The Evil Vacuum Cleaner

Eleanor had told me some time ago that DJ is not a fan of the Dustbuster. In fact, she's demonstrated to me how he reacts. She uses the Dustbuster to clean up the food DJ has thrown overboard, and he starts to fuss almost immediately. He gets a very worried look on his face, too. Clearly, the Dustbuster scares him at some level.

Today, we decided to see how he'd react to the vacuum cleaner. I started in the back hallway and vacuumed both that and DJ's room. When I turned off the vacuum, Steve called out from the living room that DJ had been fussing, and even teared up. I was surprised to hear this since I wasn't even in his sights (and neither was the vacuum for that matter). Is it just the noise is so loud and droning?

To vacuum the living room, Steve sat on the couch with DJ on his lap. I brought the non-running vacuum cleaner over to DJ so he could see it while it was off. He touched it, but very hesitantly. I turned it on away from him, and proceeded to vacuum the living room rug. He fussed and had a very concerned look on his face the whole time, but he didn't cry.

I brought the vacuum back over to him and then turned it off so he could see it turn off. Although he wasn't pleased overall, he didn't seem traumatized. He definitely didn't want to let go of Steve for about 5 minutes afterwards either!

We'll have to work on the vacuum fears slowly. Good thing we stink when it comes to vacuuming regularly. ;-)

The 5 o'clock Sillies

I try to get to daycare to pick up DJ as close to 5pm as I can daily. Usually, I get there closer to 5:15.... which is a bummer because I like to spend as much time being able to sit there and just watch him play for awhile. Playing with Grace and a set of toys other than the ones at home leads to different reactions to things and I like to observe that.

When I arrive, I come in, sit down on the floor, and then DJ gets "The 5 o'clock Sillies". He becomes one big enormous gigglepuss who, if he could run, would, but can't so walks as fast as he can all over the room. He'll play hide-n-seek from behind the curtain and from behind you, do the "back up" where he turns his back to you and then backs up until he runs into you and has no choice but sit in your lap, he runs into your arms giggling... it's just mayhem!

More days than not, The 5 o'clock Sillies turns into DJ tripping and falling and knocking his head on something, ending The Sillies with some tears and cuddling. But it's just so predictable... maybe it's because he's showing off because someone new is there to watch him (our little extrovert!) or maybe it really is that he gets an energy boost right around 5pm. I have no idea, but it's adorable!

Recently, The 5 o'clock Sillies have also started to become the 7:00 AM Sillies. When I go into his room and start to figure out what he's going to wear, he starts to run around in his crib, play hide-n-seek from behind the bars and the diaper holder, and giggle like no other. When I go to pick up him to put him on the changing table, he's been "running away" from me giggling hysterically.

I could have had the worst day and that so puts a smile on my face!

Weekend update

DJ was one babbling little boy this past weekend. He just had a lot to say and not enough time to say it all! "Ra" became a second favorite syllable, and he also spent time stringing multiple syllables together, usually of the same sound e.g. "ra ra ra" but he'd use inflection to go with it. He may not be saying anything coherent to us, but he certainly thinks he's getting his point out!

I gave DJ a bath last night before bedtime, and one of his new "toys" to play with in the duckie tub is "pull the washcloth off the side of the tub" and then try to put it back. He will spend at least 10 minutes a bath playing that game with me. I'll finish bathing him, rinse the washcloth, and drap it over the side of the tub to dry. Instead, he pulls it right off... and then promptly tries to put it back up there. Of course I help, and he immediately pulls it off again. For added adventure, if he gets the washcloth in his bath water, he'll usually fling it around first, soaking me in the process!

DJ is also very happy that Daddy's back is a little better; DJ and Daddy rough housed a bunch this weekend, much to DJ's immense delight. :-)

Pointing and Communication

10 month old Grace learned to point with her finger at least a month ago. Meanwhile, sometime around his birthday, DJ started pointing at things, but with a full open hand. He had been "pointing" with an open hand to the "light" and the (ceiling) "fan", but that was it. Around his birthday, he started to point at very specific objects that he wanted, not just at things where he knows the names.

On Tuesday, Steve noticed that DJ was starting to mimick Grace and pointing with his index finger. The open hand "point" still happens, but the one finger point is happening a lot more frequently now.

His pointing is easiest to interpret at the table, as he points to his milk or whatever else he wants to eat at the time. Yesterday, I thought he was finished eating lunch. Instead, he pointed at MY lunch (english muffin pizza) and made the lip smacking noise he makes when he wants to eat/drink something. Ok then...! I shared at least half of an english muffin pizza with him!

When we've been outside (he *loves* outside - at least that hasn't changed since he was a newborn/infant), he's been pointing at things but because they aren't close, I'm having trouble interpreting what he seeing. Is it the tree? The leaves moving in the wind? No idea.

DJ's communication, overall, has been improving for sure and although when he learns to talk we'll be excited to truly communicate with him, I actually really like this method of communication now. It's a challenge, but it's so incredibly cute!! In fact, he's been babbling a lot more this weekend than we've ever heard him. He's stringing multiple syllables together with various inflections and sounds. He's not close to matching Grace in her prolific conversations with various objects, but he's certainly saying more than he had.

Monkey See Monkey Do

Earlier in the week, DJ's playmate at daycare, 10 month old Grace, tossed a Cheerio off of her high chair tray onto the floor. Eleanor and I were astounded as she had never done that and even DJ didn't start doing that until he was closer to a year old! Apparently, she's been watching DJ closely!!

Also earlier in the week, Grace would have nothing to do with the grass outside. You couldn't sit her down in it, stand in it, nothing, without her raising a royal fuss! But after watching DJ sit down and play in it on Wednesday, she was willing to sit in it on Thursday and play with it. Yay for Grace!

Grace has also learned how to crawl, pull up and stand as well as cut two bottom teeth all in the last month! She's been a busy girl!

Flower?

At Miss Eleanor's, there is an azalea plant still in its pot that sits on the kitchen table. Today, DJ kept pointing to it so Eleanor got it off the table and held it for DJ to feel it. Of course, I told him "gentle" which, of course, is not exactly gentle how you and I know it. For him, "gentle" is swatting, not pinching, pulling or otherwise rougher than swatting. In the process of his being "gentle", DJ managed to knock off one of its white flowers onto the floor.

Eventually, Eleanor picked up the plant and put it back onto the table. DJ picked up the flower and held it in his hand, very gently, in fact. Then he tried to put the flower back on the plant! He reached up and dropped the flower onto the table as far onto it as he could reach. Good boy!

New shoes for DJ!

I have been struggling with the "shoes" concept. It was my understanding that we're supposed to leave shoes - ones with real soles and stiff(er) sides off of baby feet for as long as possible to allow the baby to flatten his foot when he walks. Or something. I don't remember now.

We have a pair of Robeez (http://store.babycenter.com/product/baby+clothing/shoes/robeez/truck+sand+soft-soled+leather+shoes.do?asc=false) that we bought for our trip to South Carolina in February. We figured that the best thing we could do for DJ was to get him out of the carseat during stops and let him walk around (he was still holding our hands at the time) to give him some exercise. Therefore, we needed a pair of shoes, and Eleanor mirrored my thought... Robeez shoes. These things are THE BOMB. They're soft soled, they're very comfortable for the baby/toddler, cute as can be, and perfect for learning to walk. His first pair came from Lisa Garfield as an infant; they had race cars on them. :-)

But summer is here. And that means more outside time, and outside involves things that soft soled shoes might not stop from hurting a tender little foot.

I decided to do some light research on the subject, and started with my favorite online baby reference site, BabyCenter.com. I found this article about it which talked more about how to size/fit a shoe for a toddler than the shoe issue with which I've been struggling. Effectively, it said that as soon as your baby is walking, it's time for shoes. Article link here: http://www.babycenter.com/0_your-childs-first-shoes_1736073.bc?articleId=1736073&showAll=true. Ok, so I assume that's a valid answer. Now what?

Target. The Bull's Eye Boutique. Tar-jjjjay.

As I was perusing the shoe aisles looking for shoes his size, I found a pair of nice sandles to wear to work that do not require buckling. Excellent, I found a pair of summer pregnancy shoes. I won't be able to bend over to buckle anything very soon....

Then I found the kid shoe section. One aisle was dedicated to boys. The other 3 aisles were dedicated to girls. I was amused by this, and certainly not surprised.

The next problem... what size is he?! No idea. I walked by a display that said, "pre-walking shoes", so I stopped there to see if I could at least figure out the right size. There were soft soled shoes on that display as well as some harder tennis shoe type shoes. I picked up a pair sized 4, put the bottoms up against his foot bottom, figured they were close, and tried to put them on. No dice. That shoe was not going on his foot (he had socks on). Oh good, they have the same shoe in a size 5. That shoe actually went on his foot. He has about half an inch of room before his big toe hits the end of the shoe, so I'm thinking that I'm close enough.... and that they might last 2 months at his growth rate!

We take them home and while DJ is eating dinner, I put his new shoes on his feet. He wasn't exactly happy about them as he fussed a little, but food comes first so they were mostly ignored.

When he was finished, I put him down on the floor in his new shoes, and he just stood there. And then he started to *wail*. He didnt move, just cried. He wanted no parts of them. So I took both of his hands and showed him that he can walk in them around the kitchen. After about 10 minutes, his seemed to regain some confidence in his walking skills, and started walking in them on his own. But he really wanted nothing to do with them at first.

This morning, Miss Eleanor and I put his shoes on him so he could walk around in the kitchen. When Eleanor first put him down, he refused to move again. A short 5 pace walk to me with Eleanor guiding him reminded him that the shoes were not concrete blocks cementing his feet to the kitchen floor.

We'll see how the rest of the day goes.... :)

Baby Thumper

I've been able to feel the new baby kicking me for a number of weeks now. Unfortunately, the kicks weren't strong enough for Steve to feel then.

But now they are!! Earlier this week (monday?), Steve got to feel his first kick. It wasn't a whomp of a kick, but it was enough for him to know that it was the baby. Last night, however, he got a good solid whomp from the baby! Hi baby!!!

Molars have a function!

DJ has gotten all but one of his 1-year molars, and the one he hasn't gotten has one point through. It's just that the rest of the tooth hasn't come through yet.

Meanwhile, DJ is starting to figure out that those back molars actually serve a purpose in life. It makes chewing stuff easier and more efficient than using your front teeth. Neat-o!

DJ with Yiayia and Papou

DJ spent the afternoon with Yiayia and Papou yesterday. When they came in yesterday, he started out immediately with walking all over the living room, showing off all of his tricks with walking.

Before I left, DJ was playing with a puzzle and when Papou put a piece in and said, "yay Papou!", DJ clapped his hands for Papou! Cute!!

Apparently, DJ loved walking all over the yard yesterday, especially the stairs. He wanted to walk up them like a big boy! He saw Miss Mary, our next door neighbor, and all the neighbors' doggies, too.

I had taken him out into the yard on Saturday afternoon and after walking around parts of the fence, feeling spiderwebs and picking up rocks, he sat down in the grass. He pulled up grass and handed it to me, and then he found a stick that he poked into the ground at things. The doggies hung around us like they were protecting us (from squirrels??), I think. It was pretty interesting.

Meanwhile, he took a 2 and a half hour nap yesterday afternoon (wow!), and then wasn't hungry for dinner until 6:30, when he devoured the vast majority of a Hebrew National kosher hot dog. The bread Yiayia offered was instantly tossed overboard, but he also had some yogurt and star puffs. He went to bed late because he was having so much fun with Yiayia and Papou!

A side note: Daddy and I were reading a book to DJ called "I Am A Bunny" on separate occasions. Yesterday, I was reading it to him, and I noticed, when I got to a certain page, he would make the lip smacking sound like he wanted to eat/taste it. I said something to Steve, and he said that he'd seen the same thing and from a distance, to him, that page looks like food or something he'd eat. DJ has been showing us that he wants to try something by smacking his lips together, so this had to be it. He apparently did it for Papou, too, when Papou was reading the book to him, too. During dinner last night, DJ saw Papou's soda, pointed at it (with an open hand) and then smacked his lips because he wanted to try some! No Diet Coke for you, yet, little boy! LOL

Daddy?

I took DJ in to our bedroom to wake up sleeping Daddy yesterday. After a few wiggles and squirms and squeals of delight, DJ turned to Steve and said, "Dad---y." He swallowed the second syllable, but holy cow did it sound like "Daddy". We both looked at each other wide eyed; it was clear we'd heard the same thing. Steve said then that when he said "doggy", it sounded very similar to that. He got "dog--y" out but swallowed the second syllable. We haven't heard either word since, though. :-(

Some DJ updates

DJ now holds the toy phone up to his hear and walks around with it next to his ear. It doesn't matter whether he's holding the phone correctly, but he's doing it! :)

DJ has also figured out that sunglasses go on your face. Again, upside down vs right side up doesn't matter, but he puts them on!

DJ knows where a "nose" is, shoes, socks, hair, head, the (ceiling) fan, the light, "blow a kiss", wave bye-bye, throw a ball, and we think he's starting to figure out that a spoon goes in the bowl when he's eating, though the coordination is far from that. He's been walking like a champ, and he still "leads with his head". The poor boy has more bumps and bruises on his head than anywhere else on his body, just like his Uncle Dave!

He loves his milk and sippy cup, and is definitely exerting independence when it comes to eating. He will eat a variety of foods still, but I think it has to be on his terms. Giving him his own spoon while you're spoon feeding him seems to help.

He seems to know what "trade hands" means, but I think it's just habit and he knows what's coming. When I putting a shirt on him and he's holding a toy, I ask him to "trade hands" - put the toy into the other hand while I put his free hand through his sleeve. He also knows when I'm going to put a shirt over his head... he'll raise his arms up over his head (as in "sooooo big!") and so then I have to tickle his belly to get him to put his arms down. Fun game!