Monday, November 20, 2006

9 months today!

Into Everything!
How is my baby 9 months old? I swear he was just a newborn!

Wow, what a crazy week! Robert has been pulling up onto everything the last few days and then sometimes he gets stuck (pulls up to the stairs and can't figure out how to get down...). He has also started pulling the wire cart that has plastic containers in it around the room with him. Yesterday he pulled up on the safety gate and talked with us... He can open cupboards and some drawers now (we have the cupboards locked now and he finds them frustrating!), is no longer facinated by the twanging door stoppers (what a shame, now he wants the tubing from the mini shower that's attached to the toilet that I use to rinse diapers off with).

Oh, and our house is in a constant state of disorder. Wes' mom and grandma showed up on a few minutes notice last evening and his grandma said "well, you can sure tell that there's a baby here, there are toys everywhere!". Yep, sure are!

During his brief nap times the last 2 days I have managed to write a curriculum vitae and 2 clinical exemplars for a nursing portfolio that is due Dec 1. I trust I will get it done! RMH is starting a clinical ladder program and if I can get it all done and become a "Clin 1" I will get a lump sum of $1,500 which would be rather nice :)

Anyways, Robert's napping so I'd best get some housework done before it's time to take him for his 9 month appointment! I'm anxious to hear what he weighs and whether we can start him on wheat! Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Robert's life

Robert's life
Well, Robert officially pulled up to standing on Friday! I was so proud! He hasn't done it all the way to standing again but does pull up to his knees to play with stuff on the sofa. He's also getting harder and harder to contain during church and I'm probably going to have to start leaving him in the nursery. You would think that since I run the nursery I would leave him in it but I really don't (unless I'm the nursery worker which I am every 3-4 Sundays or so). We took him antique shopping today and he really enjoyed the oldies music they had playing at the huge antique mall we went to (in Verona) and looking at all the colorful stuff. I had him in the ergo and he did fine (used it as a front pack so I could keep an eye on his hands!) The other big munchkin related news is that I'm going to stop pumping every morning (which I was doing to develop a stash). Lets just say that my chest freezer basket is overflowing so I probably don't need to still be creating a stash. I'm still pumping at work of course and if I miss a feeding during the day just not extra. I'm really happy that he's so far not had any formula-and I don't forsee him needing any in the next 3 months, he is just as happy with rice chex and water if he needs something while I'm at the gym etc.

OK, other news. Our good friend Philip was in a head on car accident on Saturday and was airlifted to UVA (tertiary medical center) which caused us great concern until we heard that he was stable-lots of broken bones but nothing life threatening. Wes was able to see him that evening-went with our pastor and his wife while I stayed home with Robert. Please keep him, his wife Sarah and their baby, Logan (5 months) in your prayers! They're going to have a long road ahead of them. Philip was scheduled for surgery today to have rods placed in his ankle and femur and hardwear in his arm.

Well, that's all from here. Wes entertained munchkin this evening long enough for me to finish my book-which was very good- Jennefer Weiner's "Little Earthquakes".

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Robert's life

Growing Up
Robert is growing up on me and it makes me proud and sad all at once. If I have time I sit and hold him while he naps (OK, I read!) and just look at him and marvel that he's so big and yet my baby. He's working on cruising and pulling up and thinks he can stand/walk. His newest trick is waving bye, but he waves towards himself instead of away. I was unloading groceries from my trooper today and he was babbling away and I looked at him and realized he was talking to "the munchkin in the mirror" (which is what we call his reflection in the car mirror we have for him) and waving to "him". He was saying baaaaaaaaaheeeeeeeey" which sounded kind of like bye to me, but was probably an accident. It also kind of looks like he was signing milk to me earlier today (we've been working on baby sign language with the videos "signing time" (www.signingtime.com) so I guess anything is possible-but milk isn't one we've done much with, so who knows.). Well, I've got pictures for you today, so I'll stop now and just let you look at them!

Wesley climbing

Margaret climbing

And Robert being cute (as usual)

Monday, November 06, 2006

Chinese Food!

Eating Out!
We decided on the spur of the moment yesterday to go out for lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. I was unusally disorganized for some reason and didn't have the diaper bag packed right and had no food/no bib/no spoon/no snacks/no cup. What was I thinking? So anyways we decided to see what Robert would eat. Well, he likes rice and fried rice (picked out the egg and peas), small peices of chicken/pork that I shredded for him, broccoli (just the flowerets), small peices of stir fried green beans, bananas and peaches from the desert bar and he got into the sugar from my small bowl of Chinese doughnuts. He had a ball but the waiter was not amused. I did clean up the area under the highchair pretty well and we left a nice tip. Thank heavens he drinks out of a cup with a straw and was able to share my cup and drank a bunch of water. By the end of the meal he was quite adept at grabbing a hand full of rice and eating it out of his palm. Of course this was the day when everyone we knew was at the restaurant so everyone got a good look at our rice covered munchkin! At the end of the meal I took him outside and dusted him off and he looked surprisingly good! I was just so impressed at how well he does with table foods and how much he actually gets into his mouth (and how well he likes ethnic foods). I can't wait until he can have wheat/eggs/dairy and he can eat more or less what we do!

Saturday we made apple butter with Wes' extended family. Actually, they made apple butter, his cousin Kim and I watched the babies and had a good time. Oh, and Wes and I climbed a tree, I'll post a picture.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Robert's life

Busy Mommy!

Last week I was too lazy to blog this week I've been too busy! It's been crazy with work and meetings this week. Robert still does really well at meetings (if I take lots of snacks) and so far no one seems to care. I've become a co-chair of a hospital wide policy and procedure commitee and so we'll be doing weekly meetings for a while. Our new nurse director is bent on changing everything this year so lots of changes going on! Which is a good thing.

Anyway, this is supposed to be Robert's life, not mine! He is currently napping (yeah!), which he seems to do less and less of each day. We were out and about both tues and Wed morning before I had to go to work so he really hasn't napped well this week, but has done fine. I resisted the urge to dress him up for Halloween and take him anywhere, well for one thing I was working and for the other thing (to quote Dr Newsome): "they can't walk or eat candy, so what's the point". So he and his daddy went to the weekly supper at Wes' grandma's as Sheriff Taylor and Opey (since they were wifeless/motherless!). I found a pair of (small-they look like mice ears) elephant ears on a headband and wore them with my animal scrubs to work and the kids liked them :) All in all we spent $3.50 on costumes (sheriff badge and headband) so not bad! Robert is trying to pull up, is an expert at taking DVD's off the shelf, loves to pet the puppy, chase the puppy, get the puppy's bone (trying to teach Snoopy to chew and leave her bone on the sofa-never thought I'd ever WANT her to chew it on the sofa!), love to eat and to feed himself fingerfoods. This week I've been giving him little peices of cooked zucchini with olive oil and garlic powder and he loves it! Plus he's eating rice chex like they're going out of style. Oh, and he thinks the elephant ear headband is really funny!
That's all the news from here that I can remember anyways!