Believe me

Before I became a mom, I had a list of philosophies about parenthood ¬– most of which have become obsolete in the face of reality.

I thought I would make my own baby food.

Reality: Every time I stick something in the blender – bananas, avocados – Sawyer gags on it and then throws up.

I thought I would breastfeed for a year.

Reality: Bottles are liberating.

I thought I wouldn’t baby proof. Who wants a kid that doesn’t understand the concept of fragile? You can’t take them anywhere.

Reality: It’s so nice to be able to have rooms where he can crawl about and explore without constant oversight.

I thought I would have a kid I could take anywhere.

Reality: Sawyer is 7 months old and I haven’t traveled on a plane with him yet. The prospect of doing so is making me hyperventilate. How will he take naps? How will he do on the plane? What will he play with? Where will he sleep?

I thought my kid would take naps.

Reality: He doesn’t. Well not long ones.

I thought I would have no problem leaving my kid for the weekend.

Reality: In three weeks, he is having his first overnight stay with his grandparents, and I have been writing the list of things they need to know in my head for a month.

I thought I would never make two meals for my family – one for the kids and one for the adults.

Reality: I haven’t gotten there yet. But, I’ve realized that my concepts of parenthood are malleable.

Bye Bye

This morning as Scott was leaving the house he waved goodbye to Sawyer and Sawyer waved back. Just like that. They repeated the act a second time. I was beside myself. COMMUNICATION, people. We have COMMUNICATION! Waving is not something we have practiced so I have no idea where it came from. He just woke up this morning and decided he could do it. Most milestones seem to happen like that - unexpectedly.

I tried to get him to wave to the camera, but he just wanted to eat it.

Born with a silver rattle in his mouth

Look ma, no hands!


Sawyer and I took a delectable, drool-on-the-pillow nap this afternoon. It was the highlight of the day. I was exhausted. We have turned this house upside-down over the last 24 hours looking for the dang remote control, which has walked off to God-knows-where. We still haven't found it. We have been through every piece of furniture, every nook and cranny, every box and bag at least 10 times, so, either the dogs ran off with it or the ground opened up and swallowed it whole. The DVD and stereo system do not work properly without the remote control. No music. No movies. Argh! Losing things is the worst. You might as well take my brain for all I'm worth when something important is missing. It's all I can think about. We can't walk through the house without lifting the same pillow we've already lifted a dozen times. We need a remote control just to find our remote control. A pager, perhaps, like they have on portable phones. Will somebody please invent that?

Speaking of technology, why do babies love it so much? A hundred toys and all my 7 month old wants is the cell phone, computer, telephone, power cord etc.

Take a hike

This is our down-the-street neighbor Jayne McQuade (Justin calls her Mrs. McQuimby) who is the head librarian at our local public library. She is also in my book club. And we have our own two-member Thursday morning walking club. We started this when I was pregnant and even after our big move the tradition continues (only we have had to change our route). Rain, fog or snow, hot or cold, she calls at 8 a.m. to motivate me. My belly, heart and lungs thank her for it. That's our new mailbox and our house 'peak'ing out from the woods.

Freedom!

Sawyer turned 7 months yesterday, and I didn't even remember to celebrate his birthday.
I was too busy chasing him.
That's right.
We have forward motion. He is officially crawling.
His little two kneed bunny hop has evolved and he can now cover the distance of the living room rug in a matter of minutes.
Just this morning I put him down on his back with a bottle and looked back up a few minutes later and he was MIA - It took a second to find him at the base of my chair. He was trying to get to mommy!
Bath time has taken on an added challenge of its own.
A few nights ago it was the shower curtain, which he wanted to tear down and eat.
Now wants to crawl in the little plastic tub and it was all I could do to hang onto the slippery wet baby who kept trying to flip over on his tummy and crawl out of the tub.
Last night he discovered the drain - which makes a fascinating sound as the water he splashes out of the tub trickles and gurgles down the pipe. Five toys could not distract him. He kept lunging for the drain. I was a) laughing hysterically, and b) desperately trying to keep him from face planting on the tile.
I came out into the living room with Sawyer bundled in his towel and told Scott how I was physically exhausted after that struggle, and how I spent the entire time trying to get him to just sit down and play with his toys.
What do you mean the whole time? scott asked. It was only two minutes.
Exactly.

minutia

I know this question has been burning in your mind:
So, yes, I am still breastfeeding.

My belief in the importance of breastfeeding was instilled long before having a baby was even a passing thought in my mind. A former boss explained how her kids had fewer ear infections and were all around healthier people because she nursed them for the first year. I bought the philosophy hook, line and sinker, and my resolve was only strengthened by my extensive reading and pediatrician's preaching on the subject . . . and watching other nursing moms shed those pregnancy pounds.

Now, before you decide that you know where this is going, let me just say that life soon swung a small sledgehammer at my resolve.

I fed Sawyer NOTHING but breastmilk until shortly after Christmas when - at 5 months - he got - wouldn't you know it - an EAR INFECTION! No sooner than he recovered from that, he came down with a whopper of a cold. Then I forgot to remove the expressed milk from my portable pump station one night and had nothing to give the sitter the next day, so I busted out the first sample can of formula. Once I realize how easy THAT was (dump powder into bottle, add warm water from tap, shake and serve) the whole concept of sitting upstairs in the hard and cold bathroom at the office with the milk machine attached to me like a cow three times a day lost what little luster it ever held. At the same time, I still relished the ability to bring Sawyer into bed with me in the morning so that I could catch a few more winks while he ate his breakfast, or the convenience of a warm meal on the go or being able to leave the house for the day without worrying about bottles and formula and fresh water. So, I came up with a new philosophy. Nurse when I'm there. Formula when I'm not. And, that was going well. With formula firmly and happily rooted into our new daily routine, I packed away the pump station.

And, for those who have wondered about the possible added challenge of Sawyer's two new teeth: it is physically impossible to suck and bite at the same time. So, no, that hasn't been a problem and if it does become a problem this restaurant will go out of business.

But, well past his six-month birthday, we had done little to introduce solid foods. We had played around with some rice cereal and that was about it. According to the books, we should have been well through the yellow foods at that point and building up to steak cutlets. But, I was pretty hung up on the solids. It just seemed to take so much effort - and there were so many rules - all the cereals first, then what color food you could introduce in what order (yellow, green, brown, white), vegetables before fruits, pureed versus strained, what never to feed before the first year (corn, wheat, cows milk, peanuts) - and feeding solids was SOOOO messy. I just never seemed to have the time. . . or the proper equipment (i.e. a high chair). When the pediatrician told me I needed to be working up to three meals a day by a year, I realized I needed to get with the program. So, reluctantly, we have added solids to our daily routine. Turns out Scott is a master feeder and I am more than happy to relinquish some of that duty.

So far, Sawyer has tried Rice Cereal, Oatmeal, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots and Squash. Next week: GREEN FOOD. Mmm. Can't wait to change those diapers!

13 tried-and-true, unsanctioned, in-a-pinch uses for baby wipes

1.Shoe polish
2.Car uphostery/dashboar cleaner
3.Baby face/body wash
4.Kleenex
5.Hand Sanitizer
6.Pacificer de-dog-hair-izer
7.Laundry prewash
8.Carpet spot remover
9.Sunglasses cleaner
10.Furniture duster
11.Netflix DVD cleaner
12.Excersaucer/toy wipedown cloths
13.Endless baby entertainment in or out of the package

The Frugal Gourmet

I have never been a coupon clipper, but having a baby has brought out the frugal in me. I salivate over $1 off coupons on my favorite diapers and find myself purchasing quantities of baby wipes beyond my monthly need just to get a discount. But my greatest find to date has been the Callao Buy Rite, a sort of supermarket outlet store where one can purchase those cereal boxes that got slightly crushed during shipping for an extreme discount or stock that's expiration date is drawing near. I rarely made the drive, which is only about 15 minutes out of my normal circuit, until Sawyer started formula. I have since discovered that the baby aisle is a veritable gold mine. A large container of Organic Similac formula, which runs about $26 at Target costs $9.99 at Buy Rite. Yes, it expires in a month, but I will use it in a week or two. Four ounce jars of organic baby food sell 5 for $1. So I purchased 25 jars of baby food and a large container of formula for $15 today and practically danced out the door.


(Click on photo to view larger)

In the meantime, Sawyer is becoming more mobile. I was snapping some shots of him today to show how well he holds his bottle when he took an interest in the camera and managed to crawl-scoot his way over to me. The pain of teething has finally eased and I hope to soon document his pearly white grin.



Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Yawn

so tired. sawyer is still teething and he woke up i don't know how many times last night crying. he gets up on his hand and knees and rocks forward and backwards until squirms his legs through the slats on the crib and gets stuck. i tried to let him cry it out. but the 'out' never came. crawling is coming along. he sorta hops forward on two knees. oh, and scott has him gobbling up oatmeal in the a.m. and sweet potatoes in the p.m. and that's about all the update i can muster on deadline. just didn't want folks to think i'd fallen off the face of the earth.

that bites!

It's been a rough couple days for Sawyerman. He woke up so early in the morning on Monday that I don't even know what time it was because it was too dark to see my watch. I brought him in bed with me hoping to buy some extra time, but he just played with my face (a new favorite passtime of his) and its hard to sleep when a little person is trying to twist your nose off. The rest of the day went about the same. No sleeping. Barely eating. Spitting up all over mommy who had to bring baby to work because the sitter had to go to court for a traffic ticket. And just when I was at the end of my rope, he gave me one of those big slobbery suckerfish kisses that just makes me melt. But, wait! What's that I feel? Something . . . sharp? I quickly desuctioned the baby from my face and stuck my finger in his mouth. Why - ITS TEETH! Two of them popped through the gum literally overnight. I was so excited I tried to call everybody I know. Nobody answered.

Eye see

We had a bizarre trip to the eye doctor last week. The good news is that Sawyer’s eyes appear to be developing just fine. She does not think he has a lazy eye. If anything, she said, he may have an extra fold of skin between his eye and the bridge of his nose that give him the appearance of being slightly cross-eyed. This will disappear when his nose begins to fill out (as it undoubtedly will given his genes). I personally think that his left eye has self-corrected in the past few months. But it wasn’t MY opinion we were talking about. It was HERS. And, she was full of opinions. Given that she is only three-and-a-half feet tall, I guess she has to stand for something. Before we even started talking about eyes she told us NEVER to vaccinate our child because the Amish don’t have autism, and if we DO vaccinate (um band-aids still on legs from 6 month appointment) then DON’T get the MMR or at least wait until after they are two. We were also told to never give our baby a bottle on his back, switch from Cows milk formula to Goats milk (Formula? Does that even exist?), practice rolling from left to right (she thinks this is his weaker side – I think he was just looking at her thinking ‘who is this crazy lady’), buy him a set of stackable toys and a playschool hammer peg set, turn the temperature in the house up and take his socks off cause the Robeez are interfering with his traction, NEVER let him creep around the room holding onto furniture, encourage an extended crawling period to develop binocular vision (at least THAT had something to do with eyes) and the list of COMMANDS just went on and on. And I kept thinking, WHAT kind of doctor are you supposed to be exactly? So, yes, now I am completely paranoid about the MMR and plan to do lots of reading on the subject. Everything else she said that wasn’t directly related to how healthy my baby’s eyes are I plan to conveniently forget.

And a shout out to our moving 'company'

The best kind of friends are the ones who will throw on the old sweats, pack up all your useless, dusty junk and then hump it up a flight of stairs. We are blessed with many of this kind of friend; people who, without a moment’s hesitation, responded to our invitation to haul boxes in return for a bowl of half-burnt chile (my fault) and a few cans of cheap beer.

Everything we own is now in the new house. We, however, are not. The phone is up. The mail is being delivered. The toilet has been consecrated. (How fun to be the first person ever to sit on the throne). We are working our way through a sea of boxes, putting away kitchen utensils and clothes. We are just waiting for Mr. Revere to finish hooking up the gas to the heat so that the house will be toasty warm. We need to retro-fit the cabinet to hold the oven. We have a few more floor boards to put down. The back deck needs railing. And. Then. We. Are. Done. The projects will continue: finishing the powder room and the upstairs are next on the list, along with building window seats, landscaping and putting the finishing touches here and there. But, I have been to the mountaintop and I have seen the Promised Land, and it’s FUNKY! I love our house – tree post, metal ceiling and all. I’m not sure we’ll ever build another one. I’ve been joking that I now understand why homebuilding is the #1 cause of divorce. And, Scott is a builder. I think that now, having been through it, he will be an even better builder because he will understand what his clients are going through. I’m sure amnesia will set in and we’ll soon forget these last three years. The whole time we’ve been building we’ve reminded ourselves: “This isn’t the dream house.” It’s an investment and we DO plan to sell it. So, I guess we’ll eventually need to find the dream house. And, if we can’t find it, well, we may just have to build it.

We moved!

We said goodbye to the old cabin that we have rented for the last four years. This is where we lived when we got married, where we lived when Sawyer was born. We will remember it fondly . . . sort of:

Goodbye House
Goodbye Mouse
Goodbye Squirrels in the Eaves
Goodbye Birds living in the Chimney
Goodbye Black Snakes that came inside to visit.
Goodbye laundry outside and in the basement.
Goodbye closet doors that never stayed shut
Goodbye carpet with stains of we don't know what
Goodbye green water from the kitchen faucet
Goodbye cabinets that are too small for wine glasses
Goodbye pathway with nothing but sand in it
Goodbye shower where its too dark to see.
Goodbye . . . everything.

The Plight of the Incredibly Shrinking Baby Boy

I knew there was something special about my child. Now, my pediatrician’s office has confirmed it. In the last two months, Baby Sawyer has shrunk by a quarter inch. While most children in the world get taller over time, my baby shrinks and expands like H2O. This has been confirmed by a team of expert doctors and nurses in the Northern Neck. Thank GOD we’re RURAL.

It’s a difficult life for a shrinking boy, especially one who’s stuck in reverse. That’s right, Sawyer, much like Jen’s 1989 Subaru Legacy on our 1995 cross-country drive through Kansas, is stuck in reverse. He gets up on all fours, he rocks, he locks in on the objective, and then he pushes. But after 20 minutes of hard work, he finds himself 10 feet further away from the object of his desire. He blows a gasket. Melt down. Poor Shrinking Baby Boy.

Weight: 18 pounds (70th percentile)
Height: 26.5 inches (50th percentile)