A Wicked Good Time

Helloooooo everyone from Maine! It was wonderful visiting with you all, and we miss you already.

We had a wonderful time in Maine. Zane was an excellent traveler, weathered the time change, and slept and napped pretty well considering all the changes. It was hot hot hot, though, and a few cranky times were due to that and not being able to sleep well in the heat. A few times we went to the library to play and cool off. We're glad to be back in cool Seattle.

Zane's brain seemed to get really stimulated by the travel, as he started doing a bunch of new things. First, at Pa Jim's he learned to climb down stairs by navigating the two steps from dining room to living room; then he applied that to other steps and even a couch! Later on he climbed up onto the rim of Grandma's bathtub, which was a little precarious. He's really into climbing now, and tried to climb out of his high chair and crib last night. Saturday morning I put him in his exersaucer for my shower, and when I got out he was standing by the tub. Little Houdini!

Zane has really begun to babble in a way that clearly sounds like language. There were enough times that he "coincidentally" said what sounded like a word right after we said it, that I think he is beginning to copy words. He also clearly knows some words, such as "cat". Cats were a big highlight of the trip: 2 at Pa Jim's, 1 at Grandma's, and 2 at his cousins' house. One day Zane was crying after waking up from a nap, and nothing would console him until I said "Do you want to go find a cat?" He immediately stopped crying and got a big smile on his face. He's definitely got Henderson/Robarts blood in him.

With all the new sights to see, Zane also developed his point while in Maine. Now he points to lots of things, and I'm trying to name everything he points to. The power of pointing is also the power to say what you want; Zane also points to things he can't have, and then fusses when I don't give them to him. I will not give in! I will not cultivate a whiner!

Uncle Aaron asked if Zane could stand on his own yet, and I said no. Aaron then gave Zane a try, and got him to stand in sumo stance for a few seconds! Aunt Colleen and cousin Ian also got him to repeat the performance. When Zane stood, we all said "Yay" and clapped, and Zane even clapped a bit! Zane won't do it for me, though; he gets rubbery legs around Mom. But, today he was fussing for me to pick him up and let go of his support to reach for me -- he accidentally stood for a second! Now that Zane is home he's also walking a bit if I hold his hands while he is facing me. If he faces away he gets rubbery legs again.

We also had many wonderful firsts: Swimming in a lake (which was awesome!), crickets, fire flies, real ducks, the moon and stars (it's been too light in Seattle), Maine blueberries, bug bites, cat scratches and band-aids. On the first night in Maine I took Zane out after dark; we heard crickets, smelled the ocean, and saw fireflies, stars and the moon. Zane said "Aahhh!"
This was also Zane's first time to meet most of my family and friends Ann and Jon! Above Zane reads with Grandma and cousin JuJu. To the right he meets his Great-Grandma Robarts! Oh yeah, and two more teeth up top!

I also had a restful time. While we were in Camden my Mom took Zane in the mornings when he woke up, and I got to sleep an hour or so extra. Just four days of that and I really felt refreshed! Mom and Zane got quality time, and I got rest. Everyone wins! When Zane had naps I didn't have all my chores waiting for me at home, so I actually got a lot of reading done. My book is languishing again, but I'll get back to it soon ...

I feel like so much happened in Maine I could write a book! When I get more pictures from other people I'll post more.

Meanwhile, before we left for Maine, we had some adventures and experiences. We had another developmental assessment which was fun as usual. Zane is zooming along and ahead of his benchmarks on all stuff except Communication. I need to work with him more on language games like nursery rhymes and finger plays. I think his week in Maine gave him a bump up, though. We go again at the end of August.

We went to a visit with the nutritionist to explore Zane's skinniness. The upshot is that he seems to be grazing and nursing a lot and so is not interested in eating. The grazing and mini-nursing is just enough to take the edge off his hunger so he can go play, but not enough to give him the calories he needs. To make him eat more, I need to feed him less often. I've been working on that plan since then, and Zane is eating more solids (and pooping more). He's also nursing less, so my milk production is dropping. That's a little scary for me, but I'll adjust. It will be nice if he only nurses in the am and pm so I can stop pumping at work. Meanwhile, maybe I can go to just pumping once at work during the day.

We also had a day trip to Fiddle Tunes, which was awesome. The day was beautiful and we were accompanied by Bee. Zane missed the ferry rides due to sleeping, but he had a great time listening to music, playing in the grass, and dancing with Laurie.

Then, the day before our Maine trip, we took a break to go to the Ballard Seafood Fest. Zane got to play in the water park at the Ballard Commons. He was more mesmerized by the other kids than the water, but I think he still enjoyed it. It will be super fun when he can walk on his own.

And that's the roundup! This week we have an appointment with a speech therapist to somehow check Zane's eating, and then we have a regular checkup. Let's cross our fingers for some chubbiness!

Oh, and Zane has a fever today that started last night. :(

Bean Pole

Mom, is this how we get to Maine? Are you going to mail me? Nope, but we are going to fly out next Sunday! I'm nervous about how it will go but looking forward to the adventure. I may not get a blog post in next week if I'm too busy before we go, and I may not get them in while I'm away, either.

We had another checkup on Thursday, and Zane is now 2'5" and 17lbs 1oz. He only gained 6 ounces over 6 weeks, and he has now dropped to 1% in his weight for length. So the doc says we need to have tests done, but after consulting with a pediatrician, he says no. The pediatrician said that if Zane had a metabolic problem we would have seen more problems by now. His lack of adequate weight gain is just classic for not getting enough calories. Gack! I'm starving my baby! But he won't eat! At least I'm not stunting his growth, since he's a bit taller than average. We have an appointment with a nutritionist on Tuesday, and I'm hoping to get a lot of help. Then at the end of the month we have an appointment with a speech therapist (!) who will watch Zane eat and nurse and thus deliver some sort of wisdom. A co-worker with a wife who is a speech therapist says they do a swallow analysis of some sort.

I've been trying extra hard to get some high calorie foods like avocado in him, and after I did he has had several nights of sleeping really well. It seems that our accelerating sleep problems may well be firmly linked to Zane simply not getting enough calories and being hungry. Today I failed to get much food in him (I tried!), and he also nursed less than usual due to holiday distractions, so we'll see if we have another bad night.

Despite being starved by his mom, Zane continues to thrive and get into all sorts of stuff. Dumpster diving in the recycling bin is his favorite. We no longer put cans in there. Pulling off toilet paper and eating it is also a joy. Zane has started to move his feet a bit while standing (cruising), so he's starting to figure out the whole walking thing. He prefers to hold onto things rather than to let me hold him in walking position. We'll get there someday!

Monday we have another one of the free and fun developmental assessments. Wednesday we take a day trip to visit our friends up at Fiddle Tunes. Saturday is the Ballard Seafood Fest. Sunday we fly out to Maine! Yikes!

Funny Face

Zane has started making a couple of faces that we're a little unsure about. They seem to be a united pair, as he usually does them both in a short space of time. The one on the right is like an open faced "Gee this is exciting" face which he could do as his first smile, but I'm not sure why it has been resurrected now. The one on the left began to appear when Zane realized we were (or might be) unhappy with something he did. I think the face on the right is Zane saying "This is OK, right?" and the one on the left is "Why did you yell OW really loudly? Is that bad?" Sometimes he makes the face even when we don't disapprove, as if to say "Was that wrong?" I guess he's got some new brain connections about right and wrong. He'll also sometimes pause before doing something and look at me to see if I'm going to stop him.

Zane has learned to go up on tip-toe, and now can reach all sorts of things that were formerly 1.5 inches too high. It's a surprisingly large amount of things. We're going to have to make another round of moving things and adding latches to higher drawers (like the one above, which he is not supposed to be getting into). He owns one drawer and one cupboard in the kitchen, but that is never enough.

Sleep has been a little better, but eating has gone down the toilet. At one point I was getting him to eat smooshed food three times a day, or at least his breakfast. Now he refuses everything I offer him on a spoon. He wants to have the spoon, which just creates a big mess. I think he will only eat what he can pick up and put in his mouth himself. Dinner last night was about 3 skinned peas. Tonight was actually fairly successful with several bites of cheese, a few crackers, and some tastes of jello. I plan to breastfeed for two years, but I was hoping it would begin to be supplemental at this point. I guess not.

Wednesday Zane and I walked down to the Ballard Locks. We saw squirrels and boats and seagulls and booming waterfalls and fish swimming up the ladder. It was pretty exciting. Actually, the water roaring over the dam was the most interesting to Zane since he is such a hydrophile. He wanted to get very close, but I didn't want him wiggling out of my arms and going ker-sploosh. That would have been bad.

It's only 8:11, but Zane is in bed and I'm heading there, too, hoping to rack up 8 cumulative hours of sleep .... Yawn.

Toothy Bean

I tried to get a good photo of Zane's new teeth, but he really wanted to get the camera, so it's a bit fuzzy.

Zane got sick *again*. Last Monday he came down with his first fever, and he was at 101-103 for about 30 hours. It then morphed into a cold with a yucky cough. Michael got the cold, too, but I've escaped this time.

I had just embarked on a new sleep plan (The No Cry Sleep Solution), but I wasn't able to follow it religiously because of Zane being sick. I brought Zane into bed a lot since he was plenty miserable and needed comforting. By the end of the week, though, I've either made a breakthrough or he's just done with a fussy phase. I'm now just wrapping him in a blankie instead of swaddling him, which I wanted to get away from. For the last several days I've been able to lay him down in a warmed up bed and he often turns over and goes to sleep. If not, I use a mini cry-it-out routine that is also working. I leave him in the crib, and I go lie on the bed. He'll carry on and cry, but eventually lie down and sleep. I stumbled upon this one night when I was so tired of trying to make him sleep that I just took a mental break and put him down in the crib while I lay on the bed. After about 10 minutes of screaming he fell asleep. Last night it was just 5 minutes of medium crying and mumbling to his bunny Bob (see Bob at my shower). He threatened to throw Bob over the side, but then in the gloom of the room I saw Bob quietly slip back into the crib. Zane decided he didn't want to sacrifice Bob just for his anger. This mini-cry method seems to be good because I'm not leaving him alone and he can see me, so he's not scared.

I'm still not having much luck getting Zane to eat consistently, but here's a video of Zane feeding himself a banana for the first time.


Well, Zane's in bed and sleep-time's a wastin'. Have a great week!

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Well, we've had to say goodbye to Sebastian bun. Michael really worked with the buns to get them to bond. Sometimes they would groom each other and be nice, and then they would fight. We kept hoping there would be a breakthrough. Well, there was -- a breakthrough into JoJo! A really bad fight erupted last Tuesday night which ended with JoJo in the emergency room for stitches. Michael had to sit and wait in the same room where we helped Bijou die.

We really liked Sebastian, but it is now clear they won't bond. Maybe sometime we'll try again with another less dominant rabbit, but meanwhile JoJo just needs to recuperate and join us upstairs again. I've missed her while she's been all penned up downstairs with Sebastian.

Fruity Bean

Zane has been making good use of his new teeth to bite into yummy fruits. Sunday we walked to the farmers' market, and I gave Zane fruit to hold on the way back since it keeps him entertained. He's done that before without molesting it. This time he went to work with his new teeth, producing this little work of art that looks like a mouse got to it. Yesterday I gave him a nectarine to try, and that went over pretty well, too. I was impressed with his one-handed fruit eating skill.

Zane has also unfortunately been exercising his teeth on me. He always used to gum me and that was just fine. Then he got the bottom two teeth, and they were a little sharp, but not too bad. Well, holy guacamole, now that he's got a matching set up top he's biting the bejeezus out of me. See exhibit A of my left arm. Three areas are quite bruised and there are some raised welts you can't see in the picture. Starting today I will no longer stand for it. I say "Ow!" really loudly (that part is easy), and then I put him down and walk out of the room for 30 seconds or a minute (that part is hard). He seems to be getting the picture pretty quickly. Not only does it hurt, but I don't want him to be a social outcast with the toddlers.

Monday we went in for our latest developmental testing, and Zane scored above average in fine motor, problem solving, and social skills, and average for communication. I'm supposed to work on simple word games with him. The idea is to get him to begin to copy sounds I make, not just make them randomly. He certainly talks a lot, but as far as I know he doesn't copy me. He wants to do all of his own talking. Tuesday he began sticking his tongue out at me when I waggled mine at him, so that's a start.

Wednesday our friends Uma and Olivia came to play. Uma is one month younger than Zane, and we know her from a support group and from library story time. Mostly they played near each other and not together, but that's what I understand babies do. It's called parallel play.

Zane's top two teeth are both finally through, and his cold is gone, so we expected to have some good sleep. Sigh. Now something else is going on which mystifies me. I can go through the going to sleep routine for night or naps, and he relaxes and falls asleep, or almost asleep. As soon as I try to put him in the crib he wakes up, and starts crying and writhing. I pick him up to lull him back to sleep and he bucks and writhes and cries and screams, all with his eyes closed! This happens in the middle of his naps, too, and I used to be able to shush him easily for another sleep cycle, but not anymore. He's so clearly very tired, but doesn't want to be asleep. I can't tell if he's hurting, or afraid to be alone, or afraid to sleep, or what. I don't want to give in and always hold him for naps or bring him to bed for sleep. I hope this is just a weird phase and not something actually wrong with him.

I'm working on Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep solution book, so I hope to work on our nighttime sleep and get it better under control. I'm so tired I'm getting very cranky, and I worry I'll get sick, too. Her no cry nap solution really cleaned up Zane's naps, so I hope the night sleep will follow. I did a sleep log last night, and although he was in bed from 9pm to almost 7am, he really only got eight and a half hours of sleep. This is pretty normal for Zane, but not enough for babies his age who should be getting 11-12. At least he's getting his nap quota now.

Well, right now he's had an almost 2 hour nap, but we had about 15 minutes of bucking and crying in the middle of it. I wish I knew what was wrong ... Hopefully tonight will go well. Every night I hope.

Monday morning. Phew, a pretty good night. Zane asleep at 8:30 and me at 9:30. Up for nursing at 12:30 and 4:30 for only 15 minutes each. He started to fuss after the 4:30 nursing, so I just brought him into bed so I could sleep, and we slept until 6:45! Yay! We both feel pretty good today.

Hoser

Zane did end up getting a yucky cold. That plus cutting his fourth tooth made for last week's nasty (non) sleeping. I ended up staying home from work for one day and getting him much better. He's got a burbly cough and a little snot, and now so do Michael and I. Naps are *much* better, though. Today was the champion of nap days with three long naps (totaling over 4 hours!) and early to bed. A sleep book I've been reading has convinced me to try to get Zane in bed earlier than his usual 9:30 or 10. I have noticed that he actually seems to sleep longer the earlier he goes to bed, so this might just work. Today I did our routine one hour earlier, and he was in bed at 8:30! And now I have time to blog.

We've been having a pretty sad wet Spring, but a few warm days have cropped up. Last Monday we got some surprise sunshine, and Zane and I headed to the backyard with Michael and the buns. I turned a hose on just a bit and Zane had a great time playing with it and getting muddy. This was really his first chance to get dirty outside like a kid should. The picture on the right shows the aftermath.



On Monday I also finally put up a swing for Zane that I got from a neighbor down the street whose boy is now too big for it. I've had it lying around for over a month, and of course it only took about 5 minutes to put it up. Oh well, we really haven't had nice weather to use it before now. I think we'll still go to playgrounds to swing because that's an adventure.

Today was another warm day. I've been looking forward to hot weather so that Zane can get outside for some naked baby time in a pool. He loves water and bath time so much I figured this would be super fun for him. This morning we went out and got an inflatable pool and some sunblock. I was so excited to try it out! But, it ended up being a bit of a bust. The water was cold, and Zane has only experienced nice warm bathwater. He whined and didn't want to be in it, even though I only filled the pool with an inch of water here and there (the ground is lumpy, so it just made puddles in the pool). I guess next time I need to wait for a hot day and put water in the pool ahead of time so that the sun can warm it up.

Today during Zane's nice long afternoon nap I did some kitchen cleaning. There were some pretty yucky areas around the bottom of some appliances. It was fine for us, but Zane puts his fingers in everything and it needed to be cleaned. I got the bottom of the 'frige cleaned off for our new science alphabet magnets! I'm very excited about them. Not the best for actually learning the alphabet (we'll get the classic ones for those), but really cool for the geek factor. I haven't figured out what each letter represents. E.g., J has jade and Jupiter on it, and E has evolution, electricity, Einstein and Earth, but Z is zeros and what, bacon? Hmmm.

Grumps

I'm very grumpy with Mr. Bean for not napping well today, and I don't feel very charitable, but I'll try to still tell you how cute he is. He's got yummy borscht all over his face in the picture above. Earlier in the week I was bemoaning the fact that he wouldn't put actual food in his mouth, but he had eagerly chewed on the following: stuffing and upholstery from a cat-shredded chair, hair, hay, lint, and a piece of a dried up cactus leaf. Finally at the end of this week he has been chewing on his teething biscuits, crackers, cheerios, and a few peas.

Zane has gotten very good at getting into cabinets and drawers, especially the ones with deadly chemicals or sharp objects in them. This weekend I managed to close off the three worst cupboards in the kitchen and make him his own cupboard of harmless stuff to play with. Big safe magnets are now at the bottom of the 'frige. The kitchen garbage has been lidded, and the finger-pinchy fireplace doors have been locked. Zane has learned to whine when he is thwarted, and this is now happening when he tries to open these very enticing cupboards. Hopefully his new wire maze toy will occupy his mind.

For months I have been looking forward to going to Folklife with Zane. He enjoys music and dancing at home, and the two times I have taken him to a live event he really loved it. I even bought him special noise-canceling headphones to protect his tender little ears. Huh. So much for what *I* want. I'm a Mom now and don't get to do what *I* want. Do you sense bitterness? It is there.

Yesterday Zane started off a little grumpy and snuffly, and did not nap well. After a super-abbreviated afternoon nap, I decided just to go to Folkife with him and hopefully we could have a fun brief visit and come home for a nap. I put him in his snazzy Hawaiian shirt for his first Zydeco dance. Zane perked right up when we went out and his first bus ride was a hit. He let out an exclamation when we passed over the Ballard bridge and looked at all the fishing boats down below. We'll have to go have a closer look at those. We got to Folklife, walked through the crowds, and found Laurie who wanted to dance with him. The Zydeco band hadn't started yet so we went to get an elephant ear. This whole time Zane was looking and absorbing. All of a sudden he burst into tears! He was just so tired, and it was all too much. He cried when Laurie tried to hold him, so I just stood outside where the music wasn't too loud (I forgot the headphones), and danced with Zane. He was quiet and blank faced and tired. I watched the music for an hour, and he eventually fell asleep. I took the bus home and figured we would try again tomorrow.

Today he woke up tired and clingy, and I think he might be fighting a cold. He had a really good 90 minute nap this morning so I felt encouraged, but that was it. Whine and cling and yawn all morning and afternoon. From 1:30-3:00 I worked on putting him to sleep, and he would fall asleep and wake up immediately over and over again. But he really needed to sleep and couldn't function as an awake baby. It exhausted and depressed me. Finally I gave up and lay on the floor of the bedroom and had a good bawl. And Zane laughed at me! Diabolical! Actually, he thought I was laughing, too, so I'm glad he didn't know I was bummed.

Michael came home and took Zane, and I have been hiding downstairs ever since. Apparently Zane has been sleeping for about 45 minutes now. I feel some catharsis, so I think it is safe for me to go upstairs and have tea.

And you know what? He is still really cute.

Little Scientist

It occurred to me this week that being a baby is like being a scientist. Zane is constantly probing and testing and experimenting with his world. It's a good thing he can't handle chemicals yet. Now that it is springtime in Seattle he's been having fun exploring sunbeams and shadows.



Food is mostly experimented with and used as a textural art project and not eaten; here Zane explores the yamness of his yam through all senses but taste. He is also exploring the boundaries of the house, and he discovered the pet door to our front porch. He was pretty proud of himself. I've locked the door for now, but once I can clean off the porch I think I'll let him back out when he wants to. It's is a very small porch with high solid walls, so it should be a nice safe place for him to play while I'm getting ready for work or whatever.

This week more teeth are coming in! The two top incisors are cutting through, and they are causing Zane a lot of discomfort. Last night we were up for about an hour and a half in the middle of the night with a sad Zane. I took him into bed to try to console him. He took the opportunity to launch a 3am attack on Daddy's beard. In a week or two I should be able to get cute pictures of a new smile.

Speaking of mouths ... I've been trying to make most of Zane's baby food, and there are some really delicious vegetable combinations out there I never would have thought of, but I highly recommend to people of all ages. Try them, try them, you will see!
Sweet potatoes with orange juice
Butternut squash with pears
Lentil and vegetable soup with sweet potoes, apples, and garam masala.
With delicious food like this (plus the World Baby Foods jars), I don't mind when Zane won't finish his food, because I gladly finish it off.

Monday Zane and I went in for his 9 month checkup. Everything looked wonderful, except Zane has dropped again in his weight percentile. He is now at 3.14% (Pi!). It's not so much that he's skinny compared to other babies, it's that he is getting skinnier and skinnier. At least on paper. He's not roly-poly, but he does have fat creases on his wrists (e.g.). He doesn't have ribs showing, he's full of beans, and he's hitting all of his developmental milestones (we also went to another free child development assessment). So, he's probably perfectly fine and just takes after his mom string-bean-wise, but the doc is still keeping an eye on him. We go back in six weeks, and if he hasn't fattened up we will have blood and poop tests done. I don't know what they would be looking for, and I didn't ask because I don't want to start doing research and get all paranoid.

Zane's still loooooves the bath and water so much that he goes crawl-trotting to the bathroom whenever he hears the water turn on. Now that he can stand he can peek in at Michael having a shower. Zane gets his head wet, but he doesn't care!

Monday I took Zane to his first parade. Ballard is a big Scandanavian neighborhood, and every year there is a big parade on the seventeenth of May in celebration of the Norwegian Constitution. I stuffed Zane into our backpack and trucked on down to the starting line just a few blocks from our house. We only stayed for about 30 minutes, but he seemed to like it. Lots to see and many people to watch! It was a good backpack test run for doing the same thing at Folklife next weekend.

Tuesday's excitement was that he slept all night. Ahh. Unfortunately the long days of sunlight are interfering with Zane's sleep, even though we have the windows blacked out in the bedroom. He's only sleeping about 8 hours at night and then having long naps in the day. Babies are supposed to sleep much longer at night.

Wednesday we took a backpack walk to a new park and had another picnic and fun on the playground. I'm sorry I forgot again that I can't turn the camera. Please tilt your head to the left and click play. Have a fun week!

Hatshepsut!

Monday afternoon Zane sneezed and I said "Hatshepsut!" Zane thought it was so funny, he laughed and laughed at it all day.

The next morning I said it again while he was still asleep and he laughed in his sleep. Über cute.

Wednesday we went for another free developmental test. Zane is right on target. They're really a lot of fun, and I learn a lot about games I can play with Zane to help him hit his upcoming milestones. We were invited back, and I think I'll keep going even though we don't have any concerns.

Saturday was a perfect day (other than getting up at 6am). Zane turned nine months old! Zane had a 2 hour nap in the morning. Then we went for a walk to a nearby park and explored a jungle gym. Zane seemed to like the slide, and he tried to climb part of the structure. We had a picnic in the grass. I was eating an apple, and Zane wanted to try it. He managed to bite off a little bit with his two tiny teeth, but mostly he sucked off some juice. We went home examining plants all the way, and then visited with the rabbits in the yard. Zane had a 1.5 hour nap wherein I got tons of stuff done. Zane and Daddy went for a walk in the stroller and felt rocks and pinecones and rosemary and many other things while I went to the store. I came back with a bunch of boxes and made the coffee table safe for little fingers:Now we can keep our remotes, game controllers, PC bits, candy, and books away from Zane, but still have them handy. The beautiful bubble wrap keeps Zane's head somewhat protected.

We had another family session with the buns in the back yard, and Zane had fun persecuting JoJo:


A late night nap followed with a fun bath and some silly playtime ended a really perfect day. Unfortunately, today Zane woke up too early again, and he and I have been cranky and out of sorts all day. Oh well. Zane is out with Daddy again while I blog. I also had to go get some cupboard locks since Zane has started to get into them.