Showing posts with label babywearing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label babywearing. Show all posts

12.13.2008

st nicholas day

I didn't get a chance to post these last week because of the insanity that is our holiday schedule, but last Saterday was St. Nicholas Day. Being a good dutch child (or at least half dutch), Tobo put his wood shoes out the night before. Not surprisingly, when he woke up at #$%$%^am in the morning, St Nicholas had filled his shoes with gifts.

From Baby Grows Up


Tobo of course was more interested in the shoes:

From Baby Grows Up


The shoes, btw, are from Holland (the country not Michigan!) brought over from ye old country I believe for my mom when she was a little girl. (Correct me if I'm wrong mom) Traditionally he would have gotten oranges and apples as well as a little candy, but since almost all of that is off limits to him right now, he got toys, an outfit, and some shoes. The shoes are important because he is now cruising all over the place, on all sorts of surfaces. I think we're in the final count down until he's walking.



He is into everything. So far he's managed not to haul the Christmas tree down on himself, but really, we've moved the coat stand, covered up the books, barricaded the front door with boxes, locked up all the doors, etc.

From Baby Grows Up

tobo vs the coat stand

A few days ago I broke down and figured out a way to make a makeshift playpen for him in the hallway. I closed all the doors and then put up a pressure gate so he had roughly a 5 by 5 square. This worked well until he realized I wasn't staying. I've been trying out the podaegi, with mixed success. When I get it put on correctly, Tobo loves it. When it's too loose, he starts jumping up and down and flailing his arms, which is disturbing when he's on your back.

From Baby Grows Up


We've got our 9mth checkup on Monday. Can you believe the boy is almost 9months old?!

4.21.2008

he's on a roll

So Tobo's rear is doing better...but this is only after another doctor's visit on Sat to say what you gave us before isn't working. We've now got a second medication which does seem to be making headway, but we also have to get his butt "air time" as much as possible. Honestly I don't know if its the air time or the meds that are making a difference. He's still unbelievably cute though.

Tobo getting some air time:
From Cute Things M...


So today after an hour and a half of sitting on the couch I had some brilliant mommy-logic: "he can't fall if he's on the floor!" I carefully moved Tobo and his pillow to the floor and was delighted to be able to stand and stretch without having to have a hand on him. Eventually I got ambitous and checked me email. No sooner do I turn around but I hear a wump. I turn around and find Tobo spread eagle looking at me with a confused look. He rolled off the pillow! After the initial surprise he did give a bit of a cry, but I think he was more startle than anything else... but we won't be trying that again until he has better neck control.

I have a confession to make. Though I have toted how awesome moby wraps are until today I didn't know how to wear mine properly. Tobo and I went out to my local healthy-breasts store and got a quick tutorial. Now we're rocking the house:



We checked email. We went to get the mail. We went up to get a package from the office. We walked around the complex. We greeted dad at the door. I got to say -- love being hands free.

Other than that, we are getting in the grove. This is our second week at home together, so we're learning all the lessons from last week. Basically feed tobo early and often. It doesn't mean he will sleep through the night (not with that diaper rash) but it does mean that he eats for shorter time periods and is not stressed about them. I think my stress level was going up on the nights where he's freaking out because he's starving. At this point I'm happy to just have one 2 hour walk-about (read:diaper change/nurse/rock/put down/diaper change/rock/put down again/shush for 5 minutes) last night instead of 3 of them. (Saturday night) Unfortunately since I was up from 12am to 5:30am Sunday morning, we didn't get to church. I've got a pile of dishes to return to folks - I've even written the thank you notes for them. Ah well. Next week. Another axiom: if tobo isn't in bed by 9pm plan on staying up to 12am. The kid has a wake up time between there which means that he's bright eyed and bush tailed if you miss that 9pm window. What can I say, I guess he's a bit of a night owl.

I've also been surprised by a) how much I know about taking care of babies and b)how much this is "serving to my backhand" ie I am adequate at what I'm doing, but I'm not super mom. I find myself taking care of things in between tobo-caring instead of reaching out and talking to people. I hope to switch some of that focus in the next weeks, find a medium, but at least I've noticed I'm doing it. An example is we always have clean laundry these days. I run laundry pretty much every morning because it makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something. Tobo is none the worst for it, but you all aren't getting any response from me. I am working my way through old emails now, so I've probably seen your comment, just haven't gotten around to commenting on it myself.

Anyway, off to do some grocery shopping now that dad's home. Talk to you all soon.