Oh my goodness, Eland is a cutie! He's just adorable. I know, I'm his mom so I'm supposed to think that, but it's true!
As usual, Eland is thriving. He's eating well, sleeping well, rollin around, laughing, smiling, loving life, and doing all the things he should be doing. He is fondly still referred to as: Tiny Man, Little E, Little Monkey, Little Monks (short for monkey), and, every once and awhile, Meatball.
Soft Things
Eland loves soft things. I've mentioned it before, but this seems to be a constant. He adores his Angel Dear doggie blanket, and every time I put him in bed, whether for a nap or bedtime, whether already asleep or wide awake, he reaches for it. I put it in his right hand for him, and with his left hand he sucks those same two fingers and (usually) happily drifts off to sleep. He also loves soft blankets and, among other soft things, he loves stroking and playing with my hair when he nurses. It's really endearing.
Sleep
I can now say that Eland is fairly consistent with night sleep. He generally goes to bed between 7:30-8:00pm. I wish I could put him to bed earlier, but we tend to be busy doing things in the evenings and it just doesn't happen. He sleeps until about 7:15-8:00am, and wakes once or twice in the night. If I nurse him to sleep, then he wakes only once around 5:30am. If I put him to bed without nursing (meaning he nursed around 6pm or so), then he wakes around 11pm and 5:30am–which is not too bad, unless your dog gets you up in the middle of the night, too, because she needs to go out. (What?! Stella, come on.. Okay, this has happened perhaps twice ever. ;) In that case, I am tired in the morning!
And, arrgh! This boy still poops at night at least five out of seven nights a week. Come on, dude, can you please poop during the day? It's much easier on your mama. ... When Eland does poop at night he gets beyond frustrated when I lay him down to change his diaper rather than nursing him right away. He screams at the top of his lungs, waking everyone in the house except for Auggie, until we're all done and finally nursing.
Naps are consistent as well, although Eland is currently changing the game on me. I used to be able to run errands first thing in the morning with the boys (think: grocery shopping, post office, etc.), and have Eland fall asleep in his carseat on the way home. Then I could carry him in his carseat upstairs and have him nap 90% of his morning nap in his room, stationary, albeit in a carseat, which is not a problem. Recently he's starting waking up when the car stops. Arrgh. Time to change my strategy. ... He's a great afternoon napper as well and has been clocking 2+ hours lately. Thanks, buddy, your mama appreciates this.
Nursing
Eland continues to love nursing, although he's spaced out feedings to somewhere between 4-6 hours apart. It seemed like for the longest time he'd nurse every three hours, so I am a little relieved that he can go so long. It's probably because he has such a great appetite for baby food.
Play
All kids love playing, and Eland is no exception to this rule. Lately I've been sitting him on the family room rug with a boppy around him for support and putting a tote box full of his toys next to him. He takes every toy out of the box, one by one, and plays with each. It can give me a full half-hour to get things done while he plays, and he really enjoys himself. If Auggie is around, even better! Eland has also started enjoying things like measuring cups, measuring spoons, and other random kitchen utensils. I love the age of object exploration.
I don't think this counts as play, but like any baby, Eland is very interested in the TV. He doesn't watch much, but on special occasions when I let Auggie watch VeggieTales or PraiseBaby DVDs, Eland is spellbound by the talking vegetables or random images, respectively. And he sat with Dan on the floor and watched College Basketball last weekend for a decent amount of time. Ah well. I think TV watching is pretty much inevitable.
One thing I really need to do more of with Eland is reading. Auggie and I read all the time, but we read longer, non-rhyming storybooks. Eland is almost to the age where Auggie learned how to turn the pages and started having favorite books. We almost always read two or three before bed, but I need to get better at sitting down to read board books with Eland during the day.
 |
| Hey Mama, read to me! |
Eland is still no closer to crawling this month than he was last month, but boy can this kid roll. He is all over the place, much more than last month, and now I even wonder if he could roll out of his room and down the hall to the top of the stairs if I'm not careful. His rolling is very purposeful, and he can easily roll to something interesting if he so chooses. He reaches and grabs with intent, and is at the age where his pincher grasp is rocking. He is finding every last little piece of debris on our floors and places each one in his mouth. Just today I retrieved one of Auggie's stickers from his mouth, a piece of fuzz from his mouth, and a piece of dried-up oatmeal from his fingers (Btw, where did that come from??? Apparently I need to do a better job of wiping Auggie down after breakfast). Oh my...
Stats
I have no stats for you since Eland won't have another well baby visit until next month. However, to communicate what a big guy Mister E is, at Auggie's dentist appointment this morning, his dentist was astounded to find out that Eland was only 8-months-old. He has a daughter who is a few months older than him, but much smaller. ... I love my little rolly-polly baby. He is nice and chubby - just the way he's supposed to be. (I sometimes worry that as a boy or a teen he'll read these posts and wonder why his mom was calling him rolly-polly and chubby, but, seriously, Eland, if you read this, know that it is a compliment and that you were in perfect baby form!)
Eland is filling out 12-month clothes beautifully. I just hope warm weather arrives soon, because we have such cute 12-month summer baby clothes waiting to be worn.
Foods
I haven't added anything too exciting to Eland's diet this month. He still enjoys all the usuals - applesauce, pearsauce, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, spinach, bananas, etc.. I just picked up some frozen mangoes from Trader Joe's to let him munch on in a mesh bag (thanks for the tip, Aunt Jenni!) and he still likes gumming slices of apple that are too big to swallow. I am planning on letting him try yogurt soon, just as soon as I make another batch. (I've been making my own ever since I read this article from the New York Times. You don't even need a yogurt maker, which is what kept me from trying sooner. And it's oh-so simple! And Stoneyfield Farms plain yogurt cup is definitely the best starter. I digress..)
 |
| Eland sucking on a pluot |
Nothing too new in this category either, but I need to mention Eland's laugh. It is the cutest baby laugh ever! His laugh is a full-body, belly-rumble laugh that makes anyone watching laugh too. It's unbelievably adorable. Super, super cute!
Teeth
Finally! Eland has a tooth! I've been waiting for ages, watching those little mounds in his gums. I was positive his first tooth would be his top right tooth, as you can read in last month's Eland post. It has been so close for so long, my goodness I'm sick of waiting for that stinkin' tooth! And yet, completely unassumingly, his first tooth came in on March 15, a week and two days ago, on the bottom. That morning there were no signs of any teeth, and that afternoon just before nap time I felt his gums with my finger and came across one tiny tooth's worth of a serrated edge, freshly cut. Congrats, little guy, you have a tooth! Now let's play nice with nursing, okay?
 |
| You can see his tiny bottom right tooth in this photo |
I did it! I quit! Well, I quit the trackers that were completely unnecessary: timing nursings and recording diaper changes. At first I quit recording diaper changes because I thought that'd be easiest. Seriously, do I really need to take note of a poopy diaper at 11:23am? No. No really, I don't. And within 24 hours, after feeling freedom from not tracking diaper changes, I quit timing nursings. It felt so good! ... I'm still timing naps, because that is a completely legitimate thing to keep track of for an 8-month-old, and I'm still tracking baths because if I don't poor Eland could go more than a week without one, but besides that I am enjoying sweet freedom from TotalBaby, and OCD. :)
Versatility
This is a new category, but completely applicable for my second kiddo. Eland is both a very particular boy, and a very versatile boy. He likes things certain ways - bedtimes, no loud live music, etc - but as he grows he's learning how to roll with the punches of the family sports. Just a week ago he rode in the kid backpack for the first time and loved it! He cried when we put him into it, but as soon as I whirled him around onto my back he loved his new perch. From the kid backpack Eland gets a birds-eye view of the world, a cozy headrest, and nice rhythmic movements as I hike along. He was always good at hiking in the Moby Wrap, but I see a bright future of hikes ahead with him in the kid backpack. (But what do we do about Auggie now that someone else is riding in said kid backpack?)
Eland also did a fabulous job napping in his bucket carseat while we were out rock climbing last week. He was great at this as a little baby, but little babies are generally good at sleeping anywhere. And yet, even at just short of 8 months, Eland napped beautifully outside. Sure, he did wake up a few times while I was climbing, but since he was strapped in we knew he wouldn't fall out, and he fell back to sleep quickly. Yay for our versatile boy!
 |
| Lunchtime at El Rito, NM |
No comments:
Post a Comment