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.