Friday, 30 May 2008
I've been off the blogosphere for a few weeks due to recurring illnesses, organizing my younger kids (about 40 K-2 kids) in a musical play, "The Three Billy Goats Gruff", editing a newspaper reporting video project for my older kids, report cards, a huge annual report for work, and wrapping up the end of the school year with lots of important assemblies and staff meetings and end-of-the-year classroom stuff we have to do (Today was the last day for my kids! THANK GOD! Next week I'll clean my room, organize things, xerox papers for the summer and next year, and work with the new German/Russian boy that just joined us this month. School officially ends next Thursday.) I've been so stressed out lately and sick that I haven't even gone to yoga, and I'm dreading the thought of teaching summer school (and hoping that not many students answer my interest survey so that I won't have to do summer school for my kids). My immune system is just shot, having had the stomach flu, and now our whole family is getting over colds.....and I've been up until 1 am each night this week trying to get work done. Plus, Chris' Miata had car problems last week, so he's been borrowing his mom's car, and we're searching for a new (but perhaps used) car to purchase since neither of our cars are that stellar or practical. It's been a bit crazy lately.
Here's a typical day at Nana's house as he plays outside on the deck and sits and watches the birds.
Chase's latest things at now 11 months old:
* He's still long and lean and can fit into some 0-3 months and 3-6 month onesies.
* He's cruising around furniture - holding onto tables and walking around/along them - and he'll walk and push toys (like the cars at Auntie Miya's house). He's still quite speedy with his crab crawl though. Soon enough, he'll be running I'm sure.
* Swimming in a pool....I bought an 8 foot one for the yard, the rigid wall kind. Yeah, it's a bit big, and it would probably take all day to fill it up all the way with water, but he loves crawling around in it and playing with his duckies. And, those Little Swimmers diapers are so cool. He plays in the water anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour about three times a week and just loves it. He always konks out for awhile before dinner. But, it doesn't seem to mess up his sleeping schedule.
* He's eating a lot of table food now...just about anything he can get his hands on. He gets angry if we don't offer him what we're eating. Forget that baby food stuff. He eats shredded chicken like it's going out of style (from Costco rottisserie chicken to Gina's Korean barbecue chicken). He loves rice (but that's just messy and it gets in his diaper) and any kind of noodle that he can slurp up (chow mein, spaghetti) and bread and crackers and cheese. We're trying to get him to eat more vegetables, but he's not so crazy about the peas and carrots. He still loves his oatmeal with breastmilk and poi! Most of all he likes smushing food in his hand, and recently, he's started throwing food around....uh oh. But, that usually ends dinner real fast (because then we know he's no longer hungry and is just playing) and then he goes straight into the tub.
* He still loves bathtime too, but enjoys a lot of standing in the tub, rather than sitting in the warm water, and throwing his duckies outside the tub onto the bathroom floor...uh, yeah, do you see a pattern here? He'll do it once, then we'll pick it up, he'll do it again, then we'll pick it up...a third time...AND then we're done.
* When Chase focuses on something, he is determined to get it or figure it out. He was standing up near the clothes drying rack and picked up a washcloth on the floor. He tried about ten times to put the washcloth back on the rack, but it kept dropping. He'd pick it up, put it on the rack, and then it would fall off. He'd bend over again, pick it up, put it on the rack, then it would fall off again. He was so focused and determined to make that darn washcloth stay on the rack that it was funny!
* He loves hearing his voice echo. Now, we keep empty bottles and cups around the house and the car because he just thinks it's the funniest thing when he goes "Ahhhhh" into a bottle or cup and he hears his voice. I'll catch him doing it and smile. He'll laugh and talk in it even louder.
* His newest sound/gurgle/babbles is: "Duggah, duggah, duggah". His first word he always uses? "Mama"
* He's always loved drinking water out of a glass/cup (since the bugger refused to take a bottle after 1-2 months). But now, he's discovered that it's also fun to blow bubbles in the water while drinking OR, even better, to put your hand straight in the cup and splash water around....AND then we're done with the water.
* He loves to run his finger over his lips and make sounds.
* Chase still loves to nurse - he pulls my shirt or tank straps down or peels off my Lilypads when he wants it - and he's quite adept at acrobats while feeding too, as he enjoys standing and balancing on one leg while the other leg goes out and nearly above his head, while he turns his body and wiggles his leg back and forth...yeah, all while eating!
* He still loves kids and the ladies. Today, as I spent the afternoon unsuccessfully trying to get my reports done in my classroom while Chase sat in his stroller (and later figured out how to stand in the stroller and start pulling things off my desk), I finally just put him in the doorway facing the kids who were playing outside in the afterschool programs. He started yelling and screaming at them. Some came around to say hi. Adults probably wondered why there was a baby sitting by himself in the doorway. It entertained him for about half an hour (until finally, after hours of trying to juggle him and get my work done without him destroying it - next time, I'll have to bring the Pack-N-Play and try him in that) until I finally called Chris to leave work, cancel his haircut, and come rescue me so that I could get my work done.
* He's putting less things in his mouth these days (He doesn't seem to have any new teeth, so he still has 6), but so far we've dug out the following things from his mouth: millipede, hard, crusty bird poop, a cigarette butt from the beach, kleenex, newspaper, cardboard, etc. And with the crazy, exhausting month I've had, I have to admit that I haven't been as diligent about cleaning the floors around the house. So who knows what else has gone into that mouth of his!
Time for bed. Now that I'm on the road to recovery (again) and the bulk of my school projects are done, I'm actually going to try and wake up early tomorrow and go to Bikram yoga for the first time in weeks. And suffer for sure. Crazy I tell you.
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