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Showing posts with label RUS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RUS. Show all posts
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
RUS's new skill!
I've posted before about how RUS doesn't really say an "o" sound. He JUST learned how to do it, and now he does it all the time. It's so cute. Here's a video.
Transcript: About 1 second into the video S says "Can you say 'ohhh'?"
RUS: ohhhhhhhhhh (flops over onto couch)
Transcript: About 1 second into the video S says "Can you say 'ohhh'?"
RUS: ohhhhhhhhhh (flops over onto couch)
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
What's missing. . .
from this picture?
Yes, this is RUS's room. Where his crib would normally be, you see the toy bin that had been in his closet. Where is his crib? Disassembled and in the basement. But where is he sleeping now? In his bed.
It's pretty simple, really. I awoke to the sounds of him banging One Fish, Two Fish, Three, Four, Five Fish on his door this morning. So no more crib. Wish me luck so that I might get some sleep tonight.
Yes, this is RUS's room. Where his crib would normally be, you see the toy bin that had been in his closet. Where is his crib? Disassembled and in the basement. But where is he sleeping now? In his bed.
It's pretty simple, really. I awoke to the sounds of him banging One Fish, Two Fish, Three, Four, Five Fish on his door this morning. So no more crib. Wish me luck so that I might get some sleep tonight.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
A Day With RUS
Yesterday while having her mid-morning snack, R announced that she wanted to call her Grammie and Grampie, so I said okay. We called, and she told them she wanted Grampie to come pick her up. They were doing work out in the yard, so we got her decked out in outdoor clothes and boots and she went over and helped Grampie build a sandbox and move around dirt in his garden.
RUS stayed at home with me--he hadn't yet had a nap, and I wanted to be sure he got a good one in. (J was at an all-day work event so he wasn't home). Because the day was downright balmy and just such a nice day for being outside, RUS and I walked down to the park. He is still unsure about walking on grass (he will stand there and fuss until I come hold his hand!) but he is a pro at walking on the sidewalk. We had a great time at the park--he loves climbing the play structure and going down the slide--and then came home and got lunch, nap, and otherwise just really had a good time together.
It was great to spend a day with him! Most of the time having two kids is great because the kids play together and they are just so cute, BUT I do feel as if I often don't have the chance to really focus on RUS the way I did on R when she was this same age.
Things he did yesterday that blew me away:
1) When helping R on the potty, I try to come up with things to keep him busy so he doesn't come in the bathroom and get his hands all over everything. I told him "Go get Old MacDonald!", referring to a tiny book that is part of a set of 5 books that look identical except they're all different titles ("This Little Piggy," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," etc.). I should also mention that the area in front of our living room bookshelf is continually strewn with books because RUS pulls them out and looks at them right there. So this book was buried in the mess somewhere, not right on top. He comes back within a minute (so much for "keeping him busy!") with the exact book, plus Bambi.
2) He is fearless on the park climber! I mean not daredevil fearless, but he is clearly working out how to use the climber, how to get around on it, and is really intent on figuring it out. This is in contrast to R who was much more careful and often uninterested in trying something new until she had watched someone else--another child, usually--doing it repeatedly.
3) He has learned to push chairs around to climb onto previously inaccessible areas, like our kitchen countertops and the back of the couch. We really have to keep our eyes on him at all times!
4) His two favorite books right now are Llama Llama Red Pajama, and Mama, Where Are You? He walks around saying "mama, mama, mama" asking for one of those two books, usually Mama, Where Are You?, and will read it over and over and over again. I tried hiding it the other night because I'd already read it 5 times in a row but he wasn't having any of it.
5) He is great at nodding his head yes or shaking his head no, and it is so cute. He is very clear about what he wants and does not want.
6) At one point I was folding laundry and about to take a pile of washcloths to the linen closet. As I was getting up, I said to RUS, "We're going to go have a snack but first I'm going to put these washcloths in the closet." He immediately--before I could even pick up the pile of washcloths--ran to the linen closet and began pounding on it. It's amazing to me what he picks up on and seems aware of.
7) Here's a video of the face he makes when "blowing" on his cereal or any other food that's too warm to eat right away. (This was the sixth or seventh video and he was getting a little frustrated with us, hence the crying, but you get a good shot of it right at the beginning. It's the funniest face!)
RUS stayed at home with me--he hadn't yet had a nap, and I wanted to be sure he got a good one in. (J was at an all-day work event so he wasn't home). Because the day was downright balmy and just such a nice day for being outside, RUS and I walked down to the park. He is still unsure about walking on grass (he will stand there and fuss until I come hold his hand!) but he is a pro at walking on the sidewalk. We had a great time at the park--he loves climbing the play structure and going down the slide--and then came home and got lunch, nap, and otherwise just really had a good time together.
It was great to spend a day with him! Most of the time having two kids is great because the kids play together and they are just so cute, BUT I do feel as if I often don't have the chance to really focus on RUS the way I did on R when she was this same age.
Things he did yesterday that blew me away:
1) When helping R on the potty, I try to come up with things to keep him busy so he doesn't come in the bathroom and get his hands all over everything. I told him "Go get Old MacDonald!", referring to a tiny book that is part of a set of 5 books that look identical except they're all different titles ("This Little Piggy," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," etc.). I should also mention that the area in front of our living room bookshelf is continually strewn with books because RUS pulls them out and looks at them right there. So this book was buried in the mess somewhere, not right on top. He comes back within a minute (so much for "keeping him busy!") with the exact book, plus Bambi.
2) He is fearless on the park climber! I mean not daredevil fearless, but he is clearly working out how to use the climber, how to get around on it, and is really intent on figuring it out. This is in contrast to R who was much more careful and often uninterested in trying something new until she had watched someone else--another child, usually--doing it repeatedly.
3) He has learned to push chairs around to climb onto previously inaccessible areas, like our kitchen countertops and the back of the couch. We really have to keep our eyes on him at all times!
4) His two favorite books right now are Llama Llama Red Pajama, and Mama, Where Are You? He walks around saying "mama, mama, mama" asking for one of those two books, usually Mama, Where Are You?, and will read it over and over and over again. I tried hiding it the other night because I'd already read it 5 times in a row but he wasn't having any of it.
5) He is great at nodding his head yes or shaking his head no, and it is so cute. He is very clear about what he wants and does not want.
6) At one point I was folding laundry and about to take a pile of washcloths to the linen closet. As I was getting up, I said to RUS, "We're going to go have a snack but first I'm going to put these washcloths in the closet." He immediately--before I could even pick up the pile of washcloths--ran to the linen closet and began pounding on it. It's amazing to me what he picks up on and seems aware of.
7) Here's a video of the face he makes when "blowing" on his cereal or any other food that's too warm to eat right away. (This was the sixth or seventh video and he was getting a little frustrated with us, hence the crying, but you get a good shot of it right at the beginning. It's the funniest face!)
Friday, February 18, 2011
Princess Hair Party!
R loves princesses. I may or may not have mentioned that already. Anyway, one of the coolest princess things she has is a bag full of princess hair accessories that she got at our Christmas party as a belated birthday present from one of her friends. But guess who loves it the most?
Yep, RUS! When we were visiting Little Frog, RUS actually gravitated right for Little Frog's Princess Ariel vanity and started playing with the brush and other hair accessories. He especially loves the hair dryer, which actually takes batteries and has a fan that blows air. He sits there and brushes his hair while holding the hair dryer in front of his face. Makes me laugh every single time.
Yep, RUS! When we were visiting Little Frog, RUS actually gravitated right for Little Frog's Princess Ariel vanity and started playing with the brush and other hair accessories. He especially loves the hair dryer, which actually takes batteries and has a fan that blows air. He sits there and brushes his hair while holding the hair dryer in front of his face. Makes me laugh every single time.
Monday, January 24, 2011
He said "puppy"!!
I have been working with RUS on saying all kinds of things lately and tonight he clearly and distinctly said "puppy" and pointed to his big soft puppy that Santa brought him for Christmas! He is seriously on the verge of some kind of explosion language-wise because he is so so close to saying all kinds of things.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Parent-Teacher Conferences and RUS's 15-month appointment
So we had parent-teacher conferences today with RUS's day care teacher. The low-down is that he is a wonderful, wonderful boy and they love him dearly. We talked a bit about how amazingly well-adjusted he is--one of the things his teacher said that she'd never really seen before was how well he adjusted to life at day care as a 10-month old. He started at the center in August, about 7 weeks before his first birthday, and from day one he has been 100% fine with being dropped off. No tears, no crying for mommy or daddy, no "where am I?", etc. In fact, his teacher said that she kept waiting for the shoe to drop, but it never did. He just seamlessly moved from not-in-daycare to being in daycare, and he is just a really happy, easygoing kid. If he could, he would live on the climber. He loves to go around and around and around and around on that thing.
The bulk of the conference focused on discussing RUS's developmental progress as they observe it at the center. They administer two kinds of assessments and basically present their observations to us. We talked about our reactions and whether we were seeing some of the same things.
There are four main areas of assessment: Personal/Social/Emotional, Motor Skills, Cognition, and Communication. RUS has met or exceeded all the milestones for his age group in Personal/Social/Emotional and Motor Skills, and he had several "emerging" skills in Communication and Cognition.
In Cognition, he is learning to (but does not consistently or always) "retrieve household (or classroom) objects from usual locations on request" nor does he "put away objects in correct places and notice when they are not in the correct place." We talked a bit about how this might be in part due to the relatively busy nature of the infant classroom as it is--the room is fairly small and there is not a lot of dedicated storage for specific items. At home it is a little bit of the same thing, and I'll be honest: we haven't really involved him in clean up a whole lot, other than to motivate him to put things in a basket or to move books back to the general shelf area. So it's something we can try to encourage more of.
In Communication he's a little bit behind as he's still working on a few 12-month skills such as imitating familiar two-syllable words with and without syllable change (e.g., "mama"; "uh-oh")-- he does imitate some things and he says a relatively limited range of sounds, but he does not just try to imitate whatever we are saying or really vary what he says in response to what we say to him. Basically, he's not really talking a whole lot. He signs, as I've posted about recently, and he communicates well. We know he can understand everything we say, and we are not at all concerned about a hearing loss because he can hear noises I can't and identify them. He just doesn't really change up what he says.
As of now, he regularly--and often--says "mamama," usually referring to me but sometimes it is just him babbling mamama; "uh-oh"; "ah-ah-ah-ah"; dada; "at" (we think, referring to the cats). At school they taught him to say "no" but we don't hear this at home. There's more I'm forgetting, too. He can also say "neigh" and "baa" and "eow" (for meow), and we've been working on a few others ("moo", in particular). So we talked about ways we can motivate him to try and talk more, and the thing that was emphasized several times is that it's not something to worry about--YET. It is something to keep an eye on.
Here's an excerpt from some guidelines his teacher provided for us:
"Toddlers 12-18 Months
"Toddlers at this stage should begin to watch others in their environment. They develop the ability to show emotion in their body language and babbling. They will begin to show understanding, or receptive language skills by pointing to objects when asked to do so or by following simple directions.
"During this period, delays may be a concern if the child:
In other news, we had his 15-month pediatrician check up too. He weighs 22 lbs exactly and was almost 31 inches long. This put him at somewhere between the 10th and 25th percentiles in weight and between the 25th and 50th percentiles in height, the same curve he was on at his 12-month appointment, too. He got 2 shots and cried, but calmed down well.
The bulk of the conference focused on discussing RUS's developmental progress as they observe it at the center. They administer two kinds of assessments and basically present their observations to us. We talked about our reactions and whether we were seeing some of the same things.
There are four main areas of assessment: Personal/Social/Emotional, Motor Skills, Cognition, and Communication. RUS has met or exceeded all the milestones for his age group in Personal/Social/Emotional and Motor Skills, and he had several "emerging" skills in Communication and Cognition.
In Cognition, he is learning to (but does not consistently or always) "retrieve household (or classroom) objects from usual locations on request" nor does he "put away objects in correct places and notice when they are not in the correct place." We talked a bit about how this might be in part due to the relatively busy nature of the infant classroom as it is--the room is fairly small and there is not a lot of dedicated storage for specific items. At home it is a little bit of the same thing, and I'll be honest: we haven't really involved him in clean up a whole lot, other than to motivate him to put things in a basket or to move books back to the general shelf area. So it's something we can try to encourage more of.
In Communication he's a little bit behind as he's still working on a few 12-month skills such as imitating familiar two-syllable words with and without syllable change (e.g., "mama"; "uh-oh")-- he does imitate some things and he says a relatively limited range of sounds, but he does not just try to imitate whatever we are saying or really vary what he says in response to what we say to him. Basically, he's not really talking a whole lot. He signs, as I've posted about recently, and he communicates well. We know he can understand everything we say, and we are not at all concerned about a hearing loss because he can hear noises I can't and identify them. He just doesn't really change up what he says.
As of now, he regularly--and often--says "mamama," usually referring to me but sometimes it is just him babbling mamama; "uh-oh"; "ah-ah-ah-ah"; dada; "at" (we think, referring to the cats). At school they taught him to say "no" but we don't hear this at home. There's more I'm forgetting, too. He can also say "neigh" and "baa" and "eow" (for meow), and we've been working on a few others ("moo", in particular). So we talked about ways we can motivate him to try and talk more, and the thing that was emphasized several times is that it's not something to worry about--YET. It is something to keep an eye on.
Here's an excerpt from some guidelines his teacher provided for us:
"Toddlers 12-18 Months
"Toddlers at this stage should begin to watch others in their environment. They develop the ability to show emotion in their body language and babbling. They will begin to show understanding, or receptive language skills by pointing to objects when asked to do so or by following simple directions.
"During this period, delays may be a concern if the child:
- continues to show little eye contact with caregivers and other children;
- appears to show a limited range of emotions;
- has not begun to say simple words for common people and objects;
- cannot point to two or three major body parts such as his head, arms, feet, or legs;
- does not point to familiar objects or people when asked or cannot point to pictures of common objects when asked;
- seems uninterested in his environment; and
- does not try to get others' attention or interaction."
In other news, we had his 15-month pediatrician check up too. He weighs 22 lbs exactly and was almost 31 inches long. This put him at somewhere between the 10th and 25th percentiles in weight and between the 25th and 50th percentiles in height, the same curve he was on at his 12-month appointment, too. He got 2 shots and cried, but calmed down well.
Monday, January 10, 2011
RUS's sign language vocabulary
RUS is almost 15 months and here is what he regularly signs (not all of these would be comprehensible to other people but he does have signs he uses for all these words that J and I can understand):
Basics
Food Words
People/Animals/Things
Actions
Basics
- more
- please
- thank you
Food Words
- eat/food
- milk
- apple
- orange
- spaghetti
- banana
- water
- bread
- hot
- all done
- cheese
People/Animals/Things
- Mommy
- Daddy
- train
- baby
- cat
- dog (kinda)
- horse/cow (kinda sorta)
- music
- bird
Actions
- wash hands
- brush teeth
- hello/bye bye
- blow kisses (complete with MWAH sound)
Saturday, December 25, 2010
He is such a cuddlebug
One of my favorite things about RUS is that he is the snuggliest baby EVER. He absolutely loves to snuggle, and if he feels a soft fabric of any sort he will just pull it close and cuddle up to it. He loves stuffed animals of all sorts, and frequently takes little thumb-sucking breaks to cuddle up with one for a minute or two before proceeding on with whatever he is doing. Here's a video of him doing exactly this cuddle business with a santa hat J picked up at the dollar store.And here he is cuddling up with his big gift from Santa this morning (yes, absolutely more Christmas pictures and stories are coming VERY SOON!!)
Sunday, December 19, 2010
RUS took his first two steps today!
It's been coming--we've been saying for a couple weeks now, "any day now, he's going to take that first step!"
Today, it happened! and J and I both saw it. RUS was holding on to J's hands with both hands, then J let go and he stood alone for a moment and then definitely moved both feet, one foot and then the other, and moved forward maybe half an inch. It counts, though!
RUS has been getting more and more confident with standing without holding on to anything, and I've seen him stand independently for 30 seconds or more while playing with toys in both hands. I wonder how quickly it will be before he really starts trying to walk!!
Here's a photo of him looking at our Christmas tree with Grampie at our holiday party:
Today, it happened! and J and I both saw it. RUS was holding on to J's hands with both hands, then J let go and he stood alone for a moment and then definitely moved both feet, one foot and then the other, and moved forward maybe half an inch. It counts, though!
RUS has been getting more and more confident with standing without holding on to anything, and I've seen him stand independently for 30 seconds or more while playing with toys in both hands. I wonder how quickly it will be before he really starts trying to walk!!
Here's a photo of him looking at our Christmas tree with Grampie at our holiday party:
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
RUS signs!
RUS's sign language dictionary has been growing and growing!
He does mama, daddy, banana, food/eat, milk, more, and cereal--just to name a bunch of signs off the top of my head--and he waves hello and goodbye, blows kisses and says "mwah", loves to make you blow kisses too (by putting his hand over your mouth and moving it like he is blowing a kiss from your mouth), makes tons of noises, asks "what's that" by pointing to something and going "ah!" or "aaaaa!"
Here's a video in which I capture a few of his signs, including banana. I'll try to have J transcribe it in the next few days and have the transcript up soon!
He does mama, daddy, banana, food/eat, milk, more, and cereal--just to name a bunch of signs off the top of my head--and he waves hello and goodbye, blows kisses and says "mwah", loves to make you blow kisses too (by putting his hand over your mouth and moving it like he is blowing a kiss from your mouth), makes tons of noises, asks "what's that" by pointing to something and going "ah!" or "aaaaa!"
Here's a video in which I capture a few of his signs, including banana. I'll try to have J transcribe it in the next few days and have the transcript up soon!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
In Honor of RUS Being a Year Old
Here's a video of his latest. It includes many exciting developments, including the tail end of him blowing kisses (this is right at the beginning of the video), him showing how dexterous he is at stacking blocks on this toy, and even babbling!
the password is "pajamas and blocks" (don't type the quotation marks)
the password is "pajamas and blocks" (don't type the quotation marks)
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Copycat
R loves to copy whatever RUS is doing. In this picture you see her sticking her feet in her mouth after watching RUS do it. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get the picture while he still had his feet in his mouth, too.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
RUS has croup
Poor kiddo. He's been coughing at night and really wanting to be held a lot. So we're doing lots of holding and cuddling and such. We took him to the pediatrician today and he was prescribed a small dose of a steroid for the next couple of nights just to help him get better faster.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Jam-Packed Trip to Ohio
Whew. It's been a really really busy few weeks for us. We got back two days ago from a whirlwind trip to Ohio. We spent one night visiting one of my best friends from college. She has a son who is 3 months older than RUS. We even dressed them in matching outfits! That was a total coincidence, though. RUS got the outfit from J's grandmother & great-aunt back in June, and when I dressed him in it, D mentioned that her son had the same outfit. I took more pleasure than I ever expected I would at seeing them in matching clothes.
Here's us! I'm impressed that J got a shot where everyone was looking at the camera. R has been VERY camera-shy lately--she insists she doesn't want any pictures taken, or she looks very grumpy at the camera pointed at her--so it's been hard to get pictures with her in them.
After leaving D's house, we drove to my grandmother's house for her birthday bash. Here she is with both kids--you can just see how thrilled R is at having her picture taken. Thank goodness for my Aunt C who really got R to open up and start enjoying herself. I think she was a little intimidated by all the strange adults she didn't know. But she remembered Aunt C as we've spent time at her house several times before when R has just had a blast running around and playing jack-in-the-box. So they wandered around my grandparents' property and pretty soon Aunt C had R talking about the balloons and feeding everybody different flavored balloons.
My grandma also has tons of baby and kid toys that she's saved from when we were kids--someone dug up this little wooden rocking horse that might have been Local Hero's when he was a baby and RUS looked so cute riding on it. He is such an easy-going baby that he just loved being passed around and held by anyone who wanted to hold him. I'm frankly surprised we haven't experienced any separation anxiety with him at all yet.
Then we drove to my parents' house and stayed for 1 day before heading back to Delaware. We had no agenda for the day other than spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Geg. My mom got so many smiley pictures of RUS, it was awesome. I'm still trying to get one that's really good of his one little tooth. I call it his pirate tooth because he looks like an old toothless pirate when he smiles really big. I've even started trying to figure out if I can wrangle a pirate costume for him for Halloween!
We went to a delicious thai restaurant to celebrate my birthday and then had cupcakes back at home. R was really tired as she didn't nap, which is why she looks thrilled to be having cupcakes in this picture.
We left the next morning to head back and while we were running around getting everything in the car (well, while J was loading the car and I was packing up my stuff) RUS fell asleep on Grandpa. I couldn't resist taking this picture.
The drive home was really really good: we are really lucky to have kids who do well in the car for long drives. R spent most of the drive--there AND back--reading this Dora book over and over again with her LeapFrog Tag Reader. I have the story memorized. And all the activities. So does R. It still is so crazy to me that she wanted to read that book over and over and over and over again. I honestly don't get it: what is it about Dora that is so captivating and addictive? At any rate, it was great to have something that kept her really focused and entertained for so long.
Here's us! I'm impressed that J got a shot where everyone was looking at the camera. R has been VERY camera-shy lately--she insists she doesn't want any pictures taken, or she looks very grumpy at the camera pointed at her--so it's been hard to get pictures with her in them.
After leaving D's house, we drove to my grandmother's house for her birthday bash. Here she is with both kids--you can just see how thrilled R is at having her picture taken. Thank goodness for my Aunt C who really got R to open up and start enjoying herself. I think she was a little intimidated by all the strange adults she didn't know. But she remembered Aunt C as we've spent time at her house several times before when R has just had a blast running around and playing jack-in-the-box. So they wandered around my grandparents' property and pretty soon Aunt C had R talking about the balloons and feeding everybody different flavored balloons.
My grandma also has tons of baby and kid toys that she's saved from when we were kids--someone dug up this little wooden rocking horse that might have been Local Hero's when he was a baby and RUS looked so cute riding on it. He is such an easy-going baby that he just loved being passed around and held by anyone who wanted to hold him. I'm frankly surprised we haven't experienced any separation anxiety with him at all yet.
Then we drove to my parents' house and stayed for 1 day before heading back to Delaware. We had no agenda for the day other than spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Geg. My mom got so many smiley pictures of RUS, it was awesome. I'm still trying to get one that's really good of his one little tooth. I call it his pirate tooth because he looks like an old toothless pirate when he smiles really big. I've even started trying to figure out if I can wrangle a pirate costume for him for Halloween!
We went to a delicious thai restaurant to celebrate my birthday and then had cupcakes back at home. R was really tired as she didn't nap, which is why she looks thrilled to be having cupcakes in this picture.
We left the next morning to head back and while we were running around getting everything in the car (well, while J was loading the car and I was packing up my stuff) RUS fell asleep on Grandpa. I couldn't resist taking this picture.
The drive home was really really good: we are really lucky to have kids who do well in the car for long drives. R spent most of the drive--there AND back--reading this Dora book over and over again with her LeapFrog Tag Reader. I have the story memorized. And all the activities. So does R. It still is so crazy to me that she wanted to read that book over and over and over and over again. I honestly don't get it: what is it about Dora that is so captivating and addictive? At any rate, it was great to have something that kept her really focused and entertained for so long.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
How Big is RUS?
(sorry for my annoying voice! In the background you can hear me saying, "How big is RUS? How big is RUS?" several times during the video, which is only 16 seconds long.)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Looking on the bright side
When R was born, I was terrified of giving her a pacifier, and tried to avoid it at all costs. However, she took to the pacifier like a fish to water, and we grew to appreciate how easily the pacifier helped calm her down in public and helped her fall asleep easily and quickly. I was nervous about getting rid of it, but even that turned out to be much easier than I expected.
So when RUS was born, I was prepared and totally fine with giving him a pacifier. We had two different kinds at the ready. He NEVER took one. We tried on a bunch of occasions-- not SUPER hard but we did try. We bought three more different kinds. He didn't like any of them. He would spit it out and gag like he was choking to death on it.
He slept great though, and we haven't had a lot of issues (aside from the "you must hold me throughout my naps", an issue that we had for 7 months and thankfully is gone) with no pacifiers with him.
Except. He is now developing a thumb-sucking habit. He sucks his thumb in between bites of food and to calm himself down when he's upset or tired. On the one hand, it's really sweet. He's such a sweet baby. I love him so much! But on the other hand, I was a thumbsucker for a long time and I know my mom worked really hard to get me to stop. You can take away the pacifier, but you can't take away a thumb.
But I'm coming to terms with it, and trying not to borrow tomorrow's troubles today.
Here's the bright side of having a child who sucks his thumb:
1) he puts himself back to sleep in the middle of the night when he wakes up.
2) he puts himself to sleep in his car seat when he's tired.
3) having a tired baby cuddle with you while calm and relaxed is on my list of sweetest things EVER.
4) it really does help calm him down.
5) I don't have to worry about the pacifier at all!
So when RUS was born, I was prepared and totally fine with giving him a pacifier. We had two different kinds at the ready. He NEVER took one. We tried on a bunch of occasions-- not SUPER hard but we did try. We bought three more different kinds. He didn't like any of them. He would spit it out and gag like he was choking to death on it.
He slept great though, and we haven't had a lot of issues (aside from the "you must hold me throughout my naps", an issue that we had for 7 months and thankfully is gone) with no pacifiers with him.
Except. He is now developing a thumb-sucking habit. He sucks his thumb in between bites of food and to calm himself down when he's upset or tired. On the one hand, it's really sweet. He's such a sweet baby. I love him so much! But on the other hand, I was a thumbsucker for a long time and I know my mom worked really hard to get me to stop. You can take away the pacifier, but you can't take away a thumb.
But I'm coming to terms with it, and trying not to borrow tomorrow's troubles today.
Here's the bright side of having a child who sucks his thumb:
1) he puts himself back to sleep in the middle of the night when he wakes up.
2) he puts himself to sleep in his car seat when he's tired.
3) having a tired baby cuddle with you while calm and relaxed is on my list of sweetest things EVER.
4) it really does help calm him down.
5) I don't have to worry about the pacifier at all!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
First cereal
Last week, when my folks were in town, we tried a little bit of rice cereal for RUS in the morning. He was hungry at the time and though he didn't mind it too much, he did run out of patience and started fussing for his bottle before too long. So we waited about a week before trying again.
Last night I pulled out the rice cereal again. It was right after dinner. R, S, and I were all eating a simple cous cous dish I pulled together and RUS was watching every bite we all took, and would bring his hands to his mouth and chew while we chewed our food. He was ready.
He did spit some of the food out of his mouth - generally whenever I got the food in front of his tongue instead of on top of it, he would push it out. But then he started playing with it in his mouth before spitting it out. And then he seemed to get the idea that he could move it around with his tongue and then suck it down. This all happened in a matter of a dozen or so spoonfuls.
Tonight he was a pro. He was reaching for the spoon to pull it in, biting down on the spoon, sucking the cereal off. His first bite he made a funny face that I attributed to not warming up the milk before mixing it, but after he got used to it, he was lunging for the food every time I got it near him.
So in the end, not too much food missed his mouth. There were a couple of incidents involving the blowing of raspberries with cereal in the mouth that got Daddy in the face, but quite a bit of the food was actually eaten.
And yes, we are thanking our lucky stars that he's been such a good baby! Night time sleeping, taking the bottle, and now eating his cereal. I just won't mention the nap thing. . .
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