8 Months Old

Dear Rickybear,

When I wrote to you a month ago I spoke of how exciting those last four weeks had been.  Son, I had no idea what I was in store for!  I swear that I *blinked* and you were suddenly accomplishing feats that I didn’t think you would even attempt yet!  Everything excites you… everything inspires you.  Watching you inspires me every day. 

One day you pulled up on daddy to stand for the first time and just two days later you were crawling up a storm!  I thought I had baby proofed, but even the most innocent items have become a hazard.  You have received more than a few bumps and bruises from doorways and the molding on the couch when you didn’t put your brakes on soon enough.  And I bet you don’t know that if you keep pulling up on the baby gate and shaking it with all your might that it could just fall right on top of you! 

You like to explore on the floor by yourself now as long as we are still in the room with you.  If we walk out even into the kitchen, you immediately stop what you are doing and follow us.  There is no more going to the laundry room or the bathroom without having our buddy follow behind us!  =)

You had a bad head cold this month and we made a special trip to the doctor.  You had your first ear infection (just in your right ear) and your first prescription medication.

You went on a swing for the first time.  You went to the park for the first time.  You went to a college gymnastics meet.  You had your hair slightly trimmed. 

Mickey Mouse and Handy Manny are your favorites!  And so are NFL games…  I think you like the New Orleans Hornets basketball team, too... CP3!

You are wearing size 9 month clothes.  You wear short sleeved onesies and either pants or BabyLegs during the day and you wear fleece jammies at night.  I still don’t find the need to put shoes on you unless you are wearing a special outfit and have shoes to match.

You are busting out of your size 2/3 daytime diapers, so I will switch you to 3s when we finish this box.  You wear size 3 at night.  Your daytime diapers are still Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive and Pampers Baby Dry overnight.  We never have any leaks.  I also bought some Flip diapers and BumGenius diapers to start putting you in on the weekends when I have you.  I would love to cloth diaper full time, but I am not sure I am up for the challenge (and the extra laundry!).

Diaper changing is so difficult right now because you never sit still.  As soon as we lay you on your back you flip over and try to crawl away.

You have no signs of teeth coming through yet.

We are still working overtime (daddy has to work much later than mommy) but we try to have you in bed by 8:30 pm now, an hour earlier than last month.  By that time you are tired from playing hard all day and you are READY to head to dreamland.  You pretty much sleep with your tush in the air and your face smooshed into the mattress.  I don’t see how that can be comfortable at all, but that’s how you routinely fall asleep. 

You still need a bottle to help you take a nap when I have you, but you don’t need one at bedtime anymore.  As soon as we put you down you roll on your side or onto your face and pass out.  You have the ability to sleep through the night, but when you wake up, you wake up 4 or 5 times at least. 

You talk and click and shriek.  You can say "dada" but I don’t think you know what you are saying. I can't wait until you can associate the person with the word!

You reach for what you want.

You are eating 3 meals and a snack per day.  Meals are usually half a container of YoBaby yogurt, 2 cubes of a veggie, and 2 cubes of a fruit.  Your snack is usually 12 Gerber Puffs and 6 Gerber Yogurt bites or 2 Mum Mums.  You are getting better at eating the puffs and mum mums all by yourself and you are so proud when you do it.

I bought you some Gerber rice cereal, but you refuse to eat it.  I take that as a compliment to my baby food making skills.  You love all types of YoBaby yogurt.  You haven’t tried many new foods this month aside from every type of squash- from yellow to butternut and acorn to spaghetti.  I had never even seen a spaghetti squash before!  Since you have hit the 8 month mark you are able to try a whole different group of fruits now.  I am excited about that.  We also will try giving you more finger foods.  I can imagine the mess already!

That sippy cup is still the enemy.  I have bought 7 different kinds and they're just not working for you yet.  I will put them up and try them again every few weeks.  You’ll get the hang of it at your own pace.

Sweet boy, I am enjoying every new day and every new surprise we experience with you.

Just a lazy Saturday

Good morning!

He's so proud that he can stand up all by himself. 

Sitting down gently is a little bit harder...

Ouchie!

Aw, mommy feel so bad!

Boogie has his first injury- a big knot on his head!  Mom pointed it out to me after she washed his hair yesterday.  He had a yellowish bruise hiding under his bangs.  I had no idea when or where he had gotten it, but it looked like it hurt.  When I arrived home I sat him down on the living room floor with some toys and I went to get the camera to take a picture of his bo-bo.  I am halfway through the kitchen when I hear a *THWAK!* followed by *WHHHAAAA!*. 

Unlucky for him, we have thick wooden moulding around the bottom of our couches- right at Rickybear's level when he is crawling.  Apparently he was crawling over to the couch to stand up when he headbutted the moulding.  He smacked the exact same spot on his head, so he had a yellow bruise with a pink welt around it.  Poor babe!


Again, I thought I was finished babyproofing the living room, but apparently I am not.  I will need to make a trip this weekend to find some sort of padding...

A quick update

Mommy and daddy enjoyed the three day weekend with our lil man.  He had a full weekend and he was an angel while we were out in public.  We ate out twice and went bowling and he was content to hang out in his car seat and play.  He is still getting over his cold.  Since it was lingering, I took him to the doctor on Monday.  His throat and lungs were clear.  He had 100% oxygen so that was great.  His left ear was clear but his right one was slightly irritated, so he was given some antibiotics for that.  He’s still all stuffed up, but he is so much better than he was before.  They also weighed him- he was 16 lbs 13oz.

Despite the cold, Rickybear had a play date over the weekend.  I used to work with the mommy and I haven’t seen her since we were both pregnant!  Too long!  But her two sweeties came over to play.  I cleaned and sanitized the house like a mad woman before they came over.  =)  Her little girl is 18 months and her baby boy is 6 months.  The babies were very into each other at first, but then they started doing their own thing.  No tantrums to speak of, so I consider this one a “win”. 

The weather was warmer on Monday so we headed outside to clean out my car.  I put Ricky on a blanket in the grass.  It was like he was on an island- he was a little leery of crawling on the grass, but he had no problem trying to EAT the grass!  His little friend next door even came over for a quick visit.  The neighbors have a 15 month old little girl.  Rickybear is so interested in everything she does.  I can’t believe that before I know it he will be walking just like she is.  As exciting as it is, I want me little baby to STAY a baby, and to need his mommy.

Guess who likes to swing...

After letting Rickybear take a ride on the neightbor's swing, it has become apparent to us that he needs his own.  He absolutely loved it!

And away we go!

Little man has been having some tummy troubles and also has a head cold.  He is in great spirits, but can't sleep because he can't breathe very well.  I plugged in a little vaporizer this evening and... well... you can see...

And yes, of course I immediately took it away from him so he didn't eat it or strangle himself in the cord!

Growing in leaps and bounds!

Jess over at Boho Baby Bump made a comment in her last blog that some mommys had told her that three and four months was their favorite age with their babies, and that she felt the same way.  Her baby is now four months old.  I have to admit, I felt the same way at the time, but then Rickybear made five months, then six, and now seven.  Each month has been my favorite age!  Honestly, as hard and exhausting and frustrating as it can be to raise a baby, the good moments and the sweet moments outnumber the bad ones at least ten to one.  Life gets better and better with each passing day.  I love this stage he is in right now because it seems that every day he is learning something new, gaining a new skill, expressing himself better and better.  He is so independent and so determined right now with everything he does.   Beyond cute, and I am beyond in love.

I was hoping to include a video with this next announcement, but Rickybear would rather stop and smile for the camera than actually continue doing what I wanted to video in the first place!  Ack!  But Rickybear crawled for the first time on January 3^rd.  The first time he did it for me was when he crawled to my laptop.  He has already taken over the remote control and both of our cell phones- he cannot have my laptop, too!  He has done the wobbly crawling maybe two more times for me since then, but he doesn’t like it.  At all.  It probably takes too much effort for him.  He would much rather stand up.  Now that he has figured out the mechanics of it, he is pulling up on EVERYTHING.  Hello, time to seriously baby proof! 

He started pulling up to standing in his crib over the weekend (the real crib where we let him nap once and awhile, not the Pack ‘n Play where he sleeps) so I had to drop the mattress all the way down.  Yesterday evening I put him in there for about ten minutes while I unpacked the groceries, and when I came back to check on him he was still standing up and looking at the fish tank.  We played together a bit, and by the time I was ready to feed him dinner, he had learned how to step sideways across the length of the crib.  Where did my teeny tiny baby that needs me for everything go???  He is growing into such a little man!

Product Review - Diaper Duty Organizer

 

I recently purchased the Diaper Duty Organizer made by Munchkin. It was totally an impulse buy. As cute as my son's nursery is, it's pretty small and we keep so much stuff in there that it's hard to keep it looking as clean and neat as I would like it to be. We don't use a changing table (where would we put it??), so we keep all of our diaper changing supplies on top of the dresser. No matter how much I try, it always seems to be a mess. It's so annoying.

I stopped at Target to stock up on formula (have to use those coupons and Similac checks!) and saw this in an endcap for a little less than $18 dollars. I normally wouldn't spend that on an impulse item that I had read no reviews for (I live on Amazon.com), but I did. Rickybear helped me put it together. It's four pieces- very simple to put together. The middle piece is divided so I can put my daytime diapers on one side and the nighttime diapers on the other. The two side compartments can come off if you are limited on space. I put his lotions, ointments, powders, and various other supplies in the sides. There are three open bins on the left side and two open bins on the right. The third bin on the right is designed to hold a roll of diaper bags (12 are included in the box). I keep diaper disposal bags with me when I go out, but I don't use them at home since I have a disposal can in the nursery. I am sure a lot of people might need it, and I have plenty of storage in the other five bins, so it doesn't bother me that one is devoted to that. As you can see, the warmer or wipe box sits right on top.

Overall, I really like the product. It meets my needs and seems pretty durable. It was easy to assemble. A down side might be that it only comes in one color- the center is clear and the side bins are blue. Actually, the blue is so muted it almost looks periwinkle in person.  Fortunately, I have a boy and it also matches the nursery fairly well. I think it's a great buy for less than twenty bucks.

Another day at the doctor's office

Yesterday Rickybear was scheduled to have his second set of six month shots.  It was only supposed to be two shots- his second flu vaccine and one more that I can't currently remember.  Well, I took off from work and drove 30 minutes to meet my mom at the doctor's office, only to be told that they were out of the second shot.  Really?  And you didn't know you were running out before I drove over here?  They thought I would want to cancel, but since we were there I wanted the baby to go ahead and get at least the flu shot since it is still flu season.  It was so quick!  He opened his mouth to cry, but I scooped him up and held him and he was over it just that quick.  He didn't have fever or anything last night.  In fact, this was the third night in a row that he slept solidly without waking up.  Sweet!

I asked to have him weighed unofficially since we haven't had him weighed since he started solids.  He still had on his onesie, but he was 16 lbs 10.5 oz.  I also tried to measure him at home and I got 25.25 inches.  So. Very. Small.  But he is so healthy.  I was letting him play in just his diaper last night and it stuck me just how wonderful that little baby is.  He is so tiny but he is perfect.  He is so strong and so determined and it's crazy to me how everything it takes to make him function is packed into that teeny tiny body.  So far he has no scars, no freckles, and just a tiny light pink stork bite at the hairline on the back of his neck.  I wonder if I will notice when he gets his first freckle.  I wonder how much it will hurt me when he gets his first big bruise.

I hope that kid knows how crazy I am about him.

Welcome to 2011

The new year came fairly uneventfully at our house.  We had a three day holiday from work, so we had lots of family time and we accomplished a lot around the house.  One thing I learned in 2010 was that I need to be super organized in the new year- there is never enough time in the day to accomplish what I need to do.  I struggle between taking time for myself and my family and keeping up with the chores.  With working 8-10 hours a day, commuting 2 hours round trip, cooking dinner, picking up the house, packing the next day’s lunches, and doing the dishes… laundry and dust seem to pile up more than I’d like.  And that spot of papers on the counter seems to be growing daily…  But honestly, I feel good about ignoring the chores and sitting on the floor playing with my baby.  We see him so little during the week that we cherish the time we have.

We had plenty of baby time this weekend.  We had a milestone occur on December 31^st- Rickybear pulled up to standing for the first time all by himself.  Previously, we can hold out or hands and he will reach out and pull to standing, but he has never initiated it and done it by himself.  He reached up and pulled on his dad’s shirt and there he was, so proud of himself.  We are so proud, too.  Since then he desperately wants to pull up on everything, but we don’t have much that is low enough for him to reach to pull up on!  He is living dangerously now. 

We had the best intentions to stay up for the changing of the years.  We even had a bottle of champagne ready.  Just two years ago we celebrated New Years at the levee in New Orleans and watched the fireworks over the water.  This year, we ended up being so tired that we went to bed slightly before 11pm, just in time to celebrate New Years with the New Yorkers. 

We are looking forward to what the new year may bring for us.