Taking a Stand

I almost forgot! Zeke stood by himself for the first time on his own today! It was just a few seconds but it was so unexpected and I don't think he even noticed. I feel lucky I saw it -- I'm the only person to have seen him stand as I wasn't able to get Aaron in the room fast enough to share it.

12 Month Checkup

This week we took Zeke in for his 12 month check up. He didn't laugh nearly as much as in his last visit. And, there was certainly no smiling at all after his two shots! He lost some weight after his last visit (thanks, second round of stomach flu!) but is in otherwise great health and no longer has any signs of an ear infection. Zeke is now 21 pounds, 4 ounces and 32 inches tall. He's also got a big 19 inch melon head. The good doctor also cleared him to eat foods considered allergenic for infants: citrus, berries, whole eggs. The good doctor also made suggestions on how to make sure Zeke gets calcium, protein and fat, since he is still milk intolerant (as confirmed by a terrible reaction to a milk product this week). He also said that now that Zeke is becoming a toddler he will be less inclined to put things in his mouth indiscriminately and stop catching so many bugs -- I do think that he will stop getting as sick now that he is building up immunity, but I'm not as sure that he will stop putting everything in his mouth. We celebrated the good visit by going out to eat breakfast with orange juice and eggs!

Tastes Like Chicken

As noted in some of our friends' baby blogs (at right), it is not easy to feed this creature, this newly created toddler. All of a sudden there are tremendous likes and dislikes, and they may not be the same from a few months ago or even the day before. There is suddenly self feeding, sippy cups, and new foods to squish. The transitions can throw you for a loop, to be sure.

In some ways we are currently in a rut, because we still feed the child purees (I've gotten lazy -- most are store-bought now) and baby cereal (he won't give it up). But, I do try to give him to foods to experiment with everyday with new ingredients and new textures. Some are better received than others. Food we won't try again for a while: quinoa, jicama, collards, plain soymilk, veggie ham. Foods that have become part of the regular menu: whole grapes, apple slices, eggs, melon chunks, tofu fingers (the best part of the tofu!). Foods that are very popular: biscuits, vanilla soymilk, Vitamin Water (thanks, Jen & Pendy, for the suggestion), salmon, waffles from the Buckhead Bread Company, fresh squeezed orange juice, and Quorn Chik'n Nuggets. Man, he went to town on that Chik'n Nugget! He is officially ready to be a toddler. All he has to do now is try pepperoni pizza and he will have the diet of the average American child down pat.

When at home, he also gets to do a little assisted self-feeding with a spoon as seen in the photo here. (You just can't try that out in public.) I'm also trying to get him used to using a regular cup, though the messy factor makes this an infrequent endeavor. No attempts with a fork yet. Bon appetit, baby!

Baby You Can Drive My Car

Yes I'm gonna be a star
Baby you can drive my car
And maybe I'll love you
Beep beep'm beep beep yeah!

For his first birthday, Zeke got his first car from Aunt Dawn and Nana Nobi. It is now his favorite toy. When we put him in it, he makes his car sound (something like the "Mmm mmm mmm" song in the video below). He likes to take evening drives around the cul-de-sac and try to pick up the neighbor girl across the street. He likes to open the door and protests if we take him out before he is ready.

"Outta my way!"

The car goes both indoor and outdoors and stays parked inside at night. I'm inspired now to start getting Zeke more toys to take outside, though. We might need some sort of shed to store the toys to come, though I really resist the idea of adding a building to our property just to store our toddler son's playthings.






"Can we get moving now?"

Aaron has customized the car already by adding a cardboard floorboard so that Zeke would stop dragging his feet (which caused tears in his new soft shoes). I think more customizations will be coming soon -- Aaron's thinking flames painted on the side and a vanity plate might be called for.






The Coupe fits in well with our other cars by being environmentally responsible: after all, it has zero emissions and requires no fossil fuels, just parent power.

















The Sprout rides!

Wascally Wabbit

Motherhood has its rewards. This is good. Because otherwise the species would never survive. Not everything in the past year as a mother has been fun and games and makes me feel warm and fuzzy. To compensate, I dress my child up in things that he would probably never voluntarily wear. I acknowledge that it is completely for my own entertainment.

Now before you go reporting me to some child welfare organization for this latest offense, I will say in my defense that these rabbit ears were on sale and it is impossible to resist BOTH a sale and a photo opportunity. And, they came with a book, so it is educationally valuable. That's why I also bought the bookset with monkey ears.

For those of you keeping track, the child has now been dressed in some form or fashion as: a bee, a bear, a puppy, a puppy piloting a plane, a blue puppy, a panda bear, a monkey, a rabbit, a dinosaur, a turtle, and a koala bear. For those of you who the betting sorts, what are the odds that he will need therapy later?

Trouble! A Yucky Birthday Gift

Zeke got a terrible gift right before his birthday: his first ear infection! As I had written, Zeke had become a Velcro baby -- super attached and clingy. He also had been nightwaking frequently and had a runny nose. All of these things had made him a grumpy baby. All of these things, though, I could attribute to teething (that sixth and seventh tooth are coming soon) as well as normal developmental behaviors for a one year old. It was just bad luck.

Our "run of bad luck" kept nagging at me, though. I finally called the pediatrician though when we developed nursing problems. In brief, Zeke is a boob man. It wasn't an easy start, but Zeke and I ended up with a strong nursing relationship. At one year, we still nurse four times a day. I had just told some moms I know that I was pretty convinced that Zeke would nurse for as long as I would let him, maybe until his second birthday. So, it was really disturbing when for two days, the child kept biting me. It was terrible. I attributed it some to teething, as well as his using a sippy cup. After two days of trying to correct him, he just stopped taking to the breast altogether and would have a meltdown if in the nursing position or even if we were sitting his nursery rocking chair. It was a nursing strike! So, I took old friend breast pump out of the closet and started up with that again. Ugh. Love nursing, but was so glad to put that thing away when I left work. Also had to take out the old bottles, bottle warmer and whole rigamarole. I admit I wouldn't be altogether sad if Zeke weaned as I tire of special beautiful bras with flaps and only wearing what can be lifted up to my head quickly. Still, I didn't want it to end so suddenly and out of the blue.

I called the pediatrician's office after one day of this and started to feel dread as I listed everything that was going on. I know ear infections can be persistent and painful, and I just hated to think that Zeke might have an ear infection. I don't think I ever had them, but Aaron had them as a child and tells me they were awful. I still thought that it was just a 10% that this was an ear infection, but the nurse said that we should come in. She said she was concerned because it was only our second call to the office in a year, so that I really must be noticing something unusual.

So, you know the end of this story: Dr. Vic said that Zeke had an ear infection in his left ear. Poor baby! We agreed to antibiotics because we feel it had been going on for awhile. To assauge any inkling of guilt, I bought Zeke a toy cell phone (!) while we were filling the prescription and got some probiotics from the food co-op. After 48 hours, he did seem much more himself and the runny nose disappeared. He also started nursing again. It is just unbelievable all the new things that babies have to go through in the first year!

Happy Birthday: The Party

Yes, more on birthday festivities! For Zeke's first birthday, we hosted our first ever children's party. It wasn't so much a party as a playdate with all the babies that we know that are generally in the same age range as the birthday boy. In total, we had about six babies attend with their parents and even a grandparent. We may have gone a little overboard in our enthusiasm for the occasion with multiple cakes, finger sandwiches, snacks, a couple dozen balloons, a few rolls of streamers, gift bags and an evite with a hastily composed poem by yours truly. Still, as everyone says, the first birthday is more for the grown ups than for the child, so we thought we would enjoy ourselves! Zeke may not remember this years from now, but you can bet we will. I hope the other babies (and their families) had a nice time.

Shot of the food table and decorations. There was sort of theme, as some of the decorations had those ever present symbols of boyhood, trucks and trains. The tablecloth, gift bag and cake candles all had trucks and trains. Trish was clever enough to make a centerpiece for the table out of Zeke's favorite toy train with crepe paper "tracks" going down the middle of the table. To eat we had, pimento cheese sandwiches, as well as hummus, sprout and olive sandwiches. We also had fruit, some snack foods and my grandmother and sister's famous taffy apple salad (though any claim to be a "salad" by a dish that includes Cool Whip and pineapple is highly dubious). I also set out some cereal and snack puffs for the babies.

A shot of the three baby cakes. Adults got a strawberry cake from Whole Foods that I can only describe as yummy.

No structured party activities (outside of singing "Happy Birthday"). We just moved the coffee table out of the way and set out a lot of Zeke's toys. Zeke, buddy Ewan and neighbor girl Maisie converge around one of his new toys here.

Once Zeke leaves, Ewan gives Maisie a "look"!

Group shot. You can see pals Parker and Shaina in this shot. Shaina was so cute -- she crawled right to that corner by the fireplace and found some toys to play with by herself. I like independent women!

The guest of honor. This picture makes me laugh because Zeke's cheeks are so full after eating fruit from my plate. I think he had a whole bunch of grapes in there!

Still, he saved enough room for cake. More cake shots. He really does look thoughtful about it, doesn't he?



Aaron takes a call for Ewan and Zeke who are otherwise busy partying. (Note: Zeke probably doesn't even recognize this toy as a phone -- what phones have cords?)

Zeke examining a new gift. Zeke opened a few gifts at the end of his party. We got lots of new Leap Frog toys that play all sorts of songs that get stuck in my head!

Sprout takes a stroll

Finally -- streaming video! In this 30 second clip, see Sprout show off some new skills.



I bought him this walker/ride-on toy for Christmas and he did not have much interest in it. As a matter of fact, the baby has shown remarkably little interest in walking with any assistance. If I try to help, he just collapses and sits down. It turns out, as with most things, the kid just needed a little time and wanted to do it on his own. Last week, his grandmother took out the toy and got him to play with it. (Thanks, Grandma Tish!) In no time at all, he was zooming around the house behind the walker. (Listen for his "Mmm....mmm....mmm" song while walking.) After we took this footage, he experimented walking behind other things, including dining room chairs and large toys. It's so fun to watch, but I'm not necessarily looking forward to seeing him walking around the house -- how will we keep up?!?

Happy Birthday: It's Not a Party....

It's just not a party until there is a silly hat. (Zeke got to wear this classic of birthday parties for a little bit on his special day. All in all, I would say he tolerated it rather well.)

Happy Birthday: The Cake Shots

Of course, one of the most important elements of the first birthday is the first cake. I'll detail Zeke's first birthday in other posts, but know you are all waiting for the cake shots. Without further ado....

There was one cake for the adults in attendance and then cake for babies that was considerably less sugary. Trish made an unsweetened banana cake. I made cream cheese frosting (a little sugar is healthy for the spirit after all, and I hope he can tolerate a little dairy now and then). I decorated, not one, but three little mini-cakes. The one for the birthday boy, of course, was the one with his name. I thought they turned out pretty well, though cake decorating shall never be my calling.

This is the birthday boy, completely unaware of what is about to face him next. Note apple slice that is making him smile and keeping him busy while I light the candles.

Zeke waves to the assembled crowd, uncertain of why everyone is looking at him and singing, but pleased nonetheless with the attention.

The presentation of the cake. Note missing apple slice.

What cake? Zeke notes his displeasure that the apple slice is missing.

Sprout Mama steps in for the rescue and encourages a taste of the frosting.

Zeke says, "Hmmmm."

Squishy!

What apple slice?

The verdict is in. And it is good!

Grandma helps by offering a spoon.

Minutes later, Zeke is willing the decimated cake back to him as he savors his last bit of frosting and cake. Perhaps he is trying to figure out when the next birthday is.

Zeke's offering of cake to the floor.

Technical Glitch!

We have SO much to share with you. We have had a couple of events at the house, we have been celebrating birthdays (Zeke's and others) and have had even more firsts. However, no photos to share right now as I am having some problem with Blogger. And, what's the point of telling you about Zeke's first birthday, if there are no photos? (Sidenote: I'm thinking of moving aboutsprout to some other site -- any suggestions from my advanced blogging friends?)

Be back soon!

Flashback Photo: This Time Last Year (51 weeks)

And so, life returns to normal for us and the progeny this week. Poor little baby spent last week recovering from his illness. You could tell he was feeling run down all week -- he would be crawling around and then put his little head down and rest for a few moments. He also didn't sleep or eat well. He didn't even enjoy some of our regular weekly outings. His sleep is still a little erratic, but he is finally back to his regular eating habits. Unfortunately (fortunately?) we did not take many pictures over the past week, so I am bring you some photos from this time last year. Yes, that special time of my life when I had no reason to wake up at 5 AM.

The week before Zeke was born, Judith -- a former intern and great photographer -- offered to take some portraits of me. I took her up on the offer and spent an afternoon at her loft. She did a great job and I'm so thankful for the pictures. (For more of Judith's photography, check out the link at right to her blog documenting her current travels and work in Uganda.)

It is astounding to look at these photos now. I'm full of wonder remembering what was going on. At that time, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to give birth or to see our baby. However, the phrase "monstrously pregnant" has surfaced a few times in my mind. I was so big, especially in the legs! In some of the photos, you can even see how lopsided my belly was with most of the baby on my right side. I also remember the happiness and I think you can see that in some of the photos (as well as the 47 inches of girth).



What has changed in a year? There doesn't seem to be any adequate way to answer that. I have learned so much, but have so much more to learn. What I have learned, though, seems less amazing than the changes Zeke has seen in one year. I may have learned how to change a diaper, breastfeed and give a baby a bath. Yes, it's a lot. But the things he has done for the first time! Breathe, see, laugh, hold up his head, sit, eat, roll, smile, talk, stand! Yes, quite a year.

Here are some updates on the baby:

* He is becoming a toddler....either that or a chimp. He likes to screech and scream. He definitely has a sense of "mine mine mine" as he displays his new screeching when I take away something he thinks is his alone such as the bottle of lotion, my earrings, my glasses, et cetera. He also has taken to biting, not while nursing, but any other time.

* We're experimenting with new foods, especially solids and self feeding. With a little bit of assistance, he can feed spoonfeed himself purees. Messy, but fun! He will eat small dices of food, but he also likes to smush them between his fingers and then throw them to Maggie. While that is also messy, it is not as much fun for me. I've tried introducing a few new foods (today: collards!), but at least while he has been recovering, nothing has really struck his fancy.

* He sometimes helps me put on or take off his clothes.

* When you ask Zeke, "What does the cow say?" and then you moo, he responds with a funny sounding raspberry. CUTE!

* His receptive language is just huge. He loves to wave, but not just when he sees people wave. He also waves when he hears us say "bye bye", "wave" and "grandma" (as we have been telling him to wave at Grandma when we videoconference).

* Zeke loves his mama! Separation anxiety does not begin to cover how upset he can get if I try and get away to go to the bathroom even. He also gets shy around new people and will cozy up especially close.

* We finally heard back from our preschool of choice. We are, as we expected, on the waitlist. However, we are lower on the waitlist than I would like. Basically, one of the two classes didn't even take any new applicants as it filled with siblings of children already attending the school. The letter says that it is likely that many of the children on the waitlist will be enrolled, but I'm not optimistic. Zeke and I visited another school today that has openings. It is not my first choice, but it is less than a mile from the house and the director and facilities seemed nice. We'll keep you updated!