Video Proof

In the Lake Days post, I talked about how Freddie had started feeding HIMSELF like an airplane. He gave me some proof at dinner last nite.

 

Freddie Houdini

Word of warning to anyone who may be feeding Freddie:

For safety's sake, he must be strapped in ... like so ... with all five points of the harness fully engaged.  Don't ask me how I know this is necessary.

Actually, he first climbed out of his chair at Mom's house a few weeks ago.  A feat that Jones never attempted, Freddie'd extricate his knees from behind the tray before sitting, in a crawling position, on the TOP of the (thin, plastic, flimsy) tray. My answer for that was to never let him be in the chair without someone sitting right beside him (the straps for the $19 IKEA chairs at Mom's are USELESS). It'd never been a problem in his bigger chair at home.

Until this week.

And that's when we implemented the "five-point harness" rule.  We're about to implement a "drop cloth under him at mealtime" rule, as well.  You see, Freddie feeds himself kinda like Chris Kattan's Mango character, meaning there's as much food on the floor (and his clothes) as in his mouth.

You've been warned!

While I'm talking Freddie Bear, here's a Fun Fact: he's gotten in two more teeth!  I had no idea they'd come in, but they're both in a good ways, so they must've broken through a few days ago. I felt them this morning when feeling for the slowly erupting bottom teeth that I'm increasingly convinced don't even exist.

The two that DO exist are not the top eye teeth; they're the two on either side of where the eye teeth will go.

Yay, Tom Frederick!

This & That

 I'm the worst blogger in the world.

Sue me.

I DO have a few milestones to report, though, about everyone's favorite 11 month old:

1) Jones has a new tooth!  The tooth to the left of the upper left front tooth (that's a terrible way to describe it, but how else ...?!) came in late this past week.  I'd seen it - AND the tooth to the right of the upper right front tooth - below the gumline but didn't notice that it'd poked through, until I was changing Jones's diaper on Friday. By then, it was pretty well in, so I'm betting it broke through on Wednesday or Thursday. I doubt the other will be that far behind! If you're keeping score, that's seven teeth now!

2) Jones showed his first signs of stranger anxiety today. He started several months ago intermittently crying whenever someone who was in the room with him walked out of it. He didn't always do it, but sometimes, he did, and it didn't matter who was in the room with him, so long as someone was.  That phase has pretty much passed, thank goodness. This morning, though, we may have entered another one.

Jeremy and I went to drop him off in the church nursery. Typically, he goes without some much as a backward glance (and who wouldn't want to enter a room full of toddlers gleefully shouting, "JOOOOOOOO-NESIE!"?!), but today, when the worker tried to take him from Jeremy, he turned his head away from her and grabbed his daddy.  She immediately tried again, and this time, he went, but he reached from her arms for his daddy's ... until he saw his playmates. We walked away then and headed in to the service.

He didn't cry or anything, but it was just the first indication I've seen of him being uncomfortable with someone new.  Though I surely don't want him to have stranger anxiety, I will admit that this morning's episode was a little bit of a relief. Both Dr. O'Donnell and his nurse Jennifer were surprised at his nine month check-up that he hadn't started it yet. Dr. O wasn't worried about it, just surprised, but he left me feeling like it was something he SHOULD go through at some point, so I'm glad that he seems to be starting, though I hope it's a phase as short-lived as the "don't-leave-me-alone-in-here" one.

3) Formula is on the way out. Tonite, for the first time, I mixed whole milk with Jones's formula in an effort to wean him completely off of his Gerber GoodStart Gentle.  He's been eating cheese for months, cottage cheese for about six weeks, and tried ice cream last week all without any trouble, so I don't anticipate the transition being a problem. But we've started it tonite, and assuming he makes it through tomorrow alright, I'm not planning to buy any more formula.

What to do with that extra $150 / month?

So that's the latest - that, plus the fact that, as of Friday's appointment, all seems well with Freddie.  Life is good!  Here are some pictures to prove it!

Just a Sip

I honestly never thought this day would come.

The day Jones turned six months old, I went out and bought him a ceremonial sippy cup. After all, the blogs all said that's when I should start making the switch away from bottles. I expected that Jones would take to it as easily as he did his bottle.

He didn't.

This led to three months' of repeatedly failed - if inconsistently-timed - attempts to get Jones to drink from a sippy cup. I even talked with his doctor about it at his nine-month check-up:

"You having any problems with him," Dr. O'Donnell asked.
"Well, now that you mention it, I can't get him off the bottle!" I responded, feeling slightly like the most incapable mother in the HISTORY of incapable mothers.

Dr. O, bless his heart, wasn't bothered at all. He just said he was fine with bottles up to 13 months. This made me feel better ... a little ... but I was still resolved to make the transition as soon as Jones would GET HIS ACT TOGETHER AND COOPERATE.

Luckily for my little man, I'd run in to Katy Russell the day before his doctor's appointment. Now, Mrs. Katy is legendary at Canton First Baptist Church. She's raised her two girls of her own and now keeps her eldest's triplets during the workday. In other words, she knows how to take care of babies. I was telling her my dilemma. As if passing on the secret location to Holy Grail, she nodded her head and said, simply, "Nuby."

I gratefully returned her nod and proceeded, without passing go and without collecting $200, to the nearest Target store, where I purchased not one but TWO of the magical Nuby Sippy Cups. At his first attempt, Jones ate five ounces.

It's working!, I thought. Mrs. Katy, it's WORKING!!!

And it's continued to work, ever since. In fact, tonite, we put away his bottles once and for all.  Well, "once and ..." ... until we pull them out again for itty bitty baby brother.

Fast Times

Today at Cooter's Dukes of Hazzard Museum - Jones's second visit in two days, by the way - we discovered that our little "good ole' boy"has the NEED ... the NEED for SPEED!

He's doing great in Nashville, though he's getting even fewer naps that the few he typically takes, but he's rolling with his nomadic parents, as I knew he would.  I was wondering about the time change and his bed time.  Should I put him to bed at 7 p.m. Eastern, as he's used to, or 7 Central, as in Nashville?  Well, both nites that we've been here, he's started melting down at 6 p.m. Central, which answers that question: he is an Eastern Daylight Time kinda kid.

So am I.

Last nite, while Jeremy and I went to the Grand Ole Opry with Brooke and Michael, Jones stayed with his Aunt Sissy, and today, he had his second photo shoot with Brooke.  She got some really, truly, SUPER cute shots, and I cannot wait to see them all in living color!

Here are some pictures of our trip so far.

OH!  And how could I forget?!

Jones had his first tastes of both grits and sausage gravy yesterday. I swear he ate more of my grits than I did. I can't blame him. The Loveless Cafe knows how to make some grits.  He liked the sausage gravy, too, but I was less willing to share that.  Actually, that's not true at all.  I was trying to keep his milk-based foods to a minimum.


NOW, here are some pictures of our trip so far ...

Biscuit with the Loveless Cafe's famous biscuits

He was flirting with the ladies at the table beside us.

Jeremy gave Jones his first bite of a biscuit;
it was slathered in strawberry jelly.

continuing to flirt with
folks at the Loveless

flirting with Brooke

Magic time!

"Just the good ole' boys, never meanin' no harm!"

second of two (?) visits to Cooter's

cruisin' cousins

Lila put Jonesie in a chokehold.

beautiful boy on our hotel room bed

"Just a suck on my thumb-er makes the applesauce go down ..."

Jones is really getting the hang of eating with a spoon, which directly correlates to the fact that I'm finally starting to be more consistent in FEEDING him with a spoon. It's just so messy, and bottles are so much easier, but yeah, yeah, yeah. I understand:

Development. Growth. Nutrition.

I'm on it.

When I feed him, though, he does this thing that's equal parts adorable and annoying. I put in a bite; he puts in his thumb. I wipe off his mouth; he spreads his dinner all over himself, myself, and his Bumbo seat. Soon, I know, he'll outgrow this, and while part of me really can't wait for that day, another part knows I'm gonna miss the way he uses a suck on his "thumb-er" to help his applesauce go down ... 

Hungry, anyone?

As of 7 p.m. tonite, Jones's solid food diet consists of more than just Rice Cereal!

Tonite, we added a little vegetable action into the mix. I was concerned. He's really - finally - mastered the cereal, so I was a little timid to rock the boat, but he could not have done any better with the Beech Nut Sweet Potatoes we gave him.

We went with Sweet Potatoes in honor of my friend Elizabeth Wexler, who, for awhile, thought she might turn oompa-loompa orange for all of the Sweet Potatoes she ate. After the way he tore up nearly an entire jar of them - he'd probably have eaten the whole thing, if I wouldn't have stopped short, fearing what his Poppy would call a "reversal" - I think Jones may have the same problem.

Conventional wisdom says to try introducing veggies one a time for a few days. This way, we'll know what's the culprit, if he has any allergic reactions. Next week's veggie?  Mama's favorite - green beans.

With the introduction of solids to the feeding schedule, I'm also gonna try to mix up his bottle schedule tomorrow.  He's been doing five 6 oz. bottles a day. I'm thinking I'll up that to four 8 oz. bottles.

Wish me luck!

philabo-didda-BUMBO

Jones is finally starting to grow into some of his things.

I say "finally," because, for awhile there, I was thinking that registering for "must-haves," like a swing and a Bumbo seat, had been a complete waste of my time and somebody else's money. Lately, though, he's proven that he just needed a little time to get used to them both.

Here is a (very dark; I'm sorry.) video of him in his swing. He doesn't spend a whole lot of time in it - maybe 10 or 15 minutes a day - but when he does, he's getting better and better at reaching out and playing with the toys on the little lap bar, and, as always, he offers no shortage of his dolphin-like squeals. Either that, or my ears are even keener than I thought, and I'm starting to pick up the silent pings of our neighbor's dogs.

 

"philabo-didda-Bumbo;"
Jones knows ... Jive. His daily cereal
is served about 5:30 p.m.

The Bumbo is the other thing that he's really getting the hang of. I still don't leave him alone in it, even when it's on the floor - YOU try holding up a head that proportionately big for more than two minutes at a time! - but for quick stints (with me standing right beside him, Mom), he's golden.

One of the things that we use it the most for is feeding time. Spoon-training is coming along ... well, it's coming along. Jones doesn't love it at all, or maybe he just hates the taste of that nasty cereal mixed up with that nasty formula, and who can blame him? But I'm finally beginning to remember some tricks from my babysitting days that I think may help him turn the corner.

By "finally," of course, I mean "I remembered them last nite, as Jones was screaming, and, because he's working two jobs, Jeremy wasn't yet home to help out by holding him." Amazing what comes back to you in the heat of the battle.  Regardless, I believe it was Ann Bible who did this with her grandson Brad. Since he, now 20, is a CHAMPION of eating with utensils, I figured it'd worked for her.  Why not try it myself?

Here's how: I'd cram in a bite, and before Jones had time to cry about the foreign object invading his oral cavity, I'd cram in his paci. Every dental professional I know probably just cringed to read it, but by the end of the FiestaWare Fruit Bowl full of cereal, Jones was laughing instead of screaming at the sight of the purple and blue plastic spoon.

That's what I call a win-win! At this rate, we'll have him eating burgers by lake season, though, to be honest, I'd settle for just being able to add in a second bowl of cereal every day.