June 2010

The Things Mikey Did This Month
As part of his bedtime routine, I read four books to him: Pajama Time! by Sandra Boynton, then Bear Snores On, followed by Goodnight Moon, and finally Goodnight Gorilla. I found it interesting that after a while doing this routine Mikey seemed to know the order of the books. In fact, he chose which book to start with if I held two up. Then he could choose the next one, and the next one. (As I write this, he has taken to choosing not the "right" book in a sequence but the one he wants me to read.)

I gave Mikey a bell to ring and he loved it but as I watched him put it in his mouth I decided that it wasn't age appropriate. So I took it away and when I did holy smokes! He PROTESTED yelling at me until I gave it back. Now, I understand that he is going to have to learn "no" but I think it is easier to just hide things that he can't have for a while rather than taking things away from him all the time.

Mikey has discovered pulling his own hair. He only really does it while he is nursing but there I have him, nursing and pulling his own hair.

He continues to grab things to investigate them...including in the bath tub. He tries to pick up the bubbles using his pointing finger and thumb. He also tried picking up his duck and learned a little about bouyancy. When he tried to pick up the duck he put his hand on top of it to rake it toward himself. But as you know, the duck just bobbed under water, which posed yet another problem to solve.

Mikey is still having fun in his Bouncer. His current favorite thing to do is bounce a couple times forward and then lift his feet to swing back. We call it Bounce, Bounce, SWIIIINNNNG.

We think Mikey waved his first wave to Papa. It happened in the morning when Mike was leaving for work.

One day we went for a swim, just Mama and Mikey. While we were there I helped him investigate one of the fountains that bubble up about a foot high. He tried catching the water as it rose up and fell back into the pool. But the most remarkable thing is that when we got home we BOTH fell into a deep sleepy nap. It was WONDERFUL.

Mikey surprised me one day when I let him gently grab one of the butterflies in the mobile above his bed. He grabbed it and instead of letting it go he pulled it toward himself, transferred it to his other hand, pulled the mobile over and grabbed another butterfly with the first hand. This hand-over-hand business is crazy! He also does it with boxes of toys...tilt it toward himself with one hand and use the other to grab a toy.

One day while Mikey was in my lap playing with a toy, I started to read in one of my massive "what to expect" books. Mikey immediately took interest in what I was doing and leaned to the left over my leg to look at what I was looking at. I realized that I wouldn't get any reading done so I moved the book in front of us so he could be more comfortable while he inspected the pages. He grabbed a handful of pages and opened the book and then closed it. Then he started moving his thumb and let pages flutter by. This new trick really impressed me so I let him flip the pages of the book for the better part of Eric Clapton's Unplugged album. When Mike got home I told him about it and, in the morning, Mikey showed his Papa his new trick and we even caught it on camera!

Mikey is resilient enough to gently toss around and I let him "fall" into the poof. He loves it. Of course, I lead up to it with a "one..., twooooooo..., THREEEEEE!"

Mikey has realized that he doesn't HAVE to bonk his head on the hardwood floor when he rolls around. Instead, he gently leans over and places his head on the ground and then lets his body follow. He's just that good.

Mikey continues to practice waving "Bye bye" and he did it when we left Jim and Teresa's! Thank goodness! We had a rough few visits over there when Mikey would just cry and cry and cry. I wasn't sure what was going on...maybe he noticed sorrow in the air because Jim is dieing (of ALS). The last time we went over I told Mikey that it was OK to cry and he did a little and then cheered up and let us stay. (Previously I had to leave with him and he immediately calmed down. I thought it might have been stranger anxiety but when I drove away and he calmed down I took him to the mall and he was just fine.)

Mike said that the baby is like a slug. He doesn't get anywhere fast and he leaves slime (drool) behind. This was said after we had some family time rolling around on the bed under the air conditioner upstairs.

Our current favorite story to read is Drummer Hoff. The book is lovely but the best part is that I get to do different voices for all the characters AND there is boom-booming along the way as a canon is assembled to fire plus a big KABLAMMY! at the end when Drummer Hoff fires off the canon. So fun!


Mike's First Father Day
Wow. My husband is so super fly. How does he remain an amazing husband and still manage to pull of "wonderful father" too? Happy Father's Day. For Mike's gift, we got him artisan chocolate.

Visitors
I have MUCH more to say about their visits but we had very special visitors and I want to get this post up.

Grandma and Grandpa Schneider
We hosted Grandma and Grandpa Schneider for a week and it was wonderful for Mikey to wake up every day and play with them. His "trick of the week" was to shake his head left and right. When he realized that people would shake with him he would watch, then shake himself. This was a favorite for Grandpa.

While they were here I realized the main hurdle for me to have Mikey babysat. I realized that it was fine if someone came and took the baby away from me. (For instance, when Jen or Jaylene come find him when I have him at work and take him away to see stuff in the department while I get some work done.) I was not comfortable walking away from him. Of course, once I realized this I was able to leave Mikey with his first baby sitter, his Grandma Schneider!

Great Grandma Kubera, Great Aunt Harriet, Auntie Meredith
We had a day or two to "recover" from our first week of guests before the next week started with a new batch. Aunt Harriet came to visit and brought Grandma and Meredith. It was a wonderful week... The highlight for me was the day we spent at Caras Park. We rode the carousel, watched kayakers in Brennan's wave, and had lunch at Scotty's Table. Lovely!

Baby Gifts

I just want to make a list of my go-to things to share with future mamas and papas.

Books
The Baby Book
No Cry Sleep Solution
Great Expectations: Baby's First Year
Goodnight Gorilla

Toys
Sophie the Giraffe by Vulli
Under the Nile Greenbean

Misc.
Swaddling blanket for dummies