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February 25, 2008
Movie: Mastering the Ball
You're probably wondering: How's his walking? Answer: good and getting better. Check it.
Posted by atshuldiner at 4:35 PM
February 19, 2008
Movie: Getting the boy to the bath
I keep calling "naked baby" in this movie because normally FM recognizes that as his cue to get to the tub. For some reason, today did not go as per usual. Long film, but funny.
By the way, this was taken on his birthday!
Posted by atshuldiner at 7:32 PM | Comments (1)
FM IS ONE YEAR OLD
A SPECIAL ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY FM BLOG ENTRY
featuring all (well, mostly) new material, winsome reflections, and a lesson or two learned!
OK, first of all, who we talking about? We talking about the one and only...
FELIX
MILO
SHULDINER!
The boy's a year old, which means a year ago today we were here:
In some sense we still are. It's not that the experience is unforgettable--to the contrary, the stress of it all kind of makes it hard to remember clearly, or at least it does for me--but rather that it changes you, it becomes part of you. There's a before and an after and from then on it was after.
He was quite calm there at the beginning, a rather misleading first impression as he has since proven to be as active as babies get. Still, given what he'd just been through it's no surprise he was a bit tired:
I especially like how his entire head crinkles up when he yawns in this movie. Fortunately, he's filled out quite nicely:
Yes, he was wrinkly to begin with, but what struck us most of all was how tiny he was:
Note the huge bags under Talia's eyes, and the fact that Felix's ear is no bigger than a brussel sprout.
By definition, his first year was a year of firsts. Now, for your pleasure, a review of the best of these firsts:
The first time he rocked out:
The first time he peed on me (within hours of getting home--funny how it looks like the cow did it--however since then he's only peed on Talia):
His first spy mission, what a sneaky guy:
His first plane ride (he's great on planes):
His first trip to NYC:
His first "werkbeurt" at the garden:
His first boo boo:
And thus his first band-aid:
And right around the same time, by no coincidence I'm sure, the first time he tried to run away from home (he might have gotten away with it if he hadn't tried to take so much stuff with him):
Blowing his first bubbles:
With his first patient:
His first case of motion sickness:
We could go on and on, especially if we started blogging about all the firsts with food, but there's more to get to so we'll end the Firsts with this: his first milk!
In truth he's taken to milk without a hitch, so long as you serve it in a bottle, and thank goodness because we're all out of formula. In all respects he is and remains a great eater, happy to eat, or at least try to eat anything:
He's not the neatest baby you've ever seen however:
The happy result of all this eating is an ever-growing baby:
Which unfortunately means a heavier load day by day:
If you've been following this blog (or listening to us in any other venue) then you know that FM's weak point is sleeping. It's not that he can't fall asleep...
...it's that he won't stay asleep. But that's finally changed! For this I have no footage, so you'll just have to take my word for it: he has finally given us a few uninterrupted nights. A perfect night sees him in bed by seven (where he'll often spend some time pulling on his two music box animals, but within fifteen minutes or so he's out) and then asleep until 5 AM or later when he calls for his bottle. A quick refill and he's out again for an hour or longer. He has done this half a dozen times in the last couple of weeks and already we feel sanity returning. WE ARE GRATEFUL AND HAVE REWARDED HIM WITH A BLUE BALLOON!
Felix has been quick to nail a lot of the various baby milestones. Turning over, crawling, sitting up, standing up, all child's play, so to speak. But what about the biggest, most exciting (to us) milestone of all? Well good news, and JUST IN TIME for his birthday, WALKING. Yes, yes, but let us build to it....
He was an early crawler and a fast one, and he learned to pull himself up things quickly too so he's had little reason to learn walking. Still, he’s had the elements of it for some months: he will happily stand up if he has something to pull himself up with, and he loves running behind his cart, as shown here:
But recently he’s taken it to the next stage. To start with we discovered, quite by accident, that he can stand independently. If sufficiently distracted, he'll simply forget to drop to a crawling position and can easily go several seconds before realizing what he's doing and coming down. Here’s proof:
With this example before us we started to practice walking with him:
This was reasonably successful, so much so that we thought we'd see if we could get him to really walk in time for his birthday. With proper motivation he did!
This footage is from TODAY, so I think we can safely say he walked at 1 year of age. I expect he'll really put it all together within a week or two and then he’ll be running around like crazy and will no doubt abandon the less efficient crawling motion. I’ll really miss the "splap splap" noise of his fat little hands whacking the floor as he goes from point to point though. That, I suppose, is part of growing up.
Before going on with the footage I should follow up on my promise to share a couple of lessons learned. Here are two. #1: If you’re having sleep problems try everything. With us, for example, I think a good deal of his improvement in sleep may have resulted from switching him to non-disposable diapers which keep him drier overnight. Didn’t think of that until month 12. #2: Try splitting the nights one-on-one-off rather than doing it in shifts. May sound harder, may prove easier.
Here’s another one: don’t worry too much about how difficult changes will be. You have to guide a baby through a lot of changes in the first few years, or so the books tell us. For us, every time we thought it was going to be a fight it turned out to be no such thing. We thought he needed his pacifier, that he had to have night feedings, that he was going to miss breast milk. No, no, and no. He will have trouble with some transitions, not everything goes smoothly, and perhaps he would have had more trouble had we tried some of these things sooner, but the point is simply that you can’t necessarily predict what will and will not be a problem, so don’t lose (even more) sleep over it.
OK, now back to the good stuff....
FM’s a great kid, robust, outgoing, fearless, strong, ineluctable...
...and he’s ONE YEAR OLD. Felix Milo Shuldiner you're the greatest and your daddy super loves you, especially when you dress just like he does:
Your mother and I are sorry about all the vaccinations...
...and about making you wear fuzzy hats on cold mornings...
...and I'm still sorry for calling you "babiac"...
...but it's not like you haven't gotten us back now and again...
...and you have to admit we take you on some pretty fun adventures...
...and whatever else happens we promise we'll always be by your side!
Keep going, baby boy, keep going!
Posted by atshuldiner at 3:38 PM | Comments (11)
February 15, 2008
Movie: Riding the pony
By popular demand, FM's first attempts to ride his new rocking horse.
Posted by atshuldiner at 10:31 AM
February 12, 2008
Movie: Intro to stamppot
Stamppot is Dutch mashed potatoes with veggies mixed in. Often eaten with sauerkraut. It's the sauerkraut that was really new for him. Took a little getting used to but he liked it.
Posted by atshuldiner at 10:26 AM | Comments (1)
February 10, 2008
Movie: Grass is always greener
The title says it all.
Posted by atshuldiner at 10:24 AM
February 4, 2008
Movie: Devouring the baby
Mommy's not the only one who can make him laugh. He started it. Really.
Posted by atshuldiner at 10:21 AM