Fun at Gram/Grandpa's house

While Daddy spent Black Friday and the entire after-Thansgiving weekend working, Mommy and Sydney went to WI to stay with Grandma and Grandpa. We ate delicious fish on Friday night; Sydney enjoyed some applesauce. Saturday, we went to Kerri's house for annual holiday baking and were defeated yet again by Spritz cookies. Saturday night, we enjoyed the company of the Raboine family. Sunday, we went for a morning walk with the dog, visited briefly with Great Grandma and then spent much of the day in the kitchen.

Mommy laughed when Grandma Olson got out some bubbles and blew bubbles in the house. Sydney watched them with a careful eye. (We were NEVER allowed to blow bubbles in the house. We were never allowed to have a dog either so, times have changed a lot over the years.)

After dinner, Sydney and Mommy took a bath. Grandma Olson was in charge of drying Sydney off and dressing him in his duck jammies while Mommy finished bathing and dried off.

Grandma Olson was taking her time drying Sydney off, starting and his head and shoulders; then, working to his toes.

This little piggy went to market,
this little piggy stayed home,
this little piggy had roast beef,
this little piggy had none
and this little piggy went wee-wee-wee...

(all over grandma's lap)

And with that, Mommy noticed pee shooting up Sydney's belly and all over Grandma Olson's lap. (Grandma doesn't prioritize drying and dressing the same as mommy does; Grandma must be a little out of practice after all these years.) Grandma Olson squealed a little as her lap got wet.

We reported the incident to Daddy (at work). He replied that Sydney is a very smart boy, knowing exactly when to wee-wee-wee-wee.

While having TONS OF FUN in WI, we'll be anxious to go home tomorrow (Monday) to return to more normal sleep/eat conditions and patterns and look forward to Daddy's day off on Tuesday so that we can spend the day together as a family. (After another 11.5 hour day scheduled for Daddy tomorrow, a day off will be well-deserved after his 12-hour Friday, 12-hour Saturday and 12-hour Sunday.)

NOTE: Photos to be posted once we get home again.

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for: a loving and supportive family; a second chance at finding the happiness that I deserved all along; a wonderful husband who sacrifices his time, spending many, many hours at work so that I can stay home with our baby; our beautiful baby boy (whom I absolutely adore); two feline companions; food on the table; a roof over my head; a reliable car to drive; remission of my multiple sclerosis; high-speed internet; my Macintosh computer AND my paper-crafting supplies.

I am rather annoyed at all of the retailers who decided to stay open on the actual holiday of Thanksgiving instead of letting their employees have the day off to enjoy it with family and friends. (Most likely, the employees are not given much of a choice and are simply thankful to have jobs in today's tough economy.) I hope that Mike's employer continues to remain closed for Thanksgiving in the years to come; however, these stores that remain open are setting a nasty precedent for others to likely follow suit. (Shame on them.)

Waterbed

This morning, Sydney woke up DRENCHED!!! His diaper had leaked and his entire front side was soaking wet, as was his bed. Needless to say, other than an odd feeding around midnight, it was a good night of sleep for all of us.

So, needless to say, first thing this morning, Sydney enjoyed a bath.

For breakfast, Sydney enjoyed some rice cereal that had been mixed with a little breastmilk and some of the applesauce that Daddy made earlier this fall (using Grandpa Lowell's apples). The applesauce was sweet and delicious.

Tonight, Sydney enjoyed watching us put up the Christmas tree and some garland on the stairway. He liked to look at the lights and even grabbed at the bottom branches a few times... just to see what they felt like. He really enjoyed looking at Mommy's Winnie-the-Pooh ornament, which Mommy hung low enough for Sydney to see it. Sydney knows Winnie the Pooh because Mommy drinks from a Pooh coffee mug each morning. Also, Sydney has a Pooh book (from Grandma Carol) and a musical Pooh toy (from Kerri).

Speaking of bed, Daddy is sleeping because he works the early shift again this week. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Uncle Mike will be able to shut-down in Dubuque tomorrow night and that we will get a chance to visit with him... and maybe even swim at his hotel. Sydney is now in bed after a long, mostly nap-less day. Mommy will work on a few more ornaments and then hopes to get into bed at a reasonable time herself.

We'll have some extra cooking on the agenda since we are hosting Thanksgiving this year. Thankfully, Grandpa Lowell offered to bring the turkey. It should be a busy week... full of smiles, laughter and fun.

Spoiled at 17#7oz.

STATS: NEW WEIGHT RECORDED

Sydney weighed in today at 17# 7oz. (I'm told that breastfed babies weight gain plateaus around 5-6 months and they slowly gain weight from here-on-out, instead of the leaps & bounds that he had been previously gaining at.)

MASHED AVOCADO

Tonight, Sydney enjoyed his first mashed avocado, mixed with a little breast milk. (Mike refused to feed it to him because he thought it was "disgusting"; however, it was actually quite good... judged from a big fan of guacamole.) I reminded him that we need to BE POSITIVE in our techniques for feeding Sydney. We should not distill our dislikes upon him. Therefore, I will do my best to PRETEND that ripe bananas are delicious (even though I prefer them on the greener side than on the riper side).

SPOILED:

We have also determined that Sydney is SPOILED.

Deep down, we're all a little spoiled; afterall, who DOESN'T like to snuggle?

He slept in my arms during an hour-long television show (Glee) and then, when I went to put him in his bed, he instantly noticed. He screamed... and screamed... and screamed. I gave him a few minutes, thinking he would calm down; however, he got EVEN MORE UPSET! He sounded as if he was going to lose his voice if he kept that up. Eventually, I picked him up. (He won.) I took him downstairs and changed his diaper. He continued to scream... and scream... and scream. As it turns out, THE ONLY COMFORT when he gets like that is to offer him a breast. His diaphragm continued to spasm (since he had gotten himself SO UPSET) and he would sometimes make a strange snorting sound that coincided with the spasm perfectly. (Ten minutes later, he was still doing it and was not back to his normal, relaxed state.)

Mike is convinced that Sydney is spoiled because he spends too much time with his mom and doesn't have enough "Syd-time". He thinks that he needs to learn to comfort and entertain himself. When he was put back in his crib, he would continue to scream - unless he heard our footsteps in the hallway; then, he would stop. If we stopped without coming to his rescue, he would wait, listen and then scream again. As soon as he was picked up, he stopped screaming and crying.

I wondered how much his gums are bothering him to be this fussy, but Mike stood firm that HE IS SPOILED, regardless of his gums hurting or not. Thankfully, not every night is a battle (like this). We cranked up his sound machine... to the sound of gentle, steady rain... and I rubbed his back when he cried. After a minute or two, he seemed calm again and I snuck out to blog this entry. Now, if all goes well, I plan to go to bed myself.

Deep down, we're all a little spoiled; afterall, who DOESN'T like to snuggle?

Sunday of sweet potatoes and slurping water off a glass

Sydney has become VERY OBSERVANT of people eating and drinking as of late. Last night, while dining at Daddy's work, Sydney was not interested in playing with his toys. He was much more interested in grabbing Mommy's plate off of the table and watching each bite of food go into her mouth.

Tonight, Sydney and Grandpa Lowell had been playing. Sydney must have noticed that Grandpa was drinking a glass of ice water. We laughed when we went into the living room to see Grandpa and Sydney sitting on the floor. Grandpa was holding his glass and Sydney was licking the condensation off of the outside of the glass like a thirsty little puppy.

For dinner tonight, Sydney enjoyed a concoction of Guard-grown Butternut Squash, along with his first taste of Sweet Potatoes. Grandpa Lowell fed him tonight and we were all a little surprised that he (Sydney) still showed the most enthusiasm for his Green Beans.

Sydney enjoys spending Sunday nights with Grandpa. (Today, he wore his BASEBALL shirt since he knows that it is Grandpa's favorite sport.) We're pretty sure that Grandpa enjoys seeing how much Sydney grows from week-to-week, as well as his new skills that he has acquired since the week before. 

Grandpa, thanks for spending Sundays with us.

B is for Baby, Bananas and Beans

B is for Baby, Bananas and Beans...

This morning, we tried BANANAS. Sydney was not very interested in them at all, which surprised us a little. He was not STARVING when we tried it either (since he had been breast-fed prior to this attempt.) so perhaps, if he had been hungry, it would have had a different result.

In honor of the first attempt at bananas, Sydney was dressed in his MONKEY CLOTHES; particularly his cute "Monkey-Butt" pants and the onesie that says "Mommy loves me".

This evening, we tried green beans, which were a BIG HIT! (To Mommy, they tasted a little too plain without salt or butter, but they DID have good green bean flavor.) 

Sydney did the "baby bird thing" where he kept leaning towards the tray with his mouth open. 

He also liked finger-painting with the green beans on his high chair tray.

Mommy tried to give him some more bananas tonight and interchanged them between bites of green beans. He spit more bananas out than he ate (I think) so, eventually Mommy gave in and served up some more green beans instead. (Hey, if the kid prefers vegetables... I guess that isn't all bad: although, PEARS may have won the decision if those had been offered instead.)

SO CLOSE... to crawling

Each day, I cringe at the thought of losing my tiny bursts of freedom where I can run upstairs quick or run in the other room to go to the bathroom. Day-by-day, Sydney shows more mobility.

Mike claims "He'll be crawling by Thanksgiving."

Heck, at this rate, I'm thinking he'll have it figured out by the end of the weekend.

Also, his new "thing" is to grab ahold of his feet while laying on his back. He especially likes to do it when you are attempting to diaper him and would like to wipe the crack of his leg. (Yes, VERY HELPFUL indeed... a lot like diapering an octopus.) He also finds it funny to tug on his socks. He's almost had them OFF a few times now. SILLY BOY.

SCAREDY CAT

I did have to laugh this evening when Otto was sleeping in the recliner. I had Sydney standing in front of the recliner while I helped him to control his balance. He stood there, holding onto the chair and exercising his vocal chords. He really likes to "TALK" as loudly as he can. In fact, he kind of just holds his "note" for as long and as loud as he can.

AAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhh!

(repeat often as loud and for as long as you can hold the note)

Then, I tried to get him to say "toe" so that he was saying the cat's name OTTO.

Needless to say, Otto got up and left after the baby stood there YELLING (at him).

98.6... PERFECT!

Since Sydney is getting over a cold, I thought his head felt a little warm the other day so, I decided to take his temperature.

Hmm...

98.6°F.

Perfect.

I should have know he would be PERFECT. He's been a model baby so far. (Our only real complaint has been to get a better bedtime routine... you know, so that there are nights that we are NOT up so late with a baby who is not interested in sleeping. Although, some nights are textbook perfect, too... guess it depends on the lunar cycles or something.)

Tonight, while waiting for Daddy to come home from work, Syd rested in Mommy's arms - flailing his head from side-to-side in an attempt to fight falling asleep. He had JUST managed to fall asleep less than a minute before I saw Daddy's headlights. Sydney woke up again, but this time, got the opportunity to snuggle with his Daddy in the recliner. We laughed because he slept with his eyes open tiny slits... as if he didn't want to miss anything exciting.

Speaking of sleep... it is almost 11pm. Daddy is in bed already and Mommy should stop blogging now so that she catches up on her beauty sleep, too. On second thought... now Sydney is whimpering and kicking his feet in his crib.... might have Mommy duties calling instead of beauty sleep.

Baby's first FRUIT (Pears... with pics)

Sydney is getting the hang of eating solids as we have been trying to do them at least once daily. He knows what to do with the spoon and only spits it out if he thinks it is a little too "solid" for his liking. 

We laugh because when he is really hungry and waiting for more, he opens his mouth like a baby bird and leans his head in a forward and downward motion, almost as if he will slurp it off of the tray if we can't get it to him any faster.

BABY'S FIRST FRUIT: PEARS
Tonight, Sydney had his first taste of fruit after we cooked down some Sugar Pears for him. We mixed them with some of his cereal and he LOVED IT! His bowl was empty in no time and we returned him to finish his meal by breastfeeding. 

Scrapbook page detail: BABY'S FIRST PEARS/11.11.09 - We had some pears that were ripening quickly so we decided to cook them up and give FRUIT a shot. Sydney was VERY ANGRY with us because he wanted to eat and he wanted it RIGHT NOW! He nursed for almost 10 minutes before we gave PEARS a shot, but he was too mad to try them. It took some silliness (and blowing in his face) to calm him down. And then... he realized upon his first bite that: FRUIT IS YUMMY & I LIKE PEARS!

WATCHING US EAT...

After that delicious fruity experience, Daddy and I each enjoyed a dish of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce; Mommy's had chopped walnuts on it as well. YUM! Sydney kept a close eye on Daddy's bowl of ice cream as he moved it in multiple directions, as if he [Syd] was hoping it was an even larger bowl of PEARS. We laughed at his tracking ability and then, I explained "That is not a little baby bowl of food for you. Daddy has a big bowl of food for him. Sorry, but THAT is not for you."

I guess we know that Sydney will enjoy some more pears tomorrow since we cooked down a little extra.

Scrapbook: Baby's First Squash

Baby's first food(s) PHOTO(s)

AVOCADO (Guacamole)

On Friday, November 6th, we tried a new restaurant; actually, it is just NEW to us. We went to a Mexican restaurant downtown and enjoyed it VERY MUCH. We walked away with FULL BELLIES and carry-out containers of delicious food. During dinner, Mommy dipped her finger into the guacamole, tasting it for spiciness, and then offered a finger-full to Sydney. He did not make a funny face, nor did he spit it out. He seemed to have liked it just fine. (Must be a nice change of pace from the rice cereal.)

BUTTERNUT SQUASH 

(Guard-Grown squash from our summer garden)

Tonight, we tried Butternut Squash off of a baby spoon. We prepared it VERY watery (with breast-milk) and offered it to Sydney. His first taste showed a look of surprise. Eventually, he liked blowing bubbles in the spoon of squash just as much as he does for the rice cereal. We did notice that he tended to spit out any spoonfuls that had chunks or strings in them. 

Of course, we took pictures... 

who wouldn't want to see squash all over his face and in his eyelashes?

Oh, what a face... enjoying Guard-grown Butternut Squash!

Hmm, maybe I do like this...?

Wait, NO... I do not like any chunks in it! YUCK, let's spit those out!

Clean-up already? That wasn't so bad! Don't forget my eyebrows and eyelashes Daddy!

Sydney also had an ounce-or-so of milk from a bottle, fed by Grandpa Lowell. Then, he decided that he had enough of the bottle and wanted the real thing instead. As I blog, I hear Sydney kicking his feet on the floor and talking up a storm to his Grandpa. (They enjoyed a walk with the stroller earlier this afternoon since we had temperatures near 70°F.) Grandpa Lowell is also busy trying to teach Sydney "FEET" and "BYE-BYE".

This evening, the rest of us (Guard family) enjoyed butternut squash - ours had marshmallows and butter in it, sour cream & chive scalloped potatoes, smoked beef brisket and baked apples for dessert. It was a WONDERFUL DAY!

Baby's first illness: A COLD

While visiting Grandma & Grandpa Olson mid-week, we noticed that Sydney (who sneezes a lot anyways) had been sneezing more and more. Mommy initially thought it was because Sydney was not used to being around Beamer (a dog). However, on Thursday morning, Sydney kept coughing and making actions of gagging. Grandma Olson stated "I wonder why he's doing that?" A few seconds later, Sydney sneezed a giant mess all over his face.

We learned VERY QUICKLY that he does NOT like to have his nose wiped. Once he got the drainage out of his throat, he stopped with the coughing and gagging, but continued to sneeze colorful messes all day long.

Mommy felt bad when trying to feed him because it sounded like he could barely breathe.

All along, he has been happy and in very good spirits... that is, unless we try to wipe his nose. Therefore, his face (nose) is looking a little on the crusty side. (Maybe a bath will help take care of that.) Despite a messy face, he is still QUITE CUTE, flashing LOTS of great, big smiles!

We're expecting another beautiful day - with temps in the high 60's - so, maybe another day of fresh air and sunshine will help bake that COLD right out of him!

Almost catching on (to crawling)

If only he could figure out how to simultaneously get all of his actions in order, Sydney would be crawling.... instead, he stays on his elbows, with his face planted into the ground as he pushes himself with his legs. Or else, he will prop himself onto his hands and just kick his feet while his torso is mostly on the floor.

Pivoting in a circle is one of his recent tricks.

He also has not figured out how to roll back from his tummy onto his back again. One of these days though.... he'll get it!