8 Month Menu

Foods I'm Going to Buy for Liam next week!

• broccoli
• mango
• asparagus
• dried lentil beans
• eggplant
• white potato
• blueberries
• kiwi
• cantaloupe
• honeydew
• watermelon

Now, granted, I'm not going to buy them ALL next week but he can start having these at 8 months old & HOLY CRAP HE'S 8 MONTHS OLD NEXT WEEK!

And, on a somewhat related note...I'm beginning to wonder if I need to start feeding him more at mealtimes.

This is what his Menu consists of at the moment:

Breakfast -- cereal with 2 oz. of fruit mixed in it & then another 2 oz. of a different fruit after
Lunch -- 4 oz. of fruit or yogurt
Dinner -- 4 oz. of veggies & cereal (not mixed together cause EWWW)

Every once in a while he gets those Gerber Puffs & avocado or grapes for Finger Foods as a snack but I'm wondering if I either need to bump up the ounces at mealtime or give him a heartier snack in the afternoon....

We are SO going to be one of "those parents"

Admittedly, I thought I would be one of "those parents" who yells at people to shut up while their baby is napping or smears poopy diapers on annoying, stupid, CRXs across the street for reeving their engine THREE TIMES to pull into the stupid driveway or punching you in the throat for making my baby cry what I didnt expect is that Matias would be one of "those parents" also!

HORRAY!!

Last night while he was putting Liam down for the night, these three kids were outside playing kickball at 8pm IN THE DARK. They live 5 houses up & were playing RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE. And banging on the mailbox FOR FUN.

He yelled down to me to tell those pieces of shit kids children to go home but I didnt have to cause he went into the guest room & YELLED AT THEM FROM THE WINDOW TO BE QUIET. The super stupid kids brainiacs from down the street could NOT figure out where this command was coming from! It was so hilarious to watch them from the library not having a clue about its origins!

And I also found it HIGHLY amusing that Matias turned into one of "those parents", it's not that I didnt expect it, I just wasnt sure how & when it would manifest itself considering his family was probably out & about making a ruckus "after hours" so I kind of figured it would be considered status quo, you know?

He needs the BEEP! BEEP! horn

Our little Liam Fellow is growing up. He's crawling. In reverse. He's been doing very well at spending time in the crawl position & started rocking to get things out of his reach for a few days now but last night he took his first REAL crawl steps...in reverse.

We were upstairs playing in our bedroom on my quilt & he just up & started moving in the backwards direction! And he was making a lot of progress - not just 'oh I happen to move 1/2" that time by accident' kind of way either - he made his way from the middle of the room to the wall, then played along the wall for a bit attempting to pull down the drapes and turn on his favorite lamp (it's a foot switch), then he BEEP!BEEP! crawled over to the nightstand! I tried to get him to move FORWARD by bribing him with BOOKS. The kid responds to Book Bribes! That a boy! He moved about 2 strides forward and then grew REALLY frustrated & I also think he was getting tired. The other night when practicing crawling forward he literally broke a sweat. This crawling is a LOT of work, people!

We'll practice more BEEP!BEEP! crawling tonight after we get home from our afternoon walk. It's too nice to stay inside if we arent napping!

Our little boy, he is growing up so fast :(

The Future...

I feel I must share this dream simply because it's funny & shows JUST HOW MUCH MATIAS WANTS A BABY GIRL!

He had a dream we had another child and it was a girl (YAY) but she came out with a full on mustache - and Matias said "just cut it off".

Guess he really wants his girl, eh?

Yo, Baby!

Liam had his first Yogurt today (blueberry) and LOVED it! He CRIED when it was finished, all 4 oz., and I would normally give him more but I want to wait until we have passed the 3 day rule test.

I kept telling him he was a Big Boy eating yogurt just like Mommy's & he was grinning & eating it all up :)

Book Shopping

We took Liam to B&N today and spent an hour and a half there! He LOVED every second of it and really only started getting whiny when we'd obviously been there too long for any activity.

We went through all the board books to find the ones he really loved. And he sat on the floor with Daddy & "road tested" them all before deciding on 4 books. 2 Baby Einstein, one that he cried when Mommy was holding it & a Animals Peek A Boo by the same person who did the Animal Kisses one that he loveslovesloves. And then the piece de resistance - Z is for Zamboni & it's an alphabet book ALL CENTERED AROUND HOCKEY! I used a gift card that I was holding onto from Grandma & Grandpa that they had given him for Halloween & I LITERALLY jumped up and down and hugged it to my chest when I found it.

Dork? Ah, who cares :) My SON has a hockey alphabet book :)

That thing we dont talk about

So that thing that we have not been talking about & I'm not even talking about it now, you know, BUT it HAS NOT BEEN HAPPENING FOR THE PAST THREE NIGHTS.

But, seriously, I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Photo(s) of the Week

Quick recap of our week - photo journal style

Liam playing in his house & getting one more wear out of that shirt

Liam drinking his dinner bottle ALL BY HIMSELF! So much by himself that he didnt even want me to hold him. That stinker.

Liam pulled himself up and hugged that banister like it was his new best friend!

Happiness is eating...

...and drinking! He's gotten so much better with his sippy these days! Actually drinking from it!

No Shots Have Been Dropped!

It appears we have exceeded our FREE bandwidth with Drop Shots, I knew that time would come soon enough! We are going to go on and upgrade to the Star Account but as you can tell from the lack of updates we have not done so yet.

I know you must be jonesing for NEW Liam FOOTAGE!!!

Stupid Stupid Time Change

Someone was up at 6am this morning & it was not an adult.

Edited to note: I went upstairs to check on the ever quiet bedroom & discovered Liam COVERED in his "bed toys" and asleep. In my attempt to get the toys off of him for safety's sake, I woke him up. And he's been playing & eating up a storm ever since. It's now 11am & he does not seem ready for his nap yet.

Dream the impossible dream

Matias woke up this morning & told me that he had a dream that Liam had grown four teeth overnight.

Don't worry, he checked when he got him up - nothing STILL!

Two Things

In the course of making Liam's papaya I discovered/noticed two things -

1) Papaya seeds look like caviar
2) Papaya kind of smells after it has been steamed & pureed

I would not say Liam LOVES papaya but we have not had any bad diaper incidents & he continues to open his mouth to eat it. Thankfully we have another meal to add to his menu, sadly Papaya turns a dark orange when steamed & pureed.

A word to the wise

The prunes. Dude, the prunes.

ONLY GIVE YOUR BABY ONE TABLESPOON OF PRUNES NOT FOUR OUNCES

We had a blow out to the extent I have never witnessed before in my LIFE. It was everywhere. Down his socks, up his neck. Ended up SMASHED into the changing pad cover, SMEARED on the changing pad strap.

I rinsed everything in the sink right away [that was sick] & then threw it in the washer. Nothing seems to have stained but let's be frank here, there was no time to "set in". The changing pad strap was soaked in bleach & water - thankfully that came out - and is now soaking in water to get the bleach out since Liam will sometimes put it in his mouth.

It was out.of.control.

Then Kym told me that she learned the hard way too, and paid for it a couple times throughout the day - THANKFULLY we only had this one instance.

Sorry about that Liam. It's strange though cause usually you will get "helpful hints" like this in your research findings but all I got that was REALLY stressed was to add a LOT of liquid to the puree so that it didnt turn to paste, NOTHING about serving size!

Let this be your warning, you mommies with little tykes behind Liam, ONLY ONE TABLESPOON!

I cannot even tell you if it smelled - I was too busy trying to get it OFF of everywhere & off of HIM before he got it on his hands, feet --> mouth to stop and smell the prunes.

He liked eating them though! Too bad it just cannot count as another meal...

Shakespearean into the Forest Gang explained

One of the main themes in Shakespeare is that the city is oppressive & the forest/nature allows for more freedom in your life, be it escape from sexism, hierarchal familial roles, love relationships, education...

If you go into the forest you are free to be the person you REALLY want to be, as opposed to remaining in the city where laws & norms are thrust upon you by a variety of enforcers.

Most of the "forest time" happens at night because it's easier to escape at that time...

I believe that Liam is being lured into the forest by the Shakespearean Sprites nightly in order to "fulfill" his "Sprite-ness" outside the confines of his home.

That Roll Call seems to happen nightly between 11:15 & midnight.

Make sense now? Or am I just the Crazy English Major Mommy?

Alert! Alert!

We are going to have PRUNES for lunch today! I'll let you know how that "turns out" :)

And let me introduce to you the one and only...

...Matthew's Technicolor World! My oldest friend, who now lives in Bloomington, has FINALLY started a blog for her son, Matthew. YAY!

I've added her link to the right there so please go pay her a visit :)

(and you thought I was going to go on about the Beatles, didn't you?)

The Karmic Bitch Slap

I *swear* every time I mention his sleep schedule (and lord knows I mention it enough), Liam KNOWS.

I say he naps perfectly then the past two days his naps have been horrible. Two 40 minute naps a day, that's it. And he's horribly cranky & terrificly teething for the last 2-3 hours of his day. Almost falling asleep in his oatmeal and going to bed early.

The other night while Matias was at a lecture, I was charged with putting Liam down for the night. Matias came home, we had dinner, were sitting our asses on our couch & we looked at the clock, looked at each other and THOUGHT ABOUT commenting that it was past the Shakespearean into the Forest Gang Roll Call time. I instantly made Matias bite his tongue and not let the words past his lips, but it was too late. The THINKING ABOUT IT was enough. Not five minutes later, at twenty past twelve, did the Sprites induce our Fellow into the Forest.

So I'm going to stop talking about "certain things" cause there's some weird, mind-reading business going on & I'm not going to continue to tempt him.

Instead, I'm going to write & talk about things like " dont eat your peas", "dont take longer naps", & "I hope these teefies NEVER come in!" & see what comes of it.

Ergo (that's my fancy thesaurus.com way of not saying "so" so much...), Liam please do not eat your peas! Please do not take any naps longer than 40 minutes! And finally, I hope you live forever with your gummy toothless mouth!

Contain your excitment - it's a post about sleep schedules!

I'm only going to say this once [this week] but we seem to have gotten his sleep schedule under control.

YAY. Mommy REALLY enjoys the uninterrupted sleep.

He still wakes up at either 11:19 or 11:21 (I suppose it depends on what clock you are looking at cause heaven forbid any of our clocks sync up...) for his Shakespearean into the Forest Gang Roll Call (please leave me a comment if you know what I mean by that...turns out neither my mom or Matias understood...) but then quickly goes back into a nice, deep slumber.

Until 2:30 when he eats for 30 minutes and is back into a nice, deep slumber.

Until 7:40 when he wakes up for the day.

Like I said earlier, I'm fine with the nighttime nursing, if he's hungry, I'm feeding him. Bottom Line. End of Story. LALALA I'm Not Listening to You. And I dont mind that he sleeps until almost 8 either - no complaints from me!

Mommy is getting about 9 hours of sleep actually & THANK YOU JESUS! Cause then I'm on the clock from 7:40 till 8pm and that makes for a really long day - gee, you think??

So with that Most Obvious Statement of the Year sitting up there I will leave this with saying - thank you, Liam, for getting back onto a NORMAL sleep schedule, even if it does still include a Roll Call from your Sprites & a mid-night feeding.

What's in YOUR freezer?

Here's another rendition of the contents of our freezer:

• carrots, of course
• squash, but running out and Daddy is getting more tonight
• sweet potato
• those dreaded peas
• those dreaded bananas - they live together in misery, shelved in that useless little bin on the door
• apples
• pears
• peaches
• nectarines
• plums
• avocado
• chicken

Daddy is picking up some new items for him this evening that include the following:

• prunes - cannot wait to see how these effect his daily constitution
  
• papayas

I also have the Yo Baby yogurt in the house because Kym & further research indicated that the amount of whole milk is in fact ok for this age & that the milk is lactose free (thanks Stoneyfield Farms! YOU ROCK!) and therefore harmless to my bebe. I could not get the banana ones though because I do not like fishing poop out my son's butt.

I'm selfish like that.

SWAK

The Valentine's Day Cards FINALLY went out today. I had a really tough time making them because I had all these really spectacular visions of using my new stamps to create my own cards and BAH, I sucked at it. Hard core, sucked at it. So I was disappointed & wallowed in my disappointment while the cards sat there, finished but not how I wanted them to look, just waiting for me to send them out. And even though it's MARCH, I'm sending them. And if you happen to have a problem with that, I have a big bucket of Suck It for you. *grin*

Now, I have to think of a 'scene' for our St. Patrick's Day cards. HA. What a fool I am! I do think we have left over sparkly headband Shamrock thingies from Days at the Tavern's Past but I do NOT think Liam has a single stitch of green clothing...