Monday, March 28, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
7 Months
Lately I have not had much spare time to update the blog with all the wonderful things Owen is doing, because I have been hard at work on my dissertation proposal. For those not in the know about such things, this is a huge project and a major step toward getting my PhD. I started work when Granma and Gramps arrived in LA in mid-January. Yesterday, I defended my proposal in front of my committee! I really think this might be a time record. It has been an enormous amount of work and I have been burning the candle at both ends.
Anyway, enough about Mom. Owen turned 7 months old a week ago! He has changed so much. He's been sitting independently and very steadily for a while, and now he can pretty much sit up and play with his toys for as long as his attention span will allow. Which, incidentally, is an amazingly long time. This kid has *focus* when he gets into something. It reminds me of his dad reading a book, oblivious to the world around him.
At his last doctor's visit, which was 3 weeks ago already, he was 19lbs 4oz and 27.5" long. Since then, he's outgrown 2 pair of footie pajamas. Just before his 6 months birthday, he started eating solids. After two weeks of sampling some instant rice cereal, he moved on to more interesting fare. In order, he's had: butternut squash, sweet potato, avocado (his favorite), peas, green beans, bananas, apples, pears, broccoli, papayas, and yesterday was his first encounter with chicken. So far he's had all homemade foods, except the rice cereal. I made a few batches and then granma took over the food processor.
Owen LOVES to eat. When the doctor told us how to start introducing foods, she said to "try" to get him to eat 2 tablespoons at a sitting. HA! Try getting him to NOT eat two tablespoons--of 3 or 4 different items--at a sitting! He doesn't even make the poison face when you give him something new. He just kind of swallows it, looks a little skeptical for 1/8th of 1 second, and then opens his mouth for the next spoonful like a baby bird. I think the only food he made a face over was broccoli, and that lasted all of one bite.
The recommendation is to introduce 1 new ingredient at a time, and no more than 1 every 4 days. So we are working on more and more variety as time passes. Pretty soon we'll be able to just put some Baja style tacos through the food mill and give him that. He is so excited for that day.
Owen has also become very grabby. Right at his 7 month birthday, he all of a sudden wanted to grab everything. Not all of it goes into his mouth, either. Sometimes he just wants to grab for the joy of grabbing. His favorite things to grab are: the cup you're holding, especially if it is hot or filled with wine, his baby spoon, beards, and necklaces.
I think like most kids who have pets in the house, Owen is more or less obsessed with the cats. One of our kitties actually sits still and allows him to pet her. Even though he's deep into the grabby phase, he's very gentle with her and touches her fur with his hands open. She has the good sense to keep her whiskers out of reach, however. I think they would be too tempting.
He is beginning to interact with us more. He plays games like peek-a-boo and anticipates where the next surprise appearance will come from. If you hide a toy from him, he'll lean over as far as he can to see if he can find out where it went. When he succeeds he is delighted. He loves to be turned upside-down. He loves the water. He loves to ride in the stroller. He loves things that make noise. He loves helicopters.
And he has developed a real attachment to his weasel stuffed animal. Now the appearance of Weasel can calm all but the worst freakout. Earlier tonight he was very overtired and I was trying to get him to sleep. He was sitting on his bed just crying and crying. I brought Weasel in and suddenly, like a ray of sunshine, a smile broke through the tears and he reached for it with both hands. As he goes to sleep each night, he lays on his side and waves weasel around in the air above him, making a grunting noise as if getting to sleep is very, very hard work. Hrrrrrr hrrrrrrrr RRRRRrrrr ... weasel waving all the time.
One of his cutest tricks is to give kisses. When he wants to give you a kiss, he puts his big, drooly mouth right on your face while he grabs your hair/glasses/ears with both hands. It's adorable. And wet. He also loves hugs and if he's in a good mood, hugging him will provoke great big laughs.
He is still not reliably rolling over or scooting and doesn't push up onto his knees to a crawling position. He's so content to sit up and play with toys (beards, eyeglasses, necklaces, etc) that I think he hasn't quite realized how much more trouble he could get into by moving around. I know that this is short-lived, so we are enjoying it while we can!
Note: many of the photos from this post are Owen's grandma's creative handiwork!
Anyway, enough about Mom. Owen turned 7 months old a week ago! He has changed so much. He's been sitting independently and very steadily for a while, and now he can pretty much sit up and play with his toys for as long as his attention span will allow. Which, incidentally, is an amazingly long time. This kid has *focus* when he gets into something. It reminds me of his dad reading a book, oblivious to the world around him.
At his last doctor's visit, which was 3 weeks ago already, he was 19lbs 4oz and 27.5" long. Since then, he's outgrown 2 pair of footie pajamas. Just before his 6 months birthday, he started eating solids. After two weeks of sampling some instant rice cereal, he moved on to more interesting fare. In order, he's had: butternut squash, sweet potato, avocado (his favorite), peas, green beans, bananas, apples, pears, broccoli, papayas, and yesterday was his first encounter with chicken. So far he's had all homemade foods, except the rice cereal. I made a few batches and then granma took over the food processor.
Owen LOVES to eat. When the doctor told us how to start introducing foods, she said to "try" to get him to eat 2 tablespoons at a sitting. HA! Try getting him to NOT eat two tablespoons--of 3 or 4 different items--at a sitting! He doesn't even make the poison face when you give him something new. He just kind of swallows it, looks a little skeptical for 1/8th of 1 second, and then opens his mouth for the next spoonful like a baby bird. I think the only food he made a face over was broccoli, and that lasted all of one bite.
The recommendation is to introduce 1 new ingredient at a time, and no more than 1 every 4 days. So we are working on more and more variety as time passes. Pretty soon we'll be able to just put some Baja style tacos through the food mill and give him that. He is so excited for that day.
Owen has also become very grabby. Right at his 7 month birthday, he all of a sudden wanted to grab everything. Not all of it goes into his mouth, either. Sometimes he just wants to grab for the joy of grabbing. His favorite things to grab are: the cup you're holding, especially if it is hot or filled with wine, his baby spoon, beards, and necklaces.
I think like most kids who have pets in the house, Owen is more or less obsessed with the cats. One of our kitties actually sits still and allows him to pet her. Even though he's deep into the grabby phase, he's very gentle with her and touches her fur with his hands open. She has the good sense to keep her whiskers out of reach, however. I think they would be too tempting.
He is beginning to interact with us more. He plays games like peek-a-boo and anticipates where the next surprise appearance will come from. If you hide a toy from him, he'll lean over as far as he can to see if he can find out where it went. When he succeeds he is delighted. He loves to be turned upside-down. He loves the water. He loves to ride in the stroller. He loves things that make noise. He loves helicopters.
And he has developed a real attachment to his weasel stuffed animal. Now the appearance of Weasel can calm all but the worst freakout. Earlier tonight he was very overtired and I was trying to get him to sleep. He was sitting on his bed just crying and crying. I brought Weasel in and suddenly, like a ray of sunshine, a smile broke through the tears and he reached for it with both hands. As he goes to sleep each night, he lays on his side and waves weasel around in the air above him, making a grunting noise as if getting to sleep is very, very hard work. Hrrrrrr hrrrrrrrr RRRRRrrrr ... weasel waving all the time.
One of his cutest tricks is to give kisses. When he wants to give you a kiss, he puts his big, drooly mouth right on your face while he grabs your hair/glasses/ears with both hands. It's adorable. And wet. He also loves hugs and if he's in a good mood, hugging him will provoke great big laughs.
He is still not reliably rolling over or scooting and doesn't push up onto his knees to a crawling position. He's so content to sit up and play with toys (beards, eyeglasses, necklaces, etc) that I think he hasn't quite realized how much more trouble he could get into by moving around. I know that this is short-lived, so we are enjoying it while we can!
Note: many of the photos from this post are Owen's grandma's creative handiwork!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
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