Unsolicited: Parenting Stories and Advice

It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's Leo!   What's over here?!? Okay, so he isn't exactly flying.  But, Leo is now an unstoppable force of movement and energy. He is constantly investigating the world around him via his hands, knees, and eyes. Not gonna lie, it's a little exhausting but we're loving mostly every minute of it.  He is a man on the move and with a mission.  Who are we to stop him?!?  Stats: 30.25 inches(98%) and 20 lbs 15 oz(71%)! Hair: Getting longer! We're not quite at mullet status, but he's no longer fit for military service. Eyes: Sometimes gray, sometimes brown. So the same. Light! Likes: Leo has discovered several new hobbies this month.  He's pulling up on literally everything he can get his hands on, even if the object in question is literally no more than 5 inches off the ground.  If it appears to be stable, it must be for pulling up!  He also seems to LOVE songs with hand movements(especiall...

This graphic or variations on it were not helpful at all for me.  It looks like an alien eating a stalagmite.  I totally advocate hiring an LC. When you are pregnant, you hear the phrase "Breastfeeding is hard." a lot. In my experience, however, you rarely hear the specifics of why it's hard(or you know, more intensely difficult than anything, ever).*  Maybe it's post-traumatic stress.  Maybe it's that nursing moms don't want to scare away other potential nursing moms. I don't know.  I do know that I was blissfully unaware of everything that can go wrong when you breastfeed. My attitude was sort of, maybe it won't be hard for me? Maybe they just mean you'll be up all night?  If I had been smart, I would have realized that any time there are consultants and support groups for something, it's obviously not going to be a case of "just staying up all night." So, I thought I'd write about the ways that breastfeeding sucked for ...

Leo continues to figure out new ways to explore his world as he has hit his eight month mark. He officially can never be left alone and unrestrained - what he does may not always meet all the requirements of "crawling", but he's gotten very good at setting destination goals and achieving them, even if those goals are not always on the same vertical plane that he begins on. On the downside, his first two teeth started coming in this month, which led to some of the toughest nights for him (and us) since the first couple of months at home.  Hair: Developing an undergrowth of hair for a layered look. Also seems to be stickier and clumpier, but that relates to the increase in hand-held foods.  Eyes: Maybe settling into a brownish gray? The tone seems to depend on the ambient light.  Likes: Leo continues to love to eat, listen to music, and tickles! He loves Remote, Octopus, and Phone. Still putting everything and anything into his mouth!  He's definitely e...

One of the funny things about the strange adventure of keeping Leo alive and reasonably happy is that things can matter SO MUCH at any moment, and within weeks he has outgrown them (or maybe we just can't take them anymore). I'm sure this will be true for his whole life (just like I moved on from Brio trains...right?), but maybe it won't cycle so fast when he stops doubling in size in a matter of months. In any case, here are some memories that already seem so distant. Swaddling - Leo was not a good sleeper at the beginning of his life, so we had to keep him burrito-ed up. Of course, he had outgrown the standard issue hospital swaddle in about a week, so we had him in progressively bigger blankets until the July heat wave when it all ended. Bouncy chair. First as the only place he would sleep, and then a second round as the only place he could sit after eating without refunding the meal. Then he grew like kudzu, and it just felt mean to strap him down. Thanks to Eli...

I've heard rumors that there are babies who LOVE being in the car.  These babies fall asleep the minute the engine goes on and stay asleep until the car arrives at its destination (whether that's 5 minutes or 5 hours). This would work out great for me - a chance to relax, kick back my feet, think about nothing.  However, Leo is not one of these babies.  And so, managing car trips with Leo has become my Mount Everest.* First road trip home from the hospital!  90% blanket. At the beginning, road trips were pretty much no big deal.  He was asleep most of the time anyway, so as long as he was fed and dry, he was pretty much good to go.  Also, these road trips tended to be really short (30 minutes or less).  Our first trip out, we went to the bris and we occasionally traveled to the UES for some bagels and lox (Leo likes his thinly sliced by the guy at the Fairway counter). Life is better in the front seat! It wasn't apparent that there...

Mmmmm...kickboard flavored by chlorine. Ever since his second bath (the first didn't go so well), Leo has loved being in the water.  As long as it's the right temperature and he's with a conscientious adult, he totally digs splashing, kicking, and generally rabble rousing when immersed in a liquid state of matter (we haven't tried other liquids, but we assume they would also be a success). So, when a friend of ours told us that she and her son would be enrolling in the "Shrimp" class at the Y, it was a given that we would also enroll our own crustacean.  Nobody told me that I would have to wear this cap. Eric and I both went since it was Leo's first time.  I changed in the women's locker room and left the task of changing squirmy baby in dirty locker room to Eric.  When we arrived on the pool deck, there were several other dads and babies and only one other mom (I assume the others had all decided to stay home and take naps - smart move, a...

Leo's seventh month was just full of new experiences, activities, and awesomeness.  He started daycare this month, began eating solids, and is officially on all fours most of the time when he's on the floor!  Leo continues to have moments where he is very thoughtful and still and other moments where he is grabbing everything around him and others when he is moving up a storm on the floor.  It's all fantastic, but I think my favorite times are when he's in a giggly mood and anything and everything makes him laugh. We celebrated month seven in Ithaca, where we were for Rosh Hashanah! At Ithaca Falls, with Cornell socks Hair: No more bald spot in back, but about the same amount everywhere else. Eyes: Blue around the outside, brown around the iris - looking forward to seeing where they'll wind up! This swing feels familiar... Likes: GNAWING on everything, songs with hand motions, his jumperoo, having quiet time in his crib (Sometimes he just like...