stranger danger

the other day, momo hung out with a friend of ours for a few minutes.  apparently, as soon as shane left him there on his own with this friend, mo started screaming. he screamed the whole time shane had stepped out.  now, i know i should have probably felt bad for the poor little baby, but i didn't.  :O9  he was not in any sort of danger, and i sort of believe that he doesn't even notice that i'm around like 80% of the time.  so, hearing about the screaming was kind of funny to me.  i also felt an odd sense of pride that our precocious son has had his first real brush with separation anxiety. i did feel kind of bad for the friend though.  i mean, no matter how comfortable you are with babies, it just isn't entirely fun to hold a screaming child for any length of time.

i think this separation anxiety has also kind of crept into our sleep times a bit.  that is what makes this phase not fun, i suppose.  all. the. screaming.  most naps and most nights, lil mo is a sleeping champion.  i mean, he could win medals, he's so good at it (thank you baby whisperer and babywise!).  but some nights.  geez, oh pete.  it's like we've gone back to the miserable newborn days.  all. the. screaming.  but, you know, separation anxiety is just a shot-in-the-dark as to what might be happening these days.  could be teething.  could be gas.  could be his cold.  could be sore muscles from his immunizations. could be sore muscles from learning all the mad baby skillz.  could be the caffeine i had earlier in the day.  or the milk.  could be the big C (constipation), could be that he doesn't like his outfit.  who really knows.  it shall remain a mystery forever and ever amen.

love,
me

like magic

i read somewhere that when a baby learns how to pass an object from one hand to the other, it is so fascinating to them, almost on the level of a magic trick.  i've noticed momo starting to do this over the last couple weeks, and, even to me, an adult observer, it is kind of like magic.  a baby that only a couple months ago could barely hold an object in his hand, can now deftly pass it to the other hand, without dropping it.  it's really amazing.

he's also discovered his hands in a new way over the last couple of days.  he's been watching intently while slowly moving his fingers and opening and closing his hands.  it's really a sight to see!

it makes me think of having faith like a child, not because momo is exhibiting any sort of faith, but he is looking at the world with wonder.  it's actually rather refreshing.  what would my life look like if i didn't take ordinary things for granted?  to really smell the coffee, taste my foods, see the sunshine through the trees, feel the warmth of my husband's embrace... as if for the first time.  what if the days were not mundane and the same-old-same-old striving for the weekend?

each day might be a little more magical.  and it might just start to transform this old heart into thankfulness.

love,
mrs kingery

distraction

i have a job this week!  i'm on a panel of reviewers for a federal grant!   it's kind of exciting, but i hardly know what i'm doing.  oh, and i'm not only on the panel, i'm also the chairperson.  well, when 'they' (the government or whoever) write it, they always capitalize it, Chairperson.  ha.  i'm accustomed to reading and editing grants, so this is rather fun, especially because i'm scoring them.  not only that, but i am getting paid money to do it!  it's a weird concept to work and earn money after so many years of being a support-raising missionary.  

anyway, i have been able to go to panera to work there while my wonderful husband has watched momo.  it's been really nice to get out of the house, and be able to concentrate for longer periods of time.  i actually get stuff done when i leave the house!  it makes me realize i would be rather terrible at working from home.  

occasionally, i look around and take in the scene around me, and today, i noticed a guy taking up a larger table than he needed.  he had books out (but still closed), sunglasses folded neatly, an ipad (open), a smart phone (which he was incessantly typing on), a bag, a sweatshirt, some highlighters... it was the table of someone who wanted to put on a show about how much he was studying...  however, for about an hour, he never really touched the books.  he even had a rather long (and loud) conversation about working out and sexy girls.  when a person walked by and asked, "still studying?" he replied with some rather prideful sounding answer about how many more years he was going to be studying.  i wouldn't want him to be my doctor if that's the way he studies to be honest with you.  

he definitely wanted to be noticed or something, and so i naturally wanted to not notice him.  but that made me notice him.  which irritated me.  

anyway, it was a much smaller distraction than being at home with the cutest baby in the world, however, so i actually did end up getting some work done.  also, i'm glad to share that my brain has not irreversibly atrophied in the process of producing offspring.  

love,

mo momma

waiting area #2

little mosey (as his cousins have nicknamed him) got his first cold this week.  i suspect it was from the weekend at the glazer children's museum in tampa, and/or from his cousins who continuously think their hands are clean.  i suppose it couldn't be helped, and it's a part of life that kids get sick... but it's not just any kid, it's our perfect little baby who is now snotty-nosed and congested throughout his poor little baby lungs.  anyway.

we went to the doctor's office for his regular six month check-up and vaccinations.  unfortunately, because he was also sick, we had to sit in waiting area #2 for about 15 minutes.  waiting area #2 is a room adjacent to waiting area #1, with a fish tank in the wall between them so you can actually see the people in the other room through the tank.  we had always waiting in room #1 and looked with sympathy and a bit of the willies at the people who were banished to waiting area #2.  now that we were there, we felt even worse, looking at all the healthy, happy children in waiting area #1, who didn't have to be surrounded by all the raging, monster germs in waiting area #2.  we kept our hands tightly at our sides, careful not to touch anything.  we also had our 4-year-old niece with us, and felt it our duty to scare her (possibly for the rest of her life) from touching communal toys and books.  i felt a disproportionate amount of relief when our name was called.

mosey did great.  even though his little nose was running and he was coughing a bit, he laughed for a while and had a grand old time playing with (and consequently eating) the paper he was laying on.  he's still in the 75th percentile for weight, 18 lbs and 12 ounces, and is in the 90th percentile for height, almost 28 inches.  later that day, he had a fever (from his cold? from his immunizations? from teething? from?), but we were able to give him some infant otc meds and he seemed just great.

oh, he also got his first real boo-boo this week.  while sitting with a cousin on a floor mat, somehow he fell face first into a piece of furniture.  he had a little bruise over his left eyelid that looked a bit like evening eye shadow.  i was slightly nervous about going to see the doctor with my beat-up, sick baby... and it was hard not to be really hard on the cousin who let this happen (especially as mosey was bawling his little eyes out), but since she is only 4 (and also because she felt so bad that she dropped her baby cousin), i realized it was my fault for leaving them unsupervised for too long of a period (5 minutes).  lesson learned.  poor little ones.

love,
me

size 4

somewhere online, i read that the average age to wear size 4 diapers is 19 months.  19 months!  Mo is going to be 6 months tomorrow.  we just moved him up to size 4 two days ago.

he's not really the weight for size 4 (our the bathroom scale says he's 19 pounds, and size 3 can technically go up to 28 pounds... size 4 starts at 22 pounds).  but if you have ever tried on jeans, you know that not all jeans of your size fit your body.  for the past couple weeks, our little Michelin Man has been having blowouts every time he pooped.  it was getting to be a bit tiresome... though, it did give us opportunities to get many more uses out of his six month clothes before finally giving in and moving up to nine month clothing this week as well.

the last straw was during our trial with Luvs (to see if it stood the test of their money back guarantee).  our changing pad didn't have a cover on it (all three were in the wash from previous blowouts), and somehow, poop leaked out, got into many of the teeny tiny crevasses of the plastic, all over the outside of the diaper and onto his clean one, on the straps of the changing pad, not to mention all over the baby.  poop. was. everywhere.  in order to contain the mess before it got any farther, i had to place our freshly-wipes-bathed-diaper-clad son on the carpet so that i could go scrub the pad and straps and disinfect everything.

i also noticed that when he bent over, i could see clear down the back of the diaper and gaze upon the cute little moons of our baby's butt and crack.  though i do love to see cute little baby butts (who doesn't?), i would prefer not to be required to do complete wardrobe changes so frequently.

well.  he's gotten bored with the play gym.  time to go.

love,
Michelin Momma

5.5 months

i haven't exactly been recording milestones anywhere, so maybe i'll just jot a few thoughts down here for prosperity... er, posterity's sake.  ha.

• at 2 months, Mo rolled from belly to back on his own once, and hasn't done it since.  cheeky little monkey.  
• last week, he rolled from back to belly on his own twice (Mr. Moose was is inspiration, thank you Lamaze for such great toys), and hasn't done it again.
• he said "uhmma" multiple times this weekend and has continued to use M's over and over--and it is seriously so exciting every time!
• he can sit  propped up really well.  bathing is both getting easier and harder because he can really move in his little tub now.
• he loves to put his feet in his mouth, particularly his right one.  he just started to do that like a couple of weeks ago.
• he picked up his pacifier this weekend, played with it, chewed on it, put it in his mouth the right way, and then took it out and put it down where he found it.  it was like watching a miracle happen right before my eyes.
• last week, he started to hold toys with both hands and move them from hand to hand. 
• he drops toys over and over.  i'm 100% sure this will get old for me much sooner than it will for him.
• he really watches us eat... much to my dismay, i think it's almost time to give him solids (EBF is so much easier, but i knew this day was coming).  for now, i feed him 5 times a day. 
• we tried the sippy cup last week and he seemed to like it, but he really also liked to look at it before putting it in his mouth (as a side note, i think he's really visual, tactile, and he likes to smell things... not as much oral as i thought he might be in the beginning of is life).
• he can usually just play with my long hair instead of pulling it.  he also loves to touch people and just lay his hands on people.  he's a gentle baby.
• he loves to suck on fabric, particularly washcloths and the soft side of Velcro.
• good teething toy: a half wet, frozen washcloth.  also, adult fingers and mommy's chin/cheek.
• he has always loved to go outside.
• he laughed out loud when he got to pet a dog's face last week for the first time; it was precious!
• peekaboo was a fun game briefly, but now Old McDonald is the shizz.  the ABC song is also quite popular.  it helps him concentrate on eating if there are several distractions.
• he still squeaks, it's like a cross between a long high-pitched grunt and moan.  he might make that sound his whole life.
• he can play by himself for about 30 minutes at a time.  it's nice.  i spotted him just laying silently for a good long while yesterday.  he must have been thinking about something.  i do that too sometimes.
• he gets loopy after his bath, right before our last feeding of the day.  i imitated all his babbling and hiccuping the other day and he laughed like he's never laughed before.  it was so great.
• he still gets hiccups about once a day.
• he started sleeping 12 hours a night consistently about a week ago.  hallelujah.  oh, sometimes i hear him babbling quietly for about 30 minutes to an hour at like 4 am, but he goes back to sleep on his own after that).  he still has 3 naps a day, ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours (with the help of a pacifier for the longer naps).
• note to self: good books to read
• Baby Whisperer
• Babywise
• i weighed him this morning and he was about 19 lbs.  if i remember correctly here were his stats:
• birth: 20.5" and 7.7 lbs
• 2 month: 24.5" and 13.13 lbs
• 4 month: 26.5" and 17.7 lbs
• he was 85th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for height and 50th percentile for head at each checkup
• he went up a diaper size each month until he got to size 3, and that's where we've been since month 4 (praise Jesus, i was trying so hard to use all our diapers before we'd grow out of them, and have to give a bunch away).  he wears size 4 at night because of leakage otherwise.
• he's just now getting into 6-9 month clothes.
• in the sun, his hair has an undertone of gold in it.
• he loves to be flying through the air like superman and to look at people upside-down.

love,

proud uhmma

new normal

no one ever told me how fast they grow up.  just kidding, everyone says that.  all the time.  'cherish these days, they're never this small again,' they say with a nostalgic look in their eyes.  up until yesterday, i was actually so glad that Moses would never be this small again.  Mo's newborn phase was dreadful.  he was so unhappy and so sleepy and so gassy and so unpredictable.  i wanted to die.  i couldn't wait until he grew out of it.

well, yesterday, i realized what a sweet and delightful baby Mo has turned into and i wished for the first time in his life that we could keep him this small and pure forever.  he coos and smiles and looks around and is the very embodiment of joy.  

along with this lovely realization is that he just keeps changing all the time.  just as i think i know his schedule, he changes it up.  new normal: he doesn't sleep more than 1.5 hours at a time.  new normal: he wakes up and talks to himself at 4 am everyday.  new normal: he wants to sit up all the time, even though he still can't on his own.  almost did a face plant into the bathwater today.  new normal: dropped our dream feed; my body is adjusting, though not as quickly as i wish, ouch!  new normal: he can blow through size 4 diapers.  size 4!  he's five months old!  

today i walked into his room and he was already awake from his nap and trying desperately to look at the ceiling over his shoulder (he was sleeping on his belly).  i'd never seen him do that.  maybe this desire to look at the ceiling will entice him to figure out how to roll over on his own.  i feel like my life will be so much better once he figures that out.

love, 

auto-pilot-alphabet-song-singer