Easter

Christos Anesti. (Christ is Risen.) <---the way the church would say it.
Que Pasca. (What's up, Easter.) <--- the way my brother would say it.
O pappas se harike. (The man upstairs is smiling down on you.) <--- the way my Uncle John would say it.
Queso Anesti. (Cheese is Risen.) <---- Apparently the way I now say it.

This wasn't DJ's first Easter - he was born just in time for it last year but he doesn't remember much of it. He won't remember much of this one either, but that's ok.

We went up to my sister's house in Lancaster for dinner. We actually got up there a little before 3 and unfortunately, DJ didn't nap on the way up. So DJ and I went up to the guest room and napped together for about 20 minutes. It was better than nothing!

Then it was time for dinner. DJ ate a TON... lamb, spanakopita, feta, hummus, Greek potatoes, green beans, asparagus tips, and Greek stuffing. Then he had dessert: koulouri ( a greek short bread cookie), tsoureki (Easter bread), strawberries and a couple bites of chocolate cake with milk mixed in with all of that.

On our way home, DJ didn't keep all that down, we think because we belted him in too tightly. Lesson learned. :-( We pulled over, stripped him of everything but his onesie, and got home with minimal issue. He was so tired that he went to sleep exactly where I laid him down in his crib. He didn't fuss once. He is a little angel.

Queso Anesti, for another 40 days.

What would you do for a Klondike Bar?

Apparently DJ only had to walk up to me and make a "I want a taste" sound with his mouth. Mommy couldn't resist that and shared her Klondike Bar with DJ. He seemed to REALLY enjoy his first taste of both ice cream and chocolate. Mmmmm!!

Doggies?

Is that what he said? Did DJ say "doggies"?? According to Steve, DJ was in his high chair, looking down at the dogs and said a two syllable word... it sounded remarkably like "doggies".

I think "doggies" or "daddy" will be his first word. He loves the "d-" syllable, and he hears "doggies" a lot. We'll see!

Woof! Woof!

On Monday when I went to pick up DJ, Miss Eleanor was telling me how DJ's playmate at daycare, Grace, had learned to woof like a dog. Grace has always been way ahead of DJ on the verbalization curve so this didn't surprise me though of course, she wouldn't do it on command.

Yesterday morning, Grace's mom, Nadia, said that she had been up at 4am for whatever reason. As she and Grace passed their stair banister where a stuffed dog was sitting, Grace said, 'Woof! Woof!" I can't imagine that Nadia was amused at 4am, but it is funny.....

When I picked DJ up yesterday, Grace showed off her "Woof! Woof!". It was hysterical! Her first word, really, Woof.

Combing DJ's hair

Today I was combing DJ's hair when DJ took the comb from me, and tried to do it himself! Of course he's not coordinated enough to actually get the comb through his hair correctly, but he tried! I showed him how to turn his arm to point the comb in the right direction, and he tried again. Neat-o!

DJ is feeling better

DJ had a touch of a fever this morning when he woke up, but a dose of Tylenol seems to have kept that at bay. He hasn't felt warm since which I hope lasts through the night. He nose ran a lot less, and I don't think he sneezed today. He's coughing but overall, he seems to be feeling better. He's a little more of his happy self more often. He also napped for about an hour and a half this afternoon, plus the 25 minute car ride from church to our lunch destination. This is better than previous days, too.

To boot, though, it seems like his right side bottom 1 year molar is coming through again as he's just chomping on anything he can in that back right corner. So his crankier mood must be influenced by that, too.

Our little Snot Nose

Poor DJ, he has his first full fledged cold. He's gotten a small one before, but this one includes fever, sneezing, lots of snot, and a generally miserable little boy.

We're thinking he got it from little Grace, his daycare buddy. She got over it in a few days, but this is now Day 2 of full blown symptoms, with no signs of getting any better. Well, I don't know if that's true.

Wednesday he was sneezing and the snot was starting to make its presence really known on his upper lip. That night he didn't sleep great.

Thursday during the day, he was apparently a miserable little boy, and developed a fever by the end of the day. He would only nap about a half hour at a time, and only once Eleanor rocked him to sleep. He had a small (for him) dinner, lots of milk, and wanted to walk around and do stuff but by the time bedtime came, he was toast. He took about an ounce of milk, Tylenol, and went right to sleep. He slept the whole night through and then some... a total of 13 hours.

He woke up with a fever, though, and because I'd taken so many hours off for his doctors appointments and because Steve had worked waaay too many hours the last few weeks, Steve is staying home with him. Of course he refuses to nap, so Steve has to rock him to sleep. He had virtually no breakfast, but lots of milk so at least he'll be hydrated.

Poor little guy!!

Hi Baby!!

This morning, Steve and I dropped DJ off at Miss Eleanor's a little early so we could get to the OB's office to view the sonogram of our baby! No, we did not find out the gender, but we did hear the heartbeat, which was measured at 152 beats/minute (I assume it's in minutes).

The baby was laying on its stomach at first, so the sonogram technician could get a really good view of the spine and top of the skull down into the brain itself. The baby had a closed fist under its chin, like The Thinker, and was kicking me with those little feet! Flutter flutter! I actually couldn't feel them because of the position I was in, but the baby was definitely awake! The umbilical cord had the 3 required veins, too, and we could see the beginnings of teeth.

Then she had me roll over onto my left side to try and get the baby to flip over onto its back so we could get a good view of its face and the four heart chambers. The baby wasn't cooperating fully, but the technician got a pretty good shot of the baby's face and put it on the 3D sonogram picture! COOL! We never got that with DJ, so that was really neat! You distinctly see the two lobes of the cranium, the eyes, nose and mouth. Granted, the baby looks skeletal, even in the 3D picture, because there's no fat on its body yet, but it was still neat. DJ's facial picture was literally the bones of the face and skull.

The technician measured the cranium, the arm and leg bones, and with a few other measurements, came up with a birth date of September 21. Dr. Khouzami had predected September 20th. Now this is interesting because DJ was predicted by Dr. Khouzami to arrive on March 31st, the sonogram predicted March 28th, and he actually arrived March 24th. So who knows!!!

Hi little baby! We see you in there!

Can you give that to Mommy?

In the last couple weeks, DJ has started handing us things. The first time we noticed it, he was walking around with a piece of a magazine page and he just handed it right to Steve, completely unprompted. Now he does it regularly, mostly unprompted still. Sometimes he expects to be able to take what he gave us back. That hasn't happened too often yet, but you know that's coming. :-)

Yesterday's fun

It was gorgeous outside yesterday, our first truly Spring day. And of course, we spent it inside. Mostly.

Right after Steve left for work, DJ was watching IO play with the stuffed carrot. When IO dropped it, DJ went over, picked it up, and held it out for IO to take, which IO did very gently. That was DJ initiating interaction with the doggies all by himself!

After his morning nap, DJ and I went to visit my aunt Athena and Uncle John at Kenilworth Mall as they were working an antiques show there. They hadn't seen DJ in a number of months, so this was a great opportunity to get DJ out of the house, especially since I was flying solo on baby duty (Steve was working).

My parents joined us as well, so they got to spend some quality time with DJ as well. DJ walked all over the mall's second floor with at least one grandparent in tow. ;-) My father, DJ, and I went to get some lunch at noon. DJ ate 2/3rds of a kid size hot dog and a little bit of his roll, and of course milk. He also had his first taste of lettuce, though I'm not sure what he thought of that.

A little before 2pm, DJ gave me every sign he possibly could that he was tired, pulled on his ear, rubbed his eyes, yawned... all that walking wears him out! We came home, and he fell asleep in the car despite the windows being open! I transferred him to his crib when we got home, and he went back to sleep for another hour and a half. What a good boy!

Meanwhile, Steve got home from work, and we finished preparing for our dinner party for his direct reports and a former employee of the bank with whom we're close. It was still nice outside at that point which is such a nice change from all this wet, grey and cold weather we've been having lately.

DJ went to bed at 7, and dinner was served shortly thereafter. Everyone left a little after 10, and I think I was asleep on the couch by 10:30. At midnight, Steve woke me up to tell me to go to bed. Apparently, he'd fallen asleep on the couch as well, having come home after midnight Friday night from work.

I got kicked!

Let me start with introductions:

Uterine wall, baby foot.
Baby foot, uterine wall.

:-)

I went to the OB yesterday for my 4 month appointment, and the doctor asked me if I was feeling any kicks yet. It told him that I thought I'd felt something over the weekend, but I wasn't sure. Thus, I thought I was close to feeling kicks.

Like with DJ, the little kicks arrived while sitting at my desk. :-) I only felt 2 today, but I know without a doubt what they were; the feeling was unmistakable.

Hi Little One!!!!!!

Sharing Cheerios

One of DJ's favorite foods is Cheerios. He gets excited just seeing the yellow box coming out of the cuboard. At Miss Eleanor's, both DJ and Grace get Cheerios to start for breakfast before they get their baby cereal. They sit side by side in their respective high chairs, and Grace tries to swipe Cheerios from DJ's high chair tray if she doesn't have any of her own.

Today, I witnessed Grace trying to swipe the Cheerio closest to her on DJ's high chair tray when DJ put his hand over it. I thought he was getting protective of it but he proved me wrong. Instead of eating it, he tried to hand it to Grace. Neither child is coordinated enough to complete such a transaction, but the fact that he tried was amazing! When she didn't take the Cheerio, he offered it again! After the second failed attempt, he ate the Cheerio himself, but holy cow! That was a neat interaction!

Holy molars, Batman!

Unfortunately for DJ, he's been teething all 4 of his 1 year molars at the same time. He's been an enormous drool monster and he's had his fingers constantly in his mouth trying to reduce the discomfort he's been having. He's not been outright unhappy, but he's certainly been a little more needy than usual. Surprisingly, he's not been sleeping any more than usual. In fact, he's been the Early Bird this week, wide awake and playing by 6am, nearly a full hour earlier than usual. Yikes.

I've not been shy about giving him Tylenol every 4 hours and when its been really bad, a dose of motrin, too, which I've given him 2 hours after the Tylenol. Last Saturday, for example, absolutely nothing made him happy. Once the motrin kicked in on top of the Tylenol, his mood started to change towards his normal self. That's when Steve and I knew for sure that's what was going on.

Yesterday, when I went to pick DJ up from Miss Eleanor's, he was a huge cuddle bug. Not that I minded (!) as he's normally far from a cuddle bug, but clearly he wasn't feeling like himself. I decided to venture into his mouth with a finger to see if he's managed to break any of those monsters through (careful, don't bite me!). Sure enough, the two bottom ones have broken through at least 1 point, if not 2. The top right one still hasn't poked more than the one point through, and the top left one is still hiding under the gum. He has been drooling a little less, but those fingers are constantly in his mouth still, so clearly, he's not done yet!

Bottle to Cup

The bottle --> cup and formula --> whole milk transition has begun.

At DJ's one year appointment with the pediatrician, Dr. Boscia said we could take him off formula and put him on whole milk. And while we're at it, switch him from the bottle to the cup. He didn't recommend specifically that we do both transitions at the same time, but we did it anyway.

DJ's actually taken to the whole milk pretty well overall. He's drinking about 10 ounces at Miss Eleanor's daily, and then he usually drinks a few more during his dinner. He's not been much into the idea of the sippy cup/whole milk before bed, though. I'm not sure that's a bad thing either. He's sleeping through the night just fine without an 8 ounce bottle of formula, so I'm not complaining that he's not drinking much before bed. I offer it to him anyway, and he pushes it away after an ounce or two.

But it's also easier for a baby (well, toddler) to give up the during-the-day bottles than it is to give up the before-bed bottle. He hasn't seen a bottle since last weekend, so I'm hoping that by the weekend, he'll have forgotten about it. Something Miss Eleanor said is that she thinks it's been easier with him than with other babies she's watched because Grace and DJ use(d) different kinds of bottles. So when Eleanor feeds Grace, DJ doesn't go bananas because he doesn't see that as his nor does it remind him of his. I thought that was an interesting dynamic that I hadn't thought of and glad it wasn't the case. :)

Hopefully, DJ will continue to be a trooper and keep going strong with the sippy cup so that I can put the bottles away, at least for a few more months...