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Monday, January 30, 2012

Week 26, Busy, Busy Bugee

Hungry Hungry Hippo
Word of warning, this is a long winded post. So settle in and enjoy.

Wow! What a week this has been. The little guy is movin' and groovin' full force. He does all sorts of things that just make this Momma have melty butter knees, but when he reached for me, I mean really reached for me this week, I felt yet another iron love band snap in place around my heart. I tell you, a child's love is the best medicine for anything.

I have an excellent eater on my hands. A genuine bottomless pit. He likes rice cereal, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, applesauce and bananas. And since someone gave us lots of #2 baby food I just moved him up as we ran out of the #1's we had. He didn't seem to mind the texture change at all.
Very first bite ever of banana.
Tuesday was a rough day for little mister. I had him in his swing watching Baby Einstein as I was getting ready to take a shower and he started to fuss a bit. It was an "I'm uncomfortable" cry so I decided to check on him. At first I thought he just had some spit up on his chin so I grabbed a burp cloth to wipe his face and then I noticed that the front of his onesie was soaked. So I picked him up and discovered that he was sitting in a big puddle of puke. So, mister got a bath in place of Mommy's shower. And then later on that day he puked again while I was holding him, all over both of us. Bath #2. Other than that and a couple good naps he was very smiley and cheerful through it all.

I wasn't able to catch him on camera, but several times this week I caught him up on all fours! He is determined to crawl! He can roll wherever he wants to go and scoot backwards on his belly, and if I am sitting on the floor with him sitting on one side and a toy that he wants on the other, he can climb over my legs to get it. Smart guy!

I know most little people love to suck on the wash cloth at bath time, but I try to keep it away from him because it's all soapy. The booger figured out a way to drink that bath water anyway.
As I said earlier, Rayler can get where he wants to go if he is determined. Sometimes I underestimate his gumption. I sliced up an apple one morning to go with my breakfast and sat down to play with him while I  ate it. A couple slices in I had to leave the room and I left the saucer with the apple right on the floor a few feet away from where he was playing. When I came back I was surprised to find my son with an apple slice in his mouth, gnawing away. Like I said, bottomless pit.

Bugee (one of many pet names) is really getting the hang of the sitting up thing. Every once in a while he gets over excited and flings himself backward but he's good enough that I can sit him up with his toys in the front room and go to the kitchen without worrying about him getting hurt. Here are some fun sitting up pictures.
Using the abs to balance on Momma's squishy bed.

And the toy of the month award goes to...
Sometimes I just have to watch in wonder as my son identifies a problem, and then works to find a solution.
Here is an excellent example.
I want the duck, but I can't quite get to it.

Uh-oh, I knocked the duck even further away from me...

Let me see if I can use the caterpillar to reach the duck...
I got it!

And I shall eat him.
Another first this week, we had a date night on Friday and Rayler sat in his first restaurant high chair! Well, his first high chair, period.
Please Mommy, can I have some steak?
We've been using a small fire truck diaper bag since Rayler was born. Up until Rayler started eating food I was able to fit everything that he needed in it. Of course, it all had to go in just so, and if you had to get one thing out, everything had to come out to get to it. When he started food I had to start carrying another small bag. So after kicking around the idea for a while, we finally bought a snazzy gray and red backpack. Plenty of expansive pockets and lots of room for food, sippy cups and extra toys! 

When Rayler was about 1 1/2, 2 months old he started sleeping through the night, about nine hours. It was marvelous. And the just before he hit 4 months he caught a growth spurt and bye-bye nine hours of sleep! It still wasn't that bad, he woke up every 2 to 3 hours to eat but he ate quickly and went right back to sleep. Even after that growth spurt he still woke up to eat at least once a night and since he moves around so much while he sleeps (he gets that from me) he whacks his head on the side rails and wakes himself up. He goes back to sleep quickly but I don't. So I've been zombie Momma a lot lately. Saturday night, wonderful Saturday night, Rayler slept all night long. 9 1/2 hours. However, at 2 am we lost power and I woke up and began worrying that his room would get too cold. So I went down and laid in the spare bed in his room so I could check on him periodically and put an extra blanket on him if he got too cold. Of course while laying there, wide awake, it occurred to me that if he woke up hungry before the power came on I would not be able to heat his bottle. It was a vicious cycle. In the end the power did come back on at 4:46 am but those few hours were enough to keep me up the rest of the night. Ironic. He finally slept all night and I barely caught a wink. Sometimes you just have to shake your head and laugh, if you don't you'll cry. 

One more fun picture and I'll let you rest your eye's until Wednesday. Wednesday marks Rayler's six month monthday. No, I don't think I'll cry. I'm having too much fun watching him grow to cry. Yet.
Top to bottom: Mr. Engelbert, Paddington, Big  Penguin, Mr. Wiggles, Winnie-the-Pooh, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Rusty, Paulie, George the Giraffe, and Eddington Pig.


Monday, January 23, 2012

Week 25, A Long Week

Who, me?
 This week was a rather long one. Rayler had seemed to be getting over his cold until Sunday night. He woke up several times because he couldn't breath through his nose. Tyler put another blanket under his mattress to prop him up but now he wiggles down and curls up at the bottom so I'm up and down every hour or so at night moving him back up to the top. Naps were off kilter too. He doesn't sleep more than 15 minutes in his crib so he's been spending most naps on my chest. He sleeps longer and better that way. Which means Mommy hasn't gotten much housework done this week. The nose sucker has become Mommy's best friend and Rayler's mortal enemy this week. At first I had to use it on him every half hour but now we're down to a couple times a day. But not the whole week was cloudy, we had plenty moments of sunshine in between!
Trying to get the camera

Buckets and buckets of drool!
Tastes like chocolate!
He takes his silly after Dadda

Still working on those teeth!
This is what happens when you let a five and a half month old man the video camera.
Here's another before and after
Before...
1/17/11
After...
1/17/12 Giving Paddington kisses
And this is from this morning. I had laid him on a blanket in the front room and went to make myself some breakfast. When I peeked in a few minutes later he had managed to get under the blanket and was playing peek-a-boo by himself.

Week 24

Night-night!
This week was a fun one! Since Rayler is rolling so much we had to lower the mattress in his crib.
I also finally put away all his newborn to 6 months clothes. He's wearing 6-9/6/12 mos now. And some things are even too small! I found his very first pair of jammies. My little guy is growing so much!
See how much I've grown!
Since Rayler had such an aversion to green beans the first couple of times, I thought for sure that he would dislike peas as well. Boy, was I wrong!
I *love* peas!
I've seen a big increase in his appetite as well this week. He now has cereal or veggies (I alternate them every other meal) and then drinks a 6-7 oz bottle! I'm beginning to realize his potential as a bottomless pit!

As I mentioned earlier, Rayler is a pro at rolling around now. At the beginning of the week he needed a little coxing sometimes but now he rolls all over the place.
He really loves his Mr. Wiggles. One day he held onto him while he drank his bottle and kept holding on even after he fell asleep. So Mr. Wiggles got to take a nap with Rayler.
Here's some more fun from this week!
Momma's helper!
Supervising Momma's painting.
"swimming"

I want to crawl *so bad*!

He started gritting his gums this week. Those teeth are really bothering him.
Chillin in the tub

Watching EMHE Joplin with Aunt Beth

...and with Grandma Bobbie
And here's a before and after.
Before...
1/12/11
After....
1/12/12
We'll leave you with some lovin's!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Week 23, Getting SO big!

Happy 23 weeks birthday!
 We started this week out with a visit to the pediatrician. He had been congested for a week and I was worried that he might be getting worse. False alarm! Just a little cold. But we did have to take some preventative measures.
Put a blanket under his mattress so his head would be elevated
We also did warm baths, baby Vicks, a humidifier and the lovely nose sucker that he hates so much. For being under the weather he is incredibly happy all the time.
He has gotten so big! They measured him when we went to the Dr. and he weighs 17 lbs. 11 oz. now and is 27 inches long! I decided that it was time to make him a growth chart.
Thank you Pinterest! 
About mid-week he decide to start skipping his mid-afternoon nap. Soon after when he did nap and I went to get him out of his crib after he woke up I began finding this...
He rolls over (from belly to back) when he wakes up and quietly talks to himself until I arrive.
Every other day or so I have to make up his bottles. I let him watch Baby Einstein while I work on that.
Playing with his toes
We have had such success with orange veggies that I decided to let him try green beans. THAT was an experience!
Unsuspecting victim...

Mom, why are you taking pictures?

Um, Mom, that doesn't taste orange...

I don't think I like this Momma!
So green beans where not a hit the first time. Although I did get him to laugh about it...
The second time around with green beans he tried the you-can't-get-the-spoonful-of-gooey-green-stuff-past-my-clamped-gums bit. But I did. And the third time he ate them with no complaints and by the last few spoonfuls was happily saying "Mmmmmm".

We also had to go up to size 3 diapers this weeks! One morning and the next naptime I found his bed soaked so up a size we went. Solved that problem.

I read a note this week on what baby should be doing in the fifth month. "By the end of this month your baby may be able to grasp a toy or small object and bring it to his or her mouth." That made me laugh. Rayler has been doing that for, well, quite a while now. He's so good at it that he can actually pull some of his toys off the makeshift gym I made for him. Usually it's Rusty the Monkey. He's even managed to unhook some of his links a couple of times!

We also started trying out a sippy cup this week.
And here are some random photos from this week.

Knuckle dimples

Elbow dimples

He has my cowlick
The piggies are makin a break for it


Love waking up to this darling face!