The Small Family

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!

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!