August 2010

Mikey was happy with crawling for about a day and a half. Then he set his sites on bigger (taller) and better (more dangerous) goals. He started pulling himself up on everything that was taller than the floor. This included box fans, the ottoman, mama and papa's legs, his toys boxes, his toys, drawers, oh just everything. Of course this also meant that he had to learn how to get back down and he learned very quickly that landing on his rear end is preferable to landing on his front. He also realized that squatting slowly is nice and gentle but if he is in a hurry then just plopping on his rear end will work too.

He continued to test his boundaries with crawling. He learned how to crawl between our legs and past obstacles. He also got frustrated when he felt stuck under our dining table but then learned how to crawl in a lower position to get under the criss-cross table support. He tries to crawl down stairs head-first and can do this successfully if the stairs are nice and big and he can do it one step at a time. Of course, our stairway is not very good for this one-at-a-time action so I'm trying to teach him to sit and scoot his way down...without much success.

As the month passed by Mikey became more and more daring with standing up. He would pull himself up and then let go with one hand, and then two hands, to practice balancing. I never could quite get a picture but he was so cute because he would put his hands above his head and wobble like he was playing with a hula hoop before either sitting down or putting his hands back down to support himself.

Friends

At the beginning of the month our dear friend Hans came to visit. This was terribly exciting for us. Mike got to take him mountain biking and we got to share Mikey with him. Hans taught Mikey about shapes. (See the picture of him explaining how to put the plastic shapes into their ball.) Mikey took to Hans very well. Now if only we could get Hans a job here then maybe he would move here permanently!

Also at the beginning of the month - Thomas' first birthday. We went to his apartment to celebrate with his parents Jenny and Phil. I was very excited because the fathers could FINALLY meet. I was also stunned when Mikey got his first hug from a child. Otis, another one-year-old, walked over to where Mikey was sitting and plopped down next to him so their bottoms were cheek-to-cheek. I was a little nervous because Otis was bigger than Mikey and I thought he might be coming over to bully a toy away or something. Then he leaned over and wrapped his arms around Mikey, and I got nervous again thinking that he was "tackling" Mikey. But then I noticed that Otis was very gentle and his mother, Stephanie, said that he was giving Mikey a hug. My heart nearly melted!

Mikey is a very social baby. He reaches out to touch other babies and crawls near them to see what they are up to. He also likes to be around young children and observes other people when they are playing. He REALLY wants to be able to play with other big boys. One Sunday afternoon at Lion's Park we were the only people playing for a while. Then a 3.5 year old boy and his mother showed up. He immediately befriended us as we all sat on the swings together. Then he joined Mikey in the sand under the playgym. But soon a second 3.5 year old boy showed up with HIS mother. At first it seemed like everything was great. All three boys were playing on a rope-ladder wall. Then the two 3.5 year old boys went running off to another part of the playground and Mikey lost it! He started crying big crocodile tears as he watched them run away. (He knew that cats would sometimes do this but he hadn't yet learned that little children do it, too.) I scooped him up and carried him over to watch the big boys play and he calmed down and came to terms with the facts that he wasn't yet big enough to play with them but that he would have to watch them. It broke my heart knowing the anguish he must have felt when his "friends" left him...especially knowing that it will happen over and over again for the rest of his life.

Frustration
In addition to being frustrated by the little boys leaving him behind at the playground, Mikey has also been frustrated by feeling confined to a space. In particular, he crawled under the dining table, which has as it's support a criss-cross, p ulled himself up to standing and peered over the criss-cross support toward the kitchen. When he realized that he was "stuck" he protested. About a week later he figured out hos to army-crawl under the criss-cross.

Work Begins
The autumn semester began in August. I had tried to find someone else to teach my Introduction to Engineering class but to no avail. (I started to resent my time teaching and prepping over the summer. I have decided to "retire" from work for a while and spend 100% of my time as a stay at home mom.) With the start of the semester came the need for Mikey to attend a form of "day care". I negotiated with Lisa, a friend who lives a few houses down and who has a daughter 9 days older than Mikey, to do a baby swap. She watches Mikey for a couple hours on Monday mornings and I watched Lucy whenever Lisa wants some time for herself. The first day wasn't so bad when I walked out the door. But when I got back Lisa informed me that Mikey did great until he bonked his head...he then proceeded to cry for 45 minutes until I returned. Yep...Mikey really commits to crying when he cries. We knew that.

Travel

Mikey had his first plane ride in August. We flew to Washington, D.C. Mike had an invitation-only workshop sponsored by NASA that corresponded to our friend, Bjoern's, wedding. So we all traveled together. I was particularly excited because I had never been to Washington DC. I was also very excited to see Bjoern, meet Narmada, and to see Jim. The flights out were great. Mikey slept through the take-off from Missoula and woke up in time to really enjoy the turbulence as we were descending into Minneapolis. (Imagine a big smile on his face as the plane lurched side to side.)

Every day in DC we walked the mall. We also went on the subway to get to the National Zoo. Unfortunately, it was so hot that we didn't really get to see any animals. Then we went to Union Station to catch a train to Delaware for Bjoern's wedding. Again, Mikey slept.

We arrived in Delaware first, checked in to our hotel room in Hotel Du Pont. Then Mike joined us just in time to catch a cab to the Brandywine Mansion where we were just barely late to the wedding ceremony. (Public transportation proved to be more challenging than we thought. In fact, the cab companies that said they had infant seats did not have any that were appropriate for Mikey so we had some VERY dangerous situations where we merely held him on our laps! Never again!) The wedding was awesome...mainly because the smile on Narmada's face was so big! She was gorgeous in her wedding dress but really just shined with happiness. In the morning we had brunch at the Hotel Du Pont with Jim, where Bjoern and Narmada flirted from table to table to give each of the out-of-town guests some special attention. Then we went for a walk with Jim - up and down the main street in Wilmington. Mikey had his first Cheerios...which he gobbled up.

Jim was kind enough to drop us off at the train station in the afternoon so we could ride back to DC. (We were flying back to Missoula the following day.) When we arrived in Union Station we grabbed a bite to eat at a little bar and grill where Mikey sat and played with his Cheerios and kept nibbling on the side of the table. Mike and I were both pretty spent so neither one of u s was persistent enough with preventing all the chewing. Then we grabbed a cab to our hotel for the evening, checked in, and tried to unwind a bit before bedtime. Mikey practiced pulling himself up on our luggage and on the ottoman in the room. He also tried eating the wheels a couple times and that was so disgusting that we DID try to enforce a no-eating the wheels policy.

One way or another Mikey managed to pick up the flu bug. At 2AM, he awoke from slumber and puked on me. (We were all sleeping in the big king bed.) The vomiting continued every couple hours from that point on. He spent the morning sleeping, nursing, and vomiting. After a consultation with the Doc, we decided to forgo a trip to a DC hospital and just get on the plane for home. I packed a couple shirt changes for myself and some changes of clothes for Mikey in our carry-on luggage. Good thing, too, because Mikey continued his nurse, sleep, vomit routine on the planes but there was no place for him to vomit but down my chest. We changed clothes during our lay-over. Then Mike got hit with some uncontainable diarrhea on the second leg of our trip. By the time we got home in Missoula we were all covered with baby mess. Mike and I were astonished that we were not at all concerned about our state of cleanliness, being more concerned about Mikey's well-being. (That is not to say we reveled in it...we washed and changed ASAP.)

We arrived home on Saturday night. I got Mikey's flu by 6PM Sunday. Mike's symptoms followed at midnight. We were knocked out for a week. The worst thing about it...the flu stole my vacation with my family. We had planned a private family vacation to Blodgett Canyon for Mikey's first camping. It would have been the first time in a long time that Mike took time off of work for just me. On the upside, it convinced us that we have to make a scheduled family vacation (just us) a priority. So we decided that every year the second week in August will be for us to take a family vacation.