Applesauce is Easy!

I made my own applesauce today!

I have always LOVED making my own applesauce. I like it with chunks. I like the aroma. I like the flavor better.

But this time it was not for me. I made it for Micah and I am very excited about how it turned out!

If you want to know more about what I did, you can go here and here.

For the Love of Music.

Micah loves music. We have known this since he was in the womb. Some of his earliest recognizable movements in my stomach came at the sound of music. All kinds. Just music.

In the first few weeks of Micah's life, music would help to calm him when he was uncontrollably crying. Just start some music and he would forget why he was crying and would suddenly be captivated with the melodies.

Now that he has a little better control of his hands, he is loving making music himself. Or at least trying to. We have an old piano that was left in our house when we bought it. We joked about it. Thought about trying to get rid of it. I'm glad we didn't. When we walk toward the piano his arms go out in anticipation of touching the keys. And he is getting much better at pressing the keys down all on his own (this is an old piano and the keys are a little heavier).

He also loves it when my husband plays the guitar. I was holding him today while Matt was playing and he was tapping his hand on his leg to the beat. Not kidding! And when Matt holds him while playing he likes to touch the strings. Maybe to pretend like he is playing, maybe to feel the vibrations.

I think he may be a musician someday. Or at least he will really appreciate music. The talent or lessons will not come from me, but I am OK with him developing his abilities.

Micah's Night

Micah slept in the crib last night. All by himself. Without being swaddled!
This is a first!
First time he has slept without being swaddled (since we figured out that swaddling helped him sleep through the night!).
He only woke up once, which I thought was great. I needed to use the bathroom anyways. Put the pacifier back in and he was asleep again before I left the room.
What a great kid!
And he is breaking his first tooth, so I was really glad this still turned out to be a good experience. Hopefully I am not ruining his chances to do this again tonight by writing about how great it went last night:)

More on Sleeping

I think Micah sleeps a lot. A LOT!
I love that he sleeps all night, even in his new crib. And I am not complaining about good naps, but I think he sleeps about 18-20 a day! Really.
There are a couple of things we do need to work on, though.

It is getting warmer (outside and inside) and he is waking up every morning very sweaty since we have to wrap him twice to keep him swaddled, thus keeping him asleep at night.

He is also getting bigger, especially longer, and it is getting more difficult to wrap him (it's a two-person job as is) and to keep him wrapped.

So, what do we need to work on? Helping him learn how to sleep on his own. For sleeping, we swaddle him. For naps we have propped him (usually in his side) with his back and head touching something because this seems to be his favorite. But he is getting more mobile, so he is making it all over his crib during nap time. Unfortunately, this often wakes him, he realizes he doesn't have his pacifier, and he can't seem to get back to sleep, or get comfortable again, on his own.

Here's to hoping that within the next couple of weeks Micah will learn to sleep without our help before and during the nap/night. Without us losing all ability to sleep ourselves due to the pitiful cries for help.
It worked for a little bit today. We put him in the pack n play for a nap downstairs with us. He made noise for a while, moved around a lot, then finally settled into sleep. And he looked SO cute when he finally did fall asleep. All cuddled up with the blanket over his face.
Granted, he woke up after a while and couldn't quite make it back to sleep without help But it happened. Once.

Micah ate carrots!

I needed to use up some carrots before they went bad, so I decided to make some food for Micah. So fast to peel them, chop them, steam them and then puree them, who knew it could be so easy?!
Obviously the people who do it all the time. I am really excited for the future of making more foods for him!
I put most of what I made into ice cube trays to freeze and then already have portioned for later, but went ahead and fed him some while it was still warm. He ate all that I set aside for him, and without making any weird faces. So far I have a feeling he is going to be a great eater.
This is the first vegetable on it's own that I've tried, although I have put avocado into some cereal as well and he ate that pretty good too.
How fun. And fresh. And simple. And cheap.

Update on Sleeping in the Crib

Night One: Ok, glad it was the night before a day off!

Night Two: Success!!

Disclaimer: this is not what the bed looks like now when he is sleeping in it, but it's a cute pic.

The first night he had to cry himself to sleep. And this is VERY rare for him! But then he slept good until about 3:30am. No fun! Thought I could just go put the pacifier back in and make sure he was still swaddled. Wasn't that easy, of course.

He cried for a good bit, then Matt went in and tried for a while, but we eventually decided to just let him cry...I don't know why I was worried about hearing him! HAHA

He eventually feel asleep, or at least I fell asleep and didn't hear him if he was still crying. He woke up around 6:30 to eat.

Not bad, but not fun, to say the least!

But night two was great! Put him to bed around 9 and didn't hear anything until 6:25! Nice! I know many people put their kids to bed MUCH earlier, but I am OK with 9 pm and 9.5 hours of sleep.

Hoping night two becomes the norm and not the exception.

My Little Boy...

...is growing up so fast!

He start rolling this week. ROLLING! It's like he did it once and really like it and he can't stand to not be rolling around the room when placed on the ground now. Can't turn our heads to sneeze anymore. He's that fast!

He also started talking. Not just some noise once in a while. Really talking. He was doing it for me early last week, but by the end of the week he was doing it for Matt. And today when he was in his crib for a nap he was going at it for a long time. All. by. Himself. It's so cute, the facial expressions that go along with it. Like he is truly trying to let us know everything going on in his life and how he feels about it all. It's great!

And right now...I can hardly believe this one...

wait.....for.....it......

he is upstairs as we speak (or as I write, but probably not as you read this since who knows when you-whoever YOU are- will actually be reading this).

That's it.

He's upstairs.

No, that's not it. He is in his crib. In HIS room. For the night! He cried for a while (pretty much NEVER cries at night, unless it's just been a really rough day) but seems OK right now. I'm really excited right now. We'll see how well I actually sleep, wondering all night how he is doing. If I need to go check on him. If the monitor is still working. If I will hear him when he cries (don't know why I would worry about this since the head of our bed is on the paper-thin wall that his crib is also on).

He is growing up so fast, my little man!

5 Months Old

Micah is 5 months old now. And a couple of days. Days still count at this age, right?
It's crazy how much he develops every single day. I feel like I say this all the time, but it's true, and I don't know that I will ever stop being amazed.
One day he looks at his hands as if he has just discovered that they are attached to his arms. The next day he realizes that if he has a noisy toy in his hand, he can make it noisy but moving his hands! WOW! What a great discovery. And it really does happen overnight!
Now he is grabbing just about everything, so watch out! Hair (that is still attached), cups, skin, blankets, toys, and on and on...gotta get on that whole baby-proofing process I suppose.
He is also starting to roll a little more, from his back to his stomach. Then he just plays on his stomach for a while after that.
He is much more aware of the people who are around him. The toys that have always been around him are just now coming alive to him.
He is getting more excited about kicking in the bathtub, and he even enjoys being rinsed off with the movable shower head.
He is still sleeping great through the night (as long as he is in his "straight jacket" of a swaddle). Nap times are not as easy. He often goes down for them OK, but can't figure out how to get himself back to sleep when he wakes in the middle. Still working on that one.
He has also just started doing really well with cereal this week. Which could also be the cause of not pooping for week. He just suddenly became interested, I mean really interested in what we are eating and drinking. And, with a little help from Grandma, has gotten pretty good at eating cereal about once a day. Can't wait to try new foods!!
Man, all this new stuff, within just a few days! It blows me away sometimes. It blows me away a lot. It still blows me away that this kid is even mine. And I love every minute of it!!

Those Little Feet

I love it, those little feet flailing all over the place! That is when I know he is really excited about something.
It's been happening a little more recently as he is beginning to take more interest in other people, especially other babies. But mostly it happens when he is simply entertaining himself. And this is great! That he can entertain. himself!
And I think he has monkey toes like me. He is always curling them, and one day when they get a little longer I think he will be able to grab things with them. How can people be so disgusted by feet? They are SO cute and so very useful!!!
I think one of my favorite parts about wrapping him up at night is his little legs sticking out, crossed at the ankles, waiting for the final step of swaddling for bed. SO cute!

When does it end?

Micah pooped yesterday!
YAY!
Are you offended by this?
Actually, he pooped twice! How exciting?!
Once while watching Baby Einstein (of course. it had been a few days and we decided to step in.) and once while playing in a bouncy seat. Do you realize how much messier a diaper can get when it is used to capacity and then bounced in over and over and over again.
Grossed out yet? Not me. This is one of the most exciting parts of my day. Not the actual clean up process. But it is exciting knowing that this has got to be a relief for him.
Isn't it funny how some of the things we get most excited about in the life of a baby are the things that we refuse to talk about as adults! Going to the bathroom pretty much accounts for 1/3 of a baby's life, and yet, we refuse "bathroom talk" with our peers. When does it move from exciting to extinct? From something to share to something to hide?
And what about burping and farting? Baby's are gassy, but to me it is a thrill to know he is getting this gas out! Maybe not a thrill to smell it, as he does take after his dad in this area, but a thrill nonetheless.
As I sit in the "nursing mother's" room on Sundays at church we congratulate other babies when they have a good belch after a meal. "Good job" can been heard from most every other mother in that room. Until when? When does this stop. When do we start to train our kids that holding in the gas and getting a stomach ache from it is the appropriate thing to do. When am I supposed to stop getting a cheap thrill over his ridding of gas and fluids? It's the rhythm of life, right? Eat, sleep, poop, eat some more...
I can tell my baby is much more pleasant after he's had a good burp from his meal, and especially after he's had a good poo...would we be more pleasant if we were more willing to let it out when we needed to? I'm not saying I want to be smelling everybody's bodily functions everywhere I go. But maybe we need to be ok with allowing ourselves a little room to rid our body of the things that should not be rotting inside. I know a girl who says she NEVER burps or passes gas (that would be her proper way of saying fart)! Really? NEVER? How can that be? I just don't think that is healthy! I think she'd be much happier if she would let it all loose:)

Learning to eat cereal

For about 2 weeks we have been attempting to feed Micah some cereal. Started with some very bad attempts followed by learning to be OK with the spoon, followed by more attempts to eat cereal again. Here are the past two days of learning how to eat cereal with a spoon.

Micah's new favorite toy

Yes, this is yet another picture of Micah sitting in his car seat while dirtying his pants to the tune of, none other than the great Baby Einstein. It really works! Every time! Try it. It may help that he gets really excited, and legs up to chest always helps to relieve pressure in the belly...

This is also a picture of Micah's favorite new toy.

Not the chair.

Not the video.

His feet! They are great! They are free of charge (which goes along with our spending fast I talked about over here).

And he LOVES them!