Friday, June 28, 2013

Eleven Months

Bowen :: Eleven Months Old

Weight: I actually don’t have a height & weight for him this month, so I guess it will be a surprise next month at his 12 month. He’s wearing 12 mo onesies and shirts, 9 month shorts (for the length – still a little shrimp I guess) and a few 18 mo items like shortalls.

Eats: A solid 3 bottles a day, although for the first time in his LIFE he is leaving some formula left in the bottle. I’ve started making his mid-day and night time bottles at 7 oz and he’s been fine with that. (No crying at the end of the bottle anymore.) He eats so many real food now and it feels like all of a sudden we’ve gone from baby food to “real food” – although Cheerios still elicit the greatest joy. Having him be able to feed himself has been life changing – now when we sit down for a meal, I can actually eat at the same time!

Sleep: He’s taking two naps – one mid-morning and one mid-afternoon. They usually last about an hour to hour-fifteen each, although when we were at the beach at the end of the month some of them ticked up around 2 hours. I’m not sure if it was the pitch black room he was sleeping in (aka the closet) or playing hard on the beach, but I wish I could create the same thing at home! A well-rested Bo is a happy Bo. He sleeps from about 7:30-6:30 at night and that’s been pretty consistent all month.

Milestones: He was rolling in earnest throughout most of the month, and getting up on all 4 to just rock back and forth. Then about half way through the month, right before we left for the beach, he took off crawling! He’s still pretty slow so I can keep up with him, but I officially have a mobile baby now. He also absolutely loves being in his walker and cruises around at breakneck speed in that – often pointed straight towards poor Buddy. He blows kisses complete with a “Mu-waaaah” and waves bye-bye with a “buh-buh.” He’ll mimic back things we say to him like thank you and night night, and has started making some animal noises on Peek-a-Boo barn. “Oink oink” is his specialty. He’s had two teeth come in up top – but not the two middle ones. One middle and one side, so that I’ve taken to calling him snaggletooth. He also finally got the hang of using a sippy cup with a straw… just in time for me to start working on weaning the bottle. (Sigh.)

Likes: Cheerios, Greek yogurt, chicken, grilled cheese, Buddy, shrieking, FaceTime, using straws, Peek-A-Boo barn, running around in his walker, his Daddy, throwing all the stacking cups on the floor and then running over them with the walker, the beach, videos of himself

Dislikes: touching slimy foods, waiting for breakfast, missing a nap, being cooped up on an airplane for too long, teeth, being told “no,” short sleeves during nap time

This month was one adventure after another. Bo and I flew up to Rochester at the beginning of the month for a high school friend’s wedding shower and our first visit home. I wouldn’t go so far as to say flying with a 10 month old is enjoyable, but it was a heck of a lot better than the first time. (He’s able to be awake longer and entertained easier and they were shorter flights.) We had a wonderful time in Rochester. We got to have two long, long, long awaited playdates. One with my friend Kristen and her little boy, Ryan. Kristen and I had a baby bump date last May when I was home for my baby shower, and had been waiting for a chance for the two guys to meet. We also had a playdate with Maggie and Christy – Christy is my sister’s best friend from junior high, so she practically feels like a little sister to me too. We were pregnant together and had a due date just two dates apart – but our babies are 3.5 weeks apart. We’ve spent the first year of their life raising the two of them together over weekly text messages so it was great to finally get to meet each other’s babies and let them play!

Back at home, Bo and I had a terrifying experience where we were caught in my car in a storm with over 100 mph winds. We took shelter in a church parking lot (where I still feel indebted to a kind stranger who pulled up next to me to tell me to point my car into the window ((in retrospect: obvious)) and then motioned for me to put my head down right before tree branches started snapping all around us. After the storm, which hit our neighborhood the worst in our whole city, we couldn’t get back home and spent the rest of the evening taking shelter at the Glenn’s, then returned to a house with no power, then finally headed down to Matt’s parents’ house to spend the rest of the weekend.

After all THAT, we headed down to the beach for 10 days where we got a lovely dose of sun, sand, oceans and grandparents. Bo loved scooping up the sand and playing with a shovel, and was tickled to sit at the water’s edge and let the waves lap over his little legs. In fact, he was pretty pissed off when I took it upon myself to go for a swim without taking him with me!

This month definitely put my routine loving baby (and his mama) to the test, but Bo rolled with it pretty well. By the end of the beach week, he was starting to show signs of unraveling at the edges – for example, throwing foods he normally gobbles right up off his tray. But all in all, he was a trooper though I think I heard him breathe an audible sigh of relief when I laid him down in his own crib our first night home.

Everyone who looks at him now says “He’s turning into such a little boy!” and I feel like it’s happening right before my own eyes, too. In many ways, he’s still so much a little baby… and I find myself really savoring those little moments he’ll snuggle into my arms or reach up and pat my cheek while he’s drinking his bottle. Because as soon as he’s done, he’s wiggling out of my arms, on to the ground and taking off after something exciting. Ready to charge into toddlerhood, I guess!

He was not in the mood to do pictures today… and he definitely didn’t want to sit still. But, I feel like these are a pretty good representation of many days of this month!

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Monday, June 10, 2013

Rochester Playdates

Bo and I ended up making somewhat of a last minute trip home to Rochester. I received an invitation to one of my best friend’s baby showers back in Rochester and then ended up finding an amazing deal on Southwest. I had the flight before I even stopped to consider that I would be flying SOLO with my child. I’ll refrain from another “flying with a baby” post but it actually went a whole lot better than it did last time. He seems to be in that sweet spot of not being mobile yet but being highly entertained by things like iPhones and snacks. (I wouldn’t exactly say it was an ENJOYABLE experience, but it certainly was as terrible as the last one.)

I had four wonderful days at home while the husband held down the fort (read: dealt with Buddy) and I’m so glad I was able to be here and see my friend’s beautiful pregnant belly and spoil the mama-to-be. Krissy and I have been friends since we bonded over our love of oldies music in 7th grade when everyone else was listening to Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Kris was the only other person I knew who could sing every line of 59th Street Bridge song with me. (In case you can’t read the subtext here, we were indeed both big dorks. But we were happy, blissfully unaware of how dorky we were kind of dorks – a rare experience for a middle school girl, I know.) So! Anyways, when you start a relationship off with that kind of bond, it’s really pretty awesome to be still close nearly 20 years later and getting to share the experience of motherhood together. I can’t wait for her little boy to arrive in September!

While I was home, I also had two long anticipated play dates. My sister’s best friend from middle school, Christy, (note: they were in the cool clique and probably made fun of people like us back then) was pregnant the same time as I was and our due dates were just two days apart. Bo was in a hurry to get here and Maggie took her sweet time, so our little ones are actually almost a month apart but we’ve spent much of our pregnancy and first year of baby raising texting each other our “omg is this happening to you too??” moments. We’ve been waiting all year to get the babies together and Christy just happened to be in town for a family wedding that weekend. It was fate! We’ll call it their first date.

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If that wasn’t fun enough, the next day Bo and I had a play date with another friend from way-back-when (first grade maybe?) who has a little boy just three weeks older than Bo. Last year when I was home for my baby shower, we had a bump date and this time we got to have an actual playdate! We decided they really like each other even though they mostly played near each other instead of with each other.

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Other than that, I basically spent four days soaking up some time with my parents and getting spoiled by my mom’s willingness to wake up early with Bo. Such a fun trip home… and thankful the travel to and from wasn’t nearly as traumatic as I was worried it was going to be.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Sweet Potatoes

I am learning a few things about my almost-toddler-boy:

1. He likes messes.

2. He likes food.

3. He really likes when the two are combined.

(And I am applying this new rule: if it entertains him for longer than it will take me to clean it up, then the mess is worth making. Have at it, kiddo.)

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Saturday, June 1, 2013

Cheese

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This child is an absolute ham. I pointed the camera at him and said “Bo, say cheese!” and this is what I get.

Anytime we are out in public, he instantly locks eyes with someone and either laughs and giggles until they smile back or he will do the “smile, bury his face in my shoulder, quickly look back and smile again” routine. He is not the least bit shy. I just can’t even imagine what this personality trait will look like as he gets older, because it is such the opposite of how his shy, introverted mama was growing up. He makes Matt and I laugh every day at one antic or another of his. He really is just such a happy little guy. It’s basically impossible to feel anything but joy when he’s around. Even on my most bone-tired days when the coffee isn’t pumping out of the Keurig fast enough, walking into his room and seeing that cheesy grin on his face as he sits up in his crib and claps with delight at my presence is basically the greatest gift I could imagine. I love you, sweet cheesy ham biscuit of mine!