On a walk-about

Today Mama, Daddy, Cowboy and I walked down to Gasworks Park to enjoy the sunny day. Of course, Mama brought her camera.

"Runny nose" is an understatement

When I am sick, my whole face runs. And I'm VERY unhappy about it.

Werewolf baby

My latest trick is one that Mama doesn't seem to appreciate: I bite. Mama. While I'm nursing. Or rather, I bite her instead of nursing. I've only gotten the milk-drug once today, because I bit down every other time Mama tried to nurse me. She's not sure if I'm just on a nursing strike because we're both sick, or if I've decided that I'm quitting the milk-drug entirely. I'm going to let her wonder for a bit longer.

Mr. Congeniality, Part 2

1. I have a green ball.
2. Oliver would like to play with my ball.
3. I do not want to share my ball.
4. Mom? You gonna help me out here?
5. I guess I'm on my own. So I bite Oliver's hand...
6. ...and then I push him over. I win.

Mr. Congeniality, Part 1

Jammy has a post (with great pictures) of our day at the playground, and his mom was really nice about how she described our activities. She didn't state the obvious, that I am the one who hasn't quite grasped the idea of "sharing" yet. Or perhaps I've grasped it, but I choose not to apply it. After all, toys are so much more fun to grasp!

In the pictures, you can see bits and pieces of the story unfold. First, I have Oliver's toy Sophie. Jammy would like to play with her, but I don't really like that idea. While I keep Sophie away from Jammy, Oliver wonders why he doesn't get to play with his own toys. Then, Oliver gets some of Jammy's linking toys. So what do I do? I pull his hair, poke him in the face, and take the toys away from him.

In the last picture, you see a possible foreshadowing of me at recess in elementary school: all by myself (insert song here)...because I don't play well with others.

If you're happy and you know it

Clap your hands! This is one of my new favorite things to do. I applaud myself when I eat a banana (Yay banana!), I applaud myself when I'm getting my diaper changed (Yay diaper!), I applaud myself while I'm driving somewhere with Mama (Yay car trip!), and I applaud myself when I'm sitting up in my crib while I'm supposed to be taking a nap (Yay nap time!). In fact, pretty much the only time I don't clap is when Mama tries to get me to do it for other people (Yay stubbornness!).

Snack time

Yep, I'm a Dunlavey too

Anyone who knows my Grandpa Walt will recognize this look*


*This look can also be found on my Uncle Jim and my Mama

A boy of many hats

Mama decided to make me try on all of my cold weather hats to see which ones still fit me now that my head has gotten so enormous. I told her that it doesn't make sense to try them on now because I will likely add a bit more girth to my skull before winter comes, but she wanted to do it anyway. Grandma Hill knitted most of these, so even though some of Mama's favorites are too small now, I bet I'll have more great hats by the time the cold weather comes!

Here are the results of my tuque fitting.

Set 1: Great hats, but they'll pop off the top of my head if I raise my eyebrows.


Set 2: I can just fit my noggin into these, but they are tight enough that I want to yank them off as quickly as I can.


Set 3: Just right! Even though I was getting a little cranky towards the end and wanted Mama to stop putting hats on me.


Ending shot: Some serious hat head. Just add a dab of product, and Daddy and I will have the same hair style!

Still rockin' the Bumbo

Remember when I could barely hold my head upright in the Bumbo, and Mama had to keep pushing me back up because I tilted sideways? Well, now I own it. I sit up just fine and I can get myself out of it when Mama doesn't have me trapped in with the tray. It looks a lot smaller in the second picture, doesn't it? But my smile hasn't changed that much -- I've just added two teeth to make it even more impressive. And now that I'm such a big guy, I no longer need my whole entourage of toys to back me up. All I need is Sophie and I'm good to go.

It was good while it lasted

After several months -- the vast majority of my life, in fact -- of stealing toys from Oliver without any complaints or retribution (see here and here for examples), he finally got me back. He took my Giggler. Right out of my hand. And needless to say, I was NOT happy about it.

Happy 10 months to me!

Can you believe that I'm already 10 months old? I remember when I counted my age in weeks, and soon I'll be able to count it in years! Holy cow.

I've learned a lot this past month, and I'm so mobile that my parents had to rearrange the house for me! They changed the guest bedroom into my play room, so now I have a safe place to hang out and practice my crawling. I like to crawl over to the baby gate to watch Cowboy through the grating, and I also like to pull my blocks and books off of the shelf and throw them all over the floor.

I'm very good at pushing myself into a sitting position, and that's given me access to all sorts of things I couldn't reach before! Mama had to take the non-baby-friendly pipe cleaner smiley flowers off of my crib after she found me sitting up and slowly unwrapping them from the crib slats. I've also started pulling myself up on things, and I like to finger walk around the house.

I babble a lot, and I'm quite conversational. If you say bah-bah to me, I usually answer back. Mama thinks that's the neatest thing, but what does she expect? I'm only being polite. She has also realized that I got my voice from Daddy. Or more specifically, the volume of my voice. She thought that I was just babbling along like any other baby until she took me to Gymboree and saw how I easily drown out every other baby (and adult) in the room.

I might be showing some signs of separation anxiety, but it could also be that I'm tired. My naps have been off-kilter for a couple weeks now, and I still don't have it figured out. I'm back to taking three naps a day, but the last nap seems to mess up my bedtime. I get to bed later, and as a result I wake up earlier (don't ask why, but that's how it works). This means that lately I've been waking up at 5 AM. Mama doesn't come to get me until 6 AM, and I spend the entire hour complaining loudly.

I eat a lot of different foods now and I'm done with purees! At first Mama was happy that she doesn't have to spend her evenings pureeing foods for me, but now she's realizing that she has to spend twice as much time cutting my food into tiny little bite-sized pieces. I don't like yogurt, but I love cottage cheese. I prefer Mama's oatmeal to my own (even though she insists that it's the same thing) so now she just makes a bigger portion in her bowl and we share. The only meat I've eaten so far is chicken, but Mama's made me some beef too so I'll be trying that soon. I love eating pasta, especially with my fingers, and I like to chew on bread crusts too. I've also gotten quite good at drinking water from a cup.

I like to feed myself, so Mama makes sure to give me at least one or two servings of finger foods (peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, peaches, bananas, squash, etc.) at every meal. She has to watch my hands, because I'll grab a handful of food and hang on to it with one hand while I feed myself with my other hand. Then I'll forget about my stash and either throw it on the floor or smear it all over my face. Cowboy has learned that he gets to clean up after I'm done with my meal, so he really likes it when I throw things on the floor.

To celebrate my 10-month birthday today, I took Cowboy to Marymoor dog park so that he could play with Bodhi and Reina while I hung out with Madeline and Brady and Mama chatted with their moms, Jen and Dawn. We had a really nice morning enjoying the sun and Cowboy was so happy to have some playtime.

Since then, I've been eating, napping, and crying whenever Mama leaves the room. I hear that she's going to try to put me to bed a little earlier tonight to see if that helps with my sleeping. We'll see...

Yep

I'm still taking 3 naps a day.

It's my perogative

So you know how I wrote in my last post that I've gotten rid of my third nap? Not so fast, little buckeroo. I think I might want to keep that one around.

You see, Mama was a little concerned about dropping that nap. Even though I refused to sleep when she put me down, I was SO tired and cranky all afternoon. Remembering that she solved my previous crankiness by feeding me snacks, she tried giving me a nice big snack (Cheerios dipped in watermelon juice to soften them up a little) before putting me down. And guess what? I went right to sleep!

Of course, this is just one day. Who knows what I'll decide to do tomorrow?

Today was a fun day in addition to the watermelon juice Cheerios and lovely late afternoon nap: I went to my first Gymboree class with Oliver! At first, it was a little overwhelming to be in a room full of so many big and bright toys and play structures. But after a few minutes, I was army crawling around and chewing on everything I could find. We went down lots of slides (when I went down by myself on my belly, I held onto the side and tried to pull myself back up) and played on roll-y things and with balls, bubbles, mirrors, and even a giant parachute! We sang songs and did dances and were allowed to wander wherever we wanted to go. It was so much fun!

There were several other friends in the class, but Oliver and I are the youngest. It kind of reminds me of yoga -- how we used to be the smallest, and now we're not even allowed to go because we're too grown up. When I see the other babies crawling and standing and walking, I can't even imagine that I'll be one of the "big kids" one day.

Oh yeah, in my list of accomplishments from yesterday, I forgot to mention that I know how to push myself up into a sitting position now. This is SO cool -- I can crawl to the toy shelf, pull off all the blocks and throw them around the room, grab two, sit up, and bang them together. Whee!

Havin' a crawl

Happy Labor Day! I don't really understand what this holiday is all about, because my understanding of "labor day" has something to do with me making my Mama yell in pain for a long time. And as far as I can tell, she wasn't yelling in pain today.

Anyway, I picked today to be the day I start crawling for real. If you remember, I've been getting up on my hands and knees and rocking back and forth. That was just the warm-up, to make sure I have my balance and full control of all four limbs. Now I'm feeling pretty confident about how this whole thing works, so I decided to start taking steps. I'm a bit wobbly and I go much faster if I pull myself on my belly, but I think with a bit of practice this crawling thing will work out pretty well. After all, Mama and Daddy can crawl really fast! I'll be catching up with them soon.

I've also been futzing around with my napping schedule, and I think I may have finally gotten rid of one of my naps! I haven't quite nailed down when I'm taking the other two, but I'll settle into a new routine eventually. For now, I take one at 8:30 AM and the other around 12:30 PM. I start acting really tired around 11:30 (when I used to take my second nap), but if Mama puts me down I babble and yell until she gets me for lunch. The problem with this schedule right now is that I get really tired in the afternoon but I won't take a nap (I used to take one at 3 PM). By the time dinner, bath and bedtime comes, I'm a pretty cranky guy. Mama is hoping that we can move both naps a little later in the day so that I won't be so tired in the afternoon.

I'm also eating a lot. Mama and Daddy aren't sure if I'm just a very hungry boy, or if I don't know enough to stop eating when I'm full. I like to play with my food and they think that I might just like putting it into my mouth, regardless of whether or not I'm hungry. If they put a pile of finger food in front of me, I will keep putting it into my mouth until my cheeks are full. And then I'll try to stuff more into my mouth anyway, even though there's no room. They asked the Dude about it, and he said to stop feeding me when I start getting distracted. And only one piece of finger food at a time! That's no fun at all.

I'm eating three solid meals a day, and have just started eating two snacks a day too! I was getting really cranky around 10:30 and 3:00, even though I get the milk-drug when I wake up from my naps at 10 and 2. I'd jam my fists into my mouth and try to suck on or bite every part of Mama I could reach. When I started trying to chew on the floor, Mama finally got the hint that I'm hungry! Goodness, woman, took you long enough! So now she gives me a little snack in addition to the milk-drug.

Speaking of the milk-drug, I think I'm finally starting to get over my addiction. I used to jones for a fix every 2 hours, but now I'm down to a 4x-a-day habit. I still need it to kick-start the day and to help me settle down for the night, but now I'm a pretty big fan of eating food to get my energy throughout the day. Mama is so proud of me, but I can tell she's a little sad too. It's OK though, I'll still find time to climb all over her, pull on her hair and face, kick her, pinch her belly, and dig into her collarbone with my fingertips.

So those are the things I've been up to. How about you?