Summer PJs

Yesterday LR was up at the normal time and had a nice morning playing and eating yogurt. He is definitely getting the hang of crawling and pulling himself up. He uses the incrediblock when he's on his play mat and the coffee table in the middle of the living room. The coffee table makes me nervous since it has some metal edges. We all tend to keep hands on him if he decides he wants to play near the coffee table. Unfortunately, he's at the stage where he loses interest after standing for a minute and then - look what's over there - and lets go. On the crawling front, he is not only going after toys now. Yesterday morning he crawled to Daddy's and when I got home from work he crawled to me while we were playing. It's terribly cute.

He and Gigi hit the Carter's store yesterday to pick up some summer PJs. It's too warm now for his heavy cotton PJs. She got some light weight ones and couldn't help picking up a few cute outfits along the way. LR was fine most of the time, but he doesn't love being in the car seat and then stroller for too long. He really prefers to be out and moving around. Gigi said she always had to park the cart far from anything he could reach out and grab and by the time they stopped at the grocery store on the way home, he had had enough. It's always been a question whether or not his personality would be more like Pooh (Daddy) or Tigger (me). Looks like he's a Tigger. His favorite game is to bounce and jump and he can't stand being restrained for any long period of time. With this knowledge my only new strategy is not to buy a geodesic dome for the backyard. Right, Mom?

The other new development this week is that he's now dancing when he hears music. He wiggles and smiles and shakes his fists in front of him. Not sure where he picked that up, but I love watching it.

Really crawling this time

Had a rough night with LR. He sat up at midnight and didn't go back to sleep until 2:30am. He slept in a bit because of it though. Started the day by playing with his aunt and uncle before they left to go home to NJ. LR couldn't resist his uncle's glasses and had to go after them every time they sat down to play. His aunt had an easier time as LR always had a giant smile for her. Had vanilla Yo-Baby yogurt for breakfast and then followed it with a very long nap. It was 2+ hours. Then Daddy tried to give him a second breakfast of mashed bananas and cereal, but he balked at it. We assumed he wasn't hungry and took him out for some lunch with friends and their 4 month old. Stopped at the grocery store and helped mommy carry boxes of baby food and Ziplock baggies. Some boxes may have arrived home with soggy corners, but we're not pointing fingers.

Got home and had some formula and another nice nap. Woke with creases across his face, but was happy to play until dinner time. Started a new game of knocking down the tower of stacking blocks, but this time he crawled to each new tower. I started on one side of the mat and then switched sides. Daddy got it on video and as soon as I figure out how to edit it, I'll post a clip of it. He spent the rest of the evening exploring the living room as he knocked a cup around in front of him. He also spent some quality time practicing pulling himself up on the coffee table.

Took a little bouncing on the big ball to get him to sleep tonight. I think it was because of the long naps today, but I'm not complaining. He's out for the count and hopefully won't wake himself up by sitting up tonight.

Family Gathering

So the second tooth has yet to break through. I thought it would have by now.

Friday was an off day for him. He took a nap from noon to one and then refused to sleep after that. When I got home he was so tired he kept putting his head down on his high chair tray while we fed him dinner. Put him to bed at 7 instead of 7:30 that night. I was afraid he'd be up super early, but he was up 15 minutes later on Sat. Same thing happened yesterday. Daddy's brothers are here for the weekend, so we grilled outside and he had his nap interrupted when the doorbell rang and people went up and down the stairs. He woke up at 1:30 and refused another afternoon nap. This time I had to put him to bed at 7 and (as I feared) he was up at 4:30 this morning, wide awake. *sigh*

I nursed him and took him back to bed where he played with sleeping Daddy's nose. He finally got sleepy again and I got him back into his crib by 5:45. He was up again at 6:20 and Daddy took him out to play. He's getting better at crawling to toys that aren't too far away, but if they go outside of a 2 foot radius, he thinks about going to get it, and then finds another toy closer. It's funny, he has the mechanics to crawl and we've seen him do it, but he just doesn't want to.

First Tooth!

LR has finally cut his first tooth. His lower right front tooth broke through today and the left one isn't far behind. He's been pretty grumpy for Gigi the past two days, but I think it's going to get better now. (Well, that is until the next teeth start moving in.)

This morning he woke up at 4:50am. Dear God, 4:50am! I kept hoping he'd go back to sleep, but he'd gotten a leg caught in the crib slats and I had to go in to free the beast. So I nursed him thinking he would go right back to sleep, but no dice. He was up for the long haul and me with a migraine. I woke Daddy at 5:30 and he graciously took LR to the living room to play. When I woke an hour later I found them still playing, but within 20 minutes he was ready to go back to sleep. He napped for a half hour and then was up again. Not sure if it was the teeth or us getting ready for work that disturbed his sleep. Gigi reports that he was fine this morning, but was really unhappy when he woke up from his afternoon nap.

By the time I got home from work he was happy and giggly and when I put my finger in his mouth I felt the brand new tooth edge. He had bananas, stars, carrots, and water for dinner. Then Daddy gave him a bath which he loves. He has so much hair! We're not just shampooing scalp anymore. I gave him some Motrin before bed since the other tooth is just under the surface and may break through before tomorrow morning. Hopefully he sleeps through the night!

Gigi and Daddy have both discovered today that if they read and sign the "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" book to him, they better be prepared to read it 2 or 3 times.

Bears and Night Terrors

Had a weird night last night. Daddy put him down at the normal time and then we went to bed around 10. An hour later I woke up to him screaming. I rushed in, picked him up, and he immediately settled down. Took only 5 minutes or so of rocking to get him back into his crib. Usually I'll hear him wind up and then fuss a little bit, but this was definitely the screaming of a scared baby. Must've been a nightmare. I heard him again in the 4am region and then he was up for good at 5:30.

He nursed a bit and then we played on the mat until Daddy finished his shower and could take over. Daddy discovered the secret word to making him smile. All he has to do is say, "Picata" softly near his ear and he grins his big open mouthed, gummy smile. If you keep doing it, he'll start to giggle. It's the darndest thing. You have to say it like Beavis (of Beavis and Butthead). We're obviously only teaching him the sophisticated stuff.

I came home to a very happy boy this evening. He was playing in his exersaucer in the kitchen while Gigi was starting dinner. I picked him up and took him to the play mats where I showed him the Brown Bear book which he has decided is the BEST book ever. And he's not just chewing on it! He waits for me to open the first page where he sees the brown bear and then I read, make the sign for bear, and then growl like a bear. First he looks at the page and then he watches my sign and then looks back down to turn the page. His favorite is the duck (with the quacking), but the bird and cat are close seconds. It's amazing to see him actually interested in the pages of the book instead of just how much of the binding he can slobber on. The past few days he's been insisting that I read it at least twice and sometimes 3 times before we can move onto the next activity.

After a dinner of pasta, stars, a biter biscuit, and winter squash, LR (Little Rugger) took a bath. It's really the best way to get off the quarter inch layer of food caked around his mouth... and eyebrows... and ears. Apparently the tendency to miss the mouth with food won't go away soon. We had brunch with friends yesterday whose 15 month old daughter combed her hair with a slice of bacon during the meal. mmmm... bacon.

Trip Photos

I just posted some photos from our NY trip down in the Mother's Day post, so take a look at those. Here are a few more from that trip.
Hugs for Grandma

Not sure about Uncle Dave

Right back at ya!

Rollerblading

Had a great day yesterday. Up at 5:45 and played until around 8. He went down for his first nap while Daddy was still sleeping after a friend's late night birthday party. Managed to get most of the housework done before everyone woke up. Then it was off to the sporting good store to buy Gigi some rollerblades. She picked out a nice pair of K2s. We also stopped at a Gymboree to pick up the ultimate bubbles. They float more than normal bubbles and don't necessarily pop when they land. They're pretty fabulous and the little guy loves them.

He fell asleep in the car on the way home and I was easily able to transfer him from the car to the crib without waking him up. He was completely out! When he woke up, we all strapped on our rollerblades and went for a spin. Gigi pushed the stoller until she got her balance. I took over for her and sped down a small hill until the front wheels started to vibrate. Guess we'll need a jogging stroller if we want to go any faster. He seemed to stay entertained while we skated, so I'm sure we'll be doing it more often.

Gigi babysat for us while we went out for dinner. Apparently he went to sleep without a fuss after getting into PJs, reading a book, and having some formula. Today we're off to our social butterflies class and then onto the Cheesecake Factory for a friend's 30th birthday bash. Need to put him down for a nap before we go!

Little Flirt

Last night was a little different. He went down a little early, but then woke up crying at least 3 times after that. Then I heard him again before 5am and finally he woke up a little after 6. I nursed him and he stayed awake until 10am or so. Then he napped until noon. Gigi took him to sign and song class where he amazed everyone with his enthusiasm for an aluminum pie tin. I'm told he went absolutely nuts for it. Started banging it around and squealing. None of the other kids were quite so into it as he was. Gigi said it made her and the other moms laugh.

He seems to really enjoy signing while we sing. The Bear Went Over the Mountain is his new favorite, but we're still doing the Itsy Bitsy Spider and others. He breaks into a big grin whenever we start. After sign class they went to the store where he flirted with two women in the checkout line. He seems super wary of men though. He cried when one said hi to him in the post office yesterday and looked very seriously at a man at the grocery store right after giggling and smiling at the women. Not sure what that's all about other than he spends most of his time with women during the day.

He still hasn't quite gotten into the crawling thing. Tonight I watched him struggle to grab a plastic Easter egg just out of reach. He squirmed to it, but then pulled his knees under him so that he could sit up. After a little play time, I took him to the high chair where he had stars, carrots, and a little of some homemade baby food that we froze a few weeks ago. We were half way through it before he remembered that he didn't like it.

After I cleaned him up from dinner, he played in his exersaucer while Gigi and I cleaned up the kitchen a bit. Then we talked and played for a little while until Daddy came home. Soon after it was time for bed. I guess he missed his afternoon nap today because he went to bed really easily. It was the first time I've been able to get him to go to sleep while on the bottle. Daddy and Gigi have both done it. I was the only one who had yet to have a successful bedtime with the bottle. Hope he doesn't have quite so screamy a night.

Bad Night

He has started thrashing on the changing table. As soon as I put him down, he flips over. The good news is that I'm getting better at putting on a diaper from the back side. Getting pants on him is a little trickier. As soon as he flips, he goes for the wipe warmer, lifts the lid, and starts ripping wipes out. It's better now than a few days ago before I reorganized the changing table. Before when he flipped over, he would pull himself to the end of the table and then invariably attempt to do a header into the laundry basket. He likes being upside down more than any baby I've met. He's a thrill seeker, that's for sure.

We got him to bed last night after some coaxing. He sucks down his bottle too quickly for it to put him to sleep so then I end up bouncing on the exercise ball with him in my arms. It takes about 10 minutes of bouncing, but then he goes down. Last night he woke up screaming at midnight. I should have left him in there, but I went in to soothe him and then didn't get back to sleep for another 4 hours. Needless to say, we slept in a little this morning.

Tonight when I came home he had woken up from a nap just minutes before, so he was apple-cheeked and smiley. We read his Brown Bear book. He looked at the pictures while I signed and made noises for all the animals. He loves that. Big smiles. He did a little more commando crawling and then had a small dinner of stars and sweet potatoes. At bedtime I once again struggled to get him into his PJs. He's crazy strong and hates to be pinned down, but if I don't he's all over the changing table. He sucked down 7 ounces of formula and didn't quite make it to sleep. I bounced him until he did then sat in the rocker with him for a few minutes to make sure he was out. Not looking forward to letting him cry it out again tonight. *sigh*

Mother's Day Weekend

Well it was a big weekend. We did our normal routine Sat morning. He woke up at 5:30 and by 8am we were on the road. He was ready for his morning nap by the time we got to the Dunkin Donuts at the corner. Two and a half hours later he woke up just in time to see a bit of CT. Soon after we were in NY. By the time we pulled up to his Uncle Kevin's place, he was ready to get out of the car seat. Kevin put a big comforter down on the floor for Hudson to roll around on. He spent most of the afternoon there and finally got a chance to meet Aunt Alexa. (She prefers to be called "Steppie.") After a beautiful NY afternoon (it was the first sun we'd seen for a week), we got back into the car and headed north toward Hastings-on-Hudson.

Just north of Great Aunt Ellen and Great Uncle Terry's place we stopped at a motel. Unfortunately he was completely thrown off by all the travel and didn't get to bed until close to 10pm. At midnight a car alarm went off right outside our door. Hudson startled awake and started screaming. Daddy and I took turns walking him, but he would not go back into the Pack N Play. After a couple of failed attempts I brought him to bed with us and a few hours later got him back into his own bed. Then he was up at 6am on the dot. We went through our normal morning routine and wound up at Terry and Ellen's almost before anyone was up. (We were so excited to start our visit, we just couldn't wait.)

Grandma and Uncle David had flown in from Denver on Sat to see Uncle Terry sing at Carnegie. They said is was spectacular. We spent the morning and early afternoon visiting and showing off. Hudson rolled from one end of the carpeted room to the other. Aunt Ellen fed him pears like a pro. Grandma gave him his morning and afternoon bottles. We took lots of pictures, so I'll be sure to add those soon. The visit was over much too soon and at 4:30 we had to leave. We made it back to Boston at 8pm. Since his normal bedtime is 7:30, we knew he was going to be off schedule.

He ended up falling asleep around 9pm and was up wailing at 2am because he managed to sit up again and didn't know how to lay back down. We ran into the same problem as the night before and just couldn't seem to get him to go back into the crib. I brought him to bed after 2 hours of trying to rock him back to sleep. We all slept until 7am when we had to get up to go to work. Gigi still isn't back from Florida yet, so the new baby sitter arrived at 8. She was wonderful with Hudson and he seemed to really like her. When Daddy came home this evening the first thing Hudson did was to show him how good he was at commando crawling. Crawling! All of a sudden he was going halfway across the mats to get at a toy. We were really surprised and then a little stunned to see the first thing he found was the (covered) outlet. Then on to the stuffed animal box and next the cubby boxes. Luckily it was bedtime! Life is about to change again...

Babysitter Day

Little Rugger had a terrible night. He was up from midnight to 4am every half hour. I walked in once at around 2am and he was sitting up holding onto the side of the crib sobbing. He hadn't done that before. It was a little spooky.

Today he was okay with the babysitter. I worked in another room while they played in the living room most of the day. I came out every so often to help with food or putting him down for a nap. Luckily he still hasn't hit that stranger fear. Even sick he was happy to entertain a new friend.

Hoping for a better night's sleep tonight!

Sick

Woke up to find a sick Little Rugger this morning. He cried out a couple of times during the night, but always went back to sleep. When I picked him up from the crib I could feel that he was running a temp and he obvioulsy had a drippy nose. Poor little guy. I gave him Motrin to bring down the fever and then nursed him. He seemed to feel a little better. Then I gave him some cold medicine before his morning nap. He's with Gigi now and Daddy is coming home later today so that Gigi can head to the airport. I may try to leave work early to help out.

I'm hoping that he feels better by Saturday so that we can go on our trip to NY!

Teething

The Little Rugger is definitely teething. It's been pretty awful for him (and not much more fun for us). He'll be fine one minute and then screaming the next. He's usually okay in the morning, but by the end of the day, he's a basket case. I'm really hoping the tooth / teeth break through before our trip to NY this weekend, otherwise I can't imagine what the car ride is going to be like.

This morning he woke up at 5:50am instead of 5:30. Of course, I was up at 5:30 waiting for him. I was so uncomfortable from trying to go cold turkey on Monday that I almost couldn't wait for him to wake up. He nursed a good long time, but I'm still pretty sore. I'm going to keep the morning feeding for this week to see him through the teething. We'll try to stop nursing again next week.

Came home tonight to find Daddy and Gigi both entertaining the little guy. Or was it vice versa? His nose was running and he was pulling at his ears, both signs of teething. He didn't seem very happy, but soon after I arrived the Motrin kicked in and he was able to spend some quality time with the baby in the mirror in the dining room. Then Daddy fed him sweet potatoes, pasta, and water for dinner. I went to the gym and Daddy wrestled him first into his PJs and then into the crib.

It was in the forties and raining all day, so Gigi couldn't take him out for their normal walk. Maybe tomorrow, but it looks like it won't be until Thursday.

Coming Soon

Sorry for the delay between posts. It's been a busy couple of days. We think Hudson is starting to teethe. :( Poor little guy has been pretty fussy. We've given him cold apple slices and his teething ring to help, but it seems that the Motrin is doing the best job.

Looks like 5:30am has become his standard wake up time. It's a little early for me, but I don't expect it to last forever. Starting this week Daddy will be able to give him his morning bottle, so then it really won't bother me. Tonight was our last nursing session *crossing fingers*, but I might run home from work tomorrow in agony.

This week Hudson started a couple of new foods: raisin bread, watermelon, and pasta. I think the watermelon was his favorite. He likes the pasta, but without teeth, there's only so much he can do!

He was exhausted when I put him to bed tonight and we are too, so G'night! Hope to post something more thoughtful tomorrow.

Cranky Pants

Hudson was up yesterday morning at 5:15 for some reason. Thought he would go back to sleep after nursing, but he decided he was up for the long haul. We tag teamed him until we were both ready for work. Then he decided to go back to sleep just before 8. I arrived home at 5:30 to find him asleep in Gigi's arms. She looked up at me and I saw she had aged 5 years. She said, "I would have put him down in his crib, but then he'd wake up and neither of us want that." Apparently he hadn't slept since his 8-9:30am nap. He spent the rest of the day crying and screaming whenever she took more than a few steps away from him. When he woke at 6pm he still had his cranky pants on. I haven't seen him this way before, so I'm guessing that he may start teething soon, but Gigi thinks he may have just "had a bad day." Could be.

After I put him to bed (early), I took off for the gym. Came home and went to bed myself. Heard Hudson at 5, 5:15, and 5:30, but he didn't wake up. He finally woke at 6:25am which is much more reasonable. Hoping he has a better day today!

Daddy's Home

After a very long week, Daddy arrived home Sat night just after Hudson went to sleep. Daddy was terribly jet-lagged on Sunday, but Hudson quickly readjusted to having his playmate home. He showed Daddy all his new skills: he fed himself, made forward progress while on his stomach, and blew raspberries. It's amazing to think about the changes that take place in one week!

Sunday morning the three of us went to our Social Butterflies class. Hudson has a friend in the class who was born on the same day, so it's fun to see how they're both developing. We sang and signed a few songs, read a book, and stood fascinated while the teacher blew bubbles. We also showed everyone how much Hudson likes having stuff almost hit him in the face. Another mom tried it while we were sitting there, but her son wasn't nearly as amused. Daddy assured her that it was only because we'd been doing it with him for 6 months. In retrospect, a weird little conversation.

We took a stroll down the Minute Man Trail in Arlington and he promptly fell asleep, so we stopped for sandwiches and had a nice lunch while we waited for him to wake up. When he didn't wake up, we walked back to the car and put him in. Still asleep. Drove home and took him out of the car. He finally woke up when I got to the top of the stairs. I was ready for a nap, so Daddy took one for both of us while Hudson and I played for the next few hours.

Gigi joined us for a dinner of sushi and edamame and we all went to bed pretty early. Hudson was up bright and early on Monday and we played for 2 hours. His schedule is such that he almost always goes back to sleep just before Gigi comes upstairs for the day. Gigi reports that they went for a long walk yesterday to get to the "baby movie" where they saw Transamerica. I guess he was soaked by the time they got home because he drank a full bottle while in the theater and then followed it with a full sippy cup of water. Unfortunatley, the sippy cup tends to spill a bit so he was wet from that and then flooded the diaper as well.

I asked Gigi not to wait for me to feed him when I got home last night. I wanted to cut out that feeding. She gave him a bottle at 4pm so when I got home he was happy to play instead of expecting to be fed right away. He had a dinner of sweet potatoes and vegetable puffs then took a nice long bath since he stuck the spoon in his hair at dinner. Dinner is an exercise in speed spooning. We don't feed him quickly, but when we do go in with the spoon, we have to try to pull it back fast enough so that he won't grab it. Most of the time we just come to the table with 2 spoons. One for him and one for us.