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Okay. Cutest freakin' thing of all time.



Could he BEE any cuter? (Okay, you know I had to do at least one pun.)
I thoroughly enjoyed Halloween this year. And it wasn't even about the candy.

Away Weekend

Just got back from our trip to Chicago for a weekend. Without Baby Z.
I learned many, many things in that urban midwestern town:

1. People are nice in the midwest. Including police officers who help lost tourists. Including women in line for bathroom at comedy club who don't give you the once-over to judge whether they are hotter than you.
2. Football is really important to a lot of people.
3. Missing someone can be like a physical ache. Saturday morning I woke up crying. Not worried about Baby Z, not wanting him there with me. Just wanting to hug him and feel him for a minute snuggled against me. It felt like suddenly I was missing a limb.
4. Sunset at the top of the Hancock Building is worth the extra money for drinks. Also, a sunset without an ocean or mountains around is still beautiful.
5. Baby Z can handle a lot of change and still be okay. He plowed through the weekend without hardly a problem and had a great little personal adventure (apart from us... and so it begins).
6. Weather in the 40's can be nice, when you are very bundled and walking around a beautiful city- briskly.
7. You can miss a 11-month old and his little personality. The physical ache of being away from Baby Z turned into a missing him as a person. A little person who beats his hands on his tray and tests out the vowel "AAAAAAAAAhhh" deep in his throat for as long as his lungs will go.
8. Public transportation is very convenient until construction delays you on your way to catch a flight. (Phew- we caught it just in time!)
9. Having excellent friends is among the greatest blessings you can have. Friends with whom you can trust your precious baby. Friends you travel across country to see. Friends you've known forever and with whom you can still travel.
10. Being away for vacation is fantastic. And so is coming home.

Go Figure

Literally the day after I posted about my worries that Baby Z was developmentally behind... Baby Z decides to pull himself up for the first time. I went in to get him up in the morning and he just scoots on over to the crib side I had just lowered, plops his hands down and pulls himself up to standing. Just like that.
If Baby Z could talk he would have said: "Ah Mom, I had you goin' there for a little while! Hee Hee!"

Worries

Baby Z has had a very uneventful and healthy first 11 months. Perhaps that is why I tend to make up things to worry about.

I've heard it's a first child phenomenon to worry about every little thing. John and I had a 30-minute "discussion" while I was on the verge of hysterics when Baby Z was 2 weeks old about whether my Mom's dog would be a contaminant for him or not. Dog germs and temperature were John's big anxieties in the first month. Mine was all related to breastfeeding and clocks.

And it seems that every new stage brings it's own set of worries (see Child Proofing). After the baby starts crawling, you realize quickly that they are going to be touching everything you don't want them to. It only took two times of finding Baby Z gnawing on my shoe to stop freaking out about it (however, we do put our shoes away now rather than leaving them out). I've started to relax a lot with germ-y thing, too, letting Baby Z touch tabletops at restaurants and not disinfecting his toys every time they touch the ground (unless it's outside or in public places). Okay, so I'm still a little germ-phob...or...uh conscious, let's say.

My latest worries (thank you all for saving me a therapist's bill) are about developmental milestones like pulling up and progressing to more mature food. Baby Z is getting more and more coordinated in his crawling, and he can even hold onto a table and stand up on his own (until he forgets and randomly lets go-yikes!). But his crawl has never been traditional with his belly off the floor. He does the commando crawl, pushing with one leg and has the blister on his right big toe to prove it. As for progressing in his solid food... he has lately developed an overly dramatic (in my opinion) gag reflex. Anything I put on his tray for him to try feeding himself is immediately suspect. Paradoxically, anything found on the ground is fair game for his mouth. Sigh. Oh, and the sippy cup...man, the sippy cup. This is an object only for chewing, apparently.

So, I vacillate between being convinced I'm a bad mother and determination to keep trying, come what may (including vomit). A little research online helped me understand the developmental aspect of learning to chew, so I'm relaxing a bit and trying a number of different things to see what might be easier for Baby Z. And as for the pulling up and walking, I have to keep reminding myself how one day Baby Z just rolled over. Just like that-- it clicks. So, relax, Mom, and enjoy the current stage, because before you know it Baby Z will be begging for cookies and bumping his head into every sharp corner in the house.

The Straight Poop on Poop

All right, so if you're of a more delicate nature, you may just want to skip this entry. On the other hand, if you don't mind a frank discussion of bodily functions, read on brave soldier....

Baby Z has had a mild form of constipation for about 3 months or so. It began as I started to cut back on breastfeeding. Every day was a struggle to get him enough to eat of the loosening kind (prunes, fruits, etc.) and eliminate the binding kind (apples, carrots, some kinds of cereal). I had prune juice in his cereal, Karo syrup in his bottle, mineral oil in his bottle, prunes, pears, peaches and peas (notice the P trend for Poo?). This pretty much kept Baby Z flowing like rush hour traffic-- you'll get there eventually, but it might take longer than you want. At one point we even had to do the glycerin enema, which resulted in a poo the size of....(wait for it)....a tennis ball, I kid you not. (I have pictures to prove it that I won't post for fear I will lose my two readers forever.)

At the same time, I've been looking for a new doctor. I finally decided I was never going to be comfortable talking to my old doctor. As Baby Z is approaching the 1 year mark and I have lots of questions about the vaccines coming at that age and later, I decided it was time to switch. I followed many, many recommendations until finally hitting the jackpot. Baby Z's new doctor is very personable, easy to talk to, understanding, capable and a Mom, too. After spending 5 minutes with her on the phone I felt better about the constipation thing than I did after 2 calls and one visit to my old doctor's office. Mostly it was just enough for her to confirm it was normal for recently weened breastfed babies and that she had the same struggle with her daughter (empathy, doctors, empathy!).

After a meet-the-doctor visit with Dr. P that lasted 15 minutes, we unlocked the secret to Baby Z's bowels. We changed formula. Dr. P said that the Similac Organic worked for her daughter, so we gave it a try. I'm not one for much things organic, and with formula especially, think it is just a reason to charge more. But, the proof is in the pudding (chocolate, of course). I guess the Organic version has pure cane sugar in it that works like a charm. I only give him one bottle of it a day, and it's enough to do the trick. Victory! Let the good poops roll!

Accomplishment

Everyone likes to feel like they accomplished something at the end of the day. I've heard it said that Moms don't get to have that feeling of accomplishment that often. Sure, a Mom can feel good that they are doing something good for their kids and family every day, but to really feel like you DID something. You got it DONE. That might not come that often. After all, the laundry just has to get re-done, the bathroom has to be re-cleaned, the baby re-fed. I've also been told that this missing feeling of accomplishing something can be hard for women who worked in a career before having kids. At work, things get done, people notice, and, shoot, you even get a paycheck for it.

Now I'm not exactly the MUST GET IT DONE personality type, but I like to see progress and feel successful. I recently had the benefit of feeling both in the past few days. First, at work, I finally started to feel like I was worth taking back on the job 8 hours a week. The first few weeks were filled with catching up on training and other administrative things. But last Friday, almost the entire day was completely fruitful and helpful to others. Not only did I see and hear their appreciation, I felt that glow walking out at the end of the day: I did a good job today.

As discussed above, one might expect to get this sort of feeling more often in the work world. But my feelings of accomplishment didn't end there. We had to travel several hours to a family event this weekend. I was a little anxious as it meant waking Baby Z up early (1 1/2 hours early), feeding him several meals on the road, hoping for some kind of nap, and still being able to be present (you know-- not just physically) at the family event. Everything went well and we all managed to remain civil, friendly even, despite the lack of rest. At the end of the day, I commented to John that I felt extremely fulfilled and proud of us all. I can see how I'm getting better and better at this Mom thing. It takes a little challenge and difficulty to stretch me so I can see that. So, I'll say it again:
I did a good job today.

Baby Proofing - The Results Show

A while back I wrote an entry about baby proofing-- what to safety-fy and what not...

Now that Baby Z is considerably more mobile, I have learned more about baby proofing than you can read in a book. (Although I certainly have much more to learn, I'm sure.) But perhaps some new Mom out there will learn from a little of my experience.

So, there were the obvious dangers I easily wrangled:
Safety gate to keep baby out of laundry room with dangerous cleaning supplies. Blind cord cleat to keep cord out of baby hands and away from his neck.

Then I discovered the not so obvious dangers - the tag behind the refrigerator that flutters so temptingly (yes- the one that reads "Danger of Electric Shock!"):


Then the danger if things happen just right-- and Baby Z plays with the curtains until the rod falls down?:


And then...the, oops-I-didn't-think-of-that-I'm-glad-it-didn't-seriously-injure-him danger:
Baby Z swung the blinds sideways and it swung back and hit him in the cheek. So now I keep the blinds raised above where he can reach.

As always, the best child proofing is supervision. And I'm happy to say I've developed the Mommy ears that can hear Baby Z even thinking about touching the fireplace, or TV stand, or whatever...

Firsts

Baby Z played on a swing for the first time today. For the past few weeks I've been walking past the park thinking I've got to put Baby Z in a swing- he would love it. But I kept forgetting wet wipes and hand sanitizer. I know. First Mom. Germaphobe. (But did you see that Good Morning America on the germs found at playgrounds!)

Finally, today, I brought everything I needed to put Baby Z in the swing, including my camera and video camera. So, I thought I would share a clip.


Honestly, I should have taken video of me instead, because I had a HUGE smile on my face. I can't believe how much fun it is to introduce Baby Z to new things. And there are so many new things ahead!