Oh what a difference a month/week/day makes...

A is smack in the middle of the age range that I prefer to work with right now...because every single day is a new discovery. From one day to the next, a new sound or "word" could be added to his vocabulary. Every week he seems to be able to point to a new body part (he can now do "belly" and we're working on "bum-bum" lol). Every month he's like a totally different child! 

Newest super-cute things:

-he likes to back up and sit on things. This can be anything from your lap, to his mini-couch, to your legs that are sticking out when you're sitting on the couch (warning! this is likely to result in a bang and tears!), to his father's head. Don't lie/sit down on the floor around this kid unless you are prepared to be sat upon! It's super cute, though, especially when we're out at playgroup or story time and he's running around and then all of a sudden here comes his little butt plopping in my lap. 

-he's been repeating two-syllable "words" recently. One day it was boyga--boygaboygaboyGAboygaBOyga over and over, to himself, no meaning, just for the heck of it. Another day it was maminaminaminamamamina. Hopefully one of these days he'll get NaNa (me) and Mama! He still says Dada for most things...typical. 

-I swear I've heard him singing! One time this past week he was playing independently as always, and he made a whole bunch of different sounds (not repeating ones like i said above) and in different tones. Nothing recognizable but who knows! Also one day last week I swear he was beat boxing. He was going "puhpsssspuh" etc, rhythmically. He could be the next CeeLo, like in that 7Up commercial! He LOVES when we do one of the Music Together songs that is basically just Bah said in different rhythm patterns. For two non-musical people, A's parents are sure doing a good job of raising a kid who loves music :-)

NOT cute in this past month--A's first ear infection. Poor thing. His first real fever, too. He's had a runny nose for over a month, it seems like, and then two weeks ago started running a fever. L took him to the doctor, and yup, ear infection. He seemed to get a little better, but still had the rivers/bubbles of snot (sorry!) and general crankiness, so this past Wednesday L took him to the doctor AGAIN, and the infection still wasn't cleared up. They got him a stronger antibiotic, so hopefully he'll be back to normal soon. Sick Bubba = sad bubba :-( It also doesn't help that he's been getting some of his incisor teeth, and L doesn't like giving Tylenol for anything that's not a fever, so there's that pain too. On Weds I picked up some Hyland's teething tablets for him, which hopefully will help--I've known lots of moms who swear by them. 

It's been a long, long weekend without my Bubba, and I can't wait to see what's different tomorrow!

14 months!

Bubbaloo is 14 months old today! And oh, the changes...just this last week or two, two more teeth and another about to pop, he's walking more confidently every day...and!

A's receptive language--understanding what we say--has just been growing by leaps and bounds this week. Like, I said, "Go find NaNa's bag!" at the end of baby gym to get him away from the balls, and whaddaya know? He zoomed right across the entire gym to get to my purse. He can also identify nose, hair, and toes--i even witnessed him respond to the TV saying "hair" by touching his own! And he also is awesome at putting things *in* a receptacle rather than only taking them out...which is a big skill! He helps clean up the balls at baby gym and put them in the bucket, and he will happily drop his paci into the crib when i get him up from naps if i tell him to. He's even starting to understand that NO means NO...although we're still working on that one!

Basically, every day he is getting more and more towards being a little PERSON interacting with the world, not a baby just observing and being cared for, but a BOY.

I love it :-D

Oops. Long time no write!

So yeah, A is 13.5 months old and walking now. Increasingly steadily too! He's even starting to walk with his hands down by his sides. WHEN DID MY BABY GET REPLACED BY A BOY????

Let's see. He's got three teeth, with the fourth well on it's way to breaking through. So cute...just don't put your hands anywhere near his mouth. Just in case you were thinking about it. OW.

Still no concrete words except his dog's name, which is recognizable but not 100% correct. Very cute though! He even calls big stuffed teddy bears by the same name. Aw. However, he CAN correctly point to Mama's Nose, Shaina's Nose, and A's Hair. It's adorable. And today his mom showed me that, if you hand him his comb, he will "comb" his hair.

We're down to one nap...it seems for good. Which is NOT good. because he's not really taking a LONG nap, just one 1-2 hour one. Tried pushing the nap to 11am today, but he only slept for an hour! And then would NOT go down later even though his eyes were drooping and i spent 20 minutes hanging over the edge of his crib patting his back. GRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Food situation is still a bit in flux. Trying to figure out what works best, what he needs, is he getting his vitamins...and almost every day his mom tells me, oh he loved X for dinner! And then i make it for lunch and he acts like i'm poisioning him. UGH. Although, he did eat pretty well for lunch today--he's eating peanut butter now! No allergies yet for this preemie :-D And he will eat almost anything from a spoon, although sometimes I have to distract him with a toy to get him to eat. This week he's had a cold, too, which makes eating even more of a pain for him and thus for me. No fun.

Hmmmmm what else is new. Oh yeah. Clingy McClingypants. This totally varies, but lately A has been reeeeally clingy. To his mom when she's at home, to me when strangers are around, to me when he's tired/hungry, etc. It is kind of adorable when he hides his face in my legs, but it makes it awfully hard to walk!

Ok i think that's all for now.

OMGOMGOMGOMG

Super-quick post! Today while I was there, A learned to stand by himself from a "bear crawl" position. It was amazing. Luckily L was there to witness.

And then.

And then.

A few hours after I get home, I get a text: "A Just walked across the kitchen floor!"

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG MY BABY IS WALKING!!!!!!

I can't wait for tomorrow to see this for myself :-D I am *so* glad that he did it with his parents first, though, because that solves my potential dilemma of whether to tell if i saw it first :-P

WHEEE!

So close...

Bubba is SO close to walking! He does awesome holding on to just one of a grown-up's fingers, and recently has been seriously working on his stability while standing. He'll often let go of something to clap or investigate whatever object he managed to reach on the couch...but when he realizes he's standing, *plop* down he goes! It's kind of funny...except, we really need him to walk. Soon. Because we signed him up for the "walkers" group of Baby Gym, and that starts Thursday, and it'd be a pain to switch groups. Hopefully the nice ladies who lead it will be good about it and let him stay assuming he learns in the next week or so. He's SO CLOSE. And I remember when I was saying that about him crawling, and whaddaya know? The next week he learned. It's kinda like the opposite of when you have a cough and it won't go away and then you go to the doctor and it disappears...we say he can't do something, we despair of him ever doing it...and then BOOM. There it is. So here's me putting it in words: A's neeeever gonna walk, it's taking him sooooo long...hehe. I'll let you know how that works out.

We have had a few playdates in the last two weeks. It's so fun! One of A's friends, W, likes to steal his toys. His face is just like, what're you doing, lady? That's MINE! Another friend, G...I'm not sure I really want A around him. Because G BITES. and he has 8 teeth with which to do so. On Thursday he was over with his mom, the babes were playing in the playroom, and all of a sudden we see G going to "hug" A--except A wanted none of it! G's mom pulled him away, I rescued a red-faced and inconsolable A...and once he calmed down, i noticed a lovely little tooth print on his FOREHEAD. The little bugger bit my baby's head! No thanks! Haha. Poor A.

Speaking of teeth, A is *finally* getting another one, on the top. I fully expect it to be through the gum when I get to work tomorrow, because it was very obvious on Friday.

He's doing a lot better with food, letting himself be spoon-fed most of the time in addition to feeding himself stuff. and eating a LOT! I think we're almost done giving him formula, once they run out...the doc said it doesn't really matter, we can just give him vitamins and switch to just milk and real food. And apparently a LOT (like, 32oz!) of water...which is tough for me, he never seems to drink as much with me as L says he does with them. I dunno.

Ummm...yeah. A new round of playgroups starts this week, which I'm pretty psyched about. I love getting out of the house! And soon enough we'll be snowbound...ugh. Trying not to think that far ahead but it's creeping up on us...

Birthday!

Monday is A's first birthday! Hooray! Today was his birthday party. We had a lot of fun--TONS of people came, lots of kids running around, lots of presents, lots of food. I made chocolate buttermilk cupcakes that were AWESOME. A had the traditional first-birthday experience of squishing cake between his fingers and smushing it all over his face (and legs, and chair, and EVERYTHING). it was awesome...until he picked up some ice cream and put it in his mouth and made THE worst face and started crying...he musta gotten a brain freeze! Hehe. He got kind of overwhelmed by people at one point and L tried to put him down for a nap, but no go. Luckily, a bunch of people left around then, and by the time we gave up and got him up, he was ready to be in a better mood. He was so cute. One of the best presents he got was a collapsible 6-foot tunnel, which of course he went through with no problems whatsoever. In fact, he didn't want to come OUT of it! My little champ.

Milestones--A is now super awesome at walking while holding onto even just one of your fingers. He can stand unsupported for around 10 seconds if he is sufficiently distracted. He can cruise on just about anything--your legs, the counter, the couch, his toys...you name it.

His naps are still hit or miss. Every few days we say "maybe he's dropping a nap" and then nope, he needs two still. Ugh. So hard to figure out...luckily for the most part he isn't a super-crank because of it.

Food: he now feeds himself just about anything (see: cake). This is awesome. However. The downsides are that he has stopped wanting to be spoon-fed, and every meal takes forever. But he's a big boy! He loves having hamburger, grapes, strawberries, cheese, bread, chicken, etc on his tray to pick up and feed himself. It's so awesome. And occasionally hilarious: fruit in particular is very slippery, so watching him chase that around and try to pick it up is kind of funny. Apparently over vacation he got so frustrated by a banana that he just leaned over and picked it up with his mouth! Hehehe.

EI: he's pretty much not in need of Early Intervention services any more. All of his behaviours are at 12 months or above. However, I think they're paid through October, so we still get to go to our EI playgroup which is awesome :-) Soon we'll be starting up the fall session of our old playgroup too, and hopefully another round of baby gym as well.

I can't believe my baby's going to be a year old...and at the end of next week, I'll mark 8 months of being his nanny.

I am so, so, so blessed. I love my job :-D

Sad week :-(

I think I mentioned that one of the dogs was sick? Well, he's been throwing up and such for about two weeks now...and finally on thursday they got a diagnosis. Poor doggy has lymphoma. They'll be putting him down in a few days...cancer treatments for dogs cost  a LOT, and it'd probly just extend his suffering. As much as I have complained about this dog, how obnoxious and smelly and gross he is...he doesn't deserve this. It's so, so sad. L and M are devastated. :-(

Had a few super-long naps this week! Tuesday A napped for almost THREE HOURS. it was nuts.

M came to baby gym with us on Thursday...it was so fun. A *LOVES* his daddy, so so so so so much, and both of them had a blast. A powered through an obstacle course where he had to crawl on skinny things with a drop on either side, and then through a tunnel or two or four. He is such a freakin' champ, he makes me SO PROUD.

That's about all I can think of right now, although I'm sure there's more. I have to get moving, next week is vacation and I'm heading to North Carolina this afternoon! eek!