William does have four teeth now. I swear, I'm not going to retract this statement later. Part of me wonders if I already saw this sneaky little tooth earlier and mistook it in my mind as his second front tooth, when all along it was to the left of his left front tooth. He was in a great mood today which makes me think that he got a little break from the pain of teething. I hope so for his sake. Poor little guy.
Anyway, today was a busy day. William and I woke up this morning at 5am and he ate 8 oz and went back to sleep until 8am. Then we got up to get ready for Stroller Strides at 9:30am. It was gorgeous outside for a good part of today with a little drizzle here and there. This afternoon Andrew, William and I went into town for a free photo sitting. It was a lot of fun and it looks like they might have gotten some good shots of him. Just after we got back, Andrew's parents came over for a quick little visit with William.
William is really enjoying rolling around and even pulled himself up onto his knees a few times today. He is certainly on his way to becoming a master crawler. Tomorrow we will have a nice family day and then in the afternoon we will head up north for Maya's 2nd birthday party. It will be fun to see the cousins together again. Maya is so cute with William.
This video totally kills me. My friend Layla's daughter Astrid is one of William's very favorite people. She is (so far) the best of anyone at getting William to laugh. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see him laugh. It's incredible. When he is really happy he makes this odd noise that sounds like a dolphin squeaking or maybe like he is clearing his throat. He does this a couple of times in this video. Enjoy!! If this video doesn't make you want to go out (or stay in) and make babies right this second than I don't know what will.
William is now rolling around all over the floor. He's super agile and can get any toy he wants now. I took a video of him today that I need to upload. Today was an exciting day around here. The patio was poured and is currently drying and the finishing touches will be done Sunday or Monday. It already looks awesome.
Today William and I met Andrew in Issaquah at Costco and then William and I drove out to North Bend to meet Layla, Astrid and Alyse at the Mt. Si Nursery. We found some beautiful paving stones for the walkway alongside our garage. The weather was stunningly beautiful with nary a cloud in the sky which is supposed to be perfect concrete patio pouring weather!
We got a little ahead of ourselves on Monday when we thought he had a second upper tooth coming in. As far as I can tell, he really only has his left front tooth and the right front tooth will likely come in soon. His gums are extremely sore and are bothering him very much. He has been doing this head shaking thing more frequently lately where he shakes his head as if to say "NO" over and over for about 3 or 4 times. He tends to do this when he is tired or bored. I looked this up online and found a ton of other moms reporting that their 7/8 month olds are doing the same thing. At first it worried me a little, but since it seems to be rather common at this age and he is developing normally in every other way, I'm not going to worry too much about it. I'll ask the pediatrician some time over the next couple of weeks. In all of the posts by mothers whose kids were doing this, they seemed to have one thing in common. They were all getting their upper teeth and it was mentioned that these teeth cause nerve pain in the jaw and this motion might help alleviate some of the discomfort.
The last couple of days have been hectic to say the least. Yesterday we were up and out by 9 for Stroller Strides while the landscapers excavated our yard. Then we were out again at noon to host a park play date in our neighborhood. Today we spent the majority of the day with Layla and Alyse walking around North Bend and having lunch at a yummy organic restaurant. I'm off now to a mom's night out in Issaquah while Andrew watches William. Good night.
Oh yeah, this photo was taken a few days ago and is for my sister who keeps requesting more photos of William. I wasn't able to get a photo of his new tooth yet and trust me I don't know if you would really want one at this point. His poor gums are really raw and sore and painful looking. Tomorrow I will get my butt kicked again at Stroller Strides and we will run around doing a bunch of chores. That's all for now. C
William got his first upper tooth yesterday and his second this morning. Now he has a total of four teeth. Yesterday we had a BBQ at our house with our friends Layla, David, Astrid and Alyse. Then we headed over to a park for some fun with the baby swings and walked back to their house for some watermelon.
Wow. It sure is gorgeous out here when it is sunny. We are blessed with incredible mountain views from all corners of our neighborhood. Mt. Si is almost completely free of snow now and the skies were almost perfectly clear. This is the weather we have all been waiting for.
I thought I would try to describe some of the ways in which William is developing because I keep forgetting to do so. William has mastered rolling over in the last week and practices this skill as much as possible these days. He loves his new, larger bath tub and mastered sitting up in it (it's kind of slippery) by his second bath. William is still super snuggly and smiley but he now prefers to be able to see either his Mom or Dad when in the arms of a stranger. William loves going for walks in stroller and being toted around (facing forward) in the Baby Bjorn. William has suddenly jumped from eating 6 oz to 8 oz of formula. He tried peas last night and wasn't a big fan of their flavor/texture. We'll have to try again in a few days. They say you should try to feed your child a food 9 times before deciding that they don't like it. William is now good at sitting in restaurant high chairs and enjoys eating dinner with Mom and Dad.
Today was a fun day. We canceled hiking because of the possibility of rain and met Layla, Astrid and Alyse for lunch instead. Andrew was able to join us too! Then Andrew, William and I headed out to Pier 1 and found a Foyer Table for 1/2 OFF and an awesome desk for sewing and computing. I took more photos for my insatiable sister today during William's bath and bed time that are posted above. We are going to be doing a million chores around the house during the long weekend, so maybe I'll take some photos after we are done. I know a few friends haven't seen our house yet, so now they can. C
I posted a few photos taken this morning of William in one of his exersaucers. Today was a fun and busy day. After William's AM nap we went to Layla's house for a play date. One of Layla's friends; Kerry was there and we all had a great time chatting while the children played. Kerry wants to train for the Danskin Triathlon with me and I am totally excited. That means that now I have four different people who will be doing the triathlon with me and two more that will be training with me for it. We stayed and had some lunch and let William nap for a bit before we headed out to Redmond to look at stamped concrete samples at Mr. Concrete. Next we drove back to Issaquah and checked out the new Gold's Gym they are building and then met Andrew for dinner at Panera before shopping at REI and Target. When we got home I picked up the mail only to find mail from six different people in our mailbox!! The post office will totally be getting a call tomorrow morning because getting other peoples mail has lately become more the rule than the exception. C
Today was a super busy day. We headed out for a baby playdate at Lindsey and Phoenix's house at around 1230pm. We had a great time with the other mommies and babies until William passed out on my lap from sheer exhaustion. I have a video that Lindsey took of him sleeping that I will upload soon. Then we headed into Issaquah for a Starbucks drink and looked around for a lawn mower repair place (long story) to no avail. Then we headed out to the outlets in North Bend and shopped at Baby Gap and Carters. We found a bunch of sweet deals on summer clothes and headed home to meet up with Andrew. Tomorrow will be another busy day as I set up three a/c installation bid appointments for tomorrow from 12 noon to 5pm.
Wheat, sorry that I didn't post any photos. I promise to do another photo shoot soon so you can see your nephew! p.s. Did you buy your plane tix yet? heehee
William weighed in at 17.6 lbs yesterday and was 28 inches long. This is up from nearly 16 lbs at his 6 month check up. He has been growing like crazy lately and seems heavier and chubbier and longer every day.
We had an awesome weekend. We made lots of progress with the yards, gardening, garage, and general household organization. Tomorrow I am going to call three different air conditioning installers to get bids for our house. William did not like the 95 degree weather and slept with us for naps and night-time because our room has a small air conditioner that helps keep things a little cooler and his room was beyond toasty warm. He has managed to sleep in his room tonight because the weather was more reasonable and didn't get above the mid 70's. The challenge with having William sleep in his room without air conditioning, is we need to keep his window open in the evenings and this is not only ineffective in cooling his room after hot days, but the neighborhood kids are still out playing at William's bedtime and inevitably end up waking him up with their screaming/yelling/shrieking.
William and I will also have to head out to Mr. Concrete to pick out the patio color and stamping pattern. We'll probably try to do this on Tuesday since we have a baby playdate on Monday afternoon.
Today was the official day for summer garage sales in our neighborhood. William and I got up bright and early to meet Ali for a morning full of garage sale-ing. We found some sweet deals and were finished by noon. In the afternoon, we met up with Autumn and Lucas for a walk around the neighborhood and completed some errands. William enjoyed being outside and took it all in stride. I managed, somehow, to hurt my back during the day and won't be making it to Bunko tonight. William managed to avoid a sunburn with lots of sunscreen, a sun hat and covering up under his stroller hood, I wasn't so lucky and am painfully sporting the lobster-look. Ouch. I've included a few more photos from last night's photo shoot.
Here are a few of the photos that Andrew took this evening while we played with William before bed. I am posting them quickly before I head out to a Mom's Night Out at Smokey Joe's in a few minutes. I just did a quick edit and there are a ton more cute shots of William that I will edit and upload later. These photos are for Wheatley, who begged me to "post post post" some new pictures of William. Enjoy Wheat!
Today was a lot of fun. William and I met Layla and Alyse for lunch at Starbucks and then went for a great walk from Centennial Field. William loves being outside and was amazingly calm and content during our walk.
Well, what a night. William was up every few hours to hang out with me. He may be having a little separation anxiety at night. He's currently napping after fighting sleep for 30 minutes. William reached another milestone while I was away. On Saturday, Mother's Day, Andrew witnessed him rolling from back to belly, belly to back and back to belly again. Wow! I can't believe how he has grown in the three days that I was away. I have to get used to holding him again because it seems as if his back became broader and he is even stronger than before. He jumps with wild abandon in his Jumperoo these days. He's amazing. I missed him so terribly, I almost started crying in the airport after seeing a baby who was around William's age. My Flip video camera saved me because I was able to watch a bunch of videos of William and I started to feel a bit better. I have some videos of William before I left on my trip that I need to edit and upload. I've also got a bunch of pictures from a hike Holly and I took to Tent Rocks National Monument.
At least I hope it's a jet plane and not a puddle jumper. Today William and I went for a long walk to Vi's house. We stopped by to have some lunch and then Vi, Chloe, William and I went out walking around the neighborhood. We even did some trail running. I can't explain how excited I am that Vi showed us a NEW PARK. That is near our house. And it has baby swings!!! I took a video of Chloe and William swinging that I need to edit down to erase the screaming that was recorded because there were four teenage girls on the swings next to us and they were screaming/shrieking. Today was Ron's birthday and I don't think I mentioned that he is a celebrity in the comic book/internet world. Here is a link to his website iFanboy. This evening Andrew went with Ron and the other iFanboy peeps to a Mariner's game. I stayed home to take care of William and got to enjoy a sweet evening nap! Tomorrow I head off to Santa Fe to see Holly and I can't even describe how excited I am. We are going to have SO much fun. And she is going to help me train for my triathlon with workouts and meal planning. I'll be out of touch until Tuesday or Wednesday. Have a great weekend!!
This evening Andrew's good friend Ron will be visiting. It will be the first time he has met William. William did not have a good night last night. He woke up to eat voraciously at 11pm, 3am, and 6am. He has been chowing down all day today. I'm thinking he's going through another growth spurt. While he was eating his lunch (rice cereal with pureed pears) he managed to bite his bottom lip somehow. He's been acting like he may be getting his upper teeth today (his upper gums are super tender, he's drooling and acting like he's uncomfortable). You never know.
This afternoon William enjoyed jumping around in his jumperoo. He's finally figured out how to jump. I think watching his friend Fiona jumping wildly in her own jumperoo may have had something to do with this. Since yesterday he has also started shaking his head "no". He doesn't do it to say no, but he was quite a sight this afternoon when he was shaking his head and jumping around in his jumperoo all at the same time. It was quite a scene!
William seems to be figuring out how to use his pincer grasp these days. When he picks up his teething cracker he uses his pincer grasp to put it in his mouth.
Today we are staying close to home. We were supposed to go to Stroller Strides this morning and then over to a friend's house at noon and then to the mall this afternoon, but we had to cancel it all so that William's nap/feeding schedules could be regulated in the hopes that this might encourage him to have a better night tonight. I am totally exhausted and cannot wait for the short break that I will have during my trip to visit Holly!!
Let's see. So Tuesday was a super crazy day because we had to rush out the door to get to a Stroller Strides class by 930am. Thankfully, we made it just in time. That workout was super intense and I could barely keep up. I wasn't expecting such a killer workout. William enjoyed being wheeled around and liked looking at the other babies when we would park the strollers for some strength training. He was so cute all bundled up under his blanket. He had this expression on his face that said: "I'm so tired, but I'm not going to miss this, and I'm not going to act excited because I am one cool baby". After Stroller Strides we headed home to change and then went out to Costco. After Costco we came home so William could nap before our afternoon playdate at Mary's house. Well, once again things did not go as planned. William refused to nap until 330pm and then he slept until 5pm. So much for getting to our playdate at 3pm. Bummer.
Tuesday evening, Andrew watched the results of the primaries very closely. Obama took N. Carolina and Clinton barely squeaked out a victory in Indiana. Many prominent members of the Democratic Party are starting to suggest that Clinton cannot win the nomination. We'll see what happens.
Today, Wednesday, we went to PEPS at Cherie and Fiona's house. We had a fun time with Lisa/Klara, Steph/Ellie and Cherie/Fiona. Everything was going well until I decided to hold William up over my head (not long after a feeding) at which point he vomited all over my hair, face and clothes. It was pretty impressive. It definitely made for a comedic exit. Yuck. After that I had to come home so that I could change my clothes and wash my face and hair. William took a bit of time to settle down for his nap and then slept until 530pm.
Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that William slept for 11 hours straight last night. He took 10 oz of formula at 7pm and slept until 6am with NO NIGHT-WAKINGS!!! I say this knowing that one good night of sleep is no guarantee of future good nights of sleep. He's actually been doing really well with sleeping for over a week now. I'm hoping all of the changes we have made are the reason for this improvement and that it will last for a while.
I have edited some videos that I took of William today while we were having dinner at Mike's. He's doing really well with eating solid foods and can now handle chewing/eating tiny bits of banana. We are well on our way to finger foods. He loves feeding himself his Baby Mum Mum teething biscuits and they work well because they dissolve quickly in his mouth. I highly recommend them. Thanks Tonia for the suggestion!
Dear William, Today is your 7 month birthday. It's really hard to believe that you are already 7 months old. You are growing and changing so much on a daily basis. This month you became a good sitter, learned how to bounce in his jumperoo, learned how to roll over to each side, became a good solid food eater (still pureed), learned how to feed yourself a teething biscuit and became very good at standing up and holding yourself up by bracing yourself on something solid. You have also learned how to pass a toy from hand to hand, have gotten very good at grabbing toys, picking them up and putting them into your mouth. You have learned how to squeal and have developed a sense of humor. You will laugh spontaneously at things you think are funny. Daddy is especially good at getting you to laugh. You continue to be interested in Rowan and will occasionally be given the opportunity to reach out and pet Rowan for a little bit. Rowan is very good with you and will patiently stand there while you pull on his fur just as long as I pet Rowan at the same time. I'll write more later. I have to go because you are crying and having a hard time going down for a nap...
Okay, I'm back now. Your father and I have been busy with more spring cleaning duties this evening. You have been sleeping since 6pm. You had a difficult time with napping today. You had an hour long nap at around 9am and then couldn't get back to sleep until 1230pm!! It took 5 separate attempts to get you to go down for a nap. When you were finally asleep you napped until 330pm! By 6pm you were completely exhausted and after I fed you dinner and gave you a bath, your father fed you a bottle and rocked you to sleep.
This afternoon you practiced rolling over and did some awesome sitting while playing with your toys. You did a great job with rolling from back to front and even hung out for a while on your tummy because you had a good view of Rowan.
I'm going to go away for four nights to visit my best friend, Holly, in Santa Fe, NM. You will be just fine as your Daddy and Robinson Grandparents will be there to give you lots of love and attention on Saturday and Sunday. You get your Grandparents all to yourself on Monday and Tuesday. You'd better be prepared to receive a million kisses when I get home on Tuesday. I know that I will miss you terribly and I promise to take you with me as soon as you get a little older and traveling is easier for you.
On Friday night I got out for some girl time with my friend Vi and her friend Yvonne. First we went out for some yummy Indian food and then we headed to the movies to see "Made of Honor" with Patrick Dempsey. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I loved the movie. Yes, I know it was super cheesy and predictable, but this was the first time I'd seen a movie in a real movie theater in years and well, I tend to appreciate things more when I haven't enjoyed them in a a long time.
Saturday, Andrew and I slept in to catch up on some sleep. I'm happy to report that William has been sleeping through the night again with the exception of one night-time feeding. I cannot complain. It has been so nice to have him sleeping happily in his crib again!! I'm not sure if this happened on it's own or if it was due to all of the things we started doing per the advice of my "No Cry Sleep Solution" book. For future reference (for myself) these are the things we have done to help William sleep well at night:
Getting him attached to a lovey. He loves his blue/brown chenille blanket. He has a matching small lovey and large blanket. We accomplished this by placing his lovey between him and us when he is eating his bedtime bottle. He loves to rub his fingers over the blanket and snuggle it into his face.
Creating a calm environment for the hour before bedtime. We try to talk in soft voices, dim the lights and keep William from activities that might be stimulating. If William is revved up during this time we will sometimes postpone his bath until morning so as to avoid overstimulating him before bed time.
Putting William to bed earlier and at a consistent bed time. We have moved his bed time up to 6-7pm. We try to stay within this 1 hour window if possible.
Getting him to eat more during the day so as to avoid frequent night-time feedings. At this age (7 months), William is super interested in interacting with his surroundings. He will forgo eating if there is a lot going on around him. I have been working on feeding him in boring, quiet environments and this seems to have worked.
Feeding him rice cereal before bed time.
Rocking him to sleep.
Making sure he has a (relatively) consistent nap schedule. He tends to wake up at 6 or 7am and then he is up for an hour or two before going back to bed for an hour or so. Then he is awake until 9 or 10am when he takes his morning nap. He usually sleeps until 11 am. Sometimes he sleeps until 1pm. I try to keep his naps at around 2 hours long because this seems to help him sleep better at night. His second nap is usually 2 hours after waking up from his AM nap, which is usually 2pm or so. He then sleeps for another 2 hours and wakes up at 4 or 5pm and is up until bedtime at 6-7pm.
Today was one of those absolutely gorgeous days that makes you thankful that you live in the Pacific Northwest. It was warm and sunny and the waterways of Seattle were teaming with activity. Today Andrew, William and I and his parents and his brothers and Jill and Maya went out on the Robinson's new boat. It was such a perfect day to enjoy the first time we were all together out on the boat. William enjoyed looking around and fell fast asleep in his Grandmother's arms after a nice bottle. He was very good out on the boat and seemed to enjoy the fresh sea air.
After we got back to the slip on Lake Union, Andrew, William and I headed over to University Village for some lunch and a tiny bit of shopping. William enjoyed being carried around in his Baby Bjorn as he was able to face forward and see all around.
When we got home, we all headed out for a swift power-walk. William enjoyed riding in his jogging stroller and even got to do a little off-roading on a gravel path. He really seems to enjoy being outside since he becomes totally calm and content every time we take him out on a little adventure. I think he might be a little nature boy in the making. He will be if I have anything to do about it. I can't wait (okay I can, I treasure every minute of his babyhood) until he is old enough to enjoy exploring the tide pools in front of his Grandparents' house on San Juan Island.
Here is a little video, taken on Friday, of William rolling around to his side. He likes practicing this new skill and has even been found sleeping on his side in his crib. I forgot to mention, this evening William FINALLY figured out how to jump around in his Jumperoo. I'll try and get a video of this in the coming week!
