7 Month Milestones

Happy birthday, baby boy.  You're seven months old!  (It is currently late August)

Right now, you're celebrating it by screaming your head off in the other room with New Mom.

Okay, now New Mom is back, and you're still crying.

Okay, now he started again...and I'm going to have to continue this post later...

CUT TO: The Second Week of September

Alright, I've come to realize the "milestones" are more like gradual changes, or maybe we just stopped keeping track of every little teeny tiny thing he does (Another tooth?  How many is that?  - Really, how many is that?)?

He's now eating some very ground up and shredded meat, his poos smell really bad, and he seems to have caught on that when you put him down to sleep, crying doesn't help, so he might as well just go to sleep...after screaming for a few minutes.  (He HATES sleeping.)

Yay, we're all caught up!

Of course, the point of this thing is to keep track, so I'll try to write milestones as they come.  Right now we're on the lookout for "crawl" and "first word" and "walk" (why not?).  Also, holding his own bottle while he feeds would be nice... (Right now he just leans back with a "feed me, peasant!" look on his baby-king face...)  Those things will come, I'm guessing...

Here's a few things that may change:

Current Favorites, or at least, things his parents push on him and he seems to like

Books:
Goodnight Moon
Goodnight Gorilla
There's a Wocket in My Pocket! (Board Book version,*)
Mr. Brown Can Moo!  Can You?

Books he's tired of:
The Going to Bed Book (Sorry Sandra (Boynton)!)

Music:
CCR - Greatest Hits, Volume I
Bob Marley - Legend
Lullabies...or something like that, I'm not going to go check the CD for the "official" name

Music he's tired of:
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Greatest Hits
(or at least New Mom is tired of that CD, because it is GONE)

Movies/TV:
None yet...he's only 7 months!  You're not supposed to allow him to watch screens until he's 2!  Bad parents would argue differently, but hey, that's why they're bad parents... (Kidding, I'm sure we'll put him in front of a screen within six months...or the next time he screams.)

Toys:
Green Shark
Mr. Sassy
Magazines, newspaper, anything that crunches and he can RIP UP
Leaves and trees - that he can RIP UP

Hates:
Clothes changes
Diaper change


And...that's all the minutiea that I can conjure up at 10pm on a Friday night.  Wow, what a Friday night!  Woo woo!

Oh shit, there's still dishes to do.

Yay, Friday.

 -ND



* We recently discovered the board book is freaking DIFFERENT that the regular version: ie: There is NO verse that actually has a "wocket" - in a pocket, or anywhere else!  What the ef, Dr. Seuss!  I'm beginning to doubt your medical credentials!**

** First time anyone has made a joke questioning the "Dr." in Dr. Seuss's name...

Five Skills Parents Have That Non-Parents Don't Have

Thought I've only been a father for six months, I'm beginning to realize that parenthood is not just about raising a kid, it's about acquiring new skills.

In other words, parents are walking around with skills that non-parents don't even know exist.  

1. We Can Do Everything Faster

Everything.*  Seriously.

2.  We Can Do Everything Quieter

We move fast (see #1) but also, silently...so we don't wake the baby.  In other words, you become part ninja when you become a parent.

3. We Can Function on Less Sleep

I mean, a tiny amount of sleep.  It's even LESS for New Moms.  In fact, I don't have anything to complain about, and non-parents have less then nothing to complain about when it comes to sleep deprivation.  LESS THAN NOTHING!!1!

4. We Can Drink You Under the Table Any Day of the Week

I mean, Monday thru Friday, beginning around 6pm - the moment that baby goes to sleep.  Sometimes a little before.

5. We Get Important Things Done

Procrastination is for chumps and/or people without a kid.

When ten minutes frees up - holy shit, I have ten free minutes? - we get things done.  Unless we want to catch up on some extra sleep.

...

And so, if you needed another reason to have a baby, you now have five.

Have a kid.  Gain more skills.

Seriously.

-ND

----
* Yes, that.  And that.  And even, that.

6 Month Birthday - Milestones

Happy six-month birthday to our boy!

Yes, that's not a real birthday.  But these six months sure feel like a real year!

To celebrate, at 6pm, New Mom, baby boy, and New Dad had a small scoop of ice cream, and sang "Happy Birthday."  New Mom and New Dad then ate the ice cream.   Baby had a couple of small, small tastes.  So small, he didn't recognize what a glorious thing he was missing out on.  Sorry, boy!

Some milestones that I remember from this past month:

1. Eating solid food daily... Guess he's already eating solid food, so maybe that's not a real milestone..

2. TWO teeth - the bottom front two.  They say those are usually the first two that come in.  "They" appear to be right in this case.

3. Sits upright!  Sort of.  When he's in his soft chair, or when you prop him up.

4. Flips over on both sides. But mostly the left.  Boy, does he love rolling to his left.

5.  Makes more talking-like sounds.

6. First trip to the library.

7.  Cries out of disappointment and anger.  New Mom reminded that he used to just cry when something was wrong.  Now, he cries when being put down, when a toy is taken away, or just when he's generally disappointed with the state of the world (my theory).

8.  Diapers, size 3.  Just now transitioning...

All in all, no dramatic milestones this month, but now that we have a 6-month old, he's definitely come a long way from being a newborn.

Except in sleeping, where he's better than he first was, but not as good as he's been.

Yes, that sounds like a Paul Simon song.  That was intentional.

-ND

Milestone - First Tooth

Today the baby got his first tooth.  I heard about it from New Mom who sent me a text at work.

But before I go into that, New Mom just walked by.  I motioned for her to come over, which she reluctantly did.  I asked her what it was like to discover our son's first tooth.

"You want me to tell you what the text was?  The text isn't on your phone?" She asked, reading this post instead of answering my question.

"I'll add that later.  I just wanted to know what was it like to find our son's first tooth."

"That's why you called me over here?  What was it like?  Surprising?  I don't know.  I have to go to the bathroom.  Geez."

Only then did I notice the newspaper under her arm, and remember her direction of travel before I stopped her had been toward the bathroom.  She returned to her original course.

Here's the part where I add the historic text message exchange marking the appearance of our son's first tooth.

New Mom:  Omg, our son is getting a tooth!  Bottom front.
ND: no way
ND: Tonight we feeds him steaks.
ND: On a serious note, do you want to get Chipotle for dinner tonight?
New Mom: And yogurtland!!!
ND: :)
New Mom: That emoticon came across as a square.
ND: :(

-ND

Five Month Milestones

Yay, the baby turned 5 months today!  (Actually, it's three days later, and I'm back-dating this...because, well, no time!

So, 5 months today!  Woo!  We're in the clear - he sleeps through the night, never cries, and his poops smell like angel...food cake...

OK, not exactly.

But there are a few developments.

1. Flips over - as noted in a previous post.

2. Sleeps in his crib now - in his own room.  This is a big step from the pack-in-play (or is it Pack'N'Play?) right by the bed.

Although, as I write this it's 8pm and he's wailing in his crib because he can't fall asleep.  There goes New Mom to calm him down...because Daddy is staring at the computer screen with an intense look on his face as if he's engaged in some serious business.

Oh, she's back!  It was quick!  Thank god.  That's another milestone...

3. Puts himself to sleep.  You can lay him down and he'll wiggle around in the crib, and as long has he doesn't flip over on his stomach and panic because he can't flip back, well, sometimes he'll fall asleep!

And other times, he just wails.

-ND

Two Milestones in One Day

Two milestones today.

1. Baby rolled over

From his back to his stomach - into a self-imposed tummy-time.

New Grandma says that he did it before... But I never saw that.

And today I saw him do it like, six times.  So I'm counting today as the milestone.

2. Baby ate his first solid food

If you count mushed bananas mixed with breast milk as "solid food."

Which of course, we do.  He ate it from a spoon! (A spoon that we saved from Yogurtland...those are GOOD SPOONS.  Too good to throw away after one use...)

Well, I didn't actually see this milestone, but New Mom was nice enough to take a video of it.  It's a great video, too, as New Mom set the camera down nearby while she fed the boy.  Smart.  Really need to set the camera down more often.

The baby is also grabbing things now.  Like leaves and his bottle.

And soon, a spoon?

Seriously.

-ND

Multitasking for Dads

Before I was a parent, I used to think I was busy.

It turns out, "busy" is relative.

Very, very relative.  

In fact, since we just have one kid, I hate to even call myself "busy," for those with 2, 3, or more (oh my!) would scoff, and say, "He doesn't know what ' busy' is." 

Perhaps not.

Whether you're busy, Busy, or BUSY!!1!,  here are a few multitasking tricks that I've discovered to help turn those 2 minutes away from the baby into the most productive two minutes of your life.

1.  Showering while brushing your teeth and peeing.  Don't tell New Mom about that last one...

2. Getting some exercise with a brisk walk...with the dog and baby.   This is tricky.  Last time, I was half way down a street before I realized me and the baby were in the street, and the dog was walking next to us on the sidewalk.  

3. Washing all dirty clothes, sheets, and towels in the same load. This isn't so much multitasking as it is convenient as hell.

4. Working out while playing with the baby.  Basically, the baby is down on a play mat, and New Dad is doing yoga or pushups or jumping jacks or shadow boxing right next to the baby, who gets mesmorized by a sweating daddy.  

Also, this must look funny as hell to the baby, so I consider it "playing" with the baby.  e baby's amusement.  

Also 2 - Those pictures of babies sitting on their dad's back while he's doing pushups.  Those are photoshopped.    

Oh no, is that all the multitasking tricks I know so far?

God help me discover more...

-ND