The boy is a vegetarian for now!

At our last appointment, our pediatrician gave us a feeding chart that told us when we could introduce different foods to Bear. The chart said that we could start with vegetables, then feed him meats, then fruits. The doctor said we could feed fruits whenever we wanted, but the chart puts them last so that babies don't get used to the sweet taste of them and then only prefer sweet things. Apparently, there's been some research lately that says that's a load of horse hockey, so Bear's been eating just about any fruits and vegetables that are appropriate for his age. Well, a few months ago, I got baby food happy and bought all different kinds of jarred commercial baby food. Bear's eaten just about everything I bought, but there has been this lone little jar of chicken in the cabinet for some time. I decided to try it today, and all I can really say is EEEEEWWWWW! I opened it and sniffed just out of curiosity, and was I ever sorry! It was more pungent than the wet food we feed to our dogs. If I based what I fed to Bear on smell, though, he'd never get any formula, because that doesn't smell especially appetizing. I thought maybe that was just how baby food smells, so I put some in a bowl and prepared to feed the boy. The dogs were begging at my feet since I opened the jar, by the way, just to give you an idea of how strongly it smelled. They sat right under the highchair for the two bites that Bear tried and then they finished the meal for him. Bear ended up opting for a mixture of sweet potatoes, peas and potatoes for lunch. Needless to say, meat is off the menu for a while. I've been making most of Bear's food anyhow, although some of it he prefers jarred. Peas, for example...I don't know if it's a texture thing or what, but he prefers the jarred kind, so I indulge him. He loves all the fruit I've made so far though and if I mix some formula in the veggies, he'll usually eat them. I'm not quite sure how to make meat for babies. I'll have to do some research, but I'm not worried about it for now. I've definitely learned my lesson for the day: If it smells bad, feed it to the dogs.

Guess who's just about ready to crawl?!

Adventures in babysitting

Well, we are all feeling better now and I babysat my neighbor's son, Jacob, today. I will be babysitting him every Thursday morning from now through August, so I should get lots of practice with a 21 month old before Bear hits that age. I was a little nervous for two reasons: 1)His mother brought Jacob over yesterday, just so he could see my house before he was left here and, man, that kid was ALL OVER THE PLACE. At one point, he brought me a screwdriver, and I was all Where did you get that???!! He ran into each room, checking it out and grabbing something any chance he got. 2) I've done lots of babysitting, but never for a very young baby and a toddler at the same time. Most of the kids I babysat were older, and therefore more self sufficient.

Contrary to my fears, the babysitting went very well! I learned quite a few things during the few hours that I had another kid in my house:

*Have an activity or a routine planned, if at all possible. Kids do bad stuff (like throw blocks at my baby) when they are bored.

*Cabinet locks are a MUST. I realized this both when I discovered my Christmas candles on the floor and when Jacob handed me a bottle of disinfectant.

*Television remotes + toddlers= bad news. It took a good while to find the batteries to mine.

*Lids on cups are a good idea. I cleaned lemonade and milk off my kitchen floor today.

*Always have durable cloths handy in the kitchen--especially if you feed a kid peanut butter and jelly.

*Kids think empty cardboard boxes are awesome--way more awesome than any toy you could offer them.

Here's the most important thing I learned, though:

* I CAN SO DO THIS!! I have been worried for months that Bear would end up an only child. I never wanted this for him in theory, but I thought he took up so much of my time and attention that I wouldn't be able to focus on another child. WRONG. I can definitely handle both of them. Now, I admit, I've only done the multiple child thing for one day so far, but it was so much easier than I thought it would be. I thought I would be worn out and need a nap when Jacob's mother came to pick him up, but I'm fine! This is very exciting for me to have learned this and I'm really glad I took on the babysitting. I can't wait to share this with Max...I'm pretty sure he'll be overjoyed.

Check out Jacob and Bear playing together today. Bear was so interested in everything Jacob was doing, he was actually calmer than he is when he's the only kid around! By the way, I'm holding Bear up in the picture, even though it doesn't look like it. He can sit up on his own for about 1 minute, but not if he's looking around and playing.

We should be quarantined!

This house is not the most pleasant place to be right now, since we've all been sick since yesterday in some form or another. Max stayed home from work yesterday, complaining of cold-like symptoms. Bear and I were fine yesterday morning, so we headed to the gym and then to meet the MOMS at an outdoor mall. We hung around for a while, not really wanting to come home to a sick Daddy, but eventually we made it back. Max pretty much stayed in bed all day, with the exception of his excursion to Walgreens--apparently the only cold medicine we had in the cabinet had expired 2 years ago!** Bear's nose started running a little in the middle of the afternoon and I became suspicious. Then, he started with the coughing and sneezing. Poor baby--I'm pretty sure he's got his first cold. He's acting okay today, although he slept later than normal and he's a little clingy. He doesn't have a fever, but you can bet if he gets one, we will be racing to the doctor's office. I, on the other hand, don't seem to have the cold, but I'm experiencing some sort of stomach mess that I won't even discuss. Anyhow, I was up for a good part of the night with that or with the boy, so I opted to sleep late with Bear. Maybe I'll be napping with him today, as well. Hopefully I won't get the cold that the men have experienced, but I have to admit, it's pretty likely. I sleep in the same bed that Max sleeps in, of course, and Bear drools on me all day long. It wouldn't be too hard for germs from them to get to me. Let's just hope they don't, or I may have to ask Max to stay home from work again!

Speaking of Max, how unfair is this? Whenever he gets sick, he sleeps all day and then seems miraculously better by that evening or at the latest, the next day. For example, yesterday, he slept virtually all day and then was outside weed-eating last night! I asked him if that was necessary, with him being sick and all, and he said he felt better. What's up with that? I guarantee you that if I get this cold, I will not be well enough for yard work after one day of rest. Not to mention that I'll have a baby (maybe a SICK baby) to take care of, too. Oh well, such is life.

**We haven't even lived here a full 2 years, so I'm not sure why we moved expired medicine, but whatever!

Little Firecracker

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday--we were at a neighbor's house for most of the day and then I was too tired by the time we got home. We had a good 4th, although Bear took virtually no naps. We even took along his Pack N Play, but he was just too busy with the neighbor's children to take the time out. Surprisingly, he was in a good mood for much of the time...even with no sleep. He also slept well last night, which baffles me. Usually, when he doesn't sleep well during the day, he doesn't sleep well at night, either. He is always changing on us! Oh well, I'll take the good changes! We did get some excellent pictures of our "Little Firecracker" yesterday:

Bear at the gym

Well, after I wrote that nice long post on Tuesday, Bear and I headed for the gym. I took Bear to the child care room, just as I had done for the past two gym visits. Bear was doing well under the care of some very nice ladies, so I didn't worry about him at all. Every time I came in after my workout, he was smiling and enjoying the experience. Tuesday was a very different story. I came in after my workout and saw the 9 month old daughter of one of my friends, so I started to go to her and say hello, when I heard the loudest baby screams I've ever heard and I thought Oh my gosh, that's my kid! I looked for him and realized that he was in the separate room they have for babies to sleep in. One of the ladies was attempting to change his diaper and he was fidgeting and screaming the whole time. I took over the diaper change and asked what happened. All she did was set him down so she could use the restroom, and he would NOT stop screaming! Apparently, it had been going on for about 10 minutes before I came in there. He was probably a little overtired, since he got up a little earlier than normal that day, but my gosh, he would not settle down! He cried so hard that formula started coming out his nose! Needless to say, I felt horrible and was pretty sure everyone in the place was looking at me thinking That poor inexperienced girl...Doesn't she know how to calm her own kid down?? Well, sometimes I don't. I just couldn't do it, but neither could the lady who worked in there and she has like 10 years of experience working with babies! He didn't stop until we got outside, where he proceeded to start up again when I tried putting him in his car seat. He fell asleep on the way home, though, and we stayed home the rest of the day to give the poor boy a break from chaos.

You might guess that I would be nervous about taking Bear back to the gym with me, and you'd be right about that. I realize that he's going to fuss sometimes, but I don't want to torture him! The kind of screaming he was doing in there was worse than the screaming he's done when he had to get shots. Seriously. My mom and my friends all told me that I should try again, though. They gave me good reasons: 1) Bear has to get used to people other than his Momma and 2) Momma could really use the exercise and the time by herself. As it turns out, my mom (as usual) was right and so were my friends. I made the attempt again today, fully expecting them to come get me 10 minutes into my workout to tell me that they couldn't calm him down. I made it through the whole workout and thought that he'd be throwing some kind of fit when I got into the child care room, but was I ever surprised! I walked in and they had him strapped into his car seat and he was just watching the older kids play. The woman taking care of him said he didn't cry, not even once! She took him out of his seat for a little while, but when more kids started showing up, she had to set him down. I guess he was just in a better mood today, and now, so am I. I was so worried about leaving him and was even starting to wonder if I was being selfish by wanting to go back. Now I see that it's good for both of us to have time away from each other, even if it is only 45 minutes a few times a week. I'm going again on Saturday, but Bear is going to stay home with Max. That hasn't happened since Bear was very little, so hopefully it'll go well. I have faith, though! Max can do it! And even if he can't or Bear won't stop crying or something, he probably won't let me know about it. That's probably good.

I am not as excited about this weekend as I once was. My dad and his wife were going to come visit us, but they had to cancel because his wife's mother had a stroke. She lives in Ohio and they are going there instead to be with her. I completely understand, but I'm still disappointed. I don't get to see my dad too often. My mom lives close enough that she has been able to visit about once a month since Bear was born, but Dad has a job with strict hours and doesn't live as close. Also, I talk to my mom at least once a day, so I don't miss her as badly. My dad, on the other hand, isn't much of a phone person. Sometimes we'll get into a long conversation, but usually our best talks are had in person. Plus, he gets up early like Bear, so we would have had time together alone in the mornings. Oh well, he's going to try to make the trip in a couple of weeks, so it's not too bad. It's just that Bear is doing so much more than he was a few months ago when my dad was here last, and I was eager to share that. By the time Dad gets here, though, I'm sure Bear will be doing even more, so I'll have that to look forward to now.

Busy day

Wow, I think this is the earliest I've ever been online, other than those mornings in grad school when I had to finish up a paper! Bear has decided that 5:30 is a good time to wake up lately. It's not that bad, I guess. I get between 7 and 8 hours of sleep, so I can't really complain, except that he goes back to sleep around 6:30 and I can't usually do that! Also, he goes back to sleep in my arms and refuses to get back in his crib. Can you believe I'm typing with an almost 20 pound baby in my lap? There are lots of backspaces and deletes, let me tell you!**

Anyhow, we had a really busy day yesterday--so busy that I didn't have a free moment to post about it! We started off slowly, but we had lunch with the MOMS club at 11:00. We went to a fairly new restaurant in town and it was really fun. We were able to sit outside, even though it was pretty hot here. The restaurant has a big, shaded porch with lots of ceiling fans, so it was actually very comfortable. Bear decided to skip his morning nap, so he crashed in his stroller right at 11:00 when we got there. He slept until 12:00, so I was able to stay there until about 1:30 chatting with other moms without him getting grouchy! Yesterday was also his first experience eating solid food away from home. I, being the great mom that I am, packed up all his food and various required accessories, but I forgot a bib for him! We had to borrow a bib from Bear's friend Kaitlyn, which happened to be pink and polka dotted. I didn't take any pictures--I didn't think he'd appreciate the humor in that later!

After the lunch and lots of chatting, we headed to Lowe's to pick up a doorstop that broke off one of our doors. A visit to Lowe's always takes a long time, since I used to work there. I don't necessarily want to say hello to every single person I know, but I don't want to be rude, either! There are some people that I genuinely enjoy talking to, though, so it makes for a long trip. Needless to say, I don't go in there too often. Since we were in there getting the doorstop anyhow, we went ahead and picked up a little rug for Bear's room. It's not available online (that I can find!), or I'd share a picture with you, but it's made by Tonka and has little roads, bridges and parking lots on it. It came with two little dump trucks, which Bear is too little to play with yet, but the rug makes a good playmat by itself for now.

After all that, I didn't feel like making dinner, so Max and I went out (again, I know!) to one of our favorite restaurants here. They just changed locations and the new one is so nice! They added lots of stuff to their menu, and everything we tried turned out to be really good. We definitely need to make plans to go there more often. Even Bear enjoyed it. Of course, he didn't try any of the food, but he really liked the waterfall wall they've added to the decor. AND, he sat in one of their high chairs for nearly 30 minutes! This is great, because typically when we go out to eat, one of us has to hold him. He's growing up and becoming more independent!

In a little while, we're going to head to the gym so I can work off all that food I ate yesterday! Just kidding, I actually made fairly healthy choices yesterday, so I shouldn't have much to work off, but Bear has a date in the child care room today. His friend Kaitlyn's mom, Nancy, belongs to the same gym and we agreed to meet there this morning and work out together. It might be kind of hard, since I will be doing circuit work and therefore moving around a lot, but it's motivating to have someone else there waiting to meet you.

After the gym, hopefully Bear will be tired and take a good nap, because I have to clean, clean, clean! My dad and his wife will be here this weekend, and I haven't cleaned the bonus room from when my mom was here weekend before last yet. I also just need to do general cleaning around the house. I'm usually pretty good about keeping up with it, but for some reason this past week was an exception. I also need to work on some baby-proofing. One of my friends in the neighborhood is a CPA and has to take some classes in order to remain certified. I agreed to babysit her almost 2 year old son on Thursday mornings in July and August, but our house is probably not quite ready for a toddler. My friend is going to come over to acquaint her son with my house, but also to tell me if we have stuff out that she knows he'll get into or break. I'm sure we do, but it can be moved or put away for now. Besides, this will give me good practice!

**I was able to put Bear in his crib at about the 2nd paragraph, so don't think I've been struggling with holding that heavy boy this whole time!