Month: November 2010

caution: wandering, babbling baby ahead

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

This past weekend offered a scary, scary glimpse into the near future.  I swear, last Friday, when Theo was on his belly, he would only put his hands out and extend his arms, pushing his shoulders and some of his chest up off the floor. 

Saturday afternoon, he was pushing his entire chest up off the floor.

Saturday night, he had his chest completely off the ground and his butt up in the air.

Sunday afternoon, he had his chest off the ground, butt up in the air, and was rocking back and forth!  Are babies supposed to go from barely doing a girl push-up to practically crawling in 24 hours!?  It was unbelievable and so exciting (yet frightening) to watch. 

But like I said, it’s a glimpse into the very near, very terrifying future!  He will be roaming free.  It wasn’t until recently that I noticed just how many things we have down low.  Books.  CDs.  DVDs.  Video game consoles.  Photo albums.  Glass cabinet doors.  Electrical cords.  Speaker wires.  And that’s just the living room.  Oh deary. 

On one hand, I know that we can’t put away EVERYTHING that he shouldn’t be playing with – that will never teach him that some things are “hands off.”  At the same time, doesn’t this mean that I’m NEVER going to be able to take my eyes off of him?  Sure, I knew it would happen eventually but now that I’ve seen his little butt rocking back and forth as if he’s revving up his engine, I can only imagine that he’s already laid out his path of destruction.  Something tells me that he’s not going to be so content in the jumparoo once he truly is mobile. 

My little baby is growing up and moving on.  He’s 8 months + 1 day today and I guess he knew that it was time to work towards the crawling milestone.  I don’t even want to think about walking – oh, walking.  That’s verrry scary!

Oh, this was something else super exciting that happened in the weeeeeeee weeeeeeee hours Sunday morning (when Theo decided to celebrate the end of Daylight Savings Time).  His dada got up to use the bathroom and Theo was watching him intently.  I said jokingly “say Dad! Don’t leave!”  Without breaking his gaze towards his dad, I SWEAR Theo said “Dad.”  His voice had that raspy just-woke-up-and-I-need-to-clear-my-throat gravel in it.  I was pretty certain my ears were playing tricks on me so I said “Say Dad” again and he said it, plain as day “Dad.”  Of course, when dada came back from the bathroom, I told him about it and he didn’t for a second believe me.  Naturally, the only thing Theo would say was “gah,” which OKAY, could be easily confused for “dad” but I know my boy.  We had a moment.  I gave a clear instruction and he responded obediently.  I’m sure it’s just the first of many of these mother-son moments.  Oh yeah, and he totally said “dad!”  I guess that was kind of a big deal, too!  🙂 

~C~

curse you, time change.

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Everyone looks forward to falling back in the fall, right?  Because it means we all get an extra hour of sleep, right? 

Well, allegedly, this is true.

In reality, it is a lie.

So if we were smart, we would have kept our little Prince Charming up an hour later so that we could sleep until the “normal” time or get an extra hour or what have you.  Said Prince Charming was extra tired Saturday night and decided he was down for the count at SEVEN THIRTY instead of the normal eight thirty to nine.  Yeah.  We knew we were in for a treat but had the highest of hopes. 

Know what time he got up?  Any guesses?  Five o’clock in the morning.  Meaning that the clock said 6 but it had not been switched back yet so the old 6 was the new 5.  Perhaps he just wanted a bottle after going to bed so early that he didn’t get his last one Saturday?  Yes, please.  He took the bottle and then proceeded to stay up for hours and hours and hours and hours. 

Thank GOODNESS that we had spent the night with his grandparents and they swooped in and volunteered to baby-sit him so we could go back to sleep around 7am.  It’s a good thing they did, too, because he never took more than a 30 minute nap all day.  He took a few short naps but nothing that amounted to any relief. 

Daylight Savings Time.  Pssh.  I used to be all for it.  Pssh.  What a joke.

~C~

camera shy

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

We have had Theo’s newborn, 3 month, and 6 month pictures done at Picture People at the mall.  We’ve spent no less than $400 on said pictures so far and it would be so, so super easy to spend a whole lot more.  We have tried to just get the minimum for ourselves and for the people we think would really appreciate the gesture the most.  Maybe I’m a tightwad, but that’s how I was raised – to be thrifty.  It’s not that the Picture People don’t do a good job.  So far we have been pleased with the results.  But you get maybe 15 – 30 minutes in front of the camera, then you wait an hour for them to edit them or whatever they do.  They finally come out and try to get you to buy the most expensive package and show you about 25 or 30 images total. 

I hate the digital camera we have now.  Despite the good reviews, I HATE it.  I say that every time I use it and we have had nothing but problems with the camera itself as well as Samsung customer service.  I won’t launch into the whole story but let’s just say that we bought the camera while I was pregnant to take pictures of my growing belly and our newborn baby.  Well, when the baby was 3 weeks old the camera crapped out and Samsung told us we would have to wait up to 8 WEEKS for it to be repaired.  EIGHT WEEKS!?  Do you know how long that is in the life of a mother to a 3 week old baby?  It might as well be years. 

The point I’m getting to is that I have been debating for a couple of months about whether or not I should get a professional grade camera.  My argument against doing this is obviously the insane cost.  We have plenty of other essential things to spend money on and a purchase like this wouldn’t be made flippantly.  Also, what if I’m too dumb to use it?  Maybe I would be in way over my head.  I don’t really know anything about real photography or even how to effectively use PhotoShop.

My argument for getting it is that even before I had a baby, I had a love of photography and have been told (by a handful of people who love me very much) that I even have “an eye” for photography.  Maybe that’s kind of like the people whose mothers tell them they can sing and end up on the Best of the Worst on American Idol.  I don’t know.  Anyway, I think if I had a professional grade camera (that I knew how to use) I would be able to take pictures every bit as good as what we get at Picture People, if not better.  At least there would be some variation and not every picture would have a plain white or black backdrop.  And I wouldn’t be paying $100+ every time we wanted to get some good pictures taken.  I sort of feel like the camera would pay for itself over the course of a couple years.  What better time to make an investment like this to preserve my baby’s childhood?  After all the years go by, what’s really left other than the memories? 

Like a little tennis ball, I go back and forth.  Back and forth.  Back and forth.  I just can’t bring myself to bite the bullet and make the purchase. 

~C~