Happy Halloween!

... from your favorite dragon.

Mmm... pumpkin!

8 months, 2000 hits

You: How old is Owen now?
Me: 8 months, today.
You: Is he crawling yet?
Me: No, not unless you count the "wounded soldier" crawl where he drags himself around with one (his right) elbow. He also gets up on all fours and revs back and forth, but as soon as he wants to move anywhere, he drops down on his belly for the wounded soldier bit. He's been rolling around like mad, and seeming "about to crawl," since late June.
You: Are you still nursing him?
Me: No - about two or three weeks ago he started absolutely refusing to nurse. I kept offering at every feeding, and gave him breastmilk in a bottle for a while, until it became clear that this is what they mean by "self-weaning." So now, after 17 months, I'm back to eating for one.
You: Does he have teeth yet?
Me: No, despite showing signs of teething (drooling, chomping on things) for months and months, no teeth yet! It turns out both Mike and I were late teethers (at 10 months), so it could still be a while.
You: What is his newest trick?
Me: Waving! Saturday morning he was sitting on his Nana's lap, and I waved to him, and to my utter surprise and amazement, he waved back! He's been doing it off and on ever since. So exciting!
You: How's the blogging going?
Me: We got our 2000th visit today. Thank you so much for making it a success!

Cheerio!

After Owen's 6-month checkup in August, we found out that we had to start feeding him. OK, so I know that not long before that I posted a cute little picture of him eating some rice cereal. But that was kind of fun and casual - oh look, he's so cute gagging himself with a spoon. It wasn't REAL. At his 6-month appointment, though, it turned out that our hungry little bundle of joy was drinking twice as much milk as he needed to, and was more than ready for three meals a day. I asked the doctor what sorts of foods he should eat, like, which pureed vegetables and fruits he might enjoy. And she said, yes, all of those, and also, Cheerios, and... meat! It was a difficult moment. The thought of having to think about his nutritional requirements, and balancing his need for food and milk, made me almost miss the days of nursing him every three hours around the clock.

Finally, almost two months later, we have introduced rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, squash, apples, bananas, peaches, pears, Cheerios, barley, corn, and (today) beef. He strongly prefers food to milk, and it's a struggle to get him to drink the 20-24 oz of breastmilk or formula a day the doctor recommends. But he loves food, and he's not at all picky. He opens his mouth wide for every bite, and cries, or screams, if the bites don't come fast enough.

A few weeks ago we started giving him Cheerios. After observing him grabbing toys for months, we had thought of him as a rather dexterous baby... he could get just about any toy into his mouth. But the Cheerios were a whole new world. We learned, for example, that he has absolutely no idea that he has thumbs. I don't just mean opposable thumbs. I mean any thumbs at all. And there is no error correction - once he manages to pick up a single Cheerio, usually between his index and middle fingers, he gives that Cheerio one - and only one - chance to make it into his mouth. If it misses, which it usually does - sticking to his chin, or his cheek, or staying on his hand - it doesn't matter, he just dives right in, reaching for the next Cheerio (with his index and middle fingers, of course).

Bookworm

Books are one of Owen's favorite things. He likes all kinds of books: cloth books, paper books, board books. He likes to open them and turn the pages. He likes to look at the bright colors. He likes to eat them. The corners are especially tasty.

Got milk?

The (not so) lazy days of summer, Part II

Goodbye, one more time, to this summer of babyhood. Goodbye, daytrips to the beaches of Cape Ann, Cape Cod, and Westport. Goodbye, summer of the iPhone, the Baby Bjorn, commuting on the M2. Goodbye, David Beckham vs. the New England Revolution, Red Sox vs. Yankees in Fenway Park, Rhino League volleyball. Goodbye, trips to Vermont, Philadelphia and New Haven, visits with friends from New York, San Francisco, Michigan, and family from all over the world. Goodbye, swaddling, learning to roll over, babble, eat food, and sit up.

Hello, fall!

Look Ma, no hands!

Owen tends to focus on one new thing a day. This morning, we practiced sitting up with minimal assistance for balance, and he did great. Then when I picked him up from school, they said he sat, again with minimal assistance, and played the piano (!) for about 20 minutes - an extraordinarily long time for him. Tonight when we came home, he did it again - with no assistance whatsoever - for several minutes... long enough for me to take his picture. And then he fell over and practiced crawling and smiling.

The (not so) lazy days of summer

Now that it's September in Cambridge there's no denying that summer is over - the streets are crowded with students, there's a (relative) chill in the air, and there are even some leaves starting to fall. I can't believe Owen's magical first summer has come to an end.

The daily grind

Since I went back to work at the beginning of May, Owen and I have developed a routine. Nearly every day, I strap him into the baby Bjorn and head off to catch the Harvard shuttle bus that takes me from Cambridge to the medical school in Boston. On the bus Owen smiles at the other people, tries to grab their newspapers, and occasionally fusses, cries, or spits up on both of us. I get out at the Fenway stop, where his daycare is, to drop him off, and then I walk the rest of the way to lab. At the end of the day, I walk back to pick him up, walk back to catch the shuttle, and we ride home.

Now all that is changing, because he's going to a new daycare here in Cambridge starting Tuesday. And thank goodness, because lugging around a 16 pound baby plus a bag full of milk is pretty exhausting, especially in the heat of summer. But I've gotten used to sharing my commute with Owen, and I'm going to miss him. I'm going to miss seeing the faces of the throngs of Japanese tourists light up as we pass them in Harvard Yard every morning. I'm going to miss the mix of delight and annoyance that he causes on the bus when he tries to eat other commuters' reading material, or screams because we stop for too long at a red light. And I'm already nostalgic for this precious time when he is still so little that I can carry him around with me everywhere I go.

The photo is from May, when he was still small enough to ride in the baby Bjorn facing me. Now he faces out, to see the world.