New Accomplishments!

So, like most babies his age, Peanut Butter Cup has been changing and growing by leaps and bounds (not so much physically, as mentally, but he has gotten bigger!). Yesterday for instance he did an AMAZING job of feeding himself with a fork!

Want to know what the funniest part of the whole thing was?

We were eating fish, green beans, and rice, and every time he would get a green bean or some rice on his fork he would pause for a second, shake his head 'no', and then continue to move the fork toward his mouth. Then when he was about ready to put it in his mouth he would stop and shake his head again, then he would wiggle his fork so it would fall off and he wouldn't have to eat it! We thought it was hilarious watching him 'argue' with himself -- it was like he was telling himself, "Eat it!" "No, I don't want to!" "I really should eat it!" "NO! Yucky!". :-)

He didn't have a problem with the fish at all, so I guess he's going to be a 'meatatarian' like his daddy!

Yesterday was also the first day that he has taken a nap in his crib. He usually takes his nap in his swing, but eventually he is going to outgrow it, and he has been waking up more lately when I first put him down in it, so I decided to see how he would do with napping in his crib. Today has been better than yesterday so far. Yesterday he only slept for about 50 minutes because a truck with a high-pitched hum of sorts was sitting somewhere on the road in front of our house for a while and it woke him up. So far today he's been asleep for about an hour and 20 minutes. So, we may be done with the swing! That would be nice as it would open up a good chunk of the nursery if we could put it away. Don't get me wrong though, I have been VERY grateful for the swing! Sometimes (especially when Peanut Butter Cup was a newborn) that has been the ONLY way he will go to/or stay (a)sleep.

My husband (whom I will be referring to as DH from now on, unless I think of something more appropriate! Ha ha!), taught Peanut Butter Cup how to say 'Hi/Hey" on Monday! He doesn't do it very often, but he's always so cute when he says it -- he'll say it with a big grin on and then he'll get all shy and bury his face for a few seconds into the shoulder of whichever one of us is holding him. :-)

Last weekend it sounded like he tried to say "buddy" a few times over the span of a couple of days, but we aren't sure if he really did or if it was our imaginations. So, now I don't know whether to consider "bubble" (which he only said once, several months ago), "buddy", or "hi/hey" to be his third word. :-p

Oh yeah! Peanut Butter Cup had his 12 month well baby appointment back on December 23rd (yeah, I know that was more than a month AFTER he turned one, ha ha). The doctor didn't tell us where he stood in the 'percentiles', just that he was on the lower end, but she wasn't concerned because she could tell he just takes after his parents. :-) Thank the Lord! I was worried she would be one of those doctors who wouldn't take that into consideration and would tell us that we needed to start supplementing him or something. Anyhow, he weighed 18 pounds 2 ounces (if I remember correctly -- it may have been 18.2 pounds instead), and they measured him at 29 inches long, but the nurse that did that kind of went down underneath his head instead of making a mark even with the top of his head, so he is actually a bit taller.

The doctor was also pleased that I am still breastfeeding him, which made me like her even more. I think maybe the fact that she was German had something to do with her being so laid back about that. . .after all, the minimum recommended breastfeeding age in Europe is two years old, unlike the American recommendation of only a year.

Peanut Butter Cup also got some cream for his ringworm spots that he's had since early December (we aren't sure if he got them from Copper -- who didn't have any sign of them -- or if he got them from the sand at the beach. His original spots are clearing up now, but a few more smaller ones have popped up, so we have been putting cream on them as well. If they don't go away soon I may end up having to take him back in to see what the doctor has to say again.

Why Is There No Cake?!

 Well, I'll tell you why. =) There are really two reasons for the lack of cake. Firstly, when we moved, we got behind on introducing new foods, and I know you are probably thinking "Well, you've had plenty of time since then to get caught up." And you are correct. However, we have been taking our time (we're not in a huge rush), and going slow. That being said, we are still behind and Peanut Butter Cup hasn't really been introduced to any grains yet--I know, shocking right? We will be trying oatmeal out (I'd say again, but he really only got a taste of it the first time because he was too tired to be interested in eating on our first try) in the near future, and will move from there to other grains.

More and more parents are becoming aware of the potential risks of introducing foods too early or too quickly. Doing so with certain foods may cause a baby to develop an allergy to that particular food, which is what we've been trying to prevent--especially since a food allergy sticks with you for the rest of your life! Even though Peanut Butter Cup may be out of (most of) the "too early" category, we don't see a need to risk it and possibly overwhelm his body with a ton of new stuff all at once. Are we being over-protective? Maybe, but I'd rather err on the side of over-protection than wish we'd done things differently later.

The other really big reason why there wouldn't be a cake even if he'd already been introduced to grains is sugar. A.K.A. cake frosting. We don't see the need to introduce sweets/junk food to our baby at this point in time. In the interest of trying to develop healthy eating habits (and yes, this is something I've researched and read about, so no worries that I've developed this theory on my own =) we will be holding off on giving Peanut Butter Cup sugar until he is older. Would allowing him to have frosting one time really make him a sugar 'addict' (ha ha)? No, probably not, but I still don't feel the need to give it too him this time around. It's not like he's going to know any different anyhow, so we will wait until next year for him to have a birthday cake.

He may or may not develop healthy eating habits that carry on throughout his life, but I'd rather try to instill them right from the start than just give him whatever and hope for the best.

So, there you have it, the reasons why there was no cake for Peanut Butter Cup this year.

Tooth Number 3 is in Sight!

I'm pretty sure I can see a little bit of Peanut Butter Cup's middle upper right tooth as of today. I'm not 100% sure as the little munchkin has a habit of never staying still long enough for me to get much more than a glimpse of what is happening in there, and he hasn't been too keen on me feeling in there due to his gums being sore. However, from the glimpses I did manage to get, it looked like the tooth was either starting to break through, or is getting very close to doing so!

Oh, a quick update on his sleeping pattern of late . . . I think it is mostly due to separation anxiety, along with discomfort from teething and other things. Some nights are better than others, while others are how I described them before. Most likely though, it is just Munchkin needing a little extra closeness to help him feel more safe and secure. Hopefully this stage won't last for a LONG time, but I will be there for him as long as he needs me. "This too shall pass . . . ."

Peanut Butter Cup tried Butternut Squash for the first time tonight and seemed to like it . . . I'm hoping to try avocados with him again in the near future, but I'm not sure when exactly that will take place. I have been working on restocking our freezer with homemade 'baby cubes' for the past couple of weeks. I still have a lot of fresh/frozen produce I need to steam/cook and freeze in the next few days, so hopefully Peanut Butter Cup will entertain himself long enough for me to get a lot done in the near future. :-)

Well, I should be heading to bed soon! Have a blessed day!

Peanut Butter Cup is 6 Months Old Now!

As of the 11th of this month (I know I'm a little behind), my little Peanut Butter Cup turned six months old. It's so hard to believe that half a year has passed since he was born. I know I say that every time we reach (and pass) a milestone of some sort, but it's as true now as it has been in the past. My husband and I were going through some pictures of Peanut Butter Cup from when he two weeks old on up, and it's simply amazing to see how much he has changed in such a short period of time. It's been an amazing past six months -- that is for sure!

Peanut Butter Cup tried Sweet Potatoes for the first time this past week. He doesn't really like them so far, but I think one of the biggest reasons for that is the difference in texture and thickness from the banana. He's eaten a little bit more each day. . .he reacted almost the same way to the banana at first, and now he really seems to like them (the bananas), so I have hope that he will get used to them and learn to like them in the near future.

Remember last month when I posted about Peanut Butter Cup not wanting to sleep unswaddled? Well, for past week and a half or so, he's been showing signs of being ready to sleep unswaddled, so Friday night we decided to give it another try and see how it went. This is the third night and so far so good. . . . He wakes up a lot more frequently currently (last night he woke up five times), but he hasn't been anywhere near as difficult to put back to sleep as he was the first time we tried. Last time I would nurse him and put him back in his crib which would then cause him to wake up, roll over, and immediately start to cry; then it would be a battle to get him back to sleep for close to an hour at times. This time after I nurse him and put him down he usually wakes up, rolls over, and starts to cry, but I just rub his back and sing or hum our special lullaby and he is usually back to sleep within five minutes. There have been a few times when I put him down that he doesn't even wake up, so I think waiting for him to be ready to be unswaddled helped immensely. Hopefully he will continue to do well without the swaddler and will eventually get used to it and sleep for longer stretches at a time. Last time we tried it was on night three that we gave up and started swaddling him again (he'd just gotten more and more unhappy with each passing night), so I'm VERY excited that he is doing so well!

Karissa and Courtney left on Friday. . .it was so good to have them here -- and so sad when they left! I hope they enjoyed their visit here as much as we enjoyed having them. Too bad they have lives and responsibilities they had to go back to, we could have quite happily kept them for forever. :-)

Long Time, No Post

I didn't mean to be absent from posting here as long as I have been; it's just that things have been really busy around here this past week and I haven't had much spare time to even think about blogging.

I'm back now though! Miss me? You don't have to answer that, ha ha.

Anyhow.... Happy Mother's Day (late, I know, sorry!) moms, soon-to-be moms, and grandmas!

So, to catch up briefly...Peanut Butter Cup didn't really go for the avocado, it was a bit too thick for him currently, but when he's got the whole solid food thing down a little bit better we'll give it another shot.

Please ignore the bit of avocado in his nostril. Whenever I see it I sub-consciously wipe my nose, ha ha... :-)

I think his face here says it all.

"Ummm...eeeeww."

Okay, moving on now.

We finally made it to the zoo this past Saturday! It was wonderful to have the day out (and it was a beautiful day, praise God!) and to be able to spend time with my husband and Peanut Butter Cup. One of my husband's friends came as well along with his fiancee which meant that my little munchkin spent a lot of time getting passed around -- surprisingly he did really well. He's supposed to start going through the whole 'stranger-anxiety phase' soon, but I guess it hasn't really set in yet.

I haven't had a chance to edit any of the photos from the zoo trip just yet, but after I do I'll make sure to post some for y'all to critique.

Karissa and Courtney (two of my best friends) arrived late last night! I am SO excited that they are here...they are staying until Friday I believe, so I am pretty psyched about this week!

Oh, and a quick update on the quest to find permanent and temporary homes for the animals...Titan has a place to stay now, and Panda Bear went to his new home yesterday afternoon...we didn't expect to miss the crazy psycho as much as we do--which really makes me nervous about finding a home for our other cat Penny. :-( We are still not sure about what we are going to do with Quigley (in regards to keeping him or giving him back to the breeder). We just don't know if he can be trusted with Peanut Butter Cup since the child next door has antagonized him so much that he has become aggressive towards him. 

Well, I guess I'd better go for now. I'll try to post again soon. 

Of Bananas, Fingers, and Spoons :-)

Karissa, this post was inspired by you! :-) 

You may be wondering why we chose bananas instead of rice cereal (or anything else for that matter :-) as the first solids to introduce to our little Peanut Butter Cup, and the answer to that question is pretty simple. Peanut Butter Cup is a breastfed baby and breast milk is a very sweet substance. While I was doing research about introducing solids to a baby, I read that formula is very bland (as is rice cereal), whereas breast milk is sweet (and so are bananas--which is what makes them an ideal first food for breastfed babies). So, it was suggested that a baby may be more accepting of the new substance being placed in his/her mouth if it's flavor was similar to what the baby was already used to. So, there you have it, that is why we decided to start with bananas.

Now, in case anyone has been wondering why I was using my finger to feed the banana to him, it's not because I don't have any baby spoons! Ha ha! That was another topic I read about during my research. A baby is already used to his/her mother's finger and will more readily accept it into his/her mouth than a spoon--which obviously is a completely foreign object initially--so paired with a new substance, some babies may be less willing to try the food. Hence, introducing solids with a finger. Cutting out one new thing and introducing them one at a time instead of all at once just seems to make the transition to solids a little more pleasant from where I stand. :-) I'm all about setting Peanut Butter Cup up for success from the beginning.

Peanut Butter Cup ate off of a spoon for the first time this morning. We had tried introducing it a couple of times this past week, but he wasn't ready for it just yet. This morning though he was much more accepting of it, so we'll see if tomorrow will be the same.

Bananas!

Okay, so I actually got a chance to sit down today and go through, pick out, and then edit several photos of Peanut Butter Cup's first experience with solid food. Enjoy!

"Hey, why am I in this thing?"

"Ooo, Mommy's finger!"

 "That's not Mommy's finger!"

 "Eeewww! What was that?!"

 "Mommy, what are you trying to do to me?"

 "No more, please. Ever."

Bananas and HE SAID MA-MA!!

This has been quite an eventful week for my little Peanut Butter Cup -- first we decided to go ahead and introduce solids Monday morning, so I mashed up some banana for him (I'll have to post some pictures of his expressions from that first foray into the world of solids after I get a chance to go through them and pick out a couple), then this morning he was holding my finger (and talking to it apparently, ha ha) and he said "Ma-Ma." I know he doesn't associate me with "Ma-Ma" just yet, and he hasn't said it again since then (not together anyhow, he has said "Ma" with other baby coos and such since then), but that still doesn't lessen my excitement over the fact that he said it. His first word!! Unless of course we count when he said "Rawr" plain as day sometime last month. That was so funny -- his face after he said it was priceless. :-) Though I guess "Rawr" doesn't really count as an actual word.

I wonder when he will say "Ma-Ma" again? I can't wait! :-) He melts my heart (though I think that has probably been a pretty common occurrence around here since his arrival!).

Oh, and today Peanut Butter Cup is 24 weeks old! 

Well, I just wanted to share! Hope y'all are having a good evening!