Very Superstitious

Very superstitious, writing's on the wall,
Very superstitious, ladders bout' to fall,
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin' glass
Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past.

When you believe in things that you don't understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain't the way

Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin' strong,
You don't wanna save me, sad is my song.

Ok, so I’m not just humming Stevie Wonder tunes today…the Js are indeed, very superstitious. In the spirit of sports stars everywhere, LJ has worn the same pajamas two nights in a row. See, on Sunday night, LJ was super-tired. He doesn’t nap too well in the car because he is sitting too upright, so he was exhausted come bed time. We did our normal bed time routine and he conked out quickly…not to be heard from again until 6:30 Monday morning. WOW! This hasn’t happened in, well, I don’t remember when. So, Monday night we put him in the same pajamas, he conked out quickly and we did not hear from him until 6:00 this morning.

Guess what LJ will be wearing to bed tonight?

Plans Change

Well, we had big plans to go visit my sister – ML and her family. They have moved in the last year and we have not been to their new house in their new town. I must confess, there had been some talk of the annual poker game being this weekend (or some weekend in September or October, but in Florida) closer to home. So, we had arranged for me and LJ to go visit the Ls and for RJ to go play in the poker game. When the poker game plans did not materialize, we decided to make it a family trip! All was well, we had gathered the ENTIRE house to take on the road…once you have a baby, you are super-afraid to be without the one familiar thing that might make the baby stop fussing in the middle of the night at someone else’s house! The plan was…eat lunch with some friends on a city “on the way” to the L’s and then drive over to the L’s after that. Then we got the call...

Poor little CL was exhibiting symptoms of an illness and upon her visit to the doctor and our call to LJ’s doctor we all discovered that this illness is contagious. This was sad and I’m sure little CL felt horrible as I think she and her brother were looking as forward to our visit as we were! Now, dear reader, we had our entire house packed into our car, so there was no way we weren’t going to do SOMETHING this weekend. We went ahead and drove the 3 hours to eat lunch with some friends…most of whom had not met LJ. That was a very nice time and LJ enjoyed meeting every new person! On the way, LJ ate at a roadside park for the first time…bananas and oatmeal. We told him to get used to it…RJ and I both ate many meals at roadside parks while on family vacations.

After lunch, we had to decide just what we were going to do…so we called my brother…his family lives pretty close (within 2 hours) of where we were, so we invited ourselves to spend the weekend with them. They were very gracious in accepting our last minute arrival and had delicious hamburgers on the grill when we arrived.

On Saturday, we were able to watch a whole movie (except that I asked to pause it while I went to the bathroom) while LJ took a 3 HOUR NAP. Yes reader, you read that correctly. This nap lasted from 11:00 – 2:00, so it was a good time of the day for a 3 hour nap. After this nap, we ate Italian food…VERY good RJ and I thought and then went to a furniture store. Upon our return, LJ played around on the floor and…is getting so close to crawling that we got out the video camera in anticipation. He really is starting to get up on his knees and I predict he will crawl (forward) within 10 days. You read it here first!

We really enjoyed our impromptu visit with the Js, but were sad to miss our planned visit with the Ls.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there! I think I can safely say that RJ has had a nice day. It started with him sleeping as late as he wanted...that ended up being 9:03. Then, LJ demanded that he open his presents right now. So, RJ complied and then promptly began his day of leisure. LJ decided to get his dad a flight simulator program for the computer, so RJ has been "taking lessons" today. He did break for a breakfast of eggs w/pepperoni, sausage and waffles.

In food news, LJ had prunes then mangos. I decided that we needed to help little LJ's bowels by giving him prunes. There is something about seeing a little boy's face turn red as he grunts that makes a mother decide to try prunes. They did the trick...boy, did they do the trick! He started mangos yesterday, so one more day of those and then it is on to green beans. The mangos come in a jar labeled "recetas latinas". I guess Gerber thinks that mangos and zucchini (the other recetas latinas food) are foods to be enjoyed by Latino and Latina bambinos. That's weird because I apparently like recetas latinas myself, but I just thought they were mangos and zucchini!

In sleeping news, LJ had an entire day of naps and night of sleep...NO SWADDLE! This is a big step in LJ's young life. He is taking a nap sans swaddle as I type this. You do not know how happy I'll be to have him sleeping without the swaddle. It was GREAT when it served a purpose, but now it has become another thing from which to wean him. The weaning is going smashingly and I am thrilled.

And, finally...LJ seems to be starting to wave to people and this is super-cute!

On the horizon for this week...a bath in the big tub!

I Think He Was Starving

Well, after much consternation, RJ and I decided that LJ’s sleeping issues might indeed be related to his food consumption during the day. I consulted the message board that I read and my friend, Chrissy and these sources indicated that their children were eating more solids during the day at LJ’s age than LJ was eating. It seems that many parents feed their 7-month old 3 meals of solids a day. We were doing 1 and sometimes we’d skip that. So, we have been making a conscious effort to get 3 meals a day into this little guy. He takes these meals eagerly and seems to be a bottomless pit. One day, I decided I’d see just when he’d decided he’s had enough. I couldn’t do it! He kept going and I chickened out before he gave up. He’s probably eating about 2 ounces of fruit or veggie and ¼ cup of cereal at each meal. Add to that a few handfuls of Cheerios and he’s full as a tick at the end. He’s also nursing 5 times a day, but…

He’s back to his normal sleeping habits! Up once a night (around 2:30) for a 10 minute nursing session and then back down until 7:00 or so. AND…he is taking a 1 ½ - 2 hour morning nap and a 1 ½ - 2 hour afternoon nap. Finally, the napping schedule about which I’ve been dreaming! Oh, a glorious 1 – 2 hours during the day to do whatever I want to do.

I guess LJ decided he doesn't have to stay awake in hopes of getting the food he's been wanting and now he feels that it is ok to catch some zzz's.

I’m going to list LJ’s foods so I have this record. At 7 months, LJ is eating:
Rice cereal
Oatmeal
Barley
Sweet Potato
Squash
Carrots
Bananas
Pears
Peaches
Applesauce
The next vegetable I plan to introduce – green beans
The next fruit I plan to introduce – mango

For me, I am about ½ way through summer school! This is great, but the summer students are a lot of fun, so I don’t mind it at all. I am going to start a new schedule this coming school year. Instead of being on a 12 month contract, I’m going to be on a 10 ½ month contract. This allows me to work full-time for 10 ½ months (but I don’t have to physically be in the office anymore than I am right now) instead of part-time for 12 months. The pay is about the same, but the perks are better for me right now. I get 6 weeks off during the summer! And, since I’m not 12 months, I don’t accrue vacation leave, but that means I can’t use it either. Instead, whenever the students aren’t on campus (Christmas break, Spring break, etc.) I don’t have to be there either. Since I won’t be able to use the vacation I’ve already accrued, I’m going to use that this summer. I have over 7 weeks worth, so I’ll pretty much be off the entire month of July and ½ of August. YIPPEE! This will allow RJ to work a normal schedule.

RJ is working on the house this summer. Right now, he is putting a deck on the back of the house. This will be great because the afternoon sun beats in the back windows. This deck (with cover) should keep the back porch much cooler this summer!

Scootching

Little LJ is figuring out how to get around in his little world. He is becoming a mighty proficient scootcher, but he either scootches in a circle or he scootches backward. This scotching backward frustrates him as what he wants to get is usually in front of him. Today, while RJ was talking to M – LJ’s cousin who lives in London – LJ scootched himself off of the carpet and onto the hardwood floor. This allowed him to chart previously unscootched territory and landed him under the television. If you know of our television and the piece of furniture on which is sits, you might have a chuckle imagining LJ scootched backward under there. I believe that this backward scotching is a genetic trait handed down from RJ, who likes to back into parking spaces!

LJ still LOVES his jumpy seat and is perfecting his landing. He jumps, jumps, jumps and then – bam – straight legs and sticks the landing. And, all of this occurs with a grin from ear to ear.

LJ does not love his new car seat. He has outgrown the weight and height restrictions of his infant seat, so he had to get a new car seat. This seat sits him up rather straight and he doesn’t seem to fancy it as much as he did his old one. He had gotten to where, in the old one, he’d just close his eyes and fall asleep (when tired). In the new car seat, he howls and cries and refuses to accept the change (when tired). Another minus - the old infant seat was so easy to pop out of the car and onto the grocery cart or onto the high chair at a restaurant. This new one is permanent in the car, so LJ comes out and has to sit up on his own in the grocery store, etc. He doesn’t quite have sitting-up perfected, so this is a pain. For now, we are caring the old infant seat with us, putting LJ in that when we get to our destination, and proceeding as we did of old. This just adds another step to an already tedious process, but…you do what you have to do.

In food news, bananas have passed muster and there appear to be no allergic reactions, so we have moved on to pears. LJ seems to LOVE pears and overall, he is a much more enthusiastic solid-food eater. We had been letting him gnaw on Zweiback Toast or a Bitter Biscuit, but we had to put the brakes on that. He doesn’t really gnaw…he sucks and twice he has gotten a big hunk stuck to the roof of his mouth. The causes him to start gagging and, frankly, this is too close to choking for us (parents). So, a beloved food has been retired for the time being. I have been breaking Cheerios in half and letting him “eat” those. Those he gnaws on with an up and down jaw action…go figure!

Question:

I am retiring the question portion of this blog.
#1 – participation is down.
#2 – I can’t think of anymore questions.
#3 – I didn’t particularly feel good about the “things I might not tell LJ” question.
I guess I started it down the “MJ as a juvenile delinquent” path by sharing my story concerning petty theft, so I had it coming! To quote my mother, “I read some rather disturbing things on the blog.” To which I replied, “Yes, I don’t remember some of those.” To which she retorted, “Well, I hope they didn’t happen.” Then I had to remind her that I am 33 years old and have turned out “fine”, so these things are really nothing about which to worry.

But, I find it odd that no one thinks I might be too humble to share all of the nice, caring, and loving qualities I possess ;-)