Horsin' around with Daddy

Latest and greatest

Yes, I know, it has been 12 days since my last post...I wrote one, and it has cute video, but I had a problem with the video so it didn't get posted. And we've been a bit bananas around here, so I haven't gotten back to it. Latest and greatest is below...and know that I'll post new pictures and the video as soon as I can.

Let's see...food first. We have added peas and sweet potato to our food list. So far, sweet potato wins as the best (and only) positive reaction. No "yuck" face for sweet potato!! Go figure. Especially since I think sweet potato is downright awful, and Dave could take it or leave it. Tomorrow morning we're going to try pears. I'm still looking for a fruit that Will likes...and I figured veggies were more likely to be an issue! Anyway, we're sort of in a routine on meals, breakfast and dinner...sometimes we skip a meal altogether (usually because Will is tired and cranky). We have introduced a cup, with a little bit of water in the bottom, that ALWAYS gets promptly dumped upside down. Personally, it is one of my favorite things to watch these days - the water going everywhere, and Will grinning as he looks at the puddle in front of him on the high chair tray.

Next...sleeping. We seem to be sort of on our way to a full night's sleep. Still some nights are better than others, and we're definitely getting up at least once every night.

Next...new tricks! I saw Will roll from his back all the way over to his belly for the first time today. Dave informs me this is NOT a new skill, as he's seen it already. Is new to me, so I'm reporting it!!!

Next...why the heck have I gotten off of my twice weekly posting schedule. Two words - stomach bug. Last Friday morning I came down with a horrid, remarkably contagious, fast moving stomach bug. Dave had gone to the office at the usual time and by 9:20am I had emailed him, from bed, asking him to come home to take care of Will as I was down for the count. "Please stop for chicken noodle soup, saltines and gingerale on the way home." Dave got the same bug on Saturday afternoon, Will got a remarkably mild case of it on Saturday afternoon as well. So the entire Bostrom clan had the same bug within 48 hours. Was u-g-l-y here for a whole weekend. We've now recovered, and we've spent the week enjoying the spring weather and wishing that we didn't have to work...

So - my hope is that we're going to have a remarkably quiet weekend, and I'll have an opportunity to post new pictures, and new video. Stay tuned!!!

A little video

We've been very busy this week, and Will has been steadily moving his bedtime up - so it has become a bit of a race to see how quickly we can get him to sleep once he gets home from daycare/work with Dave. I have totally given up on the bedtime "routine" - the last couple of nights it has been nursing and straight to pj's and bed. On Wednesday night I got yelled at through the entire process for not moving fast enough - Will was asleep at 6:15. Of course he'd only slept 30 minutes the entire day at daycare....ouch.


This video is Will's first introduction to our backyard. Our first really warm day last week meant that I came home a bit early from work and threw open all the windows in the house. And as soon as Dave and Will got home, I announced that we were going to introduce Will to grass. I love being barefoot in the summer, and walking around in the grass barefoot is wonderful. I figured it was about time to get our winter baby outside to feel some "summer"!! At some point I will figure out how to keep the volume on my commentary a bit quieter, for now...my apologies!

Squash?!

I had high hopes that Will would develop a relatively cosmopolitan palette pretty quickly, and I probably set my expectations too high! We've struck out with bananas, apples, carrots. Carrots didn't get quite the icky face that we've gotten with apples and bananas, so there is some hope. Today's experiment - a really big slice of yellow squash to gnaw on while we were at a party. Funny, once I (pretty quickly) figured out that I needed to remove the seeds...Will happily gummed away at it, no icky face. So - I've now purchased a couple of little ones at the grocery and we'll test it out, cooked, to see if he'll eat it. I have no idea...and as soon as I'm done with this post, I'm off to search for baby food recipes online.

We had quite a busy weekend. Will needed a good night's rest on Friday night after 4 shots, and he actually got it! I was quite the proud mama, as he was only up a couple of times on Friday night, and did a pretty good job on getting himself back to sleep. Ahhh, I've become so spoiled in 2 weeks of sleeping better...anyway...Saturday we went to Wallingford for Aaron's 6th birthday party. It was a nice afternoon, we were able to spend some quality time with Aaron and the rest of the family, and celebrate Aaron turning 6 - seems not that long ago that he was just learning to walk! It was the first time we'd seen everyone in a couple of weeks. Will managed to show that he's not so sure about people he doesn't see pretty much every day....within about 1 minute of walking in the door, he was in tears, just going through the usual family greetings. He stayed pretty close to Mommy or Daddy for the rest of the afternoon. Sorry Oma and Gumpa!!!!

We then headed up to see our friends Kenny, Joy, Ava and Sam for dinner. It is always great to spend an evening catching up with our friends - and as usual, Joy made a fabulous dinner! We required a little flexibility from Will - no quiet nursery to fall asleep in, no crib, etc. He was about an hour late falling asleep, but not bad, all things considered. I had no idea what to expect, since he's gotten into such a solid bedtime routine, and as usual, I was pleasantly surprised. I went for an approximation of the bedtime routine, at about bedtime, and then it was just helping him get to sleep.

This morning, Will decided it was time to get up at 5:15. A bit early for any day, and especially on a Sunday morning! I tried to get him back to sleep, but no luck. He was awake until about 6, and then we all slept until 8:30 or so. A much more reasonable hour!!! Our only item on the agenda for today was a trip to see our friends in the newborn group. It was Millie's christening today, so Shannon and Scott had lots of family in town, and we were happy to be included in the celebration!! We had hoped to get all 7 babies in 1 location (and for a photo shoot!!), but we were missing 2. :-( I still have hopes that we'll get them all together soon!

Oh, and I found the camera charger, where it was supposed to be from the beginning...

But there are no new pictures!

I will admit that we've fallen a bit behind on the picture posting. It is 100% because we, or I should say I, have misplaced the battery charger for our camera. Proof that I might forget my head if it wasn't attached. ;-) I am looking, I swear, and WILL find it (or replace it) shortly. Until then, please bear with us...and I'll post the latest pictures soon!

In the meantime...a report from the doctor. Will's 6-month check-up went quite well, he even did pretty well with the shots. 15lb 7oz and 27.25 inches long. Almost time to move to the next car seat!!! And it explains why I am getting bigger arm muscles than I have ever had before!

I realized...

I was reading a blurb on the web tonight about baby milestones (my surfing is pretty predictable these days!). I realized that Will has hit a couple of milestones, or at least what some people consider milestones, and I've failed to mention it. So here goes - a short list of the latest "tricks" from Will...

1. Rolling from his back to his side - I suppose this was the milestone that got us to slightly better sleep. Or at least trending in the right direction. If it weren't for teeth and stomach bugs, we'd be ok! Will now wiggles and squirms to let you know he wants to lay down and stretch to sleep. He then rolls on his side and promptly sighs and goes right to sleep.
2. Sitting up on his own - this one just sort of happened while we weren't paying attention. I think all the time in the exersaucer at daycare and the walker at home have gotten us here. He actually can sit up and play...go figure.
3. That "I'm going to crawl move" - this one is a bit harder to describe. It is "that move" that babies make when they're moving from sitting to crawling. Will has mastered it - except for 1 remarkably vital step - keeping his arms straight at the end. Imagine, making the move and the elbows bend...so Will ends up doing a face-plant on the quilt, and then has to sort himself out enough that he can look up at us.
4. Imitation - The funny funny funny stuff at the moment...Mommy makes the motor boat sound, and Will tries to make it too. It is enough to make Dave and I cry we're laughing so hard. Will is definitely trying to practice this one on a regular basis. I'll see if we can capture this over the next couple of days...

So, video below...sitting up and playing, and that move toward crawling (I know I should be frightened...our days without a mobile baby are numbered!).

Tales from the highchair...

Every time I think Will is a "big boy", something happens to remind me that he's a little guy, a peanut still really! We bought a highchair today. Not a big deal , except for 2 relatively funny things that happened to go along with the purchase. 1. This is a standard high chair - has some of the latest bells and whistles in highchairs, but nothing crazy. Honestly, Will looks tiny in it. He can see over the tray, and get his arms up there, but he's definitely not going to grow out of this chair any time soon. 2. The highchair tray comes with 2 dishwasher-safe tray inserts. We thought this would be a great benefit - one could be on the highchair, the other in the dishwasher. And they don't have deep cubbies, so cup size, etc. should not be an issue. Except for the fact that you'd have to have a dishwasher the size of the state of Texas to fit said tray!!!!!!! I tried, and we have a standard dishwasher - both trays are sitting in our well-loved drying rack next to the sink after their first of what will be many hand washes...

Over the last couple of nights we've had a bit of a sleep evolution. I can't figure out what has done it, but Will is really working on getting to sleep and staying asleep on his own. I think I've mentioned that he likes to sleep on his side, which has been a gradual discovery over the last several weeks or so. Usually, he sleeps on his side when he sleeps with us, after I've been up multiple times in the night and given up on Will sleeping in the crib on his own. We've had multiple weeks of nghts, some better than others, where we've ended up with Will in our bed, waking up every hour to nurse because he can't get himself back to sleep on his own. He will consistently roll over onto his side to nurse, and just stay there when he's fallen asleep. I had gotten to the point where I said out loud - to Dave, to daycare, to family, to everyone - getting sleep, decent sleep, is more important than how we get it. That said, I've been pretty determined that we would not go the "family bed" route - I just don't think it is really the right thing for us. Anyway, earlier in the week Will started to resist the usual bedtime soothers - nursing, rocking. Really it has been the rocking that has gotten him wiggling, so I started just putting him down, in the crib, to let him sort it it out on his own. And he has! Tonight, he fussed (without much fanfare) for about 5 minutes, rolled over on his side, and fell asleep. I went to check on him and was amazed...on Thursday night, he slept from 7:30pm to 5:15am - and I went in once around midnight to give him back his binkie and help him roll back onto his side. Last night he needed a snack in the middle of the night, but was only up twice. I am feeling a small glimmer of hope that we're on our way...

As Dave says..."He's doing it!!!!"

No luck on the bananas

It says a lot about our world that the only real update I have is about the bananas! No luck - well, maybe a slight improvement - in the reaction to the bananas. After eating like a champ for a couple days in a row, Will has decided that solids in general are only "ok", and bananas are still a little icky. He's not gagging, but he still gives us an "eeeeiiiwwww" face every time he tastes the bananas. Oatmeal is negotiable - but we've been facing pursed lips and hands pushing away the spoon the last couple of nights - quite a difference from the robin mouth we were taking for granted. We've been juggling bedtime a little bit over the last couple of days as well, which hasn't helped matters. Will has been so tired in the evening, that we've really just been going through the motions and getting him into pj's and bed as quickly as possible - he's been rubbing his eyes at 6:00!! From a schedule perspective, it is pretty much impossible to get him into bed before 7, so we're making nightly adjustments, and trying to follow his lead.
TGIF - we have a nice quiet weekend this weekend, so hopefully we'll all catch up on a little sleep!