My Very First Post!

Hi Everyone! I'm hijacking my mom's blog.  Mom has been busy working, and meeting, something she calls, "obligations and deadlines" hence,  she has been ignoring my blog audience.  So this morning I thought I would catch you up on what I've been doing.  Because what she's been doing is B-O-R-I-N-G. 

I am now 5 months old, and according my Mom and Momma - I'm cuter than ever.  And do I have these people wrapped around my finger.  You should see what they are willing to do just to get me to giggle.  I would  totally giggle more without all the fuss, but they seem to like making crazy faces, dancing around, singing...so I've been humoring them.  Someone should really give me the camera or video camera, so I could show them what they are doing! I'm laughing at them, but they don't seem to care.

Yesterday I hit the 5 month old milestone.  I now weigh 18 lbs 2 oz, and Mom say I'm outgrowing things faster than she can wash them.  I think it's because I have found something I absolutely love - Food!  Food is awesome, and there is so much variety.  I still like my milk, but I love pears, bananas,  sweet potatoes, avocados and especially applesauce.  I just wish Mom would let me hold the spoon, she's a bit controlling, but for now I'm letting her feed me, I keep trying show her I can do it on my own, she'll catch up, but for now whatever makes her happy.  Thank goodness my Dad finally intervened and gave me some bananas, my Mom was never going to do it.  She kept telling people I wasn't reaching for food on her plate...she forgot to mention she wouldn't eat with me on her lap, and my arms are too short to reach from the high chair.  She took a video of me eating, you'll see she really needs to buy a tripod...

She also finally gave me a a big boy cup.  I hate baby bottles, there I said it.  I tried to show them several times that "breast was best", but they kept jamming this rubber thing in my mouth and expecting me to drink from it - eewww!  I had seen other big boys with cups, and the minute she gave me one of those I was all over it.  She put some water in it, which was a bit surprising at first, but I really like water now.  I have to grab the cup from her as soon as she fills it up, otherwise she'd try and hold that for me too!  This is me with my new cup the first day I had it, of course she had to take a picture!

I also got evicted...my own mother evicted me.  She moved me to a smaller bed!  Just when I had everything as I wanted it, Mom up and changed things.  I had been sleeping with Mom every since I had arrived and that way whenever I was hungry I could just get a snack and I wasn't really bothering her. It was so easy.  She was complaining to my Dad she couldn't sleep, and then life got really good for me.  She moved to the couch and I had a king size bed all to myself!  It was awesome.   Just look how happy I was.

She told me it was ridiculous that Dad was in the guest room, she was on the couch, and I was in a king size bed, and wham! I suddenly found myself it a much smaller bed - similar to a jail cell, I now have bars all around me.   I thought about making a big fuss when she put me it there the first night, but it's kind of cozy, and it's all mine. 

I've been working on rolling over...I can actually do it, but I don't want my Mom to know.  So when she leaves the room I roll around until I get to the spot I want to be in, and then when she comes back I am lying on my back again.  It's really funny - she has no idea.  She tried to set up the video camera one day to catch me, but I'm totally on to her, so I just laid perfectly still the whole time it was there - after all I wasn't born yesterday - I am 5 months old.   I love to do this when she's changing my diaper, it makes diaper changes so much more interesting!  Especially when she forgets the diaper basket is empty and has to run and get one ;)

I finally got to go for my first pony ride, I think I want a be a cowboy when I grow up! 

This pony is a little wild, but I'll get her trained, it's just going to take a little time.

My mouth also hurts a lot these days!  And for some reason my shirts are always soaked right under my chin.  My mom says I'm creating even more laundry (which apparently she didn't think was possible), but I'm being a pretty good sport about it all.  She says I'm "cutting a tooth", whatever that means, all I know is that with a whimper I can get a cuddle, and she lets me bite whatever I want, so it's not so bad. 

I've been waiting for something called Summer to come, Mom says maybe next year, which is a real bummer.  She says it's "Fall", and soon it will be "Winter", she bought me a new hat for this winter thing...she says I'll definitely get to see winter, no chance of missing that.  I think I'm going to like it, because I love my new hat!

Which reminds me I love my bumbo chair, I can get right up and see things and be a part of things a lot easier.  My brothers and sister were here this weekend, and we all played Monopoly with Dad.  I let Dad win just this once.

Well I'm off for a nap, I try not to sleep any more than an hour otherwise my Mom just misses me too much.  But I can hardly stop the yawning now...

Love,  Sloan.

Could Reg & I Be Any More Different?

The question of when Sloan would start solid foods has been one of great debate over the last 3 or 4 weeks.  Jodi's kids started at 4 months, Reg's earlier, and yet the conventional wisdom of the day is to wait until he's 6 months old.  I'm a rule follower, my advisers not so much.

But even my rule following mind could see that he's a big boy, bigger than some of my friend's babies were at a year.  And as I checked around, most babies were actually sneaking solids by four months (or rather their Moms were).   I have read ten books on starting babies on solids (by now this shouldn't surprise you), I requested EVERY book on this subject from the Airdrie Public Library, and as they have trickled in, I've devoured them.  And by the way, they all say the exact same thing, apparently this isn't like sleep, there is only one theory on solids.

I wanted to do a good job on starting foods, as I am determined he not have my eating habits.  So I proceeded to make my solid foods preparations and check list.  I plan to make his all his food, so we have ice cube trays for freezing, several kitchen gadgets, and one appliance, my favorite 5 books have been purchased (who knows why 5, but yes 5), we have new spoons, bowls, plates,  recipes have been earmarked, fresh garden peas blanched and frozen, and a few boxes of rice cereal;  in short everything we need to feed Sloan for the next 5 years.  I was ready, but was Sloan?  He had to pass a certain number of "tests" before we could give him solids:  Double his birth weight - close enough, at least 4 months old - check, hungry after feeding - sometimes, watching me eat with curiousity - check, grabbing for food off my plate - nope, not ever, so we were waiting it out.

Yesterday, on a whim, when I felt like he was still hungry after drinking his milk, I thought we'd try out some cereal.  I got out one of our new bowls, carefully measured out one teaspoon of cereal, added some milk, and half prayed he wouldn't eat it....at least then I had tried and he had refused and we could wait until 6 months, like the books said.  And guess what?  He didn't like it one little bit.  I tried it on my finger, on a spoon, and mostly it just got all over his face, and he shook his head and made bad faces, and we were done!! I could tell everyone I had tried, but my baby just wasn't ready yet.  Look how miserable he was while eating the cereal, poor little guy.

Enter Reg.  Last night I was telling Reg I had attempted the rice cereal, but it was a no go.  Because Reg is always totally tuned into what I am saying, Reg replied that I must have bought him a whole whack of bananas. You see, the custom in our house is bananas go bad on the counter (or my version of bad), and then Reg eats them.  I replied, "No actually those bananas were intended for Sloan".  I was going to give him bananas as his first meal, and since they were on sale at Safeway last week I stocked up (I know, I know).  Anyway, he wasn't ready so they were destined to be banana bread or for Reg.  I watched (with amusement) as Reg walked over to Sloan in the high chair, and offered him a "bite" of banana, I was a little less amused when Sloan took it.  Then I watched (in horror), as Reg, took a regular dinner plate out of the cupboard, ripped off a piece of banana, grabbed a fork (one of ours) and mashed up a banana.  He then grabbed the baby spoon and starting feeding Sloan.  Seriously?  After all that preparation and hard work this is what it came down too:

I guess that's why every baby gets two parents, to help balance things out.  And apparently I need balancing out...now there's a shocker.

On a side note, I also finally put Sloan in one of his two Kijiji purchased Excersaucers yesterday. I had been holding out on that, because I didn't want that big head to tip him over in it, and by the way I'm totally not overprotective.   Here is his first little bit, I think he might like it. 

And just because I can...Sloan has moved out of the tummy tub. Since he can't sit up on his own, its been a real challenge to find a good way to bath him. The big tub takes a long time, and requires a parent.  The sink is good, but slippery and he keeps sliding right down in it, and even with a bath mat it was hazardous.  So thanks to Kijiji, we have a new bath chair, how cute is this?

I know, seriously cute.

Love,

Julie

Sloan is 4 Months Old!

This post is a little behind the 8 ball...Sloan is actually 4 1/2 months old now, but I had to wait for all the pictures to arrive so I could share.    He's growing so fast - which of course is a great thing, but as I looked at newborn pictures of 2 little girls this morning, it really drove home what a short time he will be a baby.

On the day we took the picutres, he was 17 lbs, 6 oz...we are getting close to double his birth weight, which I'm excited about, soon he will be eating solid foods!  I can barely lug him and the car seat around anymore, so mostly he travels on my hip, which by the way - very dumb thing to do at the grocery store, even if you are just running in for one thing, because it's never one thing.  It's like the lights of grocery store hypnotise me into buying things we don't even eat.  I think about ten people helped us get around the store and out to the truck again, and I still had to run back to the middle of the road to pick up his blanket. Ooops I fell off the track again, now where was I????

Right...4 months old, 17 lbs, 6 oz, and can I brag?  Uh...isn't that in fact the point of my own blog...  He slept 12 solid hours last night, woke up had a good drink (Drew will not tolerate me to say that he eats, she constantly corrects me that he is in fact drinking) of milk, and slept for 2 more hours.  Now if only I could learn to sleep like that, I was awake at 3, at 4, at 5, and 6, wondering why the heck he wasnt!  Crazy!

We tried to get a cowboy hat picture this month, the plan was to get one every month to show how much he's growing.  And we do have the pictures...but he wouldn't leave the hat alone this month, he was grabbing at it, twisting it, and don't tell Reg...it was in his mouth the odd time too. We had to be quick with the camera and I'm guessing future cowboy hat photos will also be action shots.

Love, Julie

I'm Addicted!

Hi, my name is Julie and I’m addicted to....photo shoots for my baby. It’s been one day since my last shoot. I’m afraid Sloan’s first words are going to be “Say Cheese”, and that I’ll have to go back to work just to pay for my habit. And yet, I can’t stop, I don’t want to stop, I’m addicted.

Sloan is now four months old, and for a while I have been taking some ribbing about the amount of pictures, little jokes like “How is your best friend the photographer at Superstore today?” Or “I just thought I’d email and make sure you were ok, I didn’t get any pictures this week” – ha, ha, ha.

Then I over heard Jodi telling someone that Sloan had been for 6 photo shoots since he was born – and Drew who is 4 ½ years old has only been for 3. I thought wow – what an exaggerator my sister is...who knew? And then I started counting...turns out Jodi isn’t such an exaggerator after all.

When Sloan was 3 days old, I had booked newborn shots, and man was I ticked at Mother Nature when a huge snow storm blew in. I coudln't believe it when Reg said I couldn't go to Superstore.  He said no one could get to work, because the road was closed off with snow drifts higher than my head, so sadly these were taken when Sloan was 4 days old, not 3 as was the plan...

Turns out he was a natural poser.

Well a week later Mother's Day was on the horizon, and since we had a new family member I thought what a nice gift new pictures for my Mom would make.  Jodi So technically this photo shoot shouldn't even count...it was for my Mom, and my sister took most of the credit.

I knew I had to keep developing his baby modelling skills, afer all it's my job as his mom to nuture these things. So when he was 15 days old (again much later than I planned, thanks to Mother Nature), I asked Mom to accompany me to Okotoks, my friend Tracy had the most beautiful baby photos taken by Carolyn Sandstrom, and I had to have my own set.  Here are a few (I think Carolyn took about 300 shots in all).  She did a great job, and I only had these taken because of Tracy, so again, not my fault...

The cowboy hat one even made her website...the modelling practice was working out.

Well it was time to meet his brother's and sister, and we needed an updated family picture, this photoshoot really should be counted in Reg's ledger, not mine, afterall all those kids are his.

Well, then we hit a big milestone, Sloan was one month old, and I was looking for a new photographer (the one at Superstore now knew my name on sight, even when I ran into her at the bank)...so I tried out Sears at Chinook.  This gal had some great ideas...and we got some really fun shots, and a bit of a smile in this one.  Some say addicted, I say how could you not mark a milestone like a whole month old!

And then Sloan was twice as old, as he was the last time we'd had his pictures taken. Two whole months old, and growing so fast.

 

Well, what choice did I have when Sloan turned 3 months old, afterall he was 1/4 of a year old, and goodness knows he'll only be that old one time in his life.  Plus we needed to see how much he'd grown since we'd last used the cowboy hat as a prop.

What a chunky monkey!! 

Which brings us up to date, I had booked 1/3 year photos, (otherwise referred to as 4 months old) and thanks to Kijiji I found a photographer who would come out to our house and take pictures.  I cancelled our appointment and rebooked with Lana.  She arrived this past Monday morning, and took a few pictures, but it just didn't go our way.  She got a couple of good shots, but then graciously offered to redo the shoot, which we did on Thursday. 

And then...yesterday, we needed to update our entire family photos.  We hadn't had one taken since our wedding, so yesterday afternoon at Mom & Dad's we had those photos taken... I haven't recieved these shots yets, but you can count on seeing them soon.

Before you go back up the page now and count how many photo shoots that is, it's 10.  Not that many really...you only use every finger to count to 10, which means we still have toes to count with...

Love, Julie