Evening: Sitting

We are working on sitting.

Aed is getting pretty stable, but still quickly leans to the side if left with no support when sitting. He really enjoys sitting with his little cups and picking them up and banging them together.


I also discovered several weeks ago that he has a real thing for my penguin pajamas (I have a thing for them too, I must admit).




Turns out, I can toss him these pajama pants and he is entertained through my entire shower! I knew I loved those penguins with good reason :)

::Thus concludes our morning and evening updates. Thanks for tuning in::

Morning: He’s Tricksy, That One

Aed kicks. He kicks a lot.

He is constantly moving. This is part of the reason he is a bottomless pit that eats solids 14 times a day and nurses 67 times a day.

Lately he has begun to rub his heels together as he kicks. This can be because he is happy or because he is angsty or because he is altogether raging at the world. It can also be because I am trying to get his shirt on. Darn shirts.

This particular type of kicking often leads to uncovered tootsies.

Exhibit A


He is always kicking off his socks and shoes! I have tried everything short of duct-taping them to his legs and nothing keeps them on. I just can’t take him anywhere!

In other news..

Apparently in Scotland, dump trucks say..


Brum, brum, brum!

Who knew!?

Evning: Sickie

My hubbers is a sickie right now. His froat is sore, and his nose is wunny, and he is coughin, and has a heagache.

He was also groaning all night. He had no idea he was doing it. Every exhale was a groan. I slept in a different room :)

Poor guy.

However. This sickness has lead to some very funny happenings around here. My already absent-minded husband has gotten worse in the fog of a head cold.

Yesterday he was headed to the fridge to get some Sprite. Next thing I know he is telling me he was thinking about how he had to go to the bathroom and proceeded to unzip his pants in front of the refrigerator to take care of this need. Fortunately, he realized his error before it was too late.

Then, I kept thinking I was hearing water running last night. I thought it was the toilet running in the laundry room, but was still hearing it much later. I went in there to investigate and found the tap in the sink running on full blast and HOT. He apparently washed his hands and then left without another thought!

Oh hubby. :)

I also learned that amidst this dazed forgetfulness (without any mind-numbing medications I might add), during his tutorial, he almost began whispering to one of his students. Might not sound funny until you know that this particular student had lost his voice and so had to whisper all of his questions. Apparently, Ian’s mind thought it only appropriate to whisper back.

This might be the funniest Ian has ever been when sick.. Though we will all be much happier when he is better. :)

Morning: Oh That Head

Our kid has a big noggin.

This makes hats interesting.

Also, it makes getting his shirts on interesting.

Back to the hats.

We were given an adorable striped hat way back when that is size 6-12 months. I tucked it away thinking I’d pull it out when he was, you know, 6 months or so. I found it the other day and thought I’d go ahead and wash it to put in the repertoire just in case it might fit him soon.

This is what I found..


It’s almost too small already!


Barely covers his ears!

Who is this kid!?

We are using it anyway because we like it, but I don’t think it’s going to last much longer unless his big head stretches it out. Sheesh :)

Evening: Finger Sucker!

(I told you I had lots of pictures to update!)

This kiddo is biting and sucking like crazy! He is constantly drooling and pulling things into his mouth. And, while Hope and Wes were here we discovered two little lumps that will be two little teeth before we know it! (I didn’t even know they were there until Hope pointed them out to me in Bella’s mouth, so I thought I’d check Aed’s and lo and behold, there they were!)

He is often chewing on his hands, but in the last week he has established some favorites.

The first favorite is the thumb of the left hand. (this also often leads to poking himself in the eye)


The second is the pointer and middle fingers of the right hand.


The order and position of the fingers and hands may not be tampered with. There is no variance. He has never sucked his right thumb, nor has he ever sucked those two fingers together on his left hand. Crazy kid!

Morning: Month Five: My Salvation

I have always loved our baby. The intensity with which I love him is always growing, but I have always loved him.

As you know, he has made our lives crazy in good ways and in really tough ways. He has brought on sleepless nights and tearful days. He has given us cause for more trips to the hospital here than both of us had combined before his birth. He has amazed us as we have watched him grow and learn about the world he lives in.

Well. Let me tell you. Month number five has changed my life more than any other so far.

Suddenly, my baby can sleep. I wrap him up, sing to him, give him a cuddle (oh I love those cuddles), put him down, leave the room and don’t hear a peep til he is ready to get up. We go through this routine three times a day and, brace yourselves.. there is consistency in the time of day these naps happen! (roughly 8:30, 12:30, and 3:30, if you must know :)

I no longer dread trying to figure out when he is tired and how I’m going to get him to go to sleep.

I no longer have a break down every 2 days because I am so exhausted and tired of hearing my baby scream.

I also no longer eat dairy. I firmly believe this is a factor in the changes we are seeing (though not in my waistline.. turns out you can still bake things that taste veeeery good without using dairy :). I have had suspicions that dairy might be an issue for a while, so several weeks ago I cut it out completely. He sleeps so much better now! And, when I lost track of myself and ate a muffin a few weeks ago and was rewarded with a sleepless night, I was also affirmed that this is probably a real issue for our baby boy. (I don’t know a ton about dairy sensitivity aside from the symptoms of it, but I do know that it is not an intolerance like many adults have, it’s just an inability for their little bodies to process the milk protein, and is something that he should outgrow.)

He is so much happier (though just as intense!) during the day, and is this close to consistently only waking up once to eat during the night.

We are able to do so many more things during the day and spend more time together as a family.

Our little munchkin is such a joy to us and we are SO thankful for him :)

p.s. I realized that our poor, deprived baby boy will never have a 6 month birthday or be able to celebrate his ‘half’ birthday during the year! Being born on August 30th makes your half birthday February 30th and I’m afraid to say, that day doesn’t exist. What’s a boy to do?!

Evening: Chillin’ on the Floor

I try to make sure Aed gets floor time every day. I decided to break out the camera the other day and he was much more interested than he ever has been in that little black object!

First he reached for it.


Then he realized that he needed to rub his eyes since it was getting close to naptime.


Then he gazed longingly at my hands as they played with all the buttons.


THEN he realized there was a strap hanging in his face.. Here’s where the fun begins..






I was able to reclaim the strap and the camera, and we took care of those tired eyes too.

Morning: Remember when I used to be an artist??

Me too!

I seem to be much more productive when I am doing things for other people rather than myself, which is something I need to work on if I’m ever going to be a consistent artist again!

A friend of mine here just recently had a baby and while she was still preggers, she showed me these little collages she really liked that she thought she might make for the nursery area of their bedroom in their flat.

I never heard anything else about them, so I decided to be sneaky and make them for her, but couldn’t find the original pictures she had shown me, so I made them up!

I hunted around town for some paper and got to work!

I came up with a snail..


A dragonfly..


And a bumblebee!


It was definitely a learning process as I went and got used to the various papers. I had a mishmash of ‘craft’ paper that turned out to be more like printer paper than anything, and different wrapping papers. But I think they came out pretty cute, and I have heard that baby Kate likes to stare at them, so that’s good right? :)

Fortunately I’ve been asked to do a few other projects in the next month or two (including actually finishing what I’ve started for Aed’s room!) so hopefully I’ll busy in my ‘studio’ once again!

Evening: Culinary Exposure

We have hit the road with the solids here in the Church household and are going strong! We decided that since we’re giving Aed cereal several time a day, we might as well start introducing other foods so he’s getting a wider variety of nutrition and taste experiences.

So, I did what any mother would do.. I started feeding my kid a bunch of foods that I think are gross!

We began with sweet potatoes and as you can see, he didn’t even flinch! It was definitely love at first bite and the love has only grown since. I made this video for Daddy, since he couldn't be there for the big event :)



Next we introduced avocados, which were also well received. I quickly learned however that my son is my son, and he is very sensitive to textures. If there are ANY chunks, he promptly spits them out, but usually, we end up with an empty bowl and a happy camper.



He has also tried pears, which are touch and go. He liked the first batch I made, but not so much this second batch.. I think they weren’t quite ripe enough so they are too grainy. He seems to really like apples, and he seems to really hate green beans. I think they’re too lumpy. He also won’t eat bananas. They make him gag. Again, I think it’s the texture. I’m going to try them in the food processor instead of just mashing them to see if I can get them smoother so he’ll eat them. Maybe I just have a lover of veggies! Can’t complain about that :)

Morning: Just Like Daddy

We enjoyed a visit from Wes, Hope, Ben, and Bella last week! Aed had a great time with more people in the house and thoroughly enjoyed staring into, drooling on, and biting kissing his cousin’s face (Bella’s, to be specific). One of the days they were here, Ian decided he needed to do something that he couldn’t do while holding Aed. I was out of the room and when I came back, this is what I found..


So cute! Daddy propped him up with a book :) This is one of his favorite books, ‘That’s not my Puppy.’ He is currently the on the ‘its ears are too fuzzy’ page.. that’s the best page in the whole book.

And I couldn’t resist those little feetsies!

Evening: Tummy Time!

Aed doesn’t love tummy time, I think I have mentioned this before. He’ll stay on his stomach in a contented manner for a few minutes before he starts failing. He does roll, which is fun, I just don’t think he has put two and two together yet because he doesn’t seem to realize that all he has to do is roll if he doesn’t want to be on his tummy.

Here he is showing off his mad head raising skeelz..


(omygosh look at his cute hands!!)

And he does this a lot..


Sometimes it turns into a roll, sometimes he just leans from side to side.. you’ve got to work those triceps, you know.

These next pictures are more recent.. I couldn’t resist because he looked like such a little boy in that outfit :)


And, for your viewing pleasure, I took a picture of him while he was getting angry about being on his tummy.


Note the red face, throbbing head veins, and furrowed brow.. These are the beginnings of a perfect storm..

Let’s Play Catch Up!

Well I have been able to sort through all kinds of pictures of our baby boy, but alas, I cannot get the videos we’ve taken to work on my computer. I’m going to toy with them a bit, but until I get that worked out I’ll be posting lots of adorable photos :) Since there seems to be so much to update on, there will be a new post morning and evening til we’re caught up!

These photos were taken a few weeks ago and it’s amazing to see how quickly Aed changes.

We learned shortly after we got back from the States that he is still LONG. He has jumped his growth curve and is now almost in the 90th percentile for length – apparently he had a growth spurt while we were away! And, it doesn’t seem to matter how much food we shovel into his mouth, he has stayed steady in the 25th percentile for weight.


In other news.. He still makes this face..


He loves that lip!

Sometimes he does let go of it in order to give us a few of these..



Which we can’t get enough of :)

I am thankful that life is not static. Is that the word I want? Static? All I can think of is radio and TV static, which is not what I mean.

I mean I am thankful that change is a reality.

Even if there are constants in your life, change is inescapable. It seems to hit just when I feel like I'm starting to get my feet under me again. Just when I'm getting comfortable and confident. Just when I'm realizing how much I don't want things to change.

We have experienced some hard changes in our short married life, both individually and together. I didn't want very many of them to happen. Some of them I had to be dragged through. But in looking back on this one or that one, I am finding that as hard as it may be to swallow at the time, the change seems to lead to good things.. Even if those good things are at the end of a painful, winding road.

A change of plans, a change of location, a change of lifestyle. If you're not expecting it, it's like getting punched in the gut and then falling out of a window having no idea how far the ground is. No idea if you'll land on your wobbly feet or in a broken pile of flesh and bones with no one to help you up.

Hm.

We are mulling some changes. Is mulling the right word really? I think I'm having some word issues tonight..

They are not changes that are definitely happening, but I can feel it just around the bend. The plates are shifting.. The pot is being stirred. I'm not ready for it yet. I'm not ready to lose my footing again.

But before it hits me head on, I can say that I am thankful that the nature of life is change. I will not be the same person on February 7th, 2011 that I am today. I think that's a good thing.

P.S. All you lovers of the Aed out there.. I know.. I'm sorry.. I got your hopes up thinking you'd get to see him every day, and then I dashed them with my inconsistency. I have new photos and some videos of our precious munchkin that I would love to show you, but my hard drive has reached its limit. I hate when it does that. So I have to be responsible and clean it up so I can fit more things on it. Until then, you'll have to just imagine his cuteness (and oh is he cute!). I'll try not to take too long! :)