10 months

Yesterday, Jack hit the 10 month mark! Usually hailed the 'longer on the outside than on the inside' birthday, though since Jack was inside for 42 weeks, I don't know if it applies. We celebrated by going to a birthday party for a friend of ours (who was turning one) and it was such a beautiful day that it was great to spend hanging out in someone's backyard. (and as usual made me want a backyard of my own!)

Jack has been sick all week. Projectile vomiting, massive amounts of pooping and a general loss of appetite. I think he's definitely lost weight, since he seems leaner and his face is less round. On top of that, he's reclaimed his cold, so there's the snotty nose and the cough which I feel like he's had for the last month. I think it's officially time to change doctors. I gave him baby tylenol yesterday and felt guilty about it for no reason (and it totally seemed to help and let him get some sleep, which he hadn't been doing). I just don't think I should live in fear of calling the after hours ped number because I'm afraid of being scolded for no steaming him enough. There has to be something else I can do to make this kid feel better - when are they going to come out with Baby DayQuil?? Then yesterday he had a totally dry diaper from 10:30a-6:30pm. Not good. Something's definitely up with him. Going to see how we do the rest of today and try and go in tomorrow. Sigh. 

The apartment search continues - I saw a place I liked last week and put in an offer, only to find out that 2 other people had also. There's an open house today for it and I think the plan is that the seller will come back to all of us that made offers and ask us for our best and final offer. I really don't want to get into a bidding war, but I did really like the place. But what's more of a pain is that idea that I have to sell my place. I had a broker come over last week and look at the place and while it's in pretty good shape as it is, there's definitely some cleaning/organizing that needs to happen before it's 'show-able', which I am not looking forward to dealing with. The idea of keeping my house perpetually clean and ready to show for the next couple weeks (hopefully only the next couple weeks) is kind of terrifying. Not that it gets filthy, but the baby crap seems to migrate all over the place and I feel like no matter how often I clean the kitchen, there's pretty much always banana or something on the floor. 

But in happier news, my side job is finished - thank god!! It was a fight to the finish but I feel really good to have it behind me and be able to focus on other things (like going to be before midnight!) My parents came to town last weekend to watch J for a bit while I worked and my dad even went to swimming lessons with him. It was...a learning experience. Jack was a little freaked at first but was into it by the end of the lesson even though my did kept inadvertently dunking his head under water :-)

As always, pictures:

The Grind

I've been a posting slacker - apologies. I took on a side job doing this other work that is some decent money for what I thought would be not a ton of work, but it's totally kicking my ass. It's due May 15th, and it's going to be a fight to the finish, so I've been working nights (and some days, when I can) on getting it done, but it's been tough. The house is a mess, I'm a zombie, and I feel totally checked out of my real job. But it's almost over. Thank god.

But in happy news, Jack started two new classes: music and swimming. The music class is just something in our neighborhood at another little boy's house around the corner, and I got to go to the first one with him, which was great (it's Fridays at noon, so I doubt I'll be able to make most of them). Jack seemed into it, but it was a LOT of singing and the babies seemed a little overloaded after a while. But he had fun shaking the little egg shaker, so whatever, it's fine.

Swimming, on the other hand, was a blast. Well, he had a blast. Totally loved the water and chasing after the rubber duck and grabbing on to the side of the pool. So that was good. The post-swimming shower/change/dress part was a bit of a shitshow, as I imagine anyone who's ever taken their kids to swimming would know. I brought food along to keep him occupied for three seconds to I could throw my clothes on (thanks for the tip, Mia!) but it's a very small locker room with virtually no raised flat surfaces, so you're kind of stuck on the wet, cold, dirty floor. Nice.

So other than my nightmare of a second job, all is good. I'm on the hunt officially for a new apartment, which scares the hell out of me because this time around, I actually have to SELL an apartment as well. Since my place currently looks like a cross between a flophouse and a toy store, I need to do some serious maneuvering to get it in shape to sell. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Here's some pics - none of us at swimming, but some shots of the little man (who is almost 10 MONTHS OLD!! Sweet lord, how did that happen????)

We're officially bathing in the big boy bath now (aka the tub). I have no idea how deep to make the bath...

At music class, looking slightly concerned...

Gnawing on a chicken bone. Jack has realized the wonder of eating chicken - he LOVES it. 

With our nanny, Leeann, the woman Jack thinks is his mother...

Never misses the chance to practice the standing

Phew

Well.

It's been kind of an exhausting couple weeks. We drove home to RI for Easter only to have Jack come down with a killer cold (complete with his first fever - awesome) and ended up driving back to NYC on Easter morning with my mom, who came to watch Jack for the week. Ended up in the ped's office twice, since one night he was so congested that he was having some trouble breathing, only to be told by the dr that a) Tylenol/Ibuprofen has never done anything good for anyone and there's no reason to ever give it to my child and b) we like it when babies get sick because it shows that everything's working properly and c) the thing I needed to do was to sit Jack in front of a hot steam vaporizer for 5-10 minutes TWENTY TIMES A DAY and he would be fine. Oh, and don't call the after-hours number unless I'm on my way to the hospital with him. Now, this wasn't our normal dr - this was one of the other docs in the practice since ours was on vacation last week, but needless to say, I was not thrilled with the action plan of 20 hot steams a day. Seriously? Was I supposed to wake him up to steam him again? Quit my job to fit in all 20 steams? You would literally be sitting this kid in front of the steamer *which he hates, by the way* like every hour all day long, for 5 days straight. I just don't think that's helpful medical advice.

But whatever. So last week sucked. It got to the point where if you laid him in his crib on his back, he'd just cough so much he couldn't sleep, so he ended up sleeping with me for a few nights (which NEVER happens - not even when he was a baby), which was good for him but not so good for me, sleep-wise. Poor little guy. And my poor mother ended up getting sick too, which just rounded out the fun.

But in happier news, everyone seems recovered now and we're back to normal. Jack's latest trick is pulling himself up to standing. For a couple days, he was only pulling up on a person - say, if I were laying on the ground on my side, he'd kind of drag himself up and lean on me. Now, he's discovered that he can pull up on ANYTHING that's taller than he is, and he is delighted to greet me after a nap by standing up in his crib. Since as usual, his crib is the testing ground for new tricks, I've seen him actually cruising around the perimeter of it. It's kind of hysterical to see him try and navigate a corner and watch how deliberate his actions are as he tries to figure out how to let go of one side and grab another.

Another big development is that he's finally started saying "mama". I'm sure he doesn't know what it means exactly, but he only says it when he wants something from me (to be taken out of his crib, to be fed, or if he falls over and wants to be picked up) It's kind of awesome though, hearing it, even though most of the time it's said in frustration or impatience.

I'm not sure why these pictures are so badly placed on the page, but here you go:

Looking at flowers in Papa's garden

Before the sickness really hit

So I didn't get to take an legitimate Easter pics, but I staged one yesterday of Jack in his would-have-been Easter outfit. In 15 years, who will even remember that we didn't take it Easter morning, right? 

Saying hello to the bees!

Post-recovery. First merry-go-round ride! He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be terrified or excited...

On the Move

I knew this kid had the devil inside him, but wow. Now that he's 100% officially crawling, it's crazy times over here. I put him on the floor and turn around to empty the diaper pail (which takes less than a minute) and he's literally on the other side of the apartment licking the vacuum cleaner. Really, Jack???

He's also figured out how to go back to sitting from crawling, which is quite helpful, since what good is it to crawl over to the toy you want only to find that you have to play with it while lying on your belly. No fun!

He's loving his newfound freedom and is still pretty delighted with himself that he has the run of the place. I've done a half-ass job of childproofing, but I'm going to have to up my game pretty soon. Do other people do any kind of securing of the television? Mine is on top of a pretty high, pretty heavy modular shelving unit, and I can't imagine he'd be able to get to it, even when he's pulling up, but is that wishful thinking? Should I secure it to the walls somehow??

Another opinion question: so Jack tries out all his new moves (crawling, sitting, rolling over) in his crib before he performs them for the outside world, so as a result there's lots of activity in there. Now that he's really moving, the bumps into the side of the crib have gotten harder (to the point where I can hear the loud thunk over the baby monitor, sometimes followed by wailing). So crib bumpers seem like they'd be pretty great in this case, but are they this terrible thing that somehow he'll find a way to suffocate on? He's past the most dangerous SIDS time, and can roll over as necessary... Do other have bumpers? Do I just keep letting him bump his head? Now that he's starting to practice pulling up to standing, that's getting to be a bit of a fall...

I'm sure I'll have pictures to post after Easter (going back to RI to see the family), but here's another video for you. To put it in context, let me remind you that Jack is incapable of sitting still for more than a second, so this is pretty much the only thing that can stop him in his tracks. He's completely fascinated, every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGUvDLHz4bA

8 months

Jack is 8 months old today. How the hell did that happen?!

I feel absurdly pleased with myself because yesterday Jack and I (along with my friend Abby and her daughter Calliope) went to the zoo and botanical gardens. This doesn't seem like a feat at all, but I think it was my first real mom-baby outing where we decided to go for it, took the subway, and actually made it happen. We've done plenty of driving to visit friends or walks to playgrounds and activities, but we hadn't really had a subway adventure. I didn't know how the whole stroller on the subway thing would be - turns out it was not super fun, but not that big a deal, especially since on the way back someone was kind enough to help me carry the stroller up the stairs - nice! I'm not really used to relying on the random kindness of strangers (as Abby put it) and it's a weird thing to be hanging out at the bottom of the subway stairs, waiting for everyone else to go up in front of you because you know you'll be slow, and maybe secretly thinking/hoping that someone will offer to help. I've been on the other end a thousand times, and I've helped carry some stranger's stroller up my fair of stairs, but it's weird to be the one in need of the help. But I suppose I just need to suck it up and put my most pathetic face on, because carrying a stroller up stairs sucks.

But anyway, I digress. The outing was fun, though Jack slept through most of the zoo. He did wake up long enough for the sea lion feeding, which he was pretty uninterested in, so we went to sit on the grass which he LOVED. I think he would have sat there all day pulling up grass. So there's more guilt for not having a yard for the kid to play in. Sigh.

Abby posted a video of Jack and Calliope "playing" before we went: Jack and Calliope
This is the second girl friend that Jack's entertained and the result is sadly similar. Calliope fended him off with ladylike aplomb, happily.

And here's a couple other pics from yesterday....

Enjoying(?) the sunshine at the Botanic Gardens. So much in bloom already!!

With his new favorite toy...grass.

Luck of the Irish

So I had been talking to my mom about how Jack hasn't really showed any signs of separation or stranger anxiety, which I guess they're supposed to around now. So of course, delightful cousin Caolan comes over today to watch Jack while I have to go into work (bummer) and he takes one look at her and starts wailing. Awesome. Perfect timing, little man. Luckily, he came around (especially after Caolan began feeding him - he IS a Farrell after all) and had a lovely time for himself hanging out.

In other news, Jack is officially crawling (mostly) As I'm sure I wrote, he has been doing the backwards scoot for a while now but on Friday he finally managed some forward movement. It's still not very impressive, but it's getting better every day and between rolling, scooting, and this amateur crawl, he's getting around pretty well. God help me. Nothing in my apt is childproofed.

Jack and I took a Gymboree class last weekend and while it was a little crazed (the class started late so I think the instructor was kind of rushing through everything), Jack seemed to really dig it. Makes me feel bad that our Music Together class was cancelled - we'll have to sign up for something in April; swimming? music? something else? I've been told by several people that swimming is the way to go - any thoughts?

Other than crawling, not much to report. Jack's still eating like a pro - I made a beef stew this week that he seems to be loving, which is great since he hasn't been a big meat eater up till now. I'm trying to vary the diet as much as I can, but it's tough to mix it up too much. He needs to eat more green vegetables, but he HATES peas, mildly tolerates green beans, and I haven't tried anything else. Spinach seems a little bitter, broccoli seems like maybe it's weird consistency? brussel sprouts? kale? My problem is that I'm not a big green vegetable eater myself, so it's challenging to force myself to make it...

I tried to upload a video of Jack's first crawling action, but it didn't happen. Here's a link to where I posted it on YouTube:      Jack Crawling



As ever, some pictures,

Heading out to enjoy the summer-like weather earlier this week

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Boring (in a good way)

Apologies for the delay in posting. I've been waiting for something to happen that's worth writing about but then I realized that the 5 people who "read" this blog are really just looking for pictures, so what the hell.

Things are still going great. Tooth #2 is just about to pop through. Jack continues to subsist on yogurt, squash and sweet potatoes (and occasionally some fruit) though we've added bagels into the mix and he immediately loved them.

We had a great hangout with my aunt, uncle and cousins last weekend, which was awesome. Jack even behaved himself while we ate lunch, which was very kind of him.

Other than that, not much new to report. So here's some pictures:

This morning, enjoying a bagel

 At his 7-month photo session

Visiting Aunt Nora at the NY gift show last month