Friday, October 17, 2014
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Travelin' Bean
Last weekend we flew from Boston to Charlottesville (layover in NYC on the way down at DC on the way up) to go to Brian's cousin's wedding. We left early Friday morning and left Virginia on Sunday evening, arriving home just after midnight. I had a lot of concerns - would Silas have a meltdown on the plane? Would he sleep in the hotel? Would our trip undo all of our progress with sleep? Would we be able to attend the wedding or would one of us be bouncing Silas out the back door the whole time?
Well, he was the best 9-month-old travel companion you can imagine. I spent quite some time selecting some brand new toys for the airplane (a toy truck, a soft doll, and a little book of flash cards), and also putting together a little container full of interesting objects (a rubber pacifier, a string of acorns I made, a home-made pouch of cloves to smell, a tiny jar of water, some ribbons, and some crinkly tin foil). On the plane, Silas played with his new toys and spent a good long time putting objects into containers and taking them out again. We played little games with him, hiding a small cloth mouse and letting him find it (we left the tail sticking out), playing peekaboo, and so on. He didn't cry even once, and he actually had a terrific time. We had brought baggies of earplugs, gum and candy with us in case he made life very difficult for our neighbors, but we didn't need to use them (except once, when we had to ask somebody to switch seats). He did bang on a tray table (not the seat back) and cause the gentleman in front of us to scoot to the next seat, which was empty. Incidentally, I wonder if the man thought that we were negligent parents for failing to stop our child from making noise. It could have looked that way. Of course, it was more like, we could gently redirect him away from the tray table without having him scream (resulting in a few minutes of banging), or we could make him stop immediately and deal with the little tantrum. I'm guessing that wouldn't have been preferable...
At the hotel, Silas crawled around and explored all the stuff in the room - the safe, the underside of the sink, the bed, and so on. At the wedding, he napped in his carrier for half the time and then sat quietly (mostly! made a few cute noises) on our laps while we made funny faces for the rest. At the reception, he crawled around on a chilly VA hillside and investigated stumps and sticks. When he got cold Brian carried him in the carrier. Silas also came to several restaurants, took some naps in his carseat, came on two hikes (slept through them, in his carrier), and was generally a good sport about everything. He slept less well at the hotel than at home, which we expected, but it wasn't terrible by any means, and he didn't cry AT ALL despite coming down with what must be his first cold while we were there. He had a snotty nose, which made it hard to breathe, although it didn't seem to upset him in the least and he never acted ill.
On the trip back, he slept in my arms on the plane, continued sleeping in the carrier as Brian held him, slept in my arms again on the second plane, and finally woke up a little bit for the car ride home, although he was dazed and sleepy. We ran through a version of his routine at home and he went to sleep. He even slept in until 7:30 the next morning to make up for the disruption. What a trooper!! I was so proud of him. And also so thankful that it was no trouble to nurse him on the plane. I wore my most conservative nursing shirt and brought a muslin blanket, but I always sat in the window seat and I don't think anybody even noticed. Without nursing, I think it is doubtful that Silas would have slept at all without being marched up and down the aisle constantly. Ever time he stirred (turbulence, loud beeping) he just nursed for a few seconds and kept on sleeping. It was so peaceful! And uncomplicated.
He did have a meltdown on Friday afternoon after he'd been awake 10 hours with just 2 20-minute naps, both of which had started at very inconvenient times. I felt terrible for him, but he recovered and had a very nice evening anyway. Other than that, he had a blast! He loved the hotel room, he loved the drainage ditch outside the hotel room, he loved spending extra time with Grandma Marsha and Grandpa Fred, and just generally seeing the Virginia countryside.
We did a LOT of planning ahead to ensure that Silas's needs could be properly met. We had a travel high chair so he could participate in mealtimes without too much frustration, we had brought his favorite foods, we made sure to keep track of when he needed to sleep, and we tried to replicate as much of his daily and bedtime routines as possible to keep him from feeling lost or overwhelmed. And his lovey helped a lot. I think it went very well, and although it was exhausting (because of timing, he didn't nap on any kind of bed until Sunday, so we didn't get even a single minute of downtime until them), it was a confidence-builder.
Well, he was the best 9-month-old travel companion you can imagine. I spent quite some time selecting some brand new toys for the airplane (a toy truck, a soft doll, and a little book of flash cards), and also putting together a little container full of interesting objects (a rubber pacifier, a string of acorns I made, a home-made pouch of cloves to smell, a tiny jar of water, some ribbons, and some crinkly tin foil). On the plane, Silas played with his new toys and spent a good long time putting objects into containers and taking them out again. We played little games with him, hiding a small cloth mouse and letting him find it (we left the tail sticking out), playing peekaboo, and so on. He didn't cry even once, and he actually had a terrific time. We had brought baggies of earplugs, gum and candy with us in case he made life very difficult for our neighbors, but we didn't need to use them (except once, when we had to ask somebody to switch seats). He did bang on a tray table (not the seat back) and cause the gentleman in front of us to scoot to the next seat, which was empty. Incidentally, I wonder if the man thought that we were negligent parents for failing to stop our child from making noise. It could have looked that way. Of course, it was more like, we could gently redirect him away from the tray table without having him scream (resulting in a few minutes of banging), or we could make him stop immediately and deal with the little tantrum. I'm guessing that wouldn't have been preferable...
At the hotel, Silas crawled around and explored all the stuff in the room - the safe, the underside of the sink, the bed, and so on. At the wedding, he napped in his carrier for half the time and then sat quietly (mostly! made a few cute noises) on our laps while we made funny faces for the rest. At the reception, he crawled around on a chilly VA hillside and investigated stumps and sticks. When he got cold Brian carried him in the carrier. Silas also came to several restaurants, took some naps in his carseat, came on two hikes (slept through them, in his carrier), and was generally a good sport about everything. He slept less well at the hotel than at home, which we expected, but it wasn't terrible by any means, and he didn't cry AT ALL despite coming down with what must be his first cold while we were there. He had a snotty nose, which made it hard to breathe, although it didn't seem to upset him in the least and he never acted ill.
On the trip back, he slept in my arms on the plane, continued sleeping in the carrier as Brian held him, slept in my arms again on the second plane, and finally woke up a little bit for the car ride home, although he was dazed and sleepy. We ran through a version of his routine at home and he went to sleep. He even slept in until 7:30 the next morning to make up for the disruption. What a trooper!! I was so proud of him. And also so thankful that it was no trouble to nurse him on the plane. I wore my most conservative nursing shirt and brought a muslin blanket, but I always sat in the window seat and I don't think anybody even noticed. Without nursing, I think it is doubtful that Silas would have slept at all without being marched up and down the aisle constantly. Ever time he stirred (turbulence, loud beeping) he just nursed for a few seconds and kept on sleeping. It was so peaceful! And uncomplicated.
He did have a meltdown on Friday afternoon after he'd been awake 10 hours with just 2 20-minute naps, both of which had started at very inconvenient times. I felt terrible for him, but he recovered and had a very nice evening anyway. Other than that, he had a blast! He loved the hotel room, he loved the drainage ditch outside the hotel room, he loved spending extra time with Grandma Marsha and Grandpa Fred, and just generally seeing the Virginia countryside.
We did a LOT of planning ahead to ensure that Silas's needs could be properly met. We had a travel high chair so he could participate in mealtimes without too much frustration, we had brought his favorite foods, we made sure to keep track of when he needed to sleep, and we tried to replicate as much of his daily and bedtime routines as possible to keep him from feeling lost or overwhelmed. And his lovey helped a lot. I think it went very well, and although it was exhausting (because of timing, he didn't nap on any kind of bed until Sunday, so we didn't get even a single minute of downtime until them), it was a confidence-builder.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Silas, 9.5 months
I'll have to post pictures later.
As I wrote in my last update, it's getting very hard to keep up with Silas in writing these days. He learns so fast these days, and does so much, that I'm running into the old blogging trap of having so much to say that I never get around to it. So I'll try to sum up.
He's finally reached what seems like a magical age where it is possible to demonstrate to him how to do things. Instead of discovering everything by accident, on his own, I can show him how to make a funny sound with an air vent, or how to open a drawer with a knob, or how to put a stick through a hole, and he can mimic me immediately, rather than trying hundreds of times. This has led to an exponential increase in the number of small, discrete skills that he has. It's been great fun to watch, and every day I get to delight him by showing him how to do a few new little things. This morning I showed him how to scrape an old envelope along the edge of the HVAC intake to make a funny noise. He got the giggles and tried it for 5 minutes.
He is still fascinated by putting things into containers, taking them out, stacking blocks, knocking blocks over, and so on. Anything to do with prepositional phrases, really. And the coolest part is that he now understands the phrases, too! You can ask him to take something out or put something in, and he does it immediately with a huge grin on his face, clearly thrilled to be communicating. He is enthralled by nesting/stacking cups, crawling through tunnels, climbing things, finding partially hidden objects (e.g., a small fabric mouse that we hide for him with the tail sticking out), pushing his little cart, and so many other little activities I'm losing count. He initiates games of hide and seek many times a day, scampering around the edges of things and crouching quietly only to pop out and giggle a few seconds later. He suffers from common baby confusion: once he has hidden, he thinks that he is still hidden until he turns his head around to look at me. This results in many adorable "reveals" when I was in fact sitting next to him already. So cute.
His receptive language is clearly expanding every day. He definitely understands "turn the page", "go down backwards" (he turns around and backs off of the couch, thanks Grandma Marsha!!), "let's go outside", "are you all done?" and a variety of other phrases. He can find his favorite toys if asked, and he has quite a few object labels - cat, book, truck, water, etc. In terms of productive language, both grandmothers are convinced that he has said a few words - truck and cat. I heard him say "book" and "button" but was disinclined to believe it, and I haven't heard it again, so I'm not sure. Since those are all words he definitely understands, it's plausible!
The reason I'm hesitant to believe it comes from my very restrained and measured attitude towards viewing Silas as exceptional. One of my worst fears as a parent is slowly becoming unable to appreciate Silas for just being himself, and demanding that he be exceptional in some way. I don't want to pressure him to be better than average, or somehow a star. I don't want to build up a culture of exceptionalism around him in our family, so that he doesn't know how to be content unless he is achieving, winning or excelling. Right now he is blissfully free of self-criticism, and while self awareness will come with age and bring with it a certain degree of introspectiveness that he will need, I am not eager for the day when he thinks to himself, "Maybe I'm not good enough the way I am". So, I have resolved not to encourage such views, even inadvertently.
It has been a challenge, therefore, to be real about Silas's temperament and accomplishments. He *has* been early with all of his motor milestones. I suspect this is related to his absolutely bottomless desire to move and explore, and I want to honor the part of his personality that is driving his exploration, rather than his particular achievements. But he DID roll, sit, stand and crawl early. It was obvious. When it comes to language and cognitive development, I think I may be going a bit overboard on my carefully nonchalant attitude, and I may actually be underestimating his abilities a bit. The grandmothers pointed out to me just how much he understands, and I realized I'd been overlooking it! That's not good, either. (Just to complicate things further, the official milestones are always in the back of my mind, so I can even worry Silas isn't learning fast ENOUGH. Go figure.)
As for motor skills, Silas now stands independently at times, and finds his little cart and pulls up and walks without intervention. He can walk while holding on with just one hand and cruises very fast. He handles small pieces of food quite well, and gets almost everything into his mouth, unless he's trying to throw things on the floor... He is increasingly able to manipulate objects in his peripheral vision. He still doesn't clap, but once last week, when I was trying to show him how to do it by holding his hands, instead of clapping, he held MY hands and made THEM clap, so I feel pretty sure he could be doing it if he wanted to.
He still doesn't point at distant objects, and we're not sure if he really gets it entirely when we do, but he definitely understands "Look!" and follows our gaze very expertly.
As for eating, Silas still loves nursing and nurses probably 8 times in a 24 hour period. He also eats a LOT of food! He seems to prefer food with a lot of flavor (me too!) and has recently downed an entire mini burrito (with cilantro rice and fresh salsa), pakoras with sweet chutney, vegetarian "chicken" and waffles, panang curry, vegetable biriyani, cherry smoothies, and an enormous assortment of fruit and grain products. Turns out he loves oatmeal, so breakfast is no sweat. He has eaten virtually everything we have served him, except eggs, potatoes and green beans. I think eggs and potatoes taste pretty bad without salt, and green beans? Who knows.
Beyond his skills, Silas's personality just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter. He just seems so happy! It's infectious. He's bubbly and playful and affectionate and keen on exploring everything. He goes with the flow so well. Sometimes he seems so unbelievably sweet I can hardly believe he's a real little boy, MY little boy, sitting in my living room giving me kisses and handing me slimy chewed up toys as gifts. I'm so excited about the next few months - as his language skills come on line, there's so much we can tell him and show him, and so many delightful experiences to have.
As I wrote in my last update, it's getting very hard to keep up with Silas in writing these days. He learns so fast these days, and does so much, that I'm running into the old blogging trap of having so much to say that I never get around to it. So I'll try to sum up.
He's finally reached what seems like a magical age where it is possible to demonstrate to him how to do things. Instead of discovering everything by accident, on his own, I can show him how to make a funny sound with an air vent, or how to open a drawer with a knob, or how to put a stick through a hole, and he can mimic me immediately, rather than trying hundreds of times. This has led to an exponential increase in the number of small, discrete skills that he has. It's been great fun to watch, and every day I get to delight him by showing him how to do a few new little things. This morning I showed him how to scrape an old envelope along the edge of the HVAC intake to make a funny noise. He got the giggles and tried it for 5 minutes.
He is still fascinated by putting things into containers, taking them out, stacking blocks, knocking blocks over, and so on. Anything to do with prepositional phrases, really. And the coolest part is that he now understands the phrases, too! You can ask him to take something out or put something in, and he does it immediately with a huge grin on his face, clearly thrilled to be communicating. He is enthralled by nesting/stacking cups, crawling through tunnels, climbing things, finding partially hidden objects (e.g., a small fabric mouse that we hide for him with the tail sticking out), pushing his little cart, and so many other little activities I'm losing count. He initiates games of hide and seek many times a day, scampering around the edges of things and crouching quietly only to pop out and giggle a few seconds later. He suffers from common baby confusion: once he has hidden, he thinks that he is still hidden until he turns his head around to look at me. This results in many adorable "reveals" when I was in fact sitting next to him already. So cute.
His receptive language is clearly expanding every day. He definitely understands "turn the page", "go down backwards" (he turns around and backs off of the couch, thanks Grandma Marsha!!), "let's go outside", "are you all done?" and a variety of other phrases. He can find his favorite toys if asked, and he has quite a few object labels - cat, book, truck, water, etc. In terms of productive language, both grandmothers are convinced that he has said a few words - truck and cat. I heard him say "book" and "button" but was disinclined to believe it, and I haven't heard it again, so I'm not sure. Since those are all words he definitely understands, it's plausible!
The reason I'm hesitant to believe it comes from my very restrained and measured attitude towards viewing Silas as exceptional. One of my worst fears as a parent is slowly becoming unable to appreciate Silas for just being himself, and demanding that he be exceptional in some way. I don't want to pressure him to be better than average, or somehow a star. I don't want to build up a culture of exceptionalism around him in our family, so that he doesn't know how to be content unless he is achieving, winning or excelling. Right now he is blissfully free of self-criticism, and while self awareness will come with age and bring with it a certain degree of introspectiveness that he will need, I am not eager for the day when he thinks to himself, "Maybe I'm not good enough the way I am". So, I have resolved not to encourage such views, even inadvertently.
It has been a challenge, therefore, to be real about Silas's temperament and accomplishments. He *has* been early with all of his motor milestones. I suspect this is related to his absolutely bottomless desire to move and explore, and I want to honor the part of his personality that is driving his exploration, rather than his particular achievements. But he DID roll, sit, stand and crawl early. It was obvious. When it comes to language and cognitive development, I think I may be going a bit overboard on my carefully nonchalant attitude, and I may actually be underestimating his abilities a bit. The grandmothers pointed out to me just how much he understands, and I realized I'd been overlooking it! That's not good, either. (Just to complicate things further, the official milestones are always in the back of my mind, so I can even worry Silas isn't learning fast ENOUGH. Go figure.)
As for motor skills, Silas now stands independently at times, and finds his little cart and pulls up and walks without intervention. He can walk while holding on with just one hand and cruises very fast. He handles small pieces of food quite well, and gets almost everything into his mouth, unless he's trying to throw things on the floor... He is increasingly able to manipulate objects in his peripheral vision. He still doesn't clap, but once last week, when I was trying to show him how to do it by holding his hands, instead of clapping, he held MY hands and made THEM clap, so I feel pretty sure he could be doing it if he wanted to.
He still doesn't point at distant objects, and we're not sure if he really gets it entirely when we do, but he definitely understands "Look!" and follows our gaze very expertly.
As for eating, Silas still loves nursing and nurses probably 8 times in a 24 hour period. He also eats a LOT of food! He seems to prefer food with a lot of flavor (me too!) and has recently downed an entire mini burrito (with cilantro rice and fresh salsa), pakoras with sweet chutney, vegetarian "chicken" and waffles, panang curry, vegetable biriyani, cherry smoothies, and an enormous assortment of fruit and grain products. Turns out he loves oatmeal, so breakfast is no sweat. He has eaten virtually everything we have served him, except eggs, potatoes and green beans. I think eggs and potatoes taste pretty bad without salt, and green beans? Who knows.
Beyond his skills, Silas's personality just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter. He just seems so happy! It's infectious. He's bubbly and playful and affectionate and keen on exploring everything. He goes with the flow so well. Sometimes he seems so unbelievably sweet I can hardly believe he's a real little boy, MY little boy, sitting in my living room giving me kisses and handing me slimy chewed up toys as gifts. I'm so excited about the next few months - as his language skills come on line, there's so much we can tell him and show him, and so many delightful experiences to have.
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