Yesterday, Thursday, July 24th, 2009, at 13 1/2 months old, Damien took his first steps. I was not there to witness the event, but Jim was. In truth, Damien has been capable of walking for at least 1 1/2 months now, he just never wanted to let go, even if the thing he was clinging to (e.g. Mommy's pinky finger) was delivering no support whatsoever. But yesterday was the day he decided to let go. Woo! I look forward to seeing this feat first-hand this weekend.

In other news, Yikes!! I haven't updated in 3 MONTHS! I even neglected to do a 1st birthday update, which has to be shameful, I'm sure. I guess I'm just too busy working full time, or taking care of the boy or cleaning up after the boy after he's gone to sleep. But it's all just excuses anyway, I tend to dedicate free time for baby updates to editing pictures and posting them on Facebook, since I'm 3 months behind on those as well and everyone likes pictures.

A few other updates:
- Damien is VERY vocal. He has a large vocabulary. His first official word that was actually in reference to something specific (OMG, I missed posting about that too!!) was "Ball". He has since said many things, with varying degrees of clarity: Cheese, Soda, All Done, Hi!, A Ball (in response to "what is that?"), Dog, What's that?, Bozo... to name a few. And of course, he babbles gibberish all the time. He has not, however, shown any signs of saying Mommy.
- 7 teeth: 4 on top, 3 on the bottom. Two more are really close to coming in and he's appropriately cranky as a result.
- He's all but stopped eating baby food. Bring on the table food!! He's actually turned out to be a very good eater. Recently he's been experimenting with self-feeding using a spoon or fork. This has been met with varying degrees of success and messiness.
- He's also pretty much done with breastfeeding. We're still doing it in the morning, but he shows absolutely no interest in it during the day. He does, however, love whole milk in his sippy cup. I have mixed feelings about this. It will be great to stop pumping at work, but I'll also miss nursing the boy. Anyway, the important thing is that he entirely self-weaned, so I know for sure he's ready to move on.
- Damien has pretty much outgrown his infant car seat / stroller. Just got him a new "big boy" car seat and shopping around for a new stroller. Woo! New Gear!

Damien has three teeth now! The two in the middle on the bottom have been in for a while now (over a month). But I just noticed last night that he's got a new tooth on the top-left side. It's kinda weird because it seems like his tooth is in front of his gum line rather than growing out of it. Is that normal?

Also... Damien really is getting so good at standing now that I wouldn't be surprised if he starts walking on his own any day now. He already does a great job walking if you hold his hands, and even then, he's hardly depending on you for support.

Two weeks ago on Saturday, April 18th, I put Damien down in his crib with the intention of leaving him there for just a minute while I went to the bathroom. As soon as I put him down, I watched him go from sitting to his hands and knees... crawl toward the side of the crib... reach up to grab the rail... and pull himself to a standing position for the first time!!

Damien has loved standing since he was a wee little baby. No matter how upset he would get, if you supported him and put his feet down so he could stand, he's always start smiling. When he was 2 months old, the developmental expert at Day Care said it was a reflex and that he'd lose it before he re-learned it on his own. But he never lost it. Imagine how incredibly pleased he was with himself when he finally managed to get himself into a standing position all by himself! SOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy.

He proceeded to pull himself up to standing pretty much constantly for the rest of the day. At night when I was attempting to put him to bed, he would stand up in his sleep sack. Needless to say, it took a lot longer to get him to go to sleep! Thankfully, after about a week and a half, the novelty seems to have worn off enough so that he'll at least go to sleep when he's tired.

He's such an expert at standing now. He can easily get up on his feet with even just a bit of support. He stood up while grabbing onto my pant legs tonight and when he was up, there was almost nothing supporting him at all. He was practically standing entirely on his own! I also love how 2 weeks ago when he started standing on his own, he'd get all upset and cry when he fell down. Now when he falls he doesn't even blink -- he just rolls over and gets right back up again. Sometimes he even falls smack down on his bottom on purpose as the quick and easy way back down. It's awesome.

In addition to his newfound standing talents, he is now regularly crawling on all fours. Prior to the past few weeks, he would almost never get his tummy off the ground when scooting about. I believe the crawling is directly related to the fact that he gets up on his knees before pulling himself to standing to help him reach whatever it is he's using to pull up onto. The usual process is that he'll crawl up to some object, then he'll sit back on his haunches and reach up for something to support him, scoots his knees in closer to the supporting object, and then gets a foot under while pulling up. So cute!

Tags: firsts, milestones, pictures
Current Mood: proud

In typical fashion, I haven't updated for a LONG while. So here's the new stuff (other than the tooth).

- Damien turned 9 months old on March 10th. A week after that, at his 9 month check-up, he weighed 16 pounds, 11 ounce (woo! Finally broke double his birth weight!) and measured 28 3/4 inches tall/long.

- For the past month, Damien has been able to scoot about with ease, but he's still on his tummy. He reaches out with both arms and then drags his entire body forward, dragging his belly and legs behind him. We might as well put him in a bodysuit covered in a mop and he'd do a great job keeping our floors clearn. He does use his right foot a bit to push off as well.

- In the past week, Damien has for the first time started getting up on his hands and knees. He used to only do it when he hit rough terrain while pulling himself along (like when he would hit an obstacle of bunched up blankets on the bed). Now he frequently stops moving, pulls his tummy off the ground to get on his hands and knees, rocks back and forth, and then plops back down onto his tummy to start moving foward again. He's also getting on his knees a lot in his crib too. I caught him sleeping with his knees tucked under him and his butt in the air more than a few times lately.

- Everything... and I mean EVERYTHING Damien sees is "Da Da!" He says is aaaaaallllllll the time.
"Damien, can you say Ma Ma?".... "Da Da!"
"Damien, what's the matter? Are you hungry?"... "Da Da!"

- When he's not saying "Da Da," he's screaming. That's right. He's a screamer. He isn't screaming like he's crying... he's just screaming to hear the sound of his own voice. Or when you do something he isn't happy with, he'll look you right in the eye, lift his eyebrows and say, "AH!" in a very high-pitched tone. As if to say, "Hey! I don't like that!" This happens often when we have to pick him up to stop him from scooting over to stuff he can't have, like the XBox 360. Or sometimes he looks at you expectantly when he screams, meaning, "Hey! I'm uncomfortable! Why, exactly aren't you doing anything about it?!" like when he's hungry or needs a diaper change.

- I'm woefully behind on picture editing. I don't think I've posted a new picture of him for somthing like 5 months. Ugh. Sorry guys. Maybe I'll find some free time before he turns 10.

Tags: firsts

That's right, we have a tooth, folks! But I won't miss that tootless Muppet-like grin just yet -- though the tooth has broken through, it's still pretty flush to the gum, so you can hardly see it. Sure can feel it, though! It's like he's got a serrated gumline.

We knew Damien had been teething hardcore for a couple months now, what with the excess drooling, totally uncharacteristic crabbiness, and fondness for gnawing on people's chins. It was about 2 weeks ago that you could make out a raised bump on his lower gumline where his two front bottom teeth were pushing to come through. Then, just about a week ago, he was chewing on my finger when it became very clear that tooth had broken out of it's fleshy prison. The 2nd bottom-middle tooth is just about to break free as well, but it's not quite there yet.

One down... lots to go.

Tags: firsts

Damien still isn't crawling, but just last weekend, he finally managed to figure out how to propel himself forward somewhat. It's kind of like a modified army crawl. Basically, if something he wants is directly in front of him but just out of reach, he lies flat on his stomach and reaches out as far as he can with one hand, then switches to the other, going back and forth and digging his toes into the ground. He's actually been going through these motions for a while now, but it never got him anywhere. I think he just finally figured out how to properly dig his toes into the ground to succesfully cover some ground. Now he can actually get to something if it's within a couple feet... but it sure is a struggle all the way! Of course, this also means we have to start keeping a better eye on him. No more putting him in the middle of the floor and going to the bathroom because who knows where he might be by the time you're back in the room!

In other news, the poor fella is an unhappy camper these days. He's sick with a bad cough and runny nose and his teething is REALLY bothering him. It's heartbreaking when he cries for many reasons:
1) Because of the coughing, his voice is very hoarse. This makes his crying sound even more sad.
2) The boy never cries and is always so happy and laid back, so when he does cry, you know it's really bad.
3) His cry is less like crying and more like wimpering. He looks at you with moist, doe eyes and wimpers and cries as if to say, "Mommy, why aren't you making me feel better. I don't understand why you're just sitting there doing nothing to stop this pain."

I really hope he gets better in time for our trip to L.A.

Tags: challenges, milestones

Yikes! I haven't posted since the beginning of December. That was AGES ago in baby time! In my defense, there were lots of things going on between my last post and this one -- holidays, buying a house, moving, etc. Of course, there were also TONS of things I should have been writing about and skipped. Let's do another catch-up session, shall we? And maybe, just MAYBE next time I post I'll be able to focus on one thing.

- Damien turned 8 months old this past Tuesday!

- We think that Damien is really, for real, actually teething finally. First of all, now is when babies most commonly start teething. Also, he seems clearly bothered by something that hurts him pretty much all the time and the way he sucks on his lips and chews on everything (the WAY he chews, not just that he chews on everything... he's been doing that for ages), really just seems like it's that time. No visible signs of teeth yet, but we'll see. I'm going to miss his toothless Muppet-like smile.

- Damien can sit up on his own now without any support. Woo!

- Damien is still immobile. This is probably a blessing for me, so I won't push him to crawl until he's ready ;-) On the ground, he easily pivots around 360 degrees and can get to most items he wants via rolling, but he generally always stays within a 3-4 foot radius of where you originally put him down. The one thing he simply cannot do yet is figure out a way to propel himself forward. If there's a toy off to the side or even directly behind him, he can get at it in no time flat. But if there's a toy directly in front of him but just barely out of reach, he'll lie flat on his stomach and reach out for it as far as he can, grabbing with his fingertips, rolling from side to side to see if it will help him reach further. He makes the cutest distressed "eh!" sounds when doing this. Of course, it doesn't do a damn thing to help him get any closer to the toy. I hear that a lot of babies don't ever actually crawl, they just go straight to walking... but most of them figure out one way or another to get around before walking. I like the army crawl. I'm actually pretty surprised he hasn't figured that one out yet. Anyways, I'm sure he won't stay glued to one spot on the floor for long.

- Damien has always loved to stand up, but now if you stand him up and put his hands on something for support, he'll hold on and keep himself standing for some time. We have to practically wrap our hands around him, just an inch away from actually touching him, though, so we can catch him if/when he falls.

- Damien is in the process of exploring cause and effect. He has a toy that spins and emits a flashing light for a few seconds if you hit the top. He loves it. He just hits the top and watches it until the light stops then hits it again. Or he'll hit it over and over again in rapid succession to get the spinning going really fast.

- Ladies and gentlemen, we have Object Permanence! My father pointed out the other day that when Damien was sitting on his lap and he dropped his toy, rather than just forgetting about it like he used to, he now leans WAY over to look down at it on the ground -- he's interested in where it went (thus proving that he knows it still exists)! Apparently babies normally develop this ability at 8 or 9 months, so right-on-time for that one.

- Damien is on 3 solid meals a day now. Usually a fruit with rice cereal or oatmeal for breakfast, veggies for lunch, and then cereal with either a fruit or veggie for dinner. He has bottles or breastfeeds in between and at night. At this point he's had all the baby food single veggies and single fruits, so we're about to start trying some of the mixes that have fruits that don't come solo -- like Cherry Apple or Banana Mixed Berry. I also want to get to the store and pick up some avocados to feed him. I love 'em and they're one of the easiest foods to feed a baby because you can just squish them up and feed them to the baby raw. Yum. We haven't tried any meats yet, but probably will soon.

- Damien is very vocal. He babbles a lot and there are certain sounds that I'm almost positive have particular meanings. Sure he says "Ba ba ba" "da da da" "ma ma ma," but occasionally the way he says them means something in particular. The first one I noticed like this is when he started saying "a da... a da" where the a in "da" was very short. Turns out he only says this when he needs a new diaper. It's been consistent for a couple months, so now whenever I hear him doing this, I just assume he needs a change and so far he always has! Also when he's really upset, there have been a few times when he said "maaaa maaaa" holding the a's really long like he's actually addressing me rather than just babbling "ma ma ma ma ma ma." It certainly is interesting and fun trying to interpret! Also, sometimes he just looks you right in the eye, with his eyes wide and his eyebrows up and screams, "Ah!" It's hilarious. It's such a "pay attention to me!" or "why don't you know what I'm trying to say?!" moment that it usually just makes me bust out laughing. He also screams like this sometimes just to hear his own voice (I've been told he got that from me).

Wellllllll.... I'm off to bed. Maybe I can get some sleep before the boy wakes up wanting food again. Oh yeah, sleeping through the night? He almost got there, but then a wrench got thrown in the works and we lost it. I'll save that for another post. Maybe I'll even remember to write it some time before it's a months-old story. ;-)

Tags: firsts, milestones

I may be terrible at updating this blog, but man, Damien has been busy passing up some major milestones lately. It's like all of a sudden he'll do something completely new, and then he'll do that CONSTANTLY for about a week and a half, then he's done with it and moving onto the next thing. Here's a list of the big stuff in the past month:

• He's eating solids daily now. He eats 2 tablespoons of rice cereal mixed with about 1 oz of breast milk every morning. He loves the stuff -- he shakes with excitement while you feed him and he opens his mouth wide and kicks his legs when he wants another mouthful. I think we can start him on single vegetables in a week or so.

• Maybe a month ago now he discovered his tongue. He would stick it out all the time and then blow making a "pfft" or raspberry sound... and getting spit all over his face and anyone near him. ;-) If you made the "pfft" sound at him, he would do it back to you. This was constant until about a week ago when it pretty much stopped.

• When he first learned to roll over, he did it all the time. Then he just stopped and hardly did it at all for a month. Now he's starting to do it a lot again, but this time it seems more purposeful. He does it to get places. If I put him on the playmat facing in one direction, I can leave the room and come back and he'll be facing in the other direction and on his stomach playing with the toy that was originally at his feet. He also does a pretty good job scooting himself around like an inch worm. When on his stomach, he'll plant his face on the ground and raise his butt in the air to get his knees under him and push, inching forward just a little bit as his butt goes down and his head comes back up. It's actually incredibly amusing to watch and I'm sure can't be at all a convenient way to move around. I keep telling him that all he needs to do is figure out how to get both his butt and his head up at the same time and he'll be crawling... but he just doesn't get that quite yet.

• Maybe a couple weeks ago he started pushing things away when he doesn't want them. When Damien has a cold (which is almost all the time) and we need to get the snot out his nose so that he can, you know, breath... we use a bulb aspirator. It doesn't bother him when he isn't stuffed up, but when he is (of course, that being when he really needs it) he HATES it. He cries so loudly when we use it on him. He used to attempt to avoid the aspirator by dodging it -- moving his head around constantly while we try to insert it in his nose without accidentally jabbing him in the eye. But now he has a new tactic -- he looks right at the aspirator, grabs at it with both hands and shoves it away from his face with great force. He really is incredibly strong. Another example of him pushing things away that he doesn't want is when we put him to bed and he doesn't want to go to bed. He always sleeps with his stuffed monkey lying on top of him to cuddle with. But when he doesn't want to sleep and we go to lay the monkey on him, he shoves the monkey away. This is in stark contrast to when he can't wait to go to sleep and flips over reaching for the monkey before we've even put him down in the crib!

• I don't know if sock fuzzies taste too good, but Damien must love them, because whenever his socks are off and he's lying on his back, at least one foot is bound to be 1/2 way in his mouth. When his socks are on, he grabs his feet and grabs the toes of the socks and pulls them off just enough so he can suck on the sock toes.

• Damien has a favorite rattle that has two parts in the middle that you can spin. He now purposefully holds the rattle in one hand, while spinning the middle parts with the other.

• Damien really likes to sit up now. He can't stay seated on his own for long -- he either topples over to the side or leans too far forward and ends up doing an unintentional somersault. But if you keep your hand by his back to re-steady him if he starts to tip, he'll stay seated and happy for quite a long time.

• For the past month there has been a time here or a time there when Damien made a noise that sounded like words (rather than just a noise)... but just today this became a whole new ballgame. All day long he's been babbling non-stop with definite language-type sounds and it's so freakin' weird to hear. The sounds are all over the place, but there was distinctly a lot of "ba ba ba ba ba" (especially when he was hungry -- bottle? boobies?) and some "ma ma ma" as well as some other sounds.

Tags: firsts, milestones
Current Mood: proud

This is random, I know, but since we've started regularly bottle-feeding Damien (that being, since I went back to work), I have to run the dish washer every night to clean and sanitize all the bottles and parts. Prior to this, we would almost never run the dish washer -- we just did everything by hand. It always seemed a waste of water, power, and soap to use it because the two of us alone never produced enough dishes to make it worth while.

While it's a hassle to have to run it every night, I must say that it is rather convenient that (aside from glassware) I almost never wash anything by hand anymore.

I haven't been good keeping up with posts. I realize it's been almost 4 weeks since my last post, and in baby time... that's a freakin' long time! Here are some updates last you heard from me:

Rollover Madness
Just a few days after my initial discovery of Damien on his tummy in bed (my last post), he had completely figured out the whole back-to-stomach manuver. It took him a few more days to do stomach-to-back, but the day he figured that one out, he spent one entire evening rolling around the livingroom floor. Strangely, though, he seems to have completely forgotten how to roll stomach-to-back again. It's weird. I haven't seen him do it since the week he first figured it out. This is particularly unfortunate in that every night when we put him in his crib to go to bed, he almost immediately flips over onto his stomach, and since he can't get back onto his back alone, we have to keep going back upstairs to flip him ourselves until he falls asleep (usually 3 - 5 flips every time we put him down). While annoying, it is incredibly cute listening to his little "ehn" struggling sounds over the baby monitor when he's trying to roll over by himself.

Sick Little Monkey
Damien is about 4 1/2 months old now. So far he's already had 3 colds, and now he has an inflammed throat and is on his second ear infection. I suppose this is the norm for a baby in Day Care, but I wonder if he has any idea what life is like without being sick! This 2nd ear infection was so close to his last one that we couldn't even put him on the same antibiotics as last time (as it would be ineffective this soon after its last use). The new stuff doesn't taste as good as the pink stuff -- I judge this by the fact that, while he'll take it, Damien isn't nearly as excited about "Time for your medicine!" as he was last time. Also, this new stuff has the side effect of an upset stomach. He vomitted for the first time today. It wasn't violent and it actually didn't seem to bother him. It was basically just like spitting up... but a really large amount. His entire outfit was SOAKED afterwards. Poor guy.

Halloween
We didn't dress him up for Halloween. Or at least, we didn't put him in a "costume". I looked online at baby costumes and they all seemed so lame. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right places, but everything was either a lame animal costume (is the baby the hippo, or is the hippo eating the baby?) or some sort or a sack made to look like some random inanimate object (e.g. pumpkin, peas in a pod, pizza, air freshner). These just weren't going to cut it. What I really wanted was a baby Star Trek uniform (Yeah, I'm that parent). It seemed simple enough and I was so sure I would be able to find one somewhere online, but it seems it is not so. As a result... no costume. He just went in his Mummy Loves Me one-piece (also pictured above). At the Jellyvision Halloween Party (a.k.a. "Show-off-your-spawn Day"), of the 4 new Jelly-babies, Damien was the only one not in costume. One was dressed as Tigger, one was wearing the exact peas in a pod outfit linked to above, and one was a penguin. The penguin was actually really cute... mainly becuase his parents were carting him around in an Igloo cooler with wheels -- it totally made the costume.

Tags: firsts, pictures