New Pictures

This weekend, Kristen did the Danskin Triathlon. I don't have any good pictures from the race, but I have a few of Davis during the race. We are no longer using his car seat in the Bob stroller, so he can now sit up and see the world.

Here, I think he is concerned about what he sees (me):

Grandma and Grandpa took care of Davis for most of the race. Davis seemed to need to be walked in the stroller for the entire race, so afterward, all 7 of us (Davis, Grandma, Grandpa, Kristen, me, Domino and Lilly) all had a long afternoon nap.

Here are Davis, Grandma and Grandpa before the race:

We've been spending a lot of time with Davis on his tummy. He is doing better at rolling over and getting quite a bit stronger. Using disposable diapers makes it a lot easier than the cloth diapers which are about three times as bulky. In this way, having the dryer go out and being unable to wash diapers was a little bit of a blessing.

Here, Kristen is supervising the little guy on his tummy. The idea is to get him to lift head and reach for the toy:

It seems to be working, or Davis is just determined to progress regardless of what we do. He was able to roll over front-to-back and back-to-front last week while in a disposable diaper. I've uploaded a video of one of his first rolls to picasa web albums.

Davis seems to need a lot more stimulation than he did a couple of weeks ago. The mobile in the crib is entertaining him for shorter durations of times. Today, Grandma and Domino cleaned off the bouncy chair and tonight we tried him in it again. A couple of weeks ago, we tried him in it, but he was not quite strong or tall enough for it. Today, he had a blast in it. He grabbed and played with the toys and was much better at sitting / standing in the chair. I love his facial expressions.

He came out of the chair right after this.

A video of him in the chair is also available in our picasa web albums.

A week of firsts

The blog has been silent for a bit as our days have grown more rich with both grandma and grandpa in town, but our home has not been silent! Davis is growing by leaps and bounds. This week we witnessed his first roll, his first cold, and his first almost whole night of sleep. Luckily, his cold has died down to just a stuffy nose, which is preventing him from sleeping well on a flat surface and nursing well, but all else is well. We took him to the pediatrician where she confirmed it was simply a viral upper respiratory infection and would take its course in 7-10days. She also made his parents proud when she said "These are six month skills!" Davis is quite strong and really wants to sit up. I think he also is learning faster since he has had, at minimum, three adults full time watching him and playing with him. We're a bit worried about what will happen when it's just us in September, but Grandma points out that daycare will provide a whole different sort of stimulation.

This week Davis also rolled from his tummy to his back, four times in a row! Of course, it seems now that no longer how long I leave him on his tummy he doesn't roll, but someday again. I was really surprised it was in that direction since I've really been working on showing him how to roll from his back to his tummy. Of course, perhaps this means that kids learn better in self-discovery mode?

We had our best night ever last night. He slept from 9:00pm to 2:30 am and THEN from 3:15 to 6:30. We had seen a couple of stretches like that first one, but then it's typically followed by a baby who wakes up every 30minutes to an hour for the rest of the morning, so this was HUGE. No expectations of course, just gratitude.

Favorite Song

Davis' favorite song right now is a great little number about counting and the food chain. Kristen learned this in her mom's group.

It goes:

3 little monkeys, swinging from a tree
Taunting Mr. Alligator, can't catch me, No you can't catch me

(whisper)
Along came Mr. Alligator, quiet as can be
and snapped a monkey right from the tree

(repeat for remaining monkeys)

There are hand motions that go with each part of the song. He really enjoys the hand motions and the whispering part of the song and seems to anticipate the snapping of a monkey from the tree.

Grammie made up an alternative version of the song:

3 little squirrels hanging on a tree
Teasing Miss Lilly Cat You can't get me, No you can't get me!

Along stalks Miss Lilly Cat quiet as can be
and snatches that squirrel right out of the tree.

(repeat for reaming squirrels)

No little squirrels hanging on the tree.
One Miss Lilly Cat as happy as she can be!

Baby's first cold and mystery repairman

A couple of days ago Davis became quite fussy, at least by Davis standards. We took his temperature and it seemed normal. Then last night John and I realized he was coughing quite a bit and sounded really congested, so it's pretty official Davis has his first cold. It's heartbreaking, although he seems to be doing alright all things considered. I'm now working at home until I can call the pediatrician at 8:30 to see if they have a recommendation.

Another interesting story is that the heat on our gas dryer has gone out. A Sears repairman came yesterday to work on it. When I left him in the basement he said he would call when he was done. Davis and I headed to Yoga, but Grandma was here and she went to check on him and it was pretty clear he didn't know what he was doing. My mom wished him luck and he said "Yeah, I'm going to need it". Not much for inspiring confidence. Around noon she heard him leave (about an hour and a half after he started), but he didn't call. When she went down there the dryer felt warm, but there were extra parts in front of the dryer and blood on the dryer door. So I called Sears to make sure he hadn't died trying to get himself to the hospital. I never heard, but when John came home he found a receipt stuffed in the mailbox that made it look like it was a thermocycler that had gone out (or some such part) and the repair was complete. Unfortunately, the dryer still doesn't work, no heat. So what we can guess is that he cut himself during the repair but he was able to get the heat to work and so he left a receipt in place of a phone call, but that whatever caused the failure in the first place caused a second failure after he left. Another (I hope someone else) is coming tomorrow to give it another whirl. Yesterday marked a year to date for the dryer purchase and so John bought additional warranty coverage since the other thing the repairman said to my mom is "I've replaced everything I can"...I think the $150 spent will be well worth it in the coming three years.

New Pictures

We didn't take a whole lot of pictures this week.


Davis in his carseat at the BBQ tonight. Driving to the BBQ provided a perfect opportunity for a much needed nap:

This really makes his feet look a lot bigger than they are. But he does have really big feet. He has feet as big as a lot of 1 year olds:

I'm not sure what this says about my parenting skills. Maybe I shouldn't be putting this stuff on the internet.

Grandma and Davis:

We tried Davis in his bouncer this week. We decided he is still a little bit small for it and needs to be a little more stable sitting up:

Pictures from this month are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/john.naegle/200907Davis

Weekend Update

Its been a while since our last post, and I apologize for that. I really don't know how to tie all these thoughts together, so here you go:

• Davis has two modes: friends and strangers. He is smiley, giggly and happy with friends and concerned with strangers. Apparently Kristen was the same way as a baby.
• Tummy time is going much better. Davis can really prop himself up on his arms. Instead of 30 seconds of tummy time, we are getting minutes.
  
• Davis rolled over for the first time on his own this week.
• We think Davis will really like sleeping on his tummy. He needs to be able to roll over more reliably before we feel comfortable with him on his tummy.
• Davis slept for 3 hours in the crib one time -- a new record.
• Sleep is getting a little easier. When he wakes up at night now, he mostly stays sleepy instead of getting very excited. This has made it a lot easier to get him back down to sleep. Getting him to bed in the first place has still been tough, but things are going better. We are still using the swing a lot and are very thankful to have it.
  
• Davis is reaching out for things a lot more. He has grabbed for toys, people and even reached out and petted / grabbed Domino a little.
• This was our first week, of 6, with Grandma taking care of Davis. They are doing really well together. Just like when grammie was here, I'm really happy that family can take care of him instead of daycare and they get this bonding time together.
  
• We have new glass doors between our office and living room. When our laundry was drying in the office with the doors closed, Domino tried to jump onto the rack from the living room. I'll leave you to imagine what happened.
• I hurt my back last week (I think a combination of riding too hard last week and straining my hamstrings and doing a lot of work in the basement). I was only able to ride to work one day this week. It is improving.
• Our weather was hot and muggy this week. I was really thankful for having ceiling fans and air conditioning.
  
• Kristen got a new netbook computer. Its super small, which works great for taking back and forth to school to use while pumping and on the train. Its been a great investment so far.
• Grandpa comes this Wednesday for two weeks. We're all looking forward to it. Unfortunately, he is somewhat allergic to the cats, which means a battle to keep them out of the second bedroom has been going on. If you have spent any time with our cats, you'll know they a) love going where they shouldn't and b) love sleeping on clean clothes / sheets / pillows.
  
• Our dryer broke this week. We can do about 1/2 load per day on the drying rack. The repairman from Sears is coming Tuesday and it should be under warranty (by about 5 days).
  
• I took the car to the shop twice this week and still don't have ABS brakes. I'm going to have to take it to the Honda dealer in Newton to see if they can fix it next week. The theory is there is something wrong in the master control computer. It has burned through three brand new left-read sensors so far. I think I've been to the shop now a total of 8 times for ABS work (only charged the first time at each place though).
  
• Next Sunday is the Danskin triathlon. Unfortunately, we have to go out and pick up the registration packets on Saturday, so that means at least 4 hours of driving with Davis this weekend. I'm super excited for Kristen though. She just amazes me.
  
• We went to a nice BBQ at Dave and Megan's tonight with Davis and Grandma. Good friends, good food, good conversation. We stopped for ice cream on the way home.
• Saturday we went to a first birthday party. It was like having a look into the future. I can't belive how much he will develop in the next year. Just amazing. I'm really looking forward to seeing it.
• One of our favorite songs with Davis is the Monkey Song. It goes "3 little monkies, swinging from the tree / teasing Mr. Alligator, can't catch me / no you can't catch me / (whisper) along came Mr. Alligator, quiet as could be / and snapped (make a clap) a monkey from the tree" There are hand motions that go with each part and you then repeat for 2 and 1 monkies. Yesterday at dinner, I was holding Davis while Kristen sang the song and I moved Davis' arms to the song. He absoutley loved it. He was just estatic.
• Kristen gave me a great haircut this weekend. It reminded me of something I asked her last time she cut my hair: Question: "How is my gray hair?" Answer: "Thinning". I think it is funny.
  
• We booked our tickets to go to Seattle. We'll be there from August 27th to September 6th (those are our travel dates). We are really looking forward to being there (not so much the travel). We have a direct flight out on Jet Blue and used some miles to come back on American Airlines with one stop (the Jet Blue return is a red-eye). We don't have a lot of solid plans yet for Seattle, but would like to go to our friend's wedding reception, celebrate our aniversary, see family and friends and relax. It sounds like there is a good chance that James, Stephanie and Melanie will be in Seattle also around that time.
  
• I'm probably going to get a webcam sometime soon. I discovered video-chat with James last weekend and really enjoyed seeing Melanie. We'll probably get setup with Skype and google video chat. We just have to get the webcam and figure out why the microphone didn't work.
• I haven't taken a lot of pictures this week. But I have some. Hopefully my next post will be some pictures of the little guy.

TMI Mom blog 'goes live'

Well, I finally decided on a name for the blog I started that contains parenting tips and local resources. I called it TMI Mom...I came up with the name when I was talking to our friends AJ and Susan. AJ always teases me for sharing way too much information (slang: TMI for too much information). AJ isn't the only one, it's a personality quirk of mine. I realized it was a nice double entendre with the fact that I started a blog to hold information for which I was receiving/reading/learning too much of to keep track of it all. I have enough posts and I'm happy enough with the layout that it went 'live' today. In other words, I sent it to people and I hope they like it!

Here it is: TMI Mom