Jumperoo Control

Karston used to jump wildly in his Jumperoo, with his arms flapping loosely. Also, his jump angles would vary, so his head and body would wobble all around. Well, no more: Karston has learned Jumperoo control! He holds on to the sides of the bucket so that his arms don't flap, and most of his jumps follow the same trajectory. This means that he stares at you with an enormous smile, eyes not wavering (because his head isn't moving in many different directions over different jumps), and gets down to the serious business of jumping. I tell him to go to work and get his job done: more jumping!

I do miss laughing at him flopping around, but I'm glad he still enjoys Jumperoo and burns lots of energy.

Baby

Four to Remember

I know I'll remember the evening that Karston's fourth tooth came in, but not because number four was such a tooth to remember. (This tooth probably explains why we haven't had much sleep this week, which makes Daddy snore, which means I sleep even less. My trick is to fall asleep very quickly. Sometimes I can.)

Karston nursed a little before bed, but said he'd really like to cuddle. Often he'll go to sleep on his own, but particularly with a new tooth, he wants to snuggle. (And he has wanted to cuddle all night this week!) Anyway, he had just gone to the Land of Nod when I heard very loud knocking at the front door. I thought Daddy might have locked himself outside, so I stood up very carefully so as not to wake the baby. Knocking again (now I'm thinking it's less likely to be Daddy), I answer the door (Karston is sleeping soundly), and it's Jim our next-door-neighbor to the north. And Jim says, "Do you have a fire extinguisher? Your neighbor's house is on fire." I quickly gave him the kitchen fire extinguisher and he was off. Then I noticed the half-finished projects around our house and started wondering where the blank is Daddy. Shoes, white shirt for night visibility, flashlight, baby monitor, and I went off to find him for my peace of mind. The first volunteer fireman I encountered was very nice, and pointed me to a clump of people who had been working on the fire before the firemen. And sure enough, there he was. Whew!

What happened is that, two houses north, something shorted in the main electrical box. (And no one could find the main breaker. Ours are right above the two main electrical boxes serving the house.) Randy and Allie were watching a movie when the lights went out with a loud ZAP. The in-between neighbors had their lights flicker, they heard buzzing, and they went outside to check on their air conditioner only to see flames. My husband was on the porch, heard buzzing, looked, saw flames. No lights flickered here, so I didn't know anything until Jim told me. But anyway, everyone who saw flames showed up to help. Randy's cell phone would not let him dial 911, and he wasn't going back in, so Jim called 911 from his house. [Note: see if your cell phone actually supports 911 as it should.] One very large fire extinguisher and two small ones later, the volunteer firemen showed up to take over. Kinda smells out there, there's a wall that's been axed down, but everyone's OK, and I think the physical damage isn't too bad. (No comment on the electrical damage. The power company showed up and had no idea what started this, so fixing it is open-ended for now.) I offered them our guest bed for the night. It's probably time to check into mine, as a matter of fact.

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Pediatrician: Nine Months

We went to the pediatrician this morning. Karston's vital statistics are 17.5 inch head circumference, 26.25 inches long, and 16 pounds 6.8 ounces. Really, he cracked 17 pounds on our scale this weekend, but he hasn't eaten as much the past two days so he's a bit lighter. His weight-to-length ratio is just a hair under 50%; as ever, he's on the 25th percentile for head size. Since he's now below the 5th percentile for weight and height, I asked the doctor if we should care. His doctor said he's healthy and proportional, so don't worry. Indeed, Karston hasn't been sick yet, and since he wants to be held so much, he may as well be light.

I also asked if we should schedule an eye doctor appointment, but the doctor demonstrated exactly why he wasn't worried (and said he had a low threshold for suggesting optometric followups). No shots this time, although he did get a finger prick for a hematocrit that says he's not anemic. All in all, a pretty good doctor's visit!

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Two Steps

Karston took his first steps yesterday afternoon! We went for a walk to enjoy the pretty afternoon, and Karston was in his baby backpack. When we came back in, we let Karston stand in his backpack while we took our shoes off. He looked pretty happy, so I wasn't looking at him while I took my shoes off. When I turned around, Hmm, I thought Karston was closer to me than that. Then I noticed Kurtis looked surprised. Karston took a couple of steps, and moved his baby backpack himself! So while he's not cruising yet, he is on his way to walking. (He skipped crawling.)

What could top that step forward? Well, I think he tried to sleep through the night, too! Last night we all slept soundly until about 5:30 AM when the Daddy snoring hit a record loudness. I hope Karston makes a habit of sleeping for hours until awakened! I'd like to resume my habit of sleeping through the night.

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Half-and-half

Karston's been out in the world now as long as he was in the womb! This really seems like a milestone, maybe because he has developed so much personality recently. He's really his own little person now, sweet-tempered and delightful. You can just watch him figure things out! His fine motor control improves daily. He's learned that if he holds on to the sides of his Jumperoo when he jumps himself silly, he won't flop around. If I tickle his foot while he's in his high chair with the tray blocking his view of his feet, he still knows I'm doing that. He's just such a person now!

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A Fun Week

It's been a fun week with Karston!

On Wednesday, Karston started dancing. Well, maybe not dancing since he doesn't even stand on his own, but he was sitting on the couch, and when the sound started, he started slouching and sitting up straight in time to the music. Too bad it was just an ad on TV because we were ready to dance him around the living room!

Friday Karston picked up a useful new skill: drinking from a cup! He doesn't like bottles anymore (that was a small window), and while he thinks his sippy cup is a fun toy when it's empty, he won't touch it when it has liquid in it. He likes to play with the cups we drink from, so my mother offered him a sip from hers. And he drank from a cup! This should help keep him hydrated since he only nurses at night, and only accepts a spoon during the day. Sometimes that spoon has baby-food-prunes to offset the lack of drinking.

And speaking of food, we tried bananas again, but this time from a jar. He is nuts for peaches, but we could hardly get him to eat the canned peaches that I ran through my food processor when we were out of baby food peaches. I used peaches canned in juice, and I rinsed them just as directed. He loves peas, but when I cooked some frozen peas and ran them through the food processor, they came back on a return policy. (He also loves sweet potatoes, but that would be a lot of cooking.) And that made me reconsider bananas. He returned bananas before, but I mashed those myself. So bananas from a baby food jar was a test, and the results are in: he's not fond of bananas from a jar, and he barfs on food that I make. His parents don't! Our parents don't! But while I can apparently cook for adults, I don't seem to have the touch for baby food. I really don't like this turn of events, but at least I figured it out before I spent much time cooking for him. We'll try again later.

This morning we stopped by a small tractor store just before they closed, so they were driving lawn tractors inside. Karston thought this was the coolest thing ever! When a tractor would start, he would stare in the direction of the sound. When the tractor came in sight, Karston would turn to watch it. And then he would just watch in awe as the driver walked back for another. I said I thought he was young to be such a boy about tractors, but another customer assured that his 11-month-old son was just as fascinated. Everyone there was very nice about a squirmy little boy just staring for all he was worth.

There's still a lot of new to every week.

Number Three

The third tooth just poked through! That explains the extra drool and the rough night (at most two hours between wakings, and nursing about 20 minutes each time). It does ruin one of my bedtime songs for him, for Mister Two Toof ("toof" is easier to sing quietly than "tooth"). I wonder if Number Four will show up five days from now, just as #2 came right after #1?

Jumperoo

We bought Jumperoo on Sunday because Karston is active enough that he should get more exercise. He figured it out in three jumps. The first jump was while I was putting him in it, and he gave me a terribly upset look as if to say Mom, my toys are not this unstable. On the second jump, all on his own, he had a curious look, Do you suppose this motion is intentional? On his third jump, he had a very wide, excited smile, Oh yeah, I can do this! I'd say he loved his Jumperoo in less than 30 seconds.

On Tuesday, he jumped himself silly! He was so happy to be in Jumperoo to burn off some energy that he jumped wildly for an hour, with all body parts (other than his powerful legs) flopping around. And then he slept well. Ahh!

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Buttons

Last night before bed, after swaddling and after Karston nursed, he continued to nuzzle. Lately he's been sucking on my buttons, shirt buttons, jacket buttons, any buttons. In fact, the day before, he stuck his lower lip out to reach the closest button instead of nursing! Anyway, since he was swaddled, I held my shirt button steady for ten minutes so that Karston could suck and nibble on it. So let me get this straight ... sucking on buttons is good, but not using a pacifier and sometimes not even nursing? Who knew?

Baby

Eight Months

Karston's eight months old now, so it's time to look back at the past month. My first thought is, Another month older already? He has mastered sitting, and that's great! I set him down on the carpet last week, and then quickly unloaded groceries into the refrigerator next to him. He just watched me, didn't tip over, didn't try anything that would give me a heart attack. We've really gotten used to the sitting boy! It's just so convenient!

I don't know if he became ticklish, or just got better at laughing, but now we can tickle him or nibble on him to start the laughter. Baby laughter is the best! We make sure to get all his laughter out before bed.

When he's really happy (for instance, when he knows what comes next, like a bath), Karston is difficult to hold because he turns into Bucking Bronco Baby Boy. He's so happy, he wants to jump, which is tough when you're carrying him down the hall to the bathroom. Baths don't bother him as much now, although he clings to his washcloth or his rubber ducky.

He's tried just about every kind of single-item baby food, and a couple multi-item foods. Karston likes cereal mixed with breast milk (best), sweet potatoes, peas, and pears; everything else he tolerates (especially if Daddy feeds it to him). We haven't tried bananas again, and I don't plan to try again for a good long while. He still nurses at night, but isn't interested in anything so reclined during the day.

Karston had a road trip this month too, to meet my Gramma in the mountains. The weather finally was reasonable on a weekend when we didn't have plans after the pediatrician said he was old enough to meet people. (I really didn't want a sleep-deprived person, either one of us, driving Karston on wintery roads!)

Laughing, stomping, and routines are still popular. We still haven't slept through the night. He looks older and bigger, but he's still holding just above 16.0 pounds which is just above the 5th percentile. Honestly, I feed him as much as he'll eat, but I say that about his dad too.

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First Snow

Today Karston saw his first snow! We had a quick snow, over in fifteen minutes, last weekend while he was napping, but he didn't see it because he was asleep. Karston was more interested in the sleet that fell before the snow because it made a neat sound. Since we had warm 70°F weather yesterday, our daffodills, miniature daffodills, and yellow crocuses bloomed. So while Karston didn't care about the snow, I think the flowers did. (Of course we didn't have any snow accumulation! Not with the ground warmed up from yesterday's weather.) The blooms are touching the ground now, and I think I'll pick them when it's warmer. It's rough to blossom one day, and have it snow the very next day!

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2.5

Sunday Karston turned 32 weeks old. Today I read that the rule of thumb is to be 2.5 times birth weight at 32 weeks of age, which would be 16.25 pounds for Karston. A few days ago he weighed in at 16.5 pounds fully dressed. He weighed 16.1 pounds this evening, but that was after we learned another lesson: even if Karston wants it, we might not want to feed him all 2.5 oz of prunes! He ate all that last night as part of his dinner, and the prunes started working after breakfast. In fact, the next five diapers were poopy, and he was fussy all day. So I'm going to guess he was 16.25 pounds at some point today, and say he matched that rule of thumb.

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Seven Months

Karston is such a little person now! I think he passed from Infant to Baby this past month, just as he passed from Newborn to Infant when he was about two weeks old. In particular, his hands look like scaled-down adult hands now, not just the thumbs. He eats real food, albeit baby food from a soft spoon. He likes cereal and sweet potatoes. He'll eat peas and prunes, and maybe applesauce if Daddy coaxes him. He's no longer interested in bottles, and he'll only nurse at night. He watches us eat with great interest, but he hasn't reached for silverware yet so we haven't reached the messy independence of self-feeding. He laughs more, and he loves his routines for bath, nap, and bed times. He's down to two naps a day. He'll stop fussing and start smiling in the evening when we start his bed time routine, and he'll even put a lot of energy and laughter into playing before the final bundle off to bed. He's getting better at gripping what he wants, building hand-eye coordination. His favorite toys light up where he pushes them, not somewhere else, and music is also good (usually calms the fussing baby). He does love to stand on the counter and stomp his feet. Stomping is the best, and standing (with just a little help) is still great. Today he just started to sit on his own, too. No new teeth, though.

He's also such a little boy. He hoots on walks especially if you're not talking enough because, well, a boy has to announce himself loudly, and he's announcing that he's king of the path. He grins wildly when he shakes his head side to side vigorously, especially on a teething ring but sometimes just to shake his head. Our cat Linus, an older tuxedo cat, is very patient and lets Karston twist his ears just to sit in on family play time. However, Linus usually runs away when Karston starts stomping, which he does when he gets really happy about play time. Our dog Emma, an active terrier mix, thinks he's wonderful for licking although we try to dodge that. They both look worried when he cries, but usually stand close to him and look like they want to help.

Karston has just cracked 16 pounds, which means that he's above the 10th percentile for weight now, and that he can start wearing size 3 diapers.

Since he's only nursing at night, I pump during the day. It's easier to schedule pumping than baby feeding, so while it's not glamorous or comfortable, it's predictable. We think the breast feeding is paying off because he hasn't been sick even though Daddy's had two colds and Mommy one. We feel lucky about that!

Restaurant

Tonight we went out for the first time since Baby! I suppose that's some sort of red-letter day: we went out while Karston stayed home with my mother. In fact, he wore himself out early today, and slept the whole time we were gone. I didn't miss bouncing him in a restaurant to keep him quiet instead of eating my food, but I did miss our typical cuddles. Daddy said he wasn't very cuddly today, though, so I probably didn't miss much.

We went to Barry's retirement dinner. Barry's worked with the Networking group since it started. I even stood up during the speeches to chime in with my thanks. If he, and the people who work for him, didn't do such a consistently good job, I wouldn't love my job nearly as much because I would be plagued with installation problems, like bad cables. Starting off with excellence means that many networking problems can be avoided. If you want pesky problems, buy no-name NICs and cables from Fred's NIC Knack Shop. However, when I've gone to conferences, I've learned that I'm lucky to work with Barry because most people who do what I do (network management) aren't nearly as fortunate.

PS: if you run across a bad cable, do not put it back to annoy the next person! Test the cable in an otherwise known good configuration, and destroy it if it's still bad. (If it's an Ethernet cable, make sure it's a standard cable and not crossover, or vice versa.) Some people stand on one connector and yank to get out their frustration, although I usually just take the scissors to it. If I don't have time to test a cable, I tape a note to it that it may be bad. Don't share the headache of a bad cable!

Yes We Have No Bananas

Well, I thought we'd try bananas as the next food, especially since that's an easy baby food to make myself, but every banana deposit today came back. So maybe we'll skip bananas for a while, maybe for a long while. I made tasty banana muffins instead.

More. Food.

What a difference a week makes! We've been saying that "he's a new baby to learn every week" for a long time now, but secretly I thought the pace was slowing down. Wrong! The day before yesterday, we had to make an emergency run to the store for more baby rice cereal. I just wasn't prepared for the small box that we bought six weeks ago, back in the ancient history of four months old, to be empty. Karston was so slow to start eating (anything other than my milk or formula) that the rice cereal seemed endless. Then suddenly, BAM!, the end of the first box of rice cereal! Here we are, two days into the new box of cereal, and Karston's already eaten half of it. If you blinked, you missed his transition to food.

Yesterday he went on a nursing strike. He's only refused breast twice before. (He loves spending time with Daddy, and Daddy brought bottles. I didn't feel rejected because I think it's adorable that Karston loves his Daddy and wants to spend time with him.) We had a loud hungry morning yesterday before I decided that trying everything meant I should try a spoon as well. And Karston let me feed him with a spoon! I was so surprised, I barely knew what to do! I should have remembered that "he's a new baby to learn every week," but I thought I knew the feeding routine. Feeding him with a spoon takes longer, but he watched me raptly! I felt special to be allowed to feed him ... I'm sure this fairy dust will wear off with a few more goobers of rice and milk, but we enjoyed Spoon Time.

So today (keep up with us here folks, he's changing rapidly) we tried his second food, sweet potatoes! Daddy and I don't like sweet potatoes, but I selected that vegetable for a different reason. I went through all of the stage 1 foods at the store three days ago, a store that didn't have rice cereal when we knew we were LOW, precipitating our emergency run to re-stock the next day. I wanted a fruit (prunes), a vegetable (sweet potatoes), and a meat (turkey). After applesauce, my favorite, I picked out the other baby foods based on which ones had the most calories because Karston's in the 5th percentile for weight. And despite the recent crack I heard in response to that ("well, so are his parents" -- although we're normal-sized), I'll just feel better if I know he's not skinny because I'm starving him. Daddy has said before that he wished water had calories so he didn't have to eat food, so I think getting a high calorie density into my two boys (without ballooning up myself, and without cooking different meals for each of us) is important. As a side note on that, I got excited the first time I saw AquaCal bottled water. It's calcium-fortified water, but my first thought was that it was water with calories! Finally someone made water with calories for Kurtis! Alas, just calcium. Which is probably a good idea, and I'm probably the only person who (a) thought AquaCal meant water with calories, or at least (b) thought that was a good idea somehow. Karston says sweet potatoes are not rice cereal, and he makes funny faces about it.

I feel like he's all grown up now. He no longer nurses himself to sleep. In fact, he no longer nurses during the day when he can get fed food (not my milk or formula). He already gave up his bottle, and he thinks cups are fascinating. He's not co-ordinated enough for a sippy cup yet, but I know that transition will rush up on me, so I have two in stock, and one is currently a "toy" for him. And he gave up his pacifier. And he did all of that on his own! My mind boggles. I'm just here to hold him up so he can do his stompy dance, to feed him from a spoon, and to change those diapers.

Sleep Skills and First Food

We didn't make it a full week, but we had five days out of six of good sleep, starting on Karston's 6-month birthday. He was sleeping about five hours before nursing once in the middle of the night, and nursing again to wake up at 7 or 7:30 AM. After the first good night, we went to the pediatrician who said I shouldn't nurse Karston to sleep. I wasn't sure I wanted to mess with a routine that was finally working, but the following night, Karston wouldn't nurse before bed. So I set him down awake, and he's been going to bed without complaint and without nursing to sleep ever since! I guess he listened to his doctor!

I was really surprised he hasn't nursed at all just before bed because he's been voracious recently. He'll eat some rice cereal now, and we've had to supplement him with infant formula because I just can't keep up! He nurses when he can, and he has rice cereal mixed with formula when he's still hungry. In fact, he's finally doing well enough with the rice cereal, and with the spoon, that we gave him some applesauce today! So Karston's first food is applesauce because that was my favorite as a baby. He literally recoiled at the taste of it, but he loves the attention from Daddy, so he ate it anyway. (He won't take a spoon from me, and he stares pointedly at my chest while keeping his mouth shut. I have to put his formula and rice in a bottle.) In fact, he did so well on formula that I had to make an emergency run to the store today to get more! And so the food saga begins!

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Pediatrician: Six Months

We went to the pediatrician again this morning. Karston officially weighs 14 pounds 7.4 ounces for 25 1/4 inches long, which is about the 5th percentile for both. Other than his chubby baby thighs, he does look skinny as babies go! When you combine those two, he's around the 25th percentile for his weight-to-length ratio. Since he wants to be held so often, I really don't mind having a lightweight baby! His head circumference is up to 16 3/4 inches, near the 25th percentile just like all of his doctor visits after the first month. Anyway, he's healthy and vaccinated. The pediatrician also said we need to get serious about making the house as baby-safe as possible because mobility is just around the corner. We're allowed to introduce single fruits and vegetables now, even though rice cereal isn't going down in large quantities. He often won't take a spoon from me (and his eyes make it obvious what he would rather that I feed him), but Daddy says you know he's done eating when he gets some distance sending the food back at you or when he won't open his mouth. So I'm sure it gets a lot messier from here ...

Six Months

Karston is six months old today! (And he was 26 weeks old Sunday.) It feels as though six months ought to be a landmark. Actually, my mother says that means his spleen is working now, and that means his immune system is running. It sound like good news to me, so we opened a bottle of champagne and hopped in the hot tub (we missed sunset, which was the original plan). Karston thinks the hot tub is OK, but that could be because he gets so much adult attention and constant holding. We're watching out for his safety, and he loves the limelight. We all went in the hot tub for the first time on the first, and it was a very relaxing start to the new year.

He's got so much personality now! Mostly we see happy, thrilled, hungry, tired, or fussing either for holding or for a diaper change. That sounds easier than it is, because he also needs to fill his brain which means we have to give him that safely supervised opportunity. We put batteries in his Intelli-tainer this weekend because he seemed ready to do more than stand in it. Yesterday he just scratched the buttons because he was there, this morning he was pushing the closest buttons on purpose, and this evening he was reaching everywhere to see what else, like a button, would make something happen. He even found one button that I hadn't! Mostly we're happy and learning, parents and child!

... and a Sleepy New Year!

I guess Karston wanted to keep his Christmas present to us special by keeping us awake. He was awake to see 2006, even though we were perfectly happy to let the new year roll in while we spent quality time with head on pillow. In fact, he stayed up until 1 AM, a whole hour after the new year ... and then he repeated that performance the next night. This is not how I planned to spend my vacation, staying up late and getting up several times during the night. As long as Daddy, Mommy, and Baby are all happy and healthy, I don't want to complain, so I'll just say I'm really looking forward to Karston sleeping through the night eventually! I do enjoy spending time with him as he is now ... but I also plan to enjoy later stages, with more sleep!