Gametes In Love

How we spent our Easter Sunday.

G played hide and seek with me

… and his baby:

He gave it hugs

and milk

“I no spill it, Mama. I no spill it!”

He changed it’s diaper

and poked it’s belly-button

Meanwhile, S2 made faces at Daddy

And I got to stay in my pajamas all day. It doesn’t get much better than this!

We have another K.I.S.S. fanatic in our household. Following his brother’s footsteps, S2 just can’t keep his tongue in his mouth much either… unless I’m trying to take a picture of it that is.

Ensuring that both my sons have equal reason to seek therapy 🙂

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Use the force, Luke! Use the force!

Taking care of his crack-berries 🙂

… while of course S2 supervises

Woa! Did you see the size of this pot?

S2 had his first taste of non-milk this week-end. Yes, I caved. No, I didn’t want to, but he kind of pushed my hand.

He’s already been staring intently at us eating. He grabbed my plate twice in the previous weeks and pulled it towards himself, dipping his hand in various cuisines. If he had more control over his hands, I know he’s be redirecting my silverware away from my mouth and into his. Last week I even decided to split the difference, and sat him in the high-chair, and fed him some breast milk out of a spoon. My hungry little camper was excited to no end. He opened his mouth for that spoon as if he’d been doing it all along. Of course he was pretty disappointed with the contents though: he gave me this saying “Why’s this a big deal? My other way of taking in this stuff is far more efficient, and fun” So yes, there have been signs of solid food readiness.

THEN, last week I got a request to start adding more milk to his bottles. Mr. Chunks apparently has been sorely disappointed by the insufficient 20oz of milk he’s been consuming between the hours of 7am and 6pm. He has been busting out some crocodile tears when his bottle is done, and would like more milk. While “yes” I likely could work to make that happen, it wouldn’t be without some added stress on my end. I could go back to pumping at 2am every morning, start taking Dom again, use my emergency stash for the extra, or just go for a bottle of formula each day at daycare. None of these options appealed to me, and I had to ask myself if they appealed to me any more than starting solids.

So, after some soul searching, and much grumbling, I conceded. I went to my local grocery store, bought 4 over-priced Earth’s Best Organic Sweet Potato stage 1, and went in for “the test”.

S2 didn’t really go for it. He didn’t care to open his mouth at the spoon like he’d done the week before. He didn’t really know what to do with his tongue as much. I was pleased. I thought to myself “Maybe he wasn’t really ready. Maybe this is my chance to pull back and wait another few weeks”… but then the reasonable part of me remembered that try #1 wasn’t exactly under the best of circumstances. 1) he was tired, as I was pushing up right before his nap-time; 2) we were rushed for time, since we had a long list of things to do afterward. So, I tried again on Sunday, and he did fine. Dang it! I decided to have Ms. J try again today, and do best 2-out-of-3.

The result? Food wins. So I guess I loose. We’re now into solids.

I don’t really know how to excuse my reluctance. A part of it is driven by reading that the closer baby starts taking solids to 6 months, the better. So I’m thinking 5 months, minus 3 weeks for him being born early is more like starting at a 4 months, which is definitely NOT something I wanted to do. However, I think at the end of the day it just comes down to him growing up. With G I was so excited for him to get to the next milestone. Now w/ S2 I’m the opposite: I don’t want my little duder to be growing up so fast. But clearly he’s not the patient type so I need put on my big girl panties and deal.

Meanwhile, in a “if you can’t beat them, joint them” effort, here are some photos (and video) of S2’s new chapter in growing up.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYm9I8QEkmI]

P.S. The sultry stylings of my voice is courtesy of a new cold I was lucky enough to acquire last week. Time for me to start up that 1-900 business, huh?

Let the record show that I am formally filing a complaint against time and it’s rushed passing of 5 months.

S2 is a happy, mellow, go-with-the flow kid. He’s been a dream, and his smile just melts my heart. That huge toothless (for now) grin just kills me. I can’t wait to start seeing more and more of his personality develop.

He’s recently learned how to blow raspberry (well, maybe “learned” is a strong term… more like discovered he can) and takes advantage of this. It’s funny to watch, but not so awesome when you’re trying to give him his nightly Prevacid, or give him a bottle :-/

He’s holding himself so much better these days. I’m working on his sitting skills. Granted, this is influenced by my desire to be able to take his bunny blackmail… err, I mean costume photos and not have to photoshop our arms supporting him. I’m happy that he’s doing things at his own speed though, so I clearly can’t rush him either.

This past month he had his first bout with sicky meds, after being attacked by the Pink Eye/Trush double whammy. He did awesome though and kicked both germs to the curb pretty fast. All while being in excellent spirits. I wish him to be like this with any illness, for his sake (and of course ours).

We were also treated to a few nights of him sleeping through the night. While I’d love for him to sleep past 5:40, the fact he was able to go from 7 ’till then isn’t shabby. Of course those events seemed to be a tease since we haven’t had an uninterrupted night in quite a while, but it’s promising to know that he’s capable of going for that long.

Another interesting development is his increased fascination with food. No, we haven’t started solids with him yet, but if he had any say in it we’d be starting tomorrow. He stares at us eating with great interest. I’m pretty sure if he had more coordinated control over his arms, he’d be pulling my food-loaded utensils away from me. So as far as child-led weaning, he’s giving me the signs. I ideally would like to wait until he turns 6 months old to introduce food, especially since he’s a 37-weeker, but I have a feeling I’ll cave in another couple of weeks. My first food choice for him? Sweet potato. Food mess here we come!

Weight: 15lb 4oz

Height: 25″

Favorite activity: Bouncer. He got his first taste of it last week-end and is in love.

Sweetest moment: Any time he just relaxes and falls asleep in my arms after waking up crying. I love knowing I bring him comfort.

Naughtiest moment: spitting out meds while making farty sounds with his mouth. This does not bode well for solids time either

Ok, it’s not like farts are a first for G, but before they were cute and didn’t smell. Today we’re getting a treat. A treat of something well… not so nice smelling. And he’s got some “silent killers” brewing.

While holding G this smell hit me so I looked up at S asking “Did you fart?”
He just responded: “You wanted to start solids: solid food means solid waste!”

And while this is true I thought we’d have a little bit more time. More time before The Big Stinkies came.

I’m not sure I’m looking forward to that #2 diaper G’s getting ready to deliver. Maybe this would be a good time to leave S with G and run some errands.

Some long extended errands.

G wants to wish you a Happy Smooch Day!

G has his first solid meal today … and it went well!

I should say that “solid” here is really a misnomer because there was nothing solid about it. I started with a quarter of a teaspoon of rice cereal and added an ounce of breast milk resulting in …. well… more or less milk. Same runny consistency.

G ate it up. I was a little worried he’d close up those little lips or spit stuff right back out, but it worked out.

Can’t speak for the taste — I’ve tried my breast milk (as I’m told any mom should to know if/when it goes bad) enough to know I won’t be mixing it in my coffee anytime soon.

Here’s some proof that it really happened.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0BxmnprLnw]

Oh, and a little bit of play-time.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHppuiI8GzI]

Do you see what we see? About 25sec into the clip G transfers his spoon from one hand to the other — midline crossing in action, baby!

Yey, food stuff!

G has a new trick: he can reach for an object using the opposite hand. Ok, I don’t really know how to explain it, but the jist is that he’s crossing the midline.

You may think: “What’s the big deal? I do this every day!”, but for little people this is a pretty big developmental milestone. It’s something you learn to do. You’re not born with it.

I don’t know how long he’s been doing this (yet another sad thing about not being around him every day), but the moment I saw it, I squealed and called S to tell him. S suspects he saw G do it last week, but wasn’t sure. As of today it’s official.

I don’t know what comes next, but I know that G will at least be able to shake hands as an adult ;p