Maxo-relaxo

In the interest of being able to leave my son with anyone while he's awake for longer than the unpredictable space between his naps I am experimenting.

I have always used nursing as kind of a sleep trigger for him because it's easy and it works. I doubt anyone presented with a nursing baby who fell asleep (or very nearly) in their arms would be able to resist just putting them down to sleep. It seems natural because it is- I'm positive this is what more primitive societies do and no one hassles them about setting up bad habits or dependencies or anything. Max and I greatly enjoy nursing and it nearly always soothes whatever might be bothering him- I wish we all could be so lucky to have something so dependably calming.

However, the problem arises of girlfriends asking me to join them for things or what have you during the day and not knowing when Max's naps will occur exactly and being pretty certain that I will not be able to be there to put him down. So, I have been attempting to put more time and activity between nursing and being put down in his crib. So far the longest he's gone is maybe 5 or 6 minute- I know that sounds paltry, but in babyland, 5 minutes is a pretty long time.

(Keep in mind this is just for daytime stuff. Nighttime he frequently will play for a little while and/or listen to Jack read before being put in his crib and it works just fine. Daytime naps have always been more challenging and sensitive for my little fellow).

I'm pretty optimistic about how things are going- he seems to be adjusting reasonably quickly and the thought of having someone else be able to put him down to sleep is pretty exciting for me. I know that I'm pretty indulgent when it comes to my son- but I'm not going to stop anytime soon. This is my little pseudo-triumph of the moment, just thought I'd share. :)

On a related note- I now have to be concerned for his little teeth though and that throws another wrench into things. Sometimes I rub his teeth with with some clean fabric or something after he feeds but I don't really know what to do yet for two teeny little teeth. Our 9 month appt is coming up on the 2nd though- hopefully I won't do any damage before then. :)

House, Halloween, Huge little boy

Okay- so we're deliriously happy in our new place and there are so many projects on our list you wouldn't believe. I plan on making a list of all the handyman tasks that Jack accomplishes, but it's going to be a long list- so another post for that one.
This is our new light fixture in our bedroom- we got it at Lowe's and I love it- though I do want to get some etching cream or something and make the glass frosted- I find it distracting that you can see the lightbulbs so clearly.

Halloween went nicely- the babies had a great time- I look forward to next year when I will take Max trick or treating- it just didn't make sense this year- he would be tired and I didn't want any candy. We did find out that Max apparently really enjoys playing/posing with pumpkins. He kept playing with these- it took us forever to carve them- next year we will make a better effort.

We take him to Home Depot all the time- he's getting pretty great about riding around in the basket. Sadly he's really too heavy for me to carry in the moby wrap for very long anymore. I know people carry bigger kids in them- but last time I did it my back was really tired. It makes me sad though- we both really enjoyed it while it lasted. When Jack is loading up the car with whatever purchases we've made I usually nurse and/or play with Max in the car while we're waiting- here he is after Jack joined us- he likes to mess with all the stuff in the front seat.



So, back to Halloween- I felt a teensy bit lame for Max wearing a store bought costume on Halloween- but it just worked out so perfectly and it was easy- plus it wasn't some cheap plasticky crap with a logo on it or anything, just a perfectly respectable and sweet little bear suit (courtesy of Faerie Godmother Kake's industrious thrifting! Thankee!).

Anywho- he was adorable and comfy. However, the idea was to go as the THREE bears- so I did have to work up two adult bear costumes. It ended up being pretty easy- couple of shirts from Goodwill, a pair of overalls, some altered cat and dog noses from the Halloween store- etc. The most complicated part was the ears! You would think that you could purchase bear ears from a costume store- not so my friend! Devil, kitty, antennae- all manner of things EXCEPT bear ears.

So, I bought some discount cat ears from Jo-Ann and some brown fur and figured; I have a glue gun- this will be easy.

In theory it was.


Pair #1: totally covered in fur- try them on to discover that they are far too close and high on my head to look like bear ears- I look like a mouse or something.
*dismantle*


Pair #2: Decided that if I just had the fur covering really low and just barely covering one side of cat ear then extending past said ear on other side that that would work. Nope- still catty-mousey looking.
*dismantle*


Pair #3: Took covered ear-headband and hacked off the cat ears, gluing them back on lower and recovering where they used to be. The position of these is great- they're a little homely, but at that point I had stopped caring.


Pair #4: Went to make Jack's pair (hacking off cat ears is the first step) and decided to remove all the cat ear fur covering from the headband as well. I ended up really pleased with this result, so much so that.....


Pair #5: I decided to dismantle my pair *again* and redo it just like Jack's.

Lucky for me the minimum yardage I could purchase of the brown fur was more than enough to do all of this.

Somewhere around pair #3 I think, I discovered (with some cursing) that my glue gun is INCREDIBLY hot. I burned my hands in about 4 or 5 places- the worst of which blistered really badly:

I hope you can tell how ginormous this blister is- I know you're supposed to leave them alone because they're sterile inside there- but it's a little annoying. It kind of itches now- but I think that means it's healing.


Onto Huge Little Boys: My son has always been in the big percentiles. He is now 8 months old and wearing 12-18 month clothing and size 4 shoes. The last time I got any numbers on him he was over 21 lbs and standing at 28.5 inches. Imagine my dismay when I read on our carseat that it's limits are 22 lbs and 29 inches! So, we went to Babies R Us and got a new one. It goes up to 100 lbs!!!! Yippee!
On a side note- I love my Honda Element- but it is not the easiest car to use a carseat in. The suicide doors make it difficult to access the backseat without actually being back there. It's working out though- and this carseat is much easier to latch than our old one.

So, that's it for now- I'm trying to get into the groove of blogging again- it's not easy with my picture loading difficulties though. It took me probably 30 tries to get that blister picture to load acceptably. *sigh*