First Weaning Attempt = FAIL

The best laid plans and all that...

So, I went to New York this past week for work. Before I left we had Oliver down to one nursing session a day (right before bed) and the plan was to get him used to not nursing at all while I was gone. I nursed him on Sunday night for what was supposed to be the last time.

I was gone from Monday to Friday and Oliver and Brian had a blast all week. Check out the pictures I posted on the Oliver Pictures 2010 page. They went to the Children’s Museum, to the UT campus, to the Umlauf Sculpture Gardens and to the park. Even better, Brian took tons of pictures and videos while I was gone so I got to see what all they were up to. 

Oliver took to the lack of breast milk like a champ - he went to bed without protest and was perfectly content while I was gone. All that changed when I finally got back to town late Friday night. All day yesterday, Oliver was crazy grumpy. He wailed and wailed at both nap times (he never did make it down for his second nap) and was completely inconsolable numerous times yesterday. He kept clawing my shirt and obviously wanted to nurse. So, finally I let him. He was immediately back to his old self. 

So, it’s become clear that he’s not ready to let all of this go. And since I’m not 100 percent committed to the whole weaning thing, I will continue to nurse him at bedtime (although today he demanded three nursing sessions, I’m hopeful that we can get back to the one time a day schedule we had going before I left). I’m not ready and he’s not ready so it’s not time yet. I feel fairly confident that one day (maybe soon) he’ll be ready to wean and that’s when it will be time. The one thing we will work on this week is getting him used to having Brian put him to bed while I am in the house. This will give me the option of not having to nurse him and put him to bed every night if I don’t want to.

This weaning thing really is quite the process...

Best Mother's Day Present Ever!

We are down in San Antonio this weekend to celebrate Mother’s Day and my mom’s birthday. My grandmother came down from Midland, too. Tonight, Oliver decided to give me, my mom and my grandmother the best Mother’s Day gift ever. 

Baby Signs

Without really thinking much about it we started trying to teach Oliver some sign language last week. As I reported earlier, he picked up the sign for “water” within minutes and now uses it all the time (and correctly). In the past few days he’s added a few more signs to his repertoire. He now does the sign for “all done” as well as “eat,” “ball,” and “more.” He will also wave when you say “bye-bye” or “night-night.” It’s been really cool to see him do all these signs but I worry that he’s not trying to say the words as he signs them (with the exception of “ball” which he says all the time). I don’t know much about baby signing and worry that it might slow him down in his verbal development instead of speed it up. We always use the word when we make the sign for Oliver but he’s not trying to make the sounds. I should probably do some research on it before we keep going. 

"Is He ___________ Yet?"

It’s become clear to me over the past months that the first year of parenthood (and, perhaps beyond) can be broken into at least three “Is he _________ yet?” question phases. Zero to 6 months, the question is: “Is he sleeping through the night yet?” Six to nine months, you get: “Is he crawling yet?” And, after nine months: “Is he walking yet?”

I answer this last question at least four times a day. And, when I explain to the person asking that he isn’t walking yet, then I get one of two responses. They either say: “Don’t worry, he will.” (Uh, thanks. Of course he will. And if he doesn’t it means something is seriously wrong and then won’t you feel sheepish). Or, they say: “My kid/my husband/my cousin’s best friend didn’t walk until they were 18 months.” Seriously? How is that helpful? Who tells a woman schlepping a 25 pound baby around that she could be doing that for another six months? Wow.

Oliver is not walking yet. He’s been pulling up since October, crawling like a madman since November, pushing things around the room since January, and cruising for months now. He will walk around holding on to one of my fingers. His favorite game is to walk between Brian and I holding on to our fingers and then to fall into our laps. He can stand on his own but he will only do it if he’s super distracted (like today when he was listening to music and decided to stand up and dance. He did the Twist in case you’re wondering). But he’s yet to gain the courage to take that first step. It’s as though he’s still too afraid to fall. So, we wait.

In the meantime, I’m a little ticked that no one asks me four times a day if he’s talking yet. Because, yeah, he is. He can recognize pictures of dogs and balls and will point to the book and say the word. He still can’t say “cat” but he makes the kkkkkkkkkk sound when he sees our cats or a picture of a cat. Today he started to sing along with the song “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys (the same song he did the Twist to). Yes, I understand that singing to Barbara Ann is just repeating his word for “ball” over and over again but the important thing is that he’s starting to hear and repeat sounds. He’s also started making “complete” babbling sentences so that we can hear him in the backseat or in his crib having an entire conversation with himself full of “ba’s, da’s, ma’s, etc.). And, today, on a whim, we decided to try and teach him the sign for “water.” He started signing it immediately (his version looks more like blowing kisses than the traditional sign language for water but it will pass) and spent the rest of the day making the sign when he was thirsty.  So, he’s not walking but he is starting to communicate with us and that has been really cool.

Like Father, Like Son

Brian and Oliver hit the thrift stores this week and found some great threads. I came home one day this week to find my boys like this:

One Year Wellness Visit

Brian and I took Oliver to the pediatrician on Friday for his one year checkup. The appointment was scheduled during what should have been nap time so I was a little weary of how he would behave. But he was in a great mood the whole time. He played with everything in the waiting room, was all over the exam room while we waited for the doctor, and only cried for about a second and a half when the nurse gave him three shots at the end of the appointment. He was smiling and waving bye-bye to everyone as we walked out.

At nine months he was:

Weight:  21 pounds, 13 ounces (70th percentile)

Height: 28 1/2 inches (55th percentile)

Head Circumference: 18.5 inches (92nd percentile)

At a year:

Weight: 24 pounds, 3 ounces (70th percentile)

Height: 29 1/2 inches (45th percentile)

Head Circumference: 19.2 inches (97th percentile)

He’s still got a huge head!

They asked us all sorts of questions about his development. Can he stand up on his own? Yes, if he’s so motivated. Can he walk holding onto things? Yes. Can he wave bye-bye? He can wave hello so, yes. Does he say “mama” and “dada”? Dada - yes, mama - sometimes. Does he say three words other than mama and dada? Three?! Um, maybe? He says “da!” for dog, “ba!” for ball, and “kkkkk” for kitty. Apparently that counts, though, so good for him! He’s right on track.

We then talked about temper tantrums. For the past couple of weeks, Oliver has been throwing fits when he doesn’t get his way. He will make himself limp and scream. It’s crazy. He almost always does it at home so we have at least been able to avoid the public tantrum but we were at a loss at how to deal with them. I’ve never really been clear on what time of discipline is appropriate at any given age. The doctor had some great advice. She told us that the “terrible two’s” are actually a misnomer and that the “terrible” behavior usually starts closer to the 12 month point because that’s when kiddos start to get their own opinions about how things should work but they don’t yet have the vocabulary to tell you what they want or that they are upset. She said that by the time kids are two they should have the verbal skills to express their wants and the fact that they are angry. In the meantime she suggested we try a couple of things to deal with the tantrums we’ve got going now. While we should ignore the behavior as much as possible, she also suggested that we tell him that we know he’s angry so that he knows that we understand what he’s trying to tell us by screaming. So, for instance, if he’s playing with something that’s not a toy and we have to take it away and he screams, we should say something like: “You are mad because I took away that stick but sticks aren’t toys.” Sounds like great advice but we’ll see how cool and collected we are during the next tantrum. I’m just glad to know that the tantrum behavior is normal this early.

First Birthday Party

We celebrated Oliver’s first birthday last Saturday with a party at our house. We were joined by over 30 friends and family and it was a blast. 

So, now it’s time to send out a HUGE thank you to everyone who came and especially to everyone who helped make the party such a success.

The night before the party, Lindsey and her two cousins, Kacey and Ashley (randomly visiting from Oklahoma and completely unaware of what they were getting into), came over to help us bake and decorate. They baked cakes, decorated cupcakes, hung banners, and made miles of the coolest bunting ever and were so much fun to hang out with while they were doing it. We were up until 1:30 am the day of the party and without the help of these three we wouldn’t have gotten any sleep at all.

While Lindsey and her cousins were hard at work, Grandma Ann was creating a masterpiece for Oliver’s birthday cake. The theme of the party was robots (because I found a cute robot invitation I wanted to use and because robots are awesome). We decided to do cupcakes for everyone else and make Oliver his own small cake that he could dig into and make a mess. Ann makes amazing cakes and this one was no exception. Check her out hard at work and the finished product:

My parents and grandmother all came over a few hours before the party was set to start and helped us get everything ready (they also brought yummy dip and potato salad). As soon as they walked in the door we put them to work, making sandwiches, blowing up balloons, getting ice, entertaining the kiddo, etc.

By the time the guests arrived, everything was perfect. The desserts were ready, the food was laid out, Oliver was in his super cute birthday t-shirt (from Etsy.com) and we were ready to relax and enjoy our day.

Oliver was in an awesome mood. He spent time hanging out with family and friends and he ate some sticks.

Then it was time for cake. Oliver had never had sugar before and has always been a picky eater so he didn’t really eat a lot of it but he still managed to make a mess.

I was concerned that my son lacked the all-important sweet tooth so I decided to give him a cupcake on Monday (his actual birthday). Turns out he prefers chocolate cake.

Thank goodness. As Lindsey pointed out, she and I do too much baking for him not to like the occasional sweet.

It was a perfect day. I am so grateful for everyone who came out to celebrate our little boy and for all the people who helped make the party so stress-free for me. I can’t believe our little boy has already turned one. I can’t wrap my head around the fact so quickly we have gone from this:

to this:

What an amazing year.