Raise your hand if...

...you think there needs to be more Baby Michael blogs!

Mom, more people need to be aware of my cuteness!



It has no limits!

Sweet Ride

I know some kids enjoy their Mattel Jeeps and their HotWheels, but who's to say a Pampers box isn't also a sweet ride.




Certainly not this kid:

(note corner that is a little wet from previous chewing)

My apologies, but I forgot to mention in my previous post that Michael has two teeth! (the first two teeth, though, must be called by their appropriate name "teef"). They are the bottom teeth (teef) and are coming in pretty slowly, but they are very cute. He is tolerating the pain very well, not being fussy or cranky, but definitely appreciating his baby Tylenol and Orajel (he likes the taste more than the relief it brings, I think).

Those teef are sharp little guys! When I stick my finger in to put in the Orajel, it's like a little needle in there! I can't imagine what that must feel like to his tongue getting used to that in there all the time!

He's such a good boy!

Time for an Update

Happy Easter!

Sorry I have been remiss in updating this thing. I am tired and just haven't felt like it...but I feel like it tonight, so I'll go ahead and update some fun things going on.

Michael is going to be 9 months old in a few days. I can't believe it! I'm trying to get my mind around the fact that he's been out of the womb for as long as he was in it and I can't decide which seems like it went by faster: pregnancy or the next 9 months of his life. I think the latter went faster. Watching him grown on the "outside" is so entertaining! Everyday it seems like there is something new and the great part is that we get to see it and witness it.

Michael is continuing to do well eating.

He is getting really good at finger foods and enjoys feeding himself his little puffs, though it took him a little bit to get the hang of it, which I thought was odd because the one thing he is good at is putting everything else in his mouth. But I suppose things that are supposed to go in your mouth take a little more time to learn.

But he's pretty good at it now. I put some puffs on his tray while I finish getting his main course ready and he grabs a handful and puts as many in his mouth at a time as he can. I have resorted to spreading the puffs out on the tray so he can't put a ton in at the same time as easily.

Michael is pretty good at moving around now. His "crawl" isn't elegant and his belly still drags on the ground, but he moves fast and he knows it. He sees something and he knows how to get to it, and it's cute watching him go after stuff. I'm getting better at baby-proofing so he's not getting into stuff he shouldn't as much any more, which puts me at ease greatly and lets me enjoy just watching him move around.

When he plays he is sometimes really focused. He has fun playing, but sometimes seems to concentrate very hard at his task. He does like musical instruments.

He also remembers when you did something and looks for you to do it again. For instance, he has a gumball machine toy that plays music when you push the lever. Once, I was dancing crazy when a certain song came on, and now, every time the gumball machine plays that song he looks at me with a knowing look waiting for me to dance. He also has a ball with a rattle in it that one time, every time he shook the ball I would shake my head right along with him...now everytime he gets that same ball, he'll look at me, shake it, and look at me expecting me to shake my head. And since it gets a smile, of course I always do it. Smiles and laughter is how I get paid :)

Daddy is officially is best friend in the whole world (but there was no point in his 9 months when this wasn't the case)...and I love it. All Michael has to do is walk in the room and baby Michael's face lights up. He laughs at pretty much anything his daddy does and when he gets in a silly mood like that, even Mommy can get some good giggles out of him.

His sense of humor seems to be really developing. He really notices incongruities and sees them as funny. Like if I put something on my head that doesn't belong there, he laughs; or if Michael or I put the pacifier in our mouth, he knows that doesn't belong there and thinks it's funny; and when Michael's mom came to visit and she was teasing baby Michael and put socks on his hands instead of his feet, he thought that was hysterical too. It's really interesting to see that he really understands that this or that is normal and that's funny.

He is learning to imitate really well too. I can hum a little sound (not so much a song...just a two-syllable sound) and he'll imitate it pretty quickly. He also can imitate us doing things like (how do I describe this?) humming while strumming your lips to make a sound (do you know what I'm talking about?) He learned that on Easter and now he's really good at that and likes to do it often.

His hair is out of control. It is really curly and very cute, but I'm starting to feel guilty about letting it get so long and crazy. My nickname for him is "crazy head" because just looking at that hair...it is crazy. The curls are adorable and range in tightness from day-to-day...when they are loose it looks extra messy, but when the curls are tight, it looks much neater and, honestly, much much cuter. When the curls are tight little ringlets, I consider letting the madness go on for much longer, but when his hair just sort of "flips out" like little wings everywhere....I get sorely tempted to take some scissors to it right then and there. I don't think his first hair cut is too far around the cornery.

He is also a sensitive little kid, but in a good way. He has been so "understanding" (for lack of a better word) when I haven't been feeling well. He's been extra patient, extra friendly and cheerful, and even extra content doing whatever it is we're doing. Michael and I were discussing how we used to think Michael was a very particular baby, and either it was true and it changed, or it was just our new-parent sensitivty talking (or both); but we actually find Michael to be anything but "particular" anymore. He is exceedingly flexible and easy going and rarely complains about anything. He just goes with the flow no matter what is going on. He is a real treasure.

His napping is still hysterical, and that's all I can say about it. Putting this child down for a nap seems promising: he is rubbing his eyes, yawning, rubbing his head against my shoulder, etc. But as soon as he gets in his bed, it is like a little rodeo begins. He lays on his back and kicks his feet for a long time and just makes all sorts of racket in there....then either I'll go in after a while and re-situate him and he'll go to sleep, or after all the noise, it will all of a sudden get quiet which means he just passed out.

I don't know what else I can do to calm this child down and transition to nap time, but I think this is just what he does now! The nice thing is that he is not upset in the least bit. He talks and makes noises in his bed, but he's not upset or crying. It's nice for me because I can put him in his bed and he is content doing whatever he is doing in there so I can either get stuff done or take a little catnap myself....but it's just so amusing how hyper this child gets every single nap time!

But he is eventually taking his nap, and sometimes they can even go quite long....and his nighttime sleep is still excellent (though I wish he could get a little closer to 7am and a little further from 6:15am more regularly). I guess I shouldn't complain though, since normally, Daddy Michael is good enough to get him his bottle in the morning and play with him 'till I roll outta bed at 7:30 or so. What can I say...I am spoiled.

Bed time is a really special time for the three of us. Michael always comes home in time to be there when Michael goes to bed, and baby Michael is always in such a silly mood at that time. I'm 100% he's being extra silly to delay bedtime, but since he normally goes right to sleep when we do put him down (funny how he passes out right away at night!) we don't mind the delay.

During our bedtime routine, everything becomes funny to him: singing, hugs, even just looking at him will get a laugh. He is extra affectionate at that time too. He will often try to give his pacifier to Daddy, which is so sweet. It's like, his special possession that he knows is his he wants to share with Daddy. It's just so endearing to see.

If we play with him on the floor before bed time he will often be very affectionate: putting his head up against us, putting his mouth on our arms or our cheek kind of like a kiss...putting his head on our shoulder. It's just such priceless enjoyable time with our little boy. It's painful having to stop it so we can put him in bed, but we also don't want to deprive him of his sleep. It's especially cute once we get him in his bed that we'll roll over and reach through the bars so we can give him a few last moments of attention before we leave the room. Sometimes he whimpers when we leave, but usually he just gets comfy and goes to sleep.

One situation, though, which is completely out of control is his pacifier situation. Oh my. We have a bunch of pacifiers for this kid, but we can never keep more than, like, one or two in his little supply container on his dresser becaue he is constantly losing them over the side. Fortunately, this is not too problematic at night because he only on occasion wakes up and cries in the middle of the night. Which means a) either he is just not waking up at all and doesn't realize his pacifier is gone or b) if he is waking up, he's so tired he doesn't need it to go back to sleep. So, we haven't suffered too much from the curse of the pacifier during the night. He is able to put it in his mouth on his own, so if it is in his bed, he can get it back in without our help.

Naps are a different situation. In his pre-sleep romping, that pacifier is gone, which means I am constantly having to go in there and find it and put it back in and resituate him. However, it is such a useful tool to calm him down for a nap, I just don't see how breaking him of it now will do much good. So...we'll continue to fish out those pacifiers from under his bed every day, several times a day until a later point when we want to wean him off those. The good thing is that he only has the pacifier in bed or, on occasion, at Mass when we really could use a non-noise-making baby. So, he's not addicted to those things in the sense that he needs it in order to be happy all the time. But they do come in handy at bed time.

So, we are doing very well here enjoying our silly little boy. He's such a bundle of love and joy!!

Falling Backwards

Note: this post will have no pictures to accompany it, since, as you can see from the title, someone has to catch my child.

Michael recently has been huge into expressing his happiness by falling backwards with a HUGE smile on his face.

I noticed it when I was having him practice his standing up. All of a sudden, Michael looked at me over his shoulder and just launched himself backwards. Good thing I was paying attention! He had never done that before, so usually I just stand him up and casually pay attention.

But his dive backwards was full-throttle and if he hit the ground, it would have hurt. Since I caught him, he thought it was SO MUCH FUN!

So I stood him up and he did it again, and again, and again, and again. His little trust fall game gets quite the smile!

This habit progressed into his falling backwards whenever he is happy. So if he is sitting on our bed while we are playing or Michael is getting ready in the morning, if Daddy makes him smile, his first reaction is to thrust himself backwards on the bed with all this might, laughing all the way.

It is just sooooo cute....

But today, he did it when he was sitting propped up on the floor, which normally, he knows to keep his balance and stay sitting up because he doesn't like when he bumps his head.

So as I was playing with him, fortuantely I was sitting kind of to the side of him, all of sudden, the big smile comes and there he goes launching himself backwards.

Needless to say, a pillow or blanket behind him is now a common accompaniment to any seated play time because with this crazy boy, you just never know when he'll get it in his head to launch himself backwards.

And the sweetest thing about it is how trusting he is, that he can do that and someone or something will catch him and that makes the game all the more fun.

8 Month Update

Last week, Michael turned 8 months old.

8 months! When is this all happening?!

Michael is getting really good at moving forward. He really pushes on his toes and scoots forward pulling with his arms. He gets pretty much anywhere he wants to go.

He is great at sitting up, and is almost to a point where he can pull himself up to a sitting position, but he only tries every once in a while to do it.

His eating is doing great. He seems to eat more and more everyday.

Since eating is right before naptimes and bedtime, he is usually pretty tired while he eats, so sometimes he is a little cranky.

Oddly enough, he has recently done this nursing strike thing. My milk supply has dropped because I just haven't been that hungry lately, so after a few days of pumping, doing my best to keep him nursing, he just seems so much happier with a bottle of formula. Not quite expected, but it is what it is. Fortunately, we were equipped with formula and bottles, and happily, he is much more content.

For a while, before i realized he wasn't getting enough to eat, he would cry and cry and cry, and I wasn't sure what he wanted, and when I tried to nurse him he wasn't happy so I assumed it wasn't the problem. I guess what it was is that he wasn't getting enough food. Poor kid. But now that he is eating his formula, he is happy as a clam. Actually, happy ALL the time, which is great.

So that was an unexpected little hang up, but we gave it 8 months and I guess that was it. So, oh well.

He is so much fun. He laughs, and troubleshoots problems, and is very attentive during storytime.

Some times during play time, he likes having me right there playing right with him. Other times, he is content to just explore whatever he can whether I'm doing anything with him or not.

He still loves going to the park and is fascinated by the world around him.

He loves looking at himself in the mirror, and often times will wave his hand and smile broadly at himself and his mommy who is waving back at him.

His favorite thing to say is "Dada." He really does say it all the time. That and "Geeeeeeeee!" with a hard "G." It's really cute.

Everything he does is done like a boy. There isn't a ounce of daintiness in him. He is just a little boy!!

In the wake of destruction

This is what happens when Baby Michael does his magic.

Things just get left in disarray.

I like the things he pulled out.

But I'm not sure what he is trying to tell me by pulling out this one:

Definitely Related

A few weeks ago for Ash Wednesday, I was tired and meat-deprived.

And I don't know if it was simply a matter of meat-detox, or staying up too late the night before, or what...

...but I started wondering....(brace yourself, it's really out there)

...what would happen if someone came to the door and said that there was a mixup at the hospital and the baby Michael we've cared for all this time was not the real Baby Michael...like this baby was not biologically related to us. And they had proof.

I started wondering, would we just keep this baby Michael since we're already so attached to him? Biology aside, I don't just love him because he is ours but because we love him. In a way, I'm sure that adoptive parents don't love their children any less because they are not genetically related....could I exchange the Michael we have come to be head-over-heels in love with if someone had proof positive that he was not biologically ours?

Ok, I warned you this was really weird and out there. I'm telling you, don't expect a meat junkie to be coherent after so many hours without a fix.

It was a conundrum! If this actually happened, I could easily find myself not wanting our biological baby if it meant giving up our Michael.

Then, that day, I was watching him play in his room as he was going all over investigating stuff on the floor and I laughed at the crazy question I asked myself earlier.

Because, physical appearances aside.....

He's definitely related.