Mischievous Monday

Just wanted to share some pics I took just before his afternoon nap today. He was busy being impish and mischievous - two of his specialties. A couple of these shots show him getting ever closer to being officially mobile, so be on the look-out for another milestone report soon. In the meantime, I'll be busy baby-proofing the house!

"Eh, what's up, Doc?"

I just think he looks more like a toddler than a baby in this one. *tear*

"If I can just get my rear end to cooperate with my front end, I'll be on the move!"

Milestone: Pulling Up

Milestone Alert! Over the past couple of days, Henry has been working on something new. I've not posted this sooner because I didn't want to jump the gun, but now I think it's official - he's pulling up.

About two days ago, I was playing with him in the family room. I sat on the sofa, opposite him on the floor. He was flat on his bottom, facing me. I put my hands at the edge of the couch, and gestured for him to grab and hold them. When he did, he started pulling himself up. His feet slid under the bottom of the sofa, so he wasn't coming all the way up to a straight and tall stand, but he went up as far as he could go. He did this a handful of times, and when he was up, I repositioned his feet to steady him, and then encouraged him to take steps alongside the couch to reach a toy or my hand. He's not ready for that yet, but I predict he will be soon.

Yesterday morning, when we first went in to get him, he was up on one knee in his bed, having pulled up on the rails. Throughout the day yesterday, we practiced the pulling up on my hands exercise without the couch. I sat on the floor opposite him, and he pulled up, his feet sliding until they reach my lap. He got up to a better stand this way, without his feet being trapped beneath the sofa.

This morning, during a marathon nap resistance, I walked in to redirect him back to trying to go to sleep and found him standing straight up in his bed holding on to the rails. He had been fussing some, and when I came in, he smiled a triumphant beaming smile - I think he wanted to show off! He's got so many new tricks, he hasn't got time for napping!

He is not quite graceful about it yet, and other than his bed, he's not shown any interest yet in using furniture to pull up, but I expect he'll be trying that next. I'll try to get some pictures when he does!

Nine Months

Henry is nine months old today. He's been here longer now than he was in my womb. That is astounding and yet sobering for me because it means he is growing just so much faster than I can stand. We have a well-baby visit coming up next week where we'll get weight and length stats, but we did make a doctor's visit early this week for an ear infection, and he weighed in at 24.5lbs. He has almost tripled his birth weight. I am anxious to know his length (or can we call it height yet?) too, but not so much that I'm going to try to figure it out on my own before his appointment. I'm going to guess as much as 30 inches - he was almost 28 at six months.

My blog is young - I so wish I had started the first time I thought about doing this - so it hasn't recorded each of his milestones as he's hit them over the past nine months, so I'll do my best to list the big ones.

*He blessed us with first smiles at around 6 weeks.
*He started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks, then regressed at 11 weeks and hasn't consistently done it since. YAWN.....
*He could hold up his head for periods of time without support at around 8 weeks.
*He started to imitate some letter sounds at 3 months.
*He stopped night feedings between 3 and 4 months.
*He could roll from back to belly at 3.5 months.
*He could bear weight on his legs at 4 months.
*He could sit assisted at about 4 months.
*He started rice cereal at 4 months.
*He could roll both ways by 4 months, but only did so rarely.
*He could sit unassisted at 5 months for periods of time - unlimited by 6 months.
*He weaned from the swaddle at 6 months.
*He found his feet at 6 months. :)
*He was a babbler by 6 months.
*He was eating pureed veggies and fruits by 6 months.
*He started saying "mama" and "dada" at around 7 months.
*He started finger foods at 7.5 months, but is still very picky about them.
*He could put in his paci at 7 .5 months.
*He cut his first two teeth at 7.5 months.
*He started rolling for fun and mobility just before 8 months.
*He started showing readiness to start crawling at 8.5 months - pushing up on hands, scooting back end, pushing up on toes, and occasionally getting both front and rear ends off the ground at the same time...
*He could hold his own bottle at 8.5 months.
*He could sit up from a laying position just before 9 months.

I take pictures of him each month on his "month-day", and they're posted over in the sidebar - be sure to check them out and see how he's grown. Here's a few more I took this morning:

Milestone: From tummy to sitting position!

Milestone Alert! Today marks the first official time we've caught him moving from a tummy to sitting position unassisted. I first saw him do it in his crib this morning, but for whatever reason, he seems more mobile in his bed (or on any bed) than on the flat floor, so I assumed he had that advantage and wouldn't yet be able to do it from the floor. Then, at lunch time today, Henry and Daddy were playing with his choo-choo train. He had turned it over to dump the little balls out of it, and rolled to his tummy to attempt to go after them. When he gave up, he used the train to support himself while he pushed up to a sitting position. Still, I gave credit to the train as his support, and doubted he would quite be able to do without it. And then, after Daddy went back to work, he did it twice by himself, with nothing to support himself. My big boy!!! Keep it tuned here for more updates on Henry's milestones!

Playing catch-up...

I haven't blogged in about 5 days - that may be a record for me in my brief blogging lifetime. I guess I have occupied myself otherwise, though, because I can't remember any time when I sat around with nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs.

I'll start playing catch-up with a report about a dinner meeting with family. Last Sunday evening (a week ago) Henry, Daddy and I traveled about an hour to what is about the half-way point between our home and my Dad's. We met at a favorite restaurant to partake of fried chicken and chicken-fried steak, served family-style with all you can eat side dishes. I'm certain I ate all I could. ;)

We met my Dad (Grandpa) and my brother (Uncle Mike), as well as Debbie and her daughter Paige. Though this eating establishment boasts line-dancing waitresses, Henry was entertainment enough. He was passed around, charming any who noticed him - including everyone at our table and many of the patrons at neighboring tables.

Debbie, Grandpa, and Henry

Paige and Henry

Uncle Mike and Henry

Ugh, I think we're sick again!

Another bad night, another tired day. Only last night, as I was up and down with him, I knew at least one thing keeping him from resting was that he didn't feel well. His nose was runny and he had begun coughing a little. He wasn't feverish, but I gave him some ibuprofen anyway because I always assume teething could be the culprit of restlessness too. If there was any discomfort, my hope was that it would take care of it.

This morning, it is obvious he is sick again. My unofficial mommy's-instinct diagnosis is a cold. So far I don't think we're dealing with the nasty RSV virus we had in January/February. He has no fever, and his coughing is still shallow. His nose is running far and away though, so I've gotten the booger-sucker (aka nasal aspirator or bulb syringe) after him repeatedly, which he just loooooves. ;)

Meanwhile, I also went on a Lysol rampage, spraying and wiping down every surface, door knob and handle, and all of his toys are soaking or washing as I type. *sigh* I thought stinkin' cold and flu season was behind us finally. Please keep us in your prayers for a quick recovery!

Tired Tuesday

Nothing extraordinarily interesting to report today, but I couldn't stand not to anyway. Henry and I (and Daddy too, for that matter) are all tired today as a result of a 2am rendezvous. Here's how it went down:

7:20ish - Bed time. He hasn't seemed to catch on to the time change yet, and both of the past two nights he's been wound up just as I lay him down. He acts tired and cranky at the usual time, and at the usual point in our bedtime routine, and even as he drinks his bottle just before bed he nods off, doing the warm-comfy-contented-eye-roll. Then, when I go to lay him down, it's as if he notices that it is still daylight outside and therefore I, Mama, must be confused about what time it is and what we ought to be doing. An hour later, after several trips back into his room to retrieve him from the other end of the bed and off of his tummy, he's finally asleep - now that it's dark.

12:30ish - Midnight fussing. He just kind of whines and whimpers off and on. I go in to check on him even though I know he's mostly asleep. I watch from the corner of his room, hidden, and when he settles, I go back to bed.

1:15ish - Fussing, part 2. More of the same. I wait a bit, until it gets louder and more dramatic, then I go back in to check and watch. When he settles, I leave.

1:30ish - I had only climbed back into bed when it started again. This time, I can tell he is awake. I was waiting for this because I knew he had a dirty diaper, but I wasn't going to dare wake him to change it. I go in, perform the world's fastest diaper change in the dark, and put him back in bed. Now, I would have to contend with an alert baby in the middle of the night, but it couldn't really be helped. I went to get some ibuprofen in response to the whining and whimpering from before the diaper change. I put some water in a bottle and offered it to him from the side of the crib, to make sure he wasn't thirsty. I dug for several minutes until I found the blessed paci, and plugged it in. At least now I knew all his needs were met, and it would just be a waiting game until he went back to sleep. It was now after 2am.

I waited to save myself another exorcism from my warm bed, and when I thought enough time had passed, I laid back down. I could hear movement and settling over the monitor, but not another peep. Of course it took me many passing minutes to finally succumb to sleep again too.

6:30ish - He's fussing again. This isn't an unusual wake-up time for him, except that he lost better than 2 hours of sleep throughout the night, including at bed time, and for all he knows, it's still 5:30am because it's still pitch dark outside. I am not ready to get up at this point, so I make a futile attempt to buy myself another 30 minutes of rest. I go in to hunt for the paci again, and promptly plug it in.

7:20ish - Surprisingly, this is the next time I heard anything. He mercifully went back to sleep for another 40 minutes! And Daddy let me take my time getting out of bed while he started getting the bottle and breakfast ready.

We're dragging a little today, but we're making it. Tuesday is town day, when I do my weekly grocery shopping and errands, if any. He is usually such a good little shopper, but today his tiredness was more than he could handle. He was a bit fussy and irritable, but not so much that many an elderly passerby didn't stop to comment on what a beautiful (and well-fed) baby he is. We came home for lunch and a nap, and when he gets up in a bit we'll be on the go again, this time to the park for a walk, if it isn't raining.

Blog Make-over

No need to adjust your monitor - I've just made some cosmetic changes to my blog. A mommy friend of mine made a beautiful header for me, so I needed to change templates so it would fit better. Thanks to Sara for helping me out! Hope you all like it!

Photogenic Monday

For your viewing pleasure, and because I can't go 24 hours without snapping a picture of this kid, I'm just sharing some of my favorite shots from the past couple of days:

I bought this outfit before he was born. The size is 12 months, but as you can see, at nearly 9 months, he's already filled it out. But, I still love it, and thankfully we've had some warm days recently allowing him to wear it before it's entirely outgrown.

Here, he was just rolling around, being all kinds of charming and cute. Below, we took the liberty to snap a few pictures in someone's beautiful yard near a restaurant we visited this weekend.

Self-feeding - when did he grow up?

We've been working with Henry over the past week or so to transition to more finger-foods. It's hit and miss so far. He has always been such a good eater - as evidenced by his robust size - but we're finding with this new challenge, he's resisting foods for the first time.

I started him first on these little puffs made by Gerber designed for baby's first finger-foods. They come in a variety of flavors, but so far he seems to shun all but the banana flavor. We actually started these a few weeks ago, but it was the litmus test for me because I was so worried about the possibility of him choking. These puffs are tiny and melt almost immediately as they go in his mouth, so they were the training wheels we both needed to convince me he was ready to try something more adventurous.


This last week, I've introduced diced pieces of some of his favorite foods, as well as a new food or two. The game is on: Henry vs. Mama and the Big-Boy Foods. After several innings, we're not a lot closer to him being a designated eater, but it's okay because I'm not 100% sure I'm ready for such grown-upness anyway.

Let's look at the loss column:
*He just said no to diced cooked carrots, diced green beans, diced peaches, and diced pears.
*He actually gagged (and threw up) on small curd cottage cheese.
*He seems to have regressed a little on his puffs, with less than 50% accuracy in his aim to get them in his mouth.

And, a look at the win column:
*If I mash up the peaches a little, he might not spit them all out and manages to swallow a tad bit.
*If I mix his cottage cheese in with his sweet potatoes or peas, I can trick him into eating some of it.
*If I leave the green beans on his tray long enough, he'll eventually start playing with them and inadvertently a sliver or two end up in his mouth. And sometimes, he doesn't spit it back out.
*He loves baby yogurt, one of the new foods we've tried this week.
*If I take advantage of his hunger by withholding his bottle until I've first offered the foreign foods, he's a little more likely to sample. And sometimes, he doesn't spit it back out.

That's a final score of 5 to 3, so we'll say we're winning, but it's gonna be a long season. And, on a side note, since starting to offer solids before the bottle, I've experimented with seeing how well he could drink his bottle without my help. He's already in the high chair, so I just tilt it back so that gravity is working with him instead of against him, and he just goes to town. All by himself. Without my help. Doesn't need me anymore. *tear* I don't remember him asking me if he could be all grown up yet, because I'm sure I would have asked for a little more time.

Peas and Sunshine

Yesterday, perhaps to make good on my pledge to get together with that friend of mine and her daughter more often, we took advantage of the spectacular weather for our first outdoor play date. (Let's call my friend M and her daughter A.)

M and I spoke early in the morning to arrange our outing, and by lunchtime we were spread out atop blankets beneath a towering shade tree at the city park. My primary objective, outside of visiting with M&A, was to put Henry on a swing for the first time. I was sorely disappointed when we arrived to find that the swings were not safe or designed for babies as I had hoped at least one of them would be. We improvised, but I'll get to that in a bit.

I could not have dreamed or ordered better weather. Truthfully, in Texas, weather comes in extremes; seldom do you have days where it is completely comfortable to be outdoors without either a jacket or an economy sized tub of sunscreen, SPF 200. The spring and fall seasons last only a blink or two, with scorching summer heat being the dominant climate pattern. Case in point: today, in early March, the temperature is expected to reach near 90 degrees. But, yesterday, it was the perfect day to be outdoors. There was a breeze, not so strong that we were chasing down belongings blown from our picnic blanket, but gentle, ruffling up our children's fine wisps of hair. At that time of day, the temperature hovered above 70 degrees. The mild sunshine shimmered and sprayed between the branches of our shade tree - not the harsh rays of mid to late summer sun. I could have spent the entire day there, just soaking it in.

First order of business upon arrival was to feed the babies their lunch. Henry is transitioning to more finger-foods and varieties of textures, so I brought some foods that he had refused in the day or two preceding, hoping one of these times I offer, he'll be more receptive. Of course, I also brought back-ups: pureed peas and applesauce, and after he gagged on curds of cottage cheese and spat out diced carrots, I was thankful I'd had that foresight. He sipped on white grape juice and seemed every bit as smitten by our surroundings as I was. M and A tackled lunch as well - literally. M had to almost sit on her to keep her still long enough to eat. A, being mobile, wanted to cruise around and didn't seem terribly concerned about missing lunch.

Once the babies were fed, M and I grazed on our lunches while still fussing with the kids as they tumbled around on the blanket, playing with toys and trying to reach the edges of our palette. Before long, we had each of our cameras out and were staging scenes of the babies playing together (or not.) I know I took 94 pictures myself - yes, obscene.

As we neared nap time, I decided that I would attempt to get Henry in that swing, even if it meant I would have to hold him as I sat in it. We all made our way to the playground. Now, M is about perfectly sized, and her little bum did fit in the kid swing, but barely. That, of course, meant that my larger bum would in no way fit in the kid swing. I had spotted a tire swing on the opposite end of the playground equipment, and decided that I could probably get into that swing with Henry. It was hard plastic, shaped to look like a tire, but in no way soft or allowing any give. I hiked one leg over the edge to sort of straddle it and once I tested it a little, I relaxed and we swung in short strides. It wasn't exactly the picture I'd had in mind, but we were swinging. M&A came over to see how we were managing. I tried to reposition myself so that we weren't sitting so precariously on the edge, hopefully enabling us to get a better swing going. I bent my right leg so that it was spanning the hole in the middle, creating a place for Henry to sit that wasn't on the edge. Well, that hard plastic edge dug into my leg and was quite uncomfortable - but at this point, I was stuck. I couldn't move while holding Henry, and the longer I sat there, the more uncomfortable I became. M was trying not to laugh, failing. She took Henry just long enough for me to remove myself from the swing, but not before she snapped a picture - thanks, M! We were both laughing hysterically, and when M sends me that picture, I'll post it. Maybe.

Henry and I had such a great time - I hope another beautiful day finds us back at the park again soon. Here are just a few of my pictures:

Oh, the irony!

It's no great secret that my son isn't the world's best sleeper. Even at eight and a half months, we are still enduring night waking frequently. Some nights are better than others, but an uninterrupted night is a rarity. And we consider sleeping past 6am a luxury. He hasn't needed a night feeding since he was around three months old, but for reasons that continue to elude us, he is generally a restless little man. We have been sleep training practically since birth, and while there are clear benefits from this effort, his problem seems to be simply staying asleep. This, I think, is just the M.O. of some babies - some sleep better than others. It probably doesn't help that I haven't committed to weaning from the paci either. ;)

Monday night, after several solid nights of waking, crying, fitful sleep (and not much of it), Daddy was going to be "on duty" because, in a role reversal, I would be volunteering the next day while Daddy would have the day off to be with Henry. I have to admit I was a little excited at the prospect of a "night off."

Well, Henry and Daddy must have struck up some kind of man-pact, because he went down at 7pm, didn't make a sound ALL night, and even slept until about 7am, which is unheard of anymore. I was thankful because it meant WE ALL had a good night's sleep, but I can't help but see the irony of that situation. :)

He's such a ham!

Okay, so there is this little foyer area at church with large, distressed leather sitting chairs and great natural light from a tall window. It's great for taking pictures, and if there's time to kill between lunch and the second service, I like to steal away to this little spot for an impromptu photo shoot. Here's a sampling - he just eats this up!


This one I tweaked just a bit to get the faded color effect. Thanks for admiring my little guy!