Random Thoughts: People will stand up for anything

I was at the grocery story today and in the parking lots, I saw someone with this bumper sticker:

I had to do a double-take. I mean...really? Of all the things in life to make a stand for, this is your "thing?"

I wonder what type of person is a ferret activist must be. I mean, who gets so agitated every time they look at a person walking a dog or showing a picture of their pet cat and they burn with jealousy becasue they are denied their freedom to have their pet ferret.

Here is an excerpt from their website:

"CLIFFNotes has been very valuable in keeping people informed and involved with legalization and other ferret issues. It has brought those interested in ferrets together. Stories are shared and bonds have been formed."

Other ferret issues?!

Bonds have been formed?!

I wonder what "ferret issues" this lady had. I wonder if she is a ferret smuggler...I wonder if her ferret has a secret hiding spot in their home whenever the ferret police come knocking...Just look at this passage describing their "shadow of fear":

"Nevertheless, the threat of enforcement always looms. Ferret owners who love their pets live under a shadow of fear. They cannot take their pets for a walk in the park, they need to be careful not to speed while driving to the vet, and they worry that a spiteful neighbor or ex will turn in their ferrets as punishment for an unrelated dispute."

Ah, the persecuted life a ferret owner.

Well, I guess everyone has their thing...I just found it very amusing!!

Napless Wonder --> Wonder Napper

I've held off a few days on this post, just until it seems like this is something that is going to stick, and today, I'm pretty convinced that it is more than just a one-day fluke. So, with just a tiny fear of "jinxing" it, I'm ready to do it. I'm ready to declare our little boy "a good napper."

What?!

Kim, 90% of your posts since his birth have had something to do with his sleep issues, and now you are saying that he's gone the other direction, and is somehow a good napper? Did you exchange sons while out doing Christmas shopping or something?

Nope. Our very same little Michael is now setting new trends for himself to be a good sleeper, and I have this book to thank for it:

Seriously.

I got this book last Sunday, and after just a brief skim through it, by Monday, Michael took a 2 hour nap in the morning, and a 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon plus another quick evening catnap.

The next day was similar, following Michael sleeping totally through the night that night.

Wednesday, it was a matter of minutes that it took for Michael to go to sleep to take a nap. It has been amazing. After that morning nap Wednesday, things got a little crazy because we went traveling, and that has the tendency to tweak everything pretty quickly...but as soon as we got back home, Michael resumed these good sleeping patterns once again, and today, took another 2 hour nap and is going down without a fight for his other naps.

It is so amazing! I can't believe what a transformation it has been!

Here I've been thinking he just is one of those kids who doesn't sleep, only to find out he just had bad habits on falling asleep and he needed to learn better habits! Thankfully, though it has been work to teach him, he accepted his new task very well and has been very cooperative in this process.

It's just so nice to finally have him on a nice routine and to better schedule my meetings and classes, but most of all to get this kiddo his much-needed rest!

Thank you, Baby Whisperer!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Thank goodness Christmas lasts more than one day, so I don't have to apologize for blogging about Christmas until the 28th :)

The San Diego Barbers had a great Christmas, and enjoyed visiting family. We began our journey on Christmas Eve traveling up to Covina and spent Christmas day + half of Friday there, and then journeyed up to Apple Valley to visit the Gilmores Friday afternoon to Saturday. It was a blast, but we are exhausted!!

Michael did exceedingly well with all the hustle and bustle, but he has discovered the truth which we all already know: there is no place like home!

Despite comfy accomodations wherever he went, Michael didn't sleep quite as well during the night as he was beginning to at home, so Mommy, Daddy and Baby were all pretty sleep deprived by the time the weekend was up, and instead of staying at the Gilmores until Sunday, we packed it up and went home Saturday evening so we could begin getting Michael back on his schedule as early as possible.

But we got to see so much of the family, both at Covina and Apple Valley, it was great! We love you all and enjoyed it so much!

This Christmas was the first Christmas we had with a baby "on the outside" which, was especially helpful as we meditated on the Feast of the Nativity of the Incarnate Son of God.

Jesus became a baby for us. The Son of God took on human flesh and became as dependent on his mom and dad as Michael is on me and Michael. Mary and Joseph carried the baby Jesus, changed him, fed him, rocked him, and when they looked upon his little face, not only could they adore him like any parent adores their baby, but they truly got to adore him, because He is God.

Jesus became a human. He fully entered the human experience. God the Father recognized the despair of the broken human race, steeped in sin, sentenced to death, and moved with compassion, He completed the work of redemption which He began as soon as sin entered the picture and gave us Jesus.

Michael and I (when we weren't listening to Trish-Trash Polka) were listening to Michael W. Smith' Christmas CD a lot in the car, and there is a beautiful song called "All is Well." All is well. In the chaos of sin and death, God has made all things well again.

It's like when baby Michael is crying because he wants to go to sleep but can't seem to calm down, we hold him, cradle him in our arms and tell him, "Michael, all is well."

The world is crying in sin and needs help, and God comforts the world with his Son and in the silence of a stable with a baby in the manger, God tells us, "All is well."

How much God must love us to take on humanity, to humble himself and become a little baby so that he can redeem us!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Do You See What I See?

Noree' mentioned how Michael Sr had a picture of him falling over in a chair and Michael Jr doing the same thing....as I was looking for that picture, I found this and couldn't stop laughing at the similarities! They are the same person!

A Quick Size Comparison

I snapped a few shots of his progression in clothes sizes. It's easy to miss how fast he is growing until you do something like this:

Five Months and Uncle Georgie's B-Day!

Yesterday was Uncle Georgie's Birthday! Happy Birthday!!!!

It was also Daddy Michael's baptismal day!!

and, it was Baby Michael's 5 month birthday. What a day!

So far, 5 months has Michael right on target developmentally. He can roll over both ways, he reaches for toys while he is on his tummy, and he has a definite "I want that" way about him now whenever something strikes his fancy.

It has been a good week, but still very tiring for me. Michael is the king of the catnap, which leaves little time for any breaks for Mom, save a quick dash in the shower, a quick bite to eat, and maybe picking up toys from the floor here and there.

Michael can now pretty capably get himself from his tummy to his back in bed, which has been both good and bad. Good because now he is much less like a helpless turtle and can partially remedy his love/hate relationship with being on his stomach. However, he has not yet been able to accomplish this task calmly. He doesn't figure out the rollover until he is already crying. It's tough to listen to, but it's good for us to let him figure this out on his own. He is getting better at it though! He spent about 15 minutes entertaining us the other night as he rolled back and forth, and back and forth and back and forth on his bed...this kid has, I'm sure clocked up some mileage in his crib with all the traveling he does! He starts on one side, and by the time he is even started settling himself down, he will have gone back and forth, and then rotated 90 degrees and gone top to bottom. It's crazy! Inevitably, he gets stuck once or twice and needs our help...and we comply because it's only fair to him until he gets better at this rolling over business.

However, it also means it's a better idea for us to put him in bed now and let him get to sleep on his own rather than rocking him all the way to sleep as we were doing before he learned this latest skill. It's a little bit of a relief because he was getting HEAVY and sometimes required a LOT of rocking, and after rocking him for that long to only get a 30 minute nap from him everytime got to be a bit draining. Now, he does all the hard work of getting to sleep, and I pretty much just have to listen to his crying while he situates himself on the bed to find his comfy spot. It's not fun to do, and when he is crying, it is easy to prefer going back to the peaceful rocking method...but it is such a defeating feeling to rock and rock and rock him only to have him wake up as soon as he is in bed or just wake up a mere 30 minutes later.

But with the less happy times, there are far more happy times when Michael is giggling, smiling and cooing and it really does make the challenges melt away. He's a little sweet potato who has his own personality through and through.


So, five months into the game, and save a few times where I felt like I needed to call and just have a professional figure out Michael's sleeping game, we are doing very well and loving our boy to pieces! It's especially cute to see him interact with his Daddy. Michael LOVES his Daddy. As soon as Michael comes home, baby Michael is all smiles, giggles and flailing his arms and legs ready to play. It is SO cute.

I put him in Michael's chair and I think he knew that he was sitting in Daddy's chair, because he all of a sudden got so happy and giggly and even though he was kind of wobbling all over, he was smiling and laughing. I think he felt like a big boy sitting where Daddy sits.

Slideshow for You

A Few Favorite Things

Our little boy is very lovable...

...but also just a tad bit...particular.

We've started a running list of ways that Baby Michael has asserted himself as highly in favor of, or hightly opposed to certain things...I never knew a 4.5 month old could have such a will of iron! I think I am in for a wild ride!


1) Nuk Pacifiers

Our house is cluttered with pacifiers of different brands that we've tried..but only one brand will do. Yet, the pacifier is sometimes more like Dumbo's magic feather...it doesn't need to do anything, he just needs to know it's there.

Michael anxiously awaits his pacifier with an open mouth as he's going to bed, but within minutes/seconds, he will gingerly take it out of his mouth and drop it on the bed, and most often, out the side of the crib on the floor. Sometimes, he spits out the pacifier with a flying pttang! I've even had one launched completely over my shoulder.

Every couple of days, I move his crib and exhume a whole graveyard of pacifiers that have been tossed overboard to now be washed and put back into circulation.

2) The perfect sleep position
Michael's perfect sleep spot is not easy to attain, and has to be achieved right at the precise moment of sleepiness. Roll over too soon and he'll cry...but if you get it just right, it's occasionally produced a two-hour nap!

3) The perfect spot to eat.
We thought it was a coincidence at first: after all, wouldn't a baby be more interested in the joy of eating and much less concerned with where it is? Not Baby Michael. Time after time, when getting him situated to eat in the spot that's most comfy for me, he arches his back, turns his head away and cries. But pick him up and move him to his bedroom, onto the less comfortable folding chair? He'll eat a full meal! It's crazy! Why does where I sit matter so much to him? But it does!

4) Trish-Trash Polka.
When did you first realize you had a favorite song? Was it in high school? Jr. High? How about 2 months old? Well, Michael has a favorite song we found on his Baby Einstein CD. Daddy Michael actually discovered it as he was driving with him one day and Michael was crying. Then, a song came on and he stopped crying. The song was over and the next song came on...start crying. Michael then put the song back to Trish Trash Polka, and he stopped crying. The song was over...he started crying. Repeat.

This has been tested over and over and over again....If Michael starts to cry in the car, put Trish-Trash Polka on and he will calm down. He will! In fact, I just did it tonight and it works. Instantly.

He'll also fall asleep to it in the car....forget all the lullabies and soft quiet music...Michael wants all the bells and whistles!

Here is a more sophisticated version than the Baby Einstein one (which is full of silly sound effects)...yet certainly just as lively as the one on Michael's CD:

When I found an actual orchestra performing it, and that it was written by Johann Strauss, I felt a little better about my son liking something with the name "Polka" in it.

The scary thing is that I can see this, almost in a cartoon-like montage, being the theme song to Michael's childhood.

And that makes me just a bit nervous, and already a little bit exhausted!

5) The Diaper Changing table.

This is the one piece of furniture that has been far and away home to the most smiles, giggles, and one of the first places I go to when Michael needs to be calmed down. This cheap pad which sits on top of our dining room table was certainly an unexpected win. Michael loves this thing! He kicks his feet, scratches the surface to make a scratchy sound, and all-in-all just seems to snap into a good mood as soon as he's on it (well, 9 times out of 10). It's great!

These are just a few of Michael's favorite things...It's so crazy...he likes certain things with such intensity. I don't know where he picks that up from.... :)

4.5 Months

Michael is 4.5 months old now....time is really flying by!

Everyday, there seems to be something new he is learning...the latest development is that he is starting to become "mobile."

Granted, the distance he moves is very small in a pretty decent length of time, but, nonetheless, if we had a time-elapsed video of his movement, he is moving!

The other day, I had him on his tummy and was baiting him with a toy just out of his reach and over to the side. I kept calling him, "Come over here, Michael! You can do it!" and lo-and-behold, in a few minutes, Michael had rotated 90 degrees and was now within reach of his prey.

He's not crawling...but he is incrementally schimmying (sp?) and getting to where he wants to go.

Sometimes, though, he schimmies backwards and he looks a little confused as to what happened and needs to just take a breather.

In other areas, Michael is now becoming a consistent napper. He is not a long napper, but a consistent one. He will definitely go down for a nap every two hours, and that nap is almost never shorter than 30 minutes. Sometimes, on good days, I can go in there and rock him back to sleep for another round of 30 minutes, though that doesn't happen too often.

Michael is a great night sleeper once we actually get him to fall a sleep. Fortunately, he is not one of those kids that needs to be driven around the block or set on top of a washing machine to fall asleep. In fact, Michael will fall asleep just perfectly in our arms, but unless he is really deeply sleeping, he will inevitably roll onto his tummy once we put him in his bed, and then get mad and wake up, and then we get to start over again. Sometimes, this process lasts in the area of an hour :\ But he has slept through the night a few times..so that's great!

But even this process has not been without rewards. First, it's clear he wants to sleep but just gets frustrated being on his tummy...so we are at least on the same team and not fighting each other too much. However, most importantly, it has allowed me to have a renewed appreciation for this precious baby time that is going by so quickly.

I am glad we trained him to fall asleep on his own, because it has been so valuable: he is calmer since we did that, he sleeps better in the car, and so long as he is on his back, he can fall asleep by himself, which has come in handy many times in the middle of the night.

However, I am also glad that his little tummy trick is requiring us to once again rock him in our arms until he is asleep so that we can lay him in his bed and he either a) won't roll on his tummy or b) will be sound enough asleep when he inevitably rolls on his tummy so that it won't bother him.

I was struck at how big he was getting when I caught a glimpse of me rocking him in the mirror today. I remember how it used to look when I would carry him in my arms, and now, I have this big boy sprawled across the width of my body with his feet dangling down below my waist....he looked like a little boy and not just a baby!

As I looked back down at his face, he had just fallen asleep, and he looked so calm and at peace and I knew these days were numbered. I know in a few months, Michael probably won't want to fall asleep in my arms. Instead of having that be his place of preference, I will have to chase him down to catch him, and steal hugs when I get the chance, probably to protests and squirming.

When I cuddle with him, it will soon be on his terms, and not just when I feel like it.

I remembered how I used to think how nice it would be when I can put him in his bed and he'll drift off to sleep on his own withouth any problems. And there is truth to that, since eventually, he'll need to do that (at the very least so I don't have to come to his slumber parties and rock him to sleep in front of all his friends!)

But I also repented of any time when I was motivated towards this goal so that I could go and get something else done. Today, more than ever, I realized that there is nothing more important than what time I have at this very moment to have this precious little creature drift off to sleep in my arms. Dishes can wait, work can wait, everything can wait, because unlike this moment, those other things will always be there.

Ah....being a mom is making me so mushy! I wouldn't have it any other way!

Just a Picture (or three)

I'm tired! We had a great day today, but I don't feel like writing much. But I know you all just come for the pictures anyway....

(a rare moment when all his limbs are still!)

Michael in the Mirror

Who can blame him for wanting to look at himself? I can't keep my eyes off of him!