I should be a baby model

Exhausted

So, he's actually teething. I actually felt the tooth yesterday. That explains why he was up at 11pm, 2:45 (for an hour and a half), and 4:45am. And, he's done that with regularity this week. I'm exhausted.

Swinging in the Park

He really had a fun time at the park in the swing for the first time. He's quite a brave boy.

Big Smile

Verdi Requiem

Tonight, Sean and I went to see the new conductor (who will begin the 2008 season with the DSO), Jaap Van Zweden, at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conduct Verdi's Requiem. It was fantastic. Sean said he conducted like the conductor in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, because he was quite spent at the end of it and put his whole body into it, but I think he will bring some real excitement to Dallas Orchestra. Here's a sample of the music, with another conductor

Stephen Loves to Dance and Jump

I set this up this evening and he LOVES IT.

Swimming Pool Time

Although it was a little cold, we opened our swimming pool this evening, with a good swim with Stephen. The video is a little short, but we took a couple of still photos too. We are going to have a lot of fun swimming with Stephen this summer.

Sleep Training

The last week, it was tough to get Stephen to bed and then he would wake up several times a night, making me exhausted and frustrated. I thought that maybe he needed "sleep training", basically a cry it out method of getting him to sleep. I decided to order the book by Richard Ferber ("ferberizing") and see how it was. Well, I got it yesterday and skipped through it. It's not exactly "a cry it out until your child sleeps book" like I thought. It was a good thing I got the book and made up my own mind. It is a book about sleep problems and how to treat them. I went away from it thinking that it might help Sean and my mom with their sleeping issues. It is a book written in a very academic, researched way that I appreciated.

I now know that Stephen is just fine, normal kid and that I shouldn't be all that frustrated. He doesn't really nap well during the day because he sleeps almost all of his sleep he needs at night, which is fine. He wakes up because he is teething, or gas pains, or is genuinely hungry, all of which are good things to go to him in the middle of the night and not just let him cry it out. Just to show me, he slept from 7:30pm to 6am only getting up once at 10pm for food. :)

Bath Time

Waste of Paper and Money

Our bank sent us a letter, one for each of our accounts, just confirming that we wanted to turn off paper statements. Now, we were doing this in part for the environment...to not waste paper...why would they send a paper confirmation?

6th Month Check Up

Stephen had his 6 month well visit check up today and he is fine. He's 14 pounds, 15 ounces, only in the 9th percentile, but 26 inches long (30th percentile) and his head circumference
of 43.5 centimeters (45th percentile). He basically doesn't weigh all that much because of the stomach flu that he had, but he did gain about 2 pounds in the last month. His doctor is not worried. She's also fine with us doing the baby-led weaning and said, "Children all around the world did not grow up with Gerbers" She encouraged us to try yogurt and all kinds of things.

6 month Birthday

He had fun playing with his toothbrush

Smile for the Camera

Last night about an hour and a half after Stephen went to bed, he woke up pretty suddenly and started fussing. He wouldn't stop fussing, so Sean said, "take a picture. You don't have any pictures of him mad" So, I did. I only got one shot of him being mad, and not even in focus, before he started smiling for the camera. Such a ham.

Starting Solids

For a couple of weeks now, we've been giving Stephen some solids to try. Mostly just banana, triscuits, and a pineapple spear. Sean and I love food and we'd like to try to teach Stephen to appreciate and try all different kinds of food, but I didn't know where/how to start. I tried feeding him by spoon and that didn't really work. He really just wants to feed himself. (I wonder where that came from; wanting to do things himself. :) ) He would take the spoon with both hands and lead it to his mouth. Most of the food ended up on his hands anyway. So, while I was browsing the web yesterday, I came across the Baby-led weaning movement, which skips purees and just says give the kid soft sticks of what you are eating, just to get the taste. For example, cut up carrot sticks and then slightly steam them and give them to the kid that way. Breastmilk or formula should be the kid's primary food/source of nutrition for the first year of life and solids before that year is just an introduction to tastes, smells, textures etc. The concept goes pretty well with Sean's and my style of parenting, so we'll give it a try. The good thing is that he can participate in family meals with us, eating by himself in his highchair while we can just eat ourselves while we watch him. One nice thing we have found is this Munchkin pacifier type thing that has mesh on it. You put a piece of fruit in there and Stephen can taste it without fear of choking from it because it basically makes it a puree.

Look Alikes?

Lost

After having Netflixed the first disc of the first episode of Lost, we are addicts. I think we lost the afternoon. (pun intended) We don't know much about what happened, so please no spoilers. I think all three of us have a cold at the moment, so we are a little under the weather, but we are hanging in there.

Date Night Dinner

Sean and I had a date night at home last night after Stephen went to bed. We had an excellent steak, grilled to perfection thanks to Sean, a wild rice and dried fruit dressing, broccoli, and a salad. We paired the meal with a really good wine and had a great night.

The Bauer Twins

Introducing Robert William Haynes Bauer (They will call him Haynes I think) and Adelaide Paisely Bauer born March 24th.

Cooking for Friends

Our friends, Brent and Catherine Bauer, just had twins last week (over 6 pounds each!) and are home now. We are excited about Stephen having some friends. There will be pictures of them on here soon. I cooked some lasagna and blackberry/apple pie for them tonight. I made some homemade tomato sauce for the lasagna.

Grocery Store Fun

Today, I took Stephen with me to Central Market. I had him facing out in the Baby Bjorn and it was so fun. He helped me pick out all the produce and helped me push the cart. I said the name of everything that we picked up to buy as we put it in the cart. He's going to be a good mother's helper, as he is also helping me type this post. He puts his hands on mine as I type and move the mouse.