Lesson Learned

We had a nice relaxing Saturday of sorts here. I had invited one of Andy's friends from U of O, now living in Pittsburgh, to come for a surprise visit for Andy's birthday. He was a Halloween baby. Can you imagine anything better than always being able to dress up and eat candy on your birthday?! Anyhow, I had been trying to get caught up on cleaning, getting the guest room all set, etc, without letting on that we were going to have company. But as anyone with a baby knows, it takes forever to get the simplest things done sometimes and I realized he would be happy knowing that his friend was coming, and I could get some help with the chores if I just told him. So, in true Rachael fashion, I cracked and told him the secret. So, we got the house ready and then his friend called to say he was sick so he would not be coming after all. That's okay. The house is clean which always makes me feel happy and more relaxed.

Back to the lesson learned part- we had let Bright eat Cheerios, cut in halves lately. He barely chews them and we have found that out by seeing them in his poo diapers the next day. Ick. We also let him eat a cracker, as recommended by the nurse at the dr.'s office. Today, we did Cherrios and cracker again. Same barely chewing of the Cheerios. This time he ate the cracker with more force instead of gumming it. He was able to break it in half and choke on a chunk in no time. Like really choke, sweep the mouth with finger kind of choke. I thought my heart would not stop pounding. He was all right after I got it out, but no more crackers for him for a while. Lesson learned? Take a First Aid/CPR class if you have not already. You will probably need to use it at some point, even if you think you never will.

Cheerios, Crackers, Bananas? Oh My!

Tonight we had some fun! Bright has been crawling around the apartment making chewing faces for a while now and tonight we decided it was time to let him give his chompers a whirl. I called the pediatrician's office to check and see what was okay to try and then we headed to the store. Bright had some cheerios- in halves and slightly moist- given to him. Normally he will take just about anything and put it in his mouth, but not this time. So, I fed it to him and he, thankfully, chewed it. ( I have this fear of him choking on something ) We gave him a couple of more and then moved on to try saltines- sans the salt on top ( I did not know that you can buy them that way or that it was possible for that cracker to be even blander than they regularly are ). He held on to it and sucked and gummed it for a while. Then he used his bottom teeth to scrape off some of it. He made a fun face when he got that into his mouth. Nice job for a first timer. Then we tried some mashed but not pureed banana- a huge hit!

Overall a pretty good day. It has been just fabulous weather here lately so we have spent lots of time outside by the lake. Today we sat outside and chatted with the neighbors for quite a while. I think that Bright's newfound independence/mobility has added to his already junky napping habits. He really does not want to quit even when he is pooped.

On other news, for the first time since Bright was born, Andy and I had some time to ourselves! My mom and dad came and stayed with Bright while we went for a walk and spent some time working with Uncle Dave's GPS. We are hoping to try some geocaching soon and you need to use a GPS for it. We had a great time, but it was hard to leave Bright at first. He seemed to do just fine, and mom and dad were still jolly when we came back.

Back to the stinkin' dentist tomorrow night for round 3. At what point do you just ask for your money back?! Jeez. Any way- here are pictures for the last two days. Enjoy!

Who says toys have to be expensive?

Andy took this picture while I was away at the dentist for Round Two. I think that there will have to be a Round Three because my chompers still hurt... Ugh.
Today's big fun around the house has been playing with boxes- cereal boxes and packages from UPS. When I knocked out the box of Marshmallow Treasures this morning, I gave Bright the box to play with to see what he would do. He played with this for about 10 minutes. Then the UPS man delivered some comic books and we gave Bright that box. He was thrilled, especially when Andy put him in the box and pushed him around the house.

This was a really full day! Bright was up at 6:00 and then back down for a nap at 6:45. We went to the story time at the Library, but first stopped to drop off some flyers for the Supper Club. Then we went home for lunch, napped and went to town to drop off more flyers, saw Grandma, went back home, and played with one of the downstairs girls. Now that Bright is so much bigger, we put him into the baby backpack for walks. He loves it! He must not feel like hi is strapped into yet another seat when he is in it. So tonight we took him for a walk by the lake and he crashed out in it. He is in his crib and it's 6:45pm. Wow!

Pictures Updated

Well we never made it to the La Leche League meeting. The Sandman paid us a nice visit and we slept right though it. I did go back to the dentist and after trying to even up my bite, my chompers seem to be on the mend. Bright did more action crawling/pulling up/falling down today. His Godmama Katie popped in at lunch time for a quick visit- great to see you Katie. We jammed on some pots and pans in the afternoon and he fell asleep in the crib with some back pats and sweet words of encouragement. Another nice full day.

Here are some pictures from the past few days. Bright is now a champ at unsupported sitting and has placed in the junior division for pulling self up in dangerous locations.

Another milestone

Today Bright pulled himself up to standing in the crib. I did not get to see it. I was in the shower but Andy caught him in the act! I figured that was a fluke and did not give it much thought, other than WOW, what are we in for now?! Then later on in the day he did it again on the dining room chair and tried again on the set of shelves in the living room (note to self- must baby proof house). He is pretty fast now when he moves around, whether it's by crawling backwards, which he has mastered, or by this modified crawl-scoot-slide that he does to go forward. His top teeth are totally coming in- his gums are sooo red and puffy and you can see the outline of the teeth now. Poor guy! He has been eating cereal and pureed fruits and veggies for a while now. I think I am going to try and make more homemade baby food again. He really loves bananas and peaches and applesauce- not such a fan of the peas though. His cousin, a month older than him, is eating cheerios (in half) and all kinds of mixed foods.

Tomorrow we are off to a La Leche League Meeting and then I have another dentist appointment to see why my tooth that I had filled last week still hurts. I loathe going to the dentist so you can imagine my delight in having to go back to have them look at what should have been done right the first time.

I am working on a special project here at home. Andy and I are trying to set up a vegetarian supper club of sorts. There are no vegetarian places to eat out here and apparently the places that do have a vegetarian option only serve Gardenburgers, or Grilled Cheese. So our hope is to try to draw out the reclusive vegetarians here in town and have a potluck dinner where we can get together, share food and recipes and maybe meet some like minded folks. May be a pipe dream that we will find any but I will keep you posted!

Now Bright is asleep and I am off duty....

Who Needs Sleep

Right now Bright is asleep. It has been only an hour since I was finally able to get him to sleep by nursing him. The past few nights have been such a struggle at bedtime. It seems like something is always throwing off our schedule for putting him down- either it's us with company over or a change in routine, or it's him- teething, crawling, etc. I would say that it has become a backwards sliding slope at bed time but that would sound really negative and it is not all doom and gloom. Last night and the night before that he has been doing around 5 hours in the crib before waking up a bit and that is progress.

Now we can all breathe

Bright did just great for his baptism on Sunday. I had been sweating about that day since we first made contact with the Deacon to set it up. Bright continues to be a poor sleeper and we continue to be unwilling and unable to let him cry it out at night, thus we are all sleepy most of the time and somewhat irritable. I am beginning to think this is just my personality now... Anyhow, Bright woke up on Sunday at 5;45 am and I got him up and ready for the day. I figured that the disastrous picture that had been formed in my head of that day was truly going to come true since he was up so early and wouldn't be able to take him nap because we would be in church. We played and yawned together in the living room for an hour, Andy got up and watched him while I showered and then I fed him. We like to call it a "Drink Nap"- feeding him laying down totally puts him out, if he is in the right frame of mind, and this past Sunday he was! We napped together for an hour and then off to church. He seemed to really enjoy being the center of attention and did not make a peep, even when the water was trickled over him and the oil was placed on him. His poor eyes got all red from the scent of the oil and Andy popped him into the restroom to discretely wash it off while church went on. Bright only cried once at the end while we were waiting to process out and then he was fine. We went to my Mom and Dad's for a great brunch with lots of family and friends and Brighty fell asleep in the car on the way home!

My mom has ordered a play pen for us- Bright is making great progress with crawling- backwards- and yesterday got himself wedged under the desk in the living room. Today he made it over to the other desk with several rows of dvds before I even realized it. Here is some video and a picture from today and one from Sunday's brunch with our cousin's baby. She is a month older than Bright.