Ant diary: 18 months

Growth check: We had Ant's 18month appointment yesterday. He was 35 inches (98%), and 24lb 12oz (34%). Which makes him 4th percentile in weight for height. Very tall and skinny, although he looks perfectly well proportioned and not at all emaciated to me. His head size was 41%, which is about where he has been for a while. So that's all good.

Talking: Ant is getting closer and closer to real sentences. He's saying a lot of three word phrases now, and even four-word ones on a fairly regular basis. His first four-worder was "put it Diaper Champ" in response to me asking where we should put his dirty diaper. The other day it was "see ight on pees" (see light on, please). He seems to skip the L's rather than substituting for them. The best phrases have been "Mommy/Daddy, I ove you" - totally out of the blue. Awwwwwwww. Other advances with talking have been the occasional use of pronouns (I, me and my). Also, he added the ABC song to his repertoire. And when "pop goes the weasel" was playing at my sister's house the other day, just the tune, he said "pop the weasel" at the end of it. It is completely astonishing that all this stuff is already in there! He has also started "counting" - he gets the number 2, but I don't think anything beyond that. But he has memorized the sequence - I've heard him say "one two see" quite a few times, and "see sowah sive six seven" (funny how they all start with S), and for Mark he said "eight seven" counting backwards with the microwave. So I think he'll be putting those together soon. He also likes to kiss things (including his milk before I put it in the microwave), and says "mwah" as he does it, just like I do when kissing him. It's funny what little mimics they are!

Movement: Not too much new here. He has taken recently to spinning round and round in circles, often laughing the whole time. Very funny. He also can really ride his fire truck now, pushing himself all the way around the first floor, including turning and backing up. "beep beep beep".

Mental: Ant seems to have a very good memory for words in stories and songs. He can't yet seem to help me find things I'm missing though. I can't wait for that to come! I said last month that it seemed like he was starting to get shapes and colors. Shapes, definitely. He is easily able to get all the shapes into the shape sorter at Mom's house (except the heart, that proved to be a bit of a problem as there's only one way it can go in), and can find the correct shape. Colors he will occasionally get right, but not much more often than random chance. When he does or doesn't want to do something now, he really lets us know, mostly by throwing tantrums. He screams, arches his back, and occasionally has come close to throwing himself out of the arms of the person holding him. It has been particularly bad when we want to put him in the car seat, but he wants to play in the car instead. The doc said that we *cannot* let him play in the car anymore, because then he never knows when we go to the vehicle if it's to play or to go. Made a lot of sense to me. It's going to be tough though, because he really loves playing in there. We have spent hours!

Toys and games: I decided to pull out a couple of puzzles Ant had gotten for Xmas this month, without much expectation. Much to my surprise, he was able to get all the animals in the farm puzzle back in the right places (when I handed the pieces to him one by one), as well as each of the vehicles in the other puzzle. He had the most trouble with the airplane, which he really thought should go in upside down. He still loves his Donald Ducks, and has started to show more interest in having a blankie. Also still really enjoys the school bus, making/crashing towers, and playing in the car. He likes playing taking turns with various things - spoons/forks when we're feeding (we often swap - "Mommy's turn... Antee's turn"), or with the fire truck he sits on (he likes me to sit on it too, but man, the handles stick into my legs!), or taking turns twisting the net on the hockey set with Granny.

Feeding: This has been our first really rough month food-wise. He is turning his nose up at what we offer much more often, and has had a few meals that consist of either practically nothing or something I'd rather he not eat too much of, like cereal bars. One day he had a cereal bar for afternoon snack, then two more for supper. Ugh. He is still gaining weight at the rate of about 1lb/month though, so even when he barely eats I console myself with that.

Sleeping: Same as last month, mostly one nap except when he's under the weather. Going to bed at 7:30. Although I did a bad thing and taught him how to turn on the light in his room. Which means he does that when he wakes up ("ight ON" is what we hear through the monitor), and is no longer happy in his crib until 6:45, wanting to get up closer to 6:15. Bad mommy!!!

Personality: We went to visit our friends M, K and their son B (five weeks younger than Ant) Pres. day weekend. It was so interesting to see the differences between the two kids personality wise. B immediately warmed to me and Mark, and wanted each of us to pick him up quite often. Ant, on the other hand, A) didn't like it when I had B, and B) really was not interested in interacting with M or K. He was either doing something on his own (or with Brendan) or with Mark or me.

Ant diary: Seventeen months

The way I write these diaries each month is to go back to the previous months' entry, read each section again, erase, and write the new entry. It's quite amazing to see each month how much progress has been made since the previous one!

Talking: Two-word phrases are now de rigeur for Ant. He's got the 'belonging' concept down - "Mommy's cah", "Mommy's heah" (hair), "Daddy's petah" (computer), "Antee's shoes", etc. He's using a bunch of other phrases with regularity; "sit down", "cookie monsah" (monster), "curiou Geohge", "ight on/off", "plug in" (or "plug it in"), "Mommy coming!" are just a few examples. Three word combos also pop out quite often, "Happy Buhfday Geohge" is a favorite (one of his favorite curious george stories), this morning he said "Antee coat on" when I opened the closet to get his coat out. The other new thing is singing! So far he "sings" Baa baa black sheep and twinkle twinkle. Doesn't get too much beyone the first couple of lines, although he can fill in words quite a bit further on in the songs.

Movement: He's finally started getting interested in climbing on things like the coffee table and ottoman. And feeding himself with a fork or spoon.

Mental: Ant is surprisingly good at sharing - it will be interesting to see if going to daycare helps or hurts with that. If he's asked nicely, he will almost always hand over a toy he's playing with to another child - at Alexander's birthday party, for example, he was playing with some of Alex's trains. Alex was not pleased with the situation... I asked Ant if Alex could have a turn and as calmly as could be he picked up both trains he had and offered them to Alex. Mom took him to the library yesterday, where Ant played with another boy's train, while the other kid played with Ant's truck. When he decided he was done, he walked over to the other little guy, holding out the train to him!

He absolutely adores his books these days. We start the bedtime routine at 6:45; by 7 we're reading books and usually stop at 7:30 because we think it's bedtime, not because Ant is showing any signs of disinterest. As I mentioned above, he absolutely adores his Curious George book. He has his favorite stories and pages, and will request them by name. What surprises me is that in a LOT of places, if I stop and leave a word blank for him to fill in, he will. Things I would never guess he would know! Like one place where there are footsteps, and all of a sudden they're passing George... I didn't read it quickly enough the other night, and And said "passin Geohge!".

I think he's starting to distinguish colors a bit. In the CG toy store story, there's a page with yellow, blue, green and red hoops. I'll ask him to point out different colored hoops, and he will. I'm not positive on this one yet, will have to do some more querying . He's also got a few shapes down, circles, squares and triangles. He hasn't shown much interest in his shape sorters for a while, I'll have to take those out again and see if he can now get the shapes into the correct holes on his own. Hasn't shown any inclination to do that up 'til now.

Toys and games: Ant has really enjoyed drawing this month. He will often come up to one of us and say "daw, daw!". We've tried different implements, pencils seem to work best. Crayons go in his mouth, markers get on everything (nice big green mark on the ottoman, for example). He still really enjoys taking anything and everything out of boxes, bags, cupboards etc. He also likes his toy screwdrivers and hammers. Still spends an amazing amount of time with the Parents school bus I got for him ages ago, that was definitely a good investment! Another favorite game is playing with water in the sink. He'll say "meas cup" (measuring cup), we'll get one out of the drawer, then "Ahdah, ahdah" (water, water). We take him over to the sink and hold him so he can reach the faucet. He likes to get the water in the cup and drink, pour, turn the faucet on more/less - for a good half hour or more (we usually stop when our arms can't take it anymore!)

Feeding: He's gotten quite good at feeding himself with a spoon. Almost always uses his right hand, although occasionally the left. He can also use a fork fairly well. I was telling him he needs to stab the food with the fork, so now he says "tab, tab!" any time he's using it. Seems to be going through more phases of liking/not liking foods. He was off grapes for a while but is eating them again now, and turning his nose up at bananas, which he used to eat tons of.

Sleeping: Almost always on one nap now, except when he's sick, when he's more likely to do two. He's going down at 7:30 most nights and gets up at around 6:45. Not bad! Occasionally he'll let out a yell or two at around 10pm, but he settles again very quickly.

Daycare: Actually going quite well. Ant still cries when we drop him off, but stops before we even get to the door. Which is nice. He also seems very contented when I look in the window in the afternoons when I pick him up. He really enjoys playing with the other kids - when I picked him up on Tuesday, he was saying "home, home" for a little while, but after I had his jacket on he and his friend Megan were just cracking up at each other. Just standing there, one would laugh, then the other. Back and forth. Just adorable!

Ant diary: Sixteen months

Talking: Well, I stopped tracking words this month; I could have kept it up a bit longer I suppose, but it was getting hard to know which words Ant was just repeating vs. which ones he really knows. Although now for the most part anything he repeats he often will use again in the right context very quickly. The two major changes this month were starting to call us "daddy" and "mommy" instead of "dada" and "mama", and saying "S"s properly (F has now also been replaced with S in a lot of cases, so 'fan', which used to be "han", is now "san". And washing machine has gone from "heen" to "sheen". Some of my favorite words this month have been that Santa says "ho ho ho", mixer (maser), beater (beatah), food processor (pasah), oregano!, climbing, coaster (coaser), flashing (hashi), bannister (bansa), and thermometer (mahtah). He's got almost all the animal sounds now, and when we tell him a new one he picks it up quite quickly. He w as also walking around saying "ay BEE see" for a few days. Occasionally "dee" was thrown in there as well, but mostly it was just abc. Couldn't ever figure out what the trigger for that was, it seemed to be quite random. Finally, he's just starting to put together three word phrases - the other day he said "mommy's car keys", Mark's dad says that Ant said "papa hold bansta", and there have been a few other things that pop out from time to time. He's also started using "it" - as in 'open it' (open-ah), 'dropped it' (dop it), 'find it' (hind it). Okay not quite finally - he's also started saying more and more when we read his books with him. The Elmo lift the flaps book is really cute, he'll say "Oh no!" which is what Elmo says when he can't find his blanket, as well as "hewwo" for the lady talking on the phone, "sinky" (stinky) for the lady holding her nose in the car with Oscar, "dump" for the dump truck, and "cuckoo" for the clock.

Movement: Not too much new here. We've seen lots of walking on tiptoes in the last week or so, which is quite cute. Also he twists his hand back and forth, and says "tatah" (as in the agitator in the washing machine), both when we're down looking at the machine, as well as just randomly. He also has started doing that for the 'wheels on the bus' song.

Mental: One of the things that really astonished me this month was that Ant seems to have memorized at least one of his books. We have the Boynton book "moo ba lalala", and after he learned some of the animal sounds, I started reading to him, leaving spaces for him to fill in the sounds. He got the first two no problem; "A cow says Moo, a sheep says Ba". With no added prompting, he then contined filling them in: "Three singing pigs say La la la"... "little dogs say Ruff Ruff Ruff", "Some other dogs say Bow Wow Wow". He mostly says that dogs say 'woof', so the fact that he filled in the ruff and bow wow, was amazing! Another fun discovery was that one day he was holding the triple paste which goes on his bum, and said "paysht....bum!" again with no prompting whatsoever. He's also started calling himself a baby when he sees pictures or himself in the mirror - although at Mom and Roy's house the other day he pointed to the pictures o f himself and said what I thought sounded very much like Antony. The last big change this month is that he finally seemed to start paying attention to the music playing in the car. We've been having his kids CDs on for a long time, but this was the first month he gave any indication he was listening - after each song ended, at first, he would say "mowah, mowah!". I would respond "more coming, more coming". Now, at the end of each song, he says "coming!". And was incredibly angry when I tried to take him out of the car when we got home the last two nights. I have never ever seen him so upset before! He and Sami seem very enamoured of each other, talking about each other all the time. And they were so excited at Christmas to see the other again, and are really starting to play well, almost together. (The absolute best was when they gave each other a mutual, unprompted hug).

Toys and games: Bowls, pots, pans, thermometers, spoons, wisks were the big favorite this month. Taking them out of the cupboards and putting them into the living room; stacking and unstacking them, and mixing inside them. Also very very happy with the trucks, cars and trains he got for Christmas. As well as the coaster from Mom and Roy! He also is drawing a little bit, and mostly just on the paper. Right handed.

Teeth: Nothing to report.

Feeding: Ant has become a bit more fussy as far as feeding goes. Doesn't seem to like chunks (and spits them out immediately). The beans in minestrone, for example - no way! If I put them through the food processor they go down just fine, so perhaps he has my texture issues. I kinda hope not! He went through a few days of eating very very little, during and after a stomach bug he had, but seems to mostly have improved.

Sleeping: We're mostly on one nap these days, although still two on occasion, especially when he gets up early. We have had a number of days where wake up time has been closer to 7 than 6, which is nice!

Daycare: We went for a transition visit this past week, spent 1.5 hours there. Ant seemed to enjoy himself, particularly liking the windows that let him see into the rooms next door, with the infants and older toddlers. He was saying "hi" to them quite a bit. He also sat at the table with the other kids and had a snack while they had lunch; I was a bit nervous that he wouldn't sit still for long as we're still strapping him into the high chair for meals at home. He starts for real next Thursday.

Ant diary: Fifteen months

Growth check: Ant is still a weed! At his doctor's appt today they measured him as 33.25 inches and 23lb3oz. 94th and 32nd percentiles, respectively. Head at 47cm, 46th percentile. I can't quite believe he's grown two inches in three months, although he lay nice and still for the measuring, so I'm pretty sure it's right.

Talking: Oodles more words this month, approximately 143. And he's very good at repeating things we say, although I don't count them as words until he's used them on his own, for the most part. We were reading a book the other day and I said "the lion is leaving - he's packed his bags to go on vacation", and Ant repeated "vacation" exactly right! Didn't repeat that, but I was impressed that he said it perfectly that one time! Also lots more two word combos, including "baby cwying" at the doctor's office today at various times when we heard that. Some of my other favorite combos includ "heen open" when he wants to open the washing machine (heen), "hone hinging" when the phone rings, and "mama/dada home!". Some other words I'm impressed by include "tainer" for container, empty, home, basement, broken, cooler, dark, fluff (huff), 'geen bean', monkey, oatmeal, pom-pom, power, raisins (hay-in), shower (hower), salmon (hamon), stuck (huck), and waffle. All of which he clearly understands the meaning of. My absolute favorite word though - happy. It has been said to me a couple of times totally out of the blue when we're snuggling on the chair in his room in the morning. SO sweet! He also says snuggle (huggle) although that one isn't official yet.

Movement: For a few days, Ant was practicing walking backwards, but I haven't seen that again for a while. He also really seems to enjoy turning around in circles. Lots of stomping for a while, but that also seems to have stopped for now. He's also learned to throw things a bit, and will say "trow" when he does. Cute! He's 'running' on occasion - not full blown running just yet, but definitely more than walking. Also likes to dance to the radio in his room.

Mental: More leaps and bounds here. He's started pointing out his own body parts if you ask him - he definitely does his hair, ears, bellybutton, knees, toes, and hands. He throroughly enjoys making towers out of objects, saying "towah" the whole time he's doing it. I'm also extremely impressed by his grasp of some very complex concepts - he's understood 'help' for a while, but he uses 'stuck' appropriately when his foot or hand is stuck in something, 'dark', 'home' and 'power'. He's also now got names for a lot of his books - some the actual name (Tails is Tayah, for example), others are something about the book that he gravitates towards. The ladybug book is 'home', because that's what's on the last page which is his favorite. Blue hat green hat is 'oop' (i.e. oops), because that's what we say when the turkey has his clothes on incorrectly. He also will say please when we ask him to, and just the last few days has started sayin g thank you (something like 'ca ca', but very repeatable) when giving something to us. So he doesn't quite understand that concept just yet, but still - the fact that he's saying it is astonishing. Finally, he's now saying "poop" before / while he's going! The other thing I wanted to mention is that he and Sami seem to be getting a lot better at sharing things.

Toys and games: Ant has started enjoying his stuffed animals more, now knows names for a lot of them. He's more into books this month, often bringing them to us to read, or asking for them by name when we're upstairs on his bed. He really likes containers, opening and closing them.

Teeth: The fourth eye tooth just cut sometime in the last day or two. Finally! I can't believe it's been over a month since the third one cut. Now all we have left is the two year molars. Probably get those in the 18-20 month range would be my guess.

Feeding: Pretty much same old, same old here. One thing that's been added is raisins, which he absolutely LOVES. Whenever he's fussy in the car (we still have him facing the back, btw, he really doesn't seem to mind), I just hand him back some raisins and he's happy as a clam. There's also a veggie/butter/seasoning mix from trader joe's that he really likes.

Sleeping: The daylight savings transition went totally smoothly, thank goodness. Although wakeup time has moved back to around 6:15. 6:45 was so nice! Those extra few minutes of sleep, or time to prepare for hockey/gym were very useful. We've been doing one nap on occasion. Sometimes it works well, other times not so well. I think we'll leave him with two aside from a couple of days a week, to mimic what it might be like when he goes to daycare. I don't think we need to push him to one nap every day until he's ready for it. There have also been a few times now when he's woken up in the middle of the night, we've given him a cup of milk, and then put him back in the crib again - and it's worked! We had been taking him into bed with us when that had happened before (which was fairly infrequent). But I tried that the other day and he was only interested in playing, which I was NOT, so I figured I'd try the crib . And it worked like a charm.

Ant diary: Fourteen months

Growth check: None this month, I gave the accurate scale to Kate for when Luther is born. About 22lbs according to the differential in my weight holding Ant vs. not. I figure I'll report height/weight when we have our doctor's appointments.

Talking: Ant is acquiring words at close to an exponential rate. 16 the first month he was talking, 31 the second, and 58 this month. I'll list them all here, but I think this might be the last month I can do that! Ready? apple (ap), boots, bowl, bib, bubbles (buh-buh), brush (dush), baby, boo, beans, chair, control as in remote control (cohn), camera (carya), comb, couch, door, ears, fork (hork), fly (hy), granny (gangy), glasses (gah), gate, hey, hi, hands, hummus (hoom), in, ice, juice, Kate, knee, kiss, lock (ock), more(moh), nose (no), no, out, open (ohp), on, papa (Cup, Pup), pot (cot), Pooh, phone (hone), pizza (peetz), please (pees), puck (pup), rock (gock), spoon (hoon), Sami (hami), shoot, swing, turtle (turt), tissue (shoo), teeth (tooth), toothbrush (tooth), toes, truck (teesh), touch, tower (tow), two (after one), yogurt (gog). Phew! There are also another ten words that I think he might have, but not clear - I'll spare you those! He's also started to put together two word combinations, he's done it about five times now, which leads me to believe that it's a bit more than just coincidence. There are a couple I don't remember, but he has definitely said "key gone" when he can't find one of his favorite (i.e. the BMW) car keys. He said "mama hair" when touching my hair, and just tonight "hy gone" after Mark finally managed to swat the fly that has been haunting us for the last five days. (After which Ant proceeded to say "gone" another hundred times or so!)

Movement: Ant started learning to get off the bed and chair last month, then perfected it this month. Doesn't mean he always does it (like tonight when he basically just walked straight off the edge of the bed - Mark was right there so no worries), but he certainly can, with no prompting. Climbing onto the easy chair that's in his room with the little stool in front of it is also de rigeur. He started 'hopping' (i.e. jumping) this month. Doesn't get much clearance off the ground, if any, but he has the right motion, the knees bending, straightening, and bending again. He also stomps his feet if you ask him nicely. In terms of manual dexterity, he was actually able to get a straw back into a juice box after having pulled it out, with much less difficulty than I would have expected. That's a small hole to get the straw into! He is also starting to make the twisting motion required for screwing and unscrewing cap s - which is going to mean more babyproofing! He still doesn't seem interested in learning how to go down steps on his own. He just wants to walk down with us holding his hands.

Mental: So much going on in there these days. One fun thing is that he's started really imitating us - he likes to 'brush his teeth' (has let me *really* brush them once or twice), brush his hair, and also likes to help us with things - I've been taking my temp in the am to track my cycles which he's seen a few times, so now he enjoys picking up the thermometer and sticking it in my mouth! Also finds it highly amusing to feed us either with his hands or a spoon. I think he's starting to nod 'yes', although it's not 100% clear just yet. One really nice thing is that he does not seem to be in quite so much of a mommy phase. There have been a couple of nights when he has been SO excited to see Mark when he gets home - raising both hands in the air, running around, and squealing with delight. He also finally started holding out his arms to go to Mom when she arrives to babysit, and doesn't cry when I leave anymore. Somewhat bitterswe et ;-) The other things that are new are using the remote control with purpose to turn on the tv, physically turning on the tv (although if we ask him to he'll shut it right off again), turning the clock radio in his room on and off, and in fact just yesterday he really impressed Mark by opening up his closed laptop, then turning it off and on about 47 times. What's funny is that he'll often say "off" or "on" as he's doing it! Over the weekend when Michell, Kevin and Brendan were here, there were a few things that I was surprised by - first, that he wanted to play next to Brendan a lot. He's mostly been off in his own world before. Second, that fairly quickly he was able to understand their names - we could say "touch Kevin", or "touch Michelle", and he would go over to them and touch them, of course, saying "touch" as he did it. Finally, they had a little workbench that counted up, "one, two, three..." all the way to ten. He would push the button to make it say one, and then say "TWO". This went on all weekend, so it was definitely intentional.

Toys and games: More taking things out of containers - my pocketbook and toiletry bag were this month's favorites. The BMW car keys are almost like his lovies - we can give them to him when he's upset and he'll calm right down. Also gets quite upset if he wants one of them and can't find it.

Teeth: This month saw Ant's third eye tooth (bottom right) coming through on 10/17, fourth molar (top left) first cut through on 10/21. The last eye tooth seems to be on it's way with a bit more fussing than these other recent ones. Hopefully it cuts soon. Then all we have left are the two year molars!

Feeding: We are now solely on sippy cups, the bottles have all been washed and put away. No complaints at all, which is nice! We give Ant warm milk first thing in the am and for his bedtime, and cold during the day. Figure he might as well get used to it both ways. Not much else new in the food arena, except that he's starting to eat more veggies that are not pureed. He also likes salmon and scrambled eggs now, but only with ketchup. Definitely his father's son!

Sleeping: Routine is still mostly the same, although recently am wakeup time has moved from 5:45-6 to closer to 7. Which is key with the upcoming daylight savings transition! We're pushing everything back 10 min/day this week to try and make that less difficult. I also think that we're at the point where we could go to one nap at any time - Mom had him nap just once last Friday when I wanted to take Ant to my work halloween party and it worked out just fine. We don't need to fully transition until daycare starts at the beginning of Jan, but will probably do it mid this month, when the Rinaldis are back from FL.

Ant diary: Thirteen months

Growth check: At his one year appointment, Ant was 31 inches (so my home measurement of 30.75 was pretty good!), and 21lbs 6oz. So a bit heavier than I had thought. He's stepped on the scale the last couple of days and come in at 22.5lb (with clothes on), so think he's still putting on about half a pound a month, which is about right.

Talking: I am absolutely amazed at the rate at which Ant is picking up words. He is definitely well on the precocious side with his verbalization skills! He added somewhere around 30 words this past month. On top of the 16 from the previous month - only high-chair and night-night didn't make much of a reappearance from those first 16. This months words were: balloon, cat (tat), cheese, camera (cac), cake, cord (caw), cup, cute, choo-choo, down, Donald Duck (Don Da), dirty, duck, eyes, Elmo, fish (hish), Freckles (hoc), gone, help, hop, hair, keys, more (mowah), Nicole (cole), off, prunes, shoes, squash, towel, and toast. Freckles is a little bear that came with a bedtime book, you feed Freckles his milk, take off his clothes, bath him, brush his teeth, put on pajamas, read a night time story and then put him to bed. I have *no* idea how one gets "Hoc" from Freckles, but that is clearly what Ant calls him. There are also abou t another 20 words that we heard but weren't sure of. He's clearly enamoured of words that begin with "c", he has twice as many of those as the next closest letters, which are H and D. We're starting to notice a few letter substitutions, but mostly he just skips the letters he can't say. One other thing I thought was funny - he doesn't really do the sign for milk anymore, so I was asking him the other day to say "milk". He kept saying "cup" (which is now how he asks for his milk at night). Me: say 'milk' Ant: cup Me: 'milk' Ant: cup... about three more times :-)

Movement: This month Ant figured out how to get up to standing from sitting in the middle of the floor. He also learned how to kick things this past weekend; spent a good long time kicking his stackable cups up and down the hallway. He really likes it when we "hop" while holding him. Giggles galore. He's also starting to learn how to get off a bed or chair - backwards and feet down. Still not good enough that we'd let him do it on his own, but he's starting to get the hang of turning around, and doing it without our prompting him.

Mental: Ant started balancing things on other things this month; his cup of juice on top of a bowl, his monitor on top of an old hard drive inside its case that Mark has up in the office. His understanding of concepts is phenomenal. He knows what it means when he asks for "help", and will do that when he's unable to do something like getting the lid off a container - or getting his gymini out from behind the couch which he's asked for a few times this month. Points at it and says "help". He also clearly grasps the concepts of hot and cold, particularly hot. There have been a number of occasions when he's put his hand on something and said "hot" - I'll say "I don't think XYZ is hot" - but I touch it, and sure enough, he's right! The other thing he's often right about is he'll look out the back sliding door and say "tat" (i.e. cat), there have been times when I haven't been able to see the animal, but if I look hard enough, one of them i s out there. Although more recently he's been saying it when he wants to go and find the cat too. He knows that his stuffed rabbit "hops", and also said "hop hop hop" to Mark while bringing him his Peter Cottontail book, where Peter hops down the bunny trail, hippity hop.

Toys and games: Taking items out of containers was this month's amusement. Clothes out of the drawer, cupboard, or laundry basket, pots out of the cabinet, toys out of the basket, pens out of the container I keep them in in the office... He enjoys pushing buttons on everything from his new fire truck to the TV to my cell phone.

Teeth: Well, after 4.5 months of no new teeth (longest since he was born), Ant cut five teeth in the last two weeks! His bottom left molar was felt by Ann (Mark's mom) on 9/13, I noticed the top and bottom on the right on 9/23, and then to my complete astonishment when I was at Kate's on Friday I saw that the top right eye tooth was through, with the top left close behind. That is also definitely through now, so I'm going to call that 9/30, although these are all plus/minus a few days. He has been surprisingly sanguine through the pain of getting FIVE teeth at once - definitely more emotionally fragile than usual, but otherwise not much difference. Sleeping and eating just fine. Thank goodness!!! (And yes, I DO know how lucky we are!!!)

Feeding: We switched over to whole milk pretty quickly. I gave Ant an ounce about a week before he turned one, and he threw up three times that day. So I was a little leery. But at his birthday party, he apparently drank 3oz of Sami's milk and was just fine, so I figured it was something else that caused the spitting up the previous time. So we switched completely to whole milk over the next week or so, using up the last of the formula in the process. He's also drinking totally out of a sippy cup except for his bedtime bottle, which I anticipate transitioning to a sippy cup very shortly. He really doesn't seem to mind the cups, so we might as well get rid of the bottle sooner than later.

Sleeping: Still about the same routine - bedtime around 7:15-7:30, am wakeup at 5:45-6 (although he'll usually doze / be happy in his crib by himself until about 6:45), two naps of either 40 min or 1h20min at 9:30 and 2:30. He has had a few days when he's only taken one nap though, and despite my hopes, that's usually not more than an hour long. Hoping he's not going to transition to that just yet, or when he does move to one nap that it gets longer!

Ant diary: Twelve months

Growth check: Weighed Ant twice today and got the same result - 20lb 10oz, exactly what he was last month. He hasn't been eating quite as well, and I also realized that I may be feeding him more of a low fat diet than I should (I tend to eat low fat things, so that's what I'm feeding him. Need to start putting butter on his waffles, things like that). Also measured his length at 30.75 inches. Still around 30% for weight and 90% for height.

Talking: Just a day or two after his 11 month birthday, Ant said Mama for real, for sure. His next word was "clock" (or as he would say it, 'caw' or sometimes 'cawc'). He loved playing with the digital clock that was on our headboard; one afternoon we were playing with it and it seemed to me that he was saying 'caw' 'caw' too often for it to just be coincidence. So I asked him to say clock, and he repeated it! When he did it again when Mark got home, I knew it was for real. Since then, he's added an astonishing number of words - he definitely says boom (when he drops something or falls over), clock, car, closed, cold, dada, dog, eight, hat, hot, light, mama, nana, night-night, poop, and up. Words that we think he might say, or that grandparents have suggested as possibilities but that we haven't confirmed yet include balloon, circle, duck, diaper, hi, letter, papa, prunes, red and truck. Finally, just today he started saying high chair!!! I am amazed. He doesn't quite get it right, he says "highch", but he said it a bunch of times through the day and again when I got home, and when we asked him where his highchair was, he walked right over to it, and said "highch" a few more times!!

Movement: Lots and lots of walking. Everywhere. Inside, outside, bare feet, shoes... the only time Ant crawls these days is when he sits down in the middle of the floor and doesn't have anything to pull himself up on to get back to standing. He also started climbing the stairs this month, going all the way up about ten times the day he really figured out he could do it. We therefore now have the gate at the bottom of the stairs in addition to the top.

Mental: Talk about communication. Ant is so pleased with himself when he learns a new word. He'll use it over and over again for a little while, until it becomes part of his lexicon. He also says it over and over when he's excited - like when he was playing with the clock (not so much fun anymore), or inside a car. Or when he sees a bunch of cars, like in a parking lot. He also figured out how to stack things and put blocks together. With the walker from Kate's family, he also knows to back up when he runs it into something. Much more squawking when we denied him something he wanted.

Toys and games: The favorite things to do this month were carrying toys or other items around while walking in circles around the first floor, and getting into cars and pushing all the buttons and levers. This included desperately wanting to get into all the neighbor's cars!

Teeth: We've now gone longer with no new teeth than we had since he was born. Four months and counting, still no real indication of those molars.

Feeding: Ant is fully weaned as of last Thursday (the last time I nursed him). He had the last of the frozen breastmilk for his bedtime bottle tonight. So I'm counting that as having nursed him for a year. Yay me :-) We haven't added much in the way of new foods over the past month, except lots of the jarred fruit halves or quarters. Peaches, pears, mango and pineapple. All big hits. We're still on the pureed veggies as he doesn't seem to eat much of the real thing. Although he had a decent amount of green beans I flavored with Newman's dressing.

Sleeping: Same as last month - bedtime around 7:15-7:30, am wakeup at 5:45-6, two naps of either 40 min or 1h20min at 9:30 and 2:30.

Ant diary: Eleven months

Growth check: 20lb 10 oz. Up a whole pound from last month!

Talking: Ant likes to say something like 'hogahdah hogahdah' - although it's hard to copy! He sometimes says dada in a context where he seems like he means Mark but other times just says it randomly, so not sure if we can count that just yet. Yesterday at the Rinaldi's Ant seemed to say Mama referring to me, then apparently after I left this morning he was crying and said it a couple of times. So I think even if we can't count Dada and Mama as real words just yet, they'll be for real soon. He's doing a lot of rolling his R's. Other than that not much new from last month.

Movement: Walking! Ant took his first steps, walking between Mark and me, on 7/7. We were out on the deck, and just decided to give it a shot and see what would happen, if we tried to encourage him to go from one of us to the other. Sure enough, he did, taking as many as five steps. Sometimes it was a headlong rush into our arms, others it was very controlled (giggling the whole time as if this was the best thing in the world - which it probably was). He stayed at about that rate of steps for the next two weeks. The second weekend after his first steps we were up in NH, and he did quite a bit of running from his new gear toy into our arms to get away from the gear noise. Up to eight steps between us. Then this past weekend down at Kate's house he just took off - lots of running room in their basement. I counted 20-30 steps at a time. Sunday at the Rinaldi's he barely crawled at all, just walking everywh ere. They had some guests over, who were very impressed with him - he stepped on one of the boys' feet, and just kept right on going, didn't lose his balance at all! In general his balance is very good, he often will seem as if he's going to fall over, but manages to hold onto something or just steady himself so that he doesn't have too bad an oops.

Mental: This has been a month of burgeoning communication! Ant started using signs himself - "more" and "milk". More started off just being asking for more food, which is the context we taught it to him in, but more recently he's been using it to ask for more of an activity (like going outside with Mom, reading a book with me), and just in general to ask for food. It was so exciting the first time he used it - I could ask him if he was "all done" with his meal, and he would respond with "more" if he wasn't. Being able to have two way communication without crying is fantastic. I was also impressed with his overall comprehension - I asked him to show me the sign for milk, and he did! He also points to go to things he wants. And turns lights on and off himself, as well as pushing the button to open/close the garage door.

Toys and games: Ant has gotten very good at putting lids back on to containers, as well as putting things inside other things (the stackable cups inside each other, coins into other containers, various things into boxes). He also likes putting his pacifiers into the ball popper. We're starting to teach him about the shape sorter, but he doesn't quite get it just yet. Mike and Jill gave him a gear toy for his birthday (early), he has had a lot of fun with that, both just pressing the button to turn it on and running away from the gear noise (although he's over that now), and taking the gears off and putting them back on again. He also enjoys pots and pans, and other things he can manipulate.

Random: Went swimming in a real pool for the first time. Seemed to enjoy the water, but perhaps could take it or leave it.

Teeth: *Still* nothing new. Three months since his last tooth came through. I can't imagine it will be much longer 'till the molars make an appearance.

Feeding: We switched the mid-morning feed over to formula as well, so now I'm only nursing 2x/day. It is SO nice not to have to pump anymore. Not missing lugging that thing around at all! New things we've added include mac-n-cheese (Annie's whole wheat organic - for a little healthier option), tilapia, salmon, the broccoli stuffed chicken breast I like to have for my lunch, bigger pieces of pear, and cheerios with milk (well, formula).

Sleeping: Not much change from last month, except Ant's wake-up time has gotten a bit later, usually he's waking up between 5:30-6, but happy in the crib for at least another half hour, so that's reasonable. He's generally going to sleep between 7-7:15 (although we've had two nights [both away] when he wouldn't go down until 9!). Taking two naps that vary from 40 min to 1hr 20 min on average, at around 9:30 and around 2pm.

Ant diary: Ten months

Growth check: 19lb 10 oz today. So putting on about 1/2 lb a month at the moment. Not much movement height-wise, I don't think.

Talking: We're starting to get combinations of consonants - la da la da is a favorite, as something like 'gocily gocily gocily' although I can't even make the sounds myself so writing them down is pretty tough! Twice yesterday Ant seemed to say "dada" in context, but it may have just been coincidence. The first was when I brought him in to see Mark in the bedroom after nursing - he shrieked "dada" with happiness when he saw Mark in the bed. The second was later in the afternoon when Mark was holding him, and I asked if he wanted to come to me - he clearly held on to Mark and said "dada" again. He's also making smacking noises with his lips, clicking his tongue, and blowing raspberries "bbbbbb".

Movement: Ant is now a proficient cruiser. He can pull himself up on anything from the coffee table to our legs to the side of the island with nothing to hold onto, just pressure! He also sits back down with ease (started 6/12), usually bending his legs nicely but occasionally going the "fall back onto my bum" route. He very easily goes around corner, and can step over or around things with no problem. He doesn't actually look to us to help him walk quite as much now that he can get back down and crawl around, but when he does want us he'll hold out his hand and then look around for us. Especially when he already has the first hand held. I found him standing in the crib for the first time on 6/10 which I was quite impressed by given that he's still sleeping in a sleepsack. He also seems to like pushing something around with his right hand while crawling, mostly books, although I've seen him do it with other objects. ; On a totally different front, he started waving 'bye-bye', clapping his hands, and shaking his head "no" all within the space of about three days.

Mental: It seems as if he's made a lot of new connections this month. He understands his physical limitations - when he was crusing a little while ago he wanted to go from the end table to the music table, but couldn't quite reach. So he immediately went via the big plastic container we have all his toys in. He opens and closes our mailbox, as well as cupboards and drawers, and with the cupboards he will look around the door to see what's inside. (And is very good at keeping his fingers out of the way when he closes them.) We spent quite a long time the other day opening and closing the curtains. We also played peekaboo with the curtain next to his high chair - he grabbed it of his own accord, and was hiding and unhiding himself. That was really fun, we were both laughing. I feel like he also understands a few signs (up and milk) although he doesn't make them himself yet. He also gets "no", and just in the last c ouple of days has started using it himself, actually meaning "no" when he shakes his head . Particularly when eating! He seems to understand the light switch, as he will look from the switch to the light when we're turning it on or off. He also really gets that buttons are supposed to do things now - he can go right over to the ball popper and turn it on, he's very good at pressing buttons on other toys too. Finally, just yesterday on his ten month birthday, he started pointing at things he wanted. While he was eating dinner over at the maguire's he was pointing and pointing at something, we finally figured out that it was Mike's red sox hat. This morning he was pointing up at the valence above the sliding glass door to the deck.

Toys and games: As I said, lots of button pressing going on. And he really loves playing peekaboo, both when we cover his face or when he covers it himself. He is *very* interested in what's inside all the cupboards, which isn't really a good thing because there are lots of things he just can't have. We've gotten a few new toys, but nothing seems to be a particular favorite, except perhaps the driving wheel. He really likes "I'm a little teapot", the tipping part in particular.

Teeth: Still nothing new.

Feeding: Afternoon nursing was switched to formula becuase it was just too iffy with me getting home from work. Plus he had been biting AND I was having trouble with pumping, so I was actually going to stop nursing completely. As soon as I made that decision the biting stopped and pumping got better, so I'm still nursing three times/day (wake up, 10-11 and bedtime). New additions to the repertoire this month include crumpets (made with white whole wheat flour), grown up oatmeal, lasagna, pasta bolognese, half banana slices, zucchini with rice, pieces of strawberries, apricot and pear. Did not like grapes.

Sleeping: We're still on a fairly regular schedule of bedtime at around 7, naps at 9am and 2pm. The wake up time severly regressed for most of this month to between 4:30 and 5am. Fortunately in the last few days it's moved back to the more reasonable hour of 5:45 or later. Whew.

Ant diary: Nine months

Growth check: At his 9 month appt last Friday Ant weighed in at 19lb 6oz, although that was with a non-empty diaper. I'd guess he's really no more than 19lbs - although that's still a pound more than last month! They also measured him at 28.5 inches, although when I laid him down on the paper after the nurse left, I thought they gypped him at least 1/2 inch.
Talking: Interestingly Ant is saying fewer consonants now than he was last month. I think it's because his brain is so focused on crawling, pulling up and walking that the talking has taken a bit of a back seat. It does often sounds as if he's saying "dog" and "good", although not in any context.

Movement: Ant officially started crawling on 5/9. He had made a little bit of forward progress the few days before that, but that day he crawled all the way across the office, from in front of the mirror to the corner by the window, and then halfway back again. By the next day he was able to go from crawling back to sitting again. A couple of weeks after that was when I walked in to get him up from his nap to find him sitting up in the crib. He still doesn't do that very often, I think because the sleepsack hampers his movement a bit. Ant's next trick was to pull himself up on things. He's done it a couple of times for us, on his blue chair and music table. The Rinaldis say he was pulling himself up on the coffee table and other things as well. He does seem to have regressed in that a bit as well - he gets stuck on his knees a lot. There's also a bit of 'cruising' going on, walking along the furniture, and moving from one piece to another. He's getting more and more comfortable letting go of whatever he's holding onto, and has stood on his own for 12 secs. He also has a lot more confidence 'walking' now, only needing a finger in each hand. Which is all well and good, except it's quite backbreaking!
Mental: He's a lot more interested in what's going on around him. He'll peer around his car seat to try and see what's going on. He's started pointing at things, when we're reading books mostly. And he's learned to open cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. Also to find something that's been covered - like my bellybutton!
Toys and games: Ant has learned to turn the mobile in his crib on and off. A couple of times after I finished changing his diaper he was crawling over to the mobile, so I put him in the crib standing up next to it. He was kinda scratching at it at first, but managed to turn it on. And then off again. We practised that a few times, and now he's started doing it on his own, on occasion, when he wakes up from a nap. He gets up on his hands and knees, and then reaches up for the button. We definitely need to find some more toys, he really likes the more interactive toys at friend's houses. I did get a school bus which has a driver you can press to make noises, and four children in the back. He likes to wiggle the driver to get the noises going, and also really likes munching on the poor children!
Teeth: No new teeth this month, just lots of growth of the eight he already had. I think the molars will be on their way soon though, his gums are looking much whiter in the molar areas, and a bit more lumpy as well. We'll see...
Hands: Very good at the pincer grip now, and can almost always get the puffie or whatever else he's trying to right into his mouth. Also pointing with a single finger at things, as I mentioned. He's good at picking up things in both hands now, and likes to bang them together. And in the last week or two, has gotten really good at turning the pages of his books as we read them. He likes to turn the pages a lot faster than I ever did! Sometimes I can't even finish reading what's on the page before he's on to the next one.

Feeding: We've added quite a few new foods this past month, much more chunky than in the past. Ant really likes soups, we've given him minestrone and chicken noodle, just cutting up the bits until they're quite small. He had some of a meatball Ann made for us for dinner one night. He also seems to enjoy deli turkey and cheese, pieces of bread (really likes mom's banana bread), crackers or biscuits, and his banana puffies. Likes to put quite a few of those in his mouth at once! There have been a few things we've tried that haven't been such a bit hit - hard boiled egg and fish were rejected with some very funny looks. A new mannerism has appeared, when he's sitting in his high chair he'll often tip his head all the way over onto his left shoulder. Or sometimes even lie it on the table or high chair. Very cute. We're back to nursing 4x per day again, and will probably stick with that for a while, as it seems to work out w ell. I'm considering switching to having his solid lunch a bit earlier and then milk at around 2pm, we'll see.

Sleeping: It was quite funny to me, as soon as Ant hit eight months it was as if he decided "enough of this three nap thing", and went right to two naps almost every day. He finally has a "schedule", napping at 9am and then at 2pm most days. Goes down most nights between 6:30-7, and usually sleeps all the way through to at least 5 something. If he wakes are around 5ish I'll feed him and he will go back to sleep most of the time. Some days he goes all the way to 6:30 or 7. Heaven!

Ant diary: Eight months

Growth check: 18lbs 1oz, so he's definitely slowed down with the weight gain. That's up 1/2 lb over last month. I'm guessing around 29 inches now. We have put him in his convertible car seat now that the weather is nicer.

Talking: Since he started with his first consonants ("da", just before 7 months), Ant has added a whole bunch more. "Ga", "Ba", "La", "Wa" and "Ya" are all very common. Oh, and "Na" too. He's also started saying "mum-mum". Made me teary the first time. He doesn't say it that often, but it does come out every now and again, and just sounds so cute! He's said "ca" once or twice, and the first time was when we were going to the window to watch the passing cars. Coincidence? yeah, probably. He also says "Goo" (with the o's sounding like the o's in good) quite often when he's eating - perhaps trying to say good? Or perhaps not. There was also a time when he was nursing, and the combination of consonants and vowels he said sounded an awful lot like "did you get that?". It's fun to pretend!


Movement: Okay, so me thinking that Ant wouldn't crawl was a bunch of hooey. He's spending about 50%+ of his tummy time up on his hands and knees now. It's amazing how quickly it's happened - two weeks ago was when I found him on his hands and knees for the first time in his crib, now he's doing it as soon as he's on his tummy. He's also 'crawling' backwards - Mark called me at work last Monday to tell me that Ant had pushed himself backwards from the pillow plan into the kitchen, made a 90 degree turn, backed through the kitchen, made another 90 degree turn and then backed down the hallway! Also lots of rocking back and forth on his ha nds and knees now, so I think it's only a matter of days before he figures out how to move that way. And doing this funny thing where he straightens out his legs, so he's doing a "downward dog" from yoga. Much more stable standing, and can balance himself with something to hold onto like the music table or coffee table. Not stable enough that we can leave him, but we can take our hands off for a good couple of minutes before he starts to fall over. Mark also had him standing on his own for a few seconds. And he's getting better and better at putting one foot in front of the other and "walking". He even "runs" sometimes, moving his little feet very quickly - it can be hard to keep up!

Mental: He looks for things that he drops now, especially when he drops something sitting in the high chair. We think he knows that "Donald Duck" is the picture we have at the bottom of the stairs, because if we're in that vicinity and say "Where's Donald Duck", he'll immediately turn his head to look at the picture.

Toys and games: Baths are great. Ant really seems to enjoy going outside now, especially the swings down at the playground. Feeling leaves and twigs is another favorite. We haven't really added any new toys, and he seems to be getting somewhat bored with what we do have. He does love riding on Mom or Dad's shoulders, that always seems to make him smile and laugh.


Teeth: The fifth tooth, on the bottom, came through as a total surprise! We were expecting the next teeth to be the ones on the top, so I wasn't even looking at the bottom. Got home from work on a Friday, and mom pointed out that it was all the way through already! The sixth and seventh teeth, the expected two on the top came through about a week after that. The eighth tooth, the fourth on the bottom came through just yesterday. I was talking to Jill about it, Alex got his eighth tooth at 9 months and then started on the molars at 9.5 months (and is getting his two-year molars at 15 months), so I think we have those in our near future. Ugh.

Hands: He's started using the pincer grip with his right hand to pick up banana puffies and other food. Not all the time, but he definitely can. Not with his left hand though... a rightie? He also likes to hold onto things with both hands and then rocking them from side to side to see what that does to what he's holding.


Feeding: The major new thing we added this month was yoghurt, which Ant really seems to like. We usually give him an ounce once or twice a day, and he slurps it all down. We've tried guava and papayas, and those went over very well. We've got a good routine with solids three times a day - just the last few days I've gone back from 4 nursing sessions to 3. Still not sure if that's going to be okay or not, he's seemed to need to nurse more in the evening. He's doing incredibly well with the sippy cup. He took to it almost immediately after we started trying him with it, but initially needed help with tipping it up to get the liquid out. Now, though, he's totally down with the tipping thing. Very cool.


Sleeping: He's still waking up in the early am, but it's back to 5-6 now, for the most part, rather than 3-4. Which is good. Going down for the night at around 7pm most nights. Wakes up crying a couple of times, but soothes himself back to sleep for the most part. A definite 3 nap pattern has been established during the day, although it seems like he's already perhaps going from 3 down to 2 naps. He seems to be able to stay up quite a bit longer than the 2-2.5 hours he had been going. He's easy to put down, although in the last couple of days he's started crying any time we go into his room, he knows the nap is coming and doesn't seem to be too happy about it!

Ant diary: Seven months

Growth check: As I had guessed, Ant was 28 inches at his six month (one week) appointment. He's probably a little longer than that now, given how he fills out his clothes. He's also 17lbs 9oz as of today's weighing, only 2 oz more than that six month appointment, so his weight gain has definitely slowed down. He's still a very tall baby for his age!

Talking: Lots of new noises this month. Ant has started making noises while he's breathing in, which is pretty funny. He also does one that sounds like a hissing cat. But the best? Just yesterday he started saying "da da da da". Not just once or twice, but hundreds of times. He's been so chatty since he figured out how to do that, I think he's really chuffed with himself.


Movement: No major leaps here - he's much more stable sitting and standing, and actually doesn't seem to mind being on his tummy anymore, but not close to crawling (I don't think), nor pulling up or sitting up on his own. I'm wondering, though, if he'll skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking - with us holding onto his arms he can motor just about anywhere he wants to go, so there isn't much incentive for him to crawl! One new thing he has started doing in the last week or so is twisting from a sitting position onto his tummy - I guess that's how he'll do it when (if) he does start crawling?

Mental: A clear example of Ant's learning - we started playing with the basket of change we have in the office. The first time we played with it I had to stop him from putting it in his mouth about twenty times. The next day I only had to tell him "no" five times. The third day it was down to two, and Mom said he didn't try at all the following day. Another funny story - he and Mark were playing with the stackable cups. Ant had his normal two fingers in his mouth, and was holding one of the cups in his other hand. Mark built a tower of some more cups, Ant took a look at it, and then nonchalantly swiped at the tower with the cup in his right hand to knock it over. Three or four times! The final thing I wanted to mention is when Mark went in to get him up from his nap this morning, he was clearly reaching for the button to turn on the mobile. He's turned it on a couple of times in the middle of the night when he's been crying, and it's calmed him right down. Yay for self-soothing!

Toys and games: Antony loves banging on just about anything. We've started playing a lot with the stack of cups and basket of change in the office, he really enjoys both of those, I think because he can practice with his hands. He's also really enjoying his ....ummm..... twice?-weekly baths. They're not really part of our bedtime routine because they are definitely NOT relaxing - he loves splashing both with his hands and his legs, and reaches for the bath toys now, although splashing Mom and Dad is still the most fun.


Teeth: The top two came through the first week of this past month. They're starting to be more visible. I'm wondering now if the next set are already on their way - he's been drooling like a water fountain the last few days, and really chewing on things. Like his spoon when we're trying to feed him!

Hands: His dexterity has really improved. He can now pick up individual coins, get the cups out of the stack, and hold onto anything he wants to for as long as he wants to. He's also started opening and closing his fingers, or twirling his hand around, when he's sitting down, just practicing moving it around I think! He is really able to spin the toys on the jumperoo and exersaucer, and spends quite a lot of time doing that.


Feeding: We've added all kinds of foods over the past month. Ant's now eating the three different kinds of cereals, veggies (peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash), and fruits (bananas, apples, pears, peaches, mixes of varied fruits, and of course, prunes). We just gave him some of mom's home-made yoghurt yesterday, and he seems to quite like it, even plain! He's a great eater, eating anywhere between 0.75 and 2! ounces of each part of the meal. We're now at 3 meals of solids a day, although still trying to figure out the breastmilk / solid combination. It can be hard to fit the different feeds in the afternoon, so we've been down to three nursings a day.


Sleeping: Last month I was saying that we were finally starting to see the "naturally earlier bedtime" of Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child, and that it was moving from 9 to closer to 8. Well, in the last week, Ant's been going to bed at 7! And, he finally has developed his regular morning nap - every day this week he's woken up at 7am, and gone down for his first nap right around 9. My first pattern in trixietracker (http://go.trixietracker.com/site/ajtoday/sleep?fullchart). Very exciting. He's also gone from 4 naps most days down to 3, and on occasion only 2. Although our issue at the moment is that he's also started waking up hungry between 3-5am again, which hadn't happened for quite a while. We're thinking that perhaps he's not nursing enough d uring the day, so we're going to try going back to 4 and see if that helps. I don't mind getting up at 6am, but 3 is really too early!

Ant's hair is getting longer and longer, but it's still hard to see because it's so blond!

A quick "me" update - I'm actually back into my size 4 jeans this week! I hadn't anticipated getting too small for the size 6's, but I was looking at myself in the mirror the other day and they really looked quite baggy, to my surprise. I've also started going to a physical therapist both for my knees and for my stomach. My diastasis is mostly better, but my stomach muscles are still so spongy! I want to make sure that I don't make the diastasis worse in trying to get them tummy muscles back into shape.

Ant diary: Six months

Growth check: We weighed Ant a couple of days ago and he was 17.36lbs with his clothes and diaper on, so he's probably right around 17lbs in the buff. He's also as long now as his crib is wide (with the bumpers in), so I think around 28 inches. Six month appointment next week, so we'll get the official verdict then.

Movement: Astonishing how quickly sitting is progressing - in my last update I said that Ant could sit for 30-60 seconds without toppling - last night he went for over 30 minutes! He does still topple occasionally, but not much! He can also stand holding onto the music table with no support now (although hands have to be close by just in case). No signs of pulling up to sitting or standing on his own, but we can pull him up to either very easily. Also no real signs of crawling yet. Although he does "walk" with us holding him up, clearly moving his feet of his own volition, and with definite goals as to where he wants to go.

Toys and games: Ant's starting to reach for things that he wants but aren't right next to him. He also stares down things that he wants to play with, which makes it easier to figure out! He hasn't yet objected when something has been taken away from him, but I imagine that will happen soon.

Teeth: We think we can now see the top two teeth coming in, and may be able to feel the one on his left. Think they'll be breaking through soon! He's still sticking out his tongue when he concentrates - in fact, today I was holding him up at the music table and noticed that both of us were doing it. I wish I could have taken a pic :-)

Hands: Ant's grasp is getting much better. He picks things up quickly now, you don't see him think "Okay I'm going to pick this up", then move his hands, it's one fluid motion. He's still using his whole hand as opposed to individual fingers / thumb.

Feeding: Just started veggies yesterday, so now we're doing cereal 2x/day and veggies as well in the evening. Both of which are going pretty well. Problem is he doesn't seem that hungry for milk, so I'm trying to readjust his drinking schedule, but don't have that figured out yet. When I was away on Monday, he was only taking a few ounces at each feed from the bottle, a total of 11.5 ounces over four feeds. I don't know if he's going off the bottle, or what. Hopefully we'll find a new pattern soon!

Sleeping: We're finally seeing the "naturally earlier bedtime" that Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child speaks of. Just in the last week Ant's bedtime seems to be getting closer to 8 than 9. It seems to be because he's skipping his last nap of the day, so going to three naps most days now. The first ones are still after 1.5 to 2 hours of awake time like the book recommends, but in the evening he seems to be able to go longer.

I also meant to mention in my last couple of updates that Ant's hair has started growing in! You could see peach fuzz a month ago, now it's definitely getting longer. We're also having to cut his toenails. I've cut the big ones a couple of times before, but just this week had to start cutting some of the others. Think that's it for now!

Ant diary: 24 weeks

I think it's 24 weeks, anyway! After this update I'm going to go to monthly, it's just too hard to keep track now. Mark could always tell me because Ant was born the first week of football season, but now that's over it's tougher to figure it out :-)

Growth check: At last weigh-in, Ant was almost 17 lbs. He's now in 6-9 month clothes, for the most part, and even close to outgrowing some of those! His feet also hang over the edge of his carseat - I'm hoping, though, that he can last in that for a couple more months, until it's not so cold outside. It's much nicer to be able to put him into his nice warm carseat in the house, rather than having to fuss with straps etc. with 0 degree wind blowing around us. Mark did suggest that we could get into the car on the other side for doing up the straps - but it's just much easier with the infant seat.

Tummy-time: Ant can last on his tummy for quite a while now, as long as he has interesting things to look at. He's back to pushing up on his arms reasonably well, and if I give him an arm or a leg to push against, gets into a decent crawling position, with his knees tucked under him.

Other movement: A few more rolls from tummy to back, but none from back to tummy. Bizarre! He loves to sit and stand, and his progress in those two in the last two weeks is just astonishing. Two weeks ago he could sit up with me holding onto his arm, but I had to use a fair amount of force to balance him. Now, all it takes is a little hold on the finger and he's just fine. He can also sit up pretty well on the couch, with his back against the back of the sofa, or in the boppy. He can even sit unsupported for 30-60 seconds, if I balance him well enough. He can correct for a little while when he starts to topple, but then goes over (we do that a lot on the bed, where the toppling is actually fun). He's also so much more stable standing - when we first started standing him up at the music table he was supporting some weight on his legs, but we really had to hold him carefully, as his legs would collapse under him every now and again. (I bumped his face on the table once because I wasn't holding him enough). Now, he barely needs our support on the table at all!

Toys and games: Just in the last couple of weeks Ant has started really actively playing with the music table (it's clear now that he's doing things on purpose, rather than just hitting them accidentally). And the rings that Ann & George gave him for Christmas are a new favorite - he likes to use his hands to twist them around, lift them up and down, and also to kick at them with his feet. He also really enjoys bags and bottles, and other smallish items that he can manipulate. And he's just begun banging with his hands on things like his books, and boxes or other bang-able things we give him.

Teeth: Still only the bottom two, but we continue to wonder about the next set. Drooling seems to go in waves, some days there's a lot (to the point of sodden bibs), other days there's hardly anything. He was really off this past week, with some major screaming fits, and teething was one of the things we thought of. But there certainly aren't yet tooth bumps like there were with the first two. And this isn't exactly teeth-related, but Ant now sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating just like I do!

Hands: Antony loves to suck the first two fingers on his left hand. That is definitely his self-soothing of choice! Every now and again he'll go for the thumb on his right hand, or some of the other fingers, but for the most part it's those first two on his left hand. And they're in his mouth a LOT. Way more than we ever gave him the pacifier. He's also just started to really pay attention to his hands, watching them move around, sometimes looking at them for minutes at a time.

Feeding: We've got a pretty good routine going now - most days he wakes up for his morning feed at between 5-6am, then I feed him at 10, 2, 6, and 9-10 when he goes down for the night. The rice cereal we started a few weeks ago did not seem to interest him any more - last Friday I decided that rather than get frustrated with trying to feed him and not getting anywhere I would just leave it and try again with a different cereal. So today we did barley, and he was back to eating the whole serving. Although it's somewhat of a battle - he seems to prefer to suck on his fingers than to eat, although when I hold his hand(s) out of the way he seems to enjoy the food. What would the DSS people think of little baby handcuffs to keep his hands out of the way? ;-)

Sleeping: Bedtime actually seems to be moving a little earlier even than the 10pm of the last update, which is nice. He's still taking 3-4 naps a day, at relatively variable times.

Ant diary: 20 weeks

I have all kinds of good intentions of writing these diaries on the actual day Ant turns the appropriate number of weeks, but that's easier said that done. Especially with him taking 30 minute naps these days!

Growth check: Well, I was right about Ant growing so much. At his four month appointment (18 weeks), he weighed 15lb 1 oz, and was 26.5 inches!!! 92 percentile for height, 50th for weight. I though we must have measured him wrong (the nurse had me draw the line at the top of his head), so after the she left I put him down and checked it out again. I used his service log to make sure the top of his head was at the line, and then stretched out his legs, and sure enough it was right. No wonder he outgrew all his clothes all of a sudden!!

Tummy-time: Ant still seems reasonbly happy on his tummy, but actually seems to have regressed in terms of holding himself up. He doesn't push up nearly as far on his arms. I don't know if he's just not as interested because he's spending more time sitting and standing?

Other movement: There's also not much rolling going on these days either. He did do a few back to tummy rolls in his crib the other day, the opposite direction from what he'd done before, but that's about it. Seems to have the "been there, done that" attitude. He really likes sitting and standing (though of course he can't do either without support). When I pull him to sitting by his arms, he holds his head level with his body now, and if I count "1....2...3", I can see him preparing to do so by hunching his shoulders.

Teeth: The little choppers he has are *sharp*! We keep wondering if he's getting more, because he's doing a lot of drooling again and there is a white something that's visible on the lower left side. Definitely not any bumps like those that preceeded the first two teeth though, so it's probably nothing. That would also be a very unusual next tooth to get.

Hands: He's able to grab things much better now, and hold onto them for a longer time. And seems to enjoy chewing on his hands a lot - he sucks the thumb on his right hand quite a bit, but doesn't seem quite as coordinated with his left hand - when he sucks on that it's generally the first two fingers. He reaches out for things a lot more now, and you can really see him concentrate on what he'd like to grab, then move his hand to get it.

Feeding: Still going around 4 hours between feed, and as long as he gets enough to eat at his last feed of the night, will sleep until 6 in the morning before the next one. I have weighed him pre- and post- feed a few times now, and he's taking around 8 ounces from me each time.

Sleeping: We're starting to get in to a little bit more of a pattern - on trixietracker there are starting to be a few times during the day when he's more likely to be asleep than others. We've also managed to move his bedtime back to around 10pm rather than 11:30, which is really nice. He's been taking really short naps recently, only around 30-40 minutes, but it seems if you bounce him back to sleep when he wakes up crabby he'll then sleep for a really long time. Not sure what's going on there!

Ant diary: 16 weeks

The past four weeks have been so much fun. Antony has learned to do so many new things, and he's just a joy to play with! Laughing and smiling are totally his thing now, which is just so rewarding.

Growth check: He's close to fifteen pounds already! We weighed him at mom's house a week ago, and he was 14.95 lbs with his clothes and diaper on. He's also gotten really long, he's grown out of all the 0-3 month clothes, and is even stretching the limits of a bunch of the 3-6 month sleepers we have, so now he's mostly in 6-9 month ones! I feel like he's grown about two inches this month. We had him in one of the bigger 0-3 month sleepers the other day, and he was super fussy at night - finally, Mark changed him into something bigger and he went to sleep almost right away. So we think it was just that his clothes were too tight, poor little guy.

Tummy-time: Much better these days! Especially when he rolls over himself from his back to his tummy, he really doesn't seem to mind it as much. He's able to push his chest all the way up on straight arms, and makes crawling movements too - I have a feeling he's going to be an early crawler at this rate! He also seems to enjoy playing superman on the boppy (see the attached pic).

Other movement: He's now rolling over both from back to tummy (started at 15 weeks), and tummy to back (started a couple of weeks before that). It's interesting though, the back to tummy roll definitely seems purposeful, as he flips over onto his side, then turns his head all the way over and rocks there until he flips onto his tummy. The tummy to back roll seems to be more accidental, and less frequent, even though it started earlier.

Smiles: Smiles have definitely evolved into laughs. We can make him laugh at all kinds of things now, mostly things that we do. Blowing on his tummy or his hands, blowing raspberries, making "yumyumyum" or "mmmmmm" noises while we eat, kissing his face and neck while making kissy noises - we can keep him laughing for a good 20 minutes! It is so totally sweet!

Teeth: Kate noticed "tooth bumps" at 14 weeks, and we had noticed quite a bit of drool in the few days before that, which Mark suggested might be from teething. I dismissed the idea, as it's really quite early for teeth to be coming. (Forgetting, of course, that I had gotten my first teeth in my fourth month). Well, they're both through as of last Monday, just shy of 16 weeks. He's bitten me a couple of times while feeding. Ouch! Hasn't been too frequent though, hopefully it won't become a habit.

Hands: This has been the biggest change - between 12 and 14 weeks he really started to use his hands to grab onto things, from the toys on the gymini, to his blue chair, to ribbons and stuffed animals that we hold above him. He also started bringing his hands together in the middle, and exploring them. You can really see him looking at something now, and then making a concious effort to reach out for it. His depth perception seems to be a little off, he'll often grab for something and miss, either going in front or behind it. He's also started bringing things to his mouth to munch on them, although he misses as often as not. He definitely wants to though. His hands do make it to his mouth without things in them, he sucks on them quite a bit, and has mastered the art of getting his thumb in there. I'm not overly concerned that he'll become too much of a thumb sucker, as he doesn't do it that much.

Feeding: We've definitely got this down. He generally goes four hours between daytime feeds now, and anywhere from 6 to 10 hours beween his last night-time and first morning feed. I'm looking forward to getting the scale back so I can weigh him before and after feeding a few times again - I'm getting huge amounts when I pump now (my max is 11.5 ounces, from one 5 minute session!!!), so I'd really like to know how much he's eating. He generally only takes 4-6 ounces from the bottle, but I wonder if he's getting more when he's eating from the tap. It's also really cute, sometimes he chats while he's nursing or drinking from the bottle.

Eyes: His eyebrows are getting darker, you can actually see them now. No change in his eye-color yet.

Sleeping: Still no rhyme or reason. I've been trying to get him up at around 7:30 each day, hoping that will get him to go to bed a bit earlier at night. It's not working consistently though. Some days he's awake for as little as eight hours, others as much as 12. I guess we'll keep tracking it and hope that he falls into a pattern on his own. He's sleeping through the night on a fairly regular basis, which is great!

Me: My hair is coming out in fistfuls! I know that this is something that happens when your hormones change at around three months... but when does it stop? I've lost a couple more pounds so that now I'm back at my "natural" weight. My clothes still don't fit quite the same, I think I still have a little more fat around my belly than I used to, mostly because I'm not exercising as much anymore. I also would like to get back to some kind of strength exercises, I'm so weak! I used to be able to do 40 pushups, now I can barely do 10. Although I think I still shouldn't do those for a while because I looked at my tummy while I was doing them and I could see a big lump, so I think it's not good for my abdominal separation. I'm hardly leaking at all these days (finally!) so I can quit wearing the nursing pads now. I'm half-way through my fifth box of 60 pads, plus the 30 that Michelle started me off with (thank god for those!!!), so I think I used around 300. Whew! The only other thing I wanted to mention is that I noticed when I bend over that I have a fair amount of extra loose skin on my tummy. It's not noticeable when I'm standing up, but definitely when I bend. It's kinda funny.

Ant diary: 12 weeks

I really cannot belive that it's been twelve weeks already. They have flown by! My first day back at work was yesterday - it wasn't too bad. M was off for the day, so stayed home with the kiddo. I think it wasn't so hard for me because it wasn't the first time I've left Ant, as I have left him a number of times to play hockey. We'll see how I feel next week when he's home with my FIL...

Growth check: We weighed him at my mom’s house last week, and he’s now around 13 lb 5 oz or thereabouts. Yikes! Definitely helping to tone my arm muscles. He’s rapidly growing out of the 0-3 month clothes (although there are some that are *still* too big for him. I don’t know what kind of 0-3 month babies these people have!!!)

Tummy-time: I’ve been so bad about this. Ant is really starting to express his displeasure when he’s on his tummy so I haven’t been doing it much. He also just basically lies there most of the time, not trying to lift his head at all. Although I just discovered yesterday that he doesn’t mind tummy time on the changing table nearly as much, where he has his mobile to look at. He’s totally lifting his chest up! He’s also got enough head control to sit in the bumbo (his head doesn’t fall backwards anymore, but he tends to list to the right a bit), and we used the Baby Bjorn forward facing just a couple of days ago.

Other movement: Ant is starting to roll over onto his right side – he picks both legs up and basically throws himself over to the side. Funny to watch! I don’t think he’s that close to actually rolling over though, because his arms are totally in the way. We do have to be much more careful when he’s on the changing table, I can totally imagine him throwing himself off now.

Focus: Wow, there’s been a big change here! Ant is definitely looking *at* things now. I went out and bought him the Tiny Love mobile on the recommendation of a few friends with similar aged babies, and he *loves* it. It doesn’t even have to be turned on. We put him under it and he smiles and laughs, and you can see him focusing on different pieces of it. I could watch him watching it for hours! He also looks at the toys on the gymini now.

Smiles: He’s smiling all the time now. But there was a new first today – he smiled at me when I went to pick him up after his nap. *heart melting*. I would swear that he’s laughing too, when he’s playing with the mobile, but that might be my imagination.

Hands: Just last Friday was the first time I think that Ant actually swiped at a toy on the gymini intentionally. M had him a couple mornings ago while I was playing hockey, and said that he grabbed at the lion on the gymini, and also used his hands to “hold on” to the bottle. Seems like he’s really getting the hang of these things! All the books etc. say that he will find his hands fascinating, and just watch them – he’s not doing that yet. Any idea if he will? My sister said she doesn’t think her daughter really did.

Feeding: We seem to have regressed a bit here. For a while he was going quite a long stretch between his last evening and first morning feed, but these days he’s back to only giving us around 5 hours. I’ve started using a site called trixietracker to see if I can make any sense of his patterns… not yet! I wish I knew what it was that would make him sleep for such a long time some nights and not others. I also feel like my milk supply is down. I pumped yesterday while at work, and got slightly less than he ended up eating. I also feel so empty in the evenings these days, totally floppy. He’s spending a lot longer on the breast, especially in the evenings, and he’s not just playing either, really sucking. I know I haven’t been as good about staying hydrated as I was in the beginning, and I’ve also been playing ice hockey every other day or so, and wonder if that has anything to do with it.

Eyes: No noticeable change here, perhaps a little lighter?

Complexion: He’s got a little rash around his mouth, I think irritation from spitup? Also still a rough patch between his eyes. He has two patches of stork bites, one between his eyes and one on his nose, and those do seem to be fading a little.

Sleeping: We seem to have the daytime nap thing figured out. Around 1.5 to 2 hours after he wakes (in general), I take him up to his room, put him in his sleepsack, give him his bink, sing “Are you sleepy Antony” (my words to “Are you sleeping”), and jiggle him a little bit. His eyes are usually closed within 5 minutes, at which point I can put him in his crib with a minimum of fussing. I think he sleeps better, and whomever is looking after him can do something else besides holding him. Yay! Night-time sleep is really not bad – it depends on what time he goes to bed. Some nights he’s down at around 8pm, and then wakes at 3 and 6, other nights he’s not down until 11-12, and wakes at around 6. I’m trying to figure out where the difference in bedtimes is coming from. I wonder if it’s based on the time that he gets up in the morning. So this am, although he fell asleep while I was nursing him at 7, I basically woke him up afterwards rather than letting him sleep ‘til 9ish which is what he would have done had I left him. I think. We’ll see if that helps!

Me: Not much to report here. No more weight loss, but somehow my belly is still getting smaller. Not complaining! I have started doing exercises to reduce my abdominal separation, and it’s gone from 3-4 fingers wide to 2-3. Hopefully a few more weeks of exercises will take care of that. My belly button has a little bit in the middle that sticks out now and never used to before, I wonder if that will disappear when my diastasis is corrected? Speaking of bellybuttons, a friend with twins a few weeks older than Ant told me that the dark brown smutz in my bellybutton would come off with some scrubbing in the shower. So of course I had to try it, and sure enough it did. Icky!

Ant diary: 8 weeks

Growth check: Ant grew another inch, and put on 2lb 8oz in the last four weeks. Also added 3cm in head circumference. He’s gone from being around the 50th percentile for both height and weight to being a bit of a porker – 66th percentile for weight but only 39th for height. I think they gypped him on the height measurement though, because he was screaming at the time :-). They also gave me the percentiles for his head circumference, which I kinda wish they hadn’t – he was in the 7th percentile at his one month appointment, and is now in the 21st. So he’s got a little head for his size. I hope it doesn’t mean anything about his brain development! At least he’s growing nicely there too.

Tummy-time: He’s now definitely able to hold his head up, I counted 30 seconds the other day. And his head is pretty stable when I’m holding him up on my shoulders. I think he’s almost ready to use the Bumbo and go forward facing in the Baby Bjorn.

Focus: Ant still isn’t interested in objects. He loves looking at the ceiling, curtains, and paintings on the wall. I did just make and print a black and white bullseye, and he’s fascinated by that. That object he will follow, for sure!

Smiles: Oh my goodness. He’s smiling a lot more now, and it’s totally adorable! He does have dimples, although they don’t show all the time. If he ends up with blue eyes and dimples he’s going to be a real ladykiller!

Hands: Still a good grip, but not grabbing at objects yet. Seems to be really good at finding all the hairs I shed though. He does bat at the toys on the gymini, but I think they just happen to get in his way as he’s waving his arms and legs around.

Feeding: He’s now going between 7-8 hours between his last evening feed and the early morning one, and then 3-4 hours until the next one (last night, for example, I fed him at 9:50pm, then 5:27 and 8:40am). So if we could actually get to bed at the same time as him we’d get a decent amount of sleep. But no, I do things like write this instead – went to bed at 1am. Silly! During the day he generally goes around 3 hours between feeds, with a range of 2-4 hours.

Eyes: Still a medium blue. Can’t tell if they’re changing yet or not. But what’s neat is that his eyelashes have gotten much darker, so you can definitely see them now. Not much in the way of eyebrows yet. He started crying real tears over the past few days. So much more heartbreaking when he cries now. Last night he was crying before I fed him, and little tear slipped off his nose. Waaaaaahhh!

Complexion: Cradle cap is gone, for the most part. Still some rough patches around his eyes and nose though. Don’t really know what (if anything) to do about that. I’m putting a little moisturizer on every now and again, hopefully that’s all it takes.

Sleeping: He is doing really well with sleeping at night. We can even put him down when he’s not asleep yet, and that works out fine. For some reason it’s completely different in the daytime. He won’t take a nap unless he falls asleep on me first, and on the rare occasion when I can put him down without waking him up in the process, he only sleeps for a few minutes more before waking. Must figure out what to do about this! Although if I had to pick a time of day for him to not want to sleep as much it would definitely be day rather than night, so I really can’t complain too much.

Me: Back to biking and ice hockey!!! First practices were last Saturday and Monday. I could definitely feel muscles I wasn’t used to using, but was surprisingly not sore afterwards. Yay! I have missed hockey so much, it is really nice to be back. Good for my mental health as well, I find that I am a lot more on edge now than I used to be. I get frustrated and upset a lot more easily (which I am chalking up to lack of consecutive sleep). Taking a few hours for myself to do something fun like hockey really makes a difference. In other areas, my linea nigra seems to be getting lighter. My belly is still shrinking, although it’s hard to see the difference until I try on clothes and see how much better they fit each week. I do have a diastasis (separation between my abdominal muscles) of 3-4 fingers, so need to do some exercises to rectify that. First, though, I need to get Ant to sleep somewhere else during the day besides on ME! Bleeding stopped at right around 5 weeks. Hmmm… what else? Weight loss has stopped, I’d like to lose another 5-7 pounds of my IF weight, but “they” always say not to diet while breastfeeding. It’s hard not to fall back into the “must be thin” habit / mindset (which is what got me into the HA in the first place), but I keep reminding myself that I’m doing this for my babe.

Ant diary: 5 weeks

Growth check: At his 1 month doctor's appointment, Ant had put on more than three pounds over his lowest weight, tipping the scales at a whopping 9lb 10oz! He also measured at 21.5 inches, a gain of 1.5 over birth. Both of which we can see in his clothes which he fills out a lot better, and his diapers - he's just about outgrown the newborn size. He also has cute little plump calves, not the chicken legs he was born with.

Tummy-time: I keep meaning to have him spend more time on his tummy, but he gets fussy very quickly when he's there so I don't do it unless he's in the "calm-alert" state which doesn't last very long, so we don't get to it much. He does lie on M on his tummy, and is already able to hold his head up (albeit briefly) at a 90 degree angle. Very cool.

Focus: Yesterday was the first time on his gymini when Ant actually spent time looking up rather than having his head to one side or the other. Still not really looking at the toys, but getting there. Today I went over to a friend's house (our first car trip on our own), and there he actually followed me out of the room with his eyes when I went to get something. Shwing!

Smiles: They're still involuntary, mostly after he's finished eating, but they are SO adorable. He's going to have dimples!!

Hands: He's started grabbing onto things - mostly my skin, while he's feeding. Boy can he give me a good pinch. Ouch!

Feeding: We've started him on the bottle, he doesn't like it as much as he likes me, but he'll take it. He's taken a room temp bottle a few times, but M isn't pushing as hard for him to go room temp / cold as I would. Since he's doing the bottle feeding, I'll go with it. Although somehow I'm always the one who prepares the bottles, so perhaps I should push a little harder. It would be really nice if he would take them cold!

Pumping is going incredibly well - I don't know what it is, but I truly am a milk factory. I pumped four hours after feeding him last on Monday, while I was out, and got 9oz. In FIVE minutes! It's totally crazy. It also means that I'm a champion leaker. I was talking to my mom on the phone, and had forgotten to put a nursing pad in. All of a sudden I noticed I was feeling damp - looked down to see this!. With a puddle on my leg. Ha!

Eyes: They're currently a medium blue. I wish they would come out that way in pictures, but they really don't. I'm so curious to see what color they end up being. Mine are green, M is brown-green. I think they've gotten a little lighter since he was born, but it's so hard to tell.

Complexion: His milia have all disappeared, which is nice. He's getting a bit of cradle cap though - eww. I'm trying to keep him well-moisturized.

Sleeping: Really lucked out on this one - he's sleeping really well at night. After his last evening feed we'll often get five hours until he wants to eat again, which I really count my blessings for. After that it's three hours between feeds, which still isn't too shabby. He's still sleeping reasonably well during the day, although sometimes will only sleep on me, which makes it hard to get things done! He has been fussier in the evenings, but we're slowly learning how to calm him. I found that he really liked going up and down stairs, which translated into deep knee bends also calming him. That's tough on the knees though - but my mom reminded me that we have an exercise ball that we can bounce on, and he really seems to like that as well. It's hard on the back though! M came up with the good idea of using the boppy while bouncing on the exercise ball, which does help with the back quite a lot. Funny-looking, but when he's screaming, whatever it takes!

Me: Only one pound to go before I'm back at my pre-pg weight. Of course then I still have to lose my IF weight after that. I still have a decent sized baby belly, which I didn't think had been getting any smaller until I found I was able to put on a pair of pants today that didn't fit me last week. I also went for my first bike ride yesterday - it felt fucking fantastic. It had been almost five months since I was on my bike last, as I stopped once my contractions started at 25 weeks. I was surprised at how good my stamina was - hopefully that bodes well for when I start playing hockey again in a couple of weeks!