Mama Tried

Phew

I cannot believe way back when I got so stressed out about flying to Houston with a three month old. Three month olds are cake to travel with.

Today I flew to Houston by myself with a ten month old (well, one day shy) and while it was definitely not as bad as I feared, it was exhausting. Nathan got about ten minutes of a morning nap before the flight, and then twenty minutes at the beginning of the flight, and so was super crabby and confined in a small space for the next three hours, when he wanted to squirm and roll and be free. Fortunately he loves airline food. Unfortunately there wasn't a ton of it. And he was tired, anyway, not that hungry (I had plenty of snacks), so I was dubious when a lady in front of us turned around and said, "Does he like bananas?" But he does, so I said yes, and he wolfed that banana down in five seconds and the potassium must have turned him around, because he needed a lot of entertaining (we read the inflight safety manual like it was a picture book, and then we went through the Sky Mall catalog, and we took excursions to the bathroom where he really would have like to have spent the whole flight- mirrors and lights!- and I spent a LOT of time trying to keep Nathan from pounding on the keyboard of the guy next to us who was working on a powerpoint presentation. I also had to bite my tongue because I couldn't help noticing one of his bullet points read "Economic Sensitive." Maybe Nathan was trying to type in the -ly).

The entertaining must have worked, though, because everyone at the end of the flight commented on how good Nathan was. The flight attendant said, "Nice job, Mom." And when we got out into the waiting area I promptly placed him on the ground to arrange the bags on the stroller and he has never been so thrilled for tummy time in his life.

Anyway, when we got to my parents he was thrilled. He played and played and ate dinner and it is always so fun to see him here. Traveling solo with a ten month old is not my favorite thing in the world, but getting to the destination is worth it.

Two Things

-Apparently the sleeping til 7 is a weekend thing. This is actually perfect, please do it again every weekend, Nathan. 6 is better during the week.

-I am 99% sure Nathan has said his first word. He refuses to do it in front of other witnesses but does it a ton when it is just me. And it is not mama, or (what I assumed it would be) dada.  No, it is... buh-buh.  And not bubba, like he is in touch with his redneck heritage.  Buh-buh, as in what he says while pointing AT THE DOG.  His first word is his name for Buster.

Also, My Diamond Shoes are Too Tight

Nathan finally officially dropped down to two naps a few weeks ago, and suddenly his morning nap (which had been from 8-9 like clockwork) went haywire. So I spent a week trying to figure out the best new morning nap time (which turned out to be 8:45- I was telling Jeff all about it, how we tried 8:30, and then 9, and he was all, "That's interesting," and I said, "NO, no, it isn't. But it's my life.").  The day after that seemed set... Nathan started sleeping in until 7 instead of 6.  And now I cannot figure out if his nap should be at 9, or 9:30, or WHEN.  Anyone with a baby wants to punch me in the face right now because if your child sleeps from 6-7 you have no room for complaint, but I need that morning nap time. Of course, I will probably get it figured out just in time for us to go out of town on Friday and mess it all up.

Not interesting at all, but I wish I could go back in time nine months and tell myself then what luxury problems I'd be facing shortly.

Book Review by Jeff S. Age 35

"This is a great book. Nathan and I really got into it although I was very anxious towards the end that perhaps the little bald baby would not actually find his binky.  I thought there were several other places he could have checked- did he look in the car? That's where Nathan usually leaves his.  He could have called the Swiss Embassy for assistance. Nathan and I suggested that to him.  We also considered calling Geraldo Rivera. If the binky had been in Al Capone's vault Geraldo would have found it."

Notes to Myself

A while back I posted that Nathan's butt was small enough to fit into the palm of my hand, because I wanted to remember it, and I'm glad I did, because I would have forgotten it otherwise. And if someone else had told me I wouldn't have believed such a thing was ever possible. Nathan is huge.

So on that note, I'm posting what he ate yesterday, just to have a snapshot of what he ate at 9.5 months and also to remind myself when he is a toddler and seems to subsist on just grilled cheese sandwiches- he's not a picky eater, that's just a phase.

(For comparison, here is what he ate five months ago: breastmilk.)

Nathan's meals yesterday

-breastmilk at roughly 3 hour intervals
-water with each meal and off and on during playtime, especially when I am drinking water

Breakfast:
-Joe's Os
-three blueberries (when first feeding Nathan blueberries I would smush them flat because I worried they were a choking hazard. Now he will only eat smushed blueberries. Note to self: never serve him peeled grapes.)
-banana (one whole banana cut in pieces, would have eaten more had he been offered)
-prune juice (always necessary to counteract banana)

Snack:
-hippy organic cheddar crackers
-freeze dried mango (he would have eaten more of this, too, but we ran out)

Lunch:
-leftover roast chicken
-leftover roast carrot
-cheese (I do not think he actually ate any but it was on the plate. Today I realized that if I grate the cheese, he will eat it. Chunks of cheese, not so much.)
-tortilla
-TJ's greek style yogurt (I think he would have kept eating this, too, but we ran out)

Dinner:
-broccoli (he did not eat any of this. But it was on his tray. I try.)
-buttered whole grain bread
-sliced deli turkey
-six more blueberries
-one chunk watermelon

This is not nearly a complete list of all he will eat (although apart from carrots and hummus and sweet potato he still ignores vegetables).  But I am constantly surprised by the quantity he takes in- he spent 40 minutes eating breakfast this morning because he wanted more and more peaches and Chex. I guess all the growing and tummy time takes a lot of calories. And just being such a big boy, whose butt probably wouldn't fit in both my hands.

Bullet Points

-One thing I have learned from this Tummy Time thing (that I should have maybe learned from our adventures in beginning breastfeeding, or sleep training) is that Nathan may frustrate easily but if he is given support and encouraged to stick with something, he'll figure it out.  Which is probably pretty normal for a baby, and my challenge is to remember to keep pushing him a tiny bit out of his comfort zone while recognizing his limits. With Tummy Time we gradually worked up from 5 minutes to 10 to 15 and now he can do 15 minutes easily, and I also ended every Tummy Time with major praise for his hard work and lots of cuddling, which seemed to work well. Now he is less interested in cuddling and more interested in climbing all over me, which is fine, too.

-When my parents first sat Nathan they snapped his onesie on over a pacifier and then swaddled him and I didn't find the pacifier til the next morning. I laughed and laughed about this but last night I was getting him into his pj's and asked Jeff, "Where did you put the binky?" He claimed to have not seen it. Turns out it had gotten stuck down Nathan's pant leg. To be fair, he is WAY more squirmy now than he used to be. I am surprised he doesn't get more things stuck in his clothes.

-We moved five months ago. For five months, there have been two unpacked boxes next to my husband's dresser and I have quietly not said anything while seething on the inside about them.  Last night I was looking for something and Jeff said "Maybe it is in one of those two boxes you haven't unpacked yet in the bedroom."  I said, "Those are your boxes."  Turns out he was right.

It's the End of Tummy Time (As We Know It)

I've been singing that all day to Nathan. Singing (or any music) makes tummy time more fun for him, and sometimes he'll wriggle like a breakdancing worm.  He has gotten to really almost enjoy tummy time- today, in fact, I had him outside on a blanket, and Buster was running around, and Nathan was watching while picking at the grass, and when I went to go pick Nathan up I reached out my arms which usually causes him to get super excited but instead... he ignored me. Nathan has never chosen any activity over being picked up before in his life.

But I am not sure how much longer we'll be able to keep him down on his tummy.  Today I put him down and he was on his hands and knees (this is where Jeff and my mom both interrupted my relation of Nathan's daily accomplishments by saying "That's awesome!" and I had to say "But that's not even the thing that he did! That's the prelude!") and then he..... PUSHED HIMSELF UP TO SITTING.  From his hands and knees. I applauded and squealed and he was like, "Lady, I am just sitting up. Stop screaming and bring me some cheerios." 

Anyway. Crawling is not a developmental milestone, but getting to sitting is, and if he hadn't done it by 10 months it would have been early intervention time. But he did it. It was hard work for him, and I could not be prouder.

News of the Nathan

Most things Nathan does are pretty normal for babies his age- he loves lightswitches! And doorknobs! And banging on things! But that doesn't mean I don't think they are adorable and amazing.  He has recently discovered the buttons on two of his toys that make them play music, and he now pokes and prods at all his other toys, too, trying to figure out if they have any hidden tricks.  He has this bath book, which is pretty simple ("One little ducky flaps its wings- flip flap. Two little duckies say hello- quack quack. Three little duckies take a bath- splish splash." That's the whole book.) but he studies it like it is War and Peace.  He will sit there turning the pages back and forth with a furrowed brow for ten minutes.

I think once he realizes crawling will lead to him being able to study more things- things across the room, things I haven't babyproofed- it'll happen.  He has already figured out how to turn around and stretch while on his stomach to get things, and he didn't really do that last week, so I think it'll be soon.

Communication!

I have been diligently doing baby signs with Nathan for a few months now. Not a ton of them, just "milk," "more," and "all done."  I think he understands milk, because he does his dance of excitement (flapping arms up and down and kicking legs) whenever I make that sign.  I try to do more and all done? when feeding him, but he just laughs at me.

Anyway, he figured out how to tell us "more" all on his own. It is also the same way he tells us he wants something- he points and goes, "eh eh eh eh eh."  His first whine. I am so proud.  It is helpful, though, because he will keep doing it until he has had his fill of whatever his meal is. 

Yesterday he also pulled himself to standing using two different pieces of furniture and briefly "cruised"- along the side of a chair and then from a chair to my shoulders to the fireplace.  But he still doesn't try to get himself from laying down to sitting up, and all the tummy time just leads to him spinning himself in circles like a baby breakdancer.  I am kind of thinking about calling the Early Start program in our state to see if he needs physical therapy to learn to get to sitting, if only so they can tell me I'm crazy.   But what if I don't call and he never learns to sit himself up? Will he be a teenager and still need me to come pull him out of bed every morning? Probably not.

My mom thinks this is all due to him sleeping on his back as an infant- she is probably right. My sister's nephews slept on their stomachs and were crawling by six months.

For Grandparents and Extreme Nathan Fans Only

One year for Christmas my dad made this movie of the four of us girls, mainly just talking about things and showing off our school and whatnot. Regular home movie stuff. (I remember the most that he showed up at my school unexpectedly to film me and I was wearing an outfit I was not supposed to wear to school- this electric blue knit sweater and matching skirt that I wore with white Reeboks. I was in fifth grade and thought I was SO SOPHISTICATED.)  My dad called my grandmother to ask what she thought, and she said, "Oh, I've watched it seven times, but it is a shame there isn't any sound." She had a defective copy and yet she sat through all 45 minutes of us going blah blah blah with no sound seven times.  That, right there, is what makes grandparents different from normal people.

So obviously my dad has watched Nathan V. Sprite a jillion times on his computer, and that was only when Nathan was there with him.  We got a new computer for Christmas and I am pretty sure the only reason was so that he could have more Nathan video, all the time. So if anyone else has that kind of love for the Nathan, or low production value, or dogs barking off screen or my high pitched voice, here's your site.