Little M's first illness

So far we've managed to avoid all but the dreaded Thrush as far as illness, but we finally have been beaten.

Little M and I have both come down with whatever virus is running around, so he's coughing a little, sneezing a lot, and when he wakes up at night (which is much more frequent now) there's oozing stuff coming out of his nose. Very pleasant.

And he does not care for the nasal bulb to clear out his nose, in fact, that's the quickest way to wake him up COMPLETELY from a deep sleep. Never mind the fact that he can actually breathe out of both nostrils when we're done, he just doesn't want that plastic thing that mommy won't let him chew on in his nose.

I am thankful that he's still eating just fine, but he's sort of off the breastmilk during the day. He makes up for it at night, but that means Mommy is up all night with him. And I've been feeling just as terrible.

But taking care of baby comes before taking care of Mommy. And sometimes taking care of Mommy falls by the wayside. But Mommy doesn't run very well on empty, so I'm trying to remember to eat and get lots of water to flush out whatever this is.

It was just feeling tired and feverish, but I woke up with a sore throat too, so I'm trying not to kiss Little M, and I don't have the sneezing he has, but since he hasn't learned to cover his nose when he coughs or sneezes, it's only a matter of time. At least he gets some good napping in, his daytime naps have been at least an hour long for the past three days. Sometimes 2 hours, which amazes me.

I just wish I could make him well again so he could get on with being a little boy.

Sorry this one was dry and boring, but you know I'll make it up to ya when we're back to being well.

Little M's First Trophy

So tonight Little M got to stay up past his bedtime (OK, Mommy sort of forced him to stay up because we weren't at home by bedtime). We were at the local fair, where little M was entered in the cutest baby pageant.

He was a trooper, standing in front of the judges like he's done this before (and then having fun stomping down the plastic tablecloth that the wind kept picking up.

I have no idea what kind of look he had on his face, because we didn't know that to elicit the best baby responses, you have to have crazy people behind the judges whooping and hollering at your child.

I did get compliments on Little M's outfit, which Big M affectionately calls a "man-dress". Technically, I believe it's called a romper, but it's really just a sleeveless shorts onesie thing. It did have smocking on it, but there were turtles on the smocking, and it was blue and green, so it was for a boy. But Big M still didn't not buy that it wasn't a man-dress. At least I didn't make him wear the matching hat!

So we waited for the judging to finish, and we all went up for the awards, and first they did the third place, then second, then finally, the actually trophy winners, and Little M won first place in the Wee Baby Boy category!

And I don't think that the fact that there were no other contestants in our group takes anything away from the win. We still got to stand there and get our picture taken with last year's Pre-Teen Miss winner and the trophy and sash (which Little M promptly pre-moistened). And as soon as I got the trophy near him (and right before the picture), he reached out and grabbed the top and put it right in his mouth.

According to our niece, Little M was biting the butt of the little baby on top of the trophy right as the picture was being snapped. I have got to get a copy of that picture for the girlfriend blackmail album...

Learning the word "No"

Right after learning how to crawl and being able to get wherever he wanted, Little M learned that there are some places and things he's not allowed to go to/eat.

It started with him heading off the carpet onto the hardwood. I have no problem with that, but on the way, he stopped off at the TV tray holder, which is wooden, and tried to chew on it.

I told him "No", and he jerked his head up, then went back to chewing. I said it louder and firmer, and he jerked up again, only to resume crawling. Unfortunately for him, the holder has TWO legs on each side, so once again, temptation reared it's ugly head, and his head went down to suck on the other leg (which, technically, Mommy had not said "No" to yet...) So I said it again, slightly louder and slightly more forcefully, and Little M started to cry!

I don't know if it was because I was loud, or because I was clearly taking away something he wanted, but it appears the message got through. At almost 9 months old, Little M is now responding so that I don't have to say it as loud or as forceful as I did, which makes me feel better.

But I definitely have to say it like I mean it, or I get the response I was getting to the word "No" for the first eight and a half months of his life, a completely adorable giggle. Which just doesn't cut it for the crawling set. There's just too much trouble to get into for them.

Peace and love to all the Mommies (and Daddies!)

Crawling Champ

OK, so yesterday was the day Little M started really crawling! More than just two little steps at a time-crawling. We have to follow him around to pick up dust bunnies before they go in his mouth-crawling. And best of all-tires himself out-crawling!

The cats are pretty funny now that he's mobile. Princess A will let him get the closest, she knows she can get away at the last second. But Big N is pretty trusting himself. I tried distracting him so Little M could get closer, but he's onto me. Stripey A won't let Little M get within three feet of him, but that's probably for the best, he would definitely lose to the bathroom rug in a battle of wits, so he has no chance against my brilliant baby.

And he's fast. I was holding the remote sitting on the loveseat and Little M was about a foot in front of me sitting playing with a toy. I no sooner look at the TV at the next thing I feel it a little pull on the remote. Little M is on his knees in front of me trying to get the remote out of my hand! So cute.

He's just catching some Zs now, all tuckered out from an evening of exploring on hands and knees. Tommorow is another day, and another round of kitty chasing and dust bunny finding. Love to the mommies!

Diapering Olympics

It took a VERY long time to get Little M to bed tonight. I did EVERYTHING to try to get him to fall asleep. Swing, Pajanimals, YBCR, breastfeeding. Finally at 9:30 he was topped off enough to fall asleep.

Fortunately for me, we were upstairs in his room at the time, so it was a quick transition to the crib, and I was outta there!

Little M is getting to be a VERY active baby during the day. He likes to be entertained, but is also pretty good at entertaining himself. He does not care for the breaks in play to change his diaper. What he does not realize is that by making them impossible to accomplish, he's only taking time away from his playtime. And frazzling Mommy and Daddy's nerves as the Diaper Changing event went up about 5 degrees of difficulty.

* crowd cheering as announcer comes over the PA*
Now up for Team M&D, Dad! He's going to have to really be quick about it this time, as the addition of a tippy-toe to top-of-head backbend has been added to the event. And they still have the penalty of having to put the steroid cream around the penis, so lets see how they handle this attempt...

Dad goes in, he's got one tab of the old diaper off, now he's going for the other. It looks like he has the diaper disconnected, but wait! It's a POOPY one! Dad will have to use extra wipes here! He goes in with one wipe, and the wiggling begins, the wipe comes out clean. Dad goes back in, he tries, no, he misses, and he tries again. Well, we're going to go to commercial and we'll catch up with Dad when we get back.

* Singing hot dogs - "Let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby..." *

And we're back! Dad has cleaned up the bottom, and is ready for the cream. Little M is not giving anything up easy today, folks. He's twisting that bottom to the left, now the right, now he's clenching those thighs together, there's no way Dad can get in there, but wait, Dad grabs one leg and gets the cream on. Just the diaper left, but here's where the terrific gymnastic skills of baby Little M come into play.

Here's the bottom lift, and he's going for it, and he's up! Ladies and Gentlemen, we have only head and toes actually ON the changing table, everything else is in the air, so Dad heroically lifts the back of the diaper and goes right with the velcro tab. He connects with the right front of the diaper, he's halfway there! Here he goes for side number two as Little M decides to increase the challenge, by rocking from lying down to the backbend position while Dad tries to find that last velcro tab.

OK, we're still waiting on that last tab, but it was SO close that last time. Wait! I think he's done it! Dad has positioned the last velcro tab and Little M is in a clean new diaper! That he's now peed in. What a champion he is, that Little M.

Dad had the most challenging diaper change yet, but this announcer has a feeling that Little M has only just begun!

No afternoon nap today, does not bode well for bedtime...

For all our attempts, Big M and I could not get Little M to take a nap after lunch! Big M was home today for the holiday, he normally has Fridays off, so today was his "Holiday".

Little M was rubbing the eyes, he was cranky, and I kept trying to get him to drink enough milk that he'd drop off, but no such luck. He'd settle down in the swing and watch YBCR or Pajanimals, but no dosing. He had a pretty good nap this morning, so I hope that today it's enough.

We've been trying to have him practice standing and crawling in the hopes that it will tire him out and he'll sleep well at night, but we had an incident on Saturday that seems to have thrown us off for the past few days.

After he had his dinner, I gave Little M his medicine for the infection we've both been fighting, and I believe I hit his uvula when I did it. He started gagging, and threw up all down his bib. Fortunately it was one of the oilcloth bibs with a pocket, so none got on him. Unfortunately I removed it prematurely, so the second wave went all down his right side and all over the high chair. Poor baby had an empty stomach at that point.

So we tried the bedtime routine, and brought him downstairs once we were ready for bed, and I gave him more cereal to put something solid in his tummy. He went to bed at 9 that night. And this is a child who is usually asleep by 7:15. The past two nights I've had to bring him down to the swing and it's taken till 8 for him to drop off. And the grumpiness during the day started about then too, so I know he's just not getting enough sleep.

We'll just have to try to get back on schedule, that's all. Hopefully it won't be too painful for us, but we'll see. If you've hung in there for this long boring diatribe, I thank you, and promise more humor (or at least less boredom) next time!

Standing Man!

Tonight I knew that the first time I put Little M to bed would not be the last. But when I went in to get him up at the first sound of crying over the baby monitor, I was shocked when I opened the door to the nursery.

Little M was standing at the side of the crib. STANDING! Like arms and head above the side railing, feet on the mattress, pulled himself up like a big boy, STANDING!

So I woke Big M up to see this and to help lower the crib mattress. It was not a quick stress free endeavor. But Little M thought it was hilarious and laughed at Big M who was getting frustrated and throwing tools all over the room. He finally got things done, and I attempted to put Little M down for the night.

He's still not down as I write this, but how cute is it that he stood up in his crib for the first time??????