So BB will be turning 1 soon and technically he should be switched to whole milk.  The only problem is that I don't feel like he eats enough finger foods.  He has become SO picky about what he eats.  The boy puts everything else in his mouth except food.  He has his few favorites that I know he'll eat: cheese, peas, crackers/cookies, chicken, seaweed and any kind of fruit.  And that's it.  His meals are really boring because that's all we'll serve him. 

We try introducing new foods, but he won't even try them.  He's a texture guy and if he doesn't like how it feels, he won't eat it.  And since he won't let us feed him, we can't even get it into his mouth.  And he doesn't always eat that much either...it just depends on his mood.  Some days, he'll just wolf everything down and other days, he'll barely eat anything.

I'm just afraid that he won't get enough nutrients if we take him off formula.  He is already so lean now from being so active and his weight %ile dropped from 85 to 25 over that past 6 months.  The pedi wasn't concerned because of how DH and I look (and he's growing height wise)...she thinks it's just his genetics kicking in...but still, I don't want him to be TOO skinny.  He still has a good amount of fat on his legs, but his one last thigh fold is slowly disappearing.

I know the 1 year switch to whole milk is just a recommendation and we don't have to follow it, but I was just wondering what moms of other picky toddlers did.  Did anyone give their kiddos more than 3 meals a day?  I was thinking maybe doing 4 meals + snacks.

This week is International Babywearing Week!  Babywearing has definitely saved my sanity, especially since I'm by myself half of each month while PB does his overnights.  I'm such a big advocate and will definitely start at birth when I have #2.  My favorite part of the day is when I go on my walks with BB on my back...whether it's just a stroll around the neighborhood or to the playground. 

In honor of Babywearing week, here is my sleeping beauty in my favorite mei tai...passed out after an evening stroll with mama and papa. Mr. Stubborn refused his afternoon nap and was too tired to stay awake for the walk.  (please excuse our hideous 1980's formica kitchen....it's on our to do list for the future)

 

     

check the inside of the shoe for a leftover pair of socks first.

The end!

*see protected*

Of all things to be advance with, BB chooses this one.  He was also advanced with the separation anxiety thing at 5 months.  Great choices, BB.  He has totally started to cop attitudes with us out of no where.  My sweet little boy now grunting, whining and back arching when he doesn't get his way.  Luckily, he usually doesn't carry on too long...once his focus is broken, it's like he forgot why he was mad.  So all I have to do is tell him firmly to stop and then move him somewhere else to distract him and it's like pressing the reset button.

I even got "the" look at the playground...you know that sympathetic look one parent gives another when their child is acting up.  BB loves the swings, but it always makes him sleepy, so when I see his eyes start to droop and close, I take him out.  But of course, he doesn't want to get out even though he's falling asleep and he did the whole back arching, whining, crying thing.  oh well...by the time I managed to get him out of the swing (while he clung on for dear life) and walked 3 steps, he had forgotten.

PB is trying not to overuse the word, "NO" and will make a loud, obnoxious sound instead when BB begins to do something wrong/dangerous.  Usually it startles him enough for him to stop.  I, however, can't bring myself to do those noises...I feel like I'm training a dog.  Plus, "NO" always slips out of my mouth before I can stop it.  The loud noise is usually more effective than the NO.  I guess this is another thing we have to figure out. BB does know what no and the loud noises mean because he will whine afterwards or sometimes do his fake cry, so he knows he's in trouble.

BB is going to be one feisty kid.  He truly is my son haha.  MIL claims that PB was the perfect baby...never any trouble, so I'm assuming it comes from me.  I find his tantrums kind of cute because it's so much attitude in one little body.  It's actually hard for me not to chuckle in front of him.  I have to turn away and laugh silenty to myself.

Are there any good resources for disciplining toddlers? 

Side note....he started signing!  We were really really lax with it before and just started getting serious about it a few weeks ago and it's amazing how fast he picked it up.  He can do "more" and "I'm this big" (both arms held up above his head) and sometimes eat.  He usually uses the sign for "more" to signify eat.  He still needs a little coaxing to do them, but hopefully he'll get the hang of it soon.  I think that'll cut down on the frustration and tantrums if we know what he wants.

He's also jargoning, which is a term I had never heard of until this week.  I guess it's like advanced babbling...it sounds like they're speaking an alien language and comes right before words.  BB never really babbled...he was pretty silent until a month ago when he would just bust out with these sentences of sounds.  In the jargoning stage, the babies sometimes use the same sound over and over again for a specific object, so in a way they're telling you what it is.  Usually it's not comprehendable so you really have to listen for it.  We didn't really pay too much attention because we thought all those sounds were just him finally starting to babble.  I can't wait to see what his first word will be aside from mama and baba.

Today was BB's first day at The Little Gym.  It's pretty much like Gymboree, but I think it's more gymnastics oriented.  We didn't really care which one he went to...The Little Gym is just much closer to us (4 blocks!).  I wasn't sure what to expect, but I imagined very structured classes with singing and clapping.  It wasn't like that at all and I was pleasantly surprised with how the class went.  Each week has a theme...this week was body parts.  So they used bells, parachutes, songs to identify body parts.  They had one organized activity and then they let the kids roam free for a few minutes and gathered everyone back together for the next activity.  I liked that a lot since BB has a 2 second attention span.

The age range for his class was 10 - 19 months with most of the kids being somewhere around in the middle.  Tyler was probably one of the youngest ones.  I thought he would be the only non-walking kiddo, but there were a few there.  Most of the activities didn't involve independent walking except when we walked in a circle to music, but BB just held my hand and walked like everyone else.  There were gymnastic type elements like teaching them how to do a front tuck/roll.  BB was stiff as a board so it ended being more like a front hand spring.

I expected some crying, but he didn't cry at all!  At one point, the teacher had everyone put their kiddos in the middle of the parachute and the parents spun the parachute around in a circle.  I thought for sure he would cry at that point since I wasn't right next to him.  But he didn't!  And when we put the sides of the parachute back down, he crawled right across the room, shrieking the whole way.  He loooooved climbing on the gymnastic equipment, especially the big foam structures.  His favorite was this huge triangular wedge which was just about as tall as he was at its highest point.  He would scramble up that wedge and then turn around and lower himself down feet first (I've been teaching him that at home since he keeps trying to go down the stairs upright).

He was still shy and didn't scramble to the middle of the room to grab the bells/balls, but I hope that will come with time.  PB and I had a good time chuckling over what some of the moms wore.  Some were really hooched out with low cut spaghetti strap tanks with boobs almost falling out.  One mom was in dri fit shorts and racerback top...she looked like she was about to run a marathon.

The classes are expensive, but I think it will be worth it.  Hopefully it will bring BB out of his shell a little bit.  He's so rambunctious and curious at home, but when he's out, he's so timid.

I need to start putting in the perennials so that they'll come up in the spring.  I'm dreading it.  I thought I would enjoy gardening, but after putting in a small garden this summer, it sucks.  I didn't even really do a great job because I was too lazy to properly do the flower bed, so I feel like I have to re-do it anyway.  Our garden has a very structured look right now...very orderly and symmetrical.  After reading some gardening books, I think I want something more organic looking, that way if I ignore it for a while, it'll still look pretty much the same!

We have a plum tree in front so that part is full shade.  Currently, we have a ring of hostas that our neighbor gave us (I dislike hostas, but felt obligated to plant them)...so I need to plan our a garden where I can incorporate the hostas, but sort of hide them. 

So basically, I have to think up two gardens, one full shade one and one full sun one....and we have a small flower bed next to our garage that needs stuff too.  I think I'm just going to plant the entire bed full of black eyed susans and call it a day.

Any suggestions to easy to grow, low maintenance plants?  My ideal garden is for me just to plant it...and sit back and look at it...that's it!

(This entry is 1 day early, but PB and I are both off so I have time to write)

11 MONTHS!!!!  Next month will be 1 year!  BB doesn't even look like a baby anymore and he's starting to look just like the younger toddlers at the park.  Not much has changed in the past month.  He still isn't really walking on his own, but I'm actually glad because then I really really would have to just chase him around all day.  Right now, I can go to another room and leave him alone for a few minutes.  I know that the beginning walking phase is full of bumps and bruises.

*He is really starting to think about things and understand things.  We have this plastic phone that's part of his tool bench.  Occassionally, we'll "call" him on it and put the phone to his ear.  Yesterday, when I handed him the phone, he put the phone to his ear by himself on various occasions! 

*He will "share" things with us if we put out our hands and ask him to give the object to us.

*He loves to look inside things, boxes, bags etc and take everything out and then put them back in.

*We have the Haba blocks so all the blocks look different.  He seems to have  a favorite and will rummage through the container until he finds the one he likes.  Then he'll put it back in and rummage again for the same one.

*He is starting to get the shapes sorter.  He knows the shapes goes through the holes,  and will put the shapes on the lid and try to fuss with them.  Usually it's in the wrong shape, so no matter how much he fusses with it, it won't go in.  Then he gets mad that it's not going in and he'll whine.  Even when the lid is on the ground, he'll still try to put the shapes into the holes.

*He loves his push toys!

*He likes to place object in our hands and then push our fingers around it so that it's in our fist.  Then he'll uncurl our fingers to see what surprise is hiding there.

*He's not much of a talker, but babbles a lot more than he used to.  He can say mama and baba.  When he wants to know what something is, he'll say, "yeh que?"  with the same intonation as, "what's this?".

*We just started trying to teeth him to feed himself with a spoon.  It seems like that's going to be a long road!  He understands the concept.  He knows he has to put the spoon in the bowl, but usually, I have to guide his hand.  And after than, he can put the spoon in his mouth by himself.  He doesn't know to tip the spoon upwards to get the stuff off, but he turned the spoon upside down and scrapes the food off with his tongue instead.  I can't leave the bowl on the table though because he keeps trying to reach inside to see what's in there.  Towards the end, I'll let him reach inside and feel around.

*He finally started consolidating his naps.  He now takes 1-2 long naps per day, usually 1-2 hours.  I can actually get stuff done now (like blog hahaha).  Before, with his 2-3 half hour naps, I literally only had time to microwave/cook some food and wolf it down before he woke up.

*He now has 6 teeth.  4 on top, and 2 on the bottom. They are all crooked and have gaps in between them.  hahahaha.  I'm guessing when the other teeth come in, it'll push these into place.  Either that or I should start saving up for the orthodontist.  We try to brush his teeth every day.  We have one of those silicone bristle toothbrushes because he won't let us stick our finger in his mouth to brush them, so we sort of have to let him do it himself.

We should start transitioning him to a sippy permanently.  I'm kind of sad about that.  I love giving him his bottle because I always sit him between my legs and he leans back on my chest and I can just smell his hair.  This is the only cuddle time I get.

We also signed him up for the classes at the Little Gym (sort of like a Gymboree) for the fall-winter semester.  He loves going to the playground almost every day.  I'm not sure what we'll do when it gets cold.  Do you still bring the kids to the playground?  Those classes are not cheap!  But hopefully he'll enjoy it.  He loves stuff like that and we don't have room in our house to have similar type (large) toys.

Now that he's a little older, it might be worth it to buy memberships to the Please Touch Museum and the Philly Zoo so we can go all year without paying entrance fees.  They're both just 15 minutes away (and on local roads, so I can drive there!) and I hear they're both great for the kiddos.  PB told me that the Please Touch Museum is free every first weekend of the month in case anyone wants to visit it.

His smaller, rattle type toys are getting old.  He's not showing much interest in them anymore.  When we go to playgroup, he seems to LOVE all the toys at the other kids' houses (he's the youngest of the bunch aside from the few newborns).  Someone had the Pottery Barn Kitchen and he LOOOOVED that.  I liked some of the Little Tikes ones that make noise.  We might get one.  He loved opening the doors and pull all the stuff out, like in our real kitchen, where he RIPPED OFF a cabinet door!  (We're bad, we didn't childproof our cabinets yet, but we don't let him in the kitchen unsupervised and there's nothing harmful in the lower cabinets).  These bigger toys are so expensive.  It's like the older they get, the bigger the toys get and the more expensive they get!  One of the playgroup moms gave me their big outdoor playhouse because her kids outgrew it, so that will be fun.  Those are SO EXPENSIVE too.  I was shocked when I looked up the prices...I'm really grateful that she gave that away for free.  PB keeps joking around and saying that I better go back to full time if I want to get BB all this stuff!   I need some toy recommendations please!

  

  

And to illustrate the genius that is my son...this is Harvard material for sure (you'll need to turn on the sound and turn off my xanga playlist)
 

His new favorite thing to eat (he likes it even better than cheese) is of all things, NORI!!!  He loves that stuff.  We gave him a little piece thinking for sure he would make his yuck face and spit it out.  But he started banging the table until we gave him more.  Today for dinner, I wrapped up rice in tiny pieces of nori (he wouldn't eat rice prior to this...I think the texture is weird to him) and he gobbled that up leaving all the cheese still on his highchair.  When he ran out, he got mad and wouldn't eat anything else.  So, I wrapped the cheese in there too so he had a mini cheese sushi roll.  Gross, but I guess not anymore gross than the Philadelphia roll.  He ate that up too.  What else can I get away with stuffing in there?!