Here are the three amigos in front of my front door. No one would smile and Bear would not even look at the camera, but HEY, we got a picture of all three of them.
He smiled, but only once, and it was kind of a fake smile--no teeth!
He was much more interested in eating the mulch by our front door. I grabbed it out of his hands quite a few times before we were done with the photo session.
He liked playing with the pumpkins we got from the pumpkin patch. This would have been a cuter picture if we had remembered to carve our pumpkins!
Bear and I have not been sleeping well at all. When we visited my mom and her husband, I tried to keep him from crying at night and waking the whole house, so he got used to being fed bottles in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, he seems to have outgrown his love for sleeping in the pack n play as well, so he spent at least a few hours in bed with me every night. He has tried rejecting his crib ever since we got back, but I don't like that idea, so I've been forcing the issue and not getting very much sleep myself. Last night was better (6 whole hours!), so maybe we're on the road to sleep recovery.
Also, I wrote in my last post about how Bear had started spitting his food out at me. Yay, I may have figured out the problem! Boo, I don't like the solution all that much! I think Bear wants to feed himself. This would be fine if he were just a little older so he could have the dexterity to actually get a spoon to his mouth. Oh, I let him try, but it's not very successful. Most of the food ends up on the floor, his bib, his face, the high chair tray, his clothes, his hair or on his hands. He really likes foods that he can pick up off his tray and he does a good job at that, but there are only so many foods that I can make into "finger foods" and I worry about his nutritional needs. The oatmeal he used to eat every day is fortified with lots of vitamins and minerals, but so is his formula, so maybe I shouldn't fret. I did get him to eat some oatmeal this morning, but only when he was holding the spoon. If I held it, then by God, it got spit out! Yesterday, for dinner he ate peas and pieces of wheat bread that I scattered on his high chair tray, and that actually worked out pretty well. Most of the peas ended up in his mouth except for the lone few that somehow worked their way into his overalls. It was so funny--they kept falling out when he was crawling around the living room! Anyhow, this is just new for us, so it will take some getting used to and some creativity on my part. I've been scouring the internet for other good finger foods for babies and I've found quite a few that I think Bear would like to try. I don't know what to do with the cabinet full of baby food that we have, but maybe with practice, he'll get better at spoon feeding himself.
This whole food issue reminds me of something that I've wanted to write about for a while now. I did not realize how much Bear would change over this first year! Oh, I knew that he'd go from this tiny little wailing thing to a walking, babbling person, but I didn't realize how much went into that! I like consistency in my life and I like to know what to expect, but Bear has really made me come out of my shell in those two aspects! I never know how many hours of uninterrupted sleep I'll get, I never know which foods he'll accept today, I never know how his mood will be and I am learning that this is OKAY. It's okay if he just wants to be held for most of one afternoon (usually due to teething or illness) and it's okay if I just hold him and don't leave the house. I've been so busy lately, running around even when I don't really want to. It's okay to say no and to skip activities every once in a while. I don't really have any obligations other than to be his mother right now and I'm learning to love that fact. I never know what the day will bring as far as Bear is concerned, but this is exciting and not scary! I love watching him learn and grow!
Oh, just so I don't forget, since this is a supplement to Bear's baby book, about that walrus noise that he imitated night before last...well, last night he made the noise upon just being shown the walrus! Max and I got a big kick out of that.
2 comments:
Does it work if you just let him hold a spoon while you work the spoon with the food on it? That tricked Lily for a little while.
The feeding thing is still quite messy- even now! She HAS to have a fork or spoon (which she has gotten much better at using) but sometimes still uses her fingers. Even for stuff like mashed sweet potatoes! We got one of those plastic things that goes under a rolly work chair and re-covered the dining room chair that her booster is on. Just to avoid ruining the fabric and having to clean the carpet all of the time. And you know me and cleaning!
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