Wednesday, December 3, 2014

12 months. 1 year. However you slice it, I'm not ready

Even though his birthday is WEEKS later than we were anticipating, I'm still having a hard time believing it's been a year already.

The vitals:
24 ish pounds, 32 ish inches. Official numbers after his doctor's appointment next week.

Highlights:
First Thanksgiving! (Since the little turkey wouldn't come out in time last year). He slept through dinner on Thursday, but devoured all the foods once he woke up. We repeated the seasonal food experiment on Sunday with J's family and the result was the same.
First cupcake! Since we had the family gathered anyway, we did a little early birthday celebrating. It did not take him long to pick the thing up & shove it in his face.
First steps! A whole month sooner than Eleanor did, he's walking!
First lemon. While Bagel's parents were in town, we had lunch & gave him a lemon slice. He was totally unfazed.







Skills:
Walking. He took some tentative steps, then 2-5 steps in a row, then he was off. He still crawls (usually when he falls after trying to run), but more and more he's choosing to stand and walk.
Signing- milk & food are the two most common, though we see the occasional please or more.
Waving
Talking- Mama, Dada & something that sounds like Ella, or Nora. He's trying to mimic us, and that's pretty adorable.


Works in progress:
This child is still toothless. So, there's that. (It slows him down when it comes to eating NOT ONE BIT) But he does have bumps on the top that feel like teeth might come out of there soon. Maybe.
Shopping in jammies
Words. He's trying out a lot of sounds, and soon, we'll understand what it is he's trying to tell us.
Spoons. He really wants to feed himself and he's actually not that bad with sticky stuff.
Brown eyes? His dark grey is starting to show some tan flecks.

He likes:
All the food
Anything Eleanor is playing with or touching
His paci & blankie
Music
Pouches
Things that light up & make noise
Taking his socks and shoes off
Peek-a-boo
Baths
Chasing the pets
Playing in cabinets

He dislikes:
Getting his fingers pinched in cabinet doors
Not getting to have what Eleanor is playing with
Runny noses

I like:
Watching him learn. I'm amazed every day.
Babies in hats. How independent he is, most of the time. I mean, most of the time he's pretty independent and most of the time I like that. He feeds himself, can hold his own bottle, entertains himself. It's great. Until I miss my tiny squishy baby.
I mean, come on! Look at that tiny face!
I dislike:
Runny noses, ear infections, and all that nonsense.
His hair lays down 87% of the time now.
That soon I'm going to start calling him a toddler.I'm not ready for two toddlers in the house.

I love this boy. I knew I would, but after all the fun I had with Eleanor, a boy was hard to imagine.
He's happy and charming and just so fun.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Eleven months

So, eleven months is dangerously close to a year, and this baby is still a baby, so can't be almost a year old. Still...

Vitals: Still 23ish pounds and 31 inches

Highlights: 
Haunted house going! 
First Halloween! 
First head wound! 


First icky cold (that was still mild & required little help)...I think.

Skills:
Walking with very little assistance
Climbing things
Standing & clapping, at the same time
Signing food, more, milk, mama, all done
Waving
Wookie noises
Blowing kisses

Works in progress:
Walking with no assistance
Giving kisses

He likes:
Colorful food. He eats all the vegetables out of stuff first.
Chasing his sister
Blankets
Peek-a-boo
Boxes
Tickles
Going for a ride
Splashing

He dislikes:
Nursing. He has completely weaned himself from me. We're supplementing with formula until next month when we'll switch over to milk

I like:
Being with him for Mother's Day Out. I get to see him learn & grow. He gets to socialize. It's working out really well.
Snuggling
Watching my TWO kids play together
Double bath time. It's so much easier when they're on the same schedule

I dislike:
Bottles. I mean, I'm grateful for them and the convenience of knowing that anyone can give him one, but I do miss nursing, for totally selfish reasons. I'm glad he made the choice himself & we didn't have a difficult weaning process, but I wasn't quite ready. I still snuggle him and get good cuddles when giving him a bottle though.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

10 & 30

I finally found the alligator & giraffe, so I could take the "official" photos. 10 & 30 months.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

10! Months!

The Vitals:
Holding steady at about 23lb
30.5" I think. Maybe 31", it's hard to get him to be still

Highlights:
Started Mother's Day Out
First move to a new house
Sleeping in a real crib, not a pack & play
Visit from Aunt Cheryl, Granny Boswell, and cousins





First day of Mother's Day Out
Skills:
Standing. By himself. Alone. Unassisted.
Climbing stairs
Clapping
Rolling balls & chasing them
Throwing things
Babbling. Lots of mamamas & dadadas, but only occasionally with purpose

Works in progress:
Cruising. He can do it, but knows he's faster on the ground
Walking. He can do it holding on to our hands & I think if I got him a walker toy he'd conquer the world
Teeth? Maybe? Never? I don't even know anymore

He likes:
All the food
Peek-a-boo
Wooden blocks
Balls
Throwing things
Standing in the tub
Crawling in the dog's crate

He dislikes:
Grass
When the food is gone

I like:
His smiles, which he hands out freely
Long pants season. Babies in jeans are the cutest
That he takes his afternoon nap at the same time as Eleanor now. Hoooooooray!

I dislike:
The Mohawk is gone, though he still has a little Alfalfa sprout in back
His complete disregard for safety
It's October, and that means costumes and I'm so excited to have 2 kids to dress up! Eleanor is starting to express OPINIONS about what she wears, so this is going to be fun. Sadly, I can't find where I packed his alligator to take his 10m picture just yet.

Two and a half

My baby girl is hardly a baby anymore. She's running and planting seeds in her "garden" (read: patch of dirt conveniently located to get current position) and generally just being amazing.

The Vitals:
Tall & not as leggy as I thought. 37' She wears 2t pants, 3t shirts & dresses. I guess she's got more torso now. She hovers right around 30lb and has for nearly a year now. She's front facing in her car seat, which she can climb into &  out of on her own.

Highlights:
The past six months have been such a blur in so many ways. She had her first teeth cleaning appointment, and she was amazing. Fluoride, flossing, the works. I mean, she's been to the dentist 5 times since she broke her tooth at ten months. She didn't want a toy at the end of her visit, she wanted a dental mirror.
We went back to the haunted house where J works. Last year she went as a hippo and was really too young to understand and be scared. This year, we talked a lot about going to visit the monsters, and play peek-a-boo. She put on her tutu and flower headband and loved it! She giggled and grinned. She launched herself into J's arms, not at all bothered by his makeup.

Skills:
Sentences. Full, developed, mostly grammatical sentences.
She tells stories. As in, you can ask her what she did today, and she'll tell you a sequence of events.
Her imagination has really taken off. She's fantastic at looking at some random object and making it whatever tool she needs in the moment.
Staying awake on the drive to my folks' house
Feeding the dog (that's her morning chore)
Setting the table. Not well, but she can do it.

She likes:
Daniel Tiger
All the movies, especially Brave, Tangled & Mulan. Nemo & Monsters Inc. aren't in heavy rotation anymore
Grape tomatoes
All the fruits
Cheese of all kinds
Quiche
Noodles
Pop Tarts (unfrosted strawberry, because I'm not a total monster)
Mama's breakfast (which is chocolate Belvita
Going to school and church
Playing in the dirt
Being outside
Being our "big helper"
Washing her hands
Going upstairs
Her blankie & paci
Getting a ponytail

She dislikes:
Getting a ponytail
All raw vegetables that aren't tomatoes
Coming inside
Not going upstairs

I like:
The level of communication! It's just mind blowing to have whole conversations with her. She can express her opinions and we can negotiate.
Her curly hair. I have no idea what to do with it most days, but it's beautiful.
Her delightful mispronunciations. She wears a baby suit (bathing suit) to go get in the cool (pool). She gardens with a bucket and a shuggle. She likes to snuggle under her co-wees (covers). OK, she can say covers (co-wers) but I'm not encouraging that. Combo letter sounds are still hard, so snack is 'nack and clock is...hilarious. She mimics everything we say. EVERYTHING.
Her fearless attitude (except she learned about being afraid from Daniel Tiger & that's kinda lame, though it did help us with the haunted house, so he can stay).
Daniel Tiger. Yeah, the songs help us so very much. We sing them daily.

I dislike:
The willful attitude
Boundary-testing
The return of the bottle? Since we moved, she's been asking for a bottle again. I'm hoping she settles in & gives it up again soon
She's delightful. I take videos of her all the time, because I can't get over how great she is.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

9 months

Nine months! It'll still be a while before Garrison can claim the "been out longer than in" award, but it's quickly approaching.

The Vitals:
Height: 29 inches. Looooooong baby
Weight: 21 lb 3 oz. How is this possible when he does nothing but eat?

Highlights:
Uh... listing our house for sale? Which for Garrison just meant a lot of unscheduled car rides.
First day of Mother's Day Out (which fell on the day he turned 9 months, so I'm gonna go ahead and count it)
Food. Lots of food. All the food. The kid is a bottomless pit at the moment.

Skills:
Standing (still holding on)
Pulling up
Holding his own bottle or pouch
I'm still putting sleep on here, because it's still new-ish, but the nights where he wakes up more than once are rarer than the nights he doesn't, so I'm gonna take it.

Works in Progress:
Standing alone
Cruising
TEETH (I think I finally felt the beginnings of one pushing through, but COME ON, it's been forever)

He likes:
Food
Singing (ours and finding his own voice)
Eleanor. He watches her with such fascination
Chasing us from room to room, and little boy is FAST
Bath time
Rolling over as quickly as possible during diaper changes.

He dislikes:
Having anything removed from his mouth, which is sad for him, as he insists on putting EVERYTHING in there--lint, paper, pill bugs, dog hair, the cat's tails, all the toys

I like:
His speed. I can actually walk to another room and ask him to follow me, and he does! Amazing!
His soft fuzzy head. His mohawk may be going away, but he's still soft and downy.
His enthusiasm at seeing people he likes
He's figuring out how to get hand-flappily excited about things, and it's the best
Sleeping for stretches of time that can be measured in multiple hours. That's pretty rad.
We almost have something close to a routine established. There's a definite rhythm and pattern to our days that is somewhat predictable.
SQUNCH FACE! He wrinkles his nose in the most adorable way at pretty much anything. It's fantastic.

I dislike:
The excema on this face that causes him to constantly scratch
The seemingly randomness of his willingness to settle himself to sleep.





Monday, August 4, 2014

8 months

The Vitals:
Big. Many pounds and also inches. Home scale says 21.5 lb. I cannot get him to sit still long enough to measure.

Highlights:
Meeting Flynn Rider, or rather, Zachary Levi
Pool time at Amma & Papa's house
Bath time with sister

Skills:
Crawling. A lot. He started crawling about 2 days after my last post and has just gotten faster and more determined as the days go by.
Sleeping! Finally! And I'm not going to elaborate, because I know what happens when you talk about baby sleep on the internet. Things aren't perfect yet, but we've seen INCREDIBLE improvement this month. I'm starting to feel human again.
Charming the masses with his crazy fluffy mohawk

Works in Progress:
Pulling up
Standing.  He does this funny downward facing dog/football center (that's the guy who...hikes? the ball to the quarterback, right?) thing and I swear any day now he's going to figure it out and just push all the way up to standing. Then fall on his face.
Teeth? I don't know. There's a lot of chewing and a lot of drooling, but he remains totally toothless for now.

He likes:
All his sister's toys
Chasing the dog & cats. He's not very fast, but the animals don't do much to get out of his way, so it's a fairly even match
Cold wipes. Still. It's so weird, but saves me getting a wipes warmer, so that's cool.
All the food! It took a while to get there, but he's caught on that food is delicious and is trying to steal things off of everyone's plate.
Also eating anything he can get his hands on, including dog hair, pill bugs and carpet fibers.

He dislikes:
Having things taken out of his mouth, like dog hair, pill bugs and carpet fibers

I like:
How easily he smiles & giggles
He chatters much more than I remember Eleanor ever doing
That he's learning to soothe himself
That he follows me from room to room
His crazy grey eyes, that sometimes look like they have brown in them, sometimes hints of green, but mostly just a really pretty grey.
He is fascinated by Eleanor. I love watching him watch her

I dislike:
That he follows me from room to room! I can't just leave him sitting to play with toys anymore.
I have to vacuum & sweep multiple times a day





 All in all, it's been a good month

Sunday, July 13, 2014

I cut my hair & met Zachary Levi. These things aren't connected

So, a friend on Twitter recently chopped her hair off into this super great swoopy sort of pixie cut thing. And though I swore after chopping all my hair off after high school graduation that I would never, ever do that again, I found myself considering it. So I pinned a bunch of pictures, made plans with my husband and got myself to the local salon. Now, I've always had pretty good luck there. I get decent cuts/color, but... never exactly what I asked for. That pretty much sums up my experience this time too.

What I wanted:
From Cute Hairstyles-Haircuts.com
A pixie. But longish. Swoopy, but not super dramatic. Not blonde either, but you know, able to tuck a little behind my ears, but up off my neck. Something that wouldn't require a lot of fuss. No diffusers or a ton of product just to get it to sit still on my head. Not too much to ask, but maybe it is, with my super fine, straight, boring hair. Still, I was going to attempt it. It's just hair. It grows, and I was definitely tired of the length it was, so I was going to cut it and while I liked having a short bob, it was more work than I wanted to make it presentable. So, after pouring over a lot of pictures, this is what I decided on. I knew there was probably going to be product involved, but I hoped for the "apply to damp hair, comb through with fingers, go retrieve the toddler from wherever she's gotten to that she shouldn't be and grab the baby before he eats too much dog hair and try not to care if your shirt has someone else's bodily fluids on it so long as you don't smell too bad, just call it good" kind of styling routine. That I can handle.

This is the cut I wound up with:
It's short, and pixie-ish. Not as long or as swoopy as I would have liked, but that just gives me growing room, right? I've had some time to wash it and play with some new products and sort of figure out how I think it might work on a daily basis. I do like it just air-dried, so that's nice, but a little bit of goop helps keep it more in place for going out in public, because I like to look fancy at the grocery store. I do like having bangs again. I still don't recognize myself in pictures of mirrors yet. After a bit of playing, I think this is what I will look like most days.

SPEAKING OF PICTURES!!

So, there's this thing called Nerd HQ run by The Nerd Machine which is a company that Zachary Levi & Dave Coleman founded. If you don't know who Zachary Levi is, go watch Tangled. He's Flynn Rider. Only my second favoritest Disney prince in the history of ever. (Ok, he might be my ACTUAL favorite, but I'm sentimental, and Prince Phillip will never ever be removed from the top of that list.) And then go watch the series Chuck. Because it's fun and light and cheesy and I fell in love with it in the first episode when Chuck first sees Sarah and starts singing the Vicki Vale song from the Prince Batman soundtrack... wait, not Prince Batman like Prince Phillip. The soundtrack to the Batman movie with Michael Keaton that Prince did. I loved that cd. And went to Great America (which is what the Six Flags park in Gurnee is called) when I was in middle school and stood in line to sing the songs while waiting to ride the ALL NEW FANCY Batman rollercoaster. Anyway, we're watching the first episode, Chuck starts singing this sort of obscure song that I love from my pseudo-childhood and I made J pause the show so I could geek out over the fact that he was singing the Vicki Vale song! Only to have Chuck explain that in the episode just a few seconds later. Ooops.

Anyway, Nerd HQ did a fundraising thing this year, and I contributed 0.0001% of the total amount raised, which was sadly only 33% of what they needed, but turned out to be enough to get the attention of sponsers to make the event happen anyway. Which is great. Not that I'll be able to go, because it's in San Diego and that's far. BUT! I will watch the videos on YouTube like always. Which is how I found out about this whole thing in the first place. Because I was too many minutes down a Tom Hiddleston YouTube wormhole when I stumbled across his visit to Nerd HQ. Which is where I really saw Zachary Levi as a non-animated character. So anyway. I donated. And I made Bagels donate, because she's been a fan of Zachary Levi for longer than I've known her, so you know, that seemed fair. ANYWAY, though we fell short of the end goal, we did raise enough for a FANTASTIC perk, which is that one donor got to have lunch with Zachary. And maybe Dave & Shekina (Zac's sister). I don't know all those details, because that donor was not me. BUT that donor lived in Austin, and after their lunch, there was a meet & greet & sign stuff & take pictures event. So I told Bagels that we were going to do that, because COME ON!

So, we both registered for the event separately, because... I don't know. I registered first, but didn't add her to my party because I was in Borger waiting to go to my husband's grandmother's funeral and not thinking clearly in a hotel room with my two kids and 4 more niecephews. So then Bagels registered too.

Then I saw a tweet from The Nerd Machine saying that an e-mail would be going out to everyone who RSVP'd, but I never got an e-mail, and Bagels didn't get an e-mail and we were confused and long story short (too late), they lost my reservation. Or the Internet ate it. Or whatever. They had no record of me ever RSVPing. Which, bummer, but at least they had Bagel's info and she's the real fan here, or she saw him first, or whatever. BUT THEN! The amazing volunteers at The Nerd Machine worked with Sarah to add me to HER reservation, so we still got to go! And they remembered us when we showed up, and everyone was just friendly and accommodating and wonderful. So we waited a not very long time, and then from the balcony above us, Zachary Levi pokes his head out, and you guys, he looks JUST LIKE HIMSELF, which is about the stupidest thing I've said in at least 48 hours, but... you know... tv and movies, people don't always look like that, even on YouTube, but... he looks and sounds and talks just like himself. Which is beautiful. Ok, he's really tall and kind and gracious and sincere and intense in a super non-intimidating way, and I'm getting ahead of myself.

PRO TIP: always bring a baby to an autograph signing! Garrison wasn't the only kid there, but he was definitely the youngest in our group, and possibly the youngest of the day, and I know I'm biased, but come on! My kid is kind of the greatest. He's beautiful and social and likes everyone and smiles at everyone and is such a flirt. Seven months is just such a great age! So, as soon as we make it up into the room, Shekinah comes and is flirting with Garrison, and I wish I had talked to her about the cool and amazing stuff SHE does, but I was just glad for the distraction of getting to talk about my baby and not freak about about meeting celebrities. She was so thoughtful and asked about his name, and Eleanor, and she snuggled him, and I almost didn't get him back. She called Zac's attention to him, and Zac looks up from signing autographs and breaks into this HUGE grin and says, "HI Buddy!!" and my heart just about flopped out, because... COME ON!

When it was our turn to go get our DVDs signed, Zac (and yes, I'm calling him Zac now, because he held my baby, so we're buddies, and that's just that)looks up and says, "Oh, there's the cutie!" and... seriously? Improv training kicked in and many years of being a smartass, so I said, "Yes, and this is my son Garrison." Because that's just... I mean, how do you NOT? So I handed Flynn Rider my baby, and we took this picture:

Now, Garrison was in PERFECT form, smiling and being adorable, and the second Zac took him every flash in the whole room went off spontaneously and it was the greatest, but Bagels is laughing in this picture, because Shekinah was cooing and talking to Garrison to get him to smile for the camera, which he did, and then everyone in the room said "Awwwwwww" at the same time, which was truly hilarious, but caused Garrison to make this face.

Then I word vomited all over, because I cannot shut up, ever, but I wanted to make sure to tell Zac that all his volunteers were wonderful, and then I was thanking him as he was thanking ME and he's just so humble in the midst of all this, while his partner and sister are just chatting with us like we've been buddies for years instead of just strangers who drove 200 miles to get pictures and autographs with a celebrity.

But aside from the obvious--he's tall and beautiful and was very nice for the 10 minutes we spent in the same room--which is more than enough reason to like a celebrity. I've liked many for less. But the more I learn about the things that he does and what he cares about, the more impressed I am, and the more I believe that he's the kind of celebrity worth the quite large amount of liking that I have. Not that you have to have reasons that are deep and profound for being a fan of anything or anyone, but it's really nice when someone you are drawn to turns out to share more than just the same planet as you. So I'll continue to support The Nerd Machine & Nerd HQ and Operation Smile and Zachary Levi with my few dollars and my prayers and when Garrison is older, I'll tell him the story of how he met the real Flynn Rider.

And I may have used the meeting as part of teaching Sunday school this morning. Because when I thanked Zac for all he does, he IMMEDIATELY, without hesitation or (apparent) artifice, gave all the credit and glory right back to God, which... YEAH. He's being a faithful steward of his gifts and using those gifts and his position to share what he is passionate about with a watching world, and I think that's just the greatest. I think he's pretty great, in case that wasn't evident.

So yeah. That happened.

Friday, July 4, 2014

7 months

I don't know why 7 sounds so much older than 6, but it does.

Vitals: 21lb and about 28"
Growing like a weed, pleasantly plump and lots of other common phrases

Highlights:
First and second roadtrips! To Austin and Borger He did surprisingly well. Only a few melt-downs
Met his great-grandmother
Attended his first wedding
And his first funeral. (He was a whole 2 months older than Eleanor was at her first. For those keeping track, this was her 4th)
Met many cousins, & great aunt/uncles
Went to the pool

Skills:
Continues to ooch while sitting up & lying down. He has both forward & backward motion as well as full turns.
He has managed to get from sitting to lying with some semblance of grace & control
Planking
Runner's stretch
Putting everything in his mouth, sometimes even food
Singing himself to sleep

Works in Progress:
Crawling. Oh how badly he wants to do it
Teeth? Maybe? He's drooling and chewing on everything, but I can neither see nor feel any evidence of actual teeth.
Sleeping on his own... maybe? Hopefully? Someday?

He likes:
Baths, now with added bonus sister!
Attempting to catch the tails of all of the various pets
Sleeping in the car seat
Chewing on paper, lint, dog hair
Rocking chairs
His sister's toys
Watching Eleanor do... everything, anything, all the things
Being naked

He dislikes:
Eating food. Mostly. Just in the past few days he's actually taken an interest in anything food-like. We're still doing a blend of baby-led weaning and purees. He's fairly ambivalent to both
Sleeping alone. Though he is getting better at it
Cold floors
Not having all the eyeballs on him

I like:
His easy-going nature
Smiles and giggles, which he gives out freely
His Mike Wazowski onesie (which has the fabulous grow-an-inch snaps so he keeps wearing it)
The fuzzy mohawk that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon
Long naps
Making smoosh. I spent an afternoon cooking up fruits & veggies and blending them in random combinations. Even if Garrison is fairly uninterested at the moment, Eleanor thinks it's the greatest thing ever.

I dislike:
Not being able to do all the things all the time. 2 kids, one of me. Makes for some tough days.
Sleep deprivation
Diaper rash

Seven months, dubious face
And just for comparison...


0 months
3 months



6 months
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