The Finest Water This Side of the Mississippi

In the last two days, John has rejected fabulous Georgia peaches in both forms diced and cooked and raw, skinned slices. He did enjoy playing with the spoon covered in peach juice and he liked holding a peach slice and bringing it to his mouth and setting it back down again.

Tonight I gave him a trainer cup with some water in it to play with. I removed the valve so that water would fall out and give him something to splash. He just wanted to play with it, but then I realized that he's never seen us drink from a trainer cup, so perhaps he doesn't realize what it is. Therefore, I offered him a sip from my regular glass and he took right to it!



Click here for video of John drinking water. (Sorry, we filmed it sideways and cannot rotate the digital video.)

After drinking a few sips from my glass, John seemed to get the concept of drinking from his trainer cup. Here you can see Daddy helping him:

Headline: John Falls Asleep with Daddy!

Daddy has successfully facilitated John's falling asleep for a nap for the first time since John was a newborn! It "only" took seven months!

A couple of times John has fallen asleep in his moving swing in the kitchen while Chris was cooking breakfast for us, but this morning was different. Chris was playing with John on the bed when John became tired. Chris essentially just quietly kissed his ears and back of his head and the rhythmic kissy noises and warm breath must have been enough for John. He's sleeping now!

This opens up a whole new world of possibility and is very exciting to Mama!

The Model Was Bored

John was not in the mood for a photo shoot with his bear, despite how cute he looked today:

What's Cookin'? Today I made a new dish, Amish Casserole (although I rather doubt how Amish it is, considering it calls for canned soups--do the Amish buy prepared foods like that?). I made four casseroles because some are for friends who have recently had babies. I wish somebody had been here (besides John) to see my assembly line of four pounds of beef, four cans of tomato soup, four cans of cream of chicken soup, four cans of diced tomatoes, three huge bags of pasta, eight cups of shredded cheese, and so on and so forth.

Homo habilis--Our Little Tool Maker

Today I laid out and cut my latest children's pattern: a romper. To do so I have to take over the dining room for a day (or two), getting in there to work in snatches of time as I can manage with John. I brought some toys with me and John played well beneath my feet while I worked, as seen here:

He was quiet as a mouse when his bead roller coaster fell over on top of him. John was simply working on extricating himself. Mr. Independent!
The baby was fascinated by trying to get into a small chest that sits on the dining room floor. It was interesting to me that he continually fiddled with the latch and nothing else. How does a six-month-old know that the latch is integral to opening the chest?
I was even more impressed at the infantile mind when John grabbed the orange plastic ring from his stacking toy and appeared to be using it as a tool. Repeatedly he would fiddle with the latch with his hands, then pick up the plastic ring and align it with the circle of the latch, then bang with the ring. Set the ring down, work with his hands, pick up the ring, align, bang. Repeat. I felt like I was an anthropologist watching chimpanzees make tools out of sticks to eat termites.

The Cardboard Blockade

Because I have not yet bought baby gates, I devised a cardboard blockade for the bottom of the stairs. John was driven to explore the cardboard when he watched me cutting up the box. I've never seen him crawl so fast as he repeatedly zoomed over to where I was working and I moved him away from my workspace again. Here you can see him testing the soundness of the blockade:


I am going to tackle some more children's sewing. I bought Butterick 5896 and plan to try sewing the sleeping romper (View E). (JoAnn's had its "Firefly Frenzy" sale at which all Butterick patterns were 99 cents. I'm still chuckling over the name "Firefly Frenzy" and the site of a bunch of "crafty" housewives, me included, swarming through the store.) Finding nursery knits (not cotton prints) is proving to be extremely difficult, so I purchased three yards of the below fabric (100% cotton) from SewBaby.

Tidbits:

• John says "mmmmmmmmmmm!!!" when he is irritated or mad. He says "maaaa" and "ma maaaa" when he's crying, although I would need more evidence of him saying "mama" to indicate me for me to think he was addressing me.
• John thinks it is quite funny when we share "Eskimo kisses" (rub each other's noses against each other). Maybe Chris can catch it on video sometime.
• I plan to try baby sign language with John, starting in a few months when he can understand that objects have labels. We have introduced two signs: one for nursing and one for lift your legs (during a diaper change). John has never made the signs--and I would not expect him to be able to do so yet--but he does seem to understand them. When I make the sign for nursing, he smiles (as if to say, "Yes, that is what I want!")--but if he doesn't want to nurse, then he doesn't smile. When Chris makes the sign for lift your legs, John does so!

Two Generations

Here is a good side by side of me and John. Notice any resemblance?

Video of John Creepy-Crawling

John practicing with his trainer cup with a bit of water in it:

Today I spotted John executing good form while crawling: for four to six movements forward, John kept his stomach high off the ground instead of pausing to rest or army-crawl. I tried to catch some on video tape, but his form wasn't as good with the camera rolling.

Click here for video of John creepy-crawling.

Click here for video of John crawling up to Mama. You can see him tugging at my skirt and reaching for the camera.

Carrots and Family Resemblance

Is that John or . . . no, that's his Daddy! Chris' mom found some photos of Chris as a baby--no small feat considering Chris was the fifth child! Here is Chris at six months old with Grandma De Courcey:
Here is Chris circa 1971 (the baby in the striped romper):
Close-up photos of our boy, taken today by Daddy. Check out those gorgeous, fat, rosy cheeks!

Tonight I offered John some carrots at dinner. I enjoyed watching him concentrate so hard on working his spoon, watching me as I ate my beans and rice, then repeatedly lifting the correct end of the spoon to his mouth. I don't know that any carrots made it in there!

Mamas: Does my carrot consistency need a little work? All the ranges on my stove top were occupied, so I cooked the carrots by chopping them into coins, then boiling them in water for six minutes in the microwave. Then I pureed the carrots in my Cuisinart. They seemed grainy and I wondered how I could get them creamier: maybe just cook the carrots softer?

Avocado and Bread

Sunday morning, Chris surprised me by taking John in the early morning to let me sleep another hour, during which time he made me a fancy breakfast! He made eggs with cheese, toast, roasted potatoes, and fruit (kiwi, strawberry, blueberry--which he'd sneaked out at 11:00 p.m. last night to buy!). In addition, he bought me flowers!

I sliced up some avocado and offered it to John in spears and with his spoon. John clearly wants to be included in our eating at the table. As soon as we sit down with him, he's flapping all over the place in eagerness. It appears to be a game to him at this point, but that's just perfect to us. Besides, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that human milk remain the great majority of the baby's diet for the first year.


A fuzzy photo of John studying his avocado spear intently:

We went to our friends' church today for Mass in order to attend their daughter's baptism afterward. Then we all went for lunch at a Brazilian restaurant, where Pop-pops and Grandmom got some time with John.
When I sat down with my plate from the salad buffet, John became quickly agitated trying to reach for my food. I'm still learning what is safe for a baby his age, plus many other foods are ruled out because they have more spices or fat (e.g., butter) added to them than I think is a great idea for a virginal palate. I didn't think there was anything on my plate he should eat, but John was not going to give me peace. I gave him some French bread and watched him like a hawk. He proceeded to make a thousand crumbs on the floor for the waiters to clean up later. I don't know that he swallowed any bread, but he had great fun and was satisfied.


Query for mamas who read this blog: Is soft bread safe? I seem to recall reading somewhere that any bread I give him should be very hard (like a teething biscuit) because soft bread runs the danger of forming into a big glob in his mouth (like a Wonder Bread ball), on which he could choke. When can a baby eat bread?

Lastly, John's second tooth appeared today (his lower right front), seven days after his first tooth!

Bananas, Take Two

This is why I need to procure some baby gates and install them very soon. (Don't worry, I was watching John the whole time, so he didn't sneak over to the stairway without my knowing.)

Saturday at lunch, I offered John some banana spears. I wondered if he would prefer them to the mashed banana I tried a few days earlier. John is clearly delighted by getting to manipulate food, as he starts flapping his arms and legs when I sit him down on my lap at the table. He studiously picks up a piece of food, brings it to his mouth, touches it to his lips or even mouths it briefly, then gently sets it back on the plate, while imitating a chewing motion even though there is no food in his mouth. He is imitating what he observes Mama and Daddy doing every day and I don't think he realizes where our food disappears to. When John has "successfully" swallowed some food, he has wretched and gagged, which tells me that he's happily doing what's perfect for his personal development right now but isn't ready to be actually consuming foods. One day he won't gag and that's when he'll be ready!

John did not seem to like the taste!
His lower left front tooth came in last week and we think we see the lower right one coming in now, although we can't feel it poking through the gum yet.
I know that John is the nearly spitting image of Chris, but sometimes when I look at him, I see so much of my father in him, like in the below photo. Maybe it's the eyes and brow line.
Laughing with Daddy after we got home from an afternoon parish picnic:

Apples and Grits

A fun, new game with Daddy:

Chris says John arranged this for me, but I think he's fibbing:
For the first time, John discovered Mama's books:
Chris has been working long hours for weeks, so this morning he took his best girl and son to breakfast at a hip restaurant downtown, The Flying Biscuit. Part of Chris' breakfast was grits so I put about one-quarter teaspoon on a grown-up spoon and handed it to John, who even managed to get the right end into his mouth. He mouthed the spoon happily and I think he swallowed most of the grits! John is a Southern boy.

Tonight I diced finely some apple and microwaved it until it was soft. At dinner, John enthusiastically tried to manipulate the apples, but they were a bit difficult because they were so small and John does not do the pincer grasp yet. Thus, he had to get creative by putting his face right onto the plate. I do think he swallowed some apple bits.
Yes, those are bits of rice attractively stuck to my shirt. Let's focus instead on the apple cutely stuck to John's chin.

Noodles Day Two

Moments before I took this photo, John had both hands on the second shelf and had pulled himself high enough that his little eyes were peering over the shelf. This is why we need some kind of piece of furniture with closing doors in which to hold our media equipment--pronto!

Tonight John and I ate dinner alone as Chris had to work late. I surreptitiously snapped this photos with my right hand while holding John on my lap with my left. John recognized the twisty noodles instantly and began working on them, bringing them to his mouth over and over. So darned cute for Mama to watch. (Sorry some of the photos are unfocused.)

Fun with Noodles

Today I moved John's basket of toys and box of blocks to the floor where they'd be easier to reach. He was greatly occupied for long durations of time digging through them all.



Concerning solids, we're trying an even more relaxed tactic now. I'm not going to try to stick food in John's mouth, but am going to try letting him snatch baby-safe food off my plate until he's ready for his own plate. Tonight I held back some whole wheat twisty noodles from my grown-up macaroni and cheese (with its heavy cheese, milk, and spices) and melted the teeniest bit of Parmesan cheese on it. I put the pasta on my plate and let John sit on my lap during dinner, which he's done for most of his short life. For the first time, I didn't stop him from trying to take food off my plate. Slowly and deliberately, he reached out repeatedly to pick up one noodle. He would open his mouth wide and touch the noodle to his lips, then slowly set it back on the plate and pick up another noodle. No shuddering, no dry heaving. His attempts were absolutely precious. Tonight John wasn't ready to chew and swallow a noodle or even to chew one and spit it out, but that's okay. He had great fun practicing eating! Solid foods at this age are mostly just for feeling like part of the family and to learn about the concept, not so much for nutrition.

Please pardon how weird I look in the dinner photos!

New Fish Bowl

Here John is playing with his new Lamaze fish bowl (thanks to my Grampa John and Camie!):
And this is why I keep a pillow behind John when he's practicing sitting up on his own! (He topples and doesn't even try to break his own fall.)
During the day I am disciplined about keeping the television turned off. I turn it on for about an hour while I'm making dinner (just finished watching the entire trilogy of Anne of Green Gables, one hour at a time!). Sometimes John is playing in the living room at that time and, if I don't watch him like a hawk, he creeps right to the base of the TV and watches from there. It's creepy.