Eating and Drinking

Dear Bastian,

I meant to put a video on here of you figuring out how to take your first drinks from a straw, but couldn't figure out how. Here are pictures from the same occasion.

You still LOVE drinking and eating anything. Luthien skipped the sippy cup and went straight to the straw early like you, but had no difficulty. You seem to choke a bit more so I try to only give you water and not during meals; this proves to be difficult because you are constantly pointing and grabbing for every cup in sight. Your favorite foods right now are frozen blueberries and yogurt- if you see either you immediately start pointing and babbling like crazy. You will eat oranges, limes, and lemons whole, or you would if I didn't stop you! You start eating the rind and get a bit of a confused face but still chomp away until I give you the middle pieces only. You did start spitting out raw vegetables because you finally figured out you can't really chew them- you still attempt to eat them but then you start spitting out little bits. And finally, I have noticed you also seem to prefer meat.

Eating oranges (you also love to share with us, and especially your sister)...

After incessant pointing, shouting, and grabbing (we're working on that), enjoying a home-made orange julius drink with dad:

And here you are enjoying some spaghetti out on the patio in AZ. Nana seemed to think I was starving you because I decided when you were done eating. Apparently you are supposed to decide that, but after awhile even she commented on the fact that you would KEEP eating and you didn't seem to want to stop. Ever.

Love,

Mama

Pictureless Update

Hi Bastian,

We are nearing the end of our vacation here in AZ and I feel like I need to provide a little update since you are changing so much everyday. I won't even mention the fact that you are almost 1- it breaks my heart to think that you are getting so old!

So...before we left on our trip I wanted to let you know that I had left out a few more consonant sounds that you say: /g/ and /n/. Also, at that time you started doing a fake sort of laugh whenever we laugh at you. Your favorite songs were- and are still "Old McDonald," "Itsy-Bitsy Spider," "The Wheels on the Bus," and the "La La" song from our library story time. You love music, dancing and clapping to the beat.

Since we've been here in AZ you started waving and saying "bye-bye" whenever people say goodbye to you! You also are saying /f/ and /v/ sounds and have tried to imitate a few times when I say "fan" (a new favorite thing to stare at and talk about). You started playing peek-a-boo by covering your eyes with your hands, taking them off and saying in a high-pitched voice, "da!" You have loved staring, pointing, and talking about lights for awhile, but recently you have been looking at my mouth and attempting to imitate the /l/ phoneme to say the word properly (very Luthien of you)!

Tonight your Nana helped you to take a few steps! She stood you up and scooted back and you took about 3 steps independently! I guess I need to work with you on that more often, although I'm still not terribly anxious for you to walk since you are already in to too much. You have had a snotty nose this entire trip and throw a terrible fit whenever anyone tries to wipe it, which is driving me nuts. You have also been teething like crazy and I am anxious for the next tooth to make its' appearance so you aren't so clingy. Tonight as we played outside, ate, and took a night hike, it was the first time you did pretty well letting someone other than me hold you, which was nice.

I know I will think of more but that's all for now little boy....

Love,

Mama

Sleepless Nights

...We've had a lot of those lately. Tonight was actually the first night in a couple of weeks that I was able to put you to sleep in your crib on the first try with no fuss as soon as your head hits the mattress, no waking up 10 minutes later and then taking another hour to get back to sleep- I guess that is why I am actually able to take a moment to write to you! Other than teething now and then during this time, I can't figure out why the change in your sleeping habits, other than you are getting older and wiser, and figuring out that as soon as you cry, mom will pick you up and nurse you back to sleep. We may have to start doing some sleep "training" with you soon, but I hope not to have to!

Here are some pictures from the last couple months (since New Years):

Admiring fishies:

Showing off some new threads:

Showing off those naked buns:

You seem very close to walking these days, and sometimes you'll take your hand off of whatever it is you are using to steady yourself and stand by yourself (once you realize you're doing that, though, you get very worried and quickly grab on to something or cry). You just need a little more confidence and I really think you could walk!

You are a very smiley, happy little boy but I can never get you to show off your 7, almost 8 teeth for the camera! You are always too stunned by the flash of the camera I guess.

You love this new toy our friend, Miss Carrie gave to us!

Again, here you are looking stunned while your sister shows off her new haircut!

All glammed up for church:

And finally, playing with your sister...you now understand her name and get very excited when you see her after being apart for any span of time. We refer to her as "Lu Lu" for you for now, and when we say her name and see her in the morning or after naps you wave your arms and babble away.

More new developments:

1) You respond to your own name consistently

2) You've replaced your army scoot with a real crawl!

3) You have started imitating the words/phrases "light," "all done," and "so big"

4) The only words I can confidently add to the list of words you are already comprehending are "eat," "water," and "up" (other than "Lu Lu" and the words mentioned in the previous post, which you are still consistently understanding). I think you may understand "drink," "potty" and a few more, but I want to be more sure before saying for sure!

5) Fine motor skills are improving with picking up finger foods and other small objects

6) You can drink from a straw!

7) More variations in your vowel sounds (variegated babbling), but you are still only using initial consonant sounds d, b, and m (the latter only when sad). There were a few days where I almost went crazy because you were repeating "da" over and over, all day long, but then you started changing things up a little bit again- I did look back at Luthien's blog and confirmed she had a lot more consonants at this age, but I always thought she was very verbal from a young age- no comparisons, I promise :)

I love you sweet boy, please sleep well tonight!

-Mama

Winter Review

Dearest Bastian,

You are still the apple of my eye, although you have been causing me much more trouble lately! Over the past three weeks you have been teething like crazy (all four top teeth coming in)- why do my children get teeth so early?! You also have entered the world of separation anxiety in a BIG way, and become easily frustrated by mobility issues. You are quickly learning that "NO" is a word you do not like, and voice your opinion of the word freely!

On the up-side, your comprehension is developing beautifully! I would say that you fully comprehend the following: light, guitar, doggie, Roofus, more, Mama, walk, and milk or nurse. You will imitate the sign for nursing/milk, and you imitate a raspberry sound and other mouth movements and sounds (like sticking your tongue out, lip smacking, and simple consonant-vowel sounds). You continue to get around via army crawling, or walking (more like running) in your walker. I never wanted to put you in the walker because I worried you would become too dependent. It has made my life easier, but I do think it is doing exactly what I feared. You insist on standing most of the time (when you're not in your walker), but require support from Mom or Dad. When we say "walk, walk Bastian!" you will start walking with assistance but you definitely aren't ready to take any steps on your own (although would really like to!). Your legs are totally solid and sturdy- it's hilarious to compare them to Luthien's- so once you are standing you're like a brick wall :)

Some of your favorite past-times include grabbing anything and everything in sight and putting it in your mouth (especially small, circular objects), pulling books and dvd's off of shelves, and eating. I am convinced you can mash up anything in your mouth, so I probably give you things I shouldn't- you love mashing up whole frozen fruits and veggies, like peas and blueberries, and other small round things, like raisins :) You like EVERYTHING- it doesn't matter if it's spicy, sour, etc. which is SO different from your sister. The only thing you aren't particularly fond of are sweet potatoes and bananas by themselves, and anything similarly textured. You also love plain yogurt, which is so funny because again, it is rather sour, but I am happy I don't have to worry about sweetening it!

We've had a fun and chilly winter here in Mass, and here are a few pictures to document your development:

Classic Bath Shot...you actually took a face-dive right after we took the picture, which I knew was going to happen and kept telling Dad to hold on to you! By now you are now much more stable sitting up in the bath.

You love all of Dad's musical equipment!

Here are a few funny shots of you eating! You insist on making a total mess when you eat- I've sort of started turning you into a baby bird and making you take bites from my hand in order to avoid the mess!

Dad had to make your hair all crazy for added effect:

One of you/Luthien's favorite activities is having me push the two of you all over the house in the laundry basket. You love me to sing "Wheels on the Bus" and make the car/raspberry sound (I think this is where you learned to do it yourself)

First snow, just before Christmas!

View from our window...

We were fortunate to house-sit for friends of ours over Christmas. They have an adorable, quaint little beach house and we had a lot of fun. Here you are enjoying all the trucks and other wooden goodies they have at their house. Sorry about the strange outfit, we had to borrow and put you in some of Luthien's clothes the first night!

Making Christmas cookies, which you were more into than Luthien:

We opened presents at our house, which you weren't as excited about as I thought...

Here you are with your new toolset (drool and all):

Getting bites of apple from your sister...

And finally, just a couple pictures from our New Year's trip to Brooklyn. I have no pictures of you with family because every time someone tried to hold you, you reacted with a face similar to this (although you were being a bit more cordial to your cousin Olivia since she kept her distance):

This is with the exception of a few occasions with Nana, and one very sweet interaction with Uncle Tom:

I just realized my developmental notes are current, while these pictures were taken 1-2 months ago! I will post more pictures soon, so you can see how you are beginning to thin out (I think). Also, I wanted to tell you that you love to do things to get a reaction out of us. For example, you'll pluck a guitar chord, pause, and look at us with a big grin, full of pride. Very cute.

Everyone says you look JUST like your Dad. We still don't see it, besides the sturdy legs, light complexion, and reddish hair :)

I love you baby boy, more to come (and sooner this time, hopefully)!

Mama

Big Boy

Bastian,

We finally took you to the doctor and here are your measurements:

Weight: 19 lbs 1 oz

Height: 28.5 inches

Head: forgot, sorry!

The doctor mentioned that your weight is in the 58th percentile but she didn't say the percentile for your height. All I know is that you feel heavy and you seem to be VERY long. 12-18 month clothing fits you best these days. You aren't very "roly poly" or round necessarily, just a very sturdy boy. It's so strange to think that I birthed you! The doctor also felt that you have a heart murmur that should be further checked out by a cardiologist so we will see what they have to say. Apparently the murmur runs in Dad's family big time so we're not too worried at this point. On to pictures...

We spent Thanksgiving in Brooklyn with your aunts, uncles, and cousins. Your cousin Olivia is really a fast crawler these days so she was moving all around the house while you attempted to keep up with your tummy scoot. You have definitely picked up the pace, but alas, you are no match for Livers (as Dad calls her).

That weekend really marked a change in your eating habits I think- you began loving to munch on finger foods and your ability to move food- purees or solids- to the back of your mouth showed much improvement! Still when you eat purees, quite a bit comes out the front, but I think this has more to do with your excessive drooling, and the fact that you start to get lazy after about 5 bites.

You couldn't wait for dinner so you started snacking on a green bean here:

Clearly a very happy boy, after delving into some sweet potatoes!

Mom got sick with some sort of stomach flu the days leading up to Thanksgiving, but finally felt better just in time for the feast. But we were still pretty worn out that evening:

During the trip we discovered that you could sit up all by yourself!

I had previously been doing a lot of this (hovering behind you):

And this (propping you up with pillows):

But there is no need for propping or hovering anymore, which is very nice! I will say that the two times I have decided to sit you up on a hard surface you have fallen :( Once was at the doctor's office when I had to sit you on the floor while holding Luthien for a finger prick, and the other time was today, when Luthien decided to walk up to you and push you backwards on the hardwood floor. Other than these incidences you really are very steady! The only frustrating thing now is that you have not quite figured out that you can move out of the sitting up position (or maybe I should enjoy this while it lasts!)...You will actually sit in the same position for a long time, but as seems to be true of your personality in general, once you are done you are done, and are very vocal about it! You definitely stay put longer when I'm not around, because you always want me to pick you up and you know I won't make you wait very long :)

You are enjoying the lights and objects on our Christmas tree. It is usually still dark when you wake up in the morning and we always walk out and talk about all the lights/colors. Here are a few crazy pictures Dad took of you while Luthien and I trimmed the tree:

For a few weeks I've been trying to convince Luthien to hand down her beloved fishy hat to you, since your head has grown out of the other one we have that has ear flaps (a must have here). She finally has started "letting" you wear it which we are all very happy about. Here you are in it, looking so much older to me!

Mom's friend Kim lent you a bumbo chair which has been very helpful at the dinner table. The other day I let you have a few tastes of my raw milk- gasp!- and you went crazy for it.

You are always so serious about taking the first few bites- and you always have to be in control of the spoon. We usually end up using two or three spoons each meal so you can always hold on to one and feel like you are feeding yourself. We just fill up a spoon and switch it out as you grab for the newest one.

Here you are going for the milk, very serious (about everything, just like your Dad):

Thoroughly enjoying every taste...

Showing off maybe...?

And finally, the drunk look after you've decided you're all done :)

I mentioned before that you have some very hip new outfits given by a friend. The moose jammies (above) are another favorite, as well as this one:

Dad took this hilarious picture. He knew I wouldn't like it because he purposely accentuated your elvish ears (that your mama gave you), but it's too great to leave out.

You have always loved the vaccum- you loved the sound as a baby, and now you are so interested in the look of it, the fact that it moves, the lights, as well as the sound. This is good for Mom because I am a somewhat obsessive vaccumer. I have lately been plopping you down while I do the job, and you get very serious (again) about following my every move. Below, you started out way back on the rug behind you, crawled under the little yellow table, and made it all the way to grab on to the cord all while doing the tummy scoot maneuver.

And last but not least, one of your very favorite people. She can instantly change your mood from sad/mad to happy, overly excited, giggly- you name it. So sweet, I can't get enough of you two...

Love you my baby Bastian boy,

Mama