Jennerosity

Eating

He really takes after Benevolance with his eating habits. Mostly, he enjoys vegetables, with a couple notable exceptions. So far, his favourite foods are:

• Butternut squash
• Sweet potato/yam
• Carrots
• Green beans
• Prunes!
• Strawberries
• Pancakes

He definitely doesn’t like baby cereals. We tried homemade rice and oat cereals and he spat both out. He’ll eat regular oatmeal prepared with cinnamon and yoghurt though. I’m looking forward to trying out some different grains with him.

He’s also developing his pincer grasp. We started with some banana covered in wheat germ and he got it in to his mouth. During the course of this he also got it in his hair, up his nose, in his ear, and crusted onto his forearms. But it was still totally worth it!

He’s also really good with a spoon. If the spoon is moving slowly towards his mouth he will grab it with his hands and maneuver it in to his mouth and turn it over so he can get the food out with his tongue and teeth. After he’s done chewing on it and playing with it, he will often put it down in his tray (or sometimes drop it on the floor) indicating he’s ready for his next bite. If he’s full he’ll stop the spoon or grab the food off of it and start playing with it instead.

Moving

Inch-worm crawling all over the place at the beginning of the month. Now that we’re at the end, he’s doing more traditional crawling, alternating hands and knees. But his favourite thing to do is pull himself up using furniture or people and practice standing and taking baby steps. He’s getting quite bold!

Sleeping

We’re getting back to some longer stretches again. His little body just wants to be practicing his moving all the time now so it’s sometimes hard to get him to settle down. He will also toss and turn in his sleep and will usually roll himself onto his tummy to sleep since that is more comfortable for him.

Other stuff:

• Loves his jolly jumper
• Has 4 teeth
• Will sometimes wave & high five
• Threw his first temper tantrum (when I took him away from hitting our full-length mirror)
• Sits in the kid seat of the grocery cart

I finally transferred a bunch of iPhone pictures to my computer but haven’t gotten them all uploaded yet. However any time you want the link to his online Flickr album, just let me know!

I can’t believe we are already at 7 months! Locutus is looking more and more like a little boy each day.

Eating is going very well. We’ve started trying out different foods and so far no allergic reactions. He sometimes makes a face (avocado, yoghurt, and applesauce in particular) but always eats whatever we give him. He loves to bang on his high chair tray and play with his spoon. The clear favourite so far is squash.

Sleeping has taken a tiny step back this month. Due to the introduction of solid foods Locutus is more gassy. Which means he cries when I lie him flat in his crib. He’s usually good for about half the night and then I can’t put him down. Hopefully as his system adjusts he won’t have so many problems.

Moving is still about the same. He’s taken a few tiny crawls forward but had yet to close any major distance. However, he loves to bounce. Until we get the jolly jumper installed my arms have been getting quite the workout!

Other stuff

• is starting to respond to his own name
• is beginning to learn how to wave
• is exploring loud volumes of sound at high frequencies
• can sit unassisted for longer periods of time
• loves to be held up in a standing position
• is working on his third and fourth teeth

Locutus has also entered that stage where strangers sometimes make him cry. And a stranger can be anyone who isn’t mom or dad. He’s also a little bit clingy and will sometimes start to cry even if I’m just out of his line of sight. I’m hoping he moves through this stage soon, though I know in hindsight it’s going to seem like the blink of an eye no matter what.

If you want to be sent a link to Locutus’s online photo album, please leave a comment or connect with me via email, Facebook, or twitter!

Eating: Still nursing and eating lots! His curiosity sometimes gets the better of him and he gets distracted by other things that are happening around us. We have yet to venture into the land of solid foods. But the interest is definitely there on his part. He is reaching for foods (making it difficult to hold him while eating) and watching with a lot of curiosity. Haven’t seen how he reacts to a spoon in the mouth yet, but hopefully by next month we’ll have some solid experiments to report!

Sleeping: When his teeth bug him, he wakes up more frequently, but he’s still doing pretty awesome in the sleep department. Some days he even takes longer naps, but he’s still mostly a cat-napper.

Moving: He’s made a lot of progress here in the last month. He now rolls from his back to his tummy, rolls from his tummy to his back (mostly by accident), pushes backwards with his arms, planks on his hands and toes, pulls his knees under him, and rocks back & forth in his knees. He’s lunged forward a couple times from a kneeling position to face plant. He’s so close to crawling that we’ve taken to betting on when it might happen.

His upper body movements are also a lot better. He controls his arms and hands and can direct objects (hands, glasses, toys, etc) where he wants them. He also twists and leans toward or away from things making him a squirmy handful at times.

Other stuff:

• Blows raspberries and babbles
• Laughs socially
• Has started to play the dropping game
• Sits unsupported for a few moments. He can’t pull himself up without help yet.
• Can touch his toes

That’s about it for the last month. If you want to see pictures, let me know in the comments or by email and I’ll include you the next time I send out a link.

Two recent developments that I’ve got somewhat mixed feelings over: yanking and screaming. He already knew how to grab things, like toys or my hair, and pull, but now he’s figured out how to really yank back and forth. I guess he likes the ‘fun’ noises that happen when he does it. Back to bun hairdos for a while I guess.

The screaming I’m mostly ok with for now, especially since they are happy screams. But I’m not sure if my patience will stand the test of time for this phase. Particularly when I’m holding him and his mouth is next to my ear. We’ll wait and see I guess.

Glad to report that everyone survived the weekend trip away. Here’s a brief rundown of how things went.

Friday:
Left early! This turned out to be the best for Locutus since it overlapped some of his normal sleeping time.

Drove down to St. Helens, Oregon. We took frequent stops but made good time. Arrived in the early afternoon and had time for a walk in the rain before dinner.

Had spaghetti for dinner and lots of chatting and catch up time. Then it was off to bed pretty early. Despite all the sleep in the car, Locutus still fell asleep around the same time.

Saturday:
I got up early again, but Locutus slept in a bit longer. We ate Grandpa Bob’s famous pancakes for breakfast.

Most of our spare time was spent getting caught up talking. Barbara brought her knitting and crochet projects to work on and Grandma was finishing up a quilt. Kim and Grandpa were each working on a different book. I kind of wish I had brought my crochet stuff down so I could have worked on finishing the hat I started. But Locutus kept me from being bored anyway.

Lunch was sandwiches with veggies and I had leftovers of both the spaghetti and the pancakes. I generally got spoiled with food the entire time.

The afternoon we went for another walk in the rain. The only other thing I wished I’d brought was better rain gear so that I could have walked longer. But it was still nice to get some fresh air and a bit of exercise.

Just after our walk more family arrived! Aunt Robin, Uncle Richard, and my cousin Chun Mei. They brought along Robin’s mother Jean as well. So we played more catch up during the afternoon and Locutus got another present with more books and a cute frog bath mitt.

Dinner was delicious pork roast. And there were lots of cookies and cake for dessert. Chun Mei plays viola and played a selection of songs for us. She stayed overnight as well because she was going to play at Grandma and Grandpa’s church on Sunday morning.

Locutus got lots of time to wiggle on the floor and showed off with a few rolls each way and lots of general cuteness. He let his Great Grandma hold him and sing him to sleep. He also loved to flirt with his Great Aunt Robin who loved holding him too.

Sunday:
Started pretty early again. Barbara made people omelets and we helped ourselves to cereal, toast, leftover pancakes and fresh fruit. Then we packed up and hit the road.

Locutus fussed a bit on the way home but thankfully we made some extra stops to get him fed and that helped a lot.

Things I learned on this trip or things to do differently next time:
-it’s important to know where/when your rest stops are! So glad to do the trip with someone familiar with the route.

-I really hate disposable diapers. Thankfully we had only 2 leaks, but I was more worried about that than I would have been with our cloth diapers. Plus something about the fake plasticky smell of the diaper (even clean ones) makes my stomach churn and my skin crawl.

-Should have switched to my travel jacket and brought the rain cover for the ergo so we could have walked more.

When I was pregnant I had such grand plans for doing monthly check-ins about the baby. But here we are at almost 5 months and I’ve barely blogged a thing. I’m just happy that I’m only 2 months behind processing and uploading photos! Here are the basics on his progress:

Eating
He is happily doing very well on breast milk still. Thankfully his tendency to cluster feed has slowed down a bit so my evening is a little more than just switching him from side to side while he chows down. As a result he’s also grown like a weed and now weighs over 15lbs (though I’m convinced that at least six ounces of that is drool at any given time). At around 6 months we’ll start introducing solid foods and I’m sure that will be a whole new ball game!

Sleeping
We are quite happy with how he has been sleeping. Since he catnaps during most feeding sessions, he can stay awake for quite a few hours in between naps. He’s a bit of a night owl though and won’t go to bed before 10pm most nights. Depending on what’s happening, he goes to sleep for a couple hours or will sleep for 6 or 7 before waking up again. But it usually isn’t difficult to get him to sleep again.

Other stuff
He’s already started teething and the front bottom teeth are now peeking out from his gums. Lots of other little bumps in his mouth though so the rest might be in hot pursuit.

He doesn’t yet sit up on his own but he keeps lunging forward with his head and neck and bouncing his legs to build up those core muscles. He’s also started trying to pull himself up using his crib rails (up until now he’d only try with mummy or papa’s hands).

I can sense that his first roll is imminent. He keeps trying it out a little but then chickening out at the last minute. He’s enjoying tummy time a lot more now though and can wiggle around like the hands on a clock on his front or his back. I don’t anticipate much time to blog once he gets mobile.

It’s interesting what personality traits are coming up too! Loves music, especially jazz songs sung by Benevolance. Not too fond of books yet though. And he’s already showing a streak of stubborn independence just like me.¹ He loves to explore new things and is constantly discovering them all around him. His current fascination is with sinks.

He still has blue eyes and blonde hair. We’re starting to see some hair shedding now, but he still has lots left. At least if he goes bald, it’ll be for the start of spring instead of winter!

It’s clear that he’s started having dreams when he sleeps. Sometimes he’ll chuckle a bit as he lies there. Other times he’ll start to cry in his sleep.

1. I tried to help him grab a toy the other day but he wouldn’t take it at all with my help. He’s also started to fuss when I help him roll. [↩]

One of the ways to overcome some of my fears of motherhood is to scope out the places I’m afraid of going to. Basically to go there with the intention of seeing how child friendly they are and then going home. Then when you do take the next step, you know what to expect.

So I’m making a list of places that I should check out. This was difficult because I enjoy doing a lot of things at home and don’t go out much to begin with. But here’s the list I stretched out as much as possible:

• Costco
• The library
• Michael’s
• The mall
• Westminster Quay
• Granville Island
• The pool

As a first time mama, things can be exhilarating but also terrifying. Inspired by the Fearless Friday post on Rookie Moms, I’ve decided to share a post on some of my fears of motherhood. Hopefully I’ll also be sharing as I conquer each fear too. For now just the process of writing out the list is therapeutic.

(Please note that comments are disabled on this post simply so I don’t get a lot of ‘don’t feel bad . . . ,’ ‘I can totally relate . . . ,’ or ‘you should try . . .’ type of comments. If you really have something to say that falls outside of these comment categories then you can email me directly.)

These are the things I’m scared to do:

• Changing him in a public location
• Breastfeeding in a public location
• Taking him solo on a major shopping outing (groceries that require a buggy or any shopping location that isn’t within walking distance)
• Generally being alone out in public with him
• Having his grandparents over at my house
• Travelling by public transit
• Travelling by airplane
• Letting him be diaper free
• Leaving him with anyone
• Bringing him to the garage/gym with me while I workout

Happy to announce that we are finally ready to begin paying out the baby betting pool winners. We wanted to wait a couple months before paying out just in case Locutus turned out to be Japanese after all. But if he hasn’t changed yet then I guess we’re stuck with him as is.

We had a winner for length, but none for weight nor due date (no one picked 9/11, go figure).

Every generation faces new parenting issues. For our generation, social media has blurred the lines between “real life” & “online life.” As new parents, sharing our children online seems only natural. But there are also issues of privacy to consider. More importantly, I want to allow my children to develop their own identity and sense of self, both on and offline. To help give them that chance online we decided not to publish photos or use their real name online.

Thus, the screen name the baby contest was born. We got a lot of really good entries from our friends and then decided to wait until he was born before finally deciding.

Even before he was born, we were already leaning toward one name as a favourite. We seemed pretty certain after he was born that one particular name was the best fit.

Then one evening as Benevolance and I discussed the options I made a flippant comment on how surprised I was that no one had suggested Locutus as his screen name. We shared a look and kind of laughed about it. But in the backs of our minds we knew that Locutus was the right name for him, even though the other name was very close to being just right.

I do feel a little guilty that I won my own contest. However, we’re still giving out the prize to our friend Calvynne who suggested the nearly perfect screen name for him¹.

So, from here on in, you’ll get to hear me talk about our son Locutus.

1. And are reserving the name he suggested for potential future kids [↩]