Gateway Food

Know how pot is a "gateway" drug? Well, Jonas has introduced us to the gateway drug of junk food - cheese puffs. Gerber's "Graduate" brand actually sells these in tiny little tins for about $3. We bought some. He loved them. We then decided to economize by buying the regular Cheetohs brand, albeit the organic white cheddar variety. We like to think they're healthier. (Denial ain't just a river in Egypt, as the saying goes). So now Jonas has placed himself on a starch-only diet of cheesy poofs, graham crackers, and saltines (the low-salt variety). He is no longer interested in yummy full-fat yogurt (which tastes like heaven to me!) or the homemade goodies we provide: Louisiana sweet potatoes, pureed carrots, and mashed bananas. It's all junk food all the time. I hate this. At least we're insisting on the daily vitamin, which he continues to take like a champ despite its disgusting metallic taste.

Here's a pic of him intensely indulging in a cheesy poof moment:


Let's see....what else is he up to? Oh yes, planting seeds with Poppa:


I managed to hide the seeds from him:


He's crawling all over the place, and is super fast. His favorite past-time is to open drawers and explore the contents. It doesn't matter if the drawer is taller than him; that's just a special challenge.

In the kitchen, he races for the refrigerator whenever the door is opened. He loves to get in there and pull things off the shelf. Exhibit A:


He loves to dig dirt out of potted plants, swirl his fists in toilet water, and crawl into the wet shower. Oh, and I forgot to mention his love of trash cans. Those are even more exciting to discover than drawers.

As you might imagine, we have our hands full. Baby gates are up, plants have been moved, and bathroom doors stay closed. We also have locks on appropriate cabinets. But I'm still so scared to leave him along for more than 10 seconds. He's always into something. I think I use the word "no" about 50 times a day. When I say it (in my loudest authoritative voice), he stops what he's doing, looks at me and smiles the most angelic smile. Then, of course, he continues to do what I'm telling him not to do.

This weekend will be a busy one. His christening is scheduled for Sunday at 10:30. Godmother Angela is joining us from Houston with her son, Mark. Godfather, John, will drive in from Westwood, KS. Pastor Scott will officiate. And there will be a cake. You need a cake for a baptism, apparently. Why is this such a surprise to me?

Forgot to mention that there's a forecast for snow this weekend.

More updates and photos to follow soon.

"God made dirt,

and dirt don't hurt."

I hope that's true.

Yesterday at the park, Jonas discovered what sand tastes like. Today, he tried dirt and dog toys. Here are the highlights:

Dog toys!

And then he found the plant:


And the dirt:


My mother and godmother are probably horrified that I paused long enough to grab the camera and take these pictures. Ladies, I did make him wash his hands, and I checked his mouth.

You may have noticed the bling. Yes, he does resembles a "white and nerdy" version of a hip hopper, especially with the overalls undone. He actually put the beads on himself.

Cigars and such....

Brief update: Jonas ate soap yesterday while in the shower. His choice, not ours. That may change in the future if he inherits Mommy's potty mouth.

And today, he discovered toilet water, and I don't mean the old fashioned perfume.

For the first time last night, we didn't go to him when he cried. He woke up about 3 times, and cried for about 20 minutes each time. I felt so guilty. Each time he stopped crying, we would get up and check on him. It's so hard not to comfort him. Rather than learning to "sooth himself to sleep" like the books and experts say, he is just crying himself to exhaustion. He basically passes out and falls face forward. Here's what it looks like:


Some good news - the ear infections are gone! We are finishing up our last round of antibiotics (4th round!), and I honestly think Jonas will miss his meds. Here are some photos of how much he likes Augmentin:


Am I the only one who thinks he looks like he's smoking a cigar?

Chew

Each day brings us new adventures in parenting Jonas. Although it sounds nauseating, we enjoy each new lesson and chapter more and more.

For the past month, Jonas has been fighting a double ear infection. This week, it appears that the many antibiotics we've been shoveling down his gullet might be taking effect. He's finally eating like a pig, and pooping like a bird. He's also conquering some chunkier foods. Remember the raisin debacle? Well, he downs them like a pro now. Strike that. I learned today that he actually warehouses them in the corners of his mouth, like a squirrel. Sometimes they will even accidentally fall out as surprising little partially masticated morsels. I swear that he looks like a toddler with Skoal; the raisins are even the same color as "chew."

Today, Jonas was in full business mode, modeling his special "tie t-shirt," a gift from his Aunt Desi.


Some of his new "hobbies / achievements" include:

1. crawling into the wet shower to play with soap. He's not eating it yet, and this fun activity usually necessitates an outfit change because he gets quite wet;
2. beating his wooden puzzle pieces on the wood floor, which makes a racket that scares the cat and worries the dog;
3. waving his arms in the air;
4. chewing, gumming, drooling on everything;
5. ripping eyeglasses off of adults who get too near his quick little hands;
6. sticking his fingers in your mouth to explore;
7. banging things together (see number 2 above);
8. uttering lots of verbal noises, including a few consonants;
9. screaming bloody murder when I leave the room;
10. Ed's favorite - climbing over people (usually their legs) like they're an obstacle course;
11. pulling himself up on furniture using his teeth.
    

Other random facts: His favorite kitchen toy is a wire whisk. Puffs are his favorite snack food, then Cheerios and raisins. Yesterday morning, he had a Cheerio stuck to his butt for about an hour. Last night, he tasted his first caper and didn't seem to enjoy it. He laughs when his Poppa sings "I've Been Working on the Railroad" to him, and he won't wear socks for longer than 10 minutes. Oh, and his hair is now long enough to have bad hair days.

Snot, and other things...

Yes, like most kids right now, Jonas has a runny nose. We are learning how to help keep his face clean without smearing the snot up his cheek and into his eyebrows. Mostly, he loves to use your shoulder to wipe his nose, which makes for lots more laundry. We think his runny nose comes from the one day he spends at daycare. He really seems to like it there, as he never cries when we leave him, and seems to enjoy interacting with the other kids and toys.

Right now, the little guy is playing with his Fisher Price activity center. It's this thing four legs that has a kid version of laptop, piano, book, and phone. He love love loves it! Except for when he traps his little finger under the laptop.

He's starting to jabber a bit, and we can make out the beginnings of "da da" which really sounds more like "dja dja." He crawls everywhere now, pulls himself up, and is cruising the furniture. His other favorite toys are the Melissa & Doug frog pull toy, Leap Frog "spin a letter", and cheap plastic phone with rotary dial. And he loves to watch the cat, and follow her around. She's not as excited, as you might imagine.

Jonas is more interested in reading time, and we are really starting to play his CDs. He has about 15, if you can imagine. His Aunt Desi gave him 6 Putumaya CDs for xmas, and they're really quite good!

At our 9 mos doctor visit, Jonas weighed in at 18 pounds and was 28.5 inches in length. He remains in the 50th percentile for head circumference and length, but is quite low on weight. I think that's odd, because he seems fine to me. He's not a linebacker, but his legs still have creases so I'm not worried.

Can you believe our little boy received 5 valentines? His first one was from Caroline, who you may recall is his girlfriend. He got two from daycare, one from neighbor Charlotte, and one from Gramma Helen. What a lucky guy! They are all going in his baby book. Caroline was the only one who sent her photo. I think it may have been perfumed too.

One F*cking Raisin

DISCLAIMER: this post may contain unnecessarily gross detail and/or profanity.

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Jonas has RSV. This seems to be a new childhood disease. Or rather, it is an old childhood disease with a new name. Or an old childhood disease that is now routinely diagnosed due to a consistent lab testing mechanism. I don't know why, at age 37, I'm just now learning what the hell it is. It's a fancy name for a respiratory virus that is highly contagious (but only to other children) and can be serious for preemies and infants. Breathing treatments with a nebulizer are routine, and ear infections occur with 75% of cases. Jonas scored a deuce on the ear infections, and is now on antibiotics along with ibuprofen and the nebulizer.

Because he's been a bit of a picky eater while living and feeling the RSV crud, I took time in between all of the other care taking inherent with the needs of a sick 9 month old to make him some tasty carrots blended with yogurt. I cooked the carrots, pureed them in the clunky, cumbersome food processor, and lovingly doled them into individual BPA free glass jars.

This morning, I warmed a jar of the homemade carrots and spent 20 minutes cajoling Jonas to polish it off ; he ate the whole thing. What an accomplishment! I felt pleased and satisfied to have nourished my child in such a complete way. In my slightly irrational mother's mind, he was on the mend, on his way to health, and all because of my efforts. I was so pleased, in fact, that I thought Jonas should be allowed to celebrate with a reward. Although not an accomplished solid food eater, he has enjoyed raisins in the past without mishap. So I gave him a few today as a special dessert. Within minutes, he lodged one of those seemingly innocuous shriveled little masses in the back of his throat, stimulating his gag reflex. Though I hovered with the sippee cup, hoping to help him wash it down before the hurl, it was not to be. Up came the carrots, through his mouth, and through his nose. They just oozed down his poor little face like fast moving lava. I felt terrible. He felt terrible. We both took a moment to whine. Then I mopped up the mess, and he sneezed out most of the rest of the carrots that had gotten lodged in his nostrils. And we left breakfast behind to head upstairs for a wardrobe change.

"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives."

Missing in Perpetual Action

I can't believe it's been over 2 months since I last blogged. Oops. But there are reasons...

Basically, I'm a one-blog kind of gal. And last November, my friend Judy got very sick. She lived in Charlotte, NC and had spent a lifetime collecting friends from all over the place. And now she was sick. And the last thing you want to do when you are sick and feel sick is talk about being sick. Over and over again. Repeatedly, as you call each friend in your address book.

So, instead of cooking soup, or sending flowers, I offered to start a carepage for her. And I did. And it was a very different type of writing experience. One in which you had to spin everything to the positive when it was really so very negative. It surprises and shocks me still how short lived that blog was, and how abruptly ended.

Judy died on January 4th, and I miss her. Part of my absence from blogging has been from distraction in writing for her, and part has been from the grief of missing her. And I won't deny a little procrastination mixed in.

But this is a life blog. The chronicle of my first child. I'm pleased to share that his life managed to intersect with hers, despite the fact that they only shared this world for 8 months. We traveled to Charlotte in December for 5 days. All she had to say was, "You'd better come now." My mother, saint that she is, tagged along to care for Jonas while I cared for Judy. The sweetest moment was one in which Judy gifted Jonas with a knitted sweater and hat. She'd started the sweater before Jonas was born. Then she broke her right arm, then her left arm. It seemed that the chemo had made her bones so fragile and brittle. Everyone knows you just can't knit with one arm. So she asked her wonderful friend Barb to finish the project for her. And here we all are, with Jonas modeling his new digs.


Judy is in the center and Barb is on the left.

While in Charlotte, Jonas got to spend some time with his Aunt Desi (who drove up from Atlanta) and his Nonnie. He also visited the Briggemans: Erin, Todd, and Putter. I think they should send out this photo as their 2009 xmas card, just to see what kind of phone calls it would generate....


After spending Thanksgiving in Kansas City with Ed's mom, brother and family (why don't I have any pictures of that?), we traveled to Louisiana for Christmas at Nonnie's place. Here are some photos of the trip, including a visit with the Scotts, a bath in the sink, and Jonas' first Santa suit, a gift from Nonnie.





Since Christmas, Jonas has had two sets of visitors: friends Brian, Lauren, and Ainsley drove in from Cincinnati. And then he spent the weekend with his two aunts, Desi and Tara. We are waiting on photos from Brian, but here's one with his two aunts:

That's Tante Desi on the left and Tante Tara on the right.

Whew! Now that I look back at the past two months, I understand why I'm just now getting around to blogging!

Maybe tomorrow I'll get a few minutes to get online and share about daycare, playgroups, and RSV! But for now, I hear the boy crying and need to see to him.