Happy Birthday to Our Little Cruiser

I have been very excited about the toddler days, as it means that there will be fewer bottles of formula to prepare in the future. Sadly, I'm not so sure when that future will be, as Casey spit out his first taste of real milk. Guess he really is his mother's son. Hopefully he will begin to like it after a few more tastes.

He also received his first haircut shortly before his first birthday. I have to admit, I'm a little sad, as his hair is now very precise and not quite as rock star as it was before. I look forward to it growing in a little uneven.

Casey has rapidly advanced from cruising to testing out the waters on his own. He is very eager to walk on his own, but hasn't quite realized that it requires STANDING on his own first. However, he may find the concept a bit easier with his new birthday toy. The video below shows him walking in the hallway with his new learning walker.

Casey Crawls

Well, we knew the day would come, and on July 29th, it happened. Casey crawled. There is some good news and bad news that comes along with this.

Good news - well, it's pretty damn cute. Also, he now crawls over to us when he wants something instead of screaming.

Bad news - well, we have a really small space and he has managed to find ALL the places that a little man should not go. Also, he has figured out how to crawl OUT of the strap that used to keep him strapped to the changing table. Diaper changing time has become quite an adventure.

So, the video below was taken on Sunday as we enticed him with the computer on the floor. Enjoy.

Four, Four Teeth, ha ha ha

Yes, yes you should read that with the Count Von Count voice. So, Casey now has all four of his front teeth. The second top one is coming in slowly, but has broken through. We are hoping this means we'll now have a break before more teeth come, since the poor little man has been on and off miserable the last few weeks as these teeth have been coming in.

We took Casey to his first live concert during 4th of July weekend...The Gipsy Kings at Wolf Trap. We weren't so sure how he'd handle the crowd and the noise, but he had a great time. We danced to the music, played in the grass, rolled around on the blanket and played with our friends Scott, Mike and Stephanie. He enjoyed the show until about 10pm when it was time to sleep, but it was too loud. He was asleep before we left the parking lot. Here are some pictures.


Here he is listening to the music sitting in Mike's lap. As you can see, he was checking out the crowd and all the people dancing around us. As is typical with Wolf Trap, there were people dancing in front of us that shouldn't have been dancing.

Unfortunately, he got a hold of Mike's Mets hat. We'll have to help him understand that not all teams are created equal. Baseball hats come in two colors only: maroon and gold AND Nationals navy. Mets hat aside, we got some great pictures making faces with Mike.

We finally decided to lower the crib to the middle level. Casey was able to pull something off the edge of the crib and down, so we concluded his reach has expanded enough to merit the effort required to move the mattress. He is not yet trying to stand up on his own, but if we stand him next to the coffee table, he is enticed enough by the remote controls found there to hold on and try and reach for the elusive items. I think he is learning he has the body control necessary to hold on without mom or dad holding him.

Food has been an interesting adventure. Casey is still happy to eat finely milled baby purees AND table food. However, if you try and give him anything in between, forget it. At first, I thought he just didn't like homemade food, but when we moved to thicker items in the pre-packaged foods, he rejected those just the same. Needless to say, that made me feel MUCH better. We finally got him to eat a homemade meal the other day, after thinning it out with much liquid: Chicken and potatoes AND Brocolli! Apparently, unsweetened apple juice is the magic thinner. He loved them both. But the chicken had herbs and other spices, so it was exciting to see him venture into something with spices for the first time.

The Giggle Zone

We call this the giggle zone - 'nuf said...

Take me out to the ballgame

After our first trip to Colorado, we came home to DC to see our first baseball game. We hopped on the metro packed up in the stroller with the baby bjorn stashed in the basket (thank you Powells). When we arrived, we thankfully found out that we could stash the stroller at guest services. So, we tucked Casey into the baby bjorn and went to our seats. Casey did great.

First he spent some time with Daddy...and then when it was time for us to have a Ben's Chili Dog, he went to uncle Scott for a bit. We were really lucky, because we were under the cover when the massive rain storm blew by, so we stayed nice and dry.

After a couple of hours of enjoying the view, Casey started to get a bit tired, and came back to Mommy for a bit of nap time. Surprisingly, he napped quite nicely for an hour. We had a great successful day at the ballpark!

I Can Count to Three, Three Teeth

We woke up Sunday morning to find Casey's top front has started to break through! This time around has been a little bit better than the last, as the crankiness didn't kick in until the tooth started to come through instead of the 2 weeks before!

Who would have ever guessed that our son would be so busy talking that he couldn't focus on dinner? We tried to take some videos of Casey eating, but the video camera was a little distracting for him, and he jabbered through most of the entree. We do have this fantastic video of him rejecting spinach, though! Enjoy!

I have two teeth!

Not that we have managed to get a picture of the pearly whites, but at the end of May, Casey's two front teeth emerged! This has really improved his disposition and has minimized his suffering from the teething. We've also seen a decrease in drool, which is never a bad thing.

Much to my dismay, and Robert's enjoyment, we have learned that Casey LOVES puppets. His current favorite is Gladys the Gorilla. She came from Grandma Denise, along with an amusing book about a zoo gorilla on the hunt for banana bread. You can see see her in the picture below.

Speaking of bananas, they sadly seem to be Casey's favorite fruit so far. Our first efforts with pears and apples proved to be a little tart for our little man. It's not that he dislikes them greatly, he just prefers them mixed into his oatmeal. They seem to make both items more palatable for him. As far as the cereals go, oatmeal seems to be his favorite, with mixed grains a close second. Rice cereal, sadly, is not to be touched (not that I would enjoy it either).

Solid food was a slow start, beginning with sweet potatoes which he didn't seem to like at all...

...but now that he has a hang of it, we have yet to find much that he doesn't like. I'm beginning to think there is truth to the saying that what you eat during pregnancy is what your baby will like. Casey LOVES green beans and carrots, and did from the first bite, both of which I ate a great deal of towards the end of the pregnancy. This may explain why he didn't jump all over fruit, since I didn't have any during my last trimester. He now eats solid food three times a day, and sometimes even four!

We have now started finger food in the form of cheerios and puffs. About every fifth puff actually goes into his mouth before disinegrating. He has no trouble picking them up, he seems to just prefer playing with them right now. So we shall see.

Other milestones recently are sitting up for long periods of time and pooping ridiculously smelly poop. He continues to enjoy daycare, even though it is the worst petri dish on the planet. I am pretty sure that he has brought home every random illness from daycare, except for the standard strep throat that went around. You name it, he's had it...congestion, cold, fever, and our favorite, hand, foot and mouth. Poor little guy was miserable for a week. But he is finally well now, and playing and eating as normal.

The best part of being back into a normal routine is that he is now back to sleeping normal hours. Last night we had a blissful night that began at 9:30pm and ended at 8am, with only a single 30 minute feeding interruption at 5am. We would have been happy with the 5am wakeup, and the sleep until 8 was a very, very happy bonus.

Snowmageddon

Casey got to experience his first snowfall on his face this weekend when we were trapped inside for the whole weekend due to snowmageddon 2010. Once the snow finally started to slow down midday on Saturday, we decided it was time to bundle up and check out the damage from eye level. So, we packed him into the baby bjorn (thanks Allison), wrapped a warm jacket around him, and found him a knit hat. He was very confused about the cold flakes falling all around, but on an up note, didn't scream and spit up after being put into the baby bjorn!

I'm not sure what he is going to think in a month or so when we finally get to go outside for real! He may not know what to do in the sunshine. And, this is one downside of working from home. While the rest of DC/NOVA will be enjoying a snow day, I will still be working.

So far, this is ranking the 3rd most snow in HISTORY for DC, and it doesn't appear that it is over yet. We are looking at possibly 5-7 more inches in Tuesday. At this rate, I will never drive my car again. We spend a good part of our day looking out the window and watching the foolish people who are trying to drive on our unplowed street, and keep getting stuck. It does make me wonder why we dug out our cars, since we can't drive on the roads. I think collectively, Robert and I have shoveled for about 4 hours already. We have a clean parking space, and can get into the driver side of each of our cars. They may be frozen solid to the snow on the passenger side, so, it will be interesting when we next need to drive, since it may take a month for all this snow to melt.

But, we survived. We were lucky we never lost power, and were smart enough to go to the grocery store before the storm. So, for the most part, we just relaxed and enjoyed some quality baby time.

Week One

As promised, I am getting back to writing more often! I have almost completed my first week back at work. On day one, I was very optimistic, thinking that this whole schedule was going to work just great; Casey woke up once during the night (which Robert managed), and then again at 6am. I fed him, dressed him, and sent him off to daycare with daddy. I was then able to get in about 45 minutes of a workout tape in before my workday started. It was just what I hoped would happen! It hasn't happened again since. Most days this week, Casey has woken up at 4 and stayed up! Of course, by the time Robert is off to daycare, I am ready to crash again, and have skipped my workout and slept until it was time to work again.

Here is Casey with his most favorite stuffed frog.



Today was promising, as Casey was back to his Friday schedule, except it snowed overnight, so instead of working out, I shoveled some snow. Kind of a workout, but not really. I'm not really sure when we moved to the midwest, but this snow is getting kind of old. We are anticipating an additional 1-2 FEET this weekend. Who would have expected this???



Casey had his first playdate outside of daycare with his new friend Maddie. The babies played on the activity mat, even holding hands a bit, while the adults enjoyed some brunch and mimosas! It was very sweet to watch them interact, that is, when Casey bothered to notice another baby was there. Just like a man, he was more interested in his play gym toys than the lovely lady next to him. We'll have to work on this with him.

A recap

OK, so I've been a slacker. I'm sure I won't be able to capture the true essence of the last three months in retrospect, but I will give a good effort. I'll even start with the most recent news, so that those of you who don't care about old news don't have to scroll!



I think my biggest observation about new parenting is that the learning curve just sucks. Because no matter how much your friends try and tell you, they just can't remember everything you may need to know. Invariably, you learn the tricks people have forgotten far too late to put them to good use as much as possible. For example: I never realized the sheer genius of the FLOOR. It took me until about week 7 or 8 to realize that when you have a fussy baby who is kicking in your arms, it just means that he wants to exercise. And, at this age, if you put him on the floor, he isn't going anywhere...you just have to make sure you are supervising. Had I only known - oh the hours of frustration for both of us that could have been solved by some good floor time! And, now, it's almost too late! Casey has started to roll over from his tummy to his back, so I'm sure my days of him staying in one place on the floor are soon over. But, it's very exciting to watch him roll away!



He is also smiling all the time. It is nice to have a happy baby most of the time, to make up for the meltdowns that invariably happen towards the end of the day when he is trying to sleep.



He is also finally settling into some good patterns. He has grown out of his midnight feeding, and most nights sleeps from around 10:30 to 4am - which gives us a decent stretch of sleep. More so for me, since Robert generally takes that middle of the night feeding, and I get up with him at 6am or so and stay awake to feed him and play with him.



The other life changing moment for us was when he started playing with the toys attached to his bouncy chair. All of a sudden, the chair was no longer just a safe restrained location, but also a developmental tool. Gone were the times of me using the chair to just take a quick shower, now we are in the land of play, where he enjoys his time much more. He is also enjoying bath time much more now that we have moved from sponge baths to immersion baths. The first real bath took some adjusting, but ever since, he has shown that he does enjoy the warm water.



I haven't quite forgotten the first month (as people say you do), but the really hard time of those first few weeks is starting to seem like such a short time in comparison to the fun we've had with him this last month or so. I find it highly unfortunate that around the time you really get the hang of taking care of your infant, it is time to go back to work. That said, I still think that the first month or so was the hardest thing I've ever done. It didn't help that I had a c-section and TWO instances of pregnancy rash after delivery. Yes, you heard right, pregnancy rash. ALL OVER - head to toe. And, it wasn't just a few hives here and there...the hives merged and joined together to become their own large islands of rash.



We started Casey in daycare for 1/2 days this week. By Friday, he was back to his normal napping routine, and seems to enjoy himself there. We shall see how next week goes, when we move to full time. I am very sad to not have him to myself all day long anymore. It's definitely been hard dropping him off and going to kill time before I go back to pick him up, since I wish I could just play with him all day. But, I know the importance of transition time, and know that I just can't drop him off the first day I go back to work for a full day. Next week, I will kill time by cleaning the house, doing projects and getting a haircut. It will be the first time in 3 months that I have had entire days to myself without the baby. I'm not sure what I will do.



Well, I am off to feed the little man and tuck him in for the night. Hopefully, we will get a good night sleep! The next post will include pictures, I promise.