Parker is getting bored with being fed. I've gotten a few funny stories from daycare about him getting quite angry about being fed peas. Complete with fist pounding in a matter so dramatic, that the staff can't help but laugh at him.
I actually think that in addition to him wanting to do it himself, he, like Maia, really prefers food with flavor. Perhaps that comes from me never really eliminating things like spicy foods while pregnant and nursing.
Anyway.
Parker likes pasta with "Mama Papa's Marinara" (mMmmMm YUM!). He chowed. He's also done surprisingly well with meatloaf, chicken pot pie, pizza, chicken, fajita quesadilla, pepper and onion frittata, as well as the standard fruits, peas, corn, and carrots. Sippy cups though, well... we're still struggling with chewing on them. He hasn't quite figured out the nuance of drinking from them. We still have a few more months to master that, though.
We decided to head to Home Depot this morning to shop for a new kitchen sink. Ours is needing replacement, the faucet routinely leaks, and the garbage disposal is just about dead. We decided to go to the Home Depot where our friend Rebekah works. She helped hook us up with someone who could help us figure out what we needed, and we spent several hours at the store. Parker was exhausted, but wouldn't sleep in the car seat as Maia was non-stop with the talking and hanging on his car seat.
Parker wasn't his usual smiley self, and looked exhausted. I told Rebekah that Parker was woken up by his sister. She said "Yeah! I woke him up by farting!"
The statement pretty much stopped us all in our tracks and got a good giggle. The fact that it wasn't true may have been the best part. Where does she come up with this stuff?!?!
This evening, we were posed with this question: Mom? Where did you buy Puhkuh?
When we told her we didn't buy him, she asked: What did you build him out of? While we struggled to come up with an answer to that, she got distracted and the issue was dropped. PHEW!
We've been actually talking for some time about needing to get Maia's hair cut, because it was very uneven. Then it grew a whole bunch and is looking better.. But we decided to do it anyway, get the thin end pieces trimmed and figure out what to do with the shape of it. Maia was very excited. She's been coming with me to the hair dresser's since she was an infant, and is pretty comfortable there. We like to go on Friday afternoons when it's pretty quiet.
So I arranged a day: Color for me, Cut for Maia. I left early from work, picked Maia up from daycare. It was snack time (Nilla wafers and raisins), and her teacher was nice enough to put those in a baggie to take with us.
I brought Maia's backpack again filled with some food and activities for her. She checked out the contents of the back pack while my stylist, Piroska, did my color. Then it was Maia's turn. She wanted her hair washed in "dat shower over dere." It was tricky to get her propped up high enough, but she got the whole treatment.
She didn't end up taking off much length, so I'm sad to say, I couldn't get a nice big lock of her hair.
Maia was very patient, and although she turned her head to look around a bit, she did a pretty good job at following instructions.
She seemed very serious, and was very focused on looking at herself in the mirror. Finally Piroska told her her to smile at me. This is what I got.
As time went on, she started to smile more and more. She made sure all of the hair was off her smock.
"Whud do you tink?"
(Piroska is Romanian)
Piroska asked if she could blow-dry her hair. Maia thought that would be great.
She even got some product in it. Here Maia is commenting "I smell something!" which is the scent of the product being worked through her hair.
All done. Piroska told Maia how well she did, and Maia said "Thanks for cutting my hay-er!" and gave her a big hug. Piroska was delighted!
Another stylist was working on an older girl (gorgeous, by the way, with wavy auburn hair, porcelain skin and a face full of freckles). Maia is watching and asking questions. This stylist (and the girl's mother) commented on Maia's excellent behavior several times.
Then, it was time for some candy. She'd had candy there once before, and when we'd walked in, said "Do dey haff cay-dy here?" She picked out a tootsie roll, and put the whole thing in at once (which is why the funny face). Even though it wasn't a dramatic change, I think it turned out really cute! Ray loves it too.
After all this, she still had to wait for me to get my rinse and wash. She was still fantastic. She found a surprise of a sheet of stickers in her back pack, and those kept her busy for a good 15 minutes. She went through every one of those stickers. About 10 for her shirt, 5 for my hand (one for each finger nail) a few for Piroska.
I am unbelievably proud of how well she did. She used her manners at every point in the process, and was so patient. I think she also felt really special. She really enjoyed looking at herself in the mirror.
About a month ago, we'd made plans to take Maia to her first hockey game. I'd gotten free tickets, and so we arranged for someone to take Parker, and planned a Friday night out. But then we got sick. Parker was sick, Ray was sick... we decided not to go.
On Wednesday, we got the opportunity to try again, and so we took it. Even if it was on a "school night" and the game started at Maia's usual bedtime.
Entering the arena.
We got there with time to spare, so Ray took her down to the boards to check it out and look around.
We watched them warm up, and #9 Francis Pare was trying to get a puck over the glass to her. He tried, and it just didn't go over, so he waived Ray down nearer the penalty boxes where the glass is shorter. He flicked the puck over, but another man grabbed it. Oh well. Pretty cool of Pare to try!
So we got some popcorn, and waited for Jeremy and Gracie to get there. In the mean time, some fans a few rows behind us, who had witnessed the unfortunate puck-nabbing, handed us down a puck that they had. It was still cold. Maia was intrigued. She played with it for a while, and showed it to Gracie when she came, but was not about to give it up.
Gracie, on the other hand, shared some inflatable "thundersticks." They both had a lot of fun with them, but Maia's didn't survive long.
Maia really did very well. She watched the game, and watched the people. She was very interested in the mascot, Griff and asked lots of questions about him. Mostly along the lines of "where did he go?" and "when is he coming back?" She colored in her little book and shared her crayons with Gracie. She used her manners. She shared her (my) pretzel with Gracie, and Gracie shared her cotton candy (Maia's first time experiencing that sticky treat). Then she shared a wipe with Gracie. They jumped up and down. And when the drunk folks behind us spilled an entire beer at our feet, they used their thundersticks to "sweep" it up.
After the second period was over, she turned to me and said: "Can we go home now?" It was almost 9:00, 2 hours past her bedtime. She was still happy and pleasant and using her manners.
She told Grandma all about it when she got home, and went to bed without much fuss. Parker did very well and had a great time too.
When she woke up the next morning, she said "I want to go back to the hockey game now, okay daddy?"
Oh, and the Griffins? The score was 1 to 1 when we left, the goal scored by our own, considerate #9. They won in a shoot out. Winning Wednesdays.
Another tooth. Lower left lateral incisor. Man those little suckers are SHARP. No wonder they hurt so much!
He's a little lopsided to the left, as both of his left laterals are through, his upper right is still just a corner, and we haven't seen the lower yet.
I'm starting to wonder if he's getting a tooth a week on Sundays. Poor eating, a little warm, not fantastic napping. Seven down... Thirteen to go!
I've been remarking on how much Parker is really starting to blossom. Now that he is mobile, and increasing in his independence (more feeding himself), his vocabulary (lots of new consonants and syllables); we've also noticed an increase in his humor and he is starting to enjoy playing games. The wide grin peeking from behind the upside-down paci is a common sight. He likes to play peek-a-boo with Maia, and loves to be bounced on a knee or flipped up into the air, or head down. All of that elicits LOTS of giggles.
And yes, he's now quite attached to his pacis. He often goes to bed with one in his mouth, and one in his hand. That might be my fault, because he's busy with this hands (flapping, slapping, pinching, clawing) that I started giving him his paci to hold on to during feedings. He's funny because he will twist and bend his wrist, as if examining that paci (or anything else he might be holding, as this really isn't limited to this situation) from every angle.
This evening, Ray and I watched Parker cruise a bit around the ottoman, and I said "Justwatch, he'll be trying to go up the steps by Sunday." Ray said, "He already tried earlier today." And not 15 minutes later, there he was, at the steps, standing at the bottom, hands resting on the step up and bouncing.
Infancy is zooming toward toddlerhood at a pace I'm not entirely comfortable with. It's so hard to keep them from growing up!
Speaking of growing... I think I'd better show you these pics of The Cutest Boy in the Galaxy, and tell you why it's funny.
It says:
Grandma Thinks I'm Out Of This World
cutest boy in the galaxy.
Why funny? This is a 9 month size. Parker has now also worn the 6 month size and 3 month size of the same outfit. All of them purchased by his grandmothers. Nana bought 2 of them, and Grandma bought one. Apparently, 2 out of 2 grandmothers really love this outfit! And I think that's adorable.
Check out those top teeth. He's now got FOUR of them. (Six teeth total)
One week after getting the RSV and Ear Infection diagnosis for Parker, he spiked a temp again. It was odd, because he'd been feeling better, was coughing less and was less snotty. But Sunday was another rough day for Parker. Napping was not good, laying down was causing LOTS of crying.
So my immediate thought was: It's the ear infection. And the wrong antibioitic for whatever super germ he's got. After a sleepless night for 3 of us (mostly Parker and Ray), Ray brought him in to the doc for a recheck and a new antibiotic. One more sleepless night and day went by (very little napping at daycare either), and finally Parker crashed last night. Only woke up once at about 2. Phew! Ray and I were running on empty after 2 sleepless nights and a busy weekend.
Honestly, I never imagined saying "I miss the amount of sleep we got when he was a newborn!"
All that aside, Parker is getting faster with his crawling, but he's definitely showing his own personality. It's fun to see him start asserting some independence and determination. He's still a chill kid... once he's got that thing he wants, he's content to sit and play with it for a while before slowly moving on to the next thing that is interesting to him. But he will let you know when he's frustrated that he can't get to that interesting thing (often something of mine that he can't have).
Also funny is that he LOVED the Amoxicillin, and would get all excited, bouncing and waiving his arms when he saw it coming... but the Augmentin, not so much. He will get excited, take a taste and then do everything he can to bat the medicine dropper out of my hand. He's been wearing quite a bit of his Augmentin, but based on last night's sleep, it does seem to be helping.
I don't know why I didn't think to take a video of this long ago, when she first mastered it. Now she's to the point where she can get her coat on one-arm-at-a-time and doesn't need to do this little daycare-taught "magic trick." And parden her rudeness. She wasn't really appreciating my distraction as she was trying to get my attention while getting ready to head out the door to work and school. Also, she's obsessed again with candy. Any Sugar holiday leads to daily candy requests.
This is a fave activity. Maia loves to dance, and loves to dance with me. If Parker is napping, it's fun to pick her up and dance across the floor together. We do lots of spinning then. That said, I think Parker likes it just as much.
One day goes by... one single day since my last post, and I have to retract something from it.
Parker is now crawling!!
Actually, not only is he crawling, but he's pulling to standing too. All in the same day.
Its funny, because I just recently said to Ray: You watch. Once Parker starts feeling better, he'll probably start crawling. I think that's what happened to Maia, too... that she started crawling after she got over an ear infection.
And not to usurp the glory due to Parker's big accomplishment, but Maia had one too.
A Dry Day. She had a 99% dry day yesterday, but today was completely dry. YAY!! I made a very big deal out of it at school when I saw that she was in the same pants I sent her in and there were no plastic bags in her school bag. Claire, Ellie and Nicholas all looked at me like I was quite crazy, while I yelled "Yaaaaaay!" and gave Maia huge hugs. Maia was delighted though.
Parker at 8 months bring us 2 more teeth (4 total) and a little RSV.
Still not crawling, but we're definitely on the move. He's pretty good at maneuvering himself in about a 2 foot circle from where he was placed through a combination of leans, turns, rocks, hand grabs, stretches and other little ways to get that coveted item just out of reach.
Parker loves to stand up and is desperately trying to pull to standing. Peek-a-boo and So Big! are enjoyable games, as is anything that puts Parker up in the air, or upside down. For those games, we are rewarded with a big, open mouthed, squeaky laugh.
Parker is rapidly loosing interest in pureed foods (although he still likes these), and is enjoying some of the starter, easy-melting foods out these days. Yogurt Melts, Puffs, and crunchies. Maia is also enjoying these snacks when she can manage to sneak some. Meal time with Parker is often a fight for the spoon, or an adventure in creative distraction.
Just after the teeth came in, Parker started with a cough, that lead to a low-grade fever, and eventually some rattley-wheezing. He wasn't in distress in anyway, so we debated for a while what to do over the weekend. I'd already been treating him with saline, nasal suction (his favorite! No, not really), humidifier and Vicks VapoRub. Which is pretty much all that can be done. But the noisy breathing was getting, well, noiser on Saturday, so I brought him in to G.R.A.P.E.S. (GR Area Pediatric Evening Specialists), which is a wonderful service, and they do just what the title says. An evening/weekend walk-in clinic where you can bring your sick child to see a pediatrician without having to go to the ER. Assuming your pediatrician/nurse refers you.
Good part: we got to find out how much he weighs: 18.6 lbs.
Bad part: diagnosis. Bronchiolitis (which is basically an inflammation of the bronchiols) most likely caused by RSV. Now RSV can be scary in babies, and there's not much that can be done to treat it, but it seems Parker's case wasn't that severe. And all the rest of the babies in his room have the same basic cough, but none of them have been really sick. He also had a mild ear infection in both ears. No, we haven't slept more than 2-3 hours in a row for about 4-5 weeks now, why do you ask? Anyway. Parker did very well with the exam, and was really feeling MUCH better by the next day.
What else?
Parker is still in his 9 month clothing. He might make it to 9 months before he moves on to the next size... I think his growth rate is slowing down. He's wearing size 2 shoes, when he wears them.
All things are going in mouth. He seems to have pretty good control over getting things to his mouth and manipulating toys with his hands and fingers. He's really, really, really attached to Momma right now.
