Food, glorious food

Two of the biggest and best changes inCurly’s babyhood for us were 1. mobility and 2. eating solid food

I’m going to skip talking about mobility because this post is all about food. When Curly began sitting in his high chair (which is really one of those space-saving chairs that straps onto a regular chair) and eating with us, everything changed for the better. It’s amazing how important it felt for us to eat together, and not just that, to go out to restaurants together. Nutella and I are big “foodies” and we love going out to eat. The time period after Curly stopped sleeping through meals at restaurants (around 3 months) to the time before he started feeding himself finger foods well and sitting in a restaurant high chair (7 months) was limiting to us because we’d try to eat out only to have Curly get frustrated and/or bored. So we stopped going unless we had a babysitter, which was not often. Granted, we’re only talking about 4 months here, but we felt the impact.

Nowadays, we know we can go out to have a meal (not a leisurely one, but around an hour or so) and Curly will be fine. He’ll be so good that sometimes we get compliments which puffs our hearts up. We hold and bounce him until the food comes, at which point, he sits in the high chair and gets some of whatever we’re eating as long as the food doesn’t break any big rules (like nuts). Let me tell you something- our boy Loves. To. Eat. He will happily stuff his face for up to a half hour straight.

For Valentine’s Day, we went out to brunch together. I got a Belgium sugar waffle with strawberries on top. Nutella had some kind of special oatmeal, and we ordered a side baguette with fancy spreads. Curly happily ate my strawberries cut into small pieces and the bread….oh, he was all about that baguette. The baguette was very crusty and he couldn’t quite get through the crusts, so we scooped out the soft interiors and gave them to him. And then we found ourselves left with just the crusts 😦 But as long as he’s happy!

We send him with 3 containers of food to daycare daily. His breakfast is usually a mini muffin or cheerios, with banana slices. Lunch is chicken or tofu and some other fruit…pear or clementine slices for example. His afternoon snack is usually veggies- a mix of sweet potato, steamed asparagus or broccoli. We’re trying to work cubes of cheese into the mix as well.  It’ll be interesting when we transition to a solids and whole cow’s milk diet around 1 year. I’m hoping we won’t have issues with that…but if things continue to go along as they have, I don’t foresee any problems. This is probably all a precursor to trying to keep up with feeding a growing boy who will end up taking in more calories than we do!

Oh, and we tried a new sippy cup with water last night. He did better than we thought he would!

Mush mush mushy mush

Strawberry and I have always been into celebrating (birthdays, holidays, weekends,  5 o’ clock, whatever), so it should be no surprise that Valentine’s Day is right up our alley. What’s not to like about a day that celebrates love, flowers, chocolate, sexy lingerie and sparkly jewelry? We do sweet, thoughtful things for each other on a daily basis, but to have a day set aside to really take a moment and step back and look at where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going is appreciated. In years past, we’ve gone all out with weekend getaways, fancy nights on the town, flowers and chocolate sent to the office, etc.  This year, it’s nice that we get it on a weekend and will have the whole day to ourselves as a family.  Oh yeah, cause this year, it’s more than a party of 2.

What a difference a year makes.  There will not be breakfast in bed this year, since SOMEONE insists on getting up at 7am even on weekends.  Although, I’m on morning duty around these parts and Mr Curly gave me an unexpectedly early wake up last Sunday so I made breakfast in bed for Strawberry after he went down for his morning nap.  Surely, I get credit for that, right?  There are no fancy restaurant plans because we don’t have a sitter, but we are going out to a play next Saturday and have a sitter lined up for that.  We can’t call in too many sitter favors all at once, we have to spread them out you see.  There are some beautiful roses on our dining room table, though the details of who bought them for whom are fuzzy. But the cuddles, and the smooching?  There will be plenty of those, and Curly gets them too.

We have spent a lot of time recently reflecting on how our relationship has changed since we became parents.  The first 3 months were a true trial by fire.  The details have thankfully become hazy, but I will never forget how we held one another up and wrapped our arms around each other.  How we took turns not only with sleepless nights, loads of laundry, and changing diapers, but also with bouts of tears and words of comfort and support.  I think our relationship is stronger now than we ever could have imagined.  We didn’t just survive, we grew.  I look at Curly and Strawberry together and my heart swells with love for them both individually, but also for the love I see that they have for each other.  What more could a mother ask for?  Flowers, chocolate, lingerie, and sparkly jewelry could never compare.

If you managed not to throw up after reading all that mush, here’s a picture of Curly with his very first Valentine.  It’s from HP, his birthday twin!  Thank so much,  HP and mommies!

Snow my goodness!

We have seen more snow in the past week where we live than we’ve ever seen before (apparently an over 100 year old record was broken, and I believe it). First it was 2 feet of snow, and then panic ensued as yet another foot came bearing down on top of that. We lost power for 5 hours last weekend which was bearable. Then we lost water for 4 hours on Wednesday due to a water main break, which was scary, but thankfully fixed just as the second round of flakes started to fall. We were all stocked up on food, diapers and formula so that wasn’t a problem. Nutella did a lot of baking and we devised many oddball ways to entertain Curly, including pushing him around in a box, hanging him upside down and spinning, giving him a bubble bath and showing him how much snow was piling up outside several times. The skies have since cleared and our backs are on the mend after the many, many shoveling efforts over the past few days. That must mean it’s time to share pictures!

Yep, Curly, that's Narnia out there.

Holy Roseola!

Though we did get over 2 feet of snow dumped on us this weekend, we’ll wait until the next post to showcase the “snowmageddon” pictures. It seems like every other post we do these days is about illness in the household. The culprit this time- roseola. Apparently, most children get this lovely virus by the time they’re 2 years old. It is highly contagious and spreads just like a cold. Gotta love those daycare germs!

So on Wednesday night, after his post-daycare nap, I picked Curly up from his crib and noticed that he was burning up. His temperature was just over 103. This was the first time he’s ever had such a  fever. We promptly administered ibuprofin and monitored his behavior. He wasn’t acting any differently than normal- still playful and smiling. Drank a decent amount of his bottle, but not the whole thing. We took his temperature again an hour later and it had dropped 2 degrees. Since it was responding to the medicine and there were no other symptoms to worry about, we put him to bed and he slept through the night. In the morning, his temperature was just above 99. He drank his whole bottle and seemed fine. We gave him another dose of ibuprofin and brought him to daycare.

Picked him up from daycare and he had no temperature. The daycare providers had no concerns with him throughout the day. So we considered the fever just one of those strange things. Until his bath later that night. We noticed tiny pink spots on his chest. They were so light that we didn’t know if it was because he had been sleeping on his tummy or what (he’s got such a light complexion that red marks are common regardless of the cause). He again slept through the night. The next morning, those pink dots had crept up to his face and covered his torso. The mommies freaked out.

Click the link below for more of the story and pictures. Be warned- the rash is quite graphic and shocking, but we thought it would be helpful for other parents to see…

Snowpocalypse: the return

The opposite of how we feel about the snowstorm*

* Not visible in this picture: Curly’s 5th tooth, surprise!

Expect more grumpy Curly-in-the-snow pictures soon. Poor kid is using up all his snow days before he even starts school.

Out longer than in

Dear Curly,

Happy “out longer than in day”!  Yes, it’s true.  January 30, 2010 marks the 273rd day that you’ve been out in the world.  You were born 272 days after conception.  I know, this isn’t really a milestone.  Still, you’ll be 9 months old in 2 more days and THAT is pretty significant!  You’ve been so sick this month, but it hasn’t stopped you from growing and being your charming self.  You are thriving at day care and they love you.  You avidly watch the older kids and are so sweet to the little girl that’s a month younger than you.  And it melts our hearts when we walk in the door to pick you up, and you smile and crawl over, eager to be held. You’ve learned how to clap and to bang toys together.  You aren’t very into being spoon fed mushy food anymore, but you love to feed yourself table food.

I’ve never really told you much about my pregnancy.  The time when you were growing inside me was many things.  It was magical, and painful, and sometimes a little creepy.  Most of the time I felt physically sick or uncomfortable, but there were times that I felt cute, and I always felt proud and lucky.

We spent many of those 272 “inside” days dreaming of what you would be like, of all the things we wanted to show you and tell you.  Much of parenting a newborn/ baby is getting by and meeting demands, but your personality is emerging and some of those things that we dreamed about are starting to become reality.  When I hold you in my arms each morning, the pale winter dawn filtering through the window, I kiss your soft fuzzy head and sing to you, and it’s just as I envisioned it when I felt your kicking in my tummy.

You have changed our lives more than we ever could have imagined, and our love for you grows stronger with each passing day.  Here’s a little photo progression, to show how far you’ve come.  From the last belly shot, to newly out in the world, to smiling at us as you contemplate some new form of mischief.  And hey, maybe you are a red head after all.  Only time will tell on that one, since the pictures exaggerate that quality.

Love,
Eemah and Mommy