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June 25, 2004
Gus is l o n g
I took Gus for his 6 1/2 month check-up....
*drum roll, please*
18 lbs 7 oz - 50th percentile
27 3/4 inches - 90th percentile
Ok, so we do not come from short people. Both John and I have tall family members. On my Mom's side, my uncles and cousins range from 6' 2" to 6' 8"... I'm on the shorter side for that clan!
Gus is very healthy (despite the beginnings of a fourth round of thrush... I'm not going to dwell on this). After two shots, Gus cried briefly and then was back to his smiley self. He's very good at turning it around. I need to follow his lead.
Next week we are off to DC for Auntie Ali's wedding (John's sister). We're so very excited. My Mom will also be going with us. Gus will get to see his Grandpa again, too. I've already started the list of things to take and we're making a plan for Gus to continue eating his homemade babyfood. Should be interesting!
Posted by janna at 08:53 PM
June 20, 2004
Happy Father's Day, John
We love you, John! We're so thankful for you. You have been such an incredible papa!
Today was so beautiful, perfect weather, perfect temperature, perfect first Father's Day for John. We had a picnic with John's Mom in the afternoon.
Posted by janna at 10:16 PM
June 17, 2004
sleepy teething bunny
Gus and I just came in from a walk. i'm typing (aka pecking) with my left hand, holding Gus against my chest with my right. He's asleep, deep breathing sounds. Very asleep yet not so asleep that he would stay asleep if I put him down. I love this. his head is right under my cheek so I can occasionally rest it there. OOOH, my favorite, the sigh... relaxation at its most relaxed point. I have easy access to his forehead where I can plant a gazillion kisses. His legs are bent like a frog, but even then they still reach halfway down my thigh. I don't want this to end. His little feet!
Speaking of feet. there is a little boy, almost five, at Gustav's daycare. He likes Gus a lot, he's told me so. Yesterday when I came to pick up Gus, he was rolling around on these mats out in the backyard. This little boy said that he and another boy called Gus a 'muscle baby', but this other boy said Gus had puny feet.
Hey! :)
Gus also had a fever yesterday, but we're pretty sure it was due to teething. Instead of warming up his carrots, we gave him a frozen carrot cube (we froze carrot puree in ice cube trays, very easy) in this mesh thingy and he gnawed away on it.
Ah, another sigh. I love him.
Posted by janna at 06:29 PM
June 15, 2004
pppphhhhhhllllaarrggiiiihhhhhfffff, tinged with a wee bit of spit.
Okay been there/done that parents... how do you NOT laugh when your son's favorite thing is to blow raspberries? John asked, shortly after Gus did this for the first time, "Did Gus just tell his first joke?"
We've moved on to carrots successfully!
Posted by janna at 11:05 PM
June 13, 2004
Gus: a real person!
I know Gus is a real person, but he has really come out of baby into seeming like being such a little boy. Big, open mouth waiting for food; reaching for our forks, our glasses, our water; Raspberry-blowing tongue action when frustrated, or when just amusing himself... I swear Gus is a boy on the verge of spitting out five complete sentences, getting up and walking to the kitchen to get his own food and taking a bath on his own.
He's so so so so cute. He loves eating his veggies so far. Green beans and peas, yum. It's been really easy with making it ourselves. We just freeze a bunch in an ice cube tray and take out a couple at a time. We gave him a chunk of frozen banana in this mesh thingy and he went to town, grunting the whole way.
This afternoon he was eating some peas, and inbetween bites Gus decided it was a good idea to stick his foot in his mouth. Wow, just when you think the food goes everywhere, it goes even further than imagined. He's still sitting in his bouncy seat to eat. We tried the high chair (which is actually my wooden high chair from when I was a baby) but he's not sitting up enough to make it work just yet. Let's just say Gus had a lot of peas in his nose after that stint.
The excitement for books continues, which is amazing. Gus is so enthusiastic, just kicking kicking kicking.
I love this parenting business. I'm starting to think more about how it will be to parent a mobile child and how it will be to parent with a child who can express more and more. I love his will (I say that now!), I love how he's so excited, and I just want to be that excited about everything too.
Posted by janna at 09:53 PM
June 08, 2004
Sleep aids
Everyone's favorite, well-meaning question these days is:
Is Gus sleeping through the night?
I know what answer everyone wants to hear. Maybe it makes people feel better to think that John and I get more than three to four hours of sleep at a time. Maybe there's a sense of it just being the right thing. Maybe it is the question we're programmed to ask.
But really, even though you well-meaning askers want the answer to be 'But of course he sleeps all night', you don't really think that's what we'll say, right? I mean, you would be plesantly surprised if he were, right?
The truth is, Gus doesn't sleep through the night, and I don't really expect him to. When he sleeps for seven hours, I am thankful, but surprised. These past few weeks have seen restless evenings for Mr. G. Teething? Hunger? Thrush (which we just got rid of for the third time...I've heard something about charms and threes)? I decided it was time to do some investigating to see what works for other folks.
We went to the library after work, and I found a book about evening parenting that I found interesting. I also had ordered this ocean aquarium thingy you can put in the crib. It plays music, has moving fish and bubbles and has little lights. It came yesterday. I was so excited, I thought maybe this will be the thing that draws him to fall asleep. I ripped open the box last night, anxious to get it set up before Gus went to bed. Denied. Needs four D batteries. Not something you have sitting around. John was nice enough to go to Walgreen's to buy some. We were set! Crib thingy, book knowledge, we were on our way to figuring stuff out. By the time John got home, Gus was asleep. I figured, okay, when he wakes up I'll use my new knowledge and set up this aquarium.
But he slept.
And slept.
And slept.
And all of those restless nights of the past month faded into memory as we all had seven hours of uninterupted sleep.
It was as if just the mere effort of trying to do something different impacted Gus.
It just reminded me: there is no formula to parenting other than doing what really feels right for your child. And that may change every day...or every hour. Listen to this little person, he has a lot to say in many different ways. So I've decided to stop beating myself up for not living up to some kind of socially perfect mother who's baby sleeps 18 hours a night, never poops, and never cries in public. I love all of this, I don't mind if he doesn't sleep through the night, and I love all of you for asking because I know you're interested and you care. As the mother of a baby who is who he is, and certainly does not fit any textbook infant I've ever read about, the more interesting question to ask a mother like me is, 'how are things going?' To that I will have so much more to tell! (and I'll refrain from talking about poopy diapers or my boobs, I promise)
Tonight the best thing yet: we attached the aquarium thing to the crib. We put Gus in, asleep. He woke up about two hours later. I heard him fuss a bit. I said to John, I'm just waiting for him to turn that thing on (totally kidding, of course). Literally a second later we heard music. He figured out how to hit this big button to turn it on. It turns off after five minutes. He turned it on again. And again once more. But then turned it off before the five minutes was up.
He must have decided it was time for bed.
I'm in heaven.
Posted by janna at 11:34 PM | Comments (1)
June 06, 2004
Six months
Six months ago Gus arrived...'bursting on to the scene' some might say. I'm having one of those days where time at once feels fast and slow. It feels like Gus has been with us forever, like he was never not with us. It also feels like he was just born and I'm still trying to make sense of that whole day. (Remember, my first words after Gus was born were: "I'm so confused!" Guess I still am.)
Six months ago
Today
I mean, how do we now have a little boy intermingled with our lives? John and I still look at each other at least once a week and marvel at the fact that we made a baby. We're parents. We are. John and I. Mama and Papa. Wow.
The changes come so quick. This past week has been full of change. For example, Gus now opens his mouth and welcomes...or practically beckons...the spoonful of oatmeal to enter. Yes, folks, we have conquered the dreadful cereal, whooppee! He's up to three meals of cereal a day, mainly because I just can't keep up with the growing boy all by myself, and also because he's just hungry. Big hunger for the growing growing growing boy. Today was a special food day, though. Today was the first bite of green beans! Yummy green beans, blended up fresh by Papa. I wondered if we would go through the whole refusual phase as we did with cereal, but no! He ate the whole bowlful. Thank you, thank you, Gus. He's also able to hold a sippy cup with some water. Sometimes he gets it in his mouth, and sometimes he can get water by himself.
Gustav's hands. He has such precision now. Just today he was determined to take John's glasses off. So he did. Again. And again. And again. Gus also likes to reach for anything now. This weekend we almost had three spilled glasses of water, all saved by what I'd like to call the Mama reflex (will I always be that fast? Or faster yet, oooh.... ??) Plenty of hands in my food, one in particular covered with eggplant spread (that hand went promptly in my mouth, it was just reflex!) and one dead-on grab of an oatmeal-filled spoon. I now see we need to be ultra careful about what we keep out as it doesn't take long at all to go from table to mouth.
Will. Gus is starting to have preferences and obvious desires. He loves to play on the floor with this little play center that plays music. He prefers when the songs with voices play over just plain music. He prefers to play with the center than not with the center, as I found out today when I put the center over him then moved it away again. The frustration that came out of Gus was amazing, he broke out into tears. I love that he knows what is fun to him.
Rolling. Gus loves to roll from side to side, and is able to do full circles by using this method. He doesn't really roll to his stomach much, but he can. When we put him on his stomach, he is starting to put his left knee under his belly. That scares me. We bought some outlet plug protectors recently. We need to start babyproofing. It's also made me more diligent about vacuuming the floor. We don't want the poor guy to become the human Swiffer.
Play. Gus loves to just play by himself. We can put him down for a little bit and he can occupy himself with the toys at hand. He is also a huge fan of books. Gus will kick and kick and have wide eyes while we go through books. I'm so glad it's fun for him now. Gus also seems to love music. Today at Unity there was a live band and he was kicking up a storm to the beat, it was hysterical!
Talking. No more talking as of yet... no more hi, but it will come. Gus does babble, but not all the time. He definitely likes to take it all in, but he does have bursts of excitement.
The best things ever are the laughter and the full smiles. This boy can dish the smiles out to just about anyone. Gus loves it when John makes silly faces or plays peek-a-boo. I like to run up to him when John is holding him. The giggles make him hide his face on John's chest. We are so in love with him.
Gus, thank you for the best six months ever. I hope we're doing right by you. We love you.
Posted by janna at 10:55 PM
June 02, 2004
gimme more feet
Gus likes feet, socked or bare, preferrably in his mouth rather than anywhere else. It's a new phenomenon, really. Just within this last week he has decided that he needs to take advantage of this limber stage of life. For when, if not now, is it acceptable to suck on your own feet?
...please do not answer that question...
Gus is highly interactive now, so smiley, so interested in all the things around him. I would still characterize him as mellow, but has moments of excited energy.
We went to Iowa last weekend to visit friends, family, and witness my beautiful cousin Ashley's graduation from high school. The weekend was full...we stayed at Han's and Lisa's and got to play with Ivan and meet the newest addition, Vincent. Vince is four months younger than Gus...and look how long he is!
Vincent
Vince and Ivan
People keep saying how much Gus looks like John...
My cousin Ashley (she graduated from high school!) and Gus
My cousin Curt, his wife Kim and his son Nick
My Mom with all of her brothers. She's the oldest. Such a rare thing for all of us to be together at once!
Posted by janna at 11:22 PM