Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Max: Ten Months

It's official, Max has hit the double digits on months old! It feels like 2 seconds ago that he hit double digit weeks. I hope I don't blink and it's double digit years...

Every month Max just becomes more and more aware of all that is going on around him. For example, he totally knows who is familiar to him and will give them a smile when they walk in. He does not have traditional stranger anxiety where he cries with strangers, but he will give someone he doesn't know a more skeptical look. It's kind of like a stare down in which he sits still and just stares at the suspicious person for awhile. It's almost a good strategy for keeping him still for a few minutes. Maybe he doesn't want to reveal of his tricks right away? 

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Max is gaining speed with his mobility. He now crawls at a super fast pace, still with his right leg dragging in order to have immediate access to a sitting position. He loves push toys and walks all over the house with them. He also seems to love the shapes that go with shape sorters. Nothing pisses him off quite like one of his beloved shapes sliding out of reach under the Pack N Play. 

Well actually, the thing that pisses him off the most is having his diaper changed or clothes put on. These two things require staying still which is the last thing he wants to do. He will kick, try to flip over, cry, ANYTHING to not have to stay on that changing table! We have tried out a number of tricks to get him to stay still and they work sometimes and not others. Our tricks include: singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," giving him a toy preferably one that lights up and plays music, counting- he particularly finds it hilarious when Eric counts in French, but any counting will do. 

Max continues to learn at a rapid pace. His recent new skills include: waving hello, giving high fives and drinking with a straw. We have been trying to get him to clap, but with no real luck. He seems to love clapping and gives a big smile when we clap for him. Then, he will grab our hands and make us clap. But doesn't want to clap himself… who knows!?

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He has also started to learn what some words mean. He still really only says "dada" and maybe "baba" and a few other babbling things. But, I think he knows what both "mama" and "dada" mean, as well as "light" and the ever popular "no." I should clarify, just because he understands what "no" means, doesn't exactly mean he always follows it. If I say "no," he will stop and look at me (yay) but then if I don't immediately give him a better alternative, he will happily go right back to what he is not supposed to be doing. His favorite things to do that illicit a "no" from me include pulling the heating vent up, taking the carbon monoxide detector out of the wall (no real danger here because we have safe outlets, but the terrible beeping noise is really just not something anyone wants to hear), and chewing on Eric's phone charger. 

According to my mom, Max displays some element of caution. By this she means that instead of taking the risk of walking on his own, he will squat down, crawl and then pull back up. While I agree he does seem not quite ready to take his first steps (although he is close), he does not show much caution in other areas. His latest favorite thing to do during story time is crawl to the edge of the bed and just DIVE right off. Fortunately, Eric has very quick reaction time and catches him right in the knick of time. Max, of course, finds this to be hilarious. He also likes to take risks in what he eats. We are very lucky that he is willing to try and likes most foods. However, he also happily puts disgusting non food items in his mouth, like the small fuzzy stickers that go on the bottom of our dining room chairs to keep them from scratching the floor. Yuck. 

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We didn't have a doctor's appointment this month, so I can't give an official height and weight, but he seems to be getting heavier every day! Also, I can see a tiny bit of white on his gums so I think he is getting his top two teeth (he already has the bottom too) very soon! 

Likes: music (still), Little Blue Truck and The I Love You book (by Todd Parr), bath time especially playing with the baby soap container, all his toys (especially the shapes, anything that lights up and plays music, and his little office/house that he is borrowing from BFF Teddy, walks especially in the Ergo, Baby Mum Mums, pretty much all food, being silly- hanging upside down, being thrown up in the air, when people look away from him and then look back with a big smile… so many things to love when you are Max

Dislikes: getting his diaper changed, getting changed at all

Eating: We received the go ahead at Max's 9 month appointment to feed Max basically anything (except honey and peanut butter), so Max eats a lot of bites of our food. There is really nothing he doesn't like so far. Just the other day he enjoyed some Chinese Lo Mein noodles. I am sure he will not always be this adventurous, but I'm thankful he is for now! Max continues to nurse 3x per day, get a pumped bottle once a day (though I'm back to pumping twice, blah), and eat 3-4 solid food meals per day, mostly purees. In addition to taking bites of our dinner, he also LOVES puffs and Baby Mum Mums, which are rice crackers that he can eat on his own. He also loves to snack on yogurt melts. Seriously, there is nothing the kid does not like when it comes to food. 

Sleeping: So "Fall Back" happened this month. I just used the opportunity to move Max's bedtime a bit earlier. So he now starts his last nursing session around 7:30, about 30 minutes earlier than before. This has meant an earlier wake up time which has turned out to be helpful in the morning routine. I don't love it on the weekends, but, we can't have everything :) He is still taking 2 naps, the first starts between 8:30-9am, and the second around 1:30pm. They are pretty variable in length, but somewhere between 45 minutes and 90 minutes is the norm. 

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Thanks for reading! :) 

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Week in the Life: Saturday

Last day of the week. This was fun :) I'll do it again someday! 

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6:15 wake up, but who cares about weekends when you are a baby? Nurse. Eat breakfast. Play. Change diapers x 2. Feed Max breakfast. Run some errands- Walgreens, Trader Joes, Starbucks- Max hangs out in the Ergo the whole time. Contemplate an important life question: how do people parent without a baby carrier? Put Max down for a nap. Try to find an oatmeal muffin recipe that won't make me crazy, conclude that all baking and cooking makes me crazy. Order Max a stocking. Nurse Max and play with him again. Go get eyebrows wax. Go to the gym and swim laps with a crazy guy who cared a lot more about his workout than sharing a lane. Eat lunch. Get a few random things done. Try to comfort Max when he wakes up angry. Drive to brother and sister in law's house. Hang out. Drink wine. Take shots of Palinka. Eat dinner. Take a walk in their neighborhood. Drive home- sit in the back seat to keep Max awake. Nurse and put Max to bed. Read an article on FB that reminds me of funny shows I watched as a kid. Start reading articles and watching Youtube videos of those shows- Where in the World in Carmen Sandiego? Ghostwriter and The Secret World of Alex Mac. This post. 

Thanks for reading these posts all week :) Tell me about your favorite TV shows, books and movies as a kid. I loved Babysitters Club books and Sweet Valley High. For movies I watched Little Rascals, Sandlot and The Parent Trap too many times to count. 

 

Friday, November 14, 2014

Week in the Life: Friday

Thankful it is Friday. 

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Morning Routine. Drive to work listening to the podcast about the podcast. Breakfast/planning. Teach the word "my." Pumping session #1, immediately regret not having oatmeal for breakfast (why does that actually work?). Science lesson about making predictions- we test amount of water we can fit in a container and number of drops of water we can fit on a penny. Recess. Math. Lunch/Pumping Session #2. The kids go to library and I finish our weekly newsletter and e-mail it to the parents. Recess again. Choice time. I e-mail parents: ask two of my English Language Learner families to explain to their children what "thankful" means, tell a mom about a recess incident involving a partially destroyed hat (don't ask), tell another parent what her child's "letter of the day" was today (a strategy I'm trying where I do a bunch of multi sensory letter activities with the child in the AM and then bother him ALL. DAY. LONG. about what the letter is- so far it's working, last week he knew 4 letters, this week 8- booya!). Go pick up Max, listen to Art of Simple podcast. Nurse Max and take then take lots of selfies. Go out to dinner at  Chinese food place because clearly we did not learn our lesson last night. Max decides he will be a complete delight tonight and the secret to his happiness is other interesting people to look at and noodles. Cold weather walk. Dinner #2 for Max. Storytime/ bed playtime. Bathtime. Bedtime for Max. Clean out inbox. Look up oatmeal muffin recipes. Make grocery list. This post. 

Not pictured or listed: Forget to text my parents about Max coming over. Ask child 17 times "what letter is this?" (it's an M in case you were wondering). Enjoy a delicious glass of wine with my Chinese food. Give Max 7000 kisses. 

I guess I'm not really telling you everything, mwaha :) One more day of Kelly land. 

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Week in the Life: Thursday

Thursday. My new favorite day of the week thanks to Serial. The more episodes I listen to, the more convinced I become that there is no way to actually "solve" this case. So, I'm trying to enjoy the story and the awesome fact that people, LOTS of people, are talking about "radio" again. I am a radio enthusiast. So, anyway… TODAY. I swear I did other things besides listen to Serial. Photo 1  54Photo 2  49Photo 1  55Photo 2  50Photo 3  36Photo 4  12Photo 1  56Photo 2  51Photo 3  37

Morning Routine. Bundle up Max because it's SO cold here. Drive him over to my parents house while listening to Serial. Drive to work… still listening to Serial. Sadly, arrive at work. Answer e-mails. Organize materials for math lesson. Morning Meeting. Reading Workshop. Pumping Session #1. Writing more poems. Kids go to gym and recess- I run around like a crazy person. Quick number of the day activity. Lunch/Pumping Session #2. Math lesson on putting numbers in order- I take a small group and we build our own number lines and then answer questions such as "what is one less than 9?" Recess- deal with many random kindergarten conflicts. Choice time- deal with many more random kindergarten conflicts. Send some parent e-mails. Drive home- finish listening to Serial. Go for a walk with Max and Eric. Go out to dinner. Realize Max is no longer held in by the straps on the high chair and he is determined to get out. He wins the battle and sits on my lap while I eat. I don't mind at all because I am eating delicious Japanese food and as long as I give Max a few bites, he is being good. Max spills water on me, okay it's time to go. Go to Panera and get bagels and cupcakes. Max is crazy (crying and bouncing around like a maniac- did he eat sugar?) during story time, bath time and his night time nursing time. I reluctantly put him in bed but have a feeling I'll be seeing him again. Start eating my cupcake. Realize Max is still crawling around and making noise almost 30 minutes after I put him down. Discuss with Eric if something is wrong- will we ruin all sleep training by going in there? Finally decide this is too out of character so we are going in. Go in and give Max some gas drops and nurse him again. He falls right to sleep this time. Finish eating cupcake. Write this post. 

I'm tired and glad tomorrow is Friday. Also, then I can listen to the podcast about the podcast. I need an intervention. 

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Week in the Life: Wednesday

Well, made it through Hump Day. Most importantly, this means a new Serial will be released tomorrow. Seriously, I'm crazy. 

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Morning Routine. Drive to work and stress about my milk and how it's not with Max and it's probably going to stay in Eric's car all day and have to be thrown out (spoiler alert: that is what happened, sigh). Tackle "to do" list. Morning Meeting. More and Less lesson in Math. Snack aka Pumping Session #1. Star of the Week writing activity. Recess. Dismissal- early release for conferences, but I don't have any so YAY. Eat lunch at my desk and continue to tackle "to do" list. Clean my desk. Pump #2. Back to the list. Go home and change. Drive to my parents house. Nurse Max and steal a few minutes with him. Go to class about teaching math. Get home and eat dinner while feeding Max his second dinner (don't ask, he eats 2 dinners every night). Storytime. Bathtime. Bedtime for Max. This post and episode of "The Goldbergs" (hilarious show, you should watch). 

Random reflection on documenting a whole week: It's definitely a better glimpse into my life than a day. Yesterday I saw Max all day and went on 3 walks. Today, I barely saw Max and I basically sat on my bum the vast majority of the day. I guess this = balance? I love my life but it's pretty boring. Thank goodness for cute pictures of Max to make it more entertaining. 

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Week in the Life: Tuesday

Two things I've realized so far in the Week in the Life process. #1- my life is not all that interesting #2- there are some patterns in my day: Max, kindergarten, walking and reading… oh and podcasts. Tonight I started a convo with Eric with, "so I was listening to a podcast today… shocker, I know…" #obsessed. I'm so glad some of you guys may participate next week. I really enjoy being nosy and peaking into the lives of others! 

Also, Happy Veterans Day! I am very thankful for the many men and women who have sacrificed so much so that I can have all that I do. 

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Morning Routine (see yesterday). Walk #1 of the day, while listening to a podcast. Read blogs/ talk to Caroline/ organize my life. Nurse. Visit one of Eric's friends: Eric got his haircut, Max played with his nephew, we all went to lunch. Entertain Max on the way home so he doesn't fall asleep. While Max naps at home, I work on our Christmas cards and do some online shopping. My mom comes over- we do a bunch of random things. Max wakes up, we go on walk #2, this time with Eric. Eric cooks dinner and Max nurses and then we all eat. Walk #3 of the day. Storytime. Bathtime. Bedtime for Max. Reading for me (now reading Look at My Happy Rainbow). Watching Chronicle episode on Nantucket with Eric- talking about how we want to go to Nantucket in the "off season." This post. 

Lovely mid week day off… ready (maybe!) for a busy day tomorrow! 

Monday, November 10, 2014

Week in the Life: Monday

Let's talk about Monday, shall we? 

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Poem, written by kindergartner: Math/ It is easy/ It's super fun/ I love doing it/ 8 plus 8/ You can do it whenever you want/ Math

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Morning Routine: shower + getting ready + nursing the baby + making breakfast + packing up all the stuff. Drive to work while listening to Amy Poehler on the Fresh Air podcast (cannot wait to read her book). Morning meeting + share best part of the weekend. Poetry writing, because we are not ready for real sentences yet (well, the girl who wrote the poem above is!). Veterans Day Concert. Pumping session #1. Math lesson. Lunch. Pumping session #2 because pumping is sucking at the moment so I'm going back to 2 sessions to see if that helps…sigh. Recess. Social Studies. Choice Time. End of the work day. Visit to a possible daycare for Max September 2015. Home + Nurse. Play with Max. Eat delicious Thanksgiving sandwich. Walk. Storytime. Bathtime. Bedtime for Max. This post. 

How was your Monday?