"Mama" and Blueberries

I finally got a "mama' out of Arthur today. After listening to a couple of months of "cat" and "ball", it's nice to know that we matter too.

Of course, he was in an unhappy moment and he wanted me to pick him up. With both arms extended and a teary face it popped out, followed by another a few minutes after.

I tried to get him to say it again all day but he's having none of it. I was sad that Joanne wasn't home to see it but I'm sure it won't be too much longer before he's using it regularly.

Arthur also took a break from cramming homeade blueberry pancakes into his mouth to flash this grin!

Our Little Reader

Yay! Picture posting is working again. Here's a little picture that Joanne took today. I can't get over how much he looks like a little boy instead of a teeny weeny baby!

A Little Bonkerz

Joanne recently won a pass to Bonkerz so we decided to go for the afternoon. Bonkerz is a kids play place a little like Chuck-E-Cheese but will much less video games. They also have a toddler area for kids two and under which Arthur really enjoyed. It was a nice day and we all had a good time.

I don't know if I mentioned that Arthur learned how to crawl up the stairs the other day. We have our front room set up as his main play room. It's gated and has his toys and some furniture. One one side are the stairs leading up to the living room but he hasn't really noticed them...until now.

I had stepped into use the bathroom which is right next to his play room/front room (and I always leave the door open when it's just us in the house). He was playing and I could hear him and it was fine. When I went back out into the front room, I couldn't see him. I heard him over by the stairs and figured he managed to squeeze himself next to them by the part of the wall that I couldn't see. When I got there, he was on the 5th stair!

I always protect the top of the stairs so that he doesn't fall down but we both didn't think he'd be climbing UP them any time soon. They are carpeted, but we're just not ready to have him crawling up whenever he pleases. So we're off to find a baby gate tomorrow that will fit into the awkward space that is the bottom of our stairs.

Blogger isn't letting me post pictures right now so here are some links you can click on:

Coming out of the Tunnel
I'm Stuck
I love Trains
With Jessica, Erin, and Melanie

Moving Along

Arthur is now known as "Mr. Speedy". He's everywhere and into everything! He has his own special room (the front room) to play in and he has a great time crawling around and walking along the furniture (and the cats when they are available).

He's still an eating machine although you'd never know it by the scale. Four months and STILL no weight gain (He's maintaining a "still on the charts" 17 lbs 11 ozs). Pediatrician says he's active and healthy and eating very well. He's probably just due for a growth spurt any day! At least we're getting a lot of wear out of his 6-9 month clothes that he's still swimming in!

We did have a couple of weeks of family illness. Colds, fevers, and the overall ickys. Arthur's on his first ever round of antibiotics for a mild ear infection and the past few days he's been sleeping much better. We're all doing a lot better.

On a special note...WELCOME TO THE WORLD SAWYER MICHAEL! We were all so excited to hear of your arrival! We're sure your mommy, daddy, and big brother Caleb are all very happy you're here!

We'll try to post again soon!

10 Months Old Now!

9 Months Old Today

Boston Children's Museum

Today the three of us went to the Boston Children's Museum to meet up with 6 other May 2005 babies! It was lots of fun hanging out with everyone.

The day started in a cranky way because Arthur didn't have a very good nights sleep. He has one pesky tooth (#6) that keeps going back in and coming back out and causing him a great deal of distress.

In total we met nine 9-month old babies (three we met before our group arrived) and Arthur was definitely the smallest of the group. One of the babies was the same size but still a little taller. I didn't realize he was so little because everyone is always telling us how big he is! He definitely eats and eats and eats....

Arthur was a little shy at first and needed a little cry when everyone first arrived and we put them in the big, baby play waterbed in the infant room. After about 5 minutes he was right at home with his new little friends!

He was a very sleepy boy by the end of the day and snoozed the whole ride home!

Amazing what a couple of days can do

With the right motivation (food...specifically, puffs), Arthur can now successfully "crawl" from one end of the living room to the other.

When I say "crawl", I mean "kick furiously with his legs and uses his face to pull himself along." It's very comical to watch and he's very serious about it.

He has managed to sneak in a couple of real and true crawls in the midst of all of this and I'm sure that it will be a matter of days when he's really got it.

Arthur has also discovered something called "The Wiggles". No, that isn't something you get when your diaper is past its prime. The Wiggles are actually four very quirky and very thin Australian men who sing funny songs for kids. Apparently they are a big hit for the 0-3 crowd. He likes to dance anyway so it's good encouragement.

When I figure out how to post some links to Arthur's videos, I'll try and put some on here.

Six Teeth and First Word

It's been a while since we've posted about our little chomper. The holidays and then a couple of colds being passed around and the next thing you know, it's a month later!

The past two weeks have brought some exciting new things for Arthur. For starters he has four new teeth! The last one is just teasing us coming out and going back in but it's definitely there. That brings his total to four on the top and two on the bottom. He's just started sleeping better again the past three days and Joanne says this morning "I think he's getting two more on the bottom!". We'll see.

Arthur has also decided that his very first word will be "cat". It makes sense since we have three of them. He says it with intent for sure. When the cats walk by, he moves towards them and stretches out his arms saying "Gat!" "Gat!". He doesn't say it any other times so we're thinking that it definitely counts.

It's better than the "dadadadada" he says all the time which we've just attributed to one of the first multisyllabic sounds babies can make...

As for the crawling...mmmm..not so much yet. He can definitely find a way to move himself from one place to another but it's mainly by doing a ballerina twirl sitting on his bum. He can go from sitting to hands and knees and back again.

The closest he can do to crawling is to "army crawl" but he really hates it and gets all mad and frustrated when he tries.

He can "walk" from one end of something to another if it's just a few steps and still enjoys walking while holding on to mommies hands as his favorite form of transportation.

His food variety has also increased since he's learned how to feed himself with his hands. He's added several kinds of beans, lentils and tofu to the already diverse fruit, veggie, and cereal diet he's had. He still nurses three times a day but 60% of his diet is coming from the food he's been eating.

For all this mass eating (he really does eat a lot), he hasn't gained any weight in 6 weeks but he's definitely gotten taller. We're not concerned because he's healthy, hydrated and he eats as much as he should be eating. We know that babies slow down their weight gain about this time but we certainly will be checking with the pediatrician the next time he goes.

That's all for now! Hopefully we can get another post on here again soon!

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.