January 2009
24 posts
Happy New Year!
Lots of milestones this week. On Tuesday, the baby celebrated 5 months, on Wednesday he hit 22 weeks, and on Thursday he sees a new year.
He’s been alive in July, August, September, October, November, December… and in a few minutes January. 2008 and soon 2009. Only 5 months and 2 days and he has lived during 7 months and 2 years.
We think he is very advanced.
December 2008
30 posts
Feed the Baby
Apparently hearing voices from your breastpump is common in the early days, when you have just given birth, are on painkillers and sleep-deprived. But it still happens, five months later. The mechanical baby talks to me.
When I first turn it on, the mechanism starts chanting “feed the ba-bee, feed the ba-bee.” then when it is attached it slows down a little and mostly says...
A Spoonful of Sugar
The baby is taking Cefdinir (generic for Omnicef) for his ear infection again, and also homeopathic ear drops.
We took him to the doctor just to see about his cough. It doesn’t seem too bad but has been lingering and sounding moist instead of dry. He had also been tugging at his right ear, which was infected last time. There was no odor from it, and he didn’t act like it was painful....
My Son Is Not A Girl
At the doctor’s office they called him Alexandra this morning and seemed a little surprised when I corrected them. Getting his prescription filled at Target a whole family oohed and aahed over how pretty “she” is. Usually I say “little boy, but he looks just like me so I see why people think he’s a girl.” But I don’t really see at all. He’s such a...
Flotsam
The living room still has a visible high-tide line from the flood of presents last week.
There are all kinds of books: oversized hardbacks with fragile pages for parents to read out loud; small sturdy cardboard ones for baby to turn the pages himself; cloth books suitable for chewing on; books about Christmas and a funny stuffed book shaped like a car with genuine vroom sounds.
There are...
Blue Danube
Today I made sweet potatos into baby food and it was medium messy but I expected Lex would think they were a real treat. He thought they were so-so and mostly spit them out. He seems so ready for solids, but they are still getting a mixed reception so I will wait a few more weeks before making them a daily feature. Occasional solids seem fine when he is in the mood.
Crawling is still under...
Boxing Day
Another milestone. Baby is 150 days old. He has definite likes and dislikes now, and laughs or makes raspberries to let us know how he feels.
Likes: Daddy doing a monkey dance; presents, especially the wrapping paper; eating peas; toys that play music, including his 4-note piano; booby noms; being carried in the moby; other kids; the exersaucer; people smiling back at him; Momma saying...
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there
Today is Christmas Eve. The stockings are hung by the chimney with an orange in the toe, our family tradition. There is a plate of cookies out in the living room. After the baby fell asleep some last minute wrapping took place. Everything is ready.
I didn’t know having a baby would make us into holiday-having people so quickly. He is not even five months old. His favorite part of presents...
Baby For Rent
We take daily pictures of the baby (and he is extremely photogenic) but there are some things that images can’t capture. The softness of his palms and the soles of his feet. The smell of the back of his neck after a bath. How the top of his head feels, duckfuzz warm and damp with baby sweat. The way he puts his head on my shoulder and snuggles into my neck. The limp noodle way he sleeps. The...
Diaper Beans
You may, on occasion, perhaps while having a snack of edamame, be tempted to feed your baby a soybean. Or several. My advice: Don’t.
Unless you like a cranky baby passing an intact bean (like a tiny rabbit pellet) periodically over the next few days, use better judgement and stick with smushed fruit like the pediatrician suggested. Although this does count for science.
Joy to the World
There are twinkle lights on the tree and arranged in the non-working fireplace. Cards and ornaments are arrayed on the mantle and I found the last of the origami cranes for the tree. We have a variety of stockings hanging on the firescreen, and I know where our Santa hat is. We listened to the Christmas playlist all the way through as many times as we could stand it, and have moved on to a...
Last Call
Sometimes it’s like I woke up one day and had this wonderful, beautiful child spring forth fully formed. I remember the time before he was born only vaguely, like it was another lifetime or happened to someone else. And the first three months passed in a fog.
Maybe with a baby you live in the present more. I love this time of night, when he is having his last feeding and my milk supply is...
December 17th
Happy Week 20 Birthday, little guy!
I love your determined look as you hold Daddy’s fingers and do Big Stomps walking around the nursery. We think you are very advanced.
Your grandpa and nana both called tonight, and they could hear you laughing in the background, playing with your daddy. Everyone loves you, more than you can imagine.
Mood Indiglo
This morning the baby was awake before the alarm. It is a little battery-powered travel alarm. We have one on each side of the bed, so Daddy can get up earlier to go swimming and bug and I can sleep in.
When it jangled at 6:45, I moved it into the bed to have the snooze button in easy reach. Bug had just made a dirty diaper and if I could wait til 7:00 Daddy would be back home to change him.
...
The Nutcracker
In the mornings, while I get ready for work, Daddy plays with the baby. Sometimes they practice escaping tummy time by rolling over. Other days they do fingerhold walking. Last week they pulled the mattress out of the crib, draped it with a green blanket and did the holiday photo shoot.
The pics were pretty spectacular. We picked the best one and made a custom card, including his tiny handprint...
Squirrel Dive
At four and a half months, Lex becomes a risk taker. Last night he was standing on the bed, holding on to my fingers. He looked over his shoulder, looked at me, leaned back and let go. Ba-boom! He fell on the mattress, bounced a little, grinned like a maniac, laughed. I gave him my fingers to pull up on again, and he did the whole routine again.
My favorite part is that he looks over his...
Snuggle Bug
We sleep facing each other. He escapes the swaddle blanket and stretches out his arms, touching my face. I hold his hand. His palm is the softest thing I have ever felt. Softer than brand-new puppy feet.
His legs remember the womb. He bends his knees and pulls them up to his chest. I loop an arm around his compact bottom half and hold him tight. If he gets restless he brings his feet up to his...
Honey Bunches
When I was a baby, I was breastfed for as long as I was interested (my third birthday as a matter of fact) and started on table foods when I was big enough to reach for them. I don’t think my mom knew about baby-led weaning, but that was essentially it.
At one pediatrician visit the doctor was pushing rice cereal so hard that Mom broke down and bought some. She opened it, found weevils,...
Waterbaby
Every couple days I like to wash the baby, whether he needs it or not. We have a six-foot long clawfoot tub, so I sit in the bath with him and “swim” him around in the warm shallow water. It could be the Gulf of Mexico, only with better visibility and no mangroves.
Before we moved here we lived in Key West, teaching scuba diving and running snorkel trips. We went back about two...
Jump Around
Our boy has been in the Johnny Jump-Up before, but not since he crossed the threshold from advanced infant to interactive baby. We put him in it again tonight, in the doorway between our room (where we all co-sleep in the family bed) and the nursery (where the kitteh keeps an eye on the empty crib.)
He loved it. We took off his socks, and he gripped the floor with his toes. He turned around and...
Investigating Feet
Our little man has been standing up for a long time now. He would start in a sitting position, grip my fingers, pull up, lock his knees and grin his huge gummy grin. Recently he started a new phase: he would wobble, his knees would turn to jelly, basically he looked like a newbie at the whole standing routine. It was not very impressive when I was showing him off, bragging that he’d been...
O Tannenbaum
The Jaycees have a tree lot at Holton Elementary every year, but we never go there. Our first Christmas in this house we bought a live table top tree and planted it in the yard that spring. It died in a drought the following summer.
We have lived here nearly eight years and the ornaments have been packed away the whole time. Sometimes we put a string of lights on the ficas, but that was the...
Linus & Lucy
Listening to the soundtrack from A Charlie Brown Christmas with a fat and happy baby asleep on my lap. I love that movie. The unintelligible adults, the thoughtful kids, the sad and festive little tree. We don’t have a tree up yet, but a plan is in the works. Daddy is deep in the closet looking for decorations. I could be helping but would rather keep the bug warm and cozy.
I wasn’t...
Frog Legs and the Butt-Out Stretch
Our boy is so big now, 15 lbs, 6 oz at his 4-month checkup. When he was an infant he had the little curled frog legs, but now they are big turkey drumsticks. He used to keep his hands balled into fists, now they are almost always relaxed and open. He still sleeps with his eyes partially open sometimes, and he still does the butt-out stretch.
It is wonderful. His little arms up, hands behind the...
Jammie Jams
Our baby has so many pairs of pajamas, between the hand-me-downs from our friends and the new ones from friends and family, he could wear a fresh pair every night for almost two weeks before we would have to do wash.
The key is to put him in PJs as soon as we get home. Change his diaper, bathe if needed, jammie him up and then feed him. The problem with feeding him in his daytime clothes is that...
Thanksgiving Part II
So, having a baby makes me want to be a better person. I want to lead by example, model the right sort of behavior and have him grow up with a good moral compass. Also I promised that if Obama won our family would get into the spirit of service.
So tonight I volunteered to serve dinner at the Conrad Center. I don’t know what I expected, some sort of movie-set soup kitchen, maybe, but it...
“Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday Dear Isabel,
Happy...”
– A new friend for our little guy!
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
After five days of vacation, the baby had a hard time going back to daycare. He cried a lot and at the end of the day he looked shell-shocked, like when he first started. It was a hard day.
But it is a nice daycare, and they decorate with crafts the kids make, even in the infant classroom. They had taken down the handprint turkeys and put up reindeer with handprint antlers. The birthday pumpkins...