The Sixth Month

Since we first tried to introduce solid foods at 4 months, Alexander consistently struggled with the concept of eating from a spoon. I didn’t know if this meant he wasn’t ready for solid foods, or if he was ready but just didn’t understand what to do. Having never been tasked with teaching an infant to eat with a spoon, I really had no idea what I was doing. So when my parents came to visit around the time he turned 5 months old, I handed my mom the spoon, a bowl of cereal, and the baby to see what awesome grandma tricks she had up her sleeve.

Turns out grandmas know all the good tricks. (It’s like she’s successfully raised a kid or two herself or something!) Tim and I had been quickly dumping the contents of the spoon in the baby’s mouth then pulling the spoon away only to have him spit the food back out. (Were we trying to trick him? “Ha! Now there’s food in your mouth! What are you going to do now, baby?” I really don’t know.) My mom, on the other hand, kept the spoon in his mouth so he could suck on it like he would a bottle (you know, like the way he’s been ingesting food for his entire life…interesting tactic).  One meal with Grandma, and now the kid’s eating solid foods like a pro.

(That’s Tim feeding him in the picture, by the way, lest you think my mom has hairy man arms.) (She doesn’t.)

And it’s a good thing he figured it out, too, because that meant we got to move past rice cereal and oatmeal and onto the exciting world of vegetables. When we gave Alexander his first spoonful of squash, we completely blew his mind. He was astounded to discover that there were other flavors in the world besides milk. Clearly, we’d been holding out on him, and he urgently needed to get more of this amazing new food into his mouth.

So far, we’ve introduced squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and peas, and he’s loved every bite. He gets excited when we put him in his high chair and get the baby spoon out. He opens his mouth wide, begging for more food. And he grabs the spoon and helps us guide it to his mouth when we’re not doing it fast enough for his liking. The kid loves his vegetables.

Other things Alexander loves include:

The dogs. I’m pretty sure they’re his favorite thing in the world. Every time he sees them, he breaks out in a big goofy grin and reaches out to try to pet them. The dogs are less than thrilled with this new development, but they begrudgingly tolerate it. I think they’re relieved he still stays pretty much in one place at the moment. Unfortunately for them, if anything motivates Alexander to start crawling, it’s going to be his overwhelming desire to get closer to the dogs. It won’t be long before he’s chasing them around the house.

Mommy and Daddy. He reaches out for me when I get home from work, and his entire face lights up whenever he sees Tim. I heartily approve.

Hiking. We picked up this backpack for $10 at a garage sale last spring, and I’m positive it’s going to get a ton of use this summer. The boy loves the great outdoors.

Books. He loves looking at the pictures, turning the pages, and, let’s be honest, trying to eat them.

Hanging upside-down with Daddy.

Playing Super Baby with Mommy.

Opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa, especially when there’s lots of crinkly tissue paper to play with.

Toys, including but not limited to: His sit-n-play, the monkeys in his bouncy chair, the mobile in the pack-n-play, restaurant menus, burp cloths, and his feet.

At his six-month check-up, Alexander weighed in at 17.4 pounds and measured 27.5 inches long. Over the last two months, he jumped from the 25th percentile in length to the 85th. All those vegetables must be good for him!

 

April 6, 2012 | Filed Under Photos & Videos, SangriaBaby | 2 Comments 

Have Baby, Will Play

Recently, I have been on a major quest to find mom friends. I have some wonderful friends in town, and I love them dearly, but they either have kids who are all grown up or they don’t plan to have any kids, and it’d be nice to connect with some women who I can talk to about baby stuff. I’ve looked for moms’ groups, but they all seem to be created for stay-at-home moms and therefore only get together during the week when I’m at work. (What’s up with that, by the way? I know it’s great for SAHMs, but us working moms want to connect with other moms, too!)

I’ve been struggling with lack-of-mom-friends induced loneliness lately, but last week I finally decided I could either sit at home and continue to cry about it, or I could be proactive and take steps to improve my situation. In a fit of desperation, I sent out a request on my neighborhood’s Facebook page to see if any of the moms in the neighborhood wanted to get together for a weekend playgroup. Then I summoned all of my will power to resist the urge to refresh the page constantly until someone responded.

Most people who know me know that I am super shy and not good at meeting new people. So it’s taking quite a lot of effort for me to set aside my insecurities, pretend I’m a lot more confident than I am, and actually reach out like this. I even consulted Twitter for the best, least-desperate-sounding wording before hitting “Post” on the Facebook page. Honestly, I was really just hoping for someone to say “Sure, let’s go to the park tomorrow!” I wasn’t looking to make a Big Thing out of it or organize anything Official.

But several people responded, and as a result, it looks like I might be in charge of organizing a neighborhood-wide playgroup that meets once a month. This is somewhat terrifying (What if nobody comes? How in the world do I organize a playgroup when I’ve never even been to a playgroup?) but also pretty exciting. One of the things that drew Tim and me to our new neighborhood was what a close-knit community it seemed to be, and I’m excited for the opportunity to actually get to know our neighbors.

(Confession: the other day I was driving home from work and saw some of our new neighbors in their driveway with a stroller. My potential-mom-friend radar went off, and as soon as I walked in the door, I told Tim we had to take advantage of the sunny weather and go for a walk right away. Secretly, I just really wanted to walk by the neighbors’ house with our stroller while they were still outside so we’d have the opportunity to introduce ourselves. My plan worked, and it turns out our neighbors are a super nice couple with a son about a year older than Alexander. Hooray for meeting the neighbors!)

Those of you who have been to playgroups…can you help a girl out? How does one organize a successful weekend playgroup? Can I just tell people to bring their children and some toys and then we let the kids play? Do I need to provide, like, refreshments or anything? Do I need to specify an age range, like babies and toddlers? Am I totally in over my head here?

Hopefully this will all work out, and Alexander and I will make some fun new friends!

March 19, 2012 | Filed Under SangriaBaby | 7 Comments 

The Fifth Month

Guess who learned how to roll over this month.

Alexander did! And he is so darn proud of himself and his new skill. It’s positively adorable.

With his new-found ability to roll (front to back AND back to front), he no longer hates Tummy Time the way he used to. Now that he has a choice about how long he stays on his tummy (not to mention a lot more neck strength), he’s a lot happier to hang out there for awhile, looking at the world from a different angle and practicing swimming motions that I’m sure are just a few well-placed wiggles and squirms away from actual crawling.

Also, have you seen this boy’s big blue eyes? Because they slay me every single time.

It was an exciting month for the rest of the family, too, as Tim’s sister adopted a beautiful baby girl. Alexander was super excited to meet his new cousin, Maeta, and I think they’re going to have a lot of fun growing up together. Between Maeta and my brother’s two girls, Alexander has three fun cousins to play with — and they all live nearby, which means they’ll get to spend lots of time together. I love that Alexander’s going to grow up surrounded by so much family.

When he wasn’t busy rolling over or meeting his new cousin, Alexander was happy to chillax on the couch with Daddy or help Mommy unwind with a glass of wine after a long day at work.

It’s official: having a son is the Best Thing Ever.

Five months; I am so in love with this boy.

March 11, 2012 | Filed Under Photos & Videos, SangriaBaby, Tim | 3 Comments 

The Fourth Month

This was a big month, as I returned to work and we settled into new daily routines. I managed to find my groove as a working mom, and Alexander discovered how much fun it is to spend his days with his Aunt Aleisha. He was supportive of my return to editing, even if correcting comma splices and run-on sentences is not currently exciting enough to keep him awake. (He’ll learn to appreciate grammar and punctuation eventually…if he knows what’s good for him.)

Alexander is still growing and learning like crazy, as babies do. He’s gotten really good at reaching out and grabbing things, and pretty much everything he gets his hands on goes straight to his mouth.

He loves grabbing the toys that hang above him on his play mat, which just blows my mind. Seems like just last week his little arms couldn’t even reach those toys, and now he tugs on them and swings them around to his heart’s desire.

The first weekend after I returned to work, we bought Alexander a sit ‘n’ play. I’d seen pictures of my friend Amy’s baby, who’s just 5 days older than Alexander, playing in one and having a great time, and I thought Alexander might enjoy having one of his own. It’s also possible I was making myself feel better about being away from him all week by buying him a fancy new toy. Maybe.

He was pretty confused by it at first, and we had to make some slight alterations to make it easier for him to play while he grows into it (pillow in back to help him sit up, box underneath since his feet don’t reach the ground). But now he’s got it mostly figured out and has a pretty good time sitting in there, bouncing up and down, and playing with the various bells and whistles. It’s funny watching him figure out new contraptions — it seems like the harder he thinks, the more he drools…he spends a lot of time in bibs these days.

It’s also incredible watching the gears turn as he puts together the various pieces of information in front of him and figures out how to make lights flash and music play with the press of a button. My little genius child.

During a thrilling game of peek-a-boo one night, Alexander giggled for the first time, and Tim’s and my hearts instantly melted. It was one of the best sounds I’ve ever heard. He hasn’t done much giggling since then — clearly, he has a very sophisticated sense of humor — but every now and then we manage to get a chuckle out of him.

He’s still trying to figure out how to roll over, but he has mastered the art of rotating himself in a circle. If I lay him down on his play mat, he wriggles and squirms, rolls to his side, and wiggles some more, and eventually he will have spun a full 180 degrees from his original position.

He loves standing up, too, and he even occasionally moves his legs like he’s trying to walk when we help him stand up. This kid has places to go, and I’m pretty sure that once he figures out how to propel himself around, there will be no stopping him. I think Tim’s destined to spend his summer vacation chasing the world’s most adorable little boy around the house.

At his 4-month check-up, the pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to introduce solid foods, and that night, Alexander had his first taste of rice cereal. He did really well with it that first night, but since then has had a lot more trouble understanding that he’s supposed to swallow it, not just spit it all out.

He’s also been fighting off a cold, which could be part of the problem. After all, who wants to learn new things when they don’t feel good? We’ve put away the cereal for now and will give it another try when he’s feeling better.

Here he is at 4-months old: 15 pounds even, and 24.5 inches long (that’s over 2 feet tall!).

He’s a growing machine, this boy!

February 11, 2012 | Filed Under Photos & Videos, SangriaBaby | 3 Comments 

Two Tired Tales

One:

We are up with our days-old baby for one of multiple middle-of-the-night feedings. I finish feeding the baby and hand him off to Tim, who is still in bed, to be burped. I go to the bathroom, come back, take the sleeping baby from my sleeping husband’s arms, and deposit the baby in the bassinet next to my side of the bed. I settle in to bed and work on getting back to sleep. Minutes later, Tim bolts upright, arms outstretched as if holding an invisible baby, and exclaims in panic: “The baby left!” Groggy from my almost-asleep state, I look at him in confusion and ask what he’s talking about. “Where’d the baby go?” he repeats, still baffled at the empty space in his arms. “He’s over here, honey. I took him from you and put him in his bassinet. Go back to sleep.”

Two:

At two months old, the baby has started sleeping for longer stretches of time. I still wake up frequently, reach into the bassinet, and gently lay my hand on his stomach to make sure he’s breathing and all is well. I often dream that I’m feeding him and wake up confused when he cries: Wasn’t I just feeding you? It’s not uncommon for me to wake up from one of these dreams, feel a warm, baby-sized mass snuggled up next to me, and panic, thinking that I’ve fallen asleep with the baby in the bed and he’s presently suffocating in the comforter. Usually at some point when I’m feeling around for the baby’s face to make sure it’s not smothered in blankets, I realize it’s Smalls snuggled up to me, not the baby, and fall back asleep secure in the knowledge that dog and baby are both sleeping (and breathing) where they should be.

One night, I wake up from a baby-feeding dream and feel a warm, baby-sized mass in bed next to me. I do my usual hand-on-the-stomach check, verify that the baby is still breathing, and pick him up to move him to the bassinet. I sit up, turn toward the bassinet, am about to place the baby back in the bassinet when I see that the baby is already in the bassinet. Confused, I look down at the curled-up dog in my arms, reflect a moment on how close I just came to setting her on top of the baby in the bassinet, put her back on the bed, and go back to sleep.

January 17, 2012 | Filed Under SangriaBaby | 4 Comments 

Next Page »