Big, New Things

Wednesday, 14 November 2007

Chase woke up and ate at his usual times last night. He was a very happy boy after having been so upset yesterday. This morning, I took him to my OB checkup. He slept the entire time. The nurse said she saw our wedding picture in our high school alumni magazine. She said that she married a classmate of mine this summer. What a small world! Dr. Lin thought he looked big.

He may not be big, but we've realized what a handful we have on our hands when we look at Chase. Not even five months yet, he is so curious and aware of things around him. Each morning, my routine is to change him and then we walk out into the living room and say "Good Morning" to his grandpa. I show him Dad's ashes and tell him "There's your grandfather." And, then I put him in front of Dad's picture, and I tell him to say "Good Morning." He always gets real excited, starts kicking his arms and legs and smiles and laughs. I wonder if Dad's smiling back at him? Perhaps playing peek-a-boo or something, because whatever it is, Chase always gets excited when he sees his grandpa's picture.

Right now, it's close to 10:30 pm, and he's been fighting going to sleep all night. Perhaps he thinks he is supposed to be on the same schedule as last night. He just wants to play in his crib, pulling the loop on his blanket and cooing at the bears swirling around on the mobile above him. I tried to nurse him a little, but he was more interested in leaning over and looking at the Archie McPhee magazine on the couch. I let him look at it a little bit (my mistake), but that only got him excited, and he started flipping the pages with his hand. Then, he spit up. I told him Archie McPhee doesn't have very intellectual material.

Chase should be tired as we had a busy day. We ran a few errands today, picking up some Mother's Milk tea at the health food store, then stopping by school where they were having a workshop, and I was just in time for lunch. We met Miya and Taiga at Kahala Mall in the afternoon. We caught up on TV shows and gossip and watched Taiga run around the mall while we enjoyed Jamba Juice.

Our most exciting thing tonight was feeding him his first food, rice cereal. He got to sit in his new chair (Thanks, Thuy and Fernando!), and he did better than we thought he would. He liked the rice cereal (most likely because it has my breastmilk in it) as we spooned it into his mouth using Chris' old spoons and dishes. Though he was most interested in blowing bubbles and grabbing onto the bowl, whereby he got much of the cereal on his chin, bib, hands, and tray, I think he ate some of it. He wasn't opposed to it. So, that's a good thing.



We're going to start a new routine when Chris comes home from work. We'll feed him (Chase, not Chris) first, bathe him, then try to feed him a bottle. Maybe a bit overzealous, but it's time for a new routine.

And, with a baby, I'm learning that there are always big, new things to look forward to.