first swim

Eddie's baby pool arrived in the mail this past week and we blew it up and took him for his first "swim" on Sunday. As you can tell by the slideshow, he wasn't that interested in the water and instead wanted to crawl on the freshly mowed grass. Although he seems to love being outside, he still shuns the sun and will often take his hat off and use it to cover his face, which is hilarious. As for the pool, I know that in time he will love it too since he loves bath time so much - I think he was just too curious about the nature surrounding him to want to stay in the pool and play with toys.

dad day, delayed

It has been over a week since Father's Day and I am only now getting to posting this - my bad. We spent the weekend in Wisconsin. Big Eddie got to play golf with my Dad and we all ate an early dinner together with little Eddie at the table too. The photos are some I took at the end of day as my boys walked out in the backyard to look at the swans in the pond. My gift to Eddie was a video montage of his first 10 months as a Dad, with images of him and his son set to music and intermingled with all those video clips we have taken, once again featuring him and his son. If I had time, I would figure out how to send it to YouTube or something, but alas, there just doesn't seem to be enough. As a wife and mother, I have to admit that one of the more precious and cherished parts of my day is when dad and baby unite - when Eddie comes home from work and his son crawls to him so fast, beaming with the biggest smile and often a loud noise or the occasional "dadada!" Watching the bond between father and son blossom and unfold before my eyes is something that I will never forget and I find its pure joy is hard to put into words...all I can say is it is one of the more genuine expressions of love I have ever witnessed.

strangers

Over the last month Eddie has developed what is labeled as stranger awareness and separation anxiety. Every once in awhile he will start to cry when mommy or daddy leaves the room or goes outside. Today at Whole Foods one of the workers, a hispanic male, started talking to him and he freaked out and started crying. Over the weekend we also discovered that the sight of his Grandpa makes him cry...ok we'd like to think that it was really his low, raspy sore throat voice and not his mere presence, but Mr. Lauer has been known to scare people. It seems like Eddie's stranger anxiety is biased towards any man other than his father. Women don't seem to trigger such a negative response. Maybe because women know how to talk to a baby - the high pitched voice, the big eyes and smile. You ever noticed how men just talk to a baby like a regular kid? They say stuff like "hey little man, how's it going?" There must have been something in the air today, other than humidity that is, because everyone at the grocery store wanted to interact with my little guy and he didn't seem to like it. He was chewing on his toy and drooling so profusely that he got his shirt all slobbered up - it reminded me of when Marty chews her leash when she is nervous. Poor guy.

10 month update

Eddie turned 10 months last Friday and it just sort of snuck up on me - I didn't realize it was the 18th until I heard a radio announcer state the date. He is an active explorer and expressing his wants more and more. He has no interest in his toys and gravitates towards things he cannot or should not have, like the computer - which we do let him play with for brief moments and he pulls up screens we have never even seen before. I am trying to teach him about limits, because he seems to think he is capable of doing things he cannot, as in reaching higher and higher for objects and flying down the stairs. He likes the climb the stairs and is trying to figure out how to go down them - one day he watched Marty do it and then proceeded to attempt to crawl down them like she did: head first. Of course I was right there quasi-holding him so it didn't happen. Today for the first time though he figured out how to go down a step backwards, so maybe it is a sign of more progress to come. He pulls up on everything and has starting side stepping and if there are objects close by that he can grab onto, he will shift his weight and move from item to item...sort of "cruising" as they call it, but I wouldn't officially declare that he is regularly doing such. He is making attempts at waving and clapping but hasn't mastered those skills yet.

Verbally, he is still saying "dada" and "mama" a lot, repeating the syllables. Often it seems like he truly is acknowledging us as he will say "dada" to his daddy and will repeat "mama" when he is trying to get my attention and wants to be picked up. But then again, he also says these things to inanimate objects, toys, walls, etc. so it isn't clear whether he truly knows their meaning. He also says a form of "dada" to his dog Marty, so we think he is trying to say "doggie." He also repeats "gaga," "baba" and "nana," but his main mode of expression of language is his gurgley hiss-like excited sound - actually it sounds like he is trying to cough up phlegm.

As for sleep, this past week or so hasn't been bad. He is going down well for naps and for bedtime. He naps for 1-2 hours in the morning and then takes a quick nap of 45 minutes in the afternoon. He goes to bed between 7 - 8 p.m. He is still waking up during the night. Last week he was averaging 3 times a night which was a bit ridiculous. Now it is down to 1 or 2, which is bearable but still puts me in zombie mode - 10 months of sleep interruption/deprivation is not good and I can acutely attest to that.

He is a good eater and primarily feeds himself via finger foods except for the few items I prepare that require me to feed him, such as cottage cheese and some grain and veggie mixtures. He seems to prefer cheese - loves cottage cheese, cheddar and mozzarella. He also loves all fruits and has recently tried strawberries and pineapple. He eats chicken, turkey, lamb and beef. He prefers salmon to cod. The veggies he likes are zucchini, peas, green beans and still loves sweet potatoes and winter squash. He has eaten kale and spinach too but I have to sneak those into his meals by mixing them with grains and pasta since they are impossible to eat as a finger food. He loves wheat and is eating whole wheat macaroni, cheese ravioli and bread. Sometimes I make French toast for him and he likes that a lot. I love watching him eat and play with his food - sometimes he mashes it all around or picks up pieces and holds them really high and then drops them to Marty. He communicates when he is done by trying to squirm/climb out of his high chair or twists around and starts sucking on the back of the seat.

He is good in the car now and can totally entertain himself, often to the point of laughter. He likes going for walks but is usually very silent and chill during the walk - a few weeks ago he pulled a newborn and fell asleep on a walk! He loves to be outdoors, loves crawling around on grass, touching leaves and flowers and playing with dirt - one day he actually started crying when I brought him back inside. And of course he still loves his bathtime which we do every night. Sometimes during the day he gets messy - either from the battle on the changing table or from crawling around outside - and I give him a mini bath in the sink and he loves playing with the faucet - also likes drains a lot. Maybe he will be a plumber. We ordered a baby pool and I cannot wait for its arrival so that we can play in the water outside.

in the dirt

Eddie's curiosity is reaching new levels as he is now totally uninterested with his toys and just wants to explore household items and of course those things he should not be touching at all, like blind cords and electrical cords of any and all sorts. In the kitchen he has a keen ability to sense when I am about to open the refrigerator or pantry cabinet and is always right there waiting to attempt to grab items. In the fridge he goes for the beer bottles. Figures. I even cleared out the bottom shelf on the door and put some of his toys in there. But no, of course he ignores that shelf altogether and goes for the glass bottles. In the pantry he grabs the baking powder and cocoa. Today I pushed the baking powder way to the back but to no avail, as he extended his long arms as far as he could to reach it. I pushed it back further, he started to cry. Upstairs his latest favorite thing to do is crawl into the shower, take the drain cover off and stick his hand down there. I have discovered how nasty the drains are after seeing his fingers covered in mildewy muck.

He seems to like to get dirty. Today we went to the park and after a 2nd attempt in the swing failed (he gets this look like he is going to hurl), I sat him down facing all the action - all the kids, the spraying water fountain, the jungle gyms, and he just kept turning around and crawling towards this tree and wanting to play in the dirt and feel the mulch in his fingers. He had no interest in the bouncy, textured park surface which is made out of some form of rubber and plastic, and instead wanted to crawl on the cement sidewalk and into the dirt. I was trying to figure out if he was just freaked out by all the commotion of the kids running around, but it didn't seem to be the case because he wasn't whining or fussing as he turned and crawled away. He was doing his excited grunt, this sort of hissing noise that he makes when he seems to be intensely interested in something. So I guess he is just not interested in the bling of the jungle gyms and prefers the shade of a good ole tree and some dirt. Nice. We like that simplicity.

just nasty

I have to report on Eddie's poops...so for the faint of heart, feel free to skip reading this blog entry. They of course have changed dramatically from those days of solely breastfeeding when they were watery, mustardy and earthy, but pleasant in smell. When he started eating solid foods, the poops were like little turds, relatively firm and could easily be dropped into the toilet. Now they are just plain nasty - mushy piles that stick to the diaper and have brought me to gags twice now. The smell and texture, plus his tendency to flip over during the changing process, has made the trip to toilet to empty the poop almost impossible. So our diaper pail reeks these days. Not sure how I would be able to handle it if I did what I set out to do and use solely cloth diapers. I think at this stage in the poops I would have had to abort mission anyway. I guess his poops are the way they are because he is eating whole foods, that is, nothing is pureed and strained anymore, so he is getting all the fiber and such. I swear that it is the Cheerios that make them smell so bad...but maybe it is all the meat/chicken he is eating...or the cottage cheese. I just cannot imagine them smelling any worse than they do now.

a rough patch

We are going through a rough patch in the sleep department. At least I hope that it is a brief interval of abnormality and this regression is only temporary. Eddie is no longer sleeping through the night; he hasn't for over two weeks. Rather his nighttime sleeping is more like a newborn's - he is waking up every three to four hours. Luckily all I have to do is give him some boob and he falls back to sleep in 15 to 20 minutes, but he is getting too old to be waking up 3 to 4 times a night. And I am getting too sleep deprived to handle it. Everyone I have talked to seems to indicate that it is normal for night wakings to occur at this age and when babies are trying to figure out major developmental skills, like standing and walking. Eddie has been pulling up on everything, standing and making motions to walk...so it could happen within the next month or two...or sooner. But I also think that maybe he is waking up so much because he truly is hungry. He eats a decent amount of solid foods these days, but he gets so distracted during nursings and wants to always be on the go, that he may not be getting enough breast milk during the daytime, hence the need to refuel so much at night. I have been trying to give him bottles throughout the day as a snack but he only drinks an ounce and then is on the go. I am also concerned though that the nighttime feedings could become a habit that is hard to break and that he could be doing it solely to be comforted throughout the night. We are going to give it one more week and then start to try to see if he can fall back asleep without the boob.

During the day, sleep is not any easier. Often he gets put down for a nap and spends 45 minutes just playing or whining in his crib. He spends a lot of time standing and hanging onto the bars and chewing on the railing. He has been drooling a lot again and really biting things (including us) and so maybe he is getting more teeth too. I have felt around his mouth several times though and don't feel anything yet. A few times he has started wailing really hard in his crib and we go check on him and he is standing and seems to be stuck, as in, cannot figure out how to lower himself back down. I have read in books that this can happen, but figured that it wouldn't for him because I see him successfully lower himself down from standing position all day long...maybe when he is tired the act of maneuvering his body in such a way takes too much thought and energy. So we feel like we are constantly in a battle with sleep and it is undoubtedly the most draining and stressful part of my existence as a parent. My hope for all my friends about to have babies is that they will have babies who are good sleepers. I wish this for all new parents.

a scare

You know those woolly felt stickies you put on the bottom of furniture to protect your floors from scratches? Well Eddie got a hold of one of them and had it in his mouth for a good 20 minutes before I realized it. He was crawling around in our living and dining room, and I noticed him drooling a lot and sort of saw him making chewing motions. So I checked his mouth and didn't feel anything. Then about ten minutes later we were upstairs getting ready for a nap and I was feeding him and he kept biting my nipple. Then he de-latched and was biting my shoulder and bra strap. I was like, hmmm, maybe you are teething? And so I stuck my finger in his mouth to see if I felt any teeth budding and instead I felt something rough, and my first reaction was like, what is that your tongue? Then I realized it was some foreign object and pulled it out. I felt so lucky that we didn't have a choking episode. And after putting him down for his nap I proceeded to remove all those damn things from our furniture...not gonna risk that one again!