Sunday, February 24, 2008

With the right motivation...

Today, while following an elusive white kitty, Ethan crawled all the way from our fireplace, through the living room and foyer, to the library! Now for those of you who have been to our house you know what an excursion that is! And if you haven't been to our house we really don't have a library, just an extra room that we don't want to call an "office". It is funny to watch Yoda judge Ethan's approach. He really waits till the last moment to run off to a safe distance (3 feet away).

The dogs don't seem to interest Ethan as much. Maybe because they move greater distances at a time, or maybe because when Dante is near, he lets Ethan crawl all over him. Ethan has also discovered that he crawls much better on carpet then on the floor. He does really well on the carpet and then when he gets to the floor it is like watching a baby on a tread mill. He moves his legs but they don't go anywhere. I'm sure if I took his pants off and let his bare knees touch the floor he would not have this problem but, a) I think he will get cold and b) I'm scared to see the amount of dirt that will accumulate on his little knees. Anyway, luckily for him about 1/2 of the bottom story is covered in carpet. So for now he should have plenty to explore.

On a side note, you never really realize how much stuff gets stored on the floor until a seven month old tries to look through it all. So far he has attacked papers, knitting projects, laptops (and their chargers), books, etc. He is learning "Leave it" rather well I think for such a little guy. The other day after telling him repeatedly and sternly to "Leave it" as he was investigating the Roomba, he broke down into tears. After a few seconds he recovered, but when he looked back at the Roomba he started to cry again. This cracked me up....it was like he thought the Roomba caused bad things to happen when he just looked at it.

I guess that's it for now. Hopefully I'll be able to bring Ethan to the doctor tomorrow to get an answer about the Mystery rash. And for those of you who know the Babas they are going to the doctor tomorrow to try and get another ultrasound of the baby. Please pray for the continued health of Carmen's pregnancy. Speaking of babies, my friend Glyna Nunez had her little girl early Saturday morning!! Momma and baby are doing well.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

He did it, he did it, he did it!

We have forward motion!! This morning Ethan was playing on the floor, like usual, and then out the corner of my eye I saw it....He was moving forward toward a goal (a glass on the floor). He took three "steps" (what do you call crawling motion?) before I picked up the glass. Then I moved to the other side of him and he crawled toward a toy that I had. I am so excited! I will post pictures soon...sorry about the wait.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Hmm...maybe it will!

Ethan went to bed last night and has had three naps today with no crying! A cool new thing is that he is starting to pull up on things. I tried to get a picture of him on his knees next to the recliner, but then he fell. As soon as he does it again I'll post some pics.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

We knew it couldn't last...

So, our sweet little boy who did not need to be rocked to sleep is having a small case of separation anxiety. At first I thought that he might have an earache. Whenever we would put him to bed for a nap he would just scream and cry, so I thought he was actually in pain. Philip decided to test my theory by sitting Ethan in the living room and then we both walked into the laundry room and closed the door. He went berserk! Just like he does when we leave him in his crib. Hmm, my earache theory has hereby been debunked, or at least put on hold. Anyway he did well in nusery and I hope he does well tomorrow for preschool.

Until he grows out of it I guess we'll just have to bear the screaming before nap and bedtime. If anyone has a secret to getting out of this phase as quickly as possible you let me know! I read one website that said during this stage you should just not leave him anywhere...GENIUS!

I hope everyone is doing well, Ethan hasn't run fever since Thursday so that is good, but of course now Philip is sick! As long as 1 out of 3 of us is well we'll be okay.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Changes, Changes, Changes

I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to update the blog. I'll go ahead and make this one a good one!

Ethan has been going through lots of changes. Here is a brief summary:

First of all on the food front let me just update his list of things he eats. He loves his plain oatmeal in the morning and now he also enjoys prunes, yogurt and applesauce. For dinner he also eats carrots, butternut squash, and green beans (in addition to the food mentioned earlier). Peas and green beans are only enjoyed when mixed with rice. I tried making my own green beans, but they didn't turn out too well and since peas make me gag, I'm waiting to reintroduce these when he starts finger foods.

Speaking of finger foods I tried to get him to eat rice cakes but he absouletly HATED the texture. He made a face if it touched his mouth and when I broke off a bit for him to chew on he would cry. Oh, sensitive Snooks (more about that in a minute). Since then we've tried arrowroot cookies and biter biscuits. Mostly he just likes to hold the cookies. I really don't understand this, since he puts everything else in his mouth (like my driver's license when we went to vote). During this sitting he was just holding it like usual and then Philip took a bite of his cookie to show him what he was suppose to do. Within three minutes Ethan started putting the cookie in his mouth. He was doing well putting it in his mouth, getting it nice and soggy, but then a piece broke off! "What is this?" was the expression on his face. He has yet to put any cookie back in his mouth.

Also during dinner we have had the addition of the juice cup. Whenever he slows down his eating pace I'll give him a little sip of juice. He always seems surprised by the contents of the cup which I think is funny. Maybe he is surprised that it is cold...but it is cold every night so that is funny too.

On the crawling front Ethan likes getting up on his knees a lot more often now. Here is a good shot of him in the pre-crawling position. The really cool thing is that from this position he has learned to do this:
Yesterday he did it for the first time and I thought it was just a fluke. (Actually I made such a sound of surprise that I scared him and he started to cry!) But then at 4:00 this morning I found a sitting up crying baby. It was really surreal to walk in and see him sitting up like that. Finally, tonight while Philip was at bible study I put Ethan on his tummy on the floor and when I turned back around he was sitting up and laughing like he realized he did something!

As for the sensitivity of Ethan it is currently heightened while we are fighting "the crud" as I call it. "The crud" is a no fever, no cough, runny nose, keep you up at night, make it hard for you to eat/sleep, nose thing. His little nose doesn't really run during the day unless he's crying (which does happen a little more frequently during "the crud") but mainly he has a hard time falling asleep or getting back to sleep. This morning when I brought him to bed with me he couldn't suck on his binki because of "the crud" so instead, he stuck the corner of his softee in this mouth and sucked on it. It was so cute to see him be so resourceful.

So back to the issue of sensitivity...I don't know if this is an all baby thing or if it is unique to our little one, but he is extremely startled and scared by certain noises. Some I understand like the pulling back of the shower curtain (he can't see the curtain when the noise happens so I kind of understand that). Now for noises I don't understand: putting ice into a pitcher and feeding the dogs (pouring dry dog food into plastic containers). I see the similarities that all of these noises have some sort of repetitive noise, but he really loses it when he hears them. Not just a boudeé face, he full on cries and must be comforted back to normal.

Now one story about sign language. As mentioned earlier we have introduced three signs: milk, more and eat. I have been using "more" when I give Ethan raspberries on his tummy at night and he gets really excited when he sees the sign. He also reacts to milk and eat when he is hungry. He'll either stop crying (for a little bit) or get really excited and cry louder to make sure that you got the message. Well today at Preschool it really did look like Ethan was making the sign for milk. My friend Shawne said, "Oh look how cute, he is waving bye." I looked at him and said, "Actually, that is our sign for milk." Well, not thinking anything of it I made the sign back to him and proceeded to leave the church. When he realized that I was buckling him into his car seat without a bottle he lost it. As I got into the driver's seat I realized that he probably was really hungry. Well, he did not stop crying until I made the bottle and gave it to him. Was he really communicating with Shawne and I? Maybe! It just reassures me that I should keep making the signs even if he doesn't do them back to us yet. It was really neat the other day to see Allison's 1.5 year old son ask for "More, Please" using sign language. I'm sure more neat interactions are to come!

"Dadadadada" No, this is not only said in Philip's presence, but when he does say it he is emphatic that he is communicating with you. He also will utter small little syllables when a dog or cat enters the room, like "Ahh". It is really neat to see this interaction with the things around him.

I guess that's it for now. I'll leave you with one final picture. You can see more new pictures of course by clicking the link on the right.

Oh, one last thing! I am part time with Knox County now, so any stay at home mommies who would like to get together for a play date let me know!