So here we are, now 4 months away from Daniel's 2nd birthday. With every passing month he seems to transition more and more from a baby to a little boy. His latest trick? As I discovered today, he can climb onto the table. Time was not so long ago I could set him down on the floor, leave the room, and he'd still be in the same spot when I returned. Now, apparently he's likely to be up on the dining room table. As is often the case with such things, even as I'm telling him "no" and setting him back on the floor, I'm struggling to hide the laugh. Life with a young toddler is never dull!
In other news, he's becoming increasingly vocal and seems to learn a new word every other day or so. Recent additions to the list are "please," "home," and "bath," though his favorites are "mama," "dada," "up," and "no." He can say his grandparents' names too, somewhat: Grandma is "Damma," Mimi is "Mimi," or sometimes "Mimimi," and Grandpa is "Baba." He also has a lot of "gibberish" words which might make sense to him but don't yet to us. Perhaps he's just trying out different combinations of sounds. In any event, it's pretty entertaining.
No new developments on the sleep front. He'll skip his nap sometimes or go through a few nights in a row of waking up, but overall he's a great sleeper. He's a good eater too, though with occasional picky/light eating phases. He's getting increasingly proficient with a fork and spoon, though tonight's adventures in eating rice were quite messy because he insisted on feeding himself. But, I'm happy that he seems to like healthy foods and wants independence. As far as clothes go, he's still in 18 month clothes. They aren't getting small on him yet but they aren't big anymore. I bet we get another month or so out of them then it's on to 2T.
A few weekends ago we went to the Houston area for my grandmother's memorial service. I booked us at a suite hotel and definitely think that concept would serve us well on future trips. It was nice to have some room to spread out and be able to put him to bed (in the pack n play we brought) in the bedroom, then shut the doors and stay up and visit in the living area. Before bed though, we went out to eat at the BJ's brewpub nearby. Funny, Kevin's and my first date was at a BJ's, now we see it and think "oh, good kid-friendly place." And it was-lots of families, and noisy enough that the occasional cry wouldn't be disruptive. I was a little nervous about it as we don't generally take Daniel out to dinner, we'd been on the road all afternoon, and it was his bedtime, but he rose to the challenge and for the most part did quite well. We did get some funny pictures of him next to the empty glasses from the beer sampler Kevin and I shared.
On that trip, we also discovered a new trick of his:
One big change in the works is that we're planning to start him in preschool a few days a week after his 2nd birthday. We haven't chosen the school yet but we've got it narrowed down to our top 2 choices. I think either would be a good option for him, we just need to discuss the differences and decide which is the best fit for us. The plan is to start him off with 3 days a week of school and 2 days at Grandma's, then eventually go to 5 days of school. He loves his time with Grandma, and she loves it, but he's also enjoying interactions with other kids now too and I think would enjoy the different stimulation and structure that a classroom provides. So, by the next time I post we'll probably have a decision on that front.
This past weekend marked a big milestone for us: our first vacation as a family of 3, and Daniel's first trip to South Padre Island. Naturally, I have tons of pictures to share :)
Family tradition
Padre Island's a special place for our family so it was an obvious choice for Daniel's first vacation. My dad grew up in the Rio Grande Valley and took day trips to the beach as a boy. Ironically, he missed a chance to own land there when my car dealer grandfather turned down a customer's offer to swap land on Padre for a new car...well, in fairness to DadDad, Padre wasn't developed then, and he wasn't in a position to speculate on land when the manufacturers needed to be paid right away. (Still, it would be nice to have a do-over on that one! ;))
My family took yearly vacations to the island when I was little too, and it might well have been my first vacation (in fact, next time I get ahold of my parents' photo albums, I might update this with a picture of baby Ellen at the beach). Kevin and I went together several times before Daniel and always enjoyed it, so practically from the moment we saw the plus sign on the pregnancy test we were looking forward to continuing the family tradition and taking our baby there.
Fun with friends
What made this trip even more special was that our dear friends Marko and Nicole and their son Alejandro joined us. We traveled to San Francisco with them 2 years ago before we had kids kids and it was fun to travel together again as families. After the boys went to bed for the night, the four of us spent several pleasant evenings hanging out on the balcony talking.
During the day it was great to see the boys playing together. They're too young to really play cooperatively but they seemed to enjoy each other's company.
Here they are playing in the condo. Alejandro is trying to "brush" Daniel's hair with that plastic lid and a tv remote:
And, here they are together on the beach. They were too young to really use the beach toys we so carefully picked out (yes Kevin, you told me so!), but they definitely enjoyed playing in the sand:
Finally, here they are in the pool, kissing! Yes, this picture is sure to embarrass them mightily when they get older. It sure is cute though!
First day
We flew from Dallas to Brownsville on Friday, July 8. It was a short, easy flight, made even easier because the plane wasn't full, so we were able to bring the carseats on and sit in 2 rows by ourselves in the back of the plane. They boys did pretty well but Daniel got a bit fussy at one point so I took him to an empty row behind us to nurse. He then fell asleep in my arms for about 30 minutes. After we landed we were just a short drive from our destination. We didn't do much that day except relax, make dinner, and enjoy this view from our balcony:
Every Friday night during the summer there are fireworks over the bay. We watched them from the walkway outside our front door:
Time to play at the beach!
Saturday morning Kevin and my dad went fishing in the bay and the rest of the group went down to the beach. As expected, Daniel loved playing around in the sand. He ate his fair share of the sand (which made for some interesting diaper changes) and would have eaten plenty of shells too, if mean mommy hadn't taken them away. (I know, what a spoilsport to take away those choking hazards!)
Mmmm, sand!
We went back down to the beach again that afternoon and Monday morning and afternoon. Daniel could have spent all day on the shore splashing around in shallow tide pools and crawling in the sand.
I love this picture. It looks like he's crawling out to sea!
He was less fond of the ocean itself. We carried him out in it and he seemed to enjoy looking around but would get antsy or a wave would hit him in the face and he'd be ready to go back to shore.
The pool was fun too:
Daniel had a great time in the pool. One thing that made him laugh was when he's push on my chin and I'd jerk my head back like he had knocked me backwards.
He also thought it was pretty funny to "kick" me while he was sitting on the side of the pool ready to "jump in":
Meals
As much fun as the beach and pool were, we did venture out on dry land from time to time. Kevin and my dad had quite the successful fishing trip so for two lunches, we took fresh fish into local restaurants and ate it for lunch. Here's the day two spread at the Padre Island Brewing Company. Impressive as this haul looks, the previous day's was even bigger. The fish was great. Fresh is the name of the game with seafood and it's not often you can eat fish that was swimming just hours earlier.
Sleepless in South Padre
Daniel generally sleeps soundly at night but has a harder time sleeping away from home. As the last story suggests, this was certainly the case on this trip. He woke up during the night two of the four nights, which he seldom does. These sleep problems did have a sweet silver lining though.
When Daniel woke up crying the first night, I fed him and Kevin soothed him, all to no avail. After an hour of crying (his, not mine, though I felt like joining in) I was out of ideas, so I brought him into our bed hoping to calm him. As it turned out, that was exactly what he needed. He nestled his head on my shoulder, let out a deep sigh, and was out like a light. He slept snugly and soundly in my arms the rest of the night.
For the rest of the trip, I held him in my arms and napped with him in the afternoons. It was nice to get that extra cuddle time. Nursing soothes him very well but it was good to be reminded that my presence alone could soothe him so well. Co-sleeping may become a special new travel tradition for us.
Here's a picture of us napping together. The camera settings were wrong so it came out black and white and grainy, but I still love it. Look at the total relaxation on his face!
Time to go home :(
Alas, after 4 wonderful days on the Island, Tuesday came and it was time to go home. This time our flight was full so we had to check the carseats and hold the boys in our laps. The flight time ran into the early afternoon nap time so I worried Daniel might get cranky, but he was in good spirits the whole time, thanks in part to the steady flow of water and puffs we sent his way.
Once we landed, I put Daniel in my Beco carrier to wear him till we got back to the car. To my surprise, he fell asleep while we were waiting for a shuttle bus back to the garage. He was sleeping so soundly that he didn't even wake up when I put him in his carseat. When we got home he woke, ate, and slept another 3 hours. Guess the trip really wore him out!
We all had a great time, and can't wait for next year's trip!
As Daniel's first birthday draws closer and closer, I can't believe my baby is growing so quickly. It's amazing to think that 10 months ago he was a newborn, unable to even support his own head, and now he's crawling, standing, cruising, and feeding himself. It is truly amazing how much a baby develops in his first year of life. I already catch myself wanting to say "when he was a baby" even though he won't outgrow that label for awhile.
No huge milestones this month, but he did have his first plane trip (and first trip out of state) when we went to Tennessee to visit my brother. More on that later, once I get pictures from my mom's camera in a few weeks. For now, I'll just say that he handled the flights pretty well and generally had a pretty good trip.
News This month brought his 5th tooth, on the top to the right, with the 6th (top to the left) on the way. He has become more proficient at crawling and now has added the hand-opposite knee "cross crawl" to his repertoire in addition to his "butterfly stroke" scoot. He is also pretty adept at cruising along the hearth, coffee table, crib rail, or bathtub. He hasn't made any efforts to take a step yet but he is certainly mobile.
And he can really scamper up the stairs now! Here's a video:
He is still a pretty vocal little guy too. He likes to babble ("dadada" is still a favorite) and has just started making a grunting noise and saying "brrr"...basically a raspberry without the tongue action and its accompanying slobber. And he has learned to shake his head in response to us doing it or saying "shake, shake, shake." He smiles while he does it, so he looks happily disagreeable! He has also taken up picking his nose...sigh.
Sleeping No big changes here. Still falls asleep unassisted most of the time and sleeps straight through from 7:30-8pm until 6-6:30am. The other morning he slept till 8, so I got to sleep 9 straight hours for the first time in ages. That was a nice treat!
He still seems to do well with 2 naps a day, but will sometimes refuse to take one of his naps. We've adjusted the times forward a bit so he generally goes down for his morning nap by about 9:15, up by 11:30, then down for the afternoon around 2, up by 4:30. He doesn't sleep the full time each nap, but most days he will go down for 2 naps. We're having some success with moving his morning nap up to preserve the afternoon one, but it seems fairly certain that when he moves to a single daily nap, it's the afternoon nap that will go. Which will make it hard to go to church for awhile but should otherwise work well for us.
Eating He still nurses first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, and takes 2 6oz bottles during the day when I'm gone or nurses twice more on weekends. He eats 3 solid meals a day and while he was doing well with homemade purees or Plum brand organic blends, he has recently made it clear he wants to feed himself. The past 2 nights we've cut up chicken and dried apricots and given him that plus some cooked brown rice and he has happily fed himself, and done a pretty good job of it. He's still a pretty eager diner and likes most everything he tries.
He'd be a bit embarrassed that I'm sharing this (but hey, what are moms for if not to embarrass our offspring?), but he was having trouble for awhile with constipation. He'd strain to have a BM and tense up and cry like it was really painful. We tried a few things but juice and a water-Karo syrup mix seem to be doing the trick for now. It was no fun seeing him in pain :(
Pictures Every month(ish), we've taken a picture of him in his infant carseat to track how big he's getting. This month we got the standard picture plus a variation on it showing off his new skill:
