Well, I'm angry at Windows Live Spaces (who hosts this blog) because they don't allow me to do picture captions anymore, so we've moved to an interim site until our friends can help me build a new permanent home. Click here to be taken to it, or type snydereditorial.com in your browser, and you will be taken there. Be sure to bookmark the new site so you can get your weekly fill of Theo news! (And of course, news about those other two people who live with the little charmer.)

To borrow a phrase from Theo, “MAAAAAADDDDD!!!!” Windows Live Spaces changed their interface/service, and it doesn’t appear that I can add captions to the photos in the blog album anymore! So, you’re left to guess what the heck is going on in each photo. This doesn’t please me, so whenever I finally have a decent break from work, I will explore other blog-service options. This simply will not do! L

 

But on to bigger and better things. As you’ll note from the title of this week’s post, Theo is still not a fan of beans. We tried pureed pinto beans a few weeks ago and got a tepid (at best) response. Green beans fared no better. In fact, he appears to detest them. Apples are our “gateway” food with Theo—he loves them, so we start each solid-food feeding with a couple bites of apples, and then we start sneaking in bites of foods he doesn’t favor so much. And that usually works pretty well, but there’s no fooling the boy where green beans are concerned. He makes a disgusted face and refuses to swallow, just letting the beans ooze out of his mouth in a rather gross green mess. I have to say, I find this quite amusing because I, too, loathe green beans in most cases. That’s my boy!!

 

However, I am happy to report something that is going much better than green beans this week. You will be shocked to hear that it is...drum roll, please...naps!!!! Yes, we may have finally found the key to getting the boy to nap. After months of trying, we have found a solution that works with about a 50% success rate. And with strong-willed Theo, 50% is pretty darn good, in our opinion. So the routine is, wait for Theo to show signs of sleepiness, which usually happens around 9:30–10:30 in the morning. Then prepare a LARGE bottle of formula for him. Change his diaper, put him in the Pack and Play, and give him the bottle. Then turn on the CD of classical lullabies, sit down next to the Pack and Play, and read a book quietly so he has some company while he drinks his bottle. In theory (and often in practice), he will drift off to sleep for 45 minutes or so.

 

We try this same strategy for an afternoon nap, but the success is spotty, at best. Oh well, it’s a start! And it’s nice for me, too, as I get some pleasure reading done while Theo eats and falls asleep. SUCCESS at last! (That is, if the dogs don’t bark and wake him up prematurely.)

 

And this success is very good, because our little boy no longer sleeps through the night...at least not for the past two weeks or more. Instead, he fusses every two or three hours, which means Chris and I are pretty darn exhausted by now. So, I’m happy for the naps. It’s not as if we sleep while he’s sleeping, but at least it’s a break during the day. We’re well aware how lucky we are that he slept through the night pretty well from about 3 months until almost 8 months, but boy, are we ever missing that! Getting woken up every two hours is quite tiring.

 

So what else is new this week? Our Christmas tree! We got a small “living” tree that we can plant in the yard after Christmas (assuming it survives in our living room for the next three weeks or so). We had to get a small one so we could put it up on a bench, away from grabby hands. Theo is very mobile now because he rolls all over the place, so we’re starting to slowly babyproof...and that includes putting the tree where he can’t grab it.

 

Also new this week: Theo is now consistently getting himself into a sitting position from a lying-down position. You’ll see a few pix this week of him sitting up in his crib. I laid him down in there while I started a diaper load of wash, and when I came back in the room, he was sitting up big as life, quite proud of himself. He then proceeded to try to use the crib rails to pull himself to a standing position. He wasn’t successful, but it was a reminder that we need to lower the crib mattress.

 

Theo is also now an avid yoga practitioner. He has mastered the downward dog pose, where he puts his hands and feet on the ground and pushes his bottom way up in the air, forming an inverted V shape. He also frequently does happy baby pose, where he rolls on his back while holding onto his feet in the air. And he does another pose that I caught on camera but don’t know the name of, where he sits on the floor and leans all the way forward to chew on his feet. (Though I don’t think yoga practitioners traditionally chew on their feet! )

 

And what’s new in Chris’s and my worlds? Well, the ever-present work, of course—I sent three books to the printer this past week and have one going next week. And then I think four more in January. YIKES! Though my copy editing load is currently down to a frightful 41 chapters from an even more terrifying 50 chapters.

 

And, Chris and I bought a Christmas present from us to us: a new lens for our camera! Our friend Kim let me borrow her lens to shoot at the Sikh Festival, and I really liked it. So, when she clued me in that it was on sale for half off on Amazon, we jumped at the chance to get one for a reasonable price. (No, this isn’t the $2,000 lens that I got to borrow at the Sikh Festival, but it is a higher-quality lens than the one that came with our camera initially, with a higher zoom range.) It will allow us to get better close-ups and take some trickier shots that I’ve wanted to work on, so we’re pretty excited. We decided to keep the rest of our gifts for each other this year very small and splurge on the lens, and I’m really excited that it came before Christmas. You’ll see several “new lens” pix in this week’s album. By the way, the blurry ones of the horse and the car were intentional...I was working on a technique called panning, and I had to put them in so Kim could see that I had some success with it!!

 

As far as fun activities for the week, Theo and Chris had another daddy/son day on Monday so I could get a good amount of work done. They stayed around Roseville, but had fun puttering around together. And Theo and I met Kim, Janeane, and Emma for coffee on Friday. Theo thinks Emma is quite entertaining, and she keeps “Beo” very amused. Friday night, Kim and I had our post-session for our Documentary Photography workshop (the Sikh Festival one). And Saturday, my Mom and I took Luna and Theo to a holiday pug meetup, complete with Santa. (Thus the pictures this week of Luna and Theo with Santa.) One interesting thing about the pug meetup: Luna was incredibly protective of Theo. She stayed near him for a lot of the meetup, and when the other pugs came up to try to sniff or lick him, she ran them off. She was like a protective little mother hen—it was quite sweet!

 

Sunday Chris and I decided to take Theo to Old Sacramento so I could play with our new lens. We went to the Railroad Museum while we were there, which was fun. We went there for one of Chris’s company’s Holiday Parties a few years back, and we had meant to go back for further exploration, but never had. Theo had wide eyes at a few of the big trains, though he’s obviously too young to really appreciate them. And when we came home, we decided to venture into the finger-food territory with Theo. Small, soft pieces of banana are supposedly a first finger food, and our pediatrician suggested that we start with finger foods about this age, to help him build up his hand-eye coordination. So, bananas it was (despite our lousy luck with bananas in the past). Alas, Theo was not a fan! He utterly refused them. Ah well, better luck next time.

 

Last but certainly not least, Happy Eight-Month Birthday Theo!!! You are a fun and wonderful addition to our lives!