Playmat

This is how Kyle's playmat sessions have been ending recently. He thinks it's funny when it "collapses" on him and there's no real safety hazard. So I guess we'll let him continue, even though he has clearly outgrown the intended use of this wonderful contraption. Playmat lives!!

Happy 8 Months!!

As sweet as Kyle's breath smells, I thought it was time for a new post. And what better time than on his 8 month birthday! Kyle celebrated his big day with a fun playdate at Adam and Remy's. Alex and Rachel also joined in the fun and were impressed with all of Adam's toys. Here's the lowdown on Kyle's 8 month "status:

• Weighs about 21.5 lbs (don't know how long...we'll find out at his 9 month checkup)
• Very close to crawling...can inch backwards and pivot 360 but hasn't figured out how to go forward yet (gets up on his knees though, lifting his tummy)
  
• Loves saying da (and sometimes dada) and the b sound, and a sweet little utterance that sounds like "hi"
• Sleeping great at night...usually about 11 hrs straight!! Those middle of the night feedings are (fortunately) just a distant memory now...
• LOVES spinning things, and is REALLY good at it...not sure what useful life skill this will translate into...maybe an appearance on Wheel of Fortune?
• LOVES watching and "petting" (i.e. grabbing a big handful of fur and flesh) Benson
• Eats any and all flavors of his jar food (including "vegetable turkey dinner", which I sampled and tasted neither like vegetable nor turkey)
• Graduated to the convertible carseat...no more lugging that heavy, clunky carrier around
  
• Eye color is still grayish and TBD...probably going to be greenish like Daddy's

That pretty much sums things up...he's just the best little guy and we love him so much :)

Baby's Breath

It occurred to me today why there is a flower named Baby's Breath. Kyle (and I'm sure all babies) has the sweetest smelling breath! How appropriate to name a flower after this pleasant aroma.

For the last couple days, one sound keeps coming out of that sweet-smelling mouth...DA! He loves making that sound and repeats it throughout the day (and in his crib before/after he sleeps). Sometimes he strings a couple together for DaDa. But I don't think he associates this sound with "Daddy" yet, because he says it the most when he sees Benson!

Final random tidbit...Kyle fell asleep last night on his back for literally the first time since Presidents Day (mid-February). We always lay him on his back when we put him in his crib, but ever since he discovered "tummy sleep" 2.5 months ago, he always rolls onto his tummy to fall asleep. It was so weird seeing him (on the monitor) asleep on his back, spread-eagle. We even went in to check on him a couple times, to make sure he was okay (which of course he was). He must just have been really tired!

Happy 7 Months Kyle (a few days late)

Okay, here's a 7 month Kyle update. As you can see, he LOVES grabbing his feet (he hasn't figured out how to get them in his mouth yet, but he's trying!). He also loves watching and patting Benson. He gets this excited/amazed look on his face when his hand touches Benson's fur, and that's the only time we ever see that exact expression. Actually, we also see it when he touches the fake animal fur in those "touch and see" books. He is a very good eater...he eats oat mush, carrots, sweet potatoes, pears, apples, and banana. He likes all of those but LOVES his oat mush and bananas (even though the jarred bananas look a little weird, kind of flesh-colored).

Let's see, what else. He can sit up unassisted for short stretches, but then usually "capsizes". And he definitely gets bored more easily these days...we have to rotate from activity to activity much more frequently. And just today, we added a new activity to the rotation...his "jumperoo" (compliments of Nonnie). It took him a few minutes to figure out that he can jump in it, and he seems to like it although he has a somewhat serious expression on his face when he's jumping, like he's really concentrating. I'm sure he'll "lighten up" in it soon, once he gets used to it.

Probably the biggest news of this update (at least from my standpoint) is that he is FINALLY sleeping through the night! He'll now sleep for about 10 hrs straight (sometimes waking up once or twice and rumbling for a few minutes). Needless to say, I am absolutely THRILLED by this development. Teething is right around the corner though...hopefully this isn't shortlived.

I must say, with this summer-like weather today, we weren't sure what to dress him in for bed. His room is 77F, so we opted for just a short-sleeve onesie and thin cotton sleep sack...hopefully he doesn't get too cold in the night.

Oh, and to update my previous post, we have since bathed Kyle sitting in that tub (instead of lying on that hammock). I now understand why people put those little tubs in the big tub, because he LOVES splashing (quite violently) and our kitchen floor was flooded from it, since we had the tub on the counter. We called it Kyle's "Water Country".

Bath Time

Somehow, almost 7 months have passed, yet we are still bathing Kyle in the newborn hammock!! Is that even safe? Hopefully the weight capacity is at least 21 lbs. We've just gotten into a routine, but clearly we need to establish a new routine. Up until now, we've been all about efficiency, although Kyle still enjoys his hammock bath. But he will probably REALLY enjoy actually sitting in warm water.

Over the last week, we've started letting Kyle "cry it out" a little bit at night. He never got too hysterical, so it wasn't too difficult. And it has definitely been lengthening his stretches of sleep at night. And I THINK he slept through the night last night, from about 9pm to 6:30am! I always say "I think" because the nights are just complete blurs in my sleep-deprived state. But I definitely didn't get up to feed him, and neither Jared nor I remember him crying in the night. YIPPEEEEEEE!!! Let's see what tonight brings...

6 Month Check-up

Kyle had his 6 month check-up today and he checked out great! He's up to 19 lbs 11 oz and 27.5". All 3 of his percentiles (weight, length and head circumference) were within 1% of each other, around 78th%. So he is very proportionate! He had another round of shots and handled them well...I was doing "car wash" (hanging my hair over his face) and he was smiling/laughing until the needles went in, and then his little lower lip went out and he made the most devastated-sounding cry. But he only cried for about 5 seconds and then resumed his amusement with car wash.

As you can see from the above photo, Kyle loves eating "solids"...the messier the better! We have figured out how to keep things tidier since this photo was taken though. When we first started, he'd whine/fuss a little bit in between bites, like he thought we were taking it away. But he now seems to understand that, unlike Mommy or a bottle, the spoon isn't bottomless and it needs to come out of his mouth frequently to "fill up". It's cute though, instead of fussing, he now anxiously kicks his little feet around when he's waiting for his next bite :) So after a week of enjoying rice "mush", we started him on oatmeal mush yesterday (and the quiet old lady who was whispering hush). He seems to like it just as well. And the pediatrician said we can start the Stage 1 fruits and veggies after a couple days of oatmeal. Since Kyle loves this "wallpaper paste", I bet he's REALLY going to love fruits and veggies, since they'll actually have a taste to them!

And much to my disappointment, the solids haven't helped his sleep at night. He's still waking about every 3 hrs to eat :( The pediatrician asked about his sleep and his response was "well, you could let him cry for a minute or two and see if he'll fall back asleep"...a minute or two?? I let him cry for 5-10 minutes without thinking twice about it! Needless to say, I didn't tell him that we're considering trying one of those "cry it out" methods.

6 MONTHS!!

I have definitely been slacking in the blogging department recently. And I would have felt very guilty if I let Kyle's 6 month birthday pass without a post. So here it is, along with a slideshow of some recent photos. Yes, Kyle turned 6 months today. And to celebrate, we gave him his first taste of solids (instead of a birthday cake). We strapped him into his high chair and spoon-fed him some rice cereal. He seemed to like it, although it was pretty messy and I'm not sure how much he actually ate. But it's a start (and will hopefully be the start of him sleeping through the night!).

He's up to about 19 lbs (on nothing but Mommy's milk). So this means he doubled his birth weight about a week ago (at 18 lbs 10 oz). And sometime in the last couple weeks, he surpassed Benson in the weight department!

Kyle caught his first cold a couple weeks ago and had a stuffy nose for over two weeks. It was a long couple weeks because he had so much trouble nursing (and would get very frustrated), but fortunately his stuffy nose didn't turn into anything worse. I seemed to have dodged the cold but had my first experience as a "sick mommy" last Saturday. And the timing couldn't have been worse...Jared was gone for over 12 hrs at his fantasy baseball draft. I had a fever of almost 102, along with a slightly sore throat. Kyle didn't nap much for me but was a good little boy and entertained himself with his various activities while I laid around moaning/groaning on the couch. My fever was almost gone the next day and might have been caused by a VERY painful clogged milk duct (too much information?). My sore throat has somewhat lingered, especially at night but I'm basically all better.

Kyle has started doing much more babbling this last week and less "dragon sounds". He likes rolling all over the place and props himself up into the crawling position and kicks his legs like he's trying to figure out how to move. He is also very into grabbing his feet, scratching the furniture (just like Benson), and pulling my hair. I think that pretty much sums up the last couple weeks!

Fun Visit!

Kyle was treated to a visit with both his grandmas yesterday...Grammy and Nonnie. Grammy made a delicious soup, and we all had fun playing with Kyle. He still has a stuffy nose (it's been 10 days now!), but it hasn't affected his mood. And he was in the BEST mood today for some reason...extra smiley and giggly. Maybe it was because Daddy assembled his jogging stroller and he's looking forward to cruising around the neighborhood in style!

Bye Bye Mobile

Kyle's rotation of activities has lost one of its original members...his mobile. A couple weeks ago, he figured out that he could lie on his side (to extend his reach) and grab onto the animals. At first, he would only do this every couple days. But it's now at the point where he does it every time! And once he grabs on, he has a death grip and pulls and shakes it as hard as he can (this has caused the mobile to droop). Needless to say, this didn't seem very safe, so we took it down tonight. I am particularly sad about this because the mobile was my friend in the morning...once Kyle would wake up for the day, I would go in and hold him for a couple minutes, and then put him under his mobile. He'd watch it happily for at least a half hour (sometimes 45 minutes!), during which time I'd lie in bed, watch the news and ease into my day. Oh well, on the bright side, he must have really good hand-eye coordination to grab a moving, dangling object that is almost out of his reach!

The above picture was taken after his afternoon nap...after both naps today, he shimmied his way down to the mobile end of the crib and grabbed onto it (in the dark) even though it was turned off. Too bad "grab the mobile" isn't safe...I think it would be Kyle's favorite activity! And he now rolls both ways in his crib...back to tummy to fall asleep, and then tummy to back when he wakes up.

He's now had his cold for 5 days. It seems to be a little better today and I'm happy that it never progressed beyond a stuffy nose (no fever, ear infection, etc...knock on wood!). But that stuffy nose has made nursing VERY difficult! Think about it...when our nose is blocked, we can chew and breath through our mouth. But he must be "suctioned on" to eat so obviously can't breath through his mouth. I tried a bottle to see if that was any easier, but it was about the same. I'm learning that with kids, it's always going to be "something". Amazingly, I didn't catch Jared and Kyle's cold! Must be all that quality sleep I'm getting at night...

Thank You Carpenter Clan!

I had an important meeting for work this morning with some UTC "higher-ups" (including my boss who's retiring tomorrow). And since it was a Thursday, Grammy was not available to watch Kyle because she had class. But the Carpenter Clan came to the rescue!! The whole family (minus Abbydoodle) arrived a little before 9am ready to babysit. And babysit they did, for the final 10 minutes before I got home :) Yep, Kyle slept almost the entire time I was gone...from about 8:45am until 12:15! I was very happy to hear this, because I would have felt awful if he were fussy for them. Ca had me slightly fooled though when I called on my drive home and she told me how much easier it is to be an accountant than a babysitter...what a jokester that Ca is :)

I picked up a couple Pepe's pizzas on my way home, so we ate/visited until it was car nap time for Alex and Rachel. And Alex and Rachel were so cute and well-behaved...they amused themselves by building bridges out of magazines, "playing" with Benson, reading "Is Your Mama a Llama", and watching Thomas. They also told Kyle they loved him, which was very sweet and precious. Thank you, thank you, thank you Carps for helping me out today! During the peak of tax season nonetheless!