And He's Off!

Dad got him ready for spring training this morning!

Yes, the past couple days he has made movements "forward" but today, he *really* moved forward, and more than once! His favorite toy to chase after are the stacking cups (a couple of them in the background) that Aunt Lucy gave him. He also loves when I stack them up so he can immediately knock them down, over and over again. They're also nice to chew on :D

"On The Move"

His movements today are very close to crawling- he has made forward progress! He is beginning to realize getting up on all fours offers forward mobility (other than the usual quick jump backwards). Where will he go from here?On the swings with Oskar! This was Andrew's first time going in the swing on his playground! Though it got cold later in the day, they still had lots of fun!!

Give Me That Pickle!

Andrew loves pickles!!!

He became very upset when Mom took it away...

But was ok once handed his "infant safe feeder" stuffed with banana, dipped in blueberry-pear sauce.

His 'new thing' is feeding himself! He tries stealing his baby spoon away... Wants to try sipping from any cup mom has. Interesting how it's coinciding with his first teeth (today we can see the 2nd lower incisor).

First Tooth

See it? Just one... (His right) lower incisor. It could be felt a couple days ago but now you can see it, slowly coming in. Surprisingly, he hasn't been too fussy about it yet! Yesterday we joined a new baby group at St. Elizabeth's. There were 9 babies! Most of whom are within 3 months in age :D Oskar was there too and he was definitely the most active!
He has great fun dropping objects from his high chair.....

So I put a couple boxes on either side to catch them! They work half the time.

He's starting to steal away his feeding spoon at mealtime (in effort to "feed himself").

Changing his diaper has recently become a major challenge! All he wants to do is scale the wall of his changing table so he can look out the window. Distracting toys barely do the trick...

Dreaming of summer!

Andrew is all ready, with his new sunglasses!

Play date with Oskar

10-month-old Oskar and his Mommy Ragnhild came over today. Our regular baby group got canceled due to the snow storm but that didn't stop us from getting together!

Check out that cool rattle! I want that!

Gimme!

Hey!

We'll have to work on the "sharing" concept with these guys! Though, I think it's some time before the ability to recognize it is possible... After a Google search I turned up this:

When babies under 15 months get together, they alternate between grabbing things out of the other kid's hand, and grabbing the other kid's hair and yanking hard. (OK, sometimes they throw in some drooling and biting for good measure. And if their nails haven't been clipped within the last 10 minutes they'll probably end up doing some scratching, too.)
It's really awful, except for the fact that the other kid doesn't realize that your son is being rude, because they just don't have any social sense yet. He knows that the toy was in his hand and now it's not, but he doesn't really know that the other baby took it. (The developmental spurt that allows babies to understand a sequence of events doesn't even happen until the baby is closer to 10 months, and they can't understand any kind of more complicated program of events until shortly after a year.) So we adults look at it as a horrible interaction, but the kids are just so thrilled to be with other babies that they don't even care.

The task for a child's first year is to learn to trust. When you play with baby and give him what he asks for (remember that for babies there's no difference between want and need), you're teaching him not only to trust you, but to trust the world. It's what's supposed to happen.

Happy Birthday, June!

From the archives:
June's Birthday when she turned 3!

With Tevukas and her new cousin: 2 years later.

Mmmm, let me taste that Lego-castle...

Uncle Mike, you are kinda like Daddy... But I'm not so sure yet!

June received some nice gifts! Uncle Mike intervened Andrew trying to sneak a shiny bow.
Aunt Maureen having fun with one of June's presents.
Can you tell... In this photo, that she's expecting??? YES!!! We are so happy to hear, with
a baby girl this July! Baby is due July 12... Andrew's Birthday! We are thrilled, Andrew will be so lucky to have another cousin so close in age.

MOM!!! Andrew fussed a bit today- between having a cold, drooling from perhaps a bit of teething- and being resistant to taking a nap! Aunt Maureen even set up the pack n play in June's room but he was too interested in his surroundings to nap. He caught his zzz's on the ride home.

Cough, cough, cough

Andrew has his first cold! He's been coughing a lot/runny nose. It seems to be a typical head cold.
He hasn't run a fever. Last night there was a "hell" spell from 2-3:30am where he was difficult to settle down. Since he likes to get to sleep while sucking on his thumb this was soooo annoying for him. He was so stuffed up he couldn't breath through his nose so it took 3 suction episodes and taking him to bed. Unless he's really tired, I need Alex to hold his head so I can get at him. He screams a lot but it's worth it, seeing what comes out and that he can breath afterwards.



YUCK!! Why is Mom feeding me this crap?
Usually the "Super Greens" mixture of spinach, sweet peas and green beans gets mixed with the sweet prunes...

Be Mine!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Andrew will soon be crawling in a room near you... Watch Out!!!
Is anyone willing to place bets when it will happen? I am guessing in two weeks... March 1st.
We will be in for trouble once that happens! Right now he rolls over to see me in the kitchen... BUSTED! He seems to think this is funny and squawks at me.

He is feeling so strong and heavy in my arms lately~ and becoming such a busy-body. I can no long "casually" clip his nails, it has to be on his terms. He has to be pretty much dead-tired.

His latest toy enjoyments have spanded to playing with balls. He likes to see Mom play fetch for him when they roll across the room, too far out of reach. We like to sit together and play catch with his easily-grabbable Red Sox plush ball :D

Andrew easily enjoys laughter with Daddy: he loves touching noses, grab Dad's ears, hits him in the face and tries to put his hands in Dad's mouth (which Daddy doesn't allow).
Andrew babbled Da-da-da all day long today, with some other sound effects and squeals mixed in.

On a troubling note, he started having an occasional cough yesterday... but today it's more productive-sounding, even woke him 15 minutes into his morning nap (which led to a 1 1/2 hour afternoon nap propped up on a pillow with Mom)... And now his nose is sounding a bit boogery. We tried suctioning it but something Andrew previously enjoyed, now detests. Auntie Wendy suggests doing it in front of a mirror to distract him.
Our next strategy, depending on where this goes, is propping his mattress up a bit (so the fluids run down) and administering saline and booger-suction to prevent this from traveling to his inner ear, causing an ear infection (horrors!)...
Keeping an eye on this one...
Hopefully he is well enough for baby group tomorrow....

Mom gets a hair cut

Before....

Andrew has no idea... What a challenge it was for Mom to get a *haircut* today!!! AHHHH is all Mom & Nanna have to say! It was very trying- especially for Andrew- he just had to be doing something other than hanging out in a hair salon for *3* hours! So yes, it took that long- it was an apprentice cut at a Newbury Street salon, "James Joseph". First, he was fine... Mom got a relaxing scalp massage-shampoo.
The cut started slowly.. much talk about the apprentice's choice of materials, the details of where my parts exist, that my hair is so thick and how my right eye is larger than my left, so that's where the part should go...
Then the teacher became sidetracked with 'weatherproofing' the window behind us with packing tape! AH! Didn't they realize we had a *baby* with us???!
Ah- the joys of being a hair model...
SO..... Nana had him well occupied for an hour or so... Then came lunch time! (We started at 11)... and fussing from baby- well, because, he's used to a good schedule. And what was I thinking, that we'd be outta here by now? After all, we did park at a 2 hour meter...
So, I started to get a bit tense. I could start hearing some fussing from the waiting area...
But Nana made-do. We brought some (not-to-messy/staining) pears and some cereal so she was able to feed him then (all while Mom was reminding the stylist that we'd have to "take a break" soon...)
Then baby became FUSSY!!! He'd had enough... I did feed him a bit but that didn't seem to help. The teacher (reasonably so) advised we *had to do something* b/c there were clients there, etc., (no one could stand fussy baby anymore) but at that point only the back of my hair was cut! What were we to do? Andrew got strapped back into his stroller... and, geez, sent down the elevator to the small hallway with Nana. Throughout the rest of the cut (which thankfully, the teacher "stepped up" the pace), everytime I saw someone come through the elevator, I had to wonder what they witnessed and what Nana was experiencing.
Then, a stranger lady (which I expected would happen), came up and asked, "is that your baby?".. and that my assistance was needed... I bounded downstairs to find Mr. Huff-n-puff, soooo ready for his Mama. Oh Geez!
Needless to say, Nana did an awesome job but we wonder when she'll want to sit again!
Perhaps, after this separation anxiety stage....

After!
Next battle: roots!
It's a "Vidal Sassoon" wash 'n wear style. All one length and still Andrew-proof since I can pull it back into a little pony tail :D Later on, he was batting at a few loose strands- more fun for him, too!

Hibernating

It was so cold out, all we did today was listen to the oldies (103.3 FM) while playing with toys, making chicken soup and doing the laundry. May the force be with you!

Whack whack whack! Let me OUTTA HERE!!!

WhaAaAaAAAA!!!!