scrawls.

scrawls

still cheaper than therapy*

18.3.08

twenty-four weeks

This has been a whirlwind of activity:

You have a tooth. At first you were just fussy - well, that's normal - and we'd been saying you were teething since you were about three weeks old - and then there was a little pointy bit that one could just feel with one's finger (presumably you could feel it a lot more than we could) and then it got bigger and sharper - thing was pointy - and then a day or two later we could just see it, just the tip, like an iceberg. An awful pointy ridge - no wonder you were fussy, really, and they say teeth come in pairs, so we're kind of still saying you're teething and waiting for the next one. So. You have a tooth. It is like a tiny needle - when you're nursing and you're almost done, you're not really so hungry any more, and then you chomp, and it's the worst when you're sleepy too because then i can't twitch and yell like i want to, because ow. But mostly it's okay. I mean, good. It's good.

You can sit up, unassisted, for a current record of about ten minutes. And you can save yourself from toppling pretty often - you start to lean over one way, and then correct, but without overcorrecting. Smart baby.

You can roll over. Or, anyway, you have now rolled over at least once every which way, entirely on your own. This has so far been entirely a non-event where you are concerned (in the case of back to belly) or a horrible, hideous, very surprising nasty surprise (in the case of belly to back). I think you bumped your head on the side of the crib maybe? I was making you bottles in the kitchen and you were certainly in a secure location, in the crib, with all the sides up, but as soon as you start rolling over really we'll have to lower the crib mattress to the middle spot. Maybe we're supposed to do that now that you've rolled over at all. Um, it can wait until the weekend, at least.

We got you a play mat with houses and roads and a little printed castle and a construction site with a big backhoe, and you seem to find it comfortable. Haven't rolled over on it yet, but you'll sit on it happily and chat. Of course now you're not on the play mat, because you can also rotate when you are on your belly to reach things - but unfortunately for you, you usually swat the things you are trying to reach farther away, or farther along in your rotating, so you go around in a little circle.

You drank milk just now from the Avent bottles, in addition to the Dr Browns' bottles. This is excellent because it means we don't have to pack the Dr Browns' ones and carry them back to the States, because the Avent ones fit the milk pump.

You have eaten the following, though whether or not any of it actually got swallowed, except in the case of the apple sauce, i'm not sure:

Applesauce with pears (you did definitely swallow some of that)
Banana
Schnitzel (veal)
Rye bread
Red bell pepper (that one, i know you didn't swallow)
Baguette, including crust and interior

There is a tiny jar of babyfood carrots waiting for you. Also an avocado. But banana was new today, so they have to wait. Sigh ... You make funny faces with the food. I'm mostly leaning towards the baby-should-mostly-eat-milk-for-a-year people, but it is just so much fun giving you stuff, i can't help it. So far there have been hardly any actual calories from non-milk items (even the applesauce, you only ate a tablespoon of, if that; and you've nursed before and after every Eating Solids event). A lot of the other Moms-group-moms started earlier, i think, or it seems like they did. Not that it particularly matters. But i want you to like food. I like food. I want to share that. Um, hence the schnitzel. Clearly we are doing a bit of combination of Real Food (schnitzel, baguette, rye bread) and Jarred Baby Food (applesauce mit birne, carrots). Seems reasonable. Middle road. Right? Because if all you had to eat was rice cereal - well, i don't like rice cereal so much, so it's not something i'm looking forward to giving you, so much, i guess. And you can't have mama's crunchy cereal yet, seeing as how it's, um, crunchy, and has chocolate and coconuts and strawberries and god knows what else. Tree nuts. And one of my parenting books un-reccomends the cereals as being lower calorie than breastmilk (which i thought was why you mixed them, but whatever, i'm going with it, and i have a citeable source).

Looking forward, also, to non-food things i can share: i think when we get back we are going to get the yearly pass to the Oldest Zoo In The World. Or at least the Oldest Still Functioning One. Because you watch Dog no. 1 (who has, by the way, adjusted well, please let's not talk about that) when she's sleeping. I am ridiculously excited by this. You can sit up in your stroller (or, honestly, more likely in the Ergo, but we tried the back carry! and it works!) and look at all the animals! There's a monkey house! And a baby panda! Baby panda is a month and a half older than you, but he is only eating milk and bamboo. I think you're cuter, though, and i can't believe the mama panda is carrying a nine kilogram wiggly critter with her teeth.

Oh! And i've seen you doing baby pushups. So crawling is not far off. Also i think you want to grow up to be Zaphod Beeblebrox because sometimes you have a toy in your right hand and a toy in your left hand and you see another toy and you want to pick it up but you don't have any hands left and LIFE IS SO UNFAIR. And i love you, you sweet, silly thing. Look, i'm getting all mushy over how you scream when you can't chew on five things at once. Aww.

Labels: baby, food, mamadom, milestones

scrawled @ 19:34