What a weekend

I tried to post last weekend, but accidentally deleted it before I got it uploaded, so here is a second try, and I hope I remember most of what I had to say.
Last weekend was a really busy weekend. I’ve been taking classes with the West Michigan School of Middle Eastern Dance since I moved here a few years ago. Last weekend the school put on a workshop featuring Tayyar Akdeniz
( tayyarakdenizdance.netfirms.com/ta...htm )
He gave a great lecture/class on Friday night with some discussion of different regions in Turkey and the rhythms you here in the music. We played with zills a bit and danced to some 9/8 music to learn basic steps. Saturday, the workshop started at 10, and we built on what we had done the night before and learned a nice choreography to a 9/8 piece that he said was “gypsy” style. The dance included some pantomiming that I’d heard of before but never done, including scrubbing with the skirt hem, wringing it out, having a sore back, shaking out the skirt, hanging it to dry and taking a drag off a cigarette. The movements were interesting, but I most enjoyed learning basic steps to the 9/8. Now if I can just remember them.

After the workshop I rushed home to spend some time with the baby, run through the number I was performing with Tribal Corps, and get showered and changed. I got it all done and got back to the auditorium on time. I only saw bits of the show, but what I saw was very good. Tayyar did two numbers, and both were very fun to watch and different than what we normally see. His costumes were interesting, and I asked him about the shorts in one of them, and he said it’s authentic, and it’s because it gets hot in Turkey, so they wear shorts. He also said he would normally wear a sword and rifle as part of the costume but didn’t bring them because he was flying and didn’t want trouble with airline security. Our number went pretty well, although, I was really tired by then and felt like I had really low energy, and turned a few double spins into singles and had a mental flub and hesitated on one turn. However, after the show was over, I was sitting on a bench talking to a friend of mine, and an older man approached me and asked. “You were in the show?” (I was in street clothes by then). I answered that I was, and he smiled and said, “You did great! You smiled!” I laughed and told him that I smiled because I love what I do. He then told me in his thick accent, that he danced, too. I asked what kind of dance he did. He pause, smiled, and said, “Belly!” His companions all laughed as did my friend and I, then I told him I hoped to see him in the show next year. So even though what I did wasn’t perfect, at least someone enjoyed it. While sitting there, a few other people stopped by and commented on my short exit “solo”, really only about 15-20 seconds. Our dance was done in a circle, and as we were circling off, when I came to the front, I turned back the other way, did a few moves, then a few spins back the first way to catch up with the other ladies, then my final move on the way off was a little hop, hop with the skirt in hands at the lower back. It was funny, and something unexpected for the audience, and I got some nice comments from it. (Two of the girls that stopped by said they were the ones cheering the loudest for me, I thought that was sweet.) There are a lot of reasons I still dance, even though I’ll never be a superstar, but one of them is certainly that sometimes the audience lets you know that they appreciate what you do, and that is such a good feeling, that your efforts are not all in vain, and just maybe you’ve brought a smile to someone’s face.

The baby was already asleep when I got home, but he woke up soon after, and I wanted to hold him, so I was glad he woke up. The problem was, I couldn’t get him back to sleep, so I brought him to bed with me after a while, but then after he finally got to sleep, I couldn’t sleep (It’s hard for me to sleep with him in the bed). I finally fell asleep about 6:00 a.m. and then he woke me up about 6:15 a.m., which is about when he normally wakes up. By then I was dying, so I asked Dave to take him so I could get some sleep. He tried to argue with me that this was his normal wake-up time, and I was so groggy I could only keep repeating that I hadn’t had any sleep yet. So he finally got up and took the baby and I went back to sleep. Maybe not the best start to my first MOTHER’S DAY!!
I got up around ten, Dave gave me presents, cards, and my gifts. I cried over the cards, and the gifts, especially one of them. It was a mother and baby sculpture, similar to one of an angel I was given when my sister died. I don’t know if he realized that, but it was perfect. The other gift was a kit for body art, with henna designs and body jewels. I can’t wait to play with it. He fixed breakfast, and then baby napped. Later, we went out to buy some plants, but it rained on us, so we aborted our mission and went for frozen custard instead. The baby got a taste and although he made a yuck face, I think he enjoyed it. We got take out for dinner at home, then we ate while we were feeding him. Later my dad showed up finally (he said late afternoon or early evening and didn’t show up until 8:00 which is Trey’s bedtime, so there was some chaos), but they only stayed a few minutes, then we got Trey to bed. So that was my first Mother’s Day, a pretty good one.
The other thing that went on last weekend was the Medieval Congress here in Kalamazoo at Western Michigan. I try to attend a few sessions each year since it is free to Kalamazoo County residents, and I had two sessions that I had planned to attend on Friday afternoon. They were presented by a Midwest History of Math organization, and the topics looked interesting. I’ve only seen a few mathematical papers presented at the Congress before so I was eager to show support for more such sessions, but unfortunately, my costume skirt became a disaster when I tried to shorten it, and it took much work to get it to hang correctly after that, so that was how I spent my Friday afternoon.

If you’re interested in Medieval History, and aren’t familiar with the Congress, you should check out the web site and browse the listing of sessions that were offered this year. There are so many sessions, that it usually takes me a couple of hours to go through what’s being presented and decide what I’ll try to attend. Since these are professional historians presenting their current research work, much of it is way over my head, but I can usually find something of interest. The website is here:
www.wmich.edu/medieval/co...s/index.html
It looks like they’ve already taken down the listing of this year’s sessions, but you can still check out what it’s about.

So what a weekend. It always seems everything happens all at once, then the next month or so, nothing. I’ll have another weekend like that in June, but I guess I will blog about that when it all happens.

In other news, the baby is so close to walking, we are watching for his first steps. He has taken numerous single steps over the last two or three weeks, but we are waiting for multiple steps without falling. He also had his first hair cut a few weeks ago, (traumatic!) and his first eye exam (even more traumatic!)

Since I’ve never cut hair before, I did an ok job the first time, but not great, so Dave swooped in and “fixed” it for me, because of course he is god’s gift to the world of hair. It looks fine now, he still looks like a baby, but without hair in his eyes.

The eye exam for Trey came about because the optometrist treating my damaged eye wanted to check for signs of the same eye turn that I have. The good news is that Trey has no sign of any eye turn, and his retinas look good. The bad news (you knew it was coming, right?) is that he is more farsighted than most babies. She wants to see him back in six months to check it again. He may grow out of it, or he may need glasses.

The little boy has many more new tricks:
He climbed up on the coffee table yesterday and today.
Goal: retrieve a ping pong ball

He throws food off his high chair tray onto the floor for the dog.
Result: Happy Dog

He dangles his hand over the side to let the dog take food from his hand.
Result: Trey giggles at the dog licking his hand and Ditto the happy dog.

He leans over the side and pretends to throw food over.
Result: I give him the stern voice about not throwing his food on the floor, then he laughs. If he actually has food in his hand, he will pop the food in his mouth and laugh.

He likes to play with all kinds of “toys” on his tray while we’re feeding him, such as empty baby food containers that he can put the tops on, in fact any plastic food containers with tops that he can (try to) put back on; the booger sucker, used as a horn for mommy to make weird noises in; bugs bunny pez dispenser; plastic easter eggs that weren’t put away; and well, anything washable and not dangerous.
Result: Keep him occupied with some interesting object and maybe you can shovel a few spoonfuls of food into him.

He likes to try to use the spoon now. He can put the spoon into the bowl of food, scoop some up, and sometimes get it in his mouth, although sometimes the bowl of the spoon is upside down, and sometimes he uses the wrong end of the spoon.
Result: He feels good that he is trying new things, and mommy cleans up big mess.

He likes to feed himself finger foods.
Result: If he won’t eat anything else, give him cheerios and small pieces of cheese. He will never reject these. Peas will often work, too. He seems to like peas better than cut-up pears. Go figure. He also gets diced fruits, breads, toast, biter biscuits, some small pieces of meat, and some small cooked, diced veggies.

The boy is up to a lot of new stuff these days, but these cover some of his eating tricks. I could go on and on about the other areas of his life. Oh, ok, since you’re bored and have nothing better to read…

He got his first truck a while back, a farm truck with a lamb and a pig to ride in the back and it’s driven by… a cow. But he LOVES it and zooms it all over the room. He also has a cow puppet and loves it when I make it moo. I took this puppet to his eye exam and the doc even used it to get him to cooperate and she wants one to keep in the room now.
His big house toy is probably his favorite, with the door, doorbell, lights, mailbox, rain gutter, radio, flower pot,etc. He loves spending time playing with all the gadgets it has. There is a kitchen similar to it that we might get if he finally gets bored with this.
Yesterday, we bought him a walker toy that looks a bit like a mower but will convert to a wagon later to pull. We gave it to him this morning, and he played with it for close to an hour before we decided it was time for his nap. He didn’t always play with it by standing and pushing it, but crawled and pushed, flipped it over, picked it up! And turned it around, and had a grand time with it. We’re trying to decide what to get him for his birthday which is coming up soon. We were trying to celebrate each month’s birthday but fell down on the job this past month. He turned 11 months the same weekend as all the other stuff, and we didn’t do anything special for it. I feel kind of guilty about that, but, well, I don’t think he noticed. But next month is the big ONE YEAR!!! How is that possible?? I can’t figure it out. He’s supposed to be a little baby still, but somehow he’s turning into a little boy.

Now that it is warm, he finally got to go out and crawl in the grass for the first time. At first, he sat and brushed the grass with his hand, then pulled up grass, tried to put it in his mouth. Then he took off crawling. When he stopped, he played with the grass again. He finally found a dandelion stalk, and wanted to put it in his mouth. I wouldn’t let him, and he screamed bloody murder, which I’m sure all the workers across the street at the township hall heard. So I got to practice: calmly pick him and walk back to the house, pretend he’s not yelling and hope that nobody is staring at us. I can’t wait until this happens in public.

Trey still doesn’t like to sleep, but his morning nap at 10:00 is getting better. His afternoon nap is all over the place, but night time is difficult. Dave gives him his bath, he gets his pajamas, lotion, story, bottle, boobie, and still he can’t calm down and we walk and rock him for 40 minutes or more most nights to get him to sleep. And still he wakes up between 5 and 6 in the morning, as well as several times during the night. He has two more teeth coming in, so we hope that is it. Last night when he woke, he cried so hard. He fell back asleep, but then woke up again soon after. Poor guy. But teething won’t last forever. He will have four now, two lower front that have already come in, and now two upper front teeth. And for the last few nights, he is grinding and clacking his teeth as he tries to fall asleep.

I could write more, but now I’m tired. I hope you have better things to do than to read all this, but I feel I have to record a bit about his life now, so he can look back when we’re gone, and say, “what the hell were they thinking?”

A good day

I didn't sleep much last night since Trey didn't sleep much and then I coudn't go back to sleep after he finally did. Not a great start to the day. I let Kanobi out, forgot about her, (we have to watch her because she's been leaving the yard and going down the road.) About an hour later she barks in a strange higher pitch bark that I knew meant that she had been getting into trouble. She was at the door, wet and she stunk. She'd been into the nasty pond in the woods next door. BAD DOG!!! Dirty, stinky, mucky, black on the kitchen floor badness. I make her lie down on the kitchen floor so she doesn't spread the mess any further. I look for cleaning supplies and make several calls to Dave to give updates. Can't find the old towels I keep for just such purposes. Call dave again - where are towels?. While on the phone, Dog leaves the kitchen and lies down on carpet in bedroom. How do I know? Big black spot on beige carpet.

Trey was actually napping during this so when he woke, I put him in the stroller, took him and the dog and the shampoo and the only old dog towel I could find outside, went to the side yard, which is a hill, hooked up the hose and sprayed her with the frigidly cold water. She bolted. I turned off the water, pushed the stroller back up the hill and to the front, into the garage, and dragged her butt back out. Rolled the baby back down the hill to the hose. Baby won't keep his hat on and there is no shade. Trey repeatedly throws his hat under the wheels of his stroller. I give up on the hat, park the stroller. I think Trey will enjoy watching me bathe the dog. I am wrong. Trey cries as I wet the bad dog down and lather her up. I do a less than thourough job since I don't watn the baby out too long. As I am trying to rinse the bad one, she bolts again. I turn off the water, roll the baby back up the hill to the front, curse all the hornets and yellowjackets that are swarming, and curse my husband for not doing something about them.

I roll the baby to the front door and decide to try the hose there to finish rinsing the dog. The faucet here is in a very strange place. To reach it, you must stand or squat on a large boulder on the edge of the landscaping. If you should slip, you will fall about six feet onto the trees and lansdscaping below. What a stupid place to put a faucet. Nonetheless, I balance myself on the boulder, look at the faucet and see that hubby has put a y adapter on it, and I screw the hose into the closest (to minimize the possibility of me falling to my death or incurring great bodily injury while the baby watches. Of course, when I turn on the water, it all comes out the other side. No problem, I'll just flip the switch over. Wrong. It's stuck. I give up.

By now the dog is comfy and snoozing on the front steps. I don't want to take her in and I don't want to leave her out to get in more trouble. Luckily Trey has come prepared. Trey loves to play with the cordless phone. He even brought it with him, so I borrow it from him and make a phone call to my Dad and we sit out and enjoy the day in the relative shade of the front porch area and wait for the dog to dry a bit. After a while I use the my only dog towel and dry her off and try to remove the last of the soap and dirt. My dad is full of excuses as to why he drove from Florida to Michigan and didn't bother to stop and see my brother and his family in Georgia or my sister and her family in South Carolina AGAIN, even though they're pretty much right on the way. My dad is a piece of work.

Needless to say, Trey's lunch was severely delayed by all of this, but we did finally get some food in him. He helped by plunging his entire hand into the bowl of pureed green vegetables, and then he helped again by throwing much of his food onto the floor for the dog. I should mention that I had earlier removed the chair pad from Trey's high chair to wash it and found a veritable treasure trove of food and lids from baby food containers hidden under the chair pad. Sorry to get rid of your stash, Trey.

After play time and a few dipe changes, and some more play time, it was FINALLY time for Trey's afternoon nap. It went great, if great means that it took almost an hour for him to go to sleep, and during that time, when I held him, he wanted to play with my face (pinch, slap, push, etc.) and pull my hair (I tie it back but some escapes and he finds it) and suck my chin!!??? Finally, I sang "All the pretty little horses about two dozen times and he was out just like that!

Then it was time to rehearse the number for this weekend's performance, and I still have 45 minutes to do it!!
I go over a few trouble spots and run through the whole thing... once. Then I'm pooped. I manage to change into part of my costume, (did I mention this was dress rehearsal night?) and make it to class on time, where rehearsal went pretty well, although I still need to shorten my skirt (rolled up doesn't work) and add some doodads to my belt. And I have short solo-ey ham-it-up section at the end. Fun.

Got home a few minutes late, Dave is reading "Goodnight Elmo" to Trey. Hands him over to me to get him to sleep. He gets all giggly and starts the same stuff as earlier. I sing to him, doesn't work, he still wants to play. Dave takes over and he just got him to sleep at 9:30, only an hour and a half later than his bedtime.

So in review,
the dog was washed, the high chair cleaned, the baby had two naps, I made it to dance class, and I got to spend time with Trey before he fell asleep. All in all, a pretty good day.

Trey has Teeth!

It finally happened, the long awaited teeth have arrived. Bottom two front teeth. I first felt something a bit point on his gum Tuesday a week ago (March 20). The next day we could see a little white on the right and a grayish spot on the left. He doesn't seem to have a lot of pain with them, but was extremely restless and could not sleep so we had some really difficult nights. It seems to be geting better now. We have started some introductory tooth-brushing with just the finger tip brush, and we mean to add that to his night-time routine, but keep forgetting most nights. Must work on that.

He also has hair. Long hair. Mostly bangs. When we went for his 9-month check-up the pediatician said he needed a hair-cut since it's hanging in his eyes. Luckily, he LOVES it when I blow on his forehead to get the hair off his face. I will have to break down and get it cut soon, but the thought of scissors near his face scares me. Dave says we can put a girly headband on him in the meantime to keep the hair back.

We had a great Easter Sunday. It snowed over the weekend so we had about 6 inches of snow. By Sunday it had warmed up a bit and was sunny, so it was the perfect opportunity to go sledding with the baby. We dressed him up in his warm snow suit, dug out the sled and picked the not so steep hill on the side. We didn't use a real sled with runners, but one of those plastic sheets you roll up. It was fun for us and we think the baby had fun, although he seemed a bit mystified by the whole thing. After we went down the hill several times, we let him crawl in the snow, and then put him in the ergo on my back and walked around the paths in the yard. It was a pretty good day, although not what you would normally expect for Easter, I had wanted to take Trey out to play in the snow all winter, and God knows we had enough snow, pretty much every day, but it was always so cold that even with his snow suit on, I worried about his face being cold, so we never stayed out long. So this was perfect, snow and sun, and slightly warmer temps.

Later on that day, I did put out Easter baskets for the three of us, and I decorated (plain dye with crayon, nothing fancy) an egg for each of us so we could have our usual egg battle, but otherwise we didn't do much for the holiday. We didnt' go to church, mostly because we've been exhausted lately with all the poor nights of sleep. One of these days we'll get back in the habit of going every week. We actually did better when he was a newborn, but not so much right now.

Trey's diet is expanding. We've tried little bits of things with him, and he accepts most, but not all. Best of all are the Cheerios. Trey loves his Cheerios, gets excited when he sees the box. Is not so crazy about other types of puffed finger food we've tried. We took O's to the eye doc today and Trey munched on them half the time we were there.

We had to go to the eye doc today because I was in terrible pain again, worse than before. I've had this eye pain on and off for about 5 years, but it has been really bad this week. I've mostly ignored it, since I didn't think it was a big deal, and it usually goes away by itself. But today it was bad. The doc said I have recurrent corneal erosion.
( www.visualdxhealth.com/adult/...ion.htm ), stemming from a paper cut to the cornea several years ago. (I was grading papers for Lindenwood, damn it, and flipped a paper over too close to my face.) I'm not sure why it flared up again now. Maybe it's because Trey has whacked me in that same eye at least three times in the last month. Or maybe not, who knows.

The doc I saw today said it would heal eventually but she didn't know what we would have to do yet to get it to heal. For now, I have a bandage contact lens and I use artificial tears and gel in my eye, and will go back on Monday to see how it looks. I hope she can fix me. The pain I'm experiencing is first thing in the morning, and often in the middle of the night; it could be anytime the eye has been closed for a long period of time, and then the eye opens, or even just moves beneath the closed lid. A few nights ago I woke up during the night in great pain and was sure something was in the eye, but there wasn't and it took over an hour of tearing and pain before I could lie down again. This morning was the typical open your eye and want to scream pain, but the pain didn't go away afterward and kept on until mid morning when I could barely open and my eye. Anyway, I'm getting treatment now, so hopefully there will be an end to the pain.

It was really cute that I was covering my eyes because the one hurt so much, and Trey kept grabbing at my hand and pulling it away because he thought I was playing peek-a-boo!

So my word of warning, wear glasses, whether you need them or not, whenever you are grading papers, or playing with a baby, or toddler, as I've heard similar stories. And wear sunscreen.

Spring Is In The Air

It has been a very cold, very snowy winter. I do love the snow, but it snowed almost every day this winter, and Trey and I got in the habit of just staying indoors. Last week, the weather turned and we had days with temps in the 40's, and Trey and I started walking outdoors again. Unfortunately, we didn't go into town except on Monday, because I ended up with no car. (Dave's died so he took mine), STill, it was great being outside and not worrying about freezing the baby's face off. Since then, I've been into this frenzy of buying new baby carriers. We've been using the baby bjorn, but I've read so much about it not being good for the hips, that we borrowed a friend's kelty carrier to see if that was a good option for us. Dave loves it, but I feel it's a bit bulky for around the house, so I decided to buy a new beco butterfly BUT they are recalled for safety issues. ACK!! so glad I didn't get one. They are supposed to put out new ones in April I think, but I don't want to wait. I ordered an ergo, but then found an older style beco and ordered that too. But, I still want a Mei Tai (or an onbu) and a ring sling, and a pouch sling, and I just can't seem to stop myself from reading all about the cool carriers during all of free time (and during my not so free time, too.) I am just so psyched about it being warm enough to go walking again. Too cool. Wait, that's not right. "Just cool, not cold!!" Yay!

I also reupped for tribal and intermediate dance class, and tribal is working on a choreography for Greek Fest in June. Should be fun, and I have to get busy on a solo as well. The only down in dance right now is that a friend was bumped from class. There are two sides to every issue, and both sides in this issue can be argued, but the tribal corps is poorer for the loss.

Lots more stuff has been going on, but I never have time to write. Great workshop in South Haven last month. Trey's first SCA event last month, maybe will post pictures later.

Other Trey news:

Trey turned 9 months. Is still small, about 17 pounds. We saw a lady with a baby while shopping, said hi, her baby is just a few days older than Trey, when I told her how old he was, she said "He's tiny!" Well, okay, he is at the 20th percentile for weight, and is small for his age, but he's doing fine, is following his weight curve, so no need to worry, but sometimes I do. He is crawling everywhere, gets into all kinds of stuff: opens drawers, cabinets, grabs everything, loves to play with my printer and mouse, and my grandmother's vanity. Tries to flush the toilet,can't yet, leans over to reach in the tub, balances on the edge with his feet off the ground. He's going over soon. He's had many close calls but I stay close by. Hit himself in the forehead by flipping over a big salad bowl he was playing with. Not bad, but shocked him. That sort of thing is happening more often now. Chases me around the recliner, me crawling around first and him following, both of us stopping every now and then to see where the other is, reversing direction, hiding, popping out and yelling peek-a-boo. Oh my god how he loves peek-a-boo. Towel over his face or mine, he pulls it off, I yell peekaboo, he laughs like crazy. Duck my head below the tray on his high chair, pop up and yell peekaboo, he loves it. While I was writing, dave came in for an iassist. Trey was soaked. I said, "Dog dish"? He said, "yep". We try to pick it up when Trey is on the loose, but often forget, much to Trey's delight.
For his 9 month birthday, we bought him a toy housefront. It has a front door, mailbox, doorbell, lights, window, radio, and other gadgets that he can play with that all make noise. He loves that, too.

Trey likes breezes. Whether they're from the wind, from the vents in the house or from us blowing on him. I got a picture of him kneeling over the vent, mouth wide open trying to catch? the air. He does that outside, too.
He is figuring out how to do things. Last week, he learned how to put some of the stars on his stacker toy (think of the old fisher-price stacker with a pole and doughnut shaped toys. This is similar but with stars, and noisier. He also can put the lids back on the plastic baby food containers. And we finally gave him some cheerios and he can pick them up and eat them himself. I held off on that for a while, but he loves his cheerios,. too. Trey loves just about everything except diaper changes, and going to sleep.

Once I get started, I can't stop. Just shut me up. It's as if I have nothing else to talk about but baby. Well, I do, but it's just not as much fun.

Son of Popeye

Well, he's finally asleep for a while, There was no morning nap at all, and finally a mid-afternoon nap. The child is too excited and busy to go to sleep. He has been learning and growing as usual. The latest thing is how talkey he is. He can say "Mama" but usually it's Mamamamama and sometimes it's amamamamamamaM. He also like to say Mmbabababa, and just Mmmmmm is very common, as he pulls in his lips and gives us the toothless, lipless grin. I've got to get a picture of him doing this with a paci or other toy in his mouth, cocked at an angle to one side of his mouth. When he does this he looks exactly like Popeye the Sailor Man with his pipe. It won't last for long, when he finally gets some teeth, he won't be able to do it quite the same.

Meal time is fun, too. Like all babies, he likes to grab the spoon, either end. If he grabs the handle, then he will sometimes get the bowl of the spoon in his mouth, but usually upside-down. If he grabs the bowl of the spoon, then his hands are covered in food so he can spread it around even quicker. It's a good meal when I don't have to change his clothes right afterward. I realized two days ago that I have to clean the underside of Trey's tray each time because the food from his hands is transferred there, too. No surface is left unstained. For a while, he liked having his face wiped after his meal, then he grab the wet washcloth start to suck on it. This had evolved now to him getting his own washcloth while I try to clean his face with another one. We are experimenting with sippy cups and also giving him water or a little juice out of a plastic cup. He thinks this is the neatest thing, and will try to drink too much to fast, then cough, but never stop grinning and banging his hands on the tray for more. I am also giving some banana which he really likes, but now I'm putting chunks of it on his tray for him to pick up and put in is mouth himself. At first, he just smashed the banana into his hand, but over the last three days he has been able to get it to his mouth in (at least mostly) one piece, and today he did it very efficiently. I haven't tried any other finger foods yet, but I will soon.

Say Mama

Trey, yesterday (Monday):
"Mamamamamamamama!" again and again and again.
I love him so much.

Still more on the baby

Trey did new tricks today. He was standing at the end table in the family room and stepped away and stood there for a split second, holding onto nothing, before he sat down again. Amazing. Then he was playing on the floor and we noticed that he was kneeling, perfectly upright, not holding anything and perfectly stable. Had he done that before and we just didn't notice? I know he often kneels between attempts at standing, but this was separate, and perfectly controlled. Then later still, he went from kneeling to siting back on his legs and sat there for a few minutes perfectly stable. I hadn't seen him do this either, but he was so competent that it seemed that he must have been doing it longer than just today. The new skills are coming faster than we can keep track of.

There are so many others that I never write about. He sits in his high chair now and eats really well. He often complains when you first put him in, but then you hand him a few extra spoons and a bath toy or ring link to play with and he's good to go. He will usually put one of these in his mouth and start humming, the same sound he makes when he does the "I have no lips" face. He loves his bananas, applesauce, and pears, does well with peaches, squash, sweet potato, not so crazy about peas and green beans yet, but mix breast milk or formula with it, and it's ok. We have prunes to give him, but haven't tried them yet. So it wasn't the prunes that turned his poop into a really lovely, bright, shade of LAVENDER. Nope, not the prunes. Not sure what caused it, actually. He has been tearing off little pieces of paper and cardboard and stuffing them in his mouth, so maybe he ate some colored paper that did it? or maybe it was the contraband piece of orange that Daddy snuck in his mouth that did it. But lavender?

His sleep is getting better in some ways (Not mine, I've been awake for 3.5 hours and can't go back to sleep)
He has been napping around 10am anywhere from 45 minutes to hour and a half, then another around 2 in the afternoon, although those are more scattered in time and length. The extremes in length are 5 minutes (makes me want to cry) and two and a half hours today (stunned disbelief). But then today, he took only one nap. He's been sleeping longer at night, but was up at about 1:30 or so, Daddy gave him a bottle, then I held him til he fell asleep. Now I can't get back to sleep. aarrgghh

I've probably never mentioned that half the time he sleeps face down, but with his knees pulled up and his little butt up in the air. It's so damn cute, I want to get a picture of it someday, but I'm afraid the camera will wake him up. The doctor says as long as we put him on his back and he flips over himself, then that's okay, so we just leave him.

He's rather bored with his toys, and only wants to play with adult stuff, like the phones, the remote cotrols, our papers, books and magazines, cups, bowls, serving spoons, toilet paper, electrical cords, flashlights, computer disks, mouse, mouse pad (can't find mine at this time - he took it somewhere), boxes, the pets, (that should go first on the list.) and whatever else he can grab. It is really hard to keep up with him.

He does enjoy playing with his books. We read a few at bedtime, usually ending with his cloth "Goodnight Elmo" book which had things to interact with. The others are board books,and he tends to ignore our reading and the pictures but grabs and tries to open and close the book. So our strategy is similar to our feeding strategy: I get a spoon to feed him with, he get a spoon to play with. If he grabs mine, then we trade. Same with the books. I get a book to read to him, he gets a book to play with. If he grabs the book I'm reading, then we trade. It works most of the time.

Happy Eight Months Birthday

Trey turned eight months old on Saturday. His big day was marked by going to his first SCA event, St. Valentines' Day Massacre, or Val Day in the canton of Three HIlls in the Midrealm. I made him a little blue t-tunic with yellow decorative stitching, and Dave and I wore blue and yellow as well, We also took along a friend form Mensa who had never been to a SCA event, and I think he enjoyed it. It was cold, but the weather was not too bad, otherwise (the bad weather was coming the next day.) We only went for a few hours in the afternoon and that was enough for Trey and for us. Any more would have seriously overloaded his senses. As it was, he took a little nap in Daddy's arms as we walked around the merchant's hall, and everyone thought it was so cute.

There were lots of other babies there, and Trey got to meet some of them. Some were carried in arms as Trey was, one was in arms part of the time, and in a stroller later on. Some mamas carried their babies in cloth slings or wraps, and that is what I need to practice. I've been meaning to try it for a while, and feel I need some help from an experienced mama to make sure I get it secure enough, so I will make it a priority to call a friend of mine and see if she can help or at least put me in touch with someone. I really love babywearing, but so far we still use the baby bjorn a lot. It is getting more difficult as he gets older because all the weight is on my upper back, but it's the only style where the baby can ride facing forward which Trey LOVES! I've read a lot that babe shouldn't face forward because then he can't turn away from stimuli but Trey has never had a problem with that. When we go for walks, he gets all excited, kicks his legs and waves his arms and makes one of his many shrieks of happiness. Lately, though, it's been way too cold to go out and walk with him. He's really missing it, too.

For the last month or so, he has gotten really vocal when he doesn't get what he wants. Take a toy away, WAH! Take an electrical cord away, WAH! Turn him around when he's crawling toward a danger zone (like the hard ceramic tile floor), WAH! And recently, he WAHS! when we let the dog out and don't go outside walking with her. The first time it happened, Trey was in the bjorn with me getting things done around the house, so he probably thought "I'm in this contraption that we use for walks, she opened the door, the dog went out, "WHY DID SHE CLOSE THE DOOR WITH US INSIDE??? WAH! Another day we WERE going for a walk but I forgot his hat, but he was all dressed up and ready to go otherwise, so I walked past the front door back to his room, and as soon as we got past the front entryway, WAH!

It's pretty funny most of the time, he's just learning to let us know what he wants and doesn't want. He's also going to have to learn he doesn't always get his way.

We are still babyproofing. There is an emergency flashlight that we've alway kept plugged in to an outlet in the hallway. Trey really wants it. Everytime he crawls toward it and reaches for it, I tell him it's not for a little boy, and he knows I'm telling him he can't have it and he turns to me, curls up his bottom lip and starts to cry, then he turns back toward it, and reaches for it again, so I have to remove him. I'm just amazed that he seems to understand exactly what I'm trying to tell him. Today I'll have to move the flashlight and plug up that outlet along with about half a dozen more,

I have many more things to say, but Trey will be awake any minute now, so I better go and feed the cats who are meowing and try to get a shower before he wakes up.

Yippee!

baby gate is up, and tomorrow night, tribal class starts agaain after an 8 week break.

What next?

That boy has done it again. We were still trying to get used to all his new tricks, when he adds a new one to his repertoire. Last Monday, (1/21/07, MLK day) he was in the dining room scooting around on his stomach as usual (wow, he's fast!), then he's looking into the kitchen, where he doesn't usually go since the floor there is hard, cold ceramic tile, when up on his hands and knees he goes, and takes about four crawling steps into the kitchen. Another first for Trey. Since then, he has been practicing crawling and alternating this with scooting, but each day it's more crawling and less scooting.

He is also practicing pulling himself up on the furniture, and the tripod, and even the dog. Thank goodness Kanobi is such a patient dog, Trey also likes to crawl up and over things in his quest to improve his mobility. He has been pulling himself up on our legs and then going up and over them, and yesterday he tried this with Kanobi. Poor dog still is begging for attention and belly rubs, and not getting as many as before. Yesterday, she rolled over on her back between Trey and I while we were on the floor playing. Trey looks at the dog, comes up on his knees and grabs some skin and fur on her belly, pulls himself up over her belly, then goes on over headfirst to the other side. Saint Kanobi was totally unphased by this, and Trey was pretty pleased with his achievement. I hope this tolerance keeps up, but we will have to watch out because when Kanobi plops herself down, she doesn't always pay attention to how close she is to the baby, and did knock him over from sitting up one day.

For the past couple of weeks, he has been performing similar antics in the bed with me. I try to lie down with him in my bed for a bit in the morning, but lately he has no interest. I lie down and he immediately wants to turn over, scoot, crawl, sit up, anything but lie down with Mommy. I also usually try to breastfeed in bed first thing in the morning, but that hasn't gone well lately either. He's just to eager to move around these days. Yesterday, though, he was in this "crawling up and over" mode, and kept doing it in bed, and actually crawled up on top of me, and breastfed there for a while, which he seemed tickled pink over, and actually "attacked" the boobie. It was pretty damn funny. Now that he's so much better with his hands, he likes to play with the boobie, too. It's so funny sometimes, I laugh out loud and startle him, but then of course he sees me smiling and smiles, too.

Of course, not all is fun and games. The first day he stood up in his crib, I told Dave that we needed to lower the crib mattress. Well, it didn't happen, and this past Saturday, Dave put Trey in his crib for a nap and forgot to put the crib side up. (He's done this before, but when Trey coudn't stand up it wasn't as critical, except to form good safe habits.) Well, you can guess what happened. We heard Trey cry through the monitor, thought he was awake from his nap, (yeah, he was), and I went to get him out of his crib. You can't imagine all the thoughts and feelings that went through me when I walked in and found Trey on the floor when he was supposed to be safe in his crib. There was a split second of seeing him there on the floor, in the same position that he scoots in, and everything looking ok, then seeing the crib side down and realizing what happened, I panicked. Luckily, he wasn't hurt, just stunned and making a distressed sound different from any I'd heard before, not too loud, but rhythmic, and breathy. He definitely had the wind knocked out of him. I held him and felt him all over, couldn't find any bumps or bruises. Called the doctor's office and spoke to a nurse for advice. She said just watch him for any neurological changes, give him only small meals and don't let him sleep too long in one stretch right away. Mostly watch him to make sure nothing had changed. So we did, and he was fine, but it was so scary. Things could have turned out much differently.

At the La Leche League meeting on Wednesday, I mentioned this accident to the leader, and she said it is amazing how kids have the ability to bounce and can come out of these accidents fine. He had a rolling off the bed incident a few months before that scared me really badly, too, but he was fine, then, too. We just have to do better at preventing the accidents we can, and pray he comes out ok from the ones we can't prevent. God knows, he has bumped his noggin numerous times since he has started pulling himself up, and you can't prevent every bump, but this one was completely avoidable. The mattress is now lowered, but not all the way, as I have trouble reaching down that far. For now, it's about halfway. That will have to change soon enough. The next step is to finish baby-proofing the rest of the house including the baby gate which is still not up.

I am pretty upset that the mattress was not lowered when it should be. I asked Dave a few times, he didn't do it. I didn't do it either. But the night before, I wasted several hours on the high chair. When we first bought the high chair, it sat in it's box in the family room for a couple of months. Then instead of putting it together, David moved it out to the garage, and put it way behind a bunch of heavy boxes. A month or so ago, I asked David to bring it back in, as I was tired of feeding the baby in his car seat or his swing when we had bought a brand-new nice chair that was just sitting in the garage. He said, "I think it's too hard to get to". WHAT!! Why did you put it there then, and what do you expect to do, buy a another new one????? So last Friday night I went out to the garage myself and moved boxes and brought it in and put it together. So I'm glad that finally was done, but I (we) should have spent time on the crib instead which really only took a few minutes. So I'm pretty pissed about the whole thing. But now, we bought a new gate for the stairs, and it has been sitting for a few weeks now, and the baby is crawling. If it's not up by the end of this weekend I'll find someone else to put it up as I don't trust myself to get it anchored safely and not ruin either the wall or railing.

Well, that was a long rant. Better close now although I have more to rant about, namely sleep issues and the sleep specialist Trey and I went to see, but I'll save it for another day.