Nubbins

Last night, we went to a reading at Powell's to see Heather Armstrong, creater of dooce.com, one of our favorite blogs. Heather read a couple of passages from her new book and answered questions. We loved seeing her. The title of this post refers to Heather's category for a quick post about something that happened recently. As it turns out, I have a few things that fit the bill.

Last night was a big night for me. Jude managed to move from one part of the floor to another for the first time. E Ben has had a few "wow" moments with Jude, but this was my first big one. We were all sitting in the laundry room. Jude was on the floor playing on his tummy and E Ben and I were chatting while I was folding laundry. Every once in a while I'd look over at Jude and he'd be in the crawl position with a huge grin on his face. Before we knew it, he had scooted backwards about 10 feet and was almost in his nursery. Then he got overwhelmed (maybe by his accomplishment?) and needed to be held for the next half hour. I loved it.

After our Powell's date, we went out to dinner at Ristorante Roma. For our Portland readers, we highly recommend this place as the most authentic Italian food we've had in our city. After a great meal of salad, pastas, and Straccetti, we vowed to return soon.

Finally, a word on health. Last Thursday I had a scary experience. I was feeding Jude his evening meal of winter squash when I started feeling funny. E Ben took over the feeding job while I went to the bathroom. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground and E Ben was screaming in my ear. I guess he heard a thud, called my name, and then when I didn't answer, he ran into the bathroom to check on me only to find me sprawled across the floor. Other than a few bruises, I seem to have emerged unscathed from this experience, but it was scary. What if I fainted while carrying Jude down the stairs? I hate to even think about it. My sister reminded me that I had a similar experience in Hawaii last year when I was about a month pregnant with Jude. We spent a couple of days wondering if I might be pregnant again, so I ordered some tests which arrived over the weekend. Negative. *sigh of relief*

Developments

In re-reading my last post, I realize that I forgot to include a very good picture of what Jude is like at this age.  Developmentally, he has made a lot of progress this past month.  He'll now sit up unsupported for minutes at a time if we put him in the right position and he feels like sitting (mostly depends on whether he has something interesting to do while sitting).  Once he's done with sitting, he'll lean forward and either fall on his belly or spend sometime in the "crawl" position before flopping forward.  From his belly, he'll push up into the crawl sometimes, but more commonly into an "upward dog" yoga pose, then scoot backwards a little bit.  He can rotate all the way around from his belly or scoot backwards (although I don't know if that is on purpose).  He still loves to stand up, and letting him do that is a sure way to get some smiles.

Jude also loves crawling all over me and attacking my face.  Our latest game is where he opens his mouth up as wide as he can and tries to eat my chin, nose, cheeks, or ears.  At the same time I'm trying to eat his neck.  He loves it and it's a game he only plays with me.  E Ben is not so lucky.  He also giggles uncontrollably when we play the tickle game.  I make a certain noise and start moving my fingers towards him very slowly and he laughs in anticipation.  Then when I actually reach his neck or tummy he squeals and we start all over again.

Jude has also started "talking" more clearly.  His favorite word right now is "Da" and "Dada".  He says it when he sees E Ben or me.  I think he thinks it means "parent" or maybe he is just making sounds.  It will be interesting to see what he says next!

Jude is really close to being able to sleep through the night.  We've had a few nights where he slept for 10 or 11 hours before waking to eat (I know for most people that would count as "sleeping through the night", but Jude sleeps for 12 hours a night so we're waiting for the day that he doesn't need to eat at all during that time).  Unfortunately on the 10-11 hour days, his whole schedule is in flux for the day (he is hungry and does not take good naps), so we have gone back to making sure to feed him by 4am so that he can sleep until 7 and have a normal day.  My sleep book says that he'll be developmentally ready to sleep for 12 hours without eating when he's about nine months old, so I think we'll wait until then to try to push for a full night.

Ok, here are a few more photos:

My grandmother Ninette is camera-shy, so this is the only good photo we have of her with Jude.

Cute and asleep on the airplane.

Bottle or Foot?

Guitar player


Upward Dog.  Or is it Cobra?

Seven

Jude's seven month birthday arrived much more quickly than we expected.  During his seventh month we battled illness and visited Florida.  Florida was much more fun.

Jude is now eating two largish meals a day and he has tried about ten foods.  He has liked all of them so far except for banana.  We need to keep trying with that one.  We've been making most of our own baby food, with the exception of commercial cereals and some fruits.  We discovered the joys of Gerber pears on our Florida vacation and now we don't go anywhere without a pack or two.

I'm still nursing, although I expect to stop sometime in the next couple of months.  I'm tapering down on the medication that I was taking to increase my milk supply, and I don't know how my body will react to that.  So far, it does not seem to be decreasing my supply significantly, but we'll see.  I used to pump several extra times a day (like at night before going to sleep) in order to get enough milk for Jude to drink while I'm at work and build a supply of frozen milk in the freezer.  At this point, I've stopped that and I only pump while I'm at work or if he's away from me for the day.  Jude gets a bottle of formula before he goes to sleep, and we supplement with extra formula as needed during the day.  But the two meals of solid foods seem to fill him up pretty well, so our formula bill is still fairly low.

Jude was a great traveler and charmed everyone on the plane.  Our last flight was the most challenging - it was very hot and Jude would not fall asleep without being swaddled.  We were luckily sitting next to a very nice man with four kids of his own.  For the next trip, we're going to make a lightweight "swaddle sheet" for the airplane!

Here are a couple of photos from vacation.


Jude eating avocado on the patio.

At the beach with Oma, wearing a sun hat that E Ben wore as a baby.

Dead asleep in the car seat after a long day of travel.

Sharper Image

I spent a half an hour this morning sharpening my kitchen knives with a basic two-sided sharpening stone. They have been getting dull, and I no longer have the option of taking them in to the Fort Vancouver High School Culinary Arts department for some semi-professional help. No matter! Dave and Dave taught me all I needed to know. Also this link from Cooks Illustrated didn't hurt.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/JA01_ISsharpenknives.pdf

Jude Makes a Splash in Florida

Jude racked up another state this month. We spent a week in Florida for some much needed sunshine. Down to visit great-grandmother, we also introduced our boy to the wonders of world travel.


Long plane flights

Lounging by the pool

Swimming!

Riding in the bike trailer - safety first!

Looking good at the beach

Backgammon games!

We had a great time, relaxing in the warm weather. It is amazing to watch the world through our little boy's eyes. We rented a bike trailer, and ran Jude around every day on our beach cruisers. He is so curious about the world! I couldn't resist giving him a handful of sand at the beach one day. Great move, Dad. Right in the mouth.

Perspective on Dadhood

This was a tough week for the Cornett & Company. Sick baby, sick mama, and sick daddy. Daddy was already kind of a sicko, but having everybody under the weather reminds us of how lucky we are the rest of the time.

There is something character defining about being awake at 5am, a little feverish yourself, and walking the floor with your feverish and crying baby. I am careful here not to use the word "fussy", because 6 months of parenthood has definitely helped me to define the difference between sick and grumpy. There is a certain pitch of the cry that rolls over in my daddy brain. It sends a signal that is not mistakable for anything else. The coughs and cries that bring me down the hall to the nursery at night turn to shrieking wails as I try to rock him back to sleep. He quiets when I hold him, and he screams bloody murder when I put him down. So eventually we settle for a compromise, propped up in the brown upholstered chair in the laundry room. We give him some medicine for the fever, talk softly, rock gently, and try to survive the night.

This isn't even the hardest part. Only in parenting are you forced to make these kind of decisions that affect another person's life or future brain function - should we go the Emergency Room because his fever is 103? Or . . . should we go back to bed? Shhhhh. He's sleeping now. His rosy cheeks begin to fade. I set him down gently and his eyes do not flutter. Those glassy eyes that looked up at me an hour before are resting now. I lay myself down on the bed in his room and listen to the ragged breathing and the hum of the humidifier. The light grows softly in the window, and the spring birds begin their pre-dawn noises.

Nobody told me I signed up for all of this! But I'm not going anywhere.

Sick Day

We've all been getting sick over the past few days, and Jude was hit hard last night. I always wondered if I'd be able to tell if he was sick at night, but it was immediately obvious. We took turns trying to rock him to sleep. In the end, infant Tylenol and sleeping on E Ben's lap were the only remedies. Now I know why people say that having a sick baby is so hard! We visited a co-op preschool today that we're considering for next year. Jude slept through most of the visit in the Ergo since he didn't get enough sleep last night.

We have a few cute photos from the past week or so.


Jude loves to practice standing. We make this "nest" for him so he can practice falling down too.


This shirt is from my doctor. "I was delivered by Dr. Robin W. Barrett"


Jude and Brady had some tummy time together.


Jude had a haircut today. He loved it.