Love, Erika

Parker is 13 Months Old Today!

What a big month for the little man! He is just so cute and his personality just keeps coming out as he gets older.  What strikes me the most is how friendly he is. As soon as he sees anybody, one little hand goes up in the air in a wave and he says "Hi Da!"  Everybody is called dad apparently. We go shopping, and everybody we pass gets a big wave and "HI DA!"  We go walking around the neighborhood, and if we see a random person, he's all craning his neck and waving at them. SO funny.  And it's so foreign to me. I always think to myself, "oh I have one of those kids....."  I have seen this type before. But never imagined I'd have one!  So I have one child who goes nuts waving at strangers, and my other child at that age would have burst into tears if anybody so much as looked at him...... sheesh!!!

His biggest accomplishment is obviously that he's walking now. It was at about 12 months and 3 weeks. So cute. One day he just started crab-crawling on feet and hands and it was like he was done with the knees. From here on out, feet only (and hands optional!)

 
He accepted no more nursing like it didn't even bother him. I think he was as done with it as I was. Now he drinks milk happily, and we have three different kinds of milk in the fridge at all times. Whole for Parker, 2% for Drew, and skim for me and Dave. It's ridiculous. But now at bedtime we read Goodnight Moon, and he's starting to get the idea of looking at books and turning pages. Shamefully I haven't read to him nearly as much as I did Drew at his age. But he gets lots more interaction in other ways that Drew didn't get so I guess it all works out.  Here he is pointing to the red balloon.

Too bad he's still trying to kill himself at every opportunity. In addition to the new walking, as if that isn't dangerous enough, he's also climbing. Onto anything that will hold still. In about 2 seconds he can be up into any chair, on any box, stand on any bench, hang onto any window ledge.....  I am constantly running.  I leave the room for 3 minutes and I come back and he's standing up on a wobbly bench, reaching up with arms outstretched to swing on the blinds. Great. If he makes it to see his 2nd birthday I will be shocked. Right now we have every chair in the house turned onto its side so he can't get up on it. Even his stoller is on its side in the floor because he will just climb right up in it.

His speech seems to be on track as far as we can tell. He seems to be making all the "normal" sounds and babbling. After Drew's speech issues we're a little more sensitive to these things, but Parker is already making more sounds and words than Drew ever did until MUCH later so we think he might be developing normally.  He can say dad, hi, fish, banana "nana", Mom.  We shall see. We are prepared! We know sign language!

He eats pretty much everything. We love this kid. He loves bananas, watermelon, grapes, waffles, sausage, crackers, goldfish, hummus and pita, hot dogs, bread, pastas, cheese, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. There have been very few things that he refused.  He was absolutely done with baby food after he hit about 12 months. He would have no more of it. We tried to get him to eat some more of it, since it is a great source of veggies and stuff, but he saw us coming with it and started throwing arms and turning away from it. LOL.

He still sleeps great at night, but is really starting to hate his two naps. When I carry him into his room he starts bucking and kicking and yelling. He knows what's coming. But he's still a great napper too. I've never been able to complain about this kid's sleeping, he's been great all along. He goes to bed around 7:30 at night and wakes up around 6 or 6:30. I can't complain. He coos and plays and looks at his mobile until I can stumble in there and give him his orange juice. He loves his drinks. He can be mad as hell but if you just give him a drink all is well.

He's such an emotional kid, and we're starting to see the beginnings of temper tantrums. At this point it's still pretty funny when it's coming from a 23-lb ball of cute fury. :)

Parker is EIGHT months old today!

The little man is army-crawling now! Big changes have arrived in the past month. What first started as rolling, turned into big exaggerated swimming motions, then finally into army crawling by dragging himself along on his elbows.

He's drinking from a sippy cup now. We've been letting him practice on a cup filled with water and he really works at it. But his absolute favorite thing is to sneak up on a sippy cup of orange juice that Drew leaves laying around and just go to town on it. He goes nuts. He'll roll, lunge, and fling himself towards the cup, and then lay there and devour whatever is left.

We started the banana puffies this month also. He loves them. He'll start panting and flapping his arms when he sees that yellow can come out. He does really great with them. He can pick them up off the floor into his fist, but can't put it in his mouth by himself. However if he gets one stuck on his lip, he can push it back in.

He's been so awfully whiney this month also. He's had a cold for a couple of weeks now so we're not sure if he's just sick of being sick, or if he's teething, or a growth spurt, or what the heck. He doesn't want to be alone, won't play alone, needs to be entertained and held all the time. I hope it's just a phase.  Dave had a theory that he's just cold. I scoffed at that one, but tonight we made a fire and for the first time in weeks Parker played happily in the living room (even by himself!), so maybe there was some truth to that. We had our happy baby back for the evening, we almost didn't recognize him.

He's a full card-carrying member of the baby food club now. He gets a jar for breakfast, 2 containers for lunch, and two containers for supper, with nursing in between meals. And now, puffies when needed also. It can only go up from here! We'll continue to add in whatever he can chew in the meantime.

My hair that all fell out is growing back, it's all about 1.5 inches long all around my hairline. It's pretty funny.

Parker's New High Chair, or, Being Disorganized Costs Money

I lost one of the shoulder straps to the highchair we've been using for Drew. He hasn't used straps in a long time, and I distinctly remember when I took them off and washed them, and put them away. One of them went into a cabinet where I could find it immediately and the other one for some reason which I can't remember now got separated and I remember telling myself to go put it with the other one immediately. Of course I never did that and now it's lost. And therefore we can't use that high chair with Parker because he'll fall over.

So we had to break down and buy a highchair for him which is completely NOT what we wanted to do. Did not want to spend the money on it, and definitely did not want an additional piece of large baby gear to step around in our small house. I did go to the Graco website and try to get a replacement strap for that model # but it was pretty old even when we got it and they don't stock them anymore. GRRRR! 

Once the bitterness had subsided I knew I had to get the new Graco pattern with the owls on it! Thanks to Sara for first pointing this out to me. I never imagined that I would need to acquire any of that stuff, but turns out we did. A sale at Target.com + free shipping sealed the deal. It's awfully cute and I will admit that now feeding Parker in a high chair is much easier since he's sitting upright. We've been feeding him in his bouncy seat and the poor kid was not only laying almost flat on his back, but practically sagging down to the counter top since he's much heavier now than he used to be. 

Look at the big boy (who also got his first tooth today!)!  I think he really likes it.  I wonder how long it will be until sweet potatoes and prunes are smeared all over it?

Parker is SIX months old today!

It's true what the say with kids, how just when one thing is resolved you're on to the next issue.....   Parker has become a MUCH better napper since last month, and 1.5 hour naps (or very often, longer!) are not an unusual thing at all. So that has been a big relief for me.

So our new issue in the fifth month was the ROLLING. Seemingly overnight he started rolling over during his playtime on the floor, and then a short time later started rolling in his bed at night. Oh the drama. So for about a week there it was a mixed bag of him actually being more comfortable because he could lay on his side or belly if he wanted to, but also waking up every 2-3 hours because he couldn't get positioned like he wanted to, or my theory is that he doesn't actually know WHAT he wants at all.  It seemed to last forever at the time, but looking back on it, it was just a quick phase and now he's sleeping pretty good. We had to take the bumpers out of his bed when he started rolling, and it seems so cold and un-cozy now. :(

He's starting to get possessive..... he gets upset if he drops a toy he was playing with chewing on, or if someone takes it away.

The time change was a big ordeal, UGH!!!  I forgot how much it stinks. We couldn't even enjoy the extra hour of sleep, because Parker was up at 5:30 that morning..... and then it got SO much worse when we realized that it was actually 4:30 that day. It was a looooong day, let me tell you. It took him 2-3 days but he's just about worked it out, thank goodness.

TRIPOD!!!  I had no idea he could sit up on his own. At his 6 month checkup visit, the doctor sat him up to see how he could sit without support. I expected him to topple, but he stuck that little hand down for a tripod! It was very exciting to see. I was a bit embarrassed also that I hadn't tried that with him before then. Hmmmm.  Mom is apparently not paying attention to what milestones baby is supposed to be hitting. So of course we've been having him work on it at home since then, and look at the little man GO!!!  He stayed up long enough for a nice series of pictures. He also loves to "stand" with all his weight on his legs and somebody holding him up. He could do that all day, just loves it.

His hair is gradually starting to get thicker and longer now!  He's so dang cute. He's got the exact same hair, exact same cradle cap as Drew had. Except I think Drew had more hair at this age.

He's 90th percentile for height, 50th %tile for weight, and 50th %tile for head circumference.  

He's really into blowing raspberries right now. He worked on it for about a week until finally he could get it. Now he's so happy to just lay there and go pppttttthhhhhbbbbbbb.  It's so entertaining, and new to me because Drew never did that.

He's still doing great with his baby food. Still loves his veggies more than anything else, and I give him a full container of veggies and a full container of fruit for supper. He's usually starving by then. i'm also going to start adding in a lunch for him as well.  The poor kid has a growing appetite.

Parker is FIVE months old today!

His fourth month has been full of new experiences. There is never a dull moment around here, that's for sure.

I spoke too soon when I said he was satisfied with milk and didn't need anything else right then. Just to prove me wrong, within a couple of weeks he was acting insane with hunger. I started him on rice cereal, and he seemed to like it for the first couple of days, but then for a good week or two he realized it tasted like ass and wanted nothing to do with it.  He'd take one bite, gag with horror, and then clamp up his mouth and that was the end of that (not that I blame him). Not another bite would pass his lips. 

So then I tried some sweet potatoes, and at first he didn't like that either, but within a couple of days he was eating it faster than I could shovel it in. Since then he is DEVOURING all kinds of veggies like squash, peas, green beans and sweet potatoes. He eats ENTIRE jars and containers, and is still looking for more. Then I offer him some fruit afterwards and he really is not into fruits yet. He'll eat apples and pears but not with such great enthusiasm. I don't think he's my child! We do not eat vegetables around here, who is he kidding? LOL.

At the beginning of his fourth month I started him in the exersaucer and he surprised us by playing with all the toys and staying in it for increasing periods of time.  Now he can play in it for 30 minutes sometimes, and he tugs on the little guys that play music, and spins the little thing with beads in it, and turns the pages on the book. It's amazing how he just gets right in there and starts messing with all the toys.

He totally lost those marathon naps that he was doing, and spent much of his fourth month doing 3 VERY brief 30 minute naps per day. It's not good for him, and not good for mom, either!  I'm hoping this is just a phase like everything else is. But the good news is that he's sleeping 12 hours per night...... generally from 7pm-7am. The downside is that he usually wakes up 3 times a night to eat, so I'm still not getting a lot of sleep but I guess this is working for us right now. I don't rush right in there when he wakes up to see if he'll go back to sleep, but he never does and starts screaming, so I end up having to go in there no matter what.  Hoping to have some nap improvements to report next month....

As a 5 month gift we brought the Jumperoo up from the basement and put him in it, and he loves it! I started bouncing him up and down and he was giggling right away. Didn't take him but a couple of minutes and soon he was using his own legs to bounce.

Overall his social development is increasing a bit, and he always wants to be talked to and played with. He's really into being entertained. If he can't get a person to entertain him then he's really loving his mobile in his crib, or the tv, or toys dangling from his play gym.  Half the time he's too busy looking at everything around him to even eat so it's best to feed him in a really dark and boring room.

Battling a picky eater

Dave says I need to blog about something other than recipes. He is apparently bored with that.  This means I have to like, put "thought" and "effort" into topics..... two highfalutin concepts that are foreign to me these days.

Mostly by our own creation, Drew is turning into a pretty picky eater which is frustrating for us. There are definitely some mistakes that we have made that haven't helped this situation, but we just made one change last week that has been working pretty well.

In the past we'd just cut up his food and toss it on his tray as we got it ready. We have always had to give him just a piece or two at a time because he's such a pig and will literally shove EVERYTHING that's on his tray into his mouth at one time. It's just ridiculous. So we had to dole it out just a little at a time to prevent him choking on it. Anyway, it doesn't take much for a toddler to outsmart his old and dumb parents, so lately he was deciding that he didn't want his first course so he'd just wait around for the next course that was surely coming. And then often he'd decide he didn't want THAT either, so he'd end up not eating much of anything.

So now we started giving him his entire meal on a divided plate all at once. So he can see everything he's being offered all at once. And we let him eat as much or as little of that meal as he wants, and when he's done that's it. No munching on cheerios afterwards because he didn't eat his perfectly good supper.

His pediatrician always assured us that no kid is going to starve himself. If he doesn't eat at a meal it was just because he wasn't hungry right then, and he'll eat at the next meal if he feels like it. So that's how we're going to roll. It's hard to send the poor kid to bed on an empty stomach because he didn't eat any supper but we know it won't hurt him and he'll learn that he either needs to eat at meal time what is offered to him, or don't complain about being hungry later.

Seems to be working so far. I think he likes seeing all that food on his plate, and he sets his own pace and works on it for awhile. I stopped cutting his food into such small pieces and that's working better too. I think he's liking to take bites out of things.  So who knows...... I'm thinking this is going to be a long war, and this is but one of many battles.

Drew is 14 months old today!

Things have changed very much this past month in lots of ways. All good changes, I think. Onward!

• He's walking now. It's so cool!
• He's on one nap now. I really thought it was just a phase he was going through, but no. This is for real, and it's here to stay.  At first I was bummed about it, but now I actually like it because it frees up our schedule quite a bit. He'll fall asleep in the car now, which he never used to do, so I just have to be careful about what time we go out (and how far a trip it is), so he doesn't fall asleep and screw up his real nap.
• He's weaned now!!!  Let me do the happy dance!  This was a long process for us, starting in late May I think. I gradually started dropping one feeding per week to give him a chance to adjust and of course to help my production slow down to meet demand. Last thing I wanted was a case of mastitis to slow me down. Finally we phased it all out and he's 100% at the mercy of outside food sources. God help him.
• I've taken the advice and suggestions of people who have given me ideas of things I can feed him. I give him almost no baby food anymore, so thank you very much!!  We do grilled cheese, waffles, scrambled eggs, pita & hummus, cheerios, pasta, etc etc.  I do keep a jar of carrots or sweet potatoes around to give him, since I can't get him to eat any kind of whole vegetable otherwise. He gags at the touch of them, at things he's never seen before! I don't get it. Cucumbers, gags. Peas, gags. Grapes, gags...... if he doesn't gag just looking at it, then most certainly when he puts it in his mouth.  For fruits he loves bananas and watermelon. And he loves dill pickles. I guess they were once a vegetable?
• He's cut two (or 3, not sure) molars this month, oh my GOD what a grizzly process that is. I felt so bad for him. He was just miserable. It's pretty horrifying to stick your finger in there and feel this massive tooth pushing up under the gum, I cannot imagine the pain.
• I've been trying and trying to brush his teeth but he still won't let me. I let him play with the toothbrush but when I try to touch it to his lips he clamps them shut tight and I can't even get near his teeth. I don't know what to do. He likes the taste of the "toothpaste" but not if it has anything to do with that toothbrush.
• He's pretty interested in his shoes. If he finds his shoes and socks lying around, he'll sit on the floor and press them against his feet like he wants to put them on. And he'll help me put them  on by lying there and sticking his foot up in the air so I can slide it on.
• He's started bringing random things to me, like toys, books, boxes of crackers from the pantry, etc. I don't know if he just likes to tote things around or if he's actually wanting me to DO stuff with these objects. If he hands me a book I'll read it to him, or play with a toy that he brings me.
• His cute little cackle laugh has disappeared and been replaced by a piercing scream. Oh my ears. Hope he finds the giggle again soon.
• We go for a walk daily around the yard and he really has a good time with that. We go ALL over the backyard, patio, down the side, front yard, all in the road and cul-de-sac and he even marches all the way down the road to the neighbor's mailbox.

Drew is THIRTEEN months old today!

Actually it was yesterday...

• He's a sippy cup pro! I guess he just needed some practice with it, because he nailed it in less than a week. Now he can tip it waaaay up to get everything he wants.   We got him some new ones in different styles and he likes all of them. You can find a list of BPA-free cups here.
• He now guzzles milk like there's no tomorrow. The first day he had it, he drank 1 oz (total). The second day, he drank 3 oz. The third day, he drank 7 oz. The fourth day, he drank 10 oz. Fifth day, 11 oz. I think I'm supposed to cut him off at 16 oz for the day, LOL.  Now I just give him 5 oz with each meal, and he drains it to the last drop.  I think it really helps to fill him up, too, which is great.
• Meal times are getting super-messy. Now he wants to help with the spoon, dip his hands in everything, smear it all over his tray, squish it in his hands, and fling and throw and sling. Yuck.
• He stands all the time now, for a good length of time.  It's so strange to see him just casually standing there chugging his sippy cup.
• The walking is really coming along so fast, I can't believe how much progress there is from one day to the next. One week ago I posted that first video, and now he's walking all the way across the screened porch by himself.
• He's been soooooo cute. His personality is really coming out. He's laughing, smiling, doing such funny noises that I can't even explain, hopping up and down, spinning in circles on his butt, leaning as faaaaaar back as he possibly can without falling, doing these crazy bursts of clapping and slapping his legs, playing with balls. I love his dimple and his wild guffaw laughter.
• He's understanding more complex things. If Dave is in his office and we're in the kitchen, I'll say to Drew "Go see Daddy." And he'll turn and thunder down the hall to the office where Dave is.
• After being in size 4 diapers for like.... 6 months now at least.... I'm starting to be able to tell that he's growing again because I can't get the tabs as close together as I used to. He was wearing size 4 before he even reached the weight range for it, I do not understand why that was, but the size 3 just absolutely did not fit him. I think it's because he's so tall and the 3s didn't come up high enough to cover everything, and they leaked everywhere.
• The kid eats like a PIG and does not seem to gain much weight. I swear I do nothing but feed him all day long (or else try to distract him to get his mind off of eating).  And then sometimes he doesn't want to do anything but play with his food, so I guess what they say is true--sometimes they are starving and other times you can't get them to eat anything.
• He's not waving yet, but more and more often I catch him waving at himself, doing the backwards wave facing himself and studying the way his hands move very intently.  Just yesterday, on the day of his 13th month birthday, he finally waved after being prompted!  I waved at him, and asked him to wave at me, and he did it! It just melted my heart, it was the cutest thing. Now he waves all the time, and when Dave came home he did it for him too.
• He got some stacking cups for his birthday, and now he can stack 3-4 cups in a tower! With a small amount of help from me to hold the bottom ones still. But he so has the idea.

Here is a video of crazy baby humor.... Drew thought Daddy's toes were soooooo hysterical.

Drew's Menu

Here are the things Drew is eating these days..... I'm trying to expand his menu because I want him off that dang baby food because it's so expensive. Any suggestions for things a 12 month old can eat (that are also nice and convenient for Mom to prepare)? I've been reading menus on the web and getting ideas.

Breakfast

1 jar fruit
1/4 cup baby oatmeal
1/2 banana
puffs

Lunch

1 jar fruit (or a veg)
1/4 cup oatmeal or whole grain brown rice cereal
puffs, goldfish, crackers, rice cakes, etc.

Supper

1 jar veg
1 jar fruit
1/4 cup brown rice cereal
bite sized rice cakes or crackers

Snacks (varies)

goldfish
puffies (these are falling out of favor--he gripes when he sees 'em because he wants something better)
crackers (whole grain minimally processed if I can help it, like Kashi)
mini rice cakes
toast w/ margarine
fruit (banana)
daddy's waffles
graham crackers
fruit cup

Beverages

breast fed 4X per day
drinks water throughout the day
I offer milk at each meal but he's not accepting it yet

Drew is NINE months old today!

• The kid is a maniac going places. He's crawling all over the house, getting into whatever he can. It's exhausting!  I have to follow him down the hall while he explores the bedroom, the bathroom, obsessively opens and shuts every door he can get his hands on, keep him from chewing on all the electric cords..... I have yanked a few coins out of his hands just a split second before they went into his mouth (I'm such a rookie mom).
• It seems he got hit with the 8-month sleep regression..... it hasn't been too bad but he's getting up more often at night and sleeping about 1 hour less for his nighttime sleep. I think he's spent more time in a sleep regression of various sorts than he has in a regular sleep pattern over the course of his lifetime so far. Ha ha! When will we stop regressing and start going forward?  What's a little more lost sleep for me? Sheesh.
• He's given up his 3rd nap, so we do 2 naps per day now. Just like the books said! Pretty amazing. And I know this with complete accuracy because I've been charting his sleep patterns for 175 days now, since he was 3.5 months old. YES, can you believe it??  He was such a renegade sleeper that I needed to bust out actual data charts to keep track of it, just like Ferber outlines in his book. It really helps me see what's going on. Anyway, he gave up the 3rd nap in his 7th month (Jan 25th).
• Such an exciting month for him: he mastered army crawling, learned to sit up from a crawling position, learned to go to a crawl from a sitting position without face planting, travels great distances, started standing with support and starting to pull up on things. It must be rough being a 9 month old (and even rougher being the mom of one).
• He's been way more vocal finally!! It's been a lot of fun to hear his yelps and blahblahblahs.  Dave and I truly thought he had some kind neurological delay because of how he never babbled or laughed regularly. But that is getting better. It seemed to correspond with when we started Kindermusik, so maybe it's helping him? Who knows!
• He even started doing a very distinct babble of "mamamammamama" which was a relief to hear. If you read those milestone charts apparently he was supposed to be doing that months ago. Thank goodness he's doing it now, better late than never.
• He's feeding himself. It was amazing the change, like one day he couldn't do it and literally the next day he could. I just pour a little pile of puffs on his highchair tray and he can pick them up one at a time, or by the fistful, and pop them in his mouth! Also we started giving him zweiback toast and that really keeps him occupied for a long time while he gnaws on that thing. It's nasty to clean up, but priceless for the amount of downtime it allows me.
• The sweet thing has actually started to lay his head on my shoulder when I hold him. I mean, you think this is a no-brainer but Drew has NEVER been able to do such a thing. He's turning into a sweet kid, I think!  Normally if I hold him he's playfully pawing at my face and trying to gouge my eyes and trying to rotate 360 degrees in my arms, fling himself this way and that way, pull my hair, bite my chin.....but I guess he's learning how to relax and just be STILL and lay his head on my shoulder (for maybe 5 seconds).
• I can't remember the last time I was able to leave his sight without major hysterics and dramatics. I think this started at 6 months, and it got old really fast. It's pretty annoying to not be able to leave the room for any reason, even just to go pee!  They say it peaks at 1 year so I have a loooong way to go before this is over. Dave said he didn't know how I don't kill myself.
• His 9 month appointment isn't until the 24th so I can't tell you any height/weight/percentile stats just yet. I know any time I take him shopping people stop to coo at him and ask how old he is, and I say 9 months and they go "wow, he's big huh?" I'm like yeah...... he hasn't got a petite gene from either side.
• I know you can't tell hand dominance until age 2, but if I had to guess I'd say he's favoring his left hand so far. Although I suppose dexterity comes in leaps and bounds in each hand.