummer to lose a day, but at least it was a nice day! And on Tuesday we set off for my parents' with a newly inspected, fully working car.
For as long as I can remember (and as long as my dad could remember!) it has been a tradition for my mom's side of the family to gather at McDonald's for breakfast on Christmas Eve. Why this is our tradition, I can't say, but I don't think it matters at this point. It's tradition and that should be enough. Only I guess "it's tradition" wasn't enough for my aunts this year, because the only people that showed up for our Christmas Eve breakfast were my dad, Joe, John, and me. :( (My mom was working so at least she had an excuse.) Needless to say that was disappointing, but we had a nice breakfast together anyway. I know Mickey D's ain't fancy er nothin', but once a year hotcakes and sausage is a decent switch.
That evening was better: we had our traditional dinner of lasagne with my cousin and his family, followed by our traditional dessert of peppermint stick ice cream with homemade hot fudge. (Traditions are important, you see.) Then everybody else went to church while Joe and I put John to bed. My parents have a new coal stove so I guess we could have hung the stockings there this year... but we laid them out on the dining room table the way we always did growing up, when we had no chimney. :) John's stocking this year was a borrowed one. I decided I wanted to make one for him, but unfortunately I decided this around Thanksgiving, and since I neither sew nor knit at the present time I realistically decided to save that project for next year. (And now you know why I asked for a Knifty Knitter for Christmas. How weird am I? Seriously.) When my parents got home from their church service, we all sat at the table and, er, helped Santa fill the stockings, which was actually kind of fun. I've never been part of that before. (I imagine it will be even more fun in a few years when John leaves cookies out for Santa. :D )
On Christmas morning, for most likely the last time until he hits his teenage years, John was the last one to wake up. Even Joe and I were already awake! He was absolutely adorable when he finally did wake up though -- smiling and giggling and obviously happy to see us. (He doesn't usually wake up to us being right there with him so I think that was a nice treat!) Unfortunately his cheerful mood disappeared when we changed his diaper and got him into his Christmas outfit (he thinks getting dressed is the ninth circle of hell), but he looked cute and perked up when we got upstairs. Aunt Dotty came and of course Gram, and we all opened our stockings. John had some little pirate guys and a knight with a horse (Little People-type toys), some mini board books, and of course an ornament (tradition again), a Bumble which was sent by some very sweet friends. Only thing I didn't do this year were the Christmas socks. Joe doesn't wear them and I have half a dozen pairs already... I suppose I could have gotten some for John, but I didn't. Maybe next year. Then it was time for our traditional (there's that darn word again) breakfast of cinnamon rolls, followed by... Joe, John, and I going to Mass! And then back home for the opening of gifts.
John wasn't too sure about the whole thing. He liked playing with the toys that came out of his stocking, but didn't quite understand that he could reach into the stocking to find more. And he wasn't too thrilled about sitting on the floor to open gifts -- he didn't know what was going on and he wanted to walk around. Joe helped him by tearing back some of the wrapping paper so he could grab it. Well, ripping the paper was pretty fun... but every time he got a good piece in his hand, Daddy would take it away before he could taste it. And then once the paper was off, another gift was in front of him before he had time to investigate much of the first one. I guess when you are 8 months old, Christmas is more confusing and frustrating than fun. But he did like playing with his new toys, once we got through the whole ordeal of opening them. ;)
For the afternoon, we went to my cousin's house (which used to be my grandparents' and is where I spent every holiday growing up) to have lunch/dinner and more presents with the extended family. This time John napped through the gifts, which I think was probably a good thing. :) My cousin Lindsay was there with her three little ones (age 4, 3, and 2), who were absolutely enthralled with "baby John" and he was just as fascinated by them. It was totally adorable to see them all together. The bigger kids would crowd around and give John hugs, and he would reach out to touch their faces and hair, and "talk" to them. Wyatt pretended to fall over every time John touched him, which John thought was pretty funny, and Taylor "read" him his new Christmas books. You could tell from the way he watched them running around that he was just dying to get up and chase. (Holidays next year are going to be lots of fun!) Then after the other kids left, John occupied himself for a pretty long time digging around in a basket of cat toys while we chatted.
We spent the next couple of days visiting with friends and trying not to get stuck in the snow, which was made easier when it all melted over the weekend. Our drive back was complicated by 50mph winds instead, but we made it in time to celebrate a second Christmas with Joe's family. John had turkey and cranberries and mashed potatoes and peas for dinner just like the rest of the family, and then we gathered around the tree. Again John wasn't too sure about the gift-opening. He was thrilled to be handed a gift bag (with nice handles to pull on and chew) but not really interested in peeking inside. This time Mommy and Daddy did most of the unwrapping as he was starting to get tired and cranky (and there was a lot to open!). Santa must have been working overtime because John even had a stocking with his very own Pez dispenser (...tradition!). Then he slept through the chocolate pie (not that he can have it anyway), and then we brought him home to his own bed. (But not his gifts, because the car was already overflowing.) And that was John's first Christmas.
Sooooo... perhaps we have detected a bit of a theme? I don't know what it is about Christmas, in particular, but it is the holiday I associate with traditions... and there are many. Traditional movies to be watched and songs to be sung, decorations to be put out, foods to be made and eaten, books to be read, places to go and things to do. Traditions are great for kids and great to carry on into adulthood, a little way to revisit your roots. And of course they are meant to be passed on, which has been my focus this year, perhaps to a maddening extent. In years past Joe and I have pretty much just been going along with the traditions of whichever family with whom we happened to be spending the holiday... but now there is a little man, and there is no denying that we're our own family. From here on out we're making our own traditions: a little from my family, a little from Joe's, a little that's uniquely us.
It's exciting for me and I have tons of ideas (though I'm lacking in execution thus far, but mainly because John is too little yet to realize anything is going on). I talked about some of the Advent things when the season began (I have ambitious plans for "someday"). Certain little Christmas things I know we'll keep from our families: I always had Christmas socks in my stocking, and Joe always had a Pez dispenser. I always got an ornament too; and when I moved out, I took along my box of ornaments and they now decorate our tree. That's a tradition I've always known I would keep with my kids.
Certain things, like which Mass we go to, and how we spend Christmas morning, are impossible to say right now. At this point we are continuing to alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas: one here, one there, next year switch. And I realize now that that's not going to last forever, and I don't want it to. Talking to my sister just before Christmas this year, we both realized how lucky we were growing up, and also that our kids just won't be so lucky. One set of grandparents lived with us, and we spent Christmas morning with them having breakfast and opening gifts. The other grandparents lived 5 minutes away, and all our aunts and uncles and cousins were local, and we spent the afternoon with them, opening presents, having Christmas dinner, and playing the day away. That won't happen for my kids. We'll always see both families around Christmastime, but we'll never spend Christmas Day with both sides. Eventually we'll settle into a new pattern. I don't know what it will be, but families change and traditions evolve. We'll all find something that works.
I think this is how goofy traditions like Christmas Eve breakfast at McDonald's get started. One year, somebody probably wasn't going to be able to spend Christmas Day with the family. So the family decided to get together for breakfast the day before, so at least they'd all get to see each other, even for a little while. And it stuck, and turned into an annual ritual, and eventually everybody forgot why it started in the first place, until one year it just stopped.
Hmm. There's a lot more I could say, going down that road. But I'm not going to, because this post is already too long, and I'm already up too late. All I really wanted to say is, we had a nice first Christmas with John. It is fun sharing old traditions and coming up with new ones for our family -- but it's also more frustrating than I realized it would be, complicated by the distance factor which can't be helped. But that is life, I suppose.
Anyway, to end on a high note, here's a picture of my Nativity scene all set up for Christmas. The woman with the baby and the water jar on the left side (in front of the angel) was my Christmas gift this year. :) The green mound in front of the Wise Men was my husband's addition: they have to cross the Andes to get to Bethlehem, you see. ;)
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Backhanded Compliment
The other day, someone said to me, "I hope you're not losing too much weight. You look thinner than you did before you got pregnant!"
Which I am. I weigh about 10 pounds less than I did at my wedding -- weight which I was beginning to lose after we got back from our honeymoon, until I found out there was a little man on the way. So I mentioned this.
"Oh okay. I'm just glad you're not sick or something."
Um, thanks?
**********
In other weight news, John has finally broken 16 pounds. He is off the CDC chart (below 5th percentile) but on the WHO chart (at just above 3rd percentile). I'm just glad we're seeing progress again after he was sick for so long. I try not to worry too much about his weight, he is active and developmentally on or ahead of schedule... I guess it is a side-effect from our last pediatrician. I'll be interested to see what our new one says at his 9 month visit.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Pass the Granola
I made yogurt!!! In my crock pot!!! And it was easy!
It's the little things that excite me.
So let's see... I breastfeed, cloth diaper, make my own baby food, and now that includes making yogurt. To quote someone on DCF, "I'm not green, I'm just cheap!" Now I just need to start baking my own bread and sewing my own clothes, and I'll be set.
A related thought: Joe and I have been looking more closely at our own diet since John started solid foods, because as it turns out our son eats better than we do. He gets fruits and veggies with no added sugar or salt, no preservatives, etc. Not that eating healthy means only eating bland boring food, but when John and I are both having oatmeal with apples and cinnamon for breakfast, and I am adding heaping spoonfuls of brown sugar to mine... well, maybe I could cut back a little. Enough to taste the apples, anyway. ;) We need to eat more fruits. Vegetables we do pretty well, although maybe adding a little sweet potato or squash here and there wouldn't hurt.
At some point early on, Joe asked when John could start eating "real food". To which I replied that he DOES eat real food. I think that is when it dawned on me that his food is often a lot more "real" than ours is. I've started reading labels a lot more carefully and am not really keen on giving the little guy food that's packed with a whole bunch of ingredients I can't pronounce. Not that he won't eventually get some of that... I guess I'm hoping to meet somewhere in the middle, with John getting some of the convenience and junk foods that we eat, and us eating more of the fruits and veggies that are good for us.
I also wonder if I would even be thinking about this if we fed him mainly the commercial baby foods in a jar. (And I'm not saying he never gets those or that they're bad. It's definitely a lot more convenient, especially if we're going out, and there's actually something kind of satisfying about feeding him from a glass jar. But there's also something satisfying about cooking food for him myself, and I like the different textures he gets that way. Stage 2 baby food is all the same consistency. Plus I think it's cheaper to make it myself, and I'm all about cheap. But I digress.) Anyway, I guess I was just thinking to myself, if baby always eats baby food from a jar, I think you subconsciously get conditioned to thinking that "baby food" is somehow different than "grown-up food". Kind of like how "cat food" is something different than "people food". It's really not, if you think about it. (Especially if you give your cat some of the Fancy Feast type canned foods. Meat and vegetables -- how is that not the same as what you eat?) So anyway, if your baby eats "baby food" then naturally at some point he will make the leap to "grown-up food" which is whatever you happen to be eating. But since my baby just eats food, the same food I eat in fact (or should eat), the lines are much more blurry, and thus the rethinking of my own diet. Hence, other babies my son's age eat Goldfish crackers and tater tots, but I'm hesitant to give him any of those things. (Brutally honest moment: I'm irrationally horrified by the thought.) The closest thing he gets to junk food are those little "puffs" cereal finger food thingies. But he usually just gets plain Cheerios to snack on. (And I have learned to eat plain Cheerios myself, with no extra sugar heaped on top. And they're actually not half bad.)
I probably sound insane, but these are things that really go through my mind.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Things That Are Fun (when you are eight months old)
- Walking. (Duh.) Holding on with both hands, he can go fast. Holding on with one hand leaves the other hand free to carry a prize, or touch something that looks interesting. He can cruise around the furniture or push around one of his walkers and feel all independent. Crawling? Who needs it. Walking is where it's at.
- Peek-a-boo, in various forms. He "hides" on his own, or I cover him with a blanket and he pulls it off, or I cover myself with a blanket, which he is starting to realize he can pull off.
- Pulling all the tapes (yes, we still have tapes) off the TV stand. Also, sticking his hand in the VCR. Also, it turns out our new DVD player will slide around on the shelf if pushed.
- Opening cupboard doors. And closing them. And opening them. And closing them.
- Chewing on his beautiful wooden toy box. *sob*
- Eating pieces of lint that I didn't even notice on the floor. Guess it's time to vacuum.
- Pulling all the books out of his book basket. And chewing on them.
- Reading Pat the Bunny with Daddy, now that he "gets" it.
- Daddy. Daddy is totally fun.
- Banging on stuff with other stuff.
- Paper.
- Rocking. As in, sitting on the floor, rocking himself.
- Sitting on his rocking horse. He hasn't mastered rocking it. Actually I think that's because he doesn't realize it's just supposed to rock back and forth. For some reason he thinks it's supposed to take him on rides all around the house. Don't ask me why he thinks that.
- Chasing the cat.
- "Petting" the cat. I don't think the cat thinks this is fun.
- The cat's favorite toy (a ball that rolls in a round track).
- Thrash-dancing. Especially effective when done while holding the baby gate. (Video to follow.)
- Eating.
- Splashing and playing with floaty boats in the tub.
- Typing. Daddy is trying to teach him his name on the Commodore 64.
- Talking on the phone. Ever since he talked to Aunt Sandra on the phone a few weeks ago, no one can talk on the phone in his vicinity without him attempting to chime in. If he happens to be in your arms at the time, he would also like to chew on the phone cord. We have been making use of speaker phone recently.
- Talking in general is fun. He can make all kinds of sounds, from grunts to high-pitched squeals to words in some language that I don't understand. It is very entertaining to be mimicked.
- His tongue. Not sure why, but lately he has been sticking it out and grabbing it with his fingers.
- Touching your face with the fingers that he was just using to grab his own tongue.
- Outlets. At least, they look like fun. He points them out several times a day.
- Getting his picture taken. He's becoming quite the ham for the camera.
- Walking some more.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
I'm BACK!
Yay! I'm back up at my new web host. It was long past time to leave the old one, I guess it just took them suspending my fully-paid account to spur me into action. :P Everything is back up except for pictures pre-2008. But since you're here for John's pictures, you're good.
I'm thinking I should use this opportunity to change things around here... new design, better setup. But I've been talking about redesigning this place for about 5 years, so I wouldn't hold your breath. ;-)
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