Cedar is 7 months old

Cedar is 7 months old

Cedar is seven months old today. And he's a biiiiig boy. Really big.

He's still growing like crazy, and nowadays it's almost like babyhood is fading fast. He's outgrown all the 12 month clothes I had, and now I've decided to cut my losses and move up to 2T. I don't know what I'm going to do when he outgrows his carseat, which will happen way before he's technically old enough for a front facing model.

He's been both giggly and cranky, depends on the day. He's still teething away, and I'm guessing we'll be seeing some new ones any day now. He's got his bottom two teeth, so I think he's working on the top row, although I can't see or feel anything yet. He's drooling like a champ, though.

He's getting a lot better about sitting upright in my lap. He sits in his high chair okay, but overall isn't great about sitting up on his own. He has rolled over maybe twice, but it's not something that he's "into" and since he doesn't equate it with mobility, he doesn't do it regularly. He really likes sitting, and keeps trying to do it on his own, but it's hard. He still isn't crazy about being on his stomach.

He's much more into toys, and like to grab things and stick them in his math. Some current favorites are Grandma's water bottle, rags, pacifiers (he likes to take them out and try to put them back it), and he's still really into Mr. Monkey. Just a few days ago, he figured out to pass objects from one hand to another, and he may be able to "choose" between two objects although we're not totally certain about it.

During the day, he usually takes 2 naps: one around 10am, and one at 3 or 4pm. He was going to bed at 8pm, but lately he's trying to make it later. He still likes to get up at 3am. I've convinced him that sleeping into 8am isn't such a bad thing.

He gets squirmy and kicky, but he still likes to be held--a lot. He's still happiest if you hold him, and likes to be carried walking around. A new thing he likes is if you swing him around a bit or pretend to drop him. That makes him giggle wildly.

He's still a big smiler, although less so when he's teething. He also does a lot of chatting and babbling. He's usually in a good mood, most of the time, but this month he's had 2 teeth come in, so during that time he was not real fun to be around. He usually gives you a week off between teething incidents.

He still is a huge fan of sucking on his hand or his fingers, and has figured out how to stick his teeth in his mouth. He recently rediscovered the soothie after rejecting it for months. Now it makes a great teething object.

He's been spitting up a bunch lately, after not doing it for awhile, and I'm guessing the teething is partially to blame.

When he's upset about something, he screams at the top of his lungs, then pauses to see if you're paying attention. Then if not, does it again. He generally only cries like that when he's really hungry or tired.

He still thinks daddy is the coolest thing ever, but he also gets upset sometimes if I walk away from him or out of the room. He didn't do that before, he would just fuss a little. Now he gets upset. Maybe he's starting to get stranger anxiety. He also likes to make sure I'm watching him and actively paying attention to him, and gets upset if I'm not. He also seems to really enjoy having Grandma Q around and is always really happy to hang out with her.

He still doesn't have much hair, but I've noticed what's there is getting longer. Can't tell what color it's going to be. His eyes are still grey with brown flecks so I think he's gonna have hazel eyes.

ESL Endorsment

I've been using this summer to hang out with kiddo, and knock out my last three required classes for the ESL endorsement. I thought it would be super difficult to keep up with the coursework, but it's been manageable, in spite of the demands of the babe. Having Grandma Q here to help out for 6 weeks has been invaluable. I haven't had time to do much of anything besides kick around here, do my homework, and chill with the babe, but we have gone on a few excursions.

After I finish all these classes, I still have to do a practicum...and that's gonna be real interesting. I don't know what that's gonna look like...

Laid off--again

Got a call this afternoon that I thought might be for a job interview. Instead it was the district calling me to let me know that I wasn't gonna have a job in the fall.

Uggh. Not again.

Once again, it looks like I'm gonna be filing for unemployment. At least these days, you can do it online. The last couple of times have taught me the importance of hanging on to your pay stubs for a couple of years.

On the bright side, it looks like I'll have more time to spend at home with kiddo.

Starting Solids...oh boy.

Now that the babe's six months old and as interested in eating as you can possibly be, we're starting the foray into the world of solid foods.

Although he started showing strong interest and watching every spoonful we ate in his presence (starting around 5 months or so, I decided to wait until the full 6 months because although his head control was good, he still wasn't sitting up real well on his own. Also, he still has digestive issues. Plus, he wasn't acting particularly hungry. If anything, the recent trend I've noticed is that he kinda slowed down and went from polishing off 6 oz at a time (at 3-4 months) back to 4 or 5 at most meals.

So I went out and invested in a high chair (I was able to find something that wasn't the size of a Hummer and ridiculously overpadded courtesy of IKEA) and a 6 pack of those silicone-coated baby spoons. I should have totally skipped rice cereal though. Everyone and their cousin says, "Start babies with RICE CEREAL!" Yeah right, total waste of time and money. Fuggedaboudit! He was NOT interested in that bland pasty goo, and made a huge yuck face. Tried it a few more times. No thank you. Never ate a bite of that vile-looking stuff. Can't blame him.

Next...

We tried apple sauce.

And got the yuck face. Too sour/acidic I guess.

Then we tried bananas. Not a hit.

Then we tried pears.

BINGO!

The kid LOVES his pears. (Kinda like my student, Bob*)So we worked on that for awhile. Turns out he's pretty good at eating--most of what goes in stays in. Didn't take him long to figure out the mechanics of eating.

From there, we were able to branch out a bit, and he decided that bananas and apple sauce were actually okay after all. Unfortunately he was dead set on the smooth creamy texture of $1 a jar baby food, so no luck just mashing up stuff I'm already eating. He won't eat anything with texture yet. (sigh)

The routine has been a once-a-day feeding ritual. I usually do it when I want to eat lunch, or occasionally dinner. I don't wait until he's starving, but rather do it when he's in a good mood, basically eating my own lunch or dinner at the mid-point between two regular feedings. I'll go ahead and fix whatever we're eating, then pull out a jar of something for him, and pull his high chair up to the table and plop him in there. Then I'll have a bite of my food, then feed him a bite of his (and praise his efforts), the rinse and repeat. That works pretty good. We get to eat in peace, and he gets to watch us eat, and we get to watch him eat. It's pretty effortless.

Right now he eats about half a jar of whatever. So far I've introduced apples, pears, bananas, butternut squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Based on his behavior, I'd say that sweet potatoes and carrots are his favorites. (Good baby...they're super duper nutritious, and he'll be seeing a lot of them in the future.) I'm going to hold off on any more grains until he's ready for more textures...then I'll just give him whatever I'm having (rice porridge, grits, oatmeal, etc) instead of the processed stuff.