Blake's 7th month

Blake at 7 months, originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3.

To Blake:

OK. I'm just a little bit late on this blog for your 7th month. My only excuse is that the month has been crazy as we've tried to pack every last morsel of summertime fun into the last four weeks before school starts again for Faith. But, enough of excuses. What has been happening?

Where do I start? This month has brought so many changes in you. Every day you're more and more of a person who can thrill us with new and exciting skills.

Of course, the most exciting skill for me was the first night you slept through the night! This occurred on June 25th and lasted for exactly three nights. What heavenly nights they were, but unfortunately fleeting. Alas, you are now back to getting up a couple of times a night again. I'm sure this will stop once you've become a teenager.

For some vital statistics, we went to your 6 month appointment (actually about a week late) and found out you were 15 lbs 6 oz and 23 3/4 inches long. Oh...and you have big head. You're in the 25th percentile for height and weight (pretty typical since they're comparing you to non-preemies), but for head circumference, you're in the 75th percentile! According to Daddy, this means you have big brains. All of your eating is going directly to gray matter.

And speaking of eating, we have broadened your horizons with fruits (bananas is the fruit of choice) and meat. Chicken was not a big hit unless mixed with something. You continue to love cheerios and I think you would just eat these all day if you could. A lovely discovery that comes in handy during dinner time. You like to sit at the table with us, but get pissed when you don't have anything of your own to eat. (Actually, I'm pretty sure you're saying, "Screw the purees! Give me steak!") So, Daddy and I take turns feeding you Cheerios and giving you your bedtime bottle one-handed.

Of course, we do all of this with you in your highchair now. If you sit on our laps, we spend the entire meal moving objects out of your reach as you try to pull out the placemats from beneath our plates, cups and utensils. And, when we take everything off the placemats so you can have it without inflicting any damage, you lose interest. Apparently it's all in the thrill of the chase for you.

Faith has discovered this the hard way. If you pass within three feet of her head, you always manage to grab her hair. At this point, I'm thinking this is just an unconscious reflex for you as you're so good at it. Luckily, she's pretty good natured about it now. I suspect as you age, she may clock you one.

Daytimes are a little crazy with you now as you DEMAND someone's full attention pretty much all the time. You have a great way of saying "PLAY WITH ME NOW!" without ever using any words. Who needs baby sign language when you've got your killer combination of screaming and whining at the same time. You follow this up with the knock-out punch of a huge grin when you do get the attention you so desire.

At night, you've become a mover and a shaker, or I should say a roller. You're never in the same place that I put you to sleep in the crib. You move from one end to the other, you get your feet stuck in the side of the crib, you hit your head--you're doing a dance in your sleep. And, you've started rolling over to your tummy in your sleep too. The first couple of times you did this, you woke up screaming your head off and completely disoriented (hence we only had three nights of sleeping through). Now, you just like to sleep on your side or your stomach and don't wake up quite as surprised, thank goodness.

You've also been doing some traveling with us to the cottage with Aunt Karen and Uncle Rob's family and camping. While you loved being outside at the cottage and swimming for the first time in the lake, you hated actually sleeping there. :)

Your favourite trip this month was the camping week with Uncle Paul and Aunt Kim's family, and Nana and Papa. You were outside every day almost all day and showered with attention from everyone. Nirvana. You also found out that you could MOVE to what you want by rolling. And what you wanted more than anything was to eat the grass. If I looked away for a few seconds and you had invariably rolled to the edge of the old quilt we had thrown down and had a handful of grass heading towards your open mouth. More fibre I guess.

You are definitely a lot of work and it's worth every minute.

Love,
Mommy

Dragonfly along for the ride

Dragonfly along for the ride
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

Karen took this great photo of Blake and I at the lake. Blake was experiencing his first taste of swimming when a dragonfly landed on my thumb. The perfect cottage experience actually. :)

Blake loved the water, but only when his feet were squishing in the sandy bottom. When I lifted him up to float around he was not too keen on this. The temperature of the water may have had something to do with this too...a little chilly for his little body.

The cottage trip itself was our second one with the Rob and Karen and it was tonnes o' fun. George performed an intervention with Rob and plied him with beer and bbq for the weekend. (Rob's been on a new eating regime and successfully lost a bunch of weight, but it involves NO DRINKING. So, he took a holiday from the regime on his holiday.) The kids enjoyed the lake and the campfires. Karen and I enjoyed a good bottle of Strawberry wine (sweet but good) and scrabble.

Relaxing and fun.

Blake's sixth month

To Blake:


I cannot believe that six months have already passed. We have gone from bundling you up for the daily trudge to school through the snow and wind, to letting you play around the house in nothing but a diaper to keep you from getting too hot during our summer weather.

The changes you've been through in the last month have been amazing. You are now eating solid foods...a lot of solid food actually. You went from one teaspoon of food your first day to 5 tablespoons morning and night the next week. Yikes! I'd give you more, but 5 tbls is the maximum serving size, and frankly, I don't want you to explode. You puke enough as it is. Cereal has been a good solid favorite, except for rice, and veggies have been even better. Although the amount of food that's going in is now coming out...a lot. And Faith has this strange fascination with looking at each diaper, although she's gotten over wanting to help change them. That didn't last too long.

In the last couple of weeks, you have found your voice. Basically, you are talking even more than you were before, which I would never have thought possible. And, your squeals, while delightful, can split my eardrums! Faith can really get you going, and can make you laugh like crazy. (Is there any better sound that a baby's laugh?)


Sitting up...you decided to accomplish this postural feet on July 12th, just under the deadline for your 6 month birthday. You're still a little wobbly, which means a few head bonks that drive your Dad batty as he thinks I'm letting you get a concussion. (I think you're made of tougher stuff though.) Faith likes to practice sitting up with you on our bed in the morning while she watches Arthur. It goes pretty well until you spit up a small portion of your breakfast, but she sits on your Dad's side of the bed, so I don't mind too much.


And, alas, you have recently become a thumb sucker (and a toe sucker too actually). I'm fairly ambivalent about this new development. It does mean that you have something to comfort you at night (although that hasn't seemed to stop you from waking up any less), but I can't take away your thumb when I want the habit to stop. Right now, it seems like you're sucking on something from the moment you wake up until you go back to sleep...and the eczema on your cheeks is there to prove it.


You are still waking up a couple of times a night, although have decided to sleep in until 7:00, which is somewhat helpful. I look forward to when I can actually get 8 straight hours of sleep. I don't think I can remember what that actually feels like. What I really don't understand is how your Dad cannot hear you at night. Is this genetic programming or something?

Another major change this month is that you are officially a backpack kid. You want to be entertained all the time, and you seem to find sitting in the backpack carrier as I make dinner, do the dishes, fold laundry, the most entertaining vantage point in the world. The first time I put you in the backpack, you started laughing...which was a relief as carrying you around on my hip was getting a little tiresome. (Did I mention I have an appointment with my physiotherapist on Tuesday night?)

And, I swear that you can save "Hi" now. Yes, I know this is typical parental bragging, but you seem to say it at the right times, or at least repeat the sound on cue. Either way, it's a very cute habit. I've been trying my darndest to get you to say Mama, but that hasn't worked yet. I'll keep at it though.

So, the sixth month has seen many changes...you're definitely not a newborn anymore and you are your own little person. An active, funny, charming little baby boy.

Love,
Mom

Two little imps go rock hunting

Faith and Ava spent some time hunting up rocks in Ava's backyard on the weekend. Paul and Kim are getting ready to move, and perhaps Ava wanted a souvenir?

A good Christmas present

Faith told George this morning that she's going to put "a full night's sleep for Mommy" on her Christmas list. Amen sister.

Higher education

I was cleaning up the hallway upstairs when I overheard Cordelia and Faith talking in the bathroom.

Cordelia: "Are you going to College?"
Faith: "Yes."
Cordelia: "I'm not."
Faith: "Why?"
Cordelia: "Because in College you have to learn a lot of stuff. I'm smart. I already know a lot of stuff."

Cottage!!