I'm ready to run!

Of Walks and Naps

In trying to institute some daily structure and routine, we have locked in the daily walk. Ian had a habit of napping at around noon, but the morning walk messed this up a bit. But he's adjusting. It's really the best time for us to walk after breakfast and fires have been put out. That's about 11-12.

Ian gets a short nap on the walk. He's learning how to get comfy in the different walking modes we have, and we're learning how to help him get more comfortable. The backpack is going to get a pillow.

The backpack is also convenient for having the nap continue as required once we get home. It has a kickstand type thing that makes it stable on the floor. Of course we can't leave him in there without constant supervision - he could wake up and tip himself over. But it's easy enough to set him down in my office while I do a little work, and I take him out at the first peep.

The mei-tai needs a hood to support his head better for naps. Here, John is putting mittens on him in the mei-tai. Don't worry. I pulled his pant leg down so his leg was covered. Ian sleeps well in this carrier with John supporting his head, but it's a tad warm for John sometimes. I'm considering making a lighter-weight one. This one is made of fairly heavy fabric. It's great for a back-carry as well.

Today, we used the stroller. He seems to be just fine without much side head support in the stroller. It reclines nicely. Is the stroller easier with a 22+lb boy? If you're going downhill it is.

A couple of hours after the walk, he's ready for his bigger afternoon nap (unless you count the last few days, where he clearly wasn't. All. Day. Long.) Today, he napped well from 2:45-4:45 and went right down at 9. I think the routine is helping, and daily fresh air is certainly a good thing for everybody.

How do I love being mobile?

Let me count the ways:




Ian has thought to escape the living room a few times! We have to make sure to keep the door downstairs closed! He has lots of time to contemplate this, since he's not napping much right now. But... I'll take it. As the sleep spreadsheet will attest, he's been asleep for over 5 hours, and he's still asleep. And this after approximately no naps yesterday (two short ones).  Some sleep theories say "sleep begets sleep," meaning that the overtired child won't sleep as well. It's true in adults, but only when way overtired. There's also the common-sense "you sleep better when tired." It's 8am and he hasn't nursed since 1:30, and has been asleep since just before 3am. I'm going to call this a fluke for now, but we're hoping it may not be!!

Sledding Photo Op

We got Ian in a sled finally. Really neat sled we borrowed from a neighbor!


He was watching Tango get excited that the neighbor kids were out with their dog, and that was a bit more exciting than the sledding.





Not that he really went anywhere, you know, or very fast. I think he thought we were a little strange for sitting him outside all bundled up. We do have a snowsuit but it was far too warm. Nobody wants a cranky boy that's too hot for the photo shoot! He did have a good time. He loves being outside. Our boy!

Curiosities

It's so much fun to see Ian's personality come out, and see him learn and grow.

Little habits and curiosities and, of course, new skills:

1. Take a piece of food. Turn to your right (or left). Look down at the floor. Hold food over the floor. Look at food. Look again at the floor. Drop food. Watch to see if dog comes to get it. Whether the dog (or Mom or Dad) picks it up or not, repeat.
2. Take a piece of food. Look straight up at the ceiling. Hold food high above your face. Smile. Drop food. Feel it bounce off of your face (or chest). Repeat.
3. Of course, he tastes everything, with the possible exception of some foods.
4. While we're sitting on the floor discovering the world, he very meticulously likes to pull dog(/cat/mom/dad) hair off of my socks and put it in his mouth. Of course I don't let him, but he likes to find hair wherever he can and do this. 
5. "Where's the kitty?" Ian spins around and finds Roscoe at the window sill.
6. Every time he sees the dog: "Duh" "Ah Duh" Very good! That's the dog! (*he does say this frequently at other times as well, when the dog is not in sight).
7. This morning, when getting ready to hold him over the toilet, I said "time to go potty" and did the potty sign, and he smiled and reached for me. Then once at the toilet, let go of a big poop he'd been saving.
8. He's not doing the sign yet, but does recognize the sign for "milk" (nursing). If he's a bit hungry but distracted and we're hangin' out on the floor when I give him the milk sign, he smiles and crawls right over to me to get some!
9. He's very skilled at removing socks.
10. He has little cloth block books. We read the books to him frequently, and he likes to shake and eat the books. He has just started taking a book and turning the pages and talking to it! 

Sweet Little Video

Here's a video for you. A little snapshot of our day. Enjoy.

New Stuff

• New Sleep Spreadsheet. Totally Nerdy. See link at right. You can now see sleep progress along with us! 
• New Work. Big job in New York. Need a New License!
• New Tooth. Wow! Ian is not even inordinately fussy. But we can see a little white spot at his right lower lateral incisor. That's #7!
• New Knitting Group. We need to get our knitting group here going some more. But there's one that has formed in KJ, every Wednesday at lunch, kid friendly and generally friendly. Formed on Ravelry. Ask me for details if you're nearby.
• New snow. Boo. At least it's melting quickly.
• New Recipe. Inspired by this, my non-dairy pizza last night involved hummus, spinach, tomatoes, and onions. Really good. And lunch today, too. What!? I didn't eat it all in one sitting. Two sittings, technically.

• New Energy. Spring is around the corner, there's work to do, Ian is so excited about his newest skills, and it just feels good to have accomplished a new spreadsheet too. 
• New Pictures.

"Dude. You've got something on your chin."

"No, I don't. I can't see it."

"Where?"

Where is spring!?!?

I'll give you a hint. It's not here.

Learning Table

Currently, the very most coveted toy in the house is this:


The little "learning table" thing. He loves to play with it, walk around it, talk to it, sing to it, bang his hands on it, make it make noise.




I think he likes that he gets to do something while doing one of his very favorite things: Standing. He can very easily pull up to standing with it, and no longer pulls it over on himself. He's getting stronger every day.

Truckin'

Ian is definitely moving. A light bulb went on in his head this weekend, and now he has the idea that if he can see it, he can have it. The tantrums when he can't have it!

Things Ian wants but can't have:

1. The dog's water dish. You should have seen the crocodile tears. The huge cry. All because I was kindly holding him a few feet away from the water dish. The tragedy!
2. The light on John's nightstand. Little does Ian know, there's not a continuous path on one plane to get to the light. There's a bit of a drop between the bed and the nightstand. Ian does not consider this when he lunges forward.
3. He can't get anywhere when there's a small obstacle, like the tiles he's ripped up, or a pile of toys. Or a pile of Mommy, strategically placed.
4. The list will grow exponentially.

His crawling motion consists of using his right knee and his left foot and both hands. He can do it on the slippery wood floor, carpet, rugs, and the foam alphabet tiles, which you can see here. He can also do this on the bed, so we have to make sure to keep a constant hand on him when he's on our bed, usually for morning or night-time routine.

Regarding sleep: Last night wasn't bad. Down at 10, up at 12, 4, 6:30, 9 for the day. That 4 hour chunk is the most we've seen in months. He seems to be increasing gradually, which is what he did as a newborn. Back when he was so tiny he fit in the bassinet! Ha!

There's a new album up on Picasa. I'll be sharing pics from there on here, but for those that might be impatient, it's there. :) Movies of baby in motion included. Enjoy.

Sleep Files

Ah, sleep. The most talked about aspect of a baby's life, it seems. I will say that I think that there are a million ways to do the sleep thing, and I don't really think any of them are wrong. Most people think that their way is "the" way and it may be.. for them. But I don't think that there's a way to make massive mistakes here. We can learn from things that don't work, but I don't think that it does any harm. And any habit can be changed. It might not be easy, but it's not something I'm worrying about right now. Wow that sounded defensive. Not intended to be. But I guess it is an opinion regarding the ever-present judgements out there regarding sleep. I know so many people that get upset about what others think of their sleep problems, or that they're doing something wrong. I'm no expert, but I say "meh. The kid will get it when they get it."

I think Ian is getting ready for a change in the sleep department. Not sure why, just a feeling. So we're following his lead and helping with that. He currently nurses down for most of his sleep sessions, but he seems to not want to do that every time right now. There's a theory out there that the method by which they fall asleep dictates how they'll go back to sleep after light wakings in the night. If they did it the first time by themselves, then they will the subsequent times by themselves. But Ian nurses down and then puts himself back to sleep after waking up to cough or sneeze or whatever. He regularly wakes a bit then goes back to sleep. He often opens his eyes when I put him in the crib after he nurses down. So I don't quite buy that theory. But we're helping him make sure he's got other options to get himself to sleep.

Regarding night sleep in particular, I think that our night-time noises may disturb him some. There's also my body rhythm that wakes up every few hours to nurse and if he didn't have my rustling right on time, maybe he would sleep a bit longer.

To that end, we are trying sleeping in a separate room from him. It'll mean I have to be somewhat more awake when I go in to nurse him (i.e. I have to walk farther), but we're trying it out for a bit to see how it goes. Also, no monitor, but he's across the hall. That will reduce the chances of us over-responding to every whimper. He does get a response when needed, but he also will make noise at night and not need a response. At this point, I'm ok with not hearing those. At first, I definitely did want to hear it, being a paranoid mom. Rather than disassemble the crib, for right now, we're sleeping in the guest room. Last night was not bad after a rocky start. He was down at 10, up at midnight, and then upset when put down in the crib from 1-2. We think he may still have a sore throat. Then he slept from 2-5:30 then till 9am and up for the day at that point).

Today, he had a great nap, too, and went to sleep on his own after playing quietly in his crib. Often, when he's clearly tired, but awake and not interested in nursing down, rather than have him goof off with me, I put him in the crib. We've done this at night and for naps, but more often for naps. Most of the time, he'll get to a certain point, start fussing and then crying and I go talk to him and usually nurse him down. But today, he goofed off a bit, then just went to sleep. I went up a bit later to check, and he had his head at the opposite end of the crib and was on his tum with his butt in the air. And out like a light. He slept for 2 hours and woke up and resumed play. I think one difference with this nap was that I took him to start the nap a bit earlier than I might have otherwise. He wasn't quite as over tired, and I think that helped.

Sorry for the long, boring post, but we need to chronicle what's working around here. We'll check in periodically in the sleep department to get a snapshot of the current situation to see our progress.

Ian says: Get to work!

Forward Motion

We officially have forward motion! We were at a friend's house for dinner tonight, and Ian crawled across the floor to get at something. He went about 8 feet or so. Definitely not a reach. He's moving his legs more and more, when standing or on his belly. He seems to know that moving his feet and knees will help a lot. Wow! We're in trouble now!!

Wordless (day after) Wednesday

High Chair Recall

We did hear about the high chair recall, and we are affected.
Here is the main recall site, and the instructions.
We followed the instructions regarding looking for cracked plastic, and found it to be barely cracked, in the front. So, we called the number and our repair kit screws as well as a whole new seat bottom are on the way from the manufacturer. We should have it within 2 weeks. In the meantime, we have a different item we can use for mealtime. It's more of a booster seat, but it will work just fine.

Ian says: I can't wait to have my high chair back!

In other news, Ian and John went for a walk, and Ian slept the whole time. I think he'll be a sleepy boy today. He's tired again already!

8-9 Month Doctor Appointment

We went to the doctor Wednesday, and everything checked out great.
Stats:
22 lb 2.5 oz
29" tall
18" Punkin Head Circumference

The doc said "I can see that he's active, happy, grabbing for things, and can hear and see us well." He checked a few things out, we chatted about stuff, and Ian was a smiley happy boy! He did ask how he was sleeping, and how we were doing with his sleep schedule. He said that if we need more sleep, there are solutions, but that everyone does things differently, and that's fine. He has 7 kids, and so can't afford much more than the newborn sleep disturbances in his kids. No other significant comments at the appointment. Doc Wright is always a nice guy to chat with.

He said that there wasn't currently a fever, and he suspects that any current discomfort and/or snottiness is due mainly to teething. (I mentioned teeth, didn't I? Yes. 6 total now!)

Big, long day in the city, and everyone is very tired. Ian did well, sleeping enough in the car. We went to Jay's house for a St. Patty's/mid-week celebration get-together and had wonderful stew and kabobs. (and a great dill dip with cukes and baguette. Do bug him about that. Tasty.) There were a few families over, and lots of kids running around. Ian was fascinated watching the kids, and did great, and Jay got to show off his baby-blithering skills and Ian had fun trying to remove his nose and grasp his hair. Neither one was accomplished, thankfully.

Gratuitous pic for you. I know why you're here.

Teeth: Moving Fast!

Forgot to mention. There are two new teeth as of this morning!


You can't see them here. But you can see how rapidly those upper teeth have moved in! The upper lateral incisors are the new ones, and were completely cut through this morning. I don't see more on the horizon, but of course we never know!

It's 50 outside!

You just can't be inside complaining of sickness when it's 50 outside. A walk always makes you feel better anyway.

Pre-walk:


During the walk:




After the walk:


He really likes walks in this backpack - he can see so much. Now if only he'd leave his sunglasses on!

By the way, I think Ian is on the mend. No fever this afternoon, but he's still a bit cranky, and definitely snotty! I have a sore throat, so we're thinking that there's definitely a little bug. Ick. We'll try to make it go away quickly! Tomorrow we've got a regular checkup with the doctor, and lots of other stuff to do while we're in town.

I don't feel very good!

Boo!

Washcloth Monster

We’ve been fighting the washcloth monster for some time trying to get Ian wiped off after a meal. Definitely rolled up sleeves and/or the full body bib help, but the hands and face still need wiping. He does not like it, not one little bit. He fights and fusses!! I saw somewhere that they give their toddler the washcloth and he does the majority himself. Now, that’s helped a lot with the booger sucker, having it be a toy as well as a tool tends to help (shut up. they’re his boogers) because he's not completely afraid of it. So, we’ve been giving Ian the washcloth, and he’s good at getting partially cleaned up! When he's antsy and really not interested in being in his high chair anymore, we clean the majority of his tray and give him the washcloth. He looks at it... and smiles! He tries to rip it apart, and that ends up cleaning the hands a bit. He tries to put it in his mouth, which cleans at least part of his face. He smacks his head with it, which cleans parts of the mess left behind when he smacked his head with avocado or squash or whatever.

Oh, and today he gulped water from the sippy cup. I think that the shape of the new ones we got encourages him to suck more than the old one. Fantastic! Then he spit it out. But I think he drinks more from the sippy cup!

"Just try to come at me with a washcloth. Then we'll talk."

Nose Detective

Today was possibly the onset of ... something. Massively runny nose (wipe it every 5 minutes type of huge runny nose), drooly, slight fever (99.1). The best 3 cluprits I can see:

1. Teething
2. Reaction to some food
3. Illness of sorts

Now, I don't think it's an illness because neither John nor I show any signs of anything, and we really haven't been out much at all. We've just been to the grocery store and out and about maybe twice this week.

Those are good teething symptoms, but not usual ones for him, and there are swollen tooth areas next to the new teeth. When we asked that all of his teeth come in at once and get it over with, this is not what we had in mind. Here's a chart, btw, of primary teeth, so you can see. 



He got the lower central incisors around Christmas time. The upper central incisors a little over a week ago. We're noticing the upper and lower lateral incisors looking different, and the canine upper and lower are definitely there under the gums, but don't seem to be currently progressing. 

I think it may be a reaction to some food. We had curry rice the other day (he had a few grains, but he did eat some). This was made without the shrimp and basil, but with finely chopped beet greens, and a fraction of the onion that was in the recipe. We like this recipe, it's the 2nd time we've made it, and the first time Ian had some. But it was several days ago, I think. At least 3 days ago, maybe 4. Last night it was spaghetti, and he had that, with the sauce. He's had spaghetti sauce in smaller amounts before with no ill effect. I can't think of anything else that he hasn't had before, with the exception of peas. He's definitely eating more food lately though.

I'm sure tomorrow will tell the culprit. Or the next day. For tonight, we gave him teething tabs. That didn't help for too long, but he was tired, as well. We did the 1-2 knockout punch bedtime. Ibuprofen, warm bath, nice jammies, nurse down and he's out. We did elevate the crib mattress, so he doesn't get too stuffed up, and we'll see how tonight is. Poor little fella. We'll keep you 'posted'!