Sorry it's been so long

It's been over a week since my last post and probably a couple weeks since I last posted any pictures. We've got our computer setup now so Photographer Heather is back in business!

I've been to the old house a couple of times to load up the car with odds 'n ends trying to make our final move on Saturday as painless and fast as possible. I'll be making another visit this afternoon once the monster wakes up from his nap.

Sleeping has been wishy-washy with him. On Saturday he slept through the entire night but Monday night he woke up @ 2 and didn't put himself back to sleep until 5:30!! I get my hopes up and then he crushes them.... oh well. I'd be happy if he could just stick to a routine and train me on that (as long as it's not getting up every 1-2 hrs)

He's starting to pull himself up!

Every morning I open his box of toys and he leans over to see what's inside, lately he's been lifting his bum up off of the floor! His props his feet up on the box & tries lifting with his arms, he still has to figure out that he can use his leg muscles to help him up. Watching him is like watching a suspenseful movie! I had my camera in hand and was waiting for him to pull himself up but as soon as he'd get close he'd get tired & would let go. I figure it'll only be a couple more months until this little guy is mobile... then it'll be time to baby proof this place.

Switched Off

Story time:

Yesterday afternoon I had Robbie in his Bumbo sitting on top of the dryer as I did some laundry. He was bored and kept looking around trying to find something to get into, so I introduced him to the light switch! He sat there at eye level and watched me turn the switch on and off. Then all of the sudden he whacked the light switch and turned light off! He couldn't figure out how to turn the light on, by flicking it upward, but he mastered turning the light off. We had a strobe light in our little laundry room! hahaha.

He was really good for me last night. He went to bed around 7:30... he woke himself up @ 9pm but quickly put himself back to sleep again. I gave him a dream feed when I went to bed @ 10pm and he didn't wake me up until...... are you ready?!..... 2am!!! wooohooo! Then he was up at 3 & 6 and didn't start his day until 8:30! I felt soooo good waking up this morning.

Robbie & I have a new ritual when he wakes up in the morning, I bring him into our room and I pull up the blinds and we watch the kids walking to school and all the cars driving by. Our head board is up against the window so he holds himself up on it while he watches everything going on outside. He gets SO excited, especially when he sees a dog being walked and a car driving by. We went to Bo Bebe (specialty infant store) today, I know one of the girls that works there and she was introducing Robbie & I to the owner of the store... she (the owner) was shocked to hear that he was 7 months, she thought he looked more like a 9 month old and when Robbie started strutting his stuff around the store she said she has never seen a 7 month old in her store walking as well as Robbie is. Those are the kinds of comments I love to hear, I must be doing something right!

I'll try finding the video camera & see if I can hook it up to the laptop (what we're using at the moment) if it works, I'll do a walk through of the new place to show you guys what we've done so far.

Home Sweet Home

We're officially living in our new home! Woohoo!

Saturday:

Grammy & Grampy watched Robbie while Colin & I packed and picked up the U-Haul. We had 3 of Colin's ball hockey team mates come to help us load all of our bear necessities into our U-Haul. We packed the living room, Robbie's room, our room & computer room... this new place is drastically smaller than the other house so we're going to fill the townhouse with what we need and then re-assess how much room we have and what we can bring with us and what we can chuck (we're a bit of "pack rats" anyways.... so it'll be good for us!) Once everything was packed up we drove the truck over to our new place and backed it up to the garage where there was just inches in between the two (so that people wouldn't steal any of our stuff). We drove back to the house and spent the night there. We slept downstairs in the guest room & I brought Robbie's pack 'n play and he slept in that. I didn't have much of a sleep, it reminded me why we got a new bed in the first place. It's got a permanent dip in the middle of the mattress from when Colin was living the single life & had the whole bed to himself! So after midnight I opted for the floor and did get some shut eye around 2am. Robbie was a challenge, because he was sleeping so close to us there was no way I was going to let him whine his way back to sleep... so I was up a lot that night feeding him (which didn't matter that much because I was already awake).

Sunday:
We got up around 7ish and got Robbie fed, dressed, grabbed some of the essentials & we were off to our new home! Robbie had a nap soon after we got to the new place, he slept for almost 2hrs so I was happy that he was able to catch up on some sleep that he lost the past couple of nights. Around 11:30 3 of Colin's co-workers came by to help us unload all of our goodies, it went fairly smoothly. We had a chip on our vanity & Robbie's dresser but aside from that everything made it in one piece. The big puzzle right now is where to put our living room things, this living room is drastically smaller than our previous one so we're having to put our love seat in our bed room. We had a good nights sleep last night, Robbie's room isn't directly across from our room so I set up the baby monitor so that I could hear him throughout the night. I quickly realized I can't have it too loud or else I'd stay awake all night listening to hims toss & turn & moan. He went to bed @ the normal time (7:30) woke up @ 9 & 10... I fed him at 9 but when he woke up at 10 I listened to him through the monitor, he moans and groans and groans and moans... I thought he was going to wake himself up with his moaning but he fell back asleep! He didn't get up until 12 and then again at 3! I'm going to leave him in his pack 'n play for a couple more days so that he can get more accustomed to the idea of sleeping in it.

Colin is back to normal working hours. They've been so good to him, they took everyone out for lunch & bought them beers to thank them for all their hard work. They had a talk with Colin & they were so impressed with the work he's been doing so he's now a team leader! He's got 3 people that report to him now & if all goes well then he'll be getting more responsibilities. Even though they've been very demanding they've been really grateful of all his time and effort his put into this project & they said he would be rewarded. He's really lucky to be working for such a big company that recognizes his work and rewards it. I'm so proud of my guy!

Last post before the move

"Is daddy coming home?"

Well the computer is going to be disassembled tomorrow morning so I thought I'd get one little post in before we move most of our stuff to our new home!

Yesterday I tried to introduce Robbie to chicken. The baby cookbook that I have said to put the chicken in a frying pan & fill it up with water until the chicken is submerged. They suggested putting Tarragon in it so that it's not too bland and so I did because I've had boiled chicken before and I refused to finish it. So I boiled 2 breasts and then used my new blender (a Kitchen Aid - Costco purchase) The blender was a little noisy but aside from that it was awesome, pureed it it no time! So I put a little dollop on Robbie's plate along with apples & oatmeal (I know, they don't really go together... but I was too excited and didn't want to wait for lunch!) So I started with the apples "mmmmm" his face says, then the oatmeal "yummm i like it" and then the chicken "texture of cereal.... wait.... what is this goop?!?!" and he proceeds to gag in disgust. It was so funny! He ate the little dollop that I put on his plate but I had to mix a little apple & cereal with it. I'll go back to chicken in a couple of days.

Last night was horrible. He's got me wrapped around his little finger and I'm pretty much at my whits end. He wakes up to feed (which is totally fine with me) and then I put him down and he appears to nestle his head into Pooh (like he always does) and falls asleep.... but not even 5-10 mins later he's up again! It's not shrieking, it's just little whines & cries. I give him Tylenol, I shush him and I try and let him work it out.... but just when I think he's asleep he starts back up again! I can't get a good nights sleep, every time I get woken up by him crying I get this horrible nausea feeling in my tummy. I ended up just staying awake at one point because I hate the fact that he's teasing me! Once we get into our new place I'm going to put him on schedule, I'll feed him twice a night and if it's not time to eat then he can put himself back to sleep. Currently, half the time he gets up to eat he doesn't eat for longer that 5 mins before he's zonked out (or so it seems) I've tried tickling his toes, cheek, etc to get him to wake up a bit to eat longer... but he's not hungry! My son is one big puzzle. I didn't give him any chicken today because I want to is if it played a part in last nights fiasco (although I doubt it).

Ahhhh the joys of mommyhood.

Pat-A-Cake

You have to see it to believe it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV3snTGUfFY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XNZVWvfyrs

We've been singing that song on and off again for a while now, yesterday Grampy had Robbie on his lap and started singing pat-a-cake and Robbie started clapping on his own without any instigation! At first we thought it was just a fluke but as you can see from the tapes, he's associated that song with clapping! He is so smart.

Grampy was also sticking Robbie's limbs underneath the kitchen faucet, he's in awe over the sounds the splashing water makes. When I sat him in the tub last night he saw the tap and reached his arms out towards it... he might as well have said "water" LOL. So I turned on the tap and he stuck his hand in there and sat there in complete silence as he studied the water running down his hand and the sound it made when he had his hand in the stream. He took his hand out and noticed the sound was different.... so he grabbed a tub toy and kept putting the toy in and out of the stream to see the different sounds it makes.

Today gave me more confidence that we'll be able to travel for the holidays. We were visiting Grammy this afternoon and he was due for a nap, in the past I would have given him a boob whether he wanted it or not so that it would knock him out & he'd sleep in my arms, so today we went upstairs and I sang him my one song that I sing him during the day and tucked him in. I left a little crack in the door so I could watch what was going on, he fell asleep without crying!! It was a good nap too... between 1-2hrs! woohoo! So know my final test is for him to sleep in the pack 'n play. Once we move to the new place it'll be a perfect, a new room and a new place to sleep... if that goes well then it's a "go" for the trip.

His appetite doesn't seem to be all there. He doesn't nurse as much ( which means full boobs for mommy) and he's not eating all of his solids, like this morning I usually give him 2 Tbsp of cereal & 2 cubes of fruit... he probably ate about 1/2 of it. Maybe he's FINALLY starting to slow down in regards to his growing... haha, right!

OH! One more thing to report.... his hair! It's finally growing in! It's so adorable, he has bed head in the mornings! It's still really fine and really blond, but it's definitely getting longer. I love running my fingers through it. At night time when he's nursing and sleeping I keep rubbing his head and playing with his hair... I'm sure with time he'll find it soothing.

(You can see the bed head in this picture if you enlarge it)

7 months, Dogs & more

Well my little man turned 7 months this past Saturday, for some reason 7 months is a bigger milestone (to me) than 6 months. He taught himself to walk (assisted), he can hold himself up (for a brief period), he knows his name, knows the word "more", etc. He's such a smart boy, I can't wait to see what else he has in store for us. I had to do a little photo shoot to celebrate his 7 months.... here are some highlights:

Our puppies are officially gone. I'm not going to go into detail as my feelings and emotions are still really raw and I really don't want to start crying again. They're in the process of finding new homes & I have been promised that I will be kept up to date with their adoption status. It's hard to see them go, they were my first babies.

Colin's been working these ridiculous hours and hopefully he'll get a little bit of a break within the next couple of days. This past week he came home from work anywhere from 6pm - 9pm which makes it really hard for him, he's gone a couple days where he hasn't seen Robbie at all! He had to work this weekend, neither of us were thrilled to hear about it, but Robbie and I decided to make the best of the situation. On Saturday we drove down to Colin's work so that they could spend some time together! I brought some veggies with me so Colin was able to feed him too!

Speaking of veggies, I've tricked Robbie into eating broccoli! I put a little amount of broccoli on the spoon and then covered it up with carrots and would gradually increase the broccoli quantity and decrease the carrots. Now he doesn't mind them =) I bought a new chopper/blender from Costco yesterday so hopefully it'll make my blending experience a little better (last time when I tried making carrots for him 1/2 of the carrots ended up smeared all over my kitchen cupboards.... lovely)

So this week I'm going to start doing some major cleaning in preparation for the move this Saturday.

I'll leave you with a little video clip of Robbie going for his bath (note: baby is naked, view discretion is advised)

http://s88.photobucket.com/albums/k186/babyrobbie/Video/03-11-07/?action=view&current=03-11-07--01.flv

Peek-A-Boo!