Yes, yes, I know the proper basketball commentary is, "He shoots, he scores!" but Theo isn't quite shooting baskets yet. He is, however, now sitting and scooting!

 

He was sitting already, but only if we put him in a sitting position. This morning on the changing table, he rolled from his back to his tummy, pushed up onto his hands and knees, and then pushed himself into an upright sitting position. (At which point I wished our changing table was a wee bit sturdier—it was shaking like a leaf!)

 

Then, this afternoon, he was rolling around on the living room floor while I cooked some pre-Thanksgiving stuff in the kitchen. He has been pushing up to his hands and knees and rocking like mad for days, and it appears he has discovered how to rock fast enough that he actually scoots forward, slowly but surely. Crawling can't be too far behind!

 

Ah, these developments are a wonderful and welcome relief after yesterday, which was a "Leon" day to the point that I cancelled a meeting with my Mom and sister, saying, "I refuse to even take him out of the house...he's just way too grouchy!" Luckily, he's happy today (despite getting a shot this morning). He was chortling happily when he figured out how to scoot!

 

However, all this scooting and self-propelled sitting has worn him out. He fell asleep in his high chair between bites of carrots. He's still sleeping in there now, looking like a serene, carrot-covered angel.

As you might’ve guessed from the title of this week’s post, Theo’s new food for the week was...beans! Pureed pinto beans, specifically. They seem to be an acquired taste for him. The first time we tried them, he made some lovely “ick” faces at me and looked aghast that I would feed him such a thing. (See the blog pix this week!) Chris had more luck on the second try, sneaking in a few bites in between squash and apple bites. And now, Theo is sort of grudgingly eating them, if you sneak them in among things he likes better.

 

A lot of the “appropriate” foods for eight-month-olds happen to be out of season at the moment (peaches, nectarines, apricots, etc.), thus the move to beans. I guess that’s one drawback to making one’s own baby food—you have to kind of go with what’s in season.

 

The boys had a fun Tuesday together this week. One of my authors made a rather ghastly mistake and forgot to submit a third of his book until it was literally two days from going to the printer, which meant that when he suddenly remembered he had 100+ pages that he needed to submit, I was put in a really tight spot in terms of trying to get it done on time. So, Chris took the day off from work on Tuesday and took Theo out to Davis for some daddy-son time while I stayed home and copy edited until my head was spinning and pounding. (But I got it done, so no complaints!) Theo was his charming little self, apparently, flirting with women in Davis and just generally reveling in the people-watching. And Chris got to eat lunch at his favorite Italian deli, so that made him happy!

 

On Thursday, Theo and I paid a visit to our friend Kim, who was recovering from surgery. Theo played happily on the floor while Kim and I chatted, and I found myself thinking, “Wow, I couldn’t have done this three months ago!” Back in his younger days, we really couldn’t take Theo much of anywhere without him dissolving into a wailing mess, so it’s truly wonderful to actually be able to go visit with a friend for an hour while Theo amuses himself along with us. He was also a little prince at WinCo earlier that day. WinCo is our local discount grocery store, and I went there to buy the staples I need to make Thanksgiving dinner. Let me say that I truly detest WinCo. I shouldn’t, because in all other instances I love a bargain, but there’s just something about WinCo I hate. It’s crowded, the aisles aren’t wide enough for all the people there, it’s dark and warehouse-y...I just hate it. But thankfully, Grandma Diane always jumps at the chance to come hang out with her grandson, so she accompanied Theo and me on our trip. This was a good thing because WinCo keeps their prices low partly by having customers bag their own groceries...which I don’t mind at all except that it’s a very slow process when I have a baby strapped to my chest, grabbing at everything in sight!

 

Speaking of grabbing, Theo is becoming increasingly mobile (mostly by rolling, though he has managed a couple little scoots and is rocking back and forth wildly, trying to crawl), and thus he thinks anything he sees and can reach is his. This week was electrical cords. And boy, did he ever have a baby tantrum over them! Chris caught him reaching for the cords that connect our computers to the power strip, and he moved Theo away and said “no” firmly. Theo, who was on his tummy on the floor, immediately began kicking his feet, flailing his arms, and screaming in a full-blown tantrum! He also had a tantrum when I took away the car keys last week—balled-up fists and screaming at me. I am seriously amazed that an almost-eight-month-old can have a tantrum. I didn’t think those started until the toddler era. It’s hard to know what to do about them, too...he’s really too young to understand much of anything, so I just try to redirect his attention at this point. Though I admit that Chris and I both laughed at the tantrum over the electrical cords. How on earth does a baby know to kick his feet in anger?! It must be some kind of innate behavior, because heaven knows he hasn’t watched Chris or I get down on the floor and kick our feet when we’re mad!

 

Theo has also become very vocal all of a sudden, which is so cool! We went back up to Apple Hill on Saturday...Chris was hankering for more pie, and I never turn down a trip there. Besides, Chris was trying to butter me up to make him some more applesauce. He insists I make better applesauce than store-bought. I’m really not sure that’s the case, since I don’t do anything special to it—just puree the steamed apples, really—but every so often I decide to be a nice wife and make him some. Anyway, the best apples around are from Apple Hill, so off we went. Theo seemed to really enjoy being out and about on the beautiful day, and in the car on the way home, he suddenly started babbling up a storm. And kept it up for an astonishing five hours, with very few breaks. He seems to have learned a new sound (something like “wow”) that he was having fun with, so all the way home he was going, “Wowowowowowowowow!” And then after we got home, it morphed into, “Wowowowowow...Mamamamamamamamama....bababababababa...wowowowowow.” Over and over and over, for many hours. He was happy as a clam, just babbling up a storm. It was heaven, I tell you...pure heaven! I was able to do some work, fold laundry, and clean up a few things, just by putting him near me and letting him chatter away, occasionally responding with my own version of babble.

 

In retrospect, I realize this has been coming on for at least a couple days. He was babbling quite a lot at the mall on Friday, when we met up with Janeane and Emma. He was actually very quiet for part of the time, but then he started jabbering rather animatedly and kept it up for quite a while. Emma told him “No” at first, which of course meant nothing to Theo, who kept chattering away, and I think Emma eventually decided that she might as well join him, because they soon seemed to be having some sort of little Klingon-sounding conversation between the two of them, which was quite cute.

 

A nap update, for anyone who is curious. My Pack and Play nap strategy may be working! Several days this week I was able to get Theo to fall asleep in his Pack and Play by giving him a bottle while he lay in there. Twice, I was actually able to get him to take two naps in one day! This is unheard of for Mr. I-Don’t-Nap Small. Now, I should point out that these naps are generally only 30 minutes, so even two a day really isn’t as much as he should be napping. But hey, it’s a start. After months of trying to get him to nap, I’m happy with anything I can get! And today (drum roll, please), he only took one nap, but it was almost 2 1/2 hours! I was seriously beginning to worry that something was wrong, since he never sleeps that long during the day, but it turned out he just wanted a nap, I guess. Needless to say, I was ecstatic!

 

So, it’s Thanksgiving week coming up, and we’re hosting dinner here. I love doing the big holiday dinners, although this will be the first year I’ve tried it with a baby, obviously. My Mom is coming over Wednesday to help me prep stuff, and my sister and some of my nieces are coming up early on Thursday to help out, too. So we’ll see how it all comes together...I can almost guarantee I’ll burn the rolls, since I do that every year. Last year I even set the smoke alarm off by burning the rolls on Christmas. I’m seriously roll-impaired. Bread-challenged. It’s embarrassing....

 

But what’s far less embarrassing is my latest attempt at a Theo movie. In fact, I think it’s pretty cute. It’s Theo being...well, Theo. Spirited and lots of fun! So check it out on the blog!

 

At any rate, in the spirit of being thankful for things, I need to close this blog post by saying how thankful I am for my super husband. Actually, I’m thankful for a lot of people and a lot of things, but I especially need to mention Chris. Here’s why. Last week, I did a sort of “10 Things I Love About My Son” post, as most of you know. What you didn’t know is that I had written up a similar list of 10 things I love about Chris. However, I did this at about 6am on Sunday morning, and when Chris got up a couple hours later, he was quite grumpy. And this led to our first-ever fight (over something really stupid, as I’m sure most fights are). Don’t get me wrong—we’ve certainly bickered and had little spats here and there. But in almost four years together, we’ve never had a real “fight”—as in, stay mad at each other for more than an hour kind of thing. Last Sunday, we did. So when it came time to post the blog, I stripped out the nice note about Chris because I was still peeved that I had spent my early-morning hours writing this lovely little list, only to have a grumpy husband get in a fight with me later on. But, the logical side of me knew I’d regret it if I deleted it, so I saved it. And, without further ado, I post it this week...because even though he was a grumpy fellow last Sunday, I am still very much thankful for Chris, the best husband and the best father I could ever imagine. (And by the way, the stupid fight wasn’t all his fault—I had a part in it too. He just kicked it off by being grumpy!)

 

Ten Things That Make Me Fall in Love with My Husband Every Day

 

1. The slow, methodical way he putters around the kitchen, making his breakfast, while I’m standing there STARVING, just waiting for the soy milk! (Sorry, honey, you know I had to put that in!!)
2. The way he goes out of his way to take over Theo duties once he’s off work, so that I can get a physical and emotional break (as well as get my own work done).
3. His awesome spaghetti. It made it into my wedding vows, and I still maintain that Chris makes the Best Spaghetti Ever. Seriously, he could take Bobby Flay in a Spaghetti Throwdown! (He’d also be a formidable opponent in a Scrambled Eggs Throwdown.)
4. The fact that he encourages me to do things for myself, such as take photography classes.
5. The way he loves our dogs, even though they drive him nuts sometimes. (Don’t let him fool you...he’s a softie for both of them! See this week’s picture of him waking up after a cuddle-nap with Luna.)
6. The effort he puts into being an amazing father for Theo.
7. The fact that he not only indulges my passion for travel, he shares it. And oh, do we have fun on our trips!
8. The way we can laugh hysterically at the silliest little things, like hairless Sphinx cats and the creepy old tripe-loving man on that sandwich documentary we watched.
9. His dedication to being a great husband and a great father and to providing a wonderful life to Theo and I. (Nice work, honey!)
10. The fact that he loves Theo and me just as we are, warts and all!

 

Earlier this week, I was thinking about that over-quoted line, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,” and I decided that it would be fun to try to enumerate what I love about my crazy little son. So, here ’tis...a list that is far from exhaustive, but that shares some of what I think makes our Theo the greatest little guy on the planet.

 

Ten Things That Make Me Fall in Love with My Son Every Day

 

1. The incredibly cute way he sticks out his lower lip when he’s MAAAAAAADDDDD!! (Especially when Mean Mama takes away the car keys.)
2. The way Luna is obviously his best friend in the entire world. He stares at her in wonder and adoration, laughs at her antics, and happily pats her whenever she is in reach. (This could also be an entry in “Ten Reasons Why I Love the Pug,” since she is just amazingly good with him!)
3. The way he gets so excited to see me in the morning that he kicks his feet like mad and smiles that huge toothless grin when I come in the room.
4. The way he attacks his Exersaucer with such purpose and determination. I set him in it, and it’s as if he says, “Okay, first I grab the rattle and smash Piglet, ’cuz he won’t stop staring at me. Then I have to spin Rabbit wildly for at least 30 seconds. Then I stomp my feet like crazy and chatter excitedly. Then I need to make sure Pooh is down in his honey pot—I don’t like it when he’s popped up and looking at me! Now I need to chew on Tigger, and then I’ll go smash Piglet again....” He seriously has this whole system of activities every time he’s in the Exersaucer. It’s as if he’s a Man with a Plan.
5. The way he fights sleep naps at all costs. Yes, this drives me NUTS a lot of the time, but I also have to admire his spunk and will: “Can’t sleep, Mom! Too much to see, too much to do! Must be awake and playing (or eating) at all times!”
6. The way he thinks blowing raspberries is pretty much the pinnacle of entertainment and comedy. (C’mon, be honest: Who doesn’t think farty noises are highly amusing?!)
7. The way he shrieks happily in a store when he’s riding in the Baby Bjorn. It’s like I have a tiny, adorable Howard Dean strapped to my chest. Or a small pterodactyl....
8. The hilarious way he snorts like a little nerd when he laughs. He sounds like a cross between a tiny donkey and a piglet. It's seriously adorable!
9. His thrill-seeker attitude when trying something new. You’d have thought he was a champion bungee jumper the way he bounced like mad in the Jumperoo when we put him in it! Given that I was scared of everything as a kid, I’m delighted to see that my boy doesn’t seem to have inherited that from me. He has a “go get ’em” spirit that I didn’t get until I was an adult.
10. The way he curls his hand around the back of my neck and immediately calms down when I pick him up, as if to say, “Okay, Mama, I know you’ll protect me. I can relax now.” It makes me feel like I’m doing something right. J

And now that I'm done being mushy, back to our regularly scheduled blog....

 

I managed to whittle my 50 chapters of copy editing down to 29...only to get slammed with 13 more unexpected chapters last night. (Don’t ask me how an author can just “forget” to send me a third of his book! Suddenly my lovely 300-page book has become 400 pages in the blink of an eye. ACK! Oh well, the paycheck will be nice, even if this puts me WAY behind schedule.) So this week will be madness, again. Wah!

 

Anyway, amid editing this past week, we had a nice play date with our friends Janay (grad school friend of Chris and I) and Belen (Janay’s two-year-old daughter). Unfortunately, I forgot the camera! Which is too bad, because it was really cute to see Belen share her toys with Theo. Theo was wide-eyed at all the new toys to play with, and Belen was very generous in sharing anything that wasn’t purple. (Purple being her favorite color!)

 

Friday night we took Theo to visit the newly expanded mall near us. He loves to people-watch at the mall, so it makes a good place to walk around with him. Alas, the poor “I refuse to nap” boy was so sleepy by 7pm that he fell asleep slumped across the tray of his stroller, his arm wrapped around a Snapple bottle that was in the cup holder. He looked like a little drunk...we got many comments from amused fellow mall-goers. “Shopped ’til he dropped, eh?!” Indeed...although window-shopped is more like it. I did buy him a cute winter hat, and we ogled the neat toys at The Learning Express and bought him one small one, but that was the extent of our shopping adventure.

 

Speaking of Mr. Theo "I Don't Nap" Small, my Pack and Play napping strategy is only very rarely successful. Most of the time he falls asleep with the bottle, but wakes up shrieking like a banshee the second it's gone, and then won't go back to sleep. And although I know the obvious comment is, "Why not put enough milk in the bottle that he can't possibly still be hungry after finishing it?" I must respond that I tried that, and all I got was screaming and a bunch of extra spitup. He downed an incredible amount of milk and still shrieked at me when it was gone. Stubborn little boy! The strategy did, however, work on Sunday...for a half an hour. Then he woke up MAAAAADDDD! But hey, half an hour is better than nothing, I guess.

 

Saturday was a day trip to San Jose to see Grandpa Tom, Grandma Kathy, Great-Grandma Norma, “Uncle” Billy, and Uncle Steve, Auntie Tanya, and cousin Nicky. Theo had a grand time with very little “Leon” time. He and Nik were really staring at each other this time, and at one point Theo even took Nik’s hand, which I got a picture of. Very cute!!

 

I think the highlight of Theo’s day was probably the new toy his grandma and grandpa got for him and Nik to share...a Jumperoo! Theo was like some sort of fanatic Tigger on fast-forward in that thing, bouncing like there was no tomorrow! (Remember the old Winnie the Pooh cartoons, where Tigger was always irritating Pooh by bouncing, because “Tiggers love to bounce!”? That was Theo...he just thought bouncing was pretty much the most fun he’s ever had. We have a doorway Jumperoo for him that we need to set up again. He’s been in it a couple times, but he seems to have now reached the age where this is just the absolute height of excitement!

 

Theo’s big developmental accomplishment is learning to sit on his own for extended periods of time. He’s been sitting for a couple weeks, but it was sort of hit or miss...he’d often go crashing off to one side or do a nice face-plant into the carpet. This week he seemed to get a lot better at sitting up for 15 or 20 minutes at a time without crashing. He is also trying desperately to crawl...rocking back and forth on his hands and knees. Perhaps Chris and I should start thinking about baby gates a bit more seriously. J

 

So, a good week was had by all. Hope you are all well!

Okay, you know you're too much of a Starbucks fan when you start foaming your son's bottle of formula....

 

Let me explain, as this isn't quite as yuppie as it sounds. In the interest of "simple answers" (a la this week's blog post), I decided to try to a new tactic to keep formula from getting clogged in the nipple of Theo's bottle, so that my "bottle in the Pack and Play" nap strategy might work. Stirring the formula with a fork wasn't breaking up the chunks, nor was shaking the bottle vigorously. But what if we had one of those little battery-powered hand-stirrers that's like a tiny hand blender? That might do the trick! So, at the outlets this weekend, I bought one at a kitchen gadget store. When I got home and opened it, I realized that it was designed to make delicious gourmet coffee drinks with milk foam on them. And I realized the utter absurdity of, in my quest for a simple answer, deciding to make my son a "gourmet" bottle of formula. Ah well, the boy had a massage therapist at a few weeks old, so why not just diva-fy him one more way?

 

So yesterday, I used said stirring device in his bottle. It worked like a charm, breaking up all the tiny formula "clots." Only problem is, it makes milk foam like a champ, too. The volume of the bottle doubled in size, and it became five ounces of formula with a lovely five-ounce foam cap on it. Ack! I scooped out as much of the foam as I could, put Theo down in the Pack and Play, and gave him the bottle.

 

He seemed happy enough for a few minutes, until he reached the end of the bottle, where all the foam had sunk. He then screamed mightily, so I added a bit more water and made a rather thin second helping of formula. Theo wrinkled his nose in disgust and pushed the bottle away, so I started patting his back to try to get him to sleep. As usual, no luck—we don't need no stinkin' naps!! And then, like something out of a horror movie, he spewed up the most massive spit-up I've ever seen from him. It must've been half the bottle at least. And so, I was left with a wide-awake baby soaked in spit-up and a playpen with a giant puddle of spit-up in it, needing to be stripped and wiped down.

 

So, for future reference, Theo takes his lattes with no foam.

 

I love simple answers. For the first several months of Theo’s life, we were bombarded with problems feeding him, and there were no simple answers. And it drove us nuts—we wanted to help our boy, but we didn’t know how! We couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong or how to help him, which was incredibly disheartening. But now, the answers are getting simpler in a lot of cases, and I love it!

 

Case in point #1: Nighttime wakening. Theo has been a great nighttime sleeper since he was about 2 1/2 months old. That’s one of the reasons we waited so long to transfer him into his own room—we were terrified to mess with a good thing! His good sleeping at night was the only easy thing about our boy, and we were scared to death to blow it. So, he has now been in his room for just a little over a week, and it has gone pretty well. Except suddenly, he’s waking up a couple times a night. And usually, he’s extremely wet...diaper, pajamas, sheets—the works! Changing sheets at 3am is not much fun, and if we have to change his PJs, there’s no getting him back to sleep unless I nurse him again. Why is he suddenly wetting so much at night? We have no idea. But, we have a simple solution, which we stumbled upon through trial and error. First we tried “stripping” our cloth diapers. Apparently hard water and detergent can form a buildup on cloth diapers over time, causing them to repel liquid. And then you have to strip them. So I spent the better part of a Sunday afternoon stripping...which sounds much more exciting than it really was! ;-) That didn’t work. The diapers absorbed much better in general, but Theo was still a Super Soaker at night. So, we decided to try disposables to see whether they’d hold more liquid. Nope—he soaked through that as easily as he does through our beloved Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers. So, I came up with the ridiculously easy plan of double-stuffing the Fuzzi Bunz at night. FBs are “pocket diapers,” meaning they have a shell, and you stuff a cloth liner inside them to soak up the liquid. So, at night now stuff two liners in there. The end result? Theo is no longer wetting through his PJs and onto his sheets, and he has an adorably “fat” bottom from the super-stuffed diaper. J

 

Case in point #2: Naps. This is still a work in progress. As I mentioned some weeks ago, Theo won’t nap. I have tried nearly everything, and he won’t nap. Not consistently, anyway. Every so often we get a day where he suddenly falls asleep for 90 minutes, but those are few and far between. And I say I’ve tried “almost” everything because I haven’t tried one method: “cry it out.” I have let him fuss for 20 minutes or so when he knows I’m in the near vicinity, operating under the idea that perhaps he would fuss himself to sleep. But when fussing turns into full-fledged crying or screaming, I cannot do it. I’ve made my peace with the fact that I’m just not wired that way. Some people (like our pediatrician, for example) believe strongly in “cry it out” techniques, and if that works for them, great. But for me, I can’t do it. When Theo is two years old and throwing a temper tantrum, I expect I’ll be more able to do it if the need arises. But when my sweet seven-month-old is sobbing because he thinks his Mom has abandoned him, it just rips my heart out. So, for my own emotional health if nothing else, I don’t do it. If he amps up into truly crying and I can’t calm him by patting his back, I give up and get him up. Missing a nap won’t kill him, and it’s a heck of a lot easier on my own emotions to go pick him up and bring him back into the room with me to play.

 

That said, I have tried everything else to get the boy to sleep. Swing? Check...didn’t work. Pack and Play alone? Check...didn’t work. Pack and Play with his soothing-sounds sleep sheep turned on? Check...didn’t work. Pack and Play with Mama patting his back for a few minutes? Check...didn’t work. Crib with his mobile turned on? Check...didn’t work. Napping on the bed with Mama? Check...didn’t work. Napping on my lap after nursing? Used to work like a charm; in the past month or so, not so much. Putting him down in the Pack and Play after he falls asleep with a bottle? He wakes up and squalls every time and won’t go back to sleep. And so, I have nearly given up on getting the boy to nap. But yet, I know he’d really benefit from napping. And so, I have now stumbled onto what I hope will be a simple solution. Although I’m sure somewhere some child-rearing expert would say that I’m somehow warping my son by doing this, because I’ve come to realize that no matter what choices you make as a parent, some expert somewhere will tell you that you’re warping your kid. And another expert will tell you you’re doing great. There’s just no pleasing everyone!!

 

So, the solution: Bottle in the Pack and Play. Supposedly it’s bad form to give babies a bottle in their crib. I forget the exact reason why, but it probably has to do with either choking or tooth decay. Or acid reflux, which thankfully Theo doesn’t have, so we haven’t had to worry about that. Anyway, it finally occurred to me that Theo falls asleep eating, but then just won’t stay asleep when he’s transferred to the Pack and Play. So why not feed him in the Pack and Play? So that’s my latest strategy. The lazy boy won’t hold his bottle on his own yet, so I just lean over the Pack and Play and hold it for him while he eats. He dozes off, and (in theory!) I can ease the bottle away when he falls asleep. I’ve only been at this for two days, but it worked like a charm the first day...he slept for 45 minutes, until our barking dogs woke him up. The second day was a royal disaster because the nipple of the bottle got repeatedly clogged, which sent Theo into such a rage that it took Chris quite a while to calm him down. (I was in the shower, but I could hear the squalling even with the water running and the fan going and the door partway closed!) So, I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re on the road to another simple solution...if we can just get the darn bottle to stop clogging. Cross your fingers!!

 

Speaking of naps, by the way, I have to say that if you’re so tired that you fall asleep with your hand in midair, it should be a clue that you need to nap more. Theo was furiously shaking one of his favorite toys (Jittery Lion) in the car yesterday evening, and suddenly there was dead silence. He had fallen asleep with his arm above his head, Jittery Lion clenched in his fist, ready to slam him down. Probably a good thing for Jittery Lion that Theo fell asleep, as the poor critter was getting rather brutalized.

 

But moving on to simple answer #3. We’ve found a new way to keep Theo occupied for decent periods of time. Give him an old shoe with laces. He is obsessed with playing with shoelaces on shoes. He spent a good 20 minutes one night undoing a double-knot in Chris’s shoelace. You’ll see lots of pix in this week’s album of Theo sharing the wonders of shoelaces with his faithful companion, Luna.

 

Now that I’ve rambled on endlessly about such mundane things as leaky diapers, lack of naps, and shoelaces, how about a recap of the week? It’s madness here work-wise, as it will probably be until the end of the year. I have fifty—yes fifty—chapters lined up to copy edit. And one is almost 100 pages. OUCH! Don’t ask me how I’m going to get through those. And there are more to come. Yikes. I don’t even want to think about it....

 

But, as usual, we did fun stuff too. On Tuesday, of course, we watched the election coverage. I had to work, so Chris watched more of it than I did, but I did get to see some of the highlights, and I was continually checking the poll results online as I worked. I won’t go into much political commentary here, but I have to say that I was thrilled to see Americans take a chance on a candidate who doesn’t fit the usual “mold” of a Presidential candidate. If we are to be honest, it’s a fact that all of our Presidents have been middle-aged white men (with the possible exception of JFK, who was a little younger than most). And while I have nothing against middle-aged white men, I also don’t think they’re the only group qualified to run the country. I just think the election of Barack Obama is a huge step forward in terms of equal rights and tolerance, and I love the idea that Theo will grow up in a world where he doesn’t wonder, “Can anyone other than a white man be president?” Of course they can. In this election, women got close to the office. An African American man was ultimately elected. Boundaries were broken, and I think that is a great thing. Sometimes I cringe at the scary world that I brought my child into. And then other times, like this week, I am pleased to have brought him into a world where there is hope for change and progress.

 

Okay, political commentary aside; back to our regularly scheduled blog. On Friday night, my Mom watched Theo so Chris and I could have a date. We went to Guy Fieri’s new restaurant across the street from our house...yum! (Guy Fieri is one of the Food Network personalities, for anyone unfamiliar with him. Chris and I love his show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. We got hooked on it right after Theo was born, and we’ve been devotees ever since.) Luckily, this time Theo was a prince for his grandma, so all was well. (Last time she got to babysit Leon, I’m afraid....)

 

Saturday, we went to the Farmer’s Market in Davis. That happens to be where I realized I was in love with Chris, so it holds a special place in my heart. (I’m not sure I knew it was love at the time. I believe my exact thoughts were, “Oh crap...I feel really weird. Is this being in love?!” Sure enough, ‘twas. J) Theo enjoyed people-watching from his stroller, and we got a lot of good produce to make baby food for him. This week’s menu addition, by the way, was plums! Theo is a fan. And actually, I have to say that warm pureed plums are oddly tasty. They’re a pain to peel, though. We also nearly came home with another pug. They have a dog rescue group that does adoptions at the Farmer’s Market, and they had the sweetest pug there. Poor guy was incredibly undernourished—all his ribs were visible, which is unusual on a stocky dog like a pug, and he only weighed 10 pounds (most pugs are more like 18 to 20 pounds). Apparently he had been dumped out in a field in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know who could do that to a dog!! Anyway, were it not for the fact that we have a young baby who requires most of my attention and a semi-sick older dog, I would’ve adopted that sweet pug in a heartbeat. But, I’m hopeful that he will find a good home with someone else. His “foster mom” was there, and she seemed quite fond of him.

 

We also stopped at the Nut Tree (a little shopping/amusement center) for lunch on Saturday. And, I royally cheated...we had pizza!! Theo has done so well with everything I’ve “experimented” with lately that I finally decided to brave cheese. Time will tell how it goes. In theory he should outgrow his dairy sensitivity, so it’s just a matter of testing it every so often. Saturday was the first big taste. And man, did that pizza ever taste good! So good that I put a picture of it in this week’s album. J

 

I’m not sure how it went, though. Leon was with us for much of Sunday. Theo was cheery and happy while we were out wandering around the Folsom outlets, but he was very crabby all morning and after we got home. It didn’t seem like was crabby because of an upset stomach, but who knows. I will lay off dairy for the next two weeks or so, and then try it again to see what response we get.

 Anyway, enjoy your week, all!!

Oh, I wish I'd had the camera handy last night. I had a ton of work to do, so Chris was playing with Theo downstairs while I worked in the office. It was very quiet down there, so I kind of wondered what was up, but I kept working. After about 20 minutes, Chris called me down to see Theo's handiwork. Apparently, our boy had amused himself for 20 minutes straight by attempting to untie his Papa's double-knotted shoelace. And, he succeeded, much to his delight. So, if anyone is looking for Christmas ideas for young Theo, I'd say shoes with laces.  I just love the serious expression on his face when he tries to figure out something like shoelaces. He has this intense look of concentration that says, "I WILL master this!" Determined little booger, that boy of ours....

 

What I'm glad I did not have the camera handy for was this morning's Festival of Spitup. Theo had a couple shots yesterday, and I think they're taking a bit of a toll today. In the first hour he was awake, he spit up probably 20 times. No joke! He usually manages about 15 times over the course of a day, so 20 times in an hour was a lot even for our little King of Spitup. Luna, however, in her neverending glee at "cleaning up" spitup, was pretty sure she'd hit the jackpot. Our carpet will never be the same. Good thing it wasn't the best carpet to begin with.

Major milestone of this week? Theo can officially sit up on his own now! He can’t get himself into a sitting position yet, but if we put him on the floor in a sitting position, he can stay that way for long periods of time. I think he enjoys the vantage point it gives him of his toes....

 

Second major milestone of the week? Theo is his mama’s son after all. He likes zucchini and has decided peas are for the birds. He makes an “ick” face and just lets the peas ooze out of his mouth and onto his chin. And if I dare try to sneak them in again, he begins to gasp dramatically, as if I’m trying to poison him with the vile veggie. Which is pretty much exactly what I do when I have to eat peas.

 

Third milestone of the week? Theo’s first baking experience—he and I baked a lovely loaf of pumpkin-pecan bread. And yes, “we” really did it, as Theo was being a little grouch who was only happy while being held that day, thus I baked the bread one-handed while balancing Theo on my hip with my other arm. I was rather impressed by that feat, if I do say so myself. So impressed that I had to post a pic in this week’s album....

 

Friday was a looooong day with lots of “Leon” time, but luckily our sweet Theo returned in time for trick-or-treating at the mall. Well, we just walked around and watched older kids trick-or-treat, but the point is that Theo got to wear his monkey costume, and Chris and I had fun seeing all the kids in costume. (My favorite, next to our little monkey, was a tiny Yoda running around!) But what’s up with Godiva running out of candy? Godiva?!? They are candy—it’s what they do! How does a candy store run out of candy when there’s oodles of chocolate on display in their case? I have documented the abomination in this week’s album, because the absurdity of it amused me endlessly. (I’m easily amused, I know!)

 

Saturday Kim came over and took our photos for this year’s Christmas cards. They turned out really cute, but I’m keeping them secret until I send the cards out in mid-December. However, I am posting a few other shots Kim got of Theo (the diaper-only shots). We then went to dinner with Kim and Dave at our local Turkish restaurant, where Theo’s beloved belly-dancing friend, Laura, was performing again. Alas, poor Theo was so tired that he mostly just stared sleepily at the lovely belly dancer, but she did get a couple smiles from him.

 

This tiredness worked to our advantage Saturday night when...drum roll, please...Theo slept in his room for the first time! We finally moved the Pack and Play upstairs into his room, and he did fantastic. He woke up a couple times, but didn’t seem nervous or confused by the change in surroundings at all. I think he just woke up from teething pain, as usual; when he awoke in the morning in his room, he was his normally happy, babbling self when I went in to get him. And Chris and I are happy with this arrangement because Theo is safe and happy in the Pack and Play. He’s in his crib once or twice a day when we’re in the near vicinity, and he continues to get himself stuck between the slats nearly every time. So, the Pack and Play solves that problem nicely...no slats to get stuck in!

 

Sunday was my field trip to the Sikh Festival—you’ll see lots of pictures in this week’s album. I got to “play” with a super-nifty lens (of the $1,000 variety, so something I’ll never own!) that was donated to the college by Canon, and I had a lot of fun getting close-up candid shots of people while standing 50 feet away from them. I felt like I could capture their candid expressions without getting right up in their faces, which was nice. I don’t like to be the pushy type and thrust my camera in people’s faces. Anyway, Kim and I were sharing the super-cool lens, so when Kim was using it, she let me borrow her lens, which has a considerably stronger zoom than my normal lens. So that was fun, too...I was able to get a lot of neat detail on some of the clothing and such.

 

Upon doing some research on Sikh religion and culture, I discovered that it is based on brotherhood, acceptance, tolerance, and equality. And we found the Sikhs to be incredibly warm and welcoming to us. They went out of their way to make us feel welcome, and in fact our “press passes” even got us moved to the front of the food line, which was an unexpected surprise. All the food at the festival is free, as is customary in Sikh culture—they believe that everyone should share food as equals, so all the food at the festival is free, and everyone eats together—rich or poor, regardless of race or religion. It’s strange and sad that sometimes people wearing turbans (as Sikhs do) are thought to be “terrorists,” and in reality, Sikhs practice peace and tolerance to all, regardless of race, religion, gender, ethnicity.... But, there are many ways that our world can be a sad place, so I won’t get started on that here.

 

Anyway, this tolerance and acceptance turned out to work very well for Kim and I when we inadvertently crashed the Sikh parade! We were trying to photograph the float carrying their Holy Book, when we sort of got swept along in a crowd of people. We followed the masses...and then it became apparent to us that we were actually marching in the parade of Sikhs worshipping the Holy Book. Suddenly, we were no longer visitors; we were part of the action. And not at all dressed for the occasion. But, none of the Sikhs batted an eye at our intrusion on their religious procession, so all was well!

 

All in all it was a great experience, and one I’m glad I had. Even were it not for the delicious Indian food!

 

So what did Chris do during my nine-hour absence? Spent much quality time with Theo, playing, eating squash and apples, and strolling the mall. The boys were going to watch the Cowboys game, but evidently it wasn’t on. I’m sure Theo was crushed.

 

Sorry my writeup is rather brief this week, but I am exhausted after a long week and weekend. More next week...enjoy the album!