While most of this month has been perfect health-wise, E did get his very first full-on cold/virus. In the middle of the month, he was especially fussy one day so we decided to take his temperature around bedtime. He had a fever of 102.7, so we gave him some baby tylenol. Over the next three days, he continued to be very fussy and his temperature would fluctuate between normal (around 98) and high (around 101.3). We continued giving him baby tylenol the whole time, and while it did help bring down his fever each day, it never really completely went away for more than a few hours. On day three, in the evening, we took his temperature as we had been to monitor him, and it was back up to over 102. We decided at that point to take him to Urgent Care, just to rule out an ear infection or something more serious. After ear checks and a catheter (sorry baby boy!) to rule out any type of urinary track infection, the prognosis was that it was just a run of the mill virus, and it would run its course in two more days at the most. The next day E was notably better, and after day five he was back to his normal self.
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| Peek-a-boo! |
On the plus side of having to take little E to the doctor's, we did get a weight update - chub chub is 21 pounds! We'll have to wait until his next check up appointment for a current height and head measurement, though.
Food
Ethan has been working on his solid food consumption each day. I feel like we're not making much progress, but I know it will happen with time. Part of it is getting into some type of routine with him. We've always been pretty much on-demand with feeding and sleeping, which really has worked well for us. The only problem with being on-demand and transitioning to solid food, however, is that we don't have set meal times where I can easily switch out bottles for baby food. By the time he starts fussing that he's hungry, he's too unsettled to want to eat solid food. I try to preemptively give him solids when I feel he "should" be getting hungry, but it doesn't always work. Right now we're up to about 8 ounces a day regularly, and each week I'd like to increase that amount. We are still sticking mainly to purees, with the chunkiest menu item he eats being greek yogurt. I offer chunkier items regularly, but they still get rejected. On a positive note, Ethan enjoys pretty much everything we give him flavor-wise, and he eats his solids well. I've also noticed him starting to gum things a bit when he eats, which hopefully means he'll be willing to tackle some chunkier textures soon. He also has a very cute habit of shooing my hand away when he doesn't want any more solid food - not hitting, but gently pushing my hand away when I try to stick the spoon towards his mouth. Although at that point I'm generally wishing he would eat more solid food, it is pretty darn adorable and always makes me laugh. :) His favorite foods are mango, pears, greek yogurt, strawberry banana smoothies, and carrot juice.
Clothes
Baby boy is all over the place with clothes right now! For the most part, he's wearing 9 - 12 month clothes. Onesies have to be 12 months due to length, while t-shirts and tops can be 9 months or even smaller. Yesterday he rocked a 3-6 month polo shirt and it fit great! I find that I'm starting to like separate tops and bottoms for him as opposed to one pieces and onesies, just because they're easier during diaper changes and the tops don't pull as much in the length. We just got a few new pieces from Old Navy during their summer sale that should get us through the rest of summer and the beginning of fall. We let E pick out his clothes each morning by holding up two choices to him and letting him "pick" the one he wants to wear. He'll consider both items, and then either crawl to the one he wants or hit the one he wants with his hand. I love seeing what his preference is, even though I'm not totally sure what he's thinking during this whole process! Mike and I joked that for all we know, he's trying to tell us not to put him in the one he's hitting, and here we are thinking that's the one he wants. Oh well, at least we're trying!
Accomplishments
There have been some major happenings in the Wiacek household this past month. Ethan is crawling all over the house now, to the point that we had to put up two baby gates to block off both sets of stairs. He can now climb up stairs, and is really good at it. He loves loves loves to climb, be it on Mama, the stairs, or on top of baskets and shelves. He can pull himself into a sitting position from lying down, and can stand independently if he has something to hold onto. He can also pull himself into a kneeling position, and from there he can pull himself into a standing position if he has the right object to hold onto. We also taught him to high five. Super freaking cute, and so of course we make him do it all the time. In addition to all of those great things, Ethan can also now feed himself a bottle, although he doesn't always want to do it. I can give him a bottle in his carseat, for example, and he'll drink it himself while I'm driving. Oh man, to say we've been waiting for this one is an understatement. Yay for self-bottle holding!
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| Basket conquered! |
Gear
I have some truly shocking news in terms of gear this month. Prepare yourself - E no longer likes dragon pacifier! We didn't see this day coming, at least not this soon. Over the last few weeks Ethan began pushing dragon away any time we would give it to him, and it even got to the point where he would get mad if we even offered it. We eventually stopped offering dragon completely, and E seems just fine with that. Poor dragon! We are also beginning to see the end of the snug-a-bunny; while Ethan will still nap in it occasionally, he mostly wants to be in his crib, which is just fine by us. I cannot believe our luck that E transitions himself out of these items without us having to do it. The bouncer is another item we no longer use - all of our old standbys are heading out!
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| Snug-a-bunny is now used more as a fort than a napper. My little couch potato! |
Items we have been using a lot are the high chair, the stroller, and the Ergo. E's favorite toys are kind of random things, like his foam bath letters, this little soft plastic turtle, a toothbrush my dentist gave him to play with, a set of small balls, and his Superman To the Rescue! book.
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| Asleep with his toothbrush ... isn't he supposed to cuddle with teddy bears?! |
Sleep
We've always had it really good with sleep, so there isn't too much new to report here. Ethan typically goes to bed sometime between 8:30 - 9:30 at night, and sleeps all the way through til about 8:00 am the next morning. We still have an early morning wake up for a bottle around 5:45 am about half the time, but E's been phasing those out all on his own little by little.
Adventures
This month has been a little lower key in terms of activities. While we miss all of our out of town guests terribly, it was nice to take it easy for awhile. This month we had a party for the 4th of July/Mike's birthday, and Ethan did great with all of the people and sharing his toys with his baby friends. He had a play date with his girl baby friend Autumn, and he went out with Mama and Daddy on lots of various outings, including Daddy's company picnic. He also went to a ladies' night dinner with Mama, and was such a good boy despite the fact that the restaurant didn't have any high chairs or booster seats. He stayed on my lap the entire time, and despite being active, he was calm enough that I could eat my dinner and chat with the ladies for over an hour.
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Favorites
Turtle
His toothbrush
Crawling
Climbing (especially up the stairs)
Ice cream
Peek-a-boo
Rough housing with Mama and Daddy
Sitting in shopping cart seats
Carrot juice
Pulling up to kneeling/standing
Least Favorites
Getting his face wiped off after meals
Having a favorite object taken away
When Mama or Daddy leaves the room and he can't follow
Staying still ;)
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| Enjoying a real Maryland style snowball at Daddy's company picnic ... I'll say he's a fan! |
That is the Cutest Thing ever. I am showing pictures around the office.
ReplyDeleteBTW its Nicole
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