vidalicious.com

We had a little dinner party at Rob’s house this past weekend.
The menu: Homemade, hand-cut pasta with Braised Chicken, lacinato kale and wild mushrooms. Apple Pie

Every week now Maddox is changing and growing more into a little boy. Recently added to his repertoire are grabbing, laughing out loud, holding toys, putting things in his mouth, and being distracted while nursing.

The behaviors begin slowly, then all of a sudden something clicks and he does it all the time. Like grabbing. Only recently did he start reaching for things and sort of, kind of, holding them (if you helped get his fingers around the toy), but he didn’t seem to understand what he was doing. At the early stages of reaching he wouldn’t even open his fist, just sort of hit the intended object. Now, only a week later he is reaching for, and picking up his plastic ring toys [Thanks Juniper!], and whapping them around. He is also more deliberate when hitting the bears on his chair.

Yesterday in the car he accidently dropped/threw his rings. He started complaining (and loudly). Eventually I figured out what the problem was, and handed him a new toy (since I was driving and could not reach the rings from under my seat). He was again happy. To me, that was a milestone! Him enjoying a toy, and noticing when he no longer had it, and wanting it back. It was him being aware of his surroundings. My little worm baby is officially gone. I love where Maddox is at now, but I already miss him being a little baby. They really do grow up so fast!

He is a very distracted nurser theses days. Like many things to come, it is both funny and annoying at the same time. He stares at my new CC Skye necklace, tugs at my shirt, kicks his legs, and looks at me and giggles. Every distraction results in him un-latching. Gotta say my nipples are really taking a beating! but whatever…

Today Maddox was in a great mood and full of energy. He likes to sit. A lot.
It’s pretty much his favorite thing to do. He likes to be pulled up by his hands into the sitting position. Now he’ll sort of reach out and grab on to my fingers when I hold them out for him, then he immediately tries to sit up. When lying on his back or in his car seat he leans forward pulling himself up from his chest and his neck and head. He doesn’t get very far on his own, but he works really hard at it and will be a great sitter some day. At this stage he is considered a “pre-sitter”.

It was funny the first time several weeks ago when he first tried to sit up in his car seat. He and I were driving, and I looked back in the mirror and saw him slunched over and crooked in his seat. I thought “uh-oh, the baby fell over”, and I reached back and tried to push his body up in his seat. I was met with resistance! I soon realized he was doing it on purpose and using his tiny little muscles to try to sit up!

These photos were from today when we were reading books. I had him sort of sitting up with a pillow on the far side in case he started to teeter over. I like to be able to see his facial expressions when I read to him, so now I have him sit next to me instead of on me. It’s difficult to tell sometimes if he is excited or totally over stimulated and cranky. Turns out it is always excited, but its hard to tell without looking.

He sort of, kind of turned a page all by himself! I was very excited. 😎
He was totally into the book Peek-A Who? that our neighbor gave him when he was born. I think it will be a hit for a while to come.

When Maddox was born we purchased a Boppy Travel Swing, and a Bjorn Bouncy Chair. Up until recently we primarily used the swing. Now that Maddox is more aware, and has better muscle control, he seems to really dig the chair.

While I was in with the dentist being tortured, Dallas and Maddox waited patiently.

Here are some crappy (but cute) iPhone photos of Maddox. 

As is the tradition, we headed up to Auburn, CA to celebrate Thanksgiving with the whole Kashuba family. It was Maddox’s first visit and I think he did really well.  😎

It was fun to be able to spend some time in nature and enjoy the simplicity of it all. From the couch you can see deer wandering by the large picture window. Many of them had a fawn in tow. 

The baby was checked out and is in full working order! No UTI, no nothing – just big growing baby. He now weighs in at a whopping 16.5 lbs.  He turns 12 weeks old tomorrow. Yay Maddox.  😎

Better be safe than sorry! Guess I jumped the gun on that one, though its nice that I now know where to go and what to do, should something more serious arise. 

Maddox now fits into his cute little onsie that Georgina embroidered for him. Very crafty! The label says it is for 12 month olds! Guess we have a big boy.  😎

Yeasterday Maddox woke up super cranky and remained that way for the entire day and all last night. He is generally a pretty happy baby and all this fussiness is uncharacteristic. I took his temperature…normal.

Yesterday he would wake from his cat naps screaming and crying. During a nice lunch outside in Berkeley he totally lost it. Usually nursing fixes everything, but not this time. .

Last night he didn’t get to sleep until 9pm, then woke at 1:45, 3:30, 4:30, and 5:30 (AM folks!). Much crying ensued. During the 5:30 session I finally figured out what was causing his pain – I think. It seems as if it hurts when he pees. He was screaming so hard when I was changing his diaper that I just slapped it on and hussled to the couch so I could soothe him with some boob. He refused it and kept crying. Then almost as suddenly as the crying started, it stopped, and he smiled and started cooing. Weird! Then I noticed that my whole lap was wet. The diaper had come off during his fussing. It became apparant that he was in discomfort during urination, and fine when it was all over. Calling the pediatrician now…

I read some scary things about urine retrival in infants involving cathetars and needles, hopefully we can avoid those things. 8-/

{Photo by Margo}