Happy 15 Months!

Height: 33 in (90th percentile)
Weight: 23 lb. 9 oz (35th percentile)
Head circumference: 47 cm (40th percentile)

All of a sudden, time is going by really quickly as I watch Weston grow up.  After his appointment this morning, I had to schedule his next check-up, and I said, "I need to make an appointment for his 15-month physical."  The receptionist said, "You mean 18-month?"  I replied, "No, 15-month--oh wait, yeah, 18-month..."

Eighteen months sounds...old.  That's halfway from one to two.  I'm not ready for that.

He's already running through the house, and imitates just about everything I do, including talking on the phone.  It's hilarious.  His favorite thing to do is play cooking, and that's when the pots and pans come out of the cabinets.  I put them away about three times a day.  I've contemplated getting him a kid kitchen set, but what's the point?  He loves cooking with the real stuff, so we'll go with it.

One year ago in his bouncy chair...

 Here are some shots from our vacation last week up in Northern Michigan:

It took him awhile to get used to the lake

My little man

After a fun afternoon on Lake Huron

Enjoying the Outdoors with a Toddler

Those of you that know me, know that I am an avid outdoors-woman.  Camping, mountain biking adventures through the Rockies, hiking, water-skiing, etc.

But something happened in May 2011.  I had a little burrito.  And my life (and my lifestyle) instantly changed.

My experience has been this: Years ago, I thought, "I will not give in to the demands of a child and put my outdoor lifestyle on hold."  That has not turned out to be true.  Weston and I went camping last month out in Utah with my sister, and yes, it was challenging.  First of all, he did not want to fall asleep, and when he finally did, he did not sleep soundly nor long enough.  It wasn't a disaster, but it was a good reminder that neither he nor I were accustomed to sleeping in a tent with each other.

I imagine that had Nate and I taken Weston camping frequently throughout the past 15 months, then perhaps it would have been a little easier.  I have read that people say it's not that bad camping with a baby, as long as they're not crawling or walking yet.  Then after about age 3 or so, it gets easier to camp as they're able to understand adult directions and consequences.  So it seems that there's a window of a couple of years where it's fairly difficult to camp with a child.

We're currently in that window.  Weston wanted absolutely nothing to do with lying down for bedtime while in the tent.  It was much more exciting to run around and push on the sides of the tent and bounce back onto the squishy sleeping bags and air mattress.  I tried doing all the normal bedtime routines, like reading a story to calm down a bit.  Forget it--the zippers on the tent are A.MAZ.ING!

A couple of weeks ago, we took a little family vacation to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky to meet up with my dear friend from college and her hubby.  They were going to camp and wanted to know if we wanted to share their site with them.  I instantly flashed back to how sleep deprived I was on Friday morning after our camping experience in Utah.  I checked the weather--in the low 90s with 80-90% humidity.  How would he nap in that?

I googled "camping with toddler" and read a comment from someone about how our ancestors lived in the wilderness and so there should be no reason as to why we can't take our children camping.  I'm all for that, buddy, but our ancestors also didn't have tents set up in the blazing sunshine, and they had innovative ways to deal with the elements that may or may not be available to us (like sleeping under a rock overhang to keep cool at night).

So, I made the decision to rent a tiny cabin for two nights that had A/C and a bathroom.  It was still crazy trying to figure out how Weston was going to sleep in a one room place...we ended up setting up the pack and play in the bathroom, but realized that we couldn't close the door, so Nate took the shower curtain off the shower and hung it in the doorway to block out sound and light.  It worked quite well.  And I slept well both nights!

Weston's helping Kenton pack the Ninja cooler for our hike

Where'd it go?

Leah and I taking a break from carrying our children...

At Creation Falls

I Didn't Think Weaning Would Be So Hard...

Let me get something out in the open.  Weston is almost 15 months old, and we're still breastfeeding.  As he gets older, it gets more and more difficult to say that because I am very aware of how people I know (and society in general) think about breastfeeding past a year old, like it's some sort of freakish thing that crazy moms do.  Insert Time magazine cover here:

In fact, it's something that many moms do because they desire it and so do their toddlers.  The American Academy of Pediatrics is now on record as encouraging mothers to nurse at least one year and as long after as both mother and baby desire.  The World Health Organization recommends breast feeding for the first two years.


Despite all the claims that people make about it having no nutritional value past the first year, breast milk does indeed have lots of wonderful components (source: kellymom.com):
In the second year (12-23 months), 448 mL (almost 2 cups) of breastmilk provides:

• 29% of energy requirements
• 43% of protein requirements
• 36% of calcium requirements
• 75% of vitamin A requirements
• 76% of folate requirements
• 94% of vitamin B12 requirements
• 60% of vitamin C requirements

In addition, the health value is significant:
“Antibodies are abundant in human milk throughout lactation” (Nutrition During Lactation1991; p. 134). In fact, some of the immune factors in breastmilk increase in concentration during the second year and also during the weaning process. (Lawrence & Lawrence 2011, Goldman 1983, Goldman & Goldblum 1983, Institute of Medicine 1991).


As a first time mom, I don't understand the negativity with breast feeding past the first year.  Last year, I had co-workers (females with no children) say, "Why are you still breastfeeding?  I guess it's okay, but as long as you stop when he starts asking for it."


A newborn baby asks to be fed... right?  What's the difference if my toddler now can use something more than crying to ask for something he wants?  Oh, and thank you very much for your uninvited opinion on how to feed my child.


Anyway, I'm going back to work in a few weeks, and I've reluctantly started the weaning process.  I know that I don't want to pump anymore, so I thought that going to two feedings (morning and evening) would be manageable.  Manageable?  Sure.  But getting there?  Not so much...  Let me tell you, it's been rough.  Emotionally.  Like depressing and unexplained sadness.  In fact, it reminds me a lot of the baby blues.  Quick google search revealed that yes!  This is normal!


"One of the changes that occurs with weaning is a drop in prolactin levels. Prolactin, the hormone that stimulates milk production, also brings with it a feeling of well-being, calmness and relaxation."


Oh, how I am feeling that prolactin and oxytocin drop!  The only time of day when I consistently feel that All is Right with the World is when I am nursing.  Weston digs it, too.  Three days ago, I dropped the feeding before first nap.  He wasn't happy about it and let me know in the form of crying and pulling at my shirt.  I've stuck to it though, and he's adjusting.  I know when we drop the before-second-nap feeding, I'll more than likely go through another bout of sadness.  And so will he.


I knew this when I got pregnant: I wanted to breastfeed.  I was going to try and make it to a year, and that goal changed to "six months is good enough" when things got rough.  We made it to six months, and I thought, "Not so bad...A year isn't that far off."  As this past May approached, I decided that I had pumped for nine friggin' months, so I was going to enjoy a summer sans pumping and complete on-demand breastfeeding--just me and my little nursling.  And now, I have this very strong feeling that I will stop breastfeeding when he and I are both ready.  I read that as when we are both ready, he is ready, or I am ready. Not when others think I'm ready.

Sick.

By some grace card that we've been dealt, Weston has been one healthy little dude for the past 14 months.  He's had a slight cold here and there, but nothing serious, other than the lead poisoning we've experienced (which, by the way, has gone down significantly to 10.6 μg/dL, so we're doing well).


All is good, until Wednesday.  I was on the phone with a friend around 4 pm, and he got super fussy and crabby all of a sudden.  I picked him up to quiet him down, and noticed that he was really hot.  I took his temperature and it read 102.3.  Yikes.  I gave him some Tylenol to bring the fever down, and it helped a bit, but he was very clingy, irritable, not really eating, and just wanted to be held.  More teeth??  Those one-year molars are a doozie...  He did okay that night with some more Tylenol, but woke up early Thursday and still had a really high fever.  That whole day, he kept putting his head down on my shoulder and was not like himself.  Oh, the whining!  He took two really good naps, but was still burning up every time the Tylenol or Ibuprofen wore off.  There were no other symptoms, and now I was beginning to suspect roseola after reading up on it.  I also remember reading a blog post from a friend whose daughter experienced the same thing as Weston.

I figured this whole illness would pass soon, and he'd be on the mend by Friday...

Not so much.  We actually ended up bringing him to the doctor on Friday afternoon because his behavior was so unusual--playing fine, but then frequently crying out as if he were in pain; not napping; eating very little.  His fever was down in the 100s, but fearing an ear infection, we took him in.

Of course, they couldn't find anything wrong with him other than a slightly inflamed throat, so we were told to keep doing what we were doing--alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen, cool washcloths to bring down his temp, offering lots of fluids, and rest.  We put him to bed on Friday night with a dose of Tylenol.  At 12:30am, Nate was up playing online poker or something like that, and woke me up to the sound of Weston softly moaning and crying out.  We went in to check on him, and as soon as I took him out of his crib, I knew his temperature was going to be really high.  My little guy was cooking at 104.3.

I love my husband--we worked together to get him some Ibuprofen, water, cool washcloths, and we were able to bring his temperature down to 103, and he fell back asleep, but woke up again at 4:30.  Somehow, in his fever induced craze, he was able to put it together that waking up and crying in the middle of the night brings Mama in very quickly!  He fell back asleep for a little while, and the rest of the day on Saturday was a lot like the previous two days, except that I was getting more and more exhausted...  Let me say that dealing with a sick child is somehow quite similar to dealing with a newborn.

Sunday rolled around--nearly four days after the onset--and he had a rash covering much of his torso and neck.

Yup--roseola, a very common childhood virus, was the culprit.  He had a low-grade temperature, so that was improving significantly.  His appetite isn't quite back yet, and I think that has a lot to do with a sore throat, because he's hoarse.  It sounds super cute when he talks, but I know it's probably painful.  He also has some swollen lymph nodes on the back of his neck that will resolve in a week or so.


Here's to hoping that we can stave off any other illnesses for the rest of 2012!

A "Vacation"

Weston and I got back to Cinci last week after leaving about four weeks ago to drive to Wisconsin, spend time with family, and then hopping on a plane to Salt Lake City to visit my sister.  I had anxiety about traveling with a child (How's he going to nap?  Is he going to freak out on the plane, and I'll be that Mom that everyone wants to kill?  What if he refuses to take a nap at my mom's house?).  Some of it came true, some of it didn't, and the seemingly bad oftentimes had some good to it.

Con: He kept waking up at 5am at Central Time while we were in Wisconsin, no matter how early or how late we put him to bed.  Pro: I took advantage of his morning nap, and got to nap with him (like actually sleeping together in the same bed).  I haven't done that for a long time, and it was wonderful to cuddle with him.

Con: Airplanes suck.  The waiting, the cramped seats, Weston's inability to understand that he has to stay on my lap, etc. Pro: Other mothers are empathetic.  On our way back to Cincinnati from Salt Lake, we had an aisle seat in the back of the plane next to two other people.  Across the aisle was a woman, an empty seat, and a guy with the window seat.  As the number of people boarding was thinning out, the woman across the aisle turned to me and said, "Hey, it looks like no one else is going to take this seat.  Do you want to switch so that you have an empty seat?"  I looked at her like she was totally crazy for offering up her seat to me, and said, "Really??!??"  We switched under the agreement that I would "pay it forward" someday.  Absolutely!

Con: Camping with a little person is tough, especially if he's not used to it.  Weston didn't want to go to sleep the night we went--oh, the sounds of nature!-- and I finally got him to sleep at 10 pm.  He woke up at 5 am--oh, the sounds of nature!  Pro: The last time I went camping was on our 2010 Great Divide Route bike trip.  Living in a city, it's not likely that I get to stroll around at twilight, under the stars and a half moon, as hummingbirds buzz overhead.   It was totally peaceful, even as I was holding a sleepy baby, who now and again would catch a glimpse of the moon, point to it, and say, "Muh, muh."

In the tent

Weston Talks to Animals

It's been a great week so far out in Utah!  We braved 40 mph winds yesterday afternoon at the beach.

At the Jordanelle Reservoir 

Soaking up the rays with Deer Valley in the background

We stopped at Heber Valley Artisan Cheese this afternoon for some ice cream, and Weston kept signing "more" to Aunt Mary...  He's now napping after a sugar high.

Aunt Mary letting Weston help himself to some Cookies and Cream

Afterward, we stopped at a farm to let him check out donkeys and goats.  Uncle Shad said that Weston had his finger up the donkey's nose at one point.

Hello, Donkey!

A Visit With the Family

During a photo shoot with his cousin, Weston gets "offended" after Liam makes a move.


Wrestle Mania I from Robyn Weaver on Vimeo.

Retiring the Pump

I cannot believe that I made it through an entire school year (9 months...180 days or so) of pumping twice a day at work.  It's crazy, right?  I will not miss the freezer bags, washing the parts, "uhnnn...uhnnn...uhnnn," students knocking on my door and me yelling back, "I'm busy!" or better yet, administrators using their master keys to come in...

Nope.  I won't miss that.  Ever.

But I am so glad that Weston and I made it past a year of breast feeding.  That, plus I was able to go to work to have a roof over our heads, insurance, and food on the table.  A working, breast feeding mom needs the necessary--but evil--pump.

Many intimate moments, dear Medela, but you will not be missed!

Now that it's officially summer break, I'm free!  I do know that I'm not pumping when I go back to work in the fall (the World Health Organization recommends breast feeding at least until two years of age), so we'll most likely continue to nurse through the summer and then wean in August to just a morning and before bedtime feed.

Got Milk?

Do You Understand Me?

I teach English to students whose first language isn't English.  It's a challenging career choice, but I've learned over the years how to get my point across as well as figure out what my students are saying.  Drawing pictures and acting out scenarios are tactics that come in handy.

But...communicating with a child who doesn't have any language to begin with is slightly more interesting.  We're teaching Weston sign language whenever we can.  He can do "hot," "more," "dog," "bell" (we live near a church and the bells ring at 6pm every evening and he gets so excited when he hears them), and "duck."  There might be a few more.  Anyway, he has started to use the sign for "more" to mean "I'm-thinking-of-something-and-you-don't-know-what-that-thing-is-but-I-want-it-now-and-you-should-really-figure-out-what-I'm-thinking.  DUH."

My favorite example of this is when I get him up in the morning.  We go over to the window and look outside onto the backyard.  We have the kiddie pool and Weston's bike out there, and lately, he will make the sign for "more" while babbling excitedly about something.  "More" used to mean that he was hungry and wanted more food, but now I think it means "I want to swim / ride my bike / eat another banana."  Only he knows what he wants, but it's getting a bit easier to figure it out.

We've had some 90-degree days here, and Weston LOVES his swimming pool.  All day long: "Water?  Water?"


 

Gender Issue #1: Boys and Dolls?

Last week, I showed my class some of the pictures from Weston's first birthday as I took my turn to share with them how my weekend was.  As we came to the picture of him playing with his new doll, one of my students hollered, "Why does he have a doll?  He's a boy.  If you let him play with dolls, he'll become gay."  I laughed out loud, mostly because I was shocked by the ridiculousness of her statement, and told her that he wasn't going to become gay by playing with dolls.  The other students agreed with their classmate and thought I was totally nuts for letting my son play with a doll.

I didn't try to explain gender roles and social constructs to my class; I let it go.  I think it's precious how gentle Weston was with his doll when we first opened it up, and it's super cute when I say, "Molly's hungry!  Can you feed her?" and he grabs the spoon and shoves it into her mouth.

Gender stereotyping is such a funny issue.  I searched on Google for "boys playing with dolls" and was surprised to read how many parents were asking questions like "My one year-old son was over at a friend's house and he picked up a doll and started playing with it.  Should I be concerned?"  or  "My husband got mad at our son for playing with his sister's dolls the other day."  or  "Is it a crazy idea to let my son play with dolls?"

December 1974

This blogger discusses how gender roles have evolved over the past century.  It seems to me that boys are much more protected than girls are from the opposite gender's stereotypes.  For example, no one batted an eye when my older brothers taught me how to dribble a basketball at age 3.  Nor did any teacher call home to my mom in 3rd grade when I played with the boys at recess or in 4th grade when I picked the saxophone when I joined band.  I'm not sure what the current news is about where homosexuality stems--whether it's nature or nurture or none of the above--but I can tell you that this was the most recent news article when I searched for "what makes people gay":

Former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt Says Marketing Makes You Gay

Really?

I Hate Lead

It's was difficult to enjoy Mother's Day this year.  We had Weston's one-year physical last Monday and they did a finger prick to test for anemia and lead.  We got a call Tuesday from the pediatrician telling us that we had to go to Children's to get a venous draw because the first test came back positive for lead.  Not good.  So we went to Children's on Wednesday and Thursday (the first draw didn't yield enough blood so we had to go a second time).  Saturday our pediatrician called and said his blood lead level (BLL) was 16.4 μg/dL (micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood).


To make a long, worrisome story short, Weston's BLL is elevated.  Anything over 10 μg/dL is cause for concern, but after my hours and hours of researching lead poisoning on the Internet, there is no such thing as a safe BLL.  We have an appointment at the lead clinic on Wednesday, and from there they'll walk us through what our next steps are.


How did he get this??  No, he didn't get it from eating paint chips like is commonly thought...

Did You Eat a Lot of Paint Chips as a Kid?

I'm actually amazed at how babies and toddlers can pick up lead.  Because they're crawling around everywhere, exploring, and putting everything into their mouths, they can gradually accumulate lead in their system.  It's most easily obtained through ingestion.  Lead dust is something that occurs from lead paint that's been disturbed and not been properly removed.  We just moved into a completely renovated house that was built in 1892....lead paint was banned in the late 1970s...so it's most likely from the renovation dust that settled all over the house.  Of course, we cleaned before we moved in, but with a non-HEPA vacuum, which can just suck up the lead dust and blow it right out the back again.  I did wipe everything down with a wet rag, but obviously not well enough.

It's not easy to do either, especially keep calm

I really had no idea of the dangers of lead dust, or even what is was for that matter.  I'm more than angry about this whole situation, but we're getting it resolved.  The clinic works with the local health department and they will come out and do an assessment of the house to figure out where the lead is coming from.  In the mean time, we're washing his hands constantly and trying to mop the floors without vacuuming.  Our new Dyson HEPA filter vacuum should arrive on Wednesday...

What the What??!? Happy 1st Birthday!

Height: 32 in (96th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs. 8 oz (30th percentile)
Head Circumference: 47 cm (70th percentile)

It's funny to think that a year ago Weston wasn't much more than a newborn pile, barely able to hold his head up.  Now he walks around everywhere, says "nana" for banana, and can shove a toothbrush into his mouth when I ask him to brush his teeth.

Cooking a birthday breakfast

Washing his face in a puddle

We went out to dinner to Weston's favorite restaurant, Dusmesh.  He loves Indian food for some reason.  However, I do not love his diaper the following day...

He got a doll from Grandma and Grandpa, and it was so cute to watch him check it out after I took it out of the box.  He feeds her with the spoon and gives her drinks of milk out of her sippy cup.

Checking out her face

A thirsty baby...

My good friend Molly came in for the weekend from Pittsburgh, and she baked a chocolate cake for the Birthday Boy.

Safety First: He lets us know that the match is hot several times while we sing (we didn't have candles).  He knows the sign for "hot" and he makes a good effort at signing it while he stares at the candle.




He wasn't sure about the cake experience at first, but as you can see at 0:29, he successfully guides a giant chunk of cake into his mouth.

Our little creation

Finally here's a video of him walking around.  He's pretty confident, and now that he realizes that he can carry something in his hands and walk, it's a much better alternative to crawling.

One Year Ago Today...

...I was a very pregnant woman.  It was also my "official" due date for Mr. Belvedere, whatever due dates mean.


If I had known last year what I know now, I would have done several things differently.  I certainly don't have regrets about the last year; I'm just armed with experience and information.


First of all, I would have slept more after Weston was born.  Women said to me, "Sleep when the baby sleeps," and I didn't listen to that very well.  Mistake.  Sleep deprivation is an ugly thing, and it doesn't help with the postpartum emotional roller coaster.  One nap during the day doesn't cut it when dealing with a newborn.


I also think moving out of state and starting a new job four months after having a baby isn't advisable.  Having a baby is traumatic enough--no sense in adding more chaos.  However, we were going to move anyway, and it was inevitable.


I can't really speak about what happened to my body after having a baby, other than it's not the same, and I can't really expect anything other than that.  I've said it before--clothes fit differently and everywhere is "mushier."  I'd love to get a membership to the gym again and go on a consistent basis, but somehow 24 hours in a day doesn't seem to allot for that at the present moment.


It's hard to believe how my life has changed in the past year, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  Not even a flat belly.


By the way, here's my most recent favorite boy band:

My Queasy Stomach

No, I'm not expecting another baby...

I just want to know when that horrible feeling I get of weak knees and a queasy stomach will go away.  You know, the one I get whenever Weston is crawling too fast on concrete and I visualize him face planting, or when he's about to topple over off the deck into a pine bush because he came too close to the edge?

Yeah.  That feeling.  Am I cursed with this because I'm a mother now?  Is it worse because he's a boy?  It happens most frequently when concrete is below him.  Will it get better when he's mastered walking?

Yuck.

Spring Has Sprung

I still can't get a video of him walking, so in the meantime, these will have to suffice:

Shoving houska into his mouth on Easter

Mmmm...butter

A momma's boy

Playing on our deck

Having tea with Dad

At the Cinci Conservatory

Vitamin D!

Where's Dada's nose?

Happy Eleven Months!

This past month has been busy!  We're getting settled in our new home while trying to baby-proof...  Nate's mom and her husband came to visit last weekend, and now my mom is here.  Weston's been testing out his first steps, too!  He took his first steps on March 18, and these past few days, he's been experimenting with walking.  He's gotten about 6 steps in before toppling over.

He also did his first sign yesterday: more!
I don't mean to act like a zookeeper trying to get my little mammal to do tricks as I throw him chunks of fruit, but it was the only way to get him to do it so I could video it.

Seven teeth

It was also time to give Weston his first haircut.  His bangs were down past his eyebrows.  Right before bath on a warm 75 degree day, three adults attempted to cut his hair.  My mother was the stylist, Nate held him, and I photographed while trying to distract him.  What a chore.  It turned out pretty good--we had to touch up the front the following day.

How to Get Him to Sleep Through the Night

Oh my.  It only took me about 10 months to do it, but Weston's been regularly sleeping through the night for well over a month now.  I've read books, other's blogs, and all sort of things to figure out how to get him to stop waking up between 11pm and 2am to nurse.  Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child is a great book (but very poorly written--the guy needs an editor) to understand the physiological part of sleeping.  It mentions that after 9 months, babies don't need to eat during the night.  My problem?  He was eating every time I offered, so I figured he was hungry.  And he's not a fat baby by any means, so the mother in me kept going in to feed him because on some level I was afraid he would waste away.

Here's how the habit forms...He nurses when I offer, so then he wakes up the next night because he knows that last night he got to eat when he woke up.  And Mom won't refuse.

Weston: 1.  Mom: 0

But, then I started to get the feeling that he wasn't really that hungry.  He would nurse just a little bit to fall back asleep.  Besides, he had slept through the night before on a handful of occasions.  That's when it sunk in that I had created this habit.

He was expecting me to be there to feed him when he woke up.  There were many times when we tried to let him cry it out, but after 45 minutes of listening to a hysterical baby at 2 am, I couldn't do it.  And then when I saw a broken blood vessel in his eye one morning afterward, I felt horrible.  I know, the cry-it-out method says to let them be, but I really couldn't do it.  We let him cry himself to sleep for nap, but that lasts all of 10 minutes.

The night we moved into our new house, this was my plan: when he cried, I let him do so for 5 minutes.  Then, I went into his room and instead of picking him up to comfort him, I sat down on the floor and put my head next to the mattress and calmly told him, "You can do it.  You can calm down."  He stood at the crib railings, wailing out of frustration, but after about 3 minutes, he actually sat down and put his head on my hand and continued to cry.  I kept talking to him quietly and then he gradually toppled over and laid down, still crying, but not entirely unwilling to give this whole new thing a shot.  Rubbing his back and telling him that I believed he could do it, I stayed in there until he fell asleep.

The next two nights were the same thing.  Then it started to get a little harder.  He wouldn't calm down as quickly and if he laid down, he would get up again and wail at the railings.  I had to keep believing in him and the fact that he could indeed do this (thank you to Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman), and I would tell him that in a calm voice while trying to squeeze my arms through the crib railings as I would pat his back.

I'd say it was about a solid week of going into his room and "talking him down."  He had several nights of uninterrupted sleep, and then one or two more relapses, but since then, he's been sleeping from about 6:30 pm to 6 am!!  He still takes a morning nap and afternoon nap, too.

Now I need to figure out how to get me to sleep through the night...  Old habits die hard.

Saying No

This is Weston's latest thing...shaking his head no.  Thankfully, he doesn't use it to mean "no," so it's still cute.

I can't figure out how to turn the video, so you'll have to crane your neck.  Sorry.




I love how he pauses to rest after several rounds.

Happy Ten Months!

Weight: 21 lbs. 8 oz.
Height: ~31 in.

Weston's enjoying our new house, especially the stairs...  We didn't have stairs at our apartment, so they are quite an attraction. We have a nice little park near by, and we've gone many times since we've moved here.  He loves watching all the kids run around, and he's even made a friend, Ruby, a little girl who's about 5 months older than he.  She can walk and frequently comes over to pet Weston's head.  It's adorable.

The same six teeth that he got when he was 6 months old...nothing new since then

We're pretty sure that his word for "water" sounds something very similar to "daughter daughter."  He only says "mama" when he's crying, but will say "dada" all the time.

 Oh!  Did I tell you that he's been sleeping through the night for about 3 weeks now???!!??  That will be another post all on its own, but I feel like a new woman.

Going after the keys

His latest thing is holding a ball in his hand for most of the day.  He crawls around with it in his fist, making him look like he's got a peg leg.

Puff the Magic Dragon

I recently selected Peter, Paul and Mary on my Pandora music station while I was feeding Weston dinner.  I thought it would give him some good music to digest his dinner.  What he wasn't expecting was for his mom to burst into tears.


Let me back up about twenty years...  My sister and I spent every weekend with my dad when we were growing up after my parents divorced.  My dad was a creature of habit and when he liked something, he tended to always go back to it.  He loved Peter, Paul and Mary and had a double cassette called In Concert that we listened to ALL. THE. TIME. in his car.  I think my sister and I could sing the entire album if given the chance.


Anyway, when the beautiful children's song Puff, the Magic Dragon would come on, my dad would oftentimes tear up.  I never really understood why, until he explained the lyrics to me.  Basically, the story is about Puff and his playmate Jackie Paper, a little boy who eventually grows up and loses interest in the imaginary adventures of childhood.  Eventually, Puff dies without Jackie Paper around to believe in him.




My dad was a sensitive guy...


Back to 2012.  I'm feeding Weston dinner and Pandora chooses to play this song, and I start singing to Weston.  Out of nowhere, I start bawling.  I'm trying to sing along, but my throat is tight and tears are rolling down my face.  I keep thinking about my dad who passed away in October of 2010 when I was 3 months pregnant with Weston, and how unfair it is that he and Weston never met.  I'm actually irate about this--resentful at the whole situation.  And I'm surprised, too, that I'm feeling this way.


I don't think about my dad all day long and continue to mourn his passing.  I do, however, think about him throughout the week at all sorts of different times, and I especially love it when I have dreams about him.  When those happen (and I wish I had more dreams about him), I try so hard to hold on to them because they fade so quickly as the day wears on.  I still am tempted from time to time to hold down the number 5 on my phone and call him to relay the latest  funny thing that Weston did...


I still haven't deleted his name and number from my phone.