Little Man at 6 Months Old

No matter how hard I try to believe he's not turning one on Saturday, he is.  I never really got why parents held on to their "baby"'s baby stage.  Why not be excited for them to grow up, and see the next stage of their little lives?  I would cheer on my baby's developmental milestones and look forward to the next one, wanting to get to the next stage sooner. 

Things are different with Little Man.  I know he's my baby, at least as far as we're planning at the moment, he's my baby.  Once he's left infancy, I'll be done raising my own infant.  I know he's still a baby, but when he's no longer a baby, I wont be able to say things like, "My baby walked for the first time today!" or "I love my baby boy's big sloppy kisses and sweet precious baby hugs!".   I find myself hanging on to his infancy for dear life.  When he finally started pulling up on things completely on his own, I was excited for him and relieved he was finally doing it, but at the same time my heart broke just a little.  This is the kind of feeling that makes mommies want to do it all over again and have more kids! Holding newborns will also do it to us!  (then we have a rough night with our kids waking up, and that feeling goes away for 5.8 days) 

So in the spirit of my baby's upcoming birthday (gulp) here are more pictures.  These were taken right around the 6-month mark.

This is Little Man with Daddy, gearing up for the Vikings game!

Don't all 6-month-olds play with swords?

This is the day he was baptised.  This is the best baptism photo I have of him. 

He was cutting his first teeth, and every photo we took he either had his tongue sticking out (feeling his bottom teeth) or his hand in his mouth.  I was bummed we didn't get the best shots, but the pictures weren't what made the day special.

Attempt at a family photo after his baptism.  We tried ;o)

Just hanging out in the living room playing with his friends.

He is such a special little boy, and I'm not just saying that because I'm biased or anything!

Little Man's First Three Days of Life

This is Little Man in the hospital.  We haven't ordered the hospital-taken pics since Sweet Pea was born, we manage better on our own.  With Little Man we completely refused to have them even try to take his picture, what was the point, we were getting good pics on our own, while the hospital photographer just sets up a camera over their face and shoots as soon as their eyes open (if they open at all).  My recommendation, unless you've got someone really good doing the pictures, someone who is going to do more than just point it at their face and click the button when baby's eyes open, take them yourself while you're spending every minute of the days and nights next to your baby!

This was taken within a couple hours of birth.

Picture of Spencer with tiny baby Little Man in the hospital.  We really enjoyed our 3 days with just him and us bonding in the hospital.

Terribly blurry picture of Sweet Pea holding him, but it's the only one where she is smiling naturally and you can see her face.  She is a very proud super-big sister!

Look how his big sisters lovingly try to comfort him when he started crying!  They are SO SO great with him! 

Just got home from the hospital

Babydoll holding her baby brother on his first day home.  Look at that face!

I am really enjoying this trip down memory lane, I hope you're enjoying it with me!

Why Wednesday 3/10/10

It's Why Wednesday! This helpful (I'm using the term very loosely here) little feature is called "Why Wednesday" and is a place for us to vent/complain about the little things, or big things, that are bugging us this week. I'll post a couple of "Why"s and then let you take it from there in the comment section. Go ahead and spill.





~ Why am I expected to do everything around here?

~ Why must my babies get older?

~ Why-ning makes me crazy!

Little Man, Just Minutes Old

I don't feel like blogging today.  I'm trying to get used to the fact that my baby will be a one-year-old in 5 days.  5 DAYS???  Heaven help me!  So instead of writing much, I'm going to post a picture of my Little Man.  In fact, maybe I'll post a picture of him every day this week as I gear up for his birthday!  Maybe not, we'll see.

This is baby Little Man, minutes old.  I had barely even met him, as I was being sewn up after the c-section.  I love this picture.  I love how he is lovingly cuddling his Daddy's hand.  I love that he is so comfortable and happy while he's waiting for his Mommy to get sewn up and wheeled to a room.  Only minutes old and I swear I see a smile there.

Inexpensive Activities for Young Children

A friend of mine asked me last week  for some ideas of inexpensive things to do with young children?  I loved this question!  We all want to do fun things with our kids, but we don't have to spend a bunch of money to do them!  Spence and I are all about free activities and cheap activities that will entertain our kids, so here is a list of things that we like to do with our kids that are either free, or inexpensive.

Trip to the pet store to see the animals
If you're feeling more adventurous, a trip to Como Zoo
Barnes and Noble always entertains our kids
The library
The Park
Set up a scavenger hunt indoors or outdoors, or just make a list of things you're pretty sure they'll find outside and let them go for it!
Chuck E Cheese is inexpensive if you don't eat there, and just buy tokens for them to play the games.  Spencer's mom takes the kids there a lot.
Set up a playdate with another mom with kids around the same age, these are just as good for moms as it is for the kids, if not better!
Join MOPS
Take the kids to the craft store, like Michaels, and find the wooden crafts and ceramic crafts.  You can get them for a dollar, buy some paints, go home, and have fun painting together.
Bake cookies together.  You can make sugar cookies and an icing made from powdered sugar and milk, add some food coloring to the icing, and let them paint with new paintbrushes or plastic spoons.

Those are some of my ideas,I've got more but the block-quote button is messing it up when I try to add more, so I'll let you throw some more ideas in!  Do you have any ideas to add to this list?  We'd love to know!

I Want My Baby Back

   My brain is feeling fried today.  I had an entire day of a cranky Little Man.  A Little Man who woke up this morning at a pretty normal 6:45 and didn't take a nap until 4:15!  I put his cranky self to bed at 9 this morning for his morning nap, but he screamed and cried until I eventually got him up.  I tried SEVERAL times to get him to take a nap today but he just screamed.  At one point today I decided that if I just leave him in there he will eventually give up, lie down, pop his thumb in his mouth, and sleep blissfully for at least 2 hours.  He cried in his crib for over a half hour before I finally got him up again. 

   There's been a bug going around, and judging by the number of dirty diapers he's been having every day, it could be a stomach ache.  He also has a molar on the verge of breaking through, I can see the white bulging gums where his bottom left molar will hopefully soon come through.  I gave him acetaminophen (store brand, who wants to pay the extra 4 bucks for Tylanol brand), offered nuks but he still doesn't want them (he hasn't sucked on a nuk now in at least a few weeks), offered teething toys, cuddled a bunch (didn't mind that except when I had to do something else), he was just a mess.  The way he's rubbing his face on me makes me think sinus infection, but he just got off of antibiotics for an ear infection.  He was down to 2 bottles a day and begining to wean off of formula and on to whole milk, but he's been cranky and wanting bottles of formula, so I'm giving in and giving him the bottles of formula.  I'll get him well again before going back to the weaning. 

I want this baby back

This baby, that smiles all the time and takes decent naps.

One thing I didn't try today was freezing a damp wash cloth for him to chew on, so I'm going to go pop one in the freezer for tomorrow (friday).  Wish me luck please!  If you want to pray for Little Man to feel better so we can see his smiling face more often again it would be appreciated! 

Food For Older Babies

Question: What can I feed older babies who have outgrown baby food but can't really handle our spicy or tough to chew meals?

Answer:  older babies around 9 to 10 months can start having what you're having for meals... usually.  Be careful to make sure the food is soft and can be mashed up with their gums, and small enough that they can swallow it whole, which they'll probably do some of the time, without choking.  One thing I like to do for a quick and easy baby-friendly carb is to cook up a pot of brown rice (LOADED with pottasium, and better for you than white rice), and dump in a can of reduced sodium cream of mushroom/chicken soup.  Give it a good stir and divide it into freezer bags that you can thaw out when you need a little something for him or her.

When you've got it thawed out, add a vegetable of your choice.  I prefer canned vegetables for babies who are new to the whole table food thing because they are softer and easy for them to gum up.

Serve with some soft fruit cut into small pieces.  I like bananas (quartered down the length of the banana before removing it completely from the peel, then sliced up), tomatoes, canned pears or peaches (avoid heavy syrup, feel free to rinse any syrup off) mandarin oranges (beware, the poop will be awful), anything soft.

Another option is to use macaroni noodles with the soups. You can throw in some shredded cheese too.  Other ideas for older babies are crackers, regular cheerios, yogurt, cut up spaghetti noodles, diced toast, ground beef/turkey/chicken, soft foods with low sugar and low sodium.  Remember, honey is dangerous and can cause botulism.  You should not give them honey until they are at least one year old.  When it comes time to wean them off of formula or breastmilk, they should drink whole milk.  Our pediatricians tell us the extra (healthy) fat in whole milk is good for their brain development, and they should stick with it until they turn two, at which point they can switch to skim (or 1% or 2%). 

Check back tomorrow!