Braaaains.When it started to cut into the rest of his day (fussiness mid-day, messed-up afternoon nap, fussy dinnertime, waking at night), I decided to try something different: I ignored Weissbluth's advice (gasp!). Instead of putting him down earlier - what, like I'm gonna put him down for his first nap at 8:00am? - I ignored the yawns and the slow-blinks for a half hour and put him down when he was really sleepy. Instead of nodding off on the breast, he got a little second wind and chatted in his crib for 5 minutes before drifting off. This worried me.
But then he slept for three hours.
Surely this was a fluke? Nope, he did it again in the afternoon, woke only once to nurse very early in the morning, and has been napping great all week after that. I had my baby back. Granted, Weissbluth also probably thinks that two 3-hour naps is too much daytime sleep for a kid Zephyr's age, but I've decided that he wouldn't sleep that long if he didn't need it. He plays hard, and he sleeps hard.
Cuteness of the week: after I set him in his crib and give him smooches on his head to wish him a nice nap, he stands up and makes the smoochy smacking sounds back at me. I'm so glad this has entered his vernacular! He still "kisses" by coming at my face with a wide-open mouth, but he'll put two and two together soon enough.
He has also learned how to wave "hello." Or rather, he points to the person he's greeting, and does the waving part by just opening and closing his fingers. It's so funny. When Scott gets home Boosh looks at him, looks at me, shrieks with laughter, then points/waves like "Whoa, there's Dada! Are you seeing this? Man, I love that guy!"Okay, now, for real this time: his top left tooth is about to pop out. I can see the little white nub at the gumline. Would anyone like to place a wager on what day it will emerge? Can I get an over-under on this? I'm going to guess...December 1. No, but seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if he finally cuts it this weekend.
And godspeed to that tooth, because I'm starting to run out of ideas for what to feed him. He eats a lot of the same stuff all the time (beans, brown rice, oatmeal, cauliflower, carrots, squash, tofu, salmon, blueberries, greens). It's all good, healthy food, but I'm getting lazy now and occasionally feed him crap like macaroni and cheese from a box (I get the organic kind and add some vegetables, but still). I am such a hypocrite! But then I remember, oh yeah - I love boxed mac and chee, and 7-11 nachos, and chili dogs and all kinds of garbage food. As long as it's a rare treat and not his main fare, I guess I can let go of my healthy baby food dogma.
He gets into everything these days, and man, is he a fast crawler. We have finally given in and put up the nice things that I care about so he doesn't break them, and our living room is (more or less) a baby-proof playground.
Shudder.
The house we live in now used to be a preschool & is painted in lovely vivid colors. The "living" room has always been a playroom. We didn't even try to make it for grown-ups & I think that's a total sanity saver. As long as your house doesn't smell like dirty diapers you've won.
ReplyDeleteHa! I refuse to lower the bar that far (yet)! I still have some of my pre-motherhood delusions about having nice things AND a little boy.
ReplyDeleteI read a really funny article about an American woman who lived in France with her family. Her French neighbor was appalled at the childproofing the American had added to her living room, and said the padding on everything made her apartment look like a psych ward! That has always really stuck with me. :)
get various baskets from IKEA to corral the toys and you're golden. just have to find another place for your shrunken head and fossil collection, I guess...but only for a few years. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, the awesome skull and rock collection that will make me the coolest mom a boy could have will be my house's undoing unless I stash it away, but soon.
ReplyDeleteThe Swedish family that I nannied for had a ginormous oil painting that was probably worth close to six figures. They had a plexiglass shield along the bottom to prevent kiddo fingers from ruining it. Somehow the 2 year old crashed into it in such a way that she ended up having to have plastic surgery - on her face. The painting came down.
ReplyDeleteIn later years, at the summer house, the three boys used a $21,000 sculpture as part of their obstacle course. It was an obstacle that the unfortunate jumper did not overcome during his lap. That statue fared even worse. I think that was the second year I was with the family and I think those kids were still having payroll deductions taken from their allowance by the first year I was with them.
Ummm, no, their house did not look like a psych ward, but their art looked like pre-reconstruction Warsaw.
Just sayin.
By the fifth year...payroll deductions in year five...
ReplyDelete