Houston, We Have LIftoff!

AJ is officially a crawler now! On Valentine's Day he took his first tentative knee forward, and sometime between then and now he has coordinated the whole act so that he can get around on all fours in a surprisingly quick fashion. Today I set him on a quilt in the living room and was surprised to find him 20 seconds later underneath the kitchen island eating Cheerios that had fallen on the floor earlier in the day. Looks like I am going to need to be quicker with the dustpan and hand broom going forward. That or get a dog.

In honor of this milestone, I promise that I will learn in the next week how to post videos to YouTube so that you can check it out for yourself.

Ugh Part II

Things have not gotten better here on the flu front. Just when I thought AJ was turning a corner, he seemed to have come down with either a second virus or the first one came back to kick him when he was already down. To make matters worse, Joe was infected by our very cute but very lethal weapon of mass destruction, AJ. This brings AJ's body count to 7 on the number of family and friends he has infected. The worst part is that we had to cancel our trip to Florida to visit AJ's great-grandparents this weekend. We are looking forward to rescheduling soon so that AJ can go hunt Hot Wheels cars with his great-grandpa.

On a positive note, I am relieved to report that I have been able to handle the clean up part of being a mom with a sick kid. I distinctly remember having the flu when I was six or seven and watching my mom scrub the carpet in my room where I had been sick. When I got into my late 20s and seriously started to think about having kids of my own, I remembered seeing my mom do that and worried that I wouldn't have the stomach to clean up after my kids when they were sick. I guess there is a mom reserve or survival instinct in me somewhere, because so far I have been able to weather this with AJ.

Here is a picture of my little sickee guy.

Ugh

The flu has hit our house hard. AJ came down with it on Tuesday as I was driving to Iowa with our nanny, K. At first I was picky about where we stopped, trying to stick to places with clean bathrooms that I knew. By the time we were three hours into the drive, I was willing to change his horrible diaper on a diaper deck in a truck stop, something I thought I would never do. It was the lesser of two evils compared to riding in the car with that lethal diaper, though.

This is the second driving trip to Iowa when I had a sense before we hit the Chicago suburbs that I should just throw in the towel and turn around. When I was a kid, we used to ride a roller coaster at Arnold's Park in Okoboji, Iowa that had a sign that said "Point of No Return" at the top of the first big hill before you went down that initial screamer of a drop. I am starting to think there should be a Point of No Return sign somewhere around the western Chicago suburbs for me on these Iowa drives. This was my last chance to visit Iowa before returning to work from maternity leave on March 3rd, so I ignored my instincts in favor of getting AJ to see my family before I go on a limited vacation and travel schedule. Trust me, though, I have learned my lesson on pushing travel with a sick kid, and if this happens again, I plan to turn around to return to home base immediately.

As far as the rest of the trip, AJ got sick all over one of his uncles, gave the flu to at least six relatives and friends in Iowa, made a trip to an ER in Des Moines for potential dehydration at the advice of our pediatrician back in Chicago and had a diaper blowout all over his car seat somewhere between mile 120 and 150 on our trip. As much as I love my family, we will not be making that drive again for a long, long time. On the plus side, our lovely nanny stuck with me through it all and did not quit immediately upon returning to the Chicago city limits.

The top picture is of a fussy AJ, poor guy. He has been this way for much of the past five days. The bottom picture is of AJ's Uncle Andy, Pops and Susan.

Larry, Curly and Moe

AJ got together again with his little tummy time buddies today to celebrate Valentine's Day. There are three boys and two girls in the bunch who are all around the same age. AJ and the other two boys remind me of the Three Stooges because they are constantly poking eyes, pulling ears and trying to reach into each others' mouths as they curiously explore their buddies. Here is a picture of Curly and Moe. Larry was home today sick with a cold.

A Really Bad Idea

AJ is at a stage where he only wants to eat what he can get into his mouth on his own. I am trying to encourage him to be independent and to explore things that he is curious about, such as feeding himself. However, as you can see from this picture, certain items are not conducive to an 8 month old feeding himself, including oatmeal. Huge mess everywhere--on his shirt, all over the highchair, on the floor, in his hair, and even in his left nostril. He loves to hold the spoon and to put in his mouth, so he does well if I put the food on the spoon and then let him pilot it into his mouth on his own. It may bonk off his cheek once or twice on the way there, but he eventually gets it in the goal. But he doesn't yet get that he is supposed to use the spoon as a tool to scoop up the food, so if I let him try to get the food onto the spoon, he will hold the spoon in one hand and dig into the dish of oatmeal with the fingers on his other hand.

On days when the spoon seems like too much mess to deal with, I have been experimenting with finger foods. He loves to feed himself peas, corn, diced peaches, diced banana, pasta, waffles, toast crusts and shredded mozzarella cheese directly off his tray. Joe is excited that AJ is 2/3 of the way to eating a pizza since he can do crust and cheese. Now we just need to work on the sauce.

Handsome Dude

Look at my handsome guy! I think he looks so mature in this picture, like I am getting a glimpse of what he will look like in high school. A few people have asked me what color AJ's eyes are, and they are hard to describe, but I think you can get a good sense of them if you double click on this picture so that it appears big on your screen. Some people describe them as dark blue or gray, but I think they are green with brown flecks and have a dark blue ring around the outside edge that can make his eyes appear to be dark blue from far away.

I have this little pregnancy journal that had cheesy entry ideas like "what physical traits do you hope your baby inherits from your partner?" that I of course dutifully filled in as a first-time mom-to-be. The one trait that I most hoped AJ got from Joe are his ridiculously long and dark eyelashes. When AJ was first born, his eyelashes were blond and almost nonexistent, but now they have grown into gorgeous black fringes. My pediatrician said all the boy babies get the great eyelashes.

Pardon my gushing--mom's privilege, I guess. I promise not to invoke it too often in public.

The Laundry Man

Since AJ generates more laundry than any other human being I know, he spends a lot of time watching us fold clothes. The laundry basket is a good place for him to spend a little supervised time because it corrals the balls that he loves to play with but always roll away from him. This way there is less fetching by mom, dad and other playmates.

Eight Month Update

AJ hit the eight month mark on Sunday. We honored the milestone by adding shredded cheese to his diet. He is into anything that he can feed himself, so this went over well. We had a doctor's appointment last week, and he is now weighing in at 23 pounds, 12 ounces and measuring 30 inches tall. Joe was surprised to see that AJ now comes up to the top of my legs when standing. Joe didn't take this as evidence of AJ's height as much as my need to grow a little more.

In speech development, AJ has started to say ma-ma constantly. He says it when he sees me, when he sees his dad, when he wants food, when he wants a toy--you get the idea. It still warms my heart every time, though. He is also into making car noises--brrrrmmmm, brrrmmmm, etc. His sense of humor is coming out more and more, and it is fun for me to see his nanny get him to laugh with silly antics and toys.

The pictures are of AJ at 8, 5 and 1 month.

My Little Helper

AJ is getting to the age where he is interested in everything that I am doing. I used to be able to get things done around his room while he was focused on a toy, but now that he can scoot around, he ends up scooting right over to me to "help" with whatever activity I am working on. Don't get me wrong--I appreciate his interest and am looking forward to the day when I can really put him to work helping mom. I have heard that little kids think it is fun to help around the house, and I fully plan to take advantage of his interest by creating lots of "fun" activities like dusting. And in the meantime, he is pretty good company.

This weekend, AJ "helped" me restock his diaper cabinet (top photo) and "helped" me pack up the clothes he has grown out of to put into storage (bottom three photos).

Big Foot

This is a picture of AJ's foot next to mine for perspective. When I look at this, I am totally floored by the fact that he is a 7 month old and has a foot that is half the size of mine. Did I mention that he is a seven month old baby?? My mom predicts that AJ one day will grow to be 6'8'' tall, and when I see things like this, I think she might be right.

All the cool moms are buying their babies Robeez or Pedipeds, these soft shoes that cost $30 a pair for babies. So far, AJ does not own a single pair of shoes because we figured it wasn't worth spending the money on them when he isn't walking yet and will outgrow them so quickly anyway (um, probably in a week at the rate his feet are growing...) The other day I was walking through the mall with AJ and was tempted by the siren song of a pair of Robeez shoes with little whales on them, so I went into the store and had his foot measured. Imagine my shock when his feet were too big for the baby shoes, even in the 18-24 month size. Joe would say this is the universe's way of protecting me from spending money on a pair of shoes for a child who does not walk yet.

The One Man Band

In recent weeks AJ has become his own one-man band. He is fascinated with music makers of any kind, including the two that are featured in this picture, a set of bells with a bumble bee handle and a maraca with a lady bug face. The band-in-a-bag also came with a set of frog castanets and a Zebra clacker. His Director of Music Education would be very pleased.

Whenever AJ hears music, he will turn around trying to figure out the source. The CD player seems to perplex him, because he stares at it like he is trying to figure out how all of those different voices come out of one box. Once he does hone in on what is making the music, he will occasionally bop along by bouncing up and down or leaning from side to side. The other morning I had the Today Show on in the background while I was feeding him breakfast, and he stopped eating oatmeal mid-bite once Sheryl Crow started performing. I think he had his first crush on a rock star. He was completely mesmerized by her and watched open-mouthed during her entire song while swaying from side-to-side like a lovestruck groupie.

Hat Attack

This post is just another flimsy excuse to share more pictures of AJ in a funny hat. This time he was trying on my winter hat. I think he looks like a little French bebe in the first pic.

Finger Food

We tried real peas tonight on the high chair tray. He loved it and sat in the chair for over an hour "feeding" himself. He is a bit of a hoarder when it comes to food--when I put the peas on his tray, his first reaction was to use both arms to scoop all of the peas into a pile in front of him, as if he was trying to protect his peas from someone else who would want them. It reminded me of eating with my high school boyfriend's family--he was one of four kids, so when his mom put pancakes on the table at breakfast, they would each try to lick their hands and touch the pancakes first to claim them. After scooping of the peas into a big pile, AJ used both of his hands to smash them and then fling them everywhere--there were peas on the wall, on the floor, in his lap and (my favorite) in his nose.

Once the initial excitement had passed, he got down to business and started the painstaking process of grasping them in his hand and getting him up to his mouth. The idea is that this will help him progress from grabbing the peas in his fist to using his thumb and forefinger in a pincer grasp, which is a key step in developing manual dexterity. I have noticed a big increase in his use of the pincer grasp over the last few days as he works on his sweet potato puffs (like Cheerios), although he does still alternate back and forth between the delicate pincer and the old fashioned smash-and-grab with his fist.

Rockin'

AJ is starting to get more mobile by the day. He uses his arms to push his chest up while laying on his tummy (Cobra pose in yoga), and then can push himself backwards. He can move surprisingly fast and far using this method, traveling three or four feet in less then 30 seconds. He has also started to push up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth, which my tummy time mom friends tell me is the last step before true crawling. Like all good babies, he has put his new mobility to good use by vacuuming up all of the Cheerios that he dropped from his high chair earlier in the day. Yummy.

My Baby Barbell

AJ and I tried a baby Pilates class this week. The idea is that part of the class is regular Pilates (for the unindoctrinated, essentially modified sit-ups, lunges, leg lifts, etc.) while the baby watches from a pillow, and part of the class is mom using baby as a weight to do the exercises. It was a bad sign when AJ was the oldest baby in the class, and even a worse sign when he was by far the heaviest and probably outweighed the next heaviest baby by a good 10 pounds or more. By the time we were five minutes into the class, I was puffing. By the time we were 10 minutes into the class, I wanted to ask Does anyone else feel like they are having a hot flash, or is it just me? Or at the very least, Wanna trade babies? C'mon--just for an hour, not forever. At one point, the instructor chirped Hold your baby under the armpits and thrust, thrust! (pushing the baby straight out into the air, parallel to your chest with arms fully extended). I did one and thought I was going to snap a tendon. This guy is h-e-a-v-y! So I did the breastfeeding mom's version of faking a stomachache in gym class and faked like AJ wanted to nurse to get out of the rest of the chest thrusts.

To make matters worse, AJ is getting more mobile and has a mind of his own in terms of where he wants to be at any given time. Gone are the days when he passively lays in my arms, content to see whatever I put in front of his face. So being used as a baby barbell was not his idea of a good time. As I tried to scoop him up from where he was scooting across the floor to sit on my leg for lunges, he let out a squawk of protest and trashed around in my arms uncooperatively, intent on abandoning the mommy ship to play with the extra pair of socks he had dragged out of his diaper bag.

Not only was the physical exertion over the top for me, but the way the class was run was also over the top. The moms of 8 week old babies were leaving their babies crying on pillows while they lunged, squatted and pressed their way back into their pre-baby bodies. I felt like they were pushing themselves hard too soon and ignoring their babies in a rush to get back into their old jeans. On the other hand, maybe exercising made them feel better and therefore they were better able to care for their babies. Regardless, I realized that these mom-and-tot exercise classes are not for me. When I exercise, I want to be able to zone out, listen to music and really feel like I am getting a break. Listening to 10 crying babies did not put me in a zen state. I'm not trying to blame the moms here--in my opinion, a little childcare offered by the gym would go a long way in improving the lives of moms who want to exercise. This currently does not exist because the gym cannot comply with the extensive requirements to be certified as a daycare center for newborns, which include a 2-to-1 staff to baby ratio. One gym class for 10 moms would require 5 childcare workers.

As for AJ and me, we're heading back to one more session of Baby Yoga. After that, I think I am going to save exercise time for the gym on my own and just enjoy my time with AJ as playtime without trying to use him as a set of human hand weights.