May 2009
20 posts
Nine Months
The boy turned nine months today and had his well-baby visit. He has gained 3 pounds and grown 2 inches in the last three months. He weighs 21 pounds, 4 ounces (65th percentile) and is 30 inches long (95th percentile). Two and a half feet tall!
Another mother had a baby in the waiting room who was almost 10 months but she commented that Lex looked “bigger.” I think she meant older,...
April 2009
22 posts
Tupperware Party
We’ve made some changes to the kitchen organization. Two of the lower cabinets are now devoted exclusively to toys. While we cook or do dishes the baby can amuse himself by pulling every last thing out of these six shelves.
But after those are empty, the real treat is the Tupperware. He methodically pulls it out, unstacks each one, slobbers on it and puts the wet end on the dirtiest part...
Favorite Things
Lots of new toys this week. Colorful plastic playthings, jingly musical bits, foam alphabet mat, new shoes, paddling pool, radio flyer scoot-along trike, baby gate.
Lots of new experiences too. Playing on the floor with Jaja, pulling his glasses off, showing him how we read together, playing peek-a-boo, scooting around the kitchen on his four-wheeled tricycle like a big kid.
My favorite was...
Dances with Sidewalk
Warm day this weekend so we took the baby outside barefoot for a trip to the end of the block with his push-along toy. Should have worn socks. His little foot scraped against the sidewalk and he was bleeding from one spot. My brave boy didn’t even cry.
Baby store. Moccasins. Now he races around with soft leather grippy soles. We are keeping ointment on his wound.
Magic Feather
Close to 9 months, close to walking. He moves from table leg to chair without holding on in between. Sometimes he lets go and does a little balance dance before grabbing hold again.
He can walk, he just doesn’t know it yet.
He needs a magic feather. Then he could fly.
Grandfather
Dziadek is Polish for Grandfather. Children use Dziadzia for Grampa. Pronounced JAH-jah.
My Grandfather was born in Estonia. He immigrated to America and eventually married a woman whose parents were from Poland. So my Dad, Lex’s Grampa, used to call his own Grandpa “Jaja”. And when he finally became a Grandfather, 80 years old, it is his turn to be “Jaja.”
Momma,...
Airport
Lex has been to the Richmond airport before, but never to pick someone up. He is nearly nine months and hasn’t seen his Jaja since he was nine weeks old. At first he was suspicious. He had pointed and smiled for several people, and when Momma waved at this old guy, baby waved too. But he wasn’t sure what kind of place this was. Then there was hugging and stuck in traffic at dinnertime,...
Bye-bye
Our little guy has a pretty good wave. In the morning he waves goodbye to his dad as we drive off. “Bye Dad! Time to go to school! See you later, bye-bye!”
In the afternoon when I pick him up at daycare he starts waving at the other kids as soon as he is in my arms. “Bye Ms. Brenda! Bye you kids! I had fun today but it is time to go home!” He alternates waving and patting...
Peekaboo
At around 8 and a half months he started inventing new games to play. In the car seat he started gripping his blanket with both hands and pulling it up to hide his face. Then he brings both arms down fast and is delighted when we act surprised.
Where’s the baby?
There he is!
Where’s the baby?
He’s right there!
Where’s the baby?
Momma found him!
Where’s the...
Some Impossible Tuesday in the Year Two Thousand...
Little Sleep’s-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight by Galway Kinnell, from The Book of Nightmares
1
You scream, waking from a nightmare.
When I sleepwalk
into your room, and pick you up,
and hold you up in the moonlight, you cling to me
hard,
as if clinging could save us. I think
you think
I will never die, I think I exude
to you the permanence of smoke or...
Sleeping Everest
The books say that at nine months a baby should be sleeping 11-14 hours a night and taking two naps of 1-2 hours. Perfect. That is exactly what our little guy does.
They also say routine is important. We eat dinner, watch Yo Gabba Gabba for 10-20 minutes, take a bath, get lotioned up, put jammies on. In bed, we snuggle under a soft blanket, read a few books, nurse, and assume sleep position. His...
Peeps
The week after Easter means egg salad sandwiches, pickled beet devilled eggs with smoked Spanish paprika, and sugar cookies made with love by Grandma Bir.
For the adults mostly, although Lex had a taste of everything. He completely enjoyed his first Easter and all the packages that came in the mail. Clothes, toys, stuffed rabbits.
Several people had the idea to get him books about bunnies. He...
Splish Splash
Baby loves a bath. So much to do. Toys to play with. Washcloths for wearing. Cups for banging. Hands for clapping. He can sit down, stand up, drink from the faucet. The kitteh perches on a bath bench nearby and licks his wet toes. He giggles. He gets soaped up, rinsed off, rubbed down.
And now he has discovered something new. Splashing. He laughs so hard. Splashes some more. His face is wet,...
Puppy Love
He is at that awkward, cheerful age where he is into everything, gets fantastically dirty, and his hands and feet are suddenly much larger than the rest of him.
His head gets all sweaty when he is asleep and his wispy hair makes invisible curls from the damp heat. He has outgrown the new-baby smell. In its place is a faint little-boy scent with a tinge of clean dog.
He whines on his sleep and...
Three Teeth
Two bottom central incisors and an upper left lateral incisor. All within the normal time range, which is not to say that I am not wondering where his upper central incisors are! Knowing that every baby develops differently is not much help.
Still, three teeth! That’s a fifty-percent increase in number of teeth! With all the drooling and chewing I am sure more is happening in there. We...
2 tags
Lightning McQueen
The boy is a speed racer. This morning while his dada fixed breakfast, Junior turned the area around the kitchen island into a motor speedway.
He has a walk-behind push toy that is basically ready for the Indy Racing League. Zoom. Around the kitchen. Rrrrrreeyow. Cornering with a little help from Momma. Vrrt vrrt. Pit stop to refuel with a high-octane crunchie. Zoom. Off again for another...
Fight Club
He fights sleep. And in the morning he fights to wake up. Like he is swimming to the surface, he half-wakes, starts crawling, falls asleep again. He pushes forward, rolls around the bed, sleep catches him. He kicks. Swats at his head to chase sleep away. Pulls up on his Momma. And is face down asleep again.
Finally he wins. Sleep is defeated again. He looks around, groggy and triumphant. Awake....
Happy Busy Day
We were up at 6:30. Played a little, ate breakfast, read books, took a morning nap. Then a quick snack and a little milk and we were off to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens for a photo safari.
The gardens are still waking up, but the daffodils are out in force. We had fun in the Children’s Garden, played in the huts of tge international village, looked through cardboard tube binoculars, dug...
Two Teeth
A day later he has both bottom teeth. They scrape against the juice glass when he drinks. He gnashes his terrible jaws. Shreds toast. Destroys biscuits. Smashes Cheerios. Reduces crunchies to rubble.
I point to my own bottom chompers and say “Teeth. Teeth. Teeth. You have two teeth.” He imitates me, “Two teeth.” His dada heard it too.
Has two teeth. Says two teeth. We...
The Tooth Fairy Returns
After the last time I saw a speck of white on his lower jaw it has been weeks of nothing. But the nub finally broke through. On the bottom right side he has a tiny, sharp, white tooth.
He still thinks the inside of his mouth is his own personal private area and resists my attempts to poke around in there or get photo evidence. But when he is smiling his big baby grin there is a glint, a glimmer,...
Spring Training
Camp Weaver-Powell was good while it lasted. I loved being able to get out the door earlier and stay at work later when I needed to. Dada loved spending quality time with the baby in the mornings and transporting the baby back and forth in his red wagon. Lex loved his outings to Maymont Nature Center, the Children’s Museum, the play area in the mall.
It was ideal. Except that his nap...