Almost Christmas

Picking out a Christmas tree

After an inch or two of snow last night, we decided to pack Arthur up in his never-worn snowsuit and venture out to get our Christmas tree. He wasn't really sure of what to make of the snow.

After getting our new tree in the house and setting some towels around to catch the drips (it was a little drizzly outside), we set about decorating the house and sealing our windows.

We'll take a picture tomorrow when we have the tree decorated. :)

Jaws II

Playing with leaves

We've been very busy this week getting ready for Thanksgiving and for Arthur's dedication. I can't tell you how many times I've been to BJ's in the past two weeks. There's always something else I think of!

Arthur has a little cold but it's getting better. There were about three days worth of sneezing and a runny nose but he seems to be on the mend.

His two teeth are getting bigger every day. Now they can be seen when he opens his mouth, smiles, or his eating. His face was flushed again today which makes me wonder if any of those top ones are going to follow soon.

75,000 Christmas Photos Later

This isn't the one we're picking for our holiday cards but you get the idea of what we've been trying to do. They're all cute and we're happy with what we ended up choosing for the cards.

The past few days have flown by. After Arthur sprouted his teeth, he seemed to calm down a little at night. He's been waking up once in the wee hours but he usually just fusses and cries a little bit then goes right back to sleep. On the nights he really wails, one of us has been soothing him. It's really nothing like last weeks up every hour sort of stuff. I'm glad he's not in as much pain.

His new thing today was "I don't want to eat dinner." This is very strange for him because as you can tell from the broccoli photo, he gets excited about everything he's tried so far. We've added chick peas (shells skimmed), pears, and green beans and he's still enjoying himself. Tonight's anomaly made me wonder if he had a sore throat but he seemed fine after that and played with his piano for a very long time. I'll check it tomorrow but I imagine it was just an isolated incident.

The next week and a half will be a flurry of getting ready for Thanksgiving and Arthur's Dedication. We're very excited about both but a little nervous about pulling off two "mass-feeding events" as we like to call them, within a few days. We're both excited about Arthur getting to meet some family members and friends he hasn't seen before.

O.k., he's awake. I'm going for a listen. Goodnight!

Second Tooth

Where there was one, there are now two. Today, while feeling around to see how tooth #1 was doing, I felt tooth #2. I still can't believe how quickly they broke through the gums. I only had one day of calling him "fang". Guess I'll have to start calling him "chomp".

First Tooth

We are always surprised by our little guy! He has the six teeth coming in on top, which is weird in and of itself because babies normally get teeth on the bottom first, and not normally six at once. But when the pediatrician pointed out the six teeth coming in on the upper gums, they were kind of hard to miss.

Wouldn't you know today he cuts his very first tooth....on the bottom! I couldn't believe it. There has been no bottom gum swelling, no visible bumps, and no indication that teeth were coming in there at all!

Right now it just is a ripple-y sharp white edge but it's very easy to see and feel. I wasn't expecting it to just be "not there" one day and "there" the next. It's such a fascinating thing!

It just reaffirms the many reasons why I believe that babies are "going to do what they're going to do when they're going to do them." You just never know...

6 Month Checkup

The pediatrician told us that Arthur is in the 50th percentile for height and weight, which is exactly average (Half of the babies are bigger and half of the babies are smaller).

She also said though that judging by the size of his very large thighs, she would have thought he weighed more. Laugh! Ever since he started growing, he's had those chunky thighs. They're very fun to squeeze.

Arthur is also getting 6 (yes 6!) teeth on the top gums. I only saw four little white bumps under the gums but after it was pointed out, I could see all of them. In a way, I hope they come in all at once because although painful, he will get a big chunk of it overwith. I hate seeing him so uncomfortable.

So here are the stats:

Height: 26.5 inches
Weight: 17 lbs
Head: 17 inches

He's grown nearly 8 inches since he was born and has gained just over ten pounds. We were very glad to hear that he's right where he should be.

B is for Broccoli

I really think that we could grind up raw snails and feed it to this child and he would still be very excited. As you can tell by his expression, we're going to have no problems with the green veggies for a while. He's happy with the peas, avocados, asparagus, broccoli. He has no problems with the orange ones either...sweet potato, squash, pumpkin, carrots. Of course he gets his fruits too..banana, apple, peach.

I try very hard to grind them fresh as much as possible. The broccoli above was just thrown in the food processer. It just looks so much better than the jarred stuff. We have been using the jars though for convenience when we're travelling or for when Arthur is with a caregiver.

We're very excited for his doctor's appointment tomorrow when we get to learn how tall he is and how much weight he's gained. I guess that he's about 25-26 inches tall and about 16.5-17.5 pounds, but we'll see tomorrow!

Trick or Treat!

Cranky Boy

This has been the week of Mommies alternating nights that they get to sleep.

We don't know if it's the teething or something else but Arthur's had a pretty tough time staying asleep the past few nights. He's been waking up screeching every couple of hours like he's in pain. I called the pediatrician today just to rule out something like an ear infection and was told that it could really be anything but since he has no fever, don't worry about it and keep an eye on him.

We use his teething tablets for mild crankiness and infant tylenol for those inconsolable nights. Looking at his mouth though, I still think it's going to be a while. The white bumps are still just white bumps. No broken through teeth yet.

On a fun note, Arthur has a new friend that he hasn't met yet. One of his mommies works with a nice woman named Ann who has a little boy named Darin. Mommy has met Darin and he's a real cutie. Darin's Mommy loves Arthur and always steals him when he comes to visit. After reading Arthur's blog, she made Darin his own! If you want to read about him, you can go here: Darin's Blog.

Feeling Flushed

We took a trip to the photographer today for our 6 month photo appointment. It's a little over a week early but we couldn't really find a better time.

Arthur was a very good boy for his pictures but he just wasn't himself overall today. He was flushed during the photo session and felt a little warm so we gave him a little tylenol which seemed to help.

We've been told that teething babies can get a little fever and rosy cheeks. His gums don't look any different than they have the past few days so I think it's going to be a long process for him. Those little swollen bumps haven't changed but we're hoping the teeth come through soon to spare him extended discomfort.

As with the rest of the week, his teething hasn't affected his appetite. He excitedly and ravenously consumed his squash, cereal, and apples today. (Yay for first fruit!). We're still only doing solids at dinner because his nutritional needs don't require more yet. As we did when we started food in general, we'll just wait for his cues to see when it seems like he needs more and then talk to his doctor again. We're not in any rush and he's been doing very well this way. I really enjoy our meal times but it's bittersweet in some ways to see him growing up so fast.

The teeth, I would like to rush. I don't like seeing him so uncomfortable and want it to be over for his sake...

To teethe or not to teethe

For the past few days Arthur has been crankier than average and has been waking at night several times. We kept feeling around his bottom gums to see if any teething was going on but there is nothing there.

The other day both his aunt and his caregiver told us that they thought he was teething....on top. We didn't think to look at his top gums.

And there they were...two whitish-pinkish puffy bumps on his upper gums. Normally babies get their bottom teeth first so it never occurred to us to look above. We don't know how long it will be from this point until they actually break through but we've heard that it could be 3 days or 5 weeks! Thankfully, his fussiness is only moderate and we're both pretty good at sharing "who gets up this time" duties.

Mainly, I just feel bad for my little guy because I know it's awfully uncomfortable. Remember wisdom teeth?

It certainly hasn't seemed to decrease his appetite any. We've still been giving him real food at dinner time every night and we've moved on to squash. So far, he hasn't met a veggie he doesn't like! The spoon is barely out of the bowl and he's got his mouth wide open saying "aaaaaahhhhhh." Lucky us!

I'm not a squirrel.

The title of Arthur's blog comes from the movie "The Sword and the Stone" which was based on the book "The Once and Future King." In it, young King Arthur (Wart) is taking lessons with Merlin the wizard and Archemedes the owl. For each of his lessons, he changes into a different animal. In one lesson, he is changed into a squirrel and becomes the love interest of a little girl squirrel. In his pleadings to explain his position, he exclaims the above mentioned quote.

***

Today Arthur discovered pumpkins. We took him to an outdoor garden shop so we could sneak in pictures and videos with some fall decoration. Of course, we bought a pumpkin as well as a little one for the baby so it wouldn't seem like we were taking advantage of the garden's display. He blends in with his candy corn sweatshirt.

It was the first sunny day (albeit really windy) in a string of at least eight rainy ones so we really wanted to get outside. After the pumpkin visit, we went down to a park in Onset and played on the baby swings and tires. He was really interested in watching all of the other children.

After his nap, it's on to trying some avocado!

A is for Asparagus

Arthur has decided that he is ready for solids and it's been a fun week and a half of rice cereal, peas, and asparagus.

On the day that we started asparagus, we had some leftover peas and what we have decided is that fresh, pureed asparagus looks a lot better than jarred babyfood peas. Are the peas green or are they brown? Who can tell?

He liked the asparagus quite a bit. He's already ahead of this asparagus-detesting mommy. He's got one more day of the asparagus and then I think we're moving on to avocado.

I have mixed feelings about feeding Arthur real food. First; I just can't believe he can sit at the table with us through entire meals content in his booster chair to play with a cup. It's nice to have family meals and I hope this is a tradition we don't ever give up.

Second; we had both thought we would wait until at least six months before we started Arthur on solids but at 5 and a half months, he is just so ready. He sits unattended, reaches for food, and is generally very interested in what we are eating. We're pretty happy with the decision to start now but I think it's just one of the first (and not the last) times we'll feel like our little baby is growing up too fast.

Third; the cats are getting spoiled. They've decided that they too also like asparagus, peas, and rice cereal and have been getting the leftovers. At least it's veggies. I'll probably have to stop doing that when we get to bananas.

I hope that this blog becomes a good way to write down all of this great stuff and share it with friends and family. Several friends of ours introduced us to blogs (Sorry, Sarah about the dot background being the same...I swear I didn't realize until after!) and I love checking in with them to see what their babies are up to. Hopefully, we can figure out how to copy the videos from the camera soon and we can send out some movies!

Lots of love!