Friday, May 30, 2008
Yogurt
14-Week Ultrasound Photos
Last time I posted ultrasound photos, the men in my life could barely make heads or tails of them, but tried to be polite, while the women all remarked that they were the most clear 10-week ultrasound photos they'd ever seen and how cute the baby was. The contrast was so funny to me!
To help orient you, the baby was lying transverse (aka, horizontally) and facing down. In this photo, the head is on the right of the page, bottom on the left.



Thursday, May 29, 2008
Jack in the Box
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Cooking Disappointments
Monday, May 26, 2008
Milk Snob
Do any moms want to chime in with tips on how we can encourage John to drink a mama's milk substitute? If I weren't pregnant, my milk would be sufficient for a toddler and, in fact, far superior to other kinds of milk, but my supply is going to go away because of pregnancy hormones. So, I've been working for about two months on having John try other kinds of milk. So far he has rejected vanilla-flavored rice milk, cow's milk, cow's milk with chocolate, and goat's milk. I've tried these things cold, room temperature, and mildly heated. The cow's milk with chocolate did hold John's attention long enough to take a few long sips, but he's never been willing to drink it again. He does enjoy drinking water all day long. And he does enjoy drinking milk with a spoon from his cereal bowl. He won't eat yogurt, including the "drinkable" kids' kind; I haven't tried offering him kefir yet. [Edit: Also, John will not drink juice. I don't particularly wanting him drinking juice since it's mostly sugar water, but I have offered it as an experiment.]
So moms, any tips? Has anyone else had a kid who refused cow's milk? If John dislikes milk, is it possible to get him the right nutrients from enough cheese as long as he drinks enough water for hydration?
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Latta Plantation
John resting on Daddy during a musket and rifle demonstration:
After visiting the plantation, we drove a couple of miles down the road to the Carolina Raptor Center, which was interesting. John was getting tired by that point and had a complete meltdown during the live bird show because the Raptor Center volunteer would walk the birds in a large circle so everybody could get a close look--and that meant he was taking the bird away from John. We cut our visit a bit short, but not before seeing some really glorious birds of prey.
Hiding
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Fruit Baked Good Recipes?
Anyway, I realized today there is one trick I haven't tried: cooking fruit into a baked good! This could go for vegetables too. I'm imagining recipes such as zucchini bread, carrot cake, and apple sauce cookies. I'm hoping that such a recipe would still retain many vitamins and some fiber. I hope to find recipes that are lower in added sugar.
Do any of you have any favorite baked good recipes that contain fruit or vegetables? Please email me any favorite recipes. Or just suggest a recipe (e.g., "try banana bread!") and I'll look up the specifics. Thanks!
Eating Cereal
John really likes All Bran Bran Buds and Flake cereals (which is a good thing, considering I can't yet get any fruit or vegetable fiber into his body!). Yesterday morning I was so impressed that he ate one-quarter of an entire bagel followed by two bowls of bran flakes! He ate his cereal painstakingly with a spoon. Maybe (probably) such a video is boring for others, but I'm still quite charmed by watching him eat like a big boy. And, yes, that is a sippy cup of (lightly chocolate-flavored) milk on John's tray; although John will drink milk in his cereal bowl, he won't drink it in a cup yet.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Where Is My Baby?
When Mama is very sick, sometimes all she can eat is Cream of Wheat. John loves this because otherwise I don't serve him the nutritionally rather empty Cream of Wheat. For a boy who has always rejected pureed food, it is strange that he likes this cereal.
Cream of Wheat has been one of the only foods John would allow me to spoon feed him, but this morning he insisted on feeding himself with his new spoon. Thanks to a lead from Sarah, we bought him an adult-looking small cutlery set by Oneida. I couldn't resist filming my son feeding himself like a big boy. After I turned off the camera, he asked for a napkin, then a glass of water!
Where is my baby disappearing to? After John fed himself breakfast, we had two back-to-back Big Boy Incidents. John was playing in the living room and began whining for his water (not asking, but whining). I told him that it was in the dining room, I pointed to it, and I told him to get it for himself . . . which he did. Then John went and poured some water on the kitchen floor for fun, which I don't mind except that last time he played with water in there, he slipped and slammed his head on the slate tiles. So I handed him a towel and asked him to clean up the water . . . which he did. Whoa.
In unrelated news: John has cut his top two canines! Now he has his bottom canines and all four second-year molars to go.
Angel Hair Aficionado
Saturday in Atlanta
We stayed with Chris' parents and got to see family. On Saturday night, Chris' brother and his three daughters came over for dinner (Mama had to work). John is suddenly at an age when he loves playing with his cousins and basically ignores me as long as he knows I am a home base somewhere nearby and haven't had the audacity to wander off and truly leave him alone. The kids had great fun playing with the electronic keyboard:
John and Sophia were little engineers playing with the piano stand, removing and replacing the little feet repeatedly.
In the evening, the older cousins had fun riding skateboards on their bottoms.


Thursday, May 15, 2008
First Balloon
Yesterday I bought myself significant relaxation time by giving John a tub of water and some Tupperware on the floor of the kitchen.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
A Small Version of Daddy
How Many of Me?
There are 1,109 people in the United States with my maiden name (first and surname combined), but only 13 with my married name. That's pretty fun!
There are 139 John L----s, but only nine Chris L----s. There are only five people with my sister's married name! I could sit at this website and enter names all day . . .
Monday, May 12, 2008
Many Funny Faces
While at the LLL conference, we shopped at a shoe vendor and discussed with her transitional and hard-soled shoes. We did not end up buying John shoes, but the saleswoman gave us a good tip. She said that when transitioning her children, she leaves the new shoes out like they are toys, thus prompting the toddler to explore on his own. I recently bought John some semi-hard soled shoes with mesh uppers--sort of like beach or boat shoes. We've left them in the living room and John has asked us to put on one shoe, and eventually both shoes, over and over and over again, like it was a game. At first he'd ask one of us to put on a shoe, then he'd fuss, so we'd take it off, but he'd ask for it again two seconds later. We played the game and within a week or so, John wore both shoes and walked across the living room without crying for the first time. The saleswoman said it can be normal for the transition to hard soles to take some months (which I hadn't realized), so I guess our slow-to-adapt little boy is just taking his time, but making great progress. Here are the shoes:
John does not like to swing, whether on a bench swing next to his dad, in an enclosed baby swing, or on a big swing on Mama's lap. The one thing he liked to do with the swing was bang the post and peer at me from the left and right of it (like he was hiding behind a tree).
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Real Men Eat Quiche
Speaking of food, John is eating a greater variety and quantity of foods every day--such as the pickle above. Perseverance and simply offering, offering, offering is paying off. Plus, I'm sure his getting older is helping too. There are still many things he won't eat, eggs being one of them. I was thrilled to discover last night that John very happily scarfed down big bites of a Mexican quiche (kind of spicy) that I purchased at Trader Joe's. This morning Chris surprised us by buying breakfast and bringing it home from the cafe around the corner. One of the things he bought was broccoli quiche and John loved that too! I'm going to try making quiches (and fritattas?) to get John to eat eggs.