When Mommy is Away...

A couple of Saturdays ago, I woke up feeling particularly motivated (meaning I must have gotten more than 4 hours of sleep) so I decided to hit up the gym. Before I left I made sure Greyden was fed and happy and told Kevin to keep an eye on him for his sleeping cues because he was going to be ready for a nap soon. Then off I went.  

I came home about an hour and a half later to find Kevin all alone in the kitchen washing up bottles. As I opened the back door, he turned around and put his finger to his lips to indicate that Tater was napping. I looked toward the living room where he usually naps in his swing, and saw this:

Yes, that is Greyden, in his swing and out like a light. And yes, that is Greyden, approximately 4 feet in front of the TV, watching the fishing channel. Now I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to let a baby watch television in the first place. However I have to concede that Kevin's apparent tactic to bore the poor kid to sleep seemed to work because he slept for about 90 minutes straight. Of course if you were to stick me in front of the fishing channel for any length of time you'd most likely get the same effect.

Besides this slight deviation in Kevin's normally stellar parenting skills, he does pretty well with Grey. Or at least I was under the impression that he did. When I went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with my girlfriends, I had no problem leaving Junior in the care of Daddy for the entire day. When I called and checked in I found everything to be under control, save for a slight mishap with a leaking bottle, which led me to believe that they had a great day together and everything went swimmingly. It wasn't until a few weeks later when I overheard Kevin describing that fateful day to a friend as "absolutely terrifying" that I realized otherwise. I also realized that Kevin is a wuss. What does he think happens when he up and leaves us to go on his little business trips? The Child Care Fairy appears to take care of Junior and I head off to the spa? Riiiiight. Nope we go about our days as usual. Now that Junior is a little person and is fun to play with, it's not bad being the sole parent. Back when he was still in his "bump on a log" phase (i.e. - the first two months) he would just look at you like you had two heads when you dangled a toy in front of his face. Now it doesn't matter what you dangle in front of his face, toy or not, it's going in his mouth. And you can bet that if it's any kind of food (especially french fries, beer, and cheetos), his go-go gadget arms will reach it.

Speaking of food, before Greyden was born we were given a high chair by our friend's mom, who happens to own a resale shop. SCORE! Anything we didn't have to buy, we happily hoarded accepted. Unfortunately things never seem to go as you expect them to. Case in point, this is a picture of him at 5 months old in said high chair.   



Can you see the problem here? Yeah, we could too. But instead of accepting that it was just too big for him, we did the next best thing and relegated the tray to a closet and just used the chair alone. The problem with this technique is that a baby and his feet are inseparable. After yet another 30 minute session of playing with his feet feeding session for a mere 3 ounces of food, I decided to give the tray another shot, fully expecting a much better result. After all it had been 2 full months since the last try. And this is what I got:

Okay fine. That's the same picture. But to be honest, he looked exactly the same as before and could still barely see over the tray so I saw no need to take another one. I couldn't imagine another 5 months of battling his feet for his attention, when his feet would clearly continue to win each time (maybe he isn't a Shagene after all?) so I got online and found another option. This is what we're working with now:

And let me tell you, he LOVES it. As soon as you put that tray on, he's banging on it with his fists. (Yes, he's still fighting the sign for "more" and doing it his way. I hate to say it, but it works for him. The kid is obviously not starving, although you'd never know that when he's screaming for the boob at 3 o'clock in the morning.)


The nice part about this chair is that it's portable, which will come in very handy when we head for Michigan on Wednesday. We're already dragging along a pack and play, a jumparoo, and an exersaucer, the last thing we need to do is cram a high chair in too, right? Wish us luck because I have a feeling we'll need it. Or should I say, I'll need it. 20+ hours of entertaining an 8 month old? Bring it on.  

Pictures of Greyden (Or, Mommy Got a New Camera)

Remember how I received a new camera for Mother's Day? I have to admit, it is nowhere near as easy to use as my little Canon point and shoot, but it is a lot more fun. There are a million different settings and functions on it. Here are some of the pictures we've taken so far. These were all taken in mid to late May when Greyden was about 5.5 - 6 months old.  

Somehow you can always tell when he gets tired of having a camera in his face.



A Camping We Will Go

It's been awhile so I have a lot to catch up on. First and foremost? Zebra.

Yes, these are the stupid zebra that my dear husband managed to capture on camera a few weeks ago when we were at our deer lease. I wasn't with him when the picture was taken, but as far as I know there are no zoos around the lease (which happens to be in the middle of nowhere), so I unfortunately have to give him the benefit of the doubt. You win, Kevin (this time).


Since our deer lease weekend, we've also taken the RV on a real camping trip! And when I say a "real camping trip" I mean a campground where not only could we could plug in and have electricity, but we also had sewer hook ups. And 3 pools. And while this is considered real camping in my world (I refuse to acknowledge the word "tent"), this is still a far cry from Kevin's version of roughing it, which involves staying at a Holiday Inn instead of a Hilton.


Our campsite:

Kevin and Sandy's campsite:

Of course all dogs must remain on a leash, so this is how Harley spent about 90% of his weekend:

And this is how Greyden spent 90% of his:

It was in the upper 90s/low 100s the entire weekend, which means that mommy was not thinking clearly when packing his bag. Here's a list of what we packed: onsies and shorts, pants, socks, and a jacket for the cooler nights, pjs, sleep sacks, and a bathing suit, all in multiples of 10, just in case. Here's a list of what we should have packed: diapers.


When we weren't parked in front of the fan, I had him indoors to cool off. He didn't mind. He could sit and stack/unstack these rings for hours. Although admittedly he looks rather confused in this picture:

Those are the best $4 I've ever spent.

Like I said, there were 3 pools at the campground but they were all filled with incredibly annoying monsters kids, so I made Kevin take us on a road trip to Target so that I could get Greyden his own pool. I had envisioned one of those little ones that are 3 feet across max. This is what we came back with. Of course it was too large for him to sit in alone so I had to get in with him. It was rough:

Stay tuned for more camping adventures to come. We'll be hitting the road and heading up to Michigan in less than 3 weeks for the 4th of July!

7 Months!

Yeah, so I'm late again. Ah, nothing is ever easy anymore. C'est la vie. I'm at a complete loss as to what I used to do with my free time. I'm also at a complete loss that my free time ever existed, since I can't seem to remember it. Greyden is 7 months old! Late post, but at least the pictures were taken on time. Someday those two things will actually coincide. 

 How do I get this damn thing off?

 RAWR!

 I'm sorry, what was that?

One of reasons it's taken me so long to write this post is due to Greyden's lack of sleep schedule. I've been beyond exhausted. For the last two weeks he's been waking up at least twice a night (which I can handle) but crying when we put him back into the crib after feeding him (which I can't handle). Last night we finally had some relief. He managed to go 9 straight hours before waking up at 5 to eat. (This may or may not have been due to the Tylenol we gave him before bed. He's, um, teething...) Unfortunately I didn't go to bed at 8 when he did so I only managed 6 hours, but it's better than the 2-3 I was living on and at this point I'm willing to take what I can get. The funny part about it is that while Greyden has no problem getting and keeping us up at all hours of the night, when I go into his room at 7 am to wake him up for daycare, he's not having it. Every morning I open the blinds and start talking softly to him. And every morning I get no response. Then when I gently shake his shoulder or rub his back, he has the audacity to shrug off my hand, roll away from me, and go back to sleep. I kid you not, it's like living with a teenager who stays up all night then refuses to get up for school. Of course if we need to go into his room at night to get something we can't make even the slightest sound or the kid is wide awake. Damn they start young.

He hasn't been to the doctor in awhile so I have no idea how much he weighs. He was just under 15 pounds at his 6 month appointment, so he's probably around 16 pounds or so. I was able to keep a pretty good log of his weight when we were at the doctor every other week for some random cold or sinus infection (stupid daycare). Then we finally realized that it was much cheaper to have a sick baby than it was to take him to the doctor all the time, where they couldn't do much for him besides piss him off by looking into his ears. (Hopefully our doctor isn't too upset that she can't take that trip to Aruba on our dime.)

Greyden is turning into quite the little man with quite the big personality. His daycare teachers said that they have to hide food from him when feeding the other kids. Even if he's just finished eating, he has a fit if he sees them feeding the other babies. They also work on some sign language with them, basic signs like "milk" and "more". Except according to his teachers, his version of "more" isn't the standard sign where you make each of your hands into a semi-flattened o, then bring both hands together. His version is opening his palms wide, then simultaneously banging them on the table while yelling at the top of his lungs. (I didn't teach him that.) He appears to be slightly high-maintenance. Or maybe he's just a drama queen like his father.

He's also been sitting up on his own for the last few weeks. He went from being able to do it for only a few seconds at a time to being able to sit up on his own for 10 minutes or more, literally over night.  He's also started to push either his upper body or his butt off the ground, but hasn't quite mastered the art of doing both at the same time. If he manages to get his butt in the air he gets top heavy and ends up rolling to the side. To be honest, I really don't mind him being immobile. For one thing I can leave him on his playmat in the nursery while I do laundry across the hall. For another, I have no idea how to babyproof.

He has also learned to give kisses, which involves him opening his mouth as wide as he can, putting it on the side of your face, then flattening his tongue against your cheek. Trust me, it's much sweeter than it sounds.

Oh, and one more milestone - I think it's about time to move on up to size 3 diapers. Every day he comes home from daycare in a different outfit than what I dropped him off in. I'm sure his daycare teachers are ready to kill me, but we still have an entire sleeve of the size 2s to use up. Diapers are expensive dammit!

Sitting in a high chair for the first time. Yes, we were at the bar. But it was Sunday, so it doesn't count.

He loves his jumperoo. This thing goes everywhere with us.