Category Archives: baby

Oh blah-di, oh blah-dah…

The end of October and potentially Fall already? How did that happen? I can’t really think of anything exciting that’s taken place during our month of October, which in a way is kind of sad, but on the other hand, I don’t necessarily mind.  I get a little stir-crazy now and then, but we’ve kept ourselves busy with a few house projects, and the wee man also makes the time pass very quickly.  I remember getting bored if we went two weekends with no plans, but now?  Not so much. I feel lucky when I can kick back and relax for an hour or two with nothing but a book or sit down and watch a movie with Josh. For people who love movies, we’ve watched very few in the past 6 months. :p We also realized it’s been two months since we had a “date” night where we went out.  Sure, we’ve had a few nights where we’ll pour a glass of wine after Enzo is asleep, and hang out, but does that really count? I’m not so sure… I imagine our pediatrician will say no if she asks at his 6 month check up. 😉

 

Anyhoo, the wee man is doing great, aside from teething. He’s so good at sitting up by himself now!  He still gets wobbly and has taken a few topples, but nothing too severe. He’ll cry for a few seconds, but then is perfectly all right again. What can I say?  Even when you’re right there it’s easy for them to just suddenly topple over in a direction you weren’t planning while you were grabbing something and *smack* floor. I felt really bad about it the first time when he managed to hit the only part of the floor that I hadn’t padded. Go figure.

 

Food is going well. He’s tried several other fruits/veggies in his mesh food thing, which I think sort of helps while he’s teething and makes me not worry about him choking on any food and allows him to take control of his feeding.  We’ll probably try a few “whole” foods soon and see how he does… maybe some sweet potato sticks and avocado slices. I figure if he doesn’t like avocado, I can just whip up some guacamole for Josh and I. 😉

 

In other events, not much is new. Enzo continues to amuse us as his personality becomes more distinct. I can’t believe he’ll be 6 months old on Saturday. We’re also not always boring… we’ve having some people over on Saturday to hang out. We were going to do one of those Murder Mystery parties, but alas, it had to be postponed until everyone can make it. I’ve always wanted to do one, so I’m looking forward to when we actually can.

And on that note… Flying ninja baby!

“Food Should Be Fun” ~ Thomas Keller

We’ve been continuing introducing new foods to Enzo with mixed results.  It was definitely funny to see his many reactions when we decided to try peas as a first veggie after we tried out rice cereal and oatmeal. At first, he wasn’t thrilled.

But, he seemed to get more into it as we tried some more.

He seemed to be more interested in trying to use the spoon himself, but we got some laughs and he did manage to eat quite a few spoonfuls.

The next few days with peas were hit and miss, so we didn’t force it and moved along to carrots.

Enzo did not seem terribly interested in carrots, which didn’t surprise me too much, and when he showed little interest in them the next day, we gave it a break – I also got sick, so our nightly routine got a little out of whack. His new fascination, however, became the bowl.  He didn’t care about the spoon… or the food, just the bowl.

So, since he didn’t seem too keen on carrots, I thought maybe he’d like sweet potatoes as they’re a tastier vegetable (in my opinion).  So, tonight we gave it a try, but once again there was little interest in being spoon fed and more interest in chewing on the bowl. At one point, though, he did grab the spoon and proceeded to hit the bowl, and then what looked like to us, attempted to feed himself.

Towards the end he seemed to get a little frustrated, and I’m thinking we may give solids a little bit of a rest.  Our little independent stinker has me thinking that purees might not be the route to go with him after reading a few baby-led weaning sites.  He wants to do so much for himself, that I’m wondering if he might respond better to food if he was able to take more control and feed himself?  I’m not expert, obviously, so I’m going to do a little more research and see what we can do to meet his needs best.

Granted, he could just be teething, so he’s just not interested in really trying new foods right now at all.  :p  It’s never straight-forward is it?  Ha ha.  I am really wondering about the teething thing, though. Josh and I tried to get a good look today after I thought I felt something when Enzo started gnawing on my finger.

I’d like to say we have more going on lately, but not really.  I managed to get food poisoning or the flu… thankfully neither Josh or Enzo got sick, so at least that.  Otherwise, life is grand!

Spoons and Pumpkins

We were originally going to wait to try solids until Enzo was 6 months old, but he’s been showing more and more interest in what we’re eating and grabbing for food, so we decided to give him rice cereal this weekend to see how he would take to a spoon.

He was all over that first bite and immediately wanted more, which I wasn’t expecting. I’d heard that a lot of the time babies don’t necessarily like the rice cereal, but whether it was the taste or the experience, he wanted more.

Seeing his reaction, I think we’ll try a veggie next week – most likely sweet potatoes and see how he likes those.  We aren’t in a rush to replace his bottles with solid food since most of his vitamins and minerals come from his formula, but we figure introducing new tastes in small amounts won’t hurt anything, and he really likes it, so it keeps him happy at dinner time.

The rest of our week has been fairly low-key.  Enzo has been practicing his sitting more and more, and is getting closer and closer to not needing us for support.

Today we also decided to get some pumpkins for the front porch so it doesn’t look so bare and sad, so we hit up a nearby pumpkin patch!  Enzo, however, fell asleep so he did not get to sit out in the cold with us. Ha ha.

Instead, we took him home and let him check out our awesome gourds.  He’s also been non-stop talking today, which is hilarious and also awesome.  This kid has a LOT to say!

Traveling with a baby and turning 30…

Coming back from vacation is never easy.  Enzo, however, did great on his first real trip, and we couldn’t be happier about that.  Granted, I think a week of vacation is probably all the little man can handle before his schedule gets messed up and he gets cranky.  We’re struggling a little bit getting him back into his routine, but it was well worth it, and I’m sure things will be back to normal soon.

We’ve definitely learned a few things when it comes to travel, like Enzo does best with morning flights rather than late flights.  I could see the worried faces of our fellow travelers when we showed up with our multiple bags and baby, and I admit it made me nervous, and it also made me irritated when Enzo would smile at people and they only frowned back at him.  If a baby smiles at you – smile back!  Sheesh.  Anyhoo, the first flight he made friends with another passenger in our row and handled takeoff fantastically and then proceeded to nap.  When we landed, despite having way too many gate check bags and carry on bags, Enzo sat in his sling hanging off of me like a monkey and was great.  We got on the next plane where he proceeded to fall asleep and didn’t wake up until we arrived in Durango.

We had a wonderful time hanging out with family and getting to see a few friends and, of course,the colors changing.

We drove up to Silverton, which is actually really not stroller friendly… don’t take one as it’s worthless and more pain than it’s worth.  Enzo, however, isn’t always a fan of carriers so we make do.

Now, we often get stopped so people can see Enzo, but I can’t even tell you how many people pointed at him and wanted to see his smile as soon as we put the hat on and carried him around.  This boy is a people magnet. :p

He does have his limits, though, and decided we would not be taking pictures in front of the train.

The trip was short, but long overdue.  Two years?  Ridiculous! A week, and even an hour time change can be a lot for a little boy, though.  Our flight home also had a rough start with a delay of at least half an hour – I think it was more.  While waiting in line, Enzo had a massive blowout and I had minimal wipes on me, and the bathroom was out of paper towels, of course.  We managed, but all I had in his diaper bag were jammies I was going to put him in later, so he proceeded to get overheated and cranky while we waited and waited and then went through security and then I was finally able to change him into something cooler from the carry on. At this point he was hungry and it was past time for his bottle, but patiently he waited.  It’s a miracle we even made our next flight – they held it for us and a couple other people who luckily didn’t have a baby and a ton of stuff to drag with them.  They almost lost our car seat, but surprisingly did not.  Enzo slept on the flight from Denver to Minneapolis, but did NOT wake up happy.  There was a lot of crying as I tried to comfort him as best as I could, but he was not happy and was tired and hungry.  As soon as we got off the plane he perked up, and decided it was not time to sleep despite it being 11:00 pm.  Now we’ve just been trying to get him back on schedule, which has been hard. The past two nights we’ve had a little trouble settling him down despite the fact that he’s obviously tired.  Tonight instead of eating he just wanted to jump… and jump, and jump.

Oh how I love the little stinker.

Oh yeah, and I’m 30 now, which is… odd in a way.  I don’t feel like I’m thirty years old, yet in so many ways I’ve definitely grown up and changed in the past however many years.  Who knew life could be so crazy and wonderful despite the ups and downs and in-between.  I think I can safely say my greatest accomplishment so far is my Enzo. Cliche, perhaps, but so very true.  I haven’t done a lot with myself, and may have had great plans at one point, but for now I’ll consider life a success if I can manage to be a good mom and make sure that our kids grow up to be kind and generous and look back with fondness at the time we’ve spent together.

And it’s only Monday!

I think today has to be one of the best Monday’s I’ve had in a very long time.  For starters we had a pretty good weekend… I even made cookies!

Yeah, not really a big deal usually, but this is the first time I’ve baked since Enzo was born.  I’m not sure why I didn’t get around to it sooner… probably just busy and tired, but last night after we put Enzo to bed, I decided it was the perfect time to make cookies, and it felt good.  I forgot how much I enjoyed making things from scratch.

That, however, isn’t why today has turned out so good.  In a totally sudden and unexpected turn of events I was offered a different position in another department in the company where I work – one with more responsibilities and a larger paycheck.  I was completely shocked and realized (thanks to Josh) that this is actually my first promotion… ever.  I’ve never really been in positions that offered advancement, so this is really exciting for me. Don’t ask me what I’ll be doing… I didn’t exactly get the specifics, but from the sound of things, it’ll be a much more challenging position than the one I’m in now.

And now, because he’s adorable… Enzo.  Josh had been playing video games and got up, so I decided it would be funny to put Enzo in his chair with the PS3 remote when Josh came back.  Oh, I wish we could have gotten Enzo’s first smile when his daddy discovered him in his recliner – he was so excited and happy to be in on the game.