Mortgage Monday: More Babyproofing

When my wife and I were looking for a house it was always in the back of our mind the steps that we would have to take with each property both right away and in the near future to make sure it was a safe environment for our son. Some places were better than others and while the home we eventually purchased wasn’t exactly what we had in mind, we knew that it had everything we wanted and we could baby proof everything with relative ease. When we first moved into our home we, once again, took stock of what needed to be done but, since our son wasn’t mobile at the time, nothing was pressing.  

A few months later and the trips to Lowe’s, Walmart, and other stores became more frequent. When he first started crawling we made sure to take care of the babyproofing basics around the house. This consisted of making sure that the outlets had covers, baby gates were installed, and a foam buffer was secured around the hearth. At this point, we were pretty much ahead of the game in most regards. However, we quickly fell a little behind.

Before I knew it, I was putting up additional gates, including some handyman work to install the one at the top of the stairs, putting covers on door knobs, and constantly surveying the house for the odds and ends that could cause a problem. After a long weekend, we were once again where we needed to be but that didn’t last very long either. With our son’s first few steps that pesky list reappeared and quickly began growing until finally we couldn’t put it off any longer.

This time around things were a little more involved as we installed locks on the kitchen cabinets, secured furniture to walls, and rearranges some of the other items throughout the house so that it would remain out of reach of our son’s tiny curious fingers. This was also about the time that we had to readjust our car seats and install additional doorknob covers. Again, we got caught up rather quickly but find ourselves with a list that refuses to go away.

Each time we have to add or install things here and there we think back to some of the houses that we looked at during our search. Every time we are relieved that we made the decision that we did and purchased the house which we now call our home. It just goes to show that even if a house seems perfect and could have immaculate staging, you still have to think about your needs and how well that space works for you now and, more importantly, in the future.

TMI Tuesday: Follow Me Daddy!

Ever since our son learned how to put one hand in front of the other he has greeted me at the door every night when I get home from work. Sometimes he even makes his way into the kitchen if I have only been gone for a few minutes or a couple hours. Recently things have changed and he no longer crawls into the kitchen when he hears the door open. Instead, he gets up on his feet and walks as fast as he can across the house until he is standing at my feet and looking up at me with those eyes that let him get away with just about anything.

It has been a quick progression from those slow almost methodical movements as he navigated through the chaos of his playroom and around the corners. From there he progressed to cruising the furniture until his sight caught up with the sound of daddy and he would drop to all fours and scurry across the floor. Now he is about a half step from running into my arms as soon as I turn around. Fortunately, he has learned over the past several months to give daddy a minute so that I can put my bag down and wash my hands before I pick him up and play with him.

It is both rewarding and a little scary to see how fast he is growing by all that melts away when I see him smiling up at me and when he reaches for my hand wanting to walk with me back to the play room. However, even that new routine isn’t so new anymore. What has also changed this week is the fact that he no longer needs to take my hand… he doesn’t need the extra security to walk from one place in the house to another. He would much rather have me follow him when I get home or, as is the case in the morning, have me follow him to the kitchen table.

Things are changing so fast and I always worry if I am missing too much being away from home so much during the day and sometimes at night. I guess our son isn’t the only one experiencing a little separation anxiety at this point in his development. But this is also why I try to make every moment count and why I will gladly follow my son when I get home each and every day that I possibly can and make sure that we share as many of these moments as possible. After all, this is a time we can never get back so we have to embrace it and enjoy each and every moment. And, most importantly, while he may not take it all the time, we must always have our hand out to support him.

TMI Tuesday: That Looked Like It Hurt!

Let the baby proofing continue! Now that our son is becoming increasingly mobile and adventurous, it is inevitable that he is going to bump his head, lose his balance, get stuck in his toy box, or fall of his rocking monkey. It is just the kinds of things that we expect to happen as he gets a little older and which is why babies and toddlers are designed to bounce. While you can tell that it hurt, usually just from the sound, rarely is it anything that leads to prolonged crying or whining. “Shake it off” is usually all that needs to be said.

Most of the time we are all usually laughing about the bumps and knocks that we hear reverberating from under the table. Of course, there have been those moments when you look at his shocked face and say “that looked like it hurt.” This is usually followed by the boo boo lip and watery eyes. Crying seems to be optional. These are the times when we can’t help but give him the ‘poor baby’ look and, just in case, immediately go into freak out prevention mode.

That being said, there are some odd moments here and there when he seems to be rather entertained by the situation and after recovering from the first instance he tries to do the same thing. However, he will always go about it a little differently to see if he can achieve the desired result that he was previously pursuing without the potential bump or getting stuck. This is was exactly what happened when he tilted a little too far when reaching into his toy box one night. Second time around, the counterbalance was much better and he had his hand on the side just in case.

And all of this is, so far, only from the crawling and standing around the house and contorting into some of the smaller spaces in his play room. It should be quite the interesting increase in instances once he starts walking, and running, around the house. I am curious to see what phases him in his next phase and what are the things that will simply be shaken off before resuming progress. Additionally, we will be facing a clever little toddler who is already starting to figure out the baby gates and is well on his way to solving the door knob problem (this is with the safety encapsulation on it). This could be very interesting in addition to being painful to watch (and hear)!

TMI Tuesday: Finding EVERYTHING on the floor!

Even before our son began crawling he would find the most minuscule piece of trash, hair, dust, crumb, lint, or string hiding in the carpet around him. Now that he is mobile and crawling at a clip that would impress even the most hard-nosed drill sergeant, he is finding more and more nearly imperceptible things within the field of carpet throughout the first floor of our house. It is actually quite impressive the amount of things that he has been able to find and also rather annoying since we have to keep a constant eye on anything that may seem out of the ordinary in the beige and brown floor.

Thankfully his toys keep him occupied more often than not and he tends to ignore many of the small pieces that we are able to quickly pick up behind him. Although there have been moments when I have contemplated putting some kind of shammy on this hands and letting him loose in the kitchen. He would probably have fun with it but I think it is a little too early and there might be something in the child labor laws about it. However, I think with his OCD tendencies he might do that all by himself when he gets a little older.

While we don’t keep a spotless house, and we probably never will, we do keep track of what could possibly be hiding in the fibers across the floor and in the kitchen around his highchair. We know where the possible discoveries are and we make sure to sweep, Swiffer, and vacuum enough to keep him from ingesting something we don’t want him to. On the other hand, the harmless things we don’t give much attention as he does have to learn every now and again that something, while perfectly safe, doesn’t taste very good.

And this is a lesson that he is quickly learning especially when he spends some time in the yard. Not only do leaves leave a bad taste in your mouth but they can also stick to the roof of your mouth even worse than peanut butter… something we avoid bringing into the house until we get some additional testing done. Now, fully mobile, he finds everything and he tries to eat everything which is proving to be humorous at times but, more than anything, a very tiring and challenging daily routine. And it is only going to become a bigger challenge when we start some of the improvement projects over the summer.

TMI Tuesday: Feeding Off Daddy

We all have good days and bad days for various reasons. When it is a particularly long day at the office, I have to deal with some other issues, or there is just a lot of work to be done I tend to be quite stressed and can sometimes be a little abrupt (to say the least) in my demeanor. This is pretty much the way it has always been and I have done my best to try and keep those things from entering our home. This is especially important now because our son can definitely sense when something is a little off or if daddy is having a bad day. He feeds off daddy's mood.

Many times, my son’s mood reflects my own which is why I try my best to push everything aside, leave everything at the office, in the car, or where ever I can store those pressing matters, and focus on the present, focusing on just being with my son. I think this might be why he always seems to have a smile when I walk in the door although I can tell how well I am suppressing everything else by the simple fact of how fast he crawls to my ankles. At the same time I can tell when he senses that I am just run down or not feeling well as he tends to be a little more careful around me and comes in for hugs a couple more times than usual.

Lately, my son has gotten better at picking up inflection in my voice as well. I can see it in the look on his face after I say something. Actually, he understands a lot more than most people give him credit for as he is sometimes the first to laugh at jokes or to give me a quick glance when something I say catches his attention. While he has yet to speak a clear word beyond mama and dada, the vocabulary seems to be slowly building as well. In addition to my mood, I am really having to watch my words more and more every time I walk through the door.

This whole thing is something that really isn’t talked about much on the forums or is a main focus in parenting books but my mood has a huge impact on my son’s personality. He is a happy infant right now and I hope that he remains that way… I can’t imagine what he would be like had I not put forth the effort to leave all those things outside of our home. I definitely know that our relationship, our bond, would not be what it is today had I been a grumpy daddy every time I walked through the door. Now I just have to do my best to keep it up.

TMI Tuesday: Standing

I still remember the look of both pride and sheer joy on our son’s face when he sat up by himself for the first time. I will always remember the moment when he finally figured out the coordination and started crawling. I continue to look forward to seeing him scurry from the playroom to greet me when I get home after work tugging on my pant leg until I pick him up. And, right now, I hold my breath a little bit every time he pulls himself onto his feet and sways as his legs continue to shake.

That is what he is focusing on now. He has figured out how to stand, how to pull himself up onto his feet, but he isn’t the most stable baby at this point. He is getting better but he also isn’t about to let go of his support anytime soon. And he hasn’t quite mastered the getting up to his feet part yet either. He actually gets pretty frustrated when it takes too many tries to get vertical. The same impatience that was on display when we was still figuring out how to crawl.

It is amazing how much he is able to do already and how much he has changed during the past couple of months. As he tries to do more his personality seems to develop more and more and, at the same time, he we can tell that he never wants to settle for what he is able to do right at that moment… he always wants to do more or at least do what he is working on better. Meanwhile, my wife and I are simply encouraging him and telling him “good job” as he stands there with his wobbly legs. That is obviously not good enough for him.

Actually, what we are seeing him start to do now that he has been standing for a couple of weeks is that he is starting to almost walk in place. It obviously isn’t very smooth and can sometimes cause him to lose his balance but you can tell that he is wanting to really be mobile… even as fast as he has become on all fours, crawling just isn’t good enough. We can tell already that he is going to be a handful as he gets older and is able to do more and more. This could get really interesting really soon… glad we finally put up baby gates last weekend!

Another Month Gone, One Month To Go

It is rather astounding to think about how much has changed over the past month. Even with the few challenges that we have encountered with an ear infection, fever, and multiple teeth making their way to the surface, it was a great month that provided us with a number of amazing transformations. Probably the most interesting have been the awareness and cognition that our son seems to have now in comparison to previous months.

When we walk into another room for a minute he understandably gets upset unless we tell him that we will be back in a minute or we keep talking to him while we grab out phone, clothes, computer, etc. When my wife says that Daddy is home, our son looks toward the door and waits to hear it open. Sometimes he will even crawl into the hallway so he can watch daddy walk in. Either way, it is usually accompanied with him waving hi as I walk through the side entrance.

He is also much more mobile now having gone from sliding backward on his belly to crawling circles around his mommy in the playroom and chasing the train as it sings while traversing the playroom. It is a big difference from just a month ago when he took great pride in showing us that he could sit up all by himself. And an even bigger difference from the days when we were waiting to see the first time he would roll over on his own. Things are changing so fast.

Now we are less than a month away from his first birthday. Eleven months and our lives are completely different. I can’t believe it has already almost been a year. Given all that happened that day it will undoubtedly be a day of mixed emotions but, above all else, one of disbelief as neither my wife nor I can get around the fact that a year has already passed since our lives took such a drastic change. And that was just the beginning of a year that was probably the most hectic that any of us has ever experienced.

So many changes and differences but, when we look at our son, when we see the smile on his face and hear the joy in his laugh, it is all put in perspective. He is our miracle and he has been the one to get us through the tough moments. Watching him change and grow keeps us on our toes but also pushed us out of bed in the morning with a wonder of what is he going to do next that can’t really be put into words. It is an amazing feeling and I can’t believe that we have been waking up to that feeling for over eleven months now.

TMI Tuesday: Crawling

It wasn’t long ago when our son figured out how to sit up by himself from his stomach. It was one of those things that my wife and I caught him doing on the camera and soon thereafter he would sit up when he felt like it or, on occasion, when daddy asked him to do it. Heck, that is how I was able to see him do it and the smile that he gave me afterward is something I won’t forget. Since then I have been able to ask our son to sit up before picking him up. He’s actually pretty good about following directions when he wants to be cooperative.

It seems like just a short time ago when we were enjoying those moments which were soon followed by scooching across the floor and sitting up and lunging in a different direction to get what he wanted. That turned into a quasi-Army crawl which then became a half crawl with primarily propelled him backward. He has moved well past all of those stages and now the forward momentum is taking over. We are in trouble.

It started with a couple steps forward followed thereafter by three or four shuffles back. As the counterproductive kinks got worked out he began moving a little further each time. The toys on the other side of the room weren’t so far away after all. Once he could clear the room without stopping he started picking up the pace. This was particularly noticeable when he started catching the battery operated train and cars that he once just looked at as they rolled by.

Now there is a little more purpose with his crawling as he knows to move toward the hallway so he can see daddy walk through the side door when he gets home. He can also crawl to a toy, almost like he is stalking it at times, and reach up with one hand and grab it while still supporting himself. From there he reverts back to an old trick and sits up so he can play with his prey.

I guess this means it is time to really start thinking about the different safety locks and baby gates because he seems determined to move around the house by himself. It is that time already. I don’t know how we got this this point so fast but it is time to evaluate and see what needs to be done so we don’t hear cabinets slamming on fingers and our son sliding back down the stairs like dirty laundry on a wash board. Time for some DIY.

9 Months

It may have only been a month since I last wrote a post like this but a lot has changed over that short span of time. Our little boy who once hated being on his belly now enjoys rolling around and flopping on his stomach while trying to reach for a toy. He even lunges at his mommy and daddy when he simply wants to hug or kiss one of us. Of course, that last part is sometimes a little game he likes to play when he is all cuddly and loving one minute and then just goes about playing like nothing happened. When you ask him about it he gives you a momentary smile and goes about what he was doing.

One moment in particular was last weekend when I was taking a break from organizing and all of the sudden, while sitting in the middle of a scattered field of toys, he turned to me and said “daddy”. I tried to get him to say it again but it was one of those things that just happened in the moment when he wanted to let me know that he could say it but he chooses not to say it. The weekend prior had a similar moment during the middle of the day when I was laying on the floor next to him while he was playing. Out of nowhere, he turned, leaned over, and gave his daddy about a half dozen kisses. These are just a few of the spontaneous moments that I will always remember.

There are also new routines that have emerged during the last few weeks. Cheerios have become the favorite way to conclude any meal. Not really sure if it is the taste, texture, or the independence that make them so appealing to our son. Regardless, it is fun to watch him feed himself and play with them a little while sitting in the high chair.

The other regular activity is something that he does when he thinks that no one is watching. Every time that we put him down for a nap or for the night, he spends the first 10 or 15 minutes in his crib trying to crawl. You can tell that he just wants to be more mobile and that he wants to surprise mommy and daddy because while he works on this a bit while we are playing with him it is a completely different intensity when he is all alone with mommy and daddy watching him quietly on the monitor. I guess we should expect another spontaneous moment soon.

TMI Tuesday: Wanting To Walk

Yep, our son has already master this position. 

For over two months now our son has expressed his desire to walk. As soon as we get him up and on his feet he starts taking steps. It really doesn’t matter where he is whether it be on the couch, the floor, or on a table in Cabela’s, he is always trying to get those darn legs to work. Sometimes he actually gets a little frustrated when things don’t go according to plan or if he is too tired and his legs don’t want to cooperate.

However, over the past couple of months he has gotten better. He is almost ready to support himself as there have been a number of occasions when I am barely supporting him as he stands there. Heck, he is even getting pretty good at doing squats. This kid is almost ready for boot camp (I am pretty sure he could achieve the minimum score on the ASVAB) if he could just make some more progress with his crawling.

While most kids are starting to explore the motions involved with crawling, our son wants nothing to do with them. He would much rather be on his back doing flutter kicks than on his belly shuffling across the floor. It is actually quite entertaining to watch and explains why he already has a baby six pack (note that this turns into a keg by the end of every meal… actually it is more like he wakes up with the six pack and goes to bed with a keg).

After a few minutes of kicking on his back he usually ends up pulling his feet toward his face with toes firmly in his grasp. You know what that means. That’s right, this is prime baby boom position and the rapid fire rocking usually produces a mighty breeze. With the kraken now released, the kicking resumes. At this point all you can do is try to keep yourself from falling off over in laughter.

It has actually taken some considerable effort to get him to be even remotely interested in the act of crawling and he is now finally getting comfortable on his stomach. This is a whole different round of entertainment these days as he pushes up with his arms and sticks his butt in the air but can’t seem to get his legs going at the same time. Maybe the joke is on us and he is actually practicing doing the worn. I guess we will have to find out.

Baby Bucket List

As the days fly by and our son keeps getting bigger and bigger, the list of things that I want to do with him keeps getting longer. Actually, it is not just about things I want to do with him, it is also about the milestones that I am looking forward to witnessing. While by no means my complete list of scribbles, here are a few of the things that I am looking forward to as our son grows up:  

1. First Words – He is already proving to be quite the vocal child and while he is already making a sound similar to that of saying ‘Hi’ when I come home from work, I am looking forward to hearing that first distinct word. I am hoping that it will be either mommy or daddy (or something similar) but I am not completely ruling out the possibility that we could have a similar instance than that seen in “Meet The Fockers”.

2. Crawling./ Walking – He has surprised us at this point by standing with little help from either of us (we are mostly there for stability) but he also has no interest in laying on his tummy so I am curious to see how this progresses. While a whole new host of issues arise once he becomes mobile, I am looking forward to the day when he demonstrates this little kernel of independence.

3. Pool / Swimming – This one is more for my wife. We haven’t taken him to a pool yet. This should be an interesting experience. Hopefully he likes the pool as much as he enjoys his bath (at least the first half of the bath).

4. Baseball – Now we are progressing a little further in his development. While he has already shown an interest in throwing things and watching baseball on TV (made for a quiet dinner at Fox & Hound last week), I am looking forward to putting those two things together. I just hope he got his grandfather’s athletic ability because it definitely skipped me.  

5. Lodge Events – While we have taken him to the lodge once I am looking forward to the future events both at my lodge as well as other masonic events in the area (and outside the area like our trip to Pittsburgh coming up). There are a lot of us with young kids and I really want to see all of us get together for an experience far different from those on meeting nights.

6. Synagogue – We are a little behind on this one. While there isn’t much that he will comprehend early on, we want our son to be used to going to synagogue and make it part of his routine. We need to get moving on this search.

7. First Day of School – Again, looking into the future. This is a milestone that I think every parent looks forward to happening. I will be there the day that this happens (mixed emotions and all). Hopefully he proves to be a better student than his father.

8. Family History – My wife and I have spent a lot of time learning about our families and we want to share those histories with our son. We want to make sure that he knows where he comes from and learns all about the people we come from both more recent and in the distant past. Hopefully, I can find some answers along the way and share these discoveries with him. After all, he is a continuation of both our families.

9. Family Reunions – This is something that my wife and I agreed is incredibly important for us as a family. We are starting this year with my side of the family (I will be writing extensively about our trip to Virginia this summer) followed by my wife’s family next year. We plan on going back and forth every year. Again, we want our son to know his family and family history.

10. Family Vacations – In addition to bringing our son to some of the places that my wife have been and enjoyed over the last several years both local (i.e. Jim Thorpe, Gettysburg, Knoebels, etc.) and not so local (i.e. Florida, Massachusetts, London, Israel, etc.), we are also looking forward to exploring new places and destinations with him. While we have no idea where those places will be at this point, it is still fun to think of the possibilities.  

As I previously mentioned, there are countless other things that I am looking forward to but this at least gives you an idea of some of the things that I am eagerly anticipating. There are a few things that I have already been able to check off (cooing, smiling, first weekend trip, etc.) but the list is growing much faster than we are able to take things off. I guess this is also a part of parenthood… the annoying, slightly OCD, impatient part.  

So I now turn things over to you: What does your list look like? What have you already checked off? What are some of the things that you wish you had done?