More 'fun' with food

Caden has started to enjoy the solid food a little more. Well, he doesn't spit it out anymore and he actually swallows most of it. He's using his tongue differently to get it to the back of his mouth, rather than out the front. He's had Avocado (yes the 2nd time went much better), sweet potato, carrots and pears.

I have to say that I'm not really thrilled about solid food. I'm digging the breastfeeding; simple, portable, readily available, cheap, and creates such a wonderful closeness. Solid food feeding is in one word, messy. messy, Messy, MESSY!!! Which is fine, I know it's a learning curve for him, skill building. But frankly, it's kind of a pain in the ass. No, it is a pain in the ass. Gotta get the food, gotta get it mixed/out of the jar, gotta get the spoon, gotta get the spoon for him to work with, gotta get two bibs (one that's snug around his neck and one that's vinyl and non-absorbent and doesn't close snug enough around his neck, hence the 2nd bib), gotta get the sippy cup, it seems endless. He constantly grabs the spoon, or shoves his spoon in his mouth so I can't get the food in there (yes, I know 'don't let him have his own spoon', but I want him to get good at getting it in his mouth himself). Once we're done, he's messy, he's wet, his clothes are messy/wet, his seat is messy/wet, and usually I'm messy and/or wet.

But.... he's still so darned cute.

[oh, and you can't see it in the photos, because he had it tucked in, Mark's Father's Day present, I gave it to him early since it was too precious not to.]

And he turned 7 months old Thursday:

Jumping MADNESS

[I've been trying to get this posted for over a week. Technical difficulties. argh.]
Well, the story goes that Mark was a big fan of the Jolly Jumper. He says he remembers being in it, and that he really liked it. I was a HUGE fan of the Jolly Jumper. So much so, that my parents installed it in the back of their van when we'd go on trips. Dad said he'd be driving down the road and in the rearview mirror would be this baby, bouncing up into view, disappearing, up into view, disappear. For miles!

So, we figured we should get a Jolly Jumper for Caden. I did some research on them but could really only find the original Jolly Jumper in Canada for $80 + $40 shipping. OUCH! So, I did more research, and found the Baby Bungee Bouncer. So, I ordered it, it came, and we drilled the first hole into our wall (OK, the ceiling) and set Caden up with it. Initially, not a whole lot of action, he kinda just spun around and hung there. Until yesterday. He got it. He got it big time. He loves it, I think we could put him in it all day long.

Check it out for yourself:

First solid food - Avocado

I think we'll try something else next time......

6 months

Caden turned 6 months old last Monday and had his 6 month appointment. He weighed exactly 16 pounds. No ounces, no nothing, just 16 even. He is 26 2/8 inches long. Yes, that is exactly what the nurse-in-training wrote on his sheet (look at the number again if you didn't catch it). He is exactly on the 25th percentile line for weight, so he's growing right on schedule.

He is a happy baby, if he gets upset, he is hungry or tired. He goes down for naps, and he's sleeping 7-8 hours in a row at night. Bless him. We have a nighttime routine and he only cries occasionally when we put him down at night. He did cry last night because it was hot and he was still swaddled - I'm gonna have to find lighter weight blankets to use, sometime today, cuz today is looking pretty warm again. He doesn't really roll over yet so we can still swaddle him. He has rolled over front-to-back, but he doesn't seem to realize that he can keep doing it. I think he's just extra easy-going, and isn't too worried about it. I'm not worried about it either, a mobile child is highly over-rated. ;-)

We took him to see the Mariners on Mother's Day. [Now, I didn't plan to go to a baseball game on Mother's Day, but when I put in for the dugout seat ticket lottery at work in March, I needed a Sunday game since that's the only day Daddy & I have off together, he wanted to see the White Sox or Red Sox, the only Sunday game was the White Sox on the 11th, so we picked that game. I only realized it was Mother's Day about a week before. Not necessarily what I would've picked to do on Mother's Day, but it was good.] He did great! The first time the crowd cheered, he cried, but I it was mainly because it shocked him and the guy behind us had a loud voice when he yelled. I thought, 'oh well, this may be very short-lived.' After that first big cheer, however, he did great. He even fell asleep on me for the last three innings. I'd carried him in my Moby wrap knock-off that I made so he was all snuggled in and toasty warm. You can see a picture of him asleep below. If he hadn't been asleep, we would've handed him to the Moose for a better 'I'm at my first baseball game' picture. Mama had her face bandanged because she had a non-malignant skin cancer removed. Yes, she's fine, they got it all, and she should have in the words of the doctor 'optimal cosmetic results.'

Wanna see my Mother's Day present? It's like this one, except it has Caden James on one side, and 11-12-07 on the other. I love it.

We're gonna try some solid food this weekend. Avocado, mmmmm. Wish us luck!

On to more shameless cuteness:

3 in 24 hours

Have I mentioned that we're cloth diapering now? For about 3 weeks. Yes, I know what you're thinking; WHAT? cloth, diaper pins, rubber pants, ewww. NO WAY! Cloth diapers have come a long way. We're using BumGenius! one-size cloth pocket diaper. And we are loving' them, even Mark! Yes, they are a committment, but I've got the fancy front-load washer with all kinds of settings; extra rinse, pre-wash, sanitize (!). They don't leak (was having poo-up-the back issues with the disposables), are soft on his bum, and pretty darned cute! Plus, I never have to buy diapers again. As my fellow cloth diapering mom Kirsten said 'I feel a little victory every time I don't throw one away' and I'm now right with her. It took me a while - I wasn't sure, I thought they might leak, I wasn't sure I could deal with washing them, Mark wasn't down with poo in the washer. But we tried some and I was convinced. They are a bit expensive, ~17.00 each, but that's it. We don't have to buy diapers again. The diapers we picked adjust, so you don't have to buy a different set of different sizes. I thought since we're having one child, I didn't want to invest too heavily. But even if we bought two sets, we'd still be ahead of the game. You'll probably spend $1500-$1800 on diapers until potty training is done. It's not for everybody, but I'm fully on-board!

Plus, they look good, and Mark can match them to his outfit. White, blue, green & yellow.

Technological attempt

Yes, I will probably blog in clusters....
Taken by our digial camera...having trouble getting the video camera uploaded to the PC.
Let's see if this works.....

5 months

Yes, another original title. Caden turns 5 months old today, and it's late and he's asleep and I've just realized that I didn't take his picture today. =\ Tomorrow will have to do.

Yes, he's asleep. He's been a pretty good sleeper, up to 6 hours, but for the last 2-3 weeks he'd regressed back to only 3 hours. I started to read the sleep book again and thought I'd try to put him to bed earlier. Holy cow, this worked like a charm. And I didn't use the binky! Almost all in one night! We did our normal night time thing - head upstairs, low lights, nurse, swaddle, turn on the heartbeat bear (makes heartbeat noise) and lay him down. But we started it at 8:30, in the crib around 9, rather than the 10 or 11 we'd been doing. He cried for a couple of minutes, then fussed for a minute and then fell asleep, without the binky. Slept till 4:30 the next morning. Yes, that's right, went from only 3 hours at a time to sleeping 7.5 hours in a row, overnight. Can you say WOO HOO??!?!?!?!?!?! or rather, zzzzzzzzzzz. I was stunned. Mark asked 'so if we put him to bed earlier, he sleeps longer? this makes no sense!' I'd wanted to stop using the binky overnight since he would fall asleep, it would fall out, and he'd wake up. The next night, we had a little 'cry it out' session, although I'd chosen to stay in the room with him and comfort him. He cried for a while that night, but eventually went to sleep. Slept till 3:30. The next night, around 7 he was yawning, rubbing his eyes, telling me he was tired, so I thought I'd do the process, just early. Yeah, no dice. The banshee cry came out. So, I gave up, brought him downstairs, held him and played with him, and then did it again at the right time, 9pm. He laid down, didn't even fuss, and went right to sleep. Slept till 3:30. Hallelujah!

Adrienne & Russ & Clara came and stayed over one night, Clara is the cute little blond thing in the pictures. She was feeding Caden her play 'sandwich.' I also have to point out his 'peas and carrots' binky holder. It's too cute. And yes, we are still using it during the day.

And now for some shameless cuteness overload: