Sundays With Oliver - Week Twenty-Four

This week Oliver did some good eating (he’s really liking the rice cereal now but we haven’t started any veggies yet) and because he was eating so well, he also did some good sleeping - going nine or ten hours at a stretch some nights. That made Mommy a very happy camper. We finally broke down and bought a jogging stroller this weekend and have taken it out a few times. I’m trying to figure out an exercise routine for myself since I think I’ve put off the whole getting back into shape thing for far too long. He spent lots of time in his swing in the backyard and worked on sitting up a whole bunch this week (he’s getting pretty good at it although he does take a tumble every once in awhile). He’s also showing a lot of interest in trying to crawl or scoot on his belly which I keep hoping he’ll put off for awhile. I have no interest in him being mobile at this point since it would make him really hard to keep up with and we’d have to majorly childproof the house. I put him on his hands and knees once this week and he took one lunge forward so I immediately flipped him back onto his back. But I can’t keep him on his back anymore either since he’s finally figured out how to roll back to belly now, too. I guess there’s nothing for it - he’s going to figure out how to move eventually.

Oliver spent this weekend at my mom’s house so that Brian and I could celebrate Brian’s birthday on Friday night. On Saturday I came down to San Antonio and went out with my friend, Seema, while my parents babysat. I had two nights out in a row!  So lucky! Oliver and I are going to stay down in San Antonio again tonight and head home tomorrow morning. 

Here are the pictures from this week:

  

Sundays With Oliver - Week Twenty-Three

It has been a week of “firsts” for Oliver this week. Monday through Wednesday nights he slept from 8 PM until 4 or 5 AM every night - marking his first long stretch of sleeping through the night. On Thursday night he woke up at 2 AM and screamed for an entire hour before going back to sleep marking his first hour long screaming fit since we started sleep training (Friday night he went back to sleeping nine hours so I’m thinking he was probably teething something fierce on Thursday night. I’m still cautiously optimistic that he is working on dropping his 2 AM feeding). Yesterday brought two firsts - his first attempt at solids (post and pictures to follow) and his first time sitting up on his own (a first I’ve impatiently been waiting a long time for!). It’s been an awesome week. 

We had a great weekend, too. My parents came up yesterday so they could witness Oliver’s first meal of rice cereal. We ate at Fuego’s for lunch and then Mom and I took Oliver to Toys R Us where we bought him a swing for the backyard and a cool new toy to encourage him to sit up (check out this week’s pictures to see how well the toy worked). Then we went to Lowe’s to get some rope to hang the swing from and came home and got that all set up. So, now Oliver’s got a swing at home and at the grandparents’ house. Now that it’s finally getting cooler I know we are going to love being able to take him out in the backyard and put him in the swing. He loves to be outside - it still instantly calms him down. 

This afternoon we went and had lunch at my cousin, Becky’s, house with her husband, Bryan, and two boys, Robby and Stephen. They hadn’t seen Oliver since they came to visit us in the hospital the day after Oliver was born. We had a great time hanging out with them and I hope we don’t go another five months without seeing them! 

Here are the pictures from this week, including the first Sundays With Oliver pictures of him sitting up. Such a big boy!

"Attention Moms"

Brian, Oliver and I were shopping at Babies R Us the other day when an announcement came over the store’s speakers. “Attention Moms...” it began. We bought spoons and bowls a few weeks ago in preparation for Oliver’s first attempts at solids (which will hopefully occur in the next couple of weeks) and the spoons package read: “Long, thin handle makes feeding baby easy on Mom.” The bowl packaging read: “Great for mom to feed baby.”  Not “moms and dads” or “parents” ... just moms. Brian’s been facing this mom bias since I got pregnant. Almost all pregnancy books are written solely for the mothers and the ones that are written for dads end up being pretty offensive in how much they talk down to the expectant father. And the cultural assumption that mom alone is the one who is going to feed, clothe and care for the baby (the assumption that is implicit in all of the above examples) erases the experiences of fathers like Brian who are more involved or who choose to stay home with their children (you don’t see many commercials aimed at stay at home fathers). It just annoys me when the assumption is made that I am or should be the primary caregiver for our son just because I am his mother. Now, I’m not arguing that I’d be much happier if all of the marketing materials in Babies R Us or on the spoons and bowls read “Mom and Dad” because then I’d surely be writing a blog post about how such phrasing assumes a heterosexual couple as parents but how hard would it be to just say/write “Attention Parents”??? Wouldn’t that cover all the bases?  

Sundays With Oliver - Week Twenty-Two

Oliver was a social butterfly this week. On Monday afternoon Oliver and I went over to a cookout at my friend, Alison’s, house while Brian worked at the store. Oliver was so well-behaved which really surprised me since he hadn’t really taken good naps on Monday. Alison pulled out her son’s old exersaucer and Oliver hung out in it for over thirty minutes and completely entertained himself. We were there for a couple of hours and then had to head home because it was almost bedtime. I got him home, bathed him, fed him and put him to bed. He fell right to sleep and slept for nine hours straight! Good night!

This weekend we went to Jessica and Aaron’s son, Aidan’s, first birthday party. Oliver got to hang out with Lydia and met some new friends, too. He got a little cranky towards the end but did pretty well. On Saturday afternoon, Cousin Chris came over and hung out with Oliver for a few hours. I’ve got some great pictures of the two of them in this week’s album. 

He also got to see his great-grandparents and meet his Great Uncle Forrest and Great Aunt M’Liss although not under the best circumstances. Bombone had a mild heart attack this past week and is in the hospital in South Austin to be observed. They are going to run some tests to check on his bypasses tomorrow morning but will hopefully be able to discharge him soon. I hope so since his 91st birthday is this week and no one should have to spend their birthday in the hospital.

And, finally, today we had friends over to watch football and eat junk food. So, Oliver’s been surrounded by people all weekend. He loves it - he’s such a social baby! He loves to smile and talk to/shriek at people.

Even with all we did this weekend, though, I managed to get some pictures taken. So, here they are. His first pictures as an official five month old (he turned five months old yesterday!):

And a bonus picture because it's so stinking cute.

  

Sundays With Oliver - Week Twenty-One

Busy busy week. I had tons to do at work and Brian has been busy with class and working a few shifts at the bookstore. But we did manage to work in a few outings with the kiddo. Oliver hung out a playground for the first time this week when we went to a park in our neighborhood. He loves the swings. On Saturday morning, the three of us went to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden here in Austin and then had lunch at Flip Happy Crepes. Saturday afternoon, we met my parents in Kyle and handed Oliver off to them so that we could have a few nights off. Oliver stayed in San Antonio with them on Saturday and Sunday nights and the reports were mostly good. He did get a little fussy from time to time either from teething or from missing his preferred method of eating but his nights were decent and he didn’t keep my mom up all night long so that’s good! He also had a great time hanging out in the outdoor swing that my mom bought for him. There will be pictures of his time with the grandparents in the Week 21 album when I finally get it posted. Brian and I had a great time and are so grateful to my parents for giving us the weekend off. On Saturday night, we went out for sushi and drinks. On Sunday we (finally) went to see Julie and Julia, gave the house a good scrubbing and then had our fantasy football draft at the store. We had such a good weekend and I was so excited about getting to sleep but I was definitely ready to see our little guy again yesterday when I picked him up from my mom. I think he was happy to see us, too.

Even though I didn’t see him on Sunday, we still managed to get our pictures taken thanks to Mom and Richard (judging by some of the outtakes, he wasn’t the happiest camper during the shoot). So,  here they are.... I swear you can actually see him grow before your eyes these days. He’s getting so big!

And, a bonus picture of him loving his new swing: