Thursday, April 14, 2011

These are a few of my favorite things


1. Jack poops on the potty every morning

It's cute. Really cute. Cuter than I ever imagined pooping could be.

Jack poops a lot -- like 3 times a day, STILL -- and he's a reliable morning poop-er. At least every other day, we would get him fully dressed for daycare, be ready to go out the door, and find out that not only does he need a diaper change, he needs a full-body hose down.

I had toyed with the idea of elimination communication training (or EC, that is, teaching a baby about going potty) when he was young, but dropped the idea as unlikely to work due to the fact that Jack spends most of his day at daycare. Then we hit several weeks of morning frustration. Greg picked up where I left off, and he started taking Jack to the potty in the morning.

First, Greg stands him up with his feet on the seat and makes the sound "psssss". Jack pees and then bounces up and down with excitement when he's done. Then Greg puts a baby seat onto the toilet and sits him down. Within a few minutes, Jack's done, we all clap, the diaper goes on, and our morning becomes that much easier.

Imagine the sight for a moment. A nine month old baby, sitting on the toilet, legs sticking straight out into the air (they're too short to bend over the seat!), twiddling his feet back forth, and making excited hooting sounds and faces as he alternately stares down at the toilet and back up at his dad. My husband, who is kneeling next to him offering manly encouragement. "Hoot?" Jack questions. "Uh hu" says dad. "Du?" says Jack. "Yup!" says dad. "Du! Du! Du!" replies the baby.

It's cute. It's really cute. I haven't taken a picture yet, but I realize this is only a matter of time.

2. Jack likes lasagna, a lot.

And he smears it all over his face when he eats it. Good handheld fun. Actually I think what he likes most is the tomato sauce. Jack loooooves tomatoes and tomato products, which is funny to me because I've disliked acidic things since I can remember.

Also good handheld fun: lemons. Did you know that Jack likes raw lemon? Crazy. We've given it to him 4 times. The first three times, he kept going back for more. The fourth time, he got a particularly sour bite, made a face and put it down. We'll try again.

3. Greg taught Jack the game "I'm gunna get you!"

Jack has learned how to crawl away from us, giggling frantically all the while. The game is exponentially more fun when he tries to take a toy with him.

4. Bedtime, please

Jack is sleeping so well! We've still hit the few odd rough nights, but things are definitely moving into Phase II of Parental Un-Rest. Jack goes down at 7. I wake him up to nurse at 11. He wakes up once in the night (usually around 2), and then he's back down until 6 or 6:30.

Oh my gosh, getting so much sleep is simply incredible. I could do this (getting up once in a 7 hour night) indefinitely.

(This from a woman who, pre-baby, would eagerly sleep 11 hours a night)

5. Teeth

A toothy grin is way cuter than gums. Jack has two lower teeth clearly visible, and the upper teeth have broken through, too. I can see his lower canines are getting started. He went through a short phase of wanting to bite while nursing, but it wasn't too bad and he hasn't tried in a few weeks

Teeth are cute. He leaves bite marks in fruit. He ate a whole pear yesterday.

6. Sippy (straw) cups

We're attempting to avoid sippy-cup-land, so we are giving Jack straw cups. He knows how to use them. Awww.

7. Walking

Jack has been pulling up for a while, and now he is showing interest in walking. We hold onto his hands and he makes GIANT dinosaur steps. He's very eager! I love walking him around the house

8. Pinscher Grasp

Jack still has a terrible pinscher grasp, for two reasons (I think). 1, we usually give him big chunks of food, so he hasn't had as much time to work on fine motor skills (note to self: feed more puffs). 2, he figured out that that most food will stick to the outside of his fist if he smashes it enough

Clever, no?

No comments:

Post a Comment