Changing ways

A couple of weeks ago Doc decided that he didn't want to be rocked to sleep anymore. He would be so exhausted by the end of the day that he would just cry whether he was being held or not. I couldn't even nurse him to sleep. So I started laying him down to fall asleep on his own. We've made great progress although he still wakes up a few times in the night (much better than every two hours). We're working on keeping a schedule. He's down to two naps a day and we have a new nighttime routine. Bedtime preparation takes about an hour. This is kind of a long time, but it is one of my favorite parts of the day. We change into fresh jammies and diaper then lay on the bed and read stories for half an hour. Doc rolls over and over and plays with his penguin Astrid or a Candela. Every few rolls he stops and watches me, waiting for me to look over. He smiles and goes back to playing. Then I feed him one more time before we stand in front of the window and watch the cars go by while I sing American Pie (I only know four of the six verses). When he is sufficiently relaxed I walk to his crib and sway humming Pangur Ban from Secret of Kells until he lays his head 0n my shoulder. Tonight he fell asleep like this. If he has trouble falling asleep, the extreme bum massage usually does the trick.

These are photos of Astrid in Antarctica and New Zealand before she came to live with us.

Posing with Jampa

Posing with Baby Belle's penguin

Lounging at the hotel in New Zealand

Doc finally has a mobile over his crib. After searching online and in stores and several attempts at making something worth looking at, I settled on the origami paper maple branch and I sure know my baby because he seems to love it (when he can stop himself from rolling over long enough to look at it). I'll try to capture one of those artsy videos of it moving with shadows cast on the wall in the background so everyone can admire my work (can you tell I'm pretty pleased with myself? proud proud proud).

Bilingual Baby

Japanese Hiragana Blocks

Elemental Blocks
These blocks from Uncle Goose by Lindenwood come in several different languages (and coming soon in the elements). I always wanted to start early in teaching my kids a second language (or third, or fourth...). Language acquisition is much easier at a young age. And if Doc is going to be a scientist, he better start memorizing the periodic table.

The jumpy jump and apple teether

Maribel is at the top of the weight limit but she really likes the Johnny Jump-up. Having Maddy and Baby Bell here has been wonderful and we hate to see them go. I bet mom will suggest staying another week at least three more times before they fly out on Wednesday. Baby Doc is going to miss his cousin.
He's not really teething yet but puts everything in his mouth and he can finally fit his hand around the apple. I'd like to get a vibrating teether before he actually starts growing chompers.

We try cereal every week but he hasn't quite gotten the concept of swallowing yet. He stares longingly at food, though, and watches us eat like he's jealous. He enjoys sucking on fruits and vegetables. Cucumber slices seem to be one of his favorites (no confused look after his first taste).

Classic

I remember playing with one of these each time we visited the doctor's office. Even when I was quite a bit older I still enjoyed a good bead maze. Original roller coaster bead maze from One Step Ahead.

Stuffed friends of the custom hand knit variety

Adrian brought Pogue for Doc the week after he was born. Now that he's stronger and has better muscle control I've been giving him bigger toys to play with. He was intrigued when he saw Pogo and immediately wanted to hold him and eat his face. Then he tried to pull his pants off.

Brought to you by the letter M and the number 17

I finished a velveteen carrot yesterday. It has a rice rattle inside. He can only grip the skinny end so it looks like he's eating it when he brings it to his mouth. This morning we watched the last 10 minutes of Zooboomafoo and the first part of Sesame Street. It just so happened that today's letter was M. Ya gotta gotta gotta have M. I think that muppet was modeled after John Cleese.

Crook neck squash

I still have to put things in his fist for him then he does the shaking and brings the toy to his mouth. He's starting to get very drooly and wants to suck on everything (dada's t-shirt, grandma's arm, mama's face, a velvety crook neck squash...).

New stuff and things

We went toy shopping yesterday. Doc picked out some good stuff at Yeager's. His favorite so far is the Skwish; he likes the noise and seems to be completely mesmerized by it when you rotate it in the air for him. He also got a new Aden + Anais bath towel and washcloth set. And G reminded me to add that he weighed 12 pounds 7 ounces with his clothes on. He's getting to be kind of a bruiser.

Even more wooden toys

Soopsori is a Korean company that makes wooden toys finished with linseed oil. I would really like to find the block sets from a U.S. retailer. For more immediate use, the rattle set is very nice (available from Emmo Home).

More wooden toys

These are nice for practicing spatial reasoning. The puzzles are from http://www.kidonyc.com/home/ and the huge rainbow stacker is from The Wooden Wagon.

Future playtime

These rocking sheep are from Danish Crafts and are available at Smallable.

I don't really like stuffed animals unless they are something special. Being handmade usually gives them that extra appeal. The pointy eared girl is by Evangelione. She's from Malaysia and she claims to be a rabbit in her Etsy profile.

This is Antlered Atticus from Loopydolls on Etsy. They have looped hands for hanging on to things. I also really like Silvano the Deerboy, Blinker, and Chester the Softest.

We like wooden toys

These are from http://thewoodenwagon.com/. Wooden toys are usually the best kind but also the most expensive. We like to look at the Plan toys at Yeagers and at Little Tiger Toys on Railroad.

From The Selby. He looks like Voodoo.