Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Nearing the end of your 7th month

Dear Pea,
We are almost at the end of your 7th month.  You are rocking your two bottom teeth and seem to have another one on the way. You push yourself up into plank position and sometimes onto your hands and knees-you are so close to crawling I can see it. 

The past couple of weeks I've been bringing you to the YMCA babysitting.  After a rough start, you now love it there.  They have so many toys to play with!  Sometimes there are a lot of other kids and I've come back to find you at the center of a circle, like a queen holding court, surrounded by toddlers and school aged kids entertaining you.  Other times you're alone with the sweet caregivers-you like this too because they will take you to see the basketball court or the pool. And, oh, the pool!  Well! You went swimming for the first time a week ago-we were lucky enough to be invited to take a class with other little ones.  This was fantastic for me because I learned some fun things to do with you in the water.  You were completely overwhelmed by the pool-you had eyes like saucers and just looked out at everything, not even making eye contact with me.  But the second time we went swimming, you were much more animated.  You splashed in the water, looked at me and the other kids and had a general good time!

getting ready to get in the water

swimming! we went with your BFF and she loved it, too!
 
The food adventures continue, too.  You finally have a high chair, though you've only been in it a couple of times.  The first time, you happily ate a carrot.  Well, maybe about a third of a carrot.  But you seemed to enjoy it. Then we gave you chicken.  Oh, my! You really like chicken.  We gave you a chicken wing and you would bring it to your mouth, open wide and then grin at us.   This is the first time we've ever gotten a response like that.  So, clearly more chicken is in order! 
 
But, really though, you will put anything in your mouth.  Chewing on anything and everything you can get your hands on is really the main event.  Including your poor little buddy here. In fairness, he does look delicious


 

Friday, July 27, 2012

Another tooth!

Dear Pea,
So, it turns out I wasn't wrong after all, and your second tooth has crowned!  Two sharp little protrusions coming up from your bottom gums.  You are so so so so cute

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Mama was wrong (not for the first or last time, either!)

Dear Pea,
It appears that I was very wrong about you being in the throes of teething.  You were very uncomfortable last week, but no new teeth have emerged and you're back to your chipper self.  Very chipper.  Lots of giggles, smiles, scrunched up noses and belly laughs.  You have progressed leaps and bounds in your physical prowess-crawling is imminent.  You can scoot across the floor in record time, moving backwards and side to side.  Changing your direction is no problem, it's just that forward motion that alludes you.  Today you figured out how to push up on your feet and lift your hips, almost in downward dog, but couldn't quite coordinate everything to go forward also.  But soon.

 Getting buff to start crawling.  Sitting up is second nature these days

Last night you figured out how to flip from your back to your belly.  And you don't end up lying flat on your belly-you flip over into crawl position. It delights you to no end!  I was nursing you to sleep and you were fussing and fighting it, but as soon as you flipped, you grinned.  This happened twice before you finally conked out.  Then, at 2:30am, you did it again-Daddy woke up to you tapping his back.  You thought it was great fun to flip over and see what he was up to, but when you realized you couldn't get back to me (and my boob) you weren't so happy.  Luckily, you weren't really in a mood to play and once we got you back on your side facing your food source, you fell right back to sleep.

The eating is still going slowly-you are a huge broccoli fan and have been happy with goat cheese and guacamole, but that's really it.  Fruit isn't your thing.  This weekend we'll be cooking a whole chicken, so you'll get a leg to gnaw on-we'll see how you like that.  In the meantime, here's you loving your broccoli

Who needs a binkie when you've got cruciferae?




Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Throes of Teething

Dear Pea,
So, now, we are really in it.  You are clearly uncomfortable much of the time, rubbing your mouth, chewing anything reachable. We've tried a number of things frozen, hoping that maybe the cold would ease your discomfort, but you don't like anything cold.  Frozen spoons, frozen teething toys, frozen banana-it all makes  you more frustrated.  You do like your teething toys at room temperature, though, so we stick with that. You have also been wanting to nurse more frequently, you dive at my shirt, sometimes nursing sitting up-little hits of elixir while you're playing seem to keep you comfortable for longer stretches.  I'll be drinking more chamomile tea and of course I consulted our acupuncturists for remedies and ordered you some good stuff.  I suspect that more than one tooth is on it's way; you gave no sign of discomfort when your first tooth peeked out.


Friday, July 13, 2012

Six month stats

Dear Pea,
So, as you know, you are an amazing flirt: you can turn on the charm in an instant and now know what a camera is and what face to make for it. 


this is your new version of smiling, especially for the camera: nose scruntched, mouth open.

What I didn't realize is that you also can give the DIRTIEST looks imaginable.  Wow, your poor pediatrician.  You were happily sitting on the table, shaking your rattle and crinkling (okay, eating) the tissue paper when in came the doctor and made you lay down.  You're not so into laying down these days.  You started fussing, so the doctor figured we might as well do the shot now instead of having to comfort you twice. (I have invented my own vaccination schedule, which is basically spacing everything out a LOT.  Instead of you getting three shots at each appointment, you get one shot.  At 6 months, the schedule says you should be completing your third booster of all the recommended vaccines-you were in fact getting your first booster of one of them). She swiped your leg with the alcohol prep pad as your fussing escalated into crying.  She prepped the needle as you fidgeted and squirmed, trying to sit up again.  In went the needle and BOOM-you screamed and shot her what can only be described as a murderous look.  I picked you up and tried to comfort you, but you kept looking back at the doctor and glaring.  Once you felt that the doctor was sufficiently aware of your displeasure, you calmed right down and resumed playing with her rattle.

Sweet Pea, you have gained 2 and a half pounds in two months, putting you in the 63rd percentile for weight at 16lbs, 13 oz.  You continue to be on the very tall end, now in the 101st percentile (!!!) at 27.8 inches. Your head has grown well, bringing you up to the 34th percentile at 42 cm in circumference. Your constant desire to stand is an indicator of your strength and appropriate weight and shouldn't be discouraged. 

You cut your first tooth the morning of your doctor's appointment. I was shocked and heard it before I saw it or felt it.  You were "drinking" water out of my glass (as always) and I heard a PING instead of the regular gnawing sound.  Huh?  I ran my finger along your gum and there it was: sharp ridges protruding from your lower left side gum.  You gave no indication of discomfort; I really wasn't expecting to see any teeth for a few months since Daddy and I were so late with ours.  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised-you have your fingers or something in your mouth constantly (as evidenced by the photos). But you haven't been cranky or fussy or feverish at all.  So, here we go, another way that you continue to surprise and amaze me.

"Eating"

Dear Pea,
Well, six months is the general time frame for babies to start eating, so we figured we'd give you some food.  We started with egg yolk-I fried it in a little butter and put it on a plate in front of you.  Of course, you grabbed at it and immediately put it in your mouth, as you do with everything.  And then...hmmm.  You looked at both Daddy and me so quizzically.  You played with it in your mouth, spitting it out, mashing it up in your fists, more in the mouth, more spitting.  After about 10 minutes, we took it away and wiped you down.

The next day, avocado. And a bath!
After two days of this ceremonious feeding, I realized that you aren't really going to eat anything yet.  You're still equally interested in the food as the container it is in, so I stopped with the And Now You Shall Eat This idea I had in my head.  SO, now, we just give you some of what we're eating.  I've steamed carrot sticks special for you, so if we're snacking on raw carrots, you get the soft ones.  This is actually the first food you ate, as evidenced by the carrots in your poop later that afternoon.  You've had some of my breakfast broccoli, and that was your favorite so far.  It was steamed, and I think you liked the structure of the stalk-easy to hold, fun to have in your mouth and juicy-you sucked on it for quite a while.  

broccoli all over your face and neck. You're wearing a shirt that says "eat more kale" but you still haven't actually tried kale yet


 
bananas and avocado

So, the food thing is very fun and very messy.  You're getting more interested in what I'm eating all the time, but are still equally happy eating the container that food is in as the actual food. 






Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Six Months Old!!!

Dear Pea, 
I can't believe it, but here you are, six months old.  


You are starting to grow your real hair-it's blondish reddish brown and spiking up softly all over your head.  You are trying to crawl, spinning in slow circles when on your belly, tentatively moving forwards at times. You still scoot backwards often and you tend to scoot right off your mat and onto the floor and seem to always want to taste the floor-my reflexes have gotten quite fast and I can (most of the time) slip my hand between your tongue and the floor in time.  Though sometimes I miss. Sorry, baby, you've eaten the floor on a few occasions. 

You've tasted some fruit and, today, egg yolks.  It's so funny when you "eat" because all it seems to do it whet your appetite for breast milk.  Today you eagerly dug into your plate of egg yolk, happily bringing it to your mouth. And then, bleh.  You played with it, but weren't really in to doing much else.  You offered it to me, which was very sweet, and once you felt you'd explored all the pieces of egg enough, you reached for my shirt to signal it was nursing time.

You have recently earned the nickname "Monkey", mostly due to a monkeyish noise you make.  I can't describe it, it's a closed mouth soft grunt type of thing.  You have also started to make a soft noise that sounds like Steven Tyler of Aerosmith: "ahhhhhh, wah!" It's not loud, but it definitely sounds like you're warming up your vocal chords. 

Last week we went to ride on a carousel with two other babies and mamas.  The other babes, both boys, were placed sturdily atop horses that wouldn't move and seemed pretty unsure of the whole thing.  You rode the horse that went up and down and loved it.