Today we took JoJo to Rabbit Meadows to meet her betrothed, Sebastian. Sandi of Rabbit Meadows will do the bonding process over the next few days or a week, and we should be able to pick up a bonded pair.
As I told Michael, it's a gamble, but we could double our bunny!
Well. Last Sunday we went to visit Zane's buddy Finn, and Finn showed off how he could now stand. The next morning, Zane did it, too! It's not the first time he's learned a new skill after watching other babies do it. He's very observant. Here he is at bath time, where he kept escaping to go check out his bath, which he loves. You can see his standing skills.
This week Zane's Uncle Brady came by for a visit. You can see that Zane says Uncle Brady is #1! When Brady came by last year at this time, Zane was still a bun in the oven!
Zane's increased mobility means he's getting into more and more stuff. Like swords! Is there a way to baby-proof a bucket of swords? And today he almost tipped over our mammoth tusk. Clearly, we will need to be changing our lifestyle a bit.
Monday we did not end up having a checkup after all. I thought we were supposed to go every two months, but the Dr's office called and said really we weren't supposed to come until Zane is 9 months old. So, I measured him myself, and he is about 27" tall and 17.5 pounds. Now that Zane is standing he can be "tall" instead of "long."
Monday we did go to free development test done by the Parent Trust of Washington. It was very fun! Zane got to play with toys, and I answered questions about his behavior. Zane is doing very well, as I thought! I was given a few things to concentrate on to make sure he hit some milestones, and we are goin
g back in 3 weeks for another screening. Really the only things he doesn't do yet for the 7-9 month old category are picking little things up with pointer finger and thumb, standing, and banging toys together. Well, now he's standing! And I showed him how to make godawful noises banging things together, and he does that with glee. I've been giving him Cheerios to practice picking up.
His buddy Finn came by again on Saturday and modeled feeding himself which Zane hasn't been a fan of. Now Zane picks up crackers and puts them in his mouth, but most of it comes back out again. Someday he will feed himself!
Sleep has finally gotten way better with just one quick waking at night. Except last night when he seemed to start to fight a new cold, hopefully a short one. He seems better already today!
Today we were on an outing and Zane got to have an al fresco diaper change and nursing session. It was lovely!
On the fifteenth Zane was eight months old! This coming Monday we have a check up to see how he's growing. Even if he's still a skinny Bean, he's definitely happy, curious, and physically fit. I also signed up for free developmental testing through the State of Washington and we'll be doing that on Monday as well. The idea is to make sure that any delays are caught and worked on early. I fully expect to find out that Zane is a superstar, and it will be nice to know for sure that we don't just have parent blindness about a trouble spot.
On Monday we went swimming again and ran into Diego and his mom who we know from story time. I noticed a big difference in Zane -- now that he's crawling, he seems to have taken that skill right to the water! When he saw something he wanted to get to, his arms and legs would mill around in the water in a kind of proto-dog paddle (puppy paddle?). I don't think it really propelled him (I was holding him), but it's a great start! One of these days we'll have to sign up for actual swimming lessons.
Wednesday he managed to get himself into a sitting position for the first time. He seemed pretty pleased with himself. I think babies usually do this before crawling, but Zane is such a mover and a shaker that he doesn't have much use for sitting. I think he got that from his fidgety, twitchy, zippy Mom.
We've been having trouble sleeping lately, and Zane has been acting like his mouth really hurts him. I end up letting him sleep in our bed just to get some sleep, and I hope he doesn't come to expect it. I'm not sure where his next teeth might be coming in. Some sources say the upper incisors are next, some say the next two bottom teeth. Maybe it is his upper teeth since those are really big and he seems to be in a lot of discomfort. Poor pumpkin.
No news is good news! I can't think of anything major to report this week. Zane continues to zip around faster and faster on his hands and knees, and he's started pulling himself up to a kneeling position, too. This kid wants to stand and run!
Zane proofing the house is difficult, as he can dismantle most efforts. I tried putting corner protectors on the coffee table, but they actually create a hazard. Zane sees them, crawls over, yanks them off to chew on, and then he is hanging out right by a sharp little corner. I've put some of his foam letter squares around the coffee table for now, but it won't last.
Zane has also started to create a mental map in his head of the house. He knows to crawl around the coffee table to get to JoJo's stuff or to follow me to the bathroom. He knows how to get to me in the kitchen so he can hang on my leg and look up at me with puppy eyes. He's getting really good at clutching and hanging on to me now. I've been calling him my little monkey.
Our latest fun discovery is that blowing raspberries in Zane's armpits and knee pits is very funny. Maybe it tickles!
He's getting used to eating more and more, which is useful since he doesn't seem to like to take a bottle on the weekends that I work. He will nosh on yummy food, though. At least when I get home he'll be only thirsty, not hungry, too.
Cheerio!
Okay, so I can't get to JoJo anymore? Fine, then. I'll just try to pull your computer down onto my head.
Zane is really crawling well now, with no belly flops and only the rare stumble. He isn't quite speedy yet, but he's got it down. I've got a better barrier on the stairs now that has a gate in it for easy access. No more stepping over a gate and hoping not to fall down the stairs.
This week's drama involved buckets of vomit. His first! How cute! In an older post, you may remember I fed him some yogurt with strawberries in it. That was bad (strawberries are not recommended in the first year), so I shared my other flavors with him until I read the label and found out they had honey in them, another no-no. So I made a big label-reading effort and found some fruit yogurts sweetened only with fruit juice. He really liked the first one and ate a lot, but ended up having two bouts of massive spewing. The first one in my bathroom, and the second one in a complete stranger's house while we were buying a used baby gate. Luckily it was on a hard surface, and as parents they completely understood. Poor Zane got worn out and a little dehydrated, but by the next day he was fine. I'm not totally sure it was an allergic reaction, but he didn't have a fever so I don't think it was a bug. I'll wait a week and try a few spoonfuls of another flavor and see what happens.
Today we went to a baby group (Q&A for moms) and it was so fun to see the babies crawling all over each other now that they are bigger. It was kind of like a pile of really cute maggots writhing around on the floor.
Zane has slept through the night again for several nights, so I'm hopeful that will continue. Even when he does get up, it's not for long. I feel a lot better! I've also been getting alarmingly thin, and I've been bulking up on nuts and whole milk and protein bars, and that makes me feel better, too. I hear that babies' growth slows down around now, and I won't need to be using so many calories each day to produce milk. We'll see!
Zane is now becoming an early expert in mischief. By last Wednesday, three weeks after getting up on his hands and knees, he is officially crawling. He still falls and is slow, but he gets where he wants to go. His pursuit of JoJo is now relentless. We've got some fencing now to keep her safe and to keep Zane out of the litter box.
Monday we went swimming again and had another fun time. I'd like to try to go every other week, but the whole locker room routine is a bit daunting. It's especially hard at the end to get us both washed clean of chlorine and dressed. I think if I can recruit more moms, we can get our babies cleaned off and then watch each other's kids while we clean ourselves off.
Not quite earth shaking, but Zane had his first splinter this week. I think he got it from the coffee table. The pointier parts of the coffee table really need to get wrapped in bubble wrap soon, as he is starting to bang his head on stuff.
While it is currently hailing, Wednesday was beautiful.
We got to lounge around outside for a while while Grandpa visited. Since Zane loves to play in water, I put some water in a bowl for him and he had a great time getting wet. I can't wait until it's warm enough for naked baby time in a wading pool!
Zane goes through phases where he practices a sound over and over, usually something pretty grating. The last couple of weeks his favorite thing is to make his whole body rigid, stick his arms down to the sides with his wrists bent, and say "Errrrr!" He does it when he's very excited. We captured a little bit of that here:
Part of Zane's brain development is object permanence and realizing that people can be gone. Even though he's been going to daycare for two months now, he's started crying a bit when I drop him off. He is also looking for toys when he drops them, and looking down a hallway or at a door when we leave the room. He still remains pretty cheerful, though! Earlier in the week he was teething, got a splinter, and hadn't pooped in four days. He whined a bit, but I cut him some slack because it's hard to be a baby when your mouth hurts, you're constipated, you get wood shoved under your fingernails, your parents then squeeze that fingernail, and then you think your Mom is abandoning you.
And finally, here is Zane really "getting into" his study of the letter R.
I'm not sure how he got his legs through the R's negative space, but he did!
Zane had his first diarrhea this week. Oh how cute! Um, nope, yuck. First, he had it twice all over his daycare Mom on Tuesday night. I thought it was just a symptom of teething as I had heard it could be. Wednesday I had some diarrhea in the morning but felt otherwise fine. Zane was a little fussy, but I again thought it was his teeth. We happily went to Story Time at the library, but he seemed a little subdued and clingy. Then when we were marching around and doing a dance at Story Time I had to stop and rest. On the way home my skin began to hurt and it became clear that Zane actually had a bug he had passed on to me. By the afternoon I was exhausted, feverish, and my guts hurt. Thursday Zane and I stayed home. Friday I felt mostly better and Zane seemed fine so I went to work, but I had to pick up Zane early as his daycare Mom was sick, too (she even went to her doctor). That evening he had more diarrhea all over me. Then Saturday I had to stay home again, and now Sunday I'm back at work. I really think I'm better now! It's been hard to tell how sick Zane was because he's generally cheerful and any fussiness can be attributed to teething. His appetite was always fine (mine wasn't), and I don't think he ever had a fever, so I think he was much better off than the adults he infected.
One of Zane's teeth finished breaking through and can be felt, and the other is on its way. I got my first nip de nip from Zane, the first of many more, I'm sure! His sleep continues to improve, and we even had one night where he slept right through the whole night again. That was, of course, while I was sick and couldn't sleep, so I didn't get to enjoy it.
I think he's getting more interested in food. A few times he's wanted what I'm eating, and we shared food. The first time he got oatmeal with blueberries and apple chunks in it. I squished the blueberries and ate the skins, and he got purple oatmeal. Yum! I found the apple chunks unchanged in his diaper the next day, which was kind of funny. Yesterday I shared my fruity yoghurt with him, and then belatedly realized *OOPS* it was strawberry yoghurt. Babies aren't supposed to have strawberries until they are one year old (the baby, not the strawberry), since strawberries are a common allergen. Well, Zane survived! I wonder if this means I now know strawberries are OK, or should I still hold off? I'm going to ask at my baby group the next time I go. He sure likes them!
Zane has continued to work on his crawling, and he's almost there! He can get on his knees and lunge forward onto his belly, and then repeat the process. Michael says it is like watching a sea lion gallumph along. I've also seen him drag his knees forward together while staying upright on his arms. He's started moving his hands and knees a bit, too, like in this video where he does his favorite thing, lunging after JoJo:
His little brain keeps expanding, too. I've gotten out some texture books he was only kind of into in the past, and now he likes to spend more time feeling all the stuff and looking at the pictures. I can't wait until he'll sit still for a story!
Today Kyrin came to babysit for four hours while Michael was on Zane duty. This will be a good deal, because Kyrin will get driving practice, money, cute baby time, and some quiet time. Zane will get a dedicated playmate and get to know his cousin. Michael gets some work time but will still have plenty of Daddy time.
That's all for today. If we're feeling chipper tomorrow, I think we'll try another go at swimming.
Happy Spring!
Zane is seven months old! I'm staying up late to do this post, so it will be a quick one.
I tried to weigh Zane on our bathroom scale, but it says he's stayed the same at 15 pounds, so I'm going to ignore that. His mobility is increasing fast, hence the addition of a baby gate to the top of our stairs. He has learned how to get on his hands and knees and then lunge forward to get where he wants to go. He's done it several times, and a few times in a row, so it doesn't seem to be a fluke of just falling in the right direction.
Last week on Monday we went to the Mountlake Pool for our first swimming adventure. They have many little pools set up for families and kids. We went in the Lazy River, which is shallow, rubber bottomed, and has a current. I thought we might stay in for 20 or 30 minutes, but after an hour I decided we should really get out. Zane would have kept on going! He really loves his bath (cries when we get out), so I guess he is a real water baby. The pool had balls floating in the water, and cool little floating exersaucer things for the babies to float in. Zane and I met up with two of his baby pals and their moms. We'll definitely go again. Maybe we can get Michael to come and take pictures.
The big news this week for Zane is teeth! Sunday morning I saw what looked like a little crack in his gums (lower incisors), and he's been very sad and cranky since then. Zane is such a happy baby, so I know his constant crying and neediness means he's really hurting. Poor baby! Nothing I do seems to help except for to hold him. Oh, and chewing on my chin is good. Needless to say, I'm not getting much done in life, and that is why I'm staying up late to post! I sure hope the teeth cut through quickly and don't prolong his misery.
Must sleep! Oh yeah, and sleep is slowly improving as the snot situation slowly improves. Good night!
Our dear sweet Bijou died on Saturday morning.
Her diabetes had been uncontrollable, but she had been coping pretty well with it. However, Thursday she seemed extra tired, and I gave her extra snuggles that night thinking her end was near. That evening at about 10:30 she began having seizures, and Michael rushed her to the kitty ER. Her blood sugar had completely crashed and it appeared she was having hypoglycemic seizures. At this point we thought that this might be a good sign that we were closing in on the right dose of insulin for her and that we just needed to give her less.
However, treatment could not bring up her blood sugar, and throughout the night and Friday it became clear that something else was going on. The vets believe it was most likely a brain or pituitary tumor that was interfering with her body's ability to regulate hormones. This would explain why we were never able to regulate her diabetes; the diabetes was a symptom of something else. Friday evening Michael and I and Zane went to spend some time with her.
For a while late Friday night she rallied a bit, and we were thinking it might instead be a pancreatic tumor called an insulinoma, which could be removed once she stabilized. However, by Saturday morning she was having seizure after seizure, and it was clear her brain was involved. We knew it was time to let her go. Michael and Zane and I went, and we spent about 45 minutes with her in a private room, just holding her, helping her through seizures, washing her, and loving her. She died peacefully in my arms. Zane was fantastic through the whole experience, being very quiet and entertaining himself.
We took her home, washed her and dried her, and laid her out in state in the living room. We tried to get JoJo to say goodbye, but she wouldn't come out from behind the couch. It was very therapeutic for us to clean her body and make her ready for burial. We let her be in sunbeams for the last time.
We buried her in the back yard next to the lilac, in a shady spot she often would sleep in during hot summer days. It's comforting to look out there and know she is there.
We are very sad, and many small things around the house continually remind us of her. However, we know she had a wonderful life, and we did everything we could to treat her illness. When it was time to go, we let her. Zane has been a ray of sunshine during this sad time. Saturday night he got extra clowny at night. I think he was bored with the somber mood and ready to be happy again!
Requiescat in Pace, Bijou. We love you.
All of her blog posts are here.
