Future Role Models

It's funny how having a baby really changes your perspective of life and things that I have brushed off before really get on my nerves now.  Specifically, I look at the celebrities that today's kids admire and look up to and frankly I'm appalled. Maybe I just don't remember it or wasn't exposed (maybe my parents had the right idea of not having cable!), but I don't recall the celebrities of our decade being so raunchy and belligerent. We grew up watching Full House and Boy Meets World.  Shows that always had, as corny as they may be, good moral lessons.

Nowadays, all you see all over the news are inappropriately dressed celebrities setting horrible examples for kids claiming that "You're supposed to be a mess in your 20s" or 40-year old men singing about "getting nasty".

Raising my kids well is probably one of my biggest fears in life. Today's "Role Models" really scare me for what my kids will have to look up to in the future. I guess all I can do is try to raise them to be honest, sensible young adults who don't get sucked into the behaviors that will be displayed in front of them around every corner.

I recently read a great blog that concerns this topic and if you have a few minutes, it's a really good read:

http://givenbreath.com/2013/09/03/fyi-if-youre-a-teenage-girl/

9 Months

The nine month photo session didn't go as well as the others.  I probably should have tried again to get a happy one, but then I thought it might be funnier to have one of him crying. He's still a little bit of a grump and a lot bit of a whiner these days.  I suppose (hope) that things will get easier once he's able to communicate what he wants instead of following me around the house whining.  I've started some baby sign language, but need to be better at being consistent with it so that he picks it up.

He's a great crawler and even a pretty decent walker as long as he's holding onto something.  In the past few weeks, he started pushing his walker around the living room.  I think it moves a little bit faster than he would care to, but he makes it work. He pretty much babbles all day... probably gets that from daddy!  He can kind of say mama, dada, and byebye.  He waves byebye on a good day and will usually clap if you say "yay!"  He's learning to be a somewhat independent in his play, as long as someone is in the room.  He's still very curious and likes to know what every sound he hears is.  He also hates to be told no. Sorry little guy, you can't get into every cabinet in the kitchen or pull apart all of mama's plants and try to eat them.  He likes to help daddy unload the dishwasher, although daddy usually isn't very appreciative of the "help"

We recently got back from a trip to the beach.  He was a little iffy on the sand/ocean the first few times, but was really enjoying it the last time we went.  He was even crawling to the water.  He only ate a little bit of sand and one seashell (luckily, we pulled the seashell out before he choked on it or swallowed it. Parents of the year, right?)  It's amazing the things they can get away with when you turn your head for 1 second.

He still doesn't have a favorite toy.  He'll play with one for a few minutes then it's off to something new.  He has recently been carrying plastic rings around the house (just one at a time), so maybe they will be his favorite toy.

He's still not sleeping through the night, but he usually just gets up one time.  He eats and then can usually go back to sleep by himself. He's a great eater and pretty much eats everything that we give him.  I'm hoping that he'll get some teeth soon so that we can expand his finger food selection.  He eats a lot of fruit, puffs, and cheese right now.

I'm sure walking is right around the corner, so life will be very interesting when that starts!  I guess I'll learn to be a good chaser! :)

Excited To Be Leaving

Our little one has started to pick up on some hand motions.  Nothing too spectacular, but he can wave goodbye sometimes, or sometimes when you say byebye, he claps, as in "Yay!  You're finally leaving!" It's so amazing to me what he has picked up already and I guess it's time to start working on our baby sign language!

In other news, we close on our house next week and have to be out by the end of August, so we're busy finding boxes and packing everything up for storage!  It's going to be a hectic next few months, but I'm excited for this next chapter in our lives!

Heart Dropping Moments

Happy Belated Fourth of July!  It seems like we had a pretty busy weekend, but also seemed like we sat around a lot, too, so I'm not sure how we could've had both, but I guess I'll say we had a busy relaxing weekend.  Our little one also had two scary moments this weekend, and I know they're not the last two he will have in his life, but I'm glad he's okay and I was probably more scared than he was both times.

Scary Episode #1: His first dive
We were visiting my parent's house this weekend and our niece was playing in a plastic baby pool in the afternoon.  It was extremely hot, mid to upper-80's, so at one point I took the little one and put his feet in the pool, to which he, of course, whined about.  How dare I try to cool him down!  So, I set him down on the grass outside of the pool, so he was standing there holding the edge and playing with toys in the pool.  He seemed to enjoy this and my niece was having fun handing him toys.  I was sitting right next to him and was talking to my niece when all of a sudden I hear a splash and turn and grab the little one out of the pool, as he had fallen head-first into the pool (of only about a foot of water).  He coughed and whined a little after I pulled him out, but he seemed to be okay.  I think I was probably more scared than he was.  In the end, we all got a good laugh out of my excellent mothering skills and the hubs was just glad he wasn't the one to let him fall in a pool, because he would've gotten an earful from me.  Sorry, hubs, I'll try to be nicer about all the bumps and bruises you let our child get under your watch.

Scary Episode #2: mmm.. new food!
We took our little one to the nursery in church on Sunday.  It's only his second time going there, but our church isn't very big and there aren't usually many kids in the nursery, so I've been trying to be better about putting him down there so we can actually pay attention in church.  We dropped him off and I told the sitter that there was container of snacks in his bag if he gets fussy.. just some cheerios and puffs. After church, we head down to pick him up and I notice the area around his mouth is all red and he's sitting on the floor with some snacks that I didn't send.  The sitter mentioned that maybe his mouth was read from shoving food into his mouth Which, could be possible if you've ever seen him eat snacks, shoving as much in as he can, but he's never had that before, so I asked if he had anything other than what I sent.  She said she gave him some animal crackers, which I didn't think would cause an allergic reaction, but maybe, or maybe it was the other food he was eating.  In any event, we left church and when we got outside in better lighting, I noticed that the redness was actually hives.  At that point, I sort of panicked and called our doctor's office to speak with the on-call doctor.  He was breathing fine, but I was worried in case it got worse.  The doctor said to wash his face when we got home and just keep an eye on it, and if it didn't go away, to just call back.  We washed his face and hands when we got home and he was already looking better at this point. Everything cleared up soon after and he's totally fine.  I guess I need to just be clear not to give him any extra food while he's there next time. It just makes me worried for what kind of allergies he might have...

I wish time would slow down...

Babies sure do grow up a LOT faster than I ever expected.  We sold our house a few weeks ago, there have been a few bumps in the road, but if all the stars align and 5 contingency offers go through, we will be homeless in August!  We finally got a baby gate put on the stairs going down from the living room and silly me thought "well we'll be moving soon and he JUST started crawling, there's no way he'll be going up the stairs before we move, so let's not put a gate going up the stairs."  The words were barely out of my mouth and the next thing I know he's standing on the first step on his way to the second, and third, and fourth... with ease.  Hardly any stumbling or hesitation.  This little guy is determined!  Here's a video of him going up the stairs for the third time in his life... http://youtu.be/yW9-UZfAUTU

I miss the days when he would just sit contently on the floor with an old spaghetti sauce jar and a couple of rings.  Now, it's literally 3 seconds with a toy and he's off to the next big thing!

In other news, we just got home from a week's vacation at Treasure Lake near Dubois, PA with my family.  The weather was nice at the beginning of the week, but was a little rainy/overcast as the week went on.  We took Seth to his first time at both and beach and the pool, and he hated both of them.  I think he just hates fun...

Seth and Cooper going to the park!

How many cheerios can I shove into my mouth at once?

Boo with his two grandsons!

Having a big boy bath!

Lucky Seven!

I can't believe he's seven months old already... and how active and on the move he is.

He's crawling all over the house and chasing me where ever I go, unless he sees stairs that he would like to climb down if we would let him or the door stop, which is his new favorite instrument. I'll be sitting in the living room and all of sudden i hear the "thwaaaaanngg" of the door stop repeatedly. He also thinks he's a big boy who can pull himself up to standing position and then turn and try to walk away, but since he can't walk he just falls over.  It's fun to see all the new movement, but i'm a little bit afraid of him not having any fear of anything.  He loves to eat almost everything I give him, except bananas. The food that all babies love. I haven't tried to give him bananas in a while, so I'll have to try them again and see how they go.  Still no teeth, but I'm hoping one will pop through soon!

On the move!

Whelp, it's finally happened. Our little one is finally on the move!  I almost teared up the first time I saw him start to crawl.  I can't believe how big he's getting!  I miss my sweet little newborn that would cuddle up for a nice nap with me.  Now, he's all independent and wants to just be on the move.

He still really loves his mama, though, and wants to come to me all the time.  I don't think I'll be able to run away and hide in another room anymore, though, because I think he'll just crawl after me, now. :(

In other news, we're getting our house cleaned up to put up for sale this week.  I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing.  We've been on a bumpy road with looking for a new house and have already had a few ups and downs.  I guess it can't hurt to get it on the market, though.  At least we can be picky with the offers we get because we don't really have to move right now.