feliz navidad

he cut a tooth!!!!

today! after a particularly grueling day of biting things, one tiny rice grain of a bottom tooth has raised its head above the gumline.

it's sharp, too! i know because he still soothes his sore gums on our fingers, chins, and noses. ouch.

stomping the yard

do they make baby pedometers? this child spends so much time stomping, marching, and flailing his feet that you would think that (a.) he was upright, and (b.) he had someplace extremely pressing to be.

distractability

i am starting to have a complex. no matter if i am standing him on my lap to have a heart-to-heart conversation, sitting him on the kitchen counter in his little baby chair, or even nursing... there is always, ALWAYS something more vitally important and fascinating just out of sight over one of his shoulders. such that, he must twist and turn and squeal and reach and thrash and squirm to get it.

i suppose this is the price one pays when one's baby starts to figure out you're not the only thing of interest in the world. i support and encourage this knowledge, and welcome the proof of the development of his ever-wrinkling little brain. i just wish this discovery didn't hurt my wrists so much!

my days are numbered

...my easy-naptime swaddling days, that is. went to do my "bolero" mini-swaddle for a morning nap, and baby boy wriggled out of it like the younger brother in The Last Dragon.

had to pull out the big guns (the full-sized lappa) but it looks like the halcyon days are coming to a close.

two inch fists

i remember how exciting it was when he first began to use his hands. he'd be nursing, and would just put up his little fists, open them slightly, and lay them on me gently, as if to frame his food. so sophisticated, compared to the baby bird mouth, eyes shut tight, with which he'd previously rooted for his meals.

now, of course, at nearly five months, he is a master manipulator - not only can he bring his hands to his mouth to chew, but no longer has to suck on the entire fist~ he can separate the fingers and hook one thumb deep into his cheek, or suck on only two or three fingers at a time. he can hold a rattle, toy, pacifier with his hands, and pass an object from one hand to the other. he can use his hands to cram THINGS into his mouth, not just the hands themselves. hard wooden rattly things, soft chewy silicone pacifier things, tough nubbly teething ring things, soft fuzzy fleece toy things.

he can reach for me.

the tongue - it moves!

so, he's discovered his tongue. it happened quite suddenly yesterday, and has been constantly in play since.

he must have had a board meeting wherein was discussed the need to get MORE drool out of the mouth-factory and into the WORLD. enough of this passive, namby-pamby, gravity-dependent drooling! what we need is a delivery system! a TOOL of some sort, which would propel an efficient, prompt, and renewable stream of drool down the chin and onto the shirt. why, we were only getting soaked to the sternum before! that would never do, we've got a 3rd quarter growth projection of wetness from shoulder to shoulder and down to the belly button. there are stockholders to answer to. we've got stacks of bibs to get through, and that'll never happen unless we get a...

ah. the tongue. now we're talkin...

what's behind his shoulder?

it's obviously something way WAY more important and interesting than whatever is in front of his face. this child has suddenly become a squirmy wormy little creature~ twisting around constantly, leaning way over out of my arms. what the heck is lurking in his peripheral vision?

falling in love

when he was just brand new, it was probably mostly an intense feeling of protection i felt. i wanted to enfold him in my care and never, ever see him hurt. when he was a few days old and had to get his heel pricked at the pediatrician (he was kind of jaundicey) and he was just squalling in his strong, tiny little voice, i sat there bawling, milk leaking down my shirt.

i thought, 'what have i gotten myself into?'

how could i handle the enormity of these feelings?



and i thought that was something.

time passed, he's three and a half months now. his face changes every day and becomes more and more beautiful (more and more human... let's face it, he looked slightly turtle-ish at first, LOL), his personality emerges little by little and i enjoy the blissed-out, happy, exploratory, mellow baby he is becoming. all we have to do is catch his eye and smile and he gives a wide gummy grin that warms me like sunshine. when he wakes up and stretches like a little cat i want to simultaneously laugh and give him a thousand kisses. his little warm body, his chubby fingers, his huge little cheeks like ripe peaches, his head full of coily anime hair... he's the most beautiful thing in the world, and he looks at me (ME!!) with the purest most complete trust and love i've ever seen.


and i think: 'what have i gotten myself into?'

how can i handle the enormity of these feelings?


last night, we came home really late, and he woke up slightly when we put him into his car seat. i gave him his pacifier to help him go back to sleep, and when i placed it into his mouth, he grabbed my hand by my bracelets and held it there, up to his mouth. his chest was warm under my palm and his little hands were holding tight to my bangles and he seemed so small and at the same time so strong and determined and my insides just melted.

and i thought, 'what have i gotten myself into?'

paper or plastic? ... the diaper answer

so, it boils down to we're basically doing cloth at home/at night and paper on the road/at work

i had gotten a bunch of different wraps to test out, some snappis and such. favorite situation by far is this brand of wraps called 'thirsties' - simple, well made, the extra smalls are small enough for him but have lots of room to grow, and they are quick to dry when wet and super easy to clean if soiled. folding the diapers into thirds and leaving a stack of pre-loaded wraps in the co-sleeper is the bomb, particularly for late-night changes when i don't want to get out of the bed, or really wake all the way up.

incidentally, why has the co-sleeper turned into a midnight changing table? lol.

ETA: dh's pre-baby diaper jitters? totally gone. in fact, all the stuff he anticipated not being able to deal with - seeing the birth, umbilical stump, particularly messy diapers - he is so doing without even being phased. although he definitely prefers the paper diapers to the cloth on GP (hanging onto a pail full of dirty diapers goes against his grain big time, lol) so i think particularly once the baby starts eating food and sh!tting like a man, the cloth days will be way over. these little innocuous EBF poops are quite easy to live with in a closed & deodorized diaper pail. actual food-based crap? i am not so sure.