Book Review: Good Morning Toucan

We have many lift-the-flap books in our house, and not many last too long. If you are a book publisher, you should do what the Katz books do and glue the flaps to the pages, so that they will be easily destroyed. This will ensure that the books only last a few months in any household, and you will never have to see them on the used book shelf, or even handed down from sibling to sibling.
If, however, you are not a book publisher and you do like books that last, check out this book. Amazingly enough, someone invented the lift-the flap book that flaps as part of the seam of the page rather than a haphazardly glued on piece. So, based on the ingenuity of the design, I give this book the thumbs-up.
And then there's the content. Really, the plot could be better. The main character, the Toucan, just basically goes around asking who is waking up all over the place. And saying good morning to everyone. There isn't a lot of depth to Toucan's character, except that he feeds his babies in the end. What a great dad. I know he's a he because I looked at the website.
Oh, and my son loves the book. Babies are into color and simple things, and not really depth of character. So I guess I'll put my other thumb up as well.

Germaphobic Parents?

I don't know how parents can be germaphobes. Maybe it's just because I'm not one to wipe my doorknobs and grocery cart handles, so I therefore categorize myself as a non-phobic of germs sort of parent. After watching my infant crawl all over the hospital waiting room and/or doctor's office, touching everything in sight only to immediately stick his finger in my mouth (on more than one occasion), I can only imagine the horror a germaphobic mother would endure in such a situation. That being said, if you are a germaphobic mother, please do not read any further.
If you are not, but want to try something fun, read on.
Go the the public library. Look for a germaphobic parent (most likely a mother). She will be wiping things down with an antibiotic moistened cloth and/or telling her child(ren) not to put things in their mouth(s). Say this to her: "Really, the safest way to keep germs off the children is to not bring them to the library at all! As a matter of fact, we wouldn't be here right now, except my child is quite sick already, so I figured he wouldn't catch anything else if we came here!" Then, try to get your child to sneeze on her child(ren) on cue. Then giggle.

Book Review: The Going to Bed Book

I like to read this book with an accent, somewhere between Scottish and Australian, or a combination. Maybe a little pirate in there too. Especially for the last page, "The moon is high (pronounced "I"), the sea is deep, we rock and rock and rock to sleep". Aaaaar. Matey.
My son loves this book also. The illustrations are great. We also have the book Moo Baaa La La La by the same author but he's not too into that one.

Book Review: I Love You, Stinky Face

We got this book as a gift, and it has been one of our favorites to read for bedtime. My son especially likes the swamp creature. I like to read it in a southern accent. It seems like it was written in with a southern accent.
The little boy in the book asks his mama if he were all sorts of terrible things: a super smelly skunk, a meat-eatin' dinosaur, a green alien from Mars, a one-eyed monster, would she still love him? Her answers are the perfect replies.
If you have a boy and could only have one book, this is the book to get.

Book Review: Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose

I found this book at the library and it's as good as it sounds. It's colorful, simple, and fun to read in different voices. There are lots of animals and kids are sure to love the wittiness of it. It's also clever how they carry the animals over from the previous pages and the next pages so you can see what's coming up next. Definitely makes a great present for anyone with an infant or toddler!

Conversating!

Today my son is 1 year, 4.5 months old. He can say a handful of words, especially if he is repeating me. I wasn't really sure if he knew the meaning of any of those words, except maybe "momma" and "dadda" (Which he says with much more enthusiasm than I know how to relay in typed format). Now I know that he does in fact, know what words mean! Here's why:
I put him in the bathtub full of warm water. He said "hot!" Wow, you know what "hot" means! I told him. Then he squatted and said "uh-oh". And I was like, what do you mean "uh-oh"? Then I discovered what he meant and spent the next several minutes cleaning up and draining the bath water. I also think this means somebody might be ready to start potty training!

Book Review: My Quiet Book

I searched the web and couldn't find the exact book I have, but there are similar books out there. This is a cloth/fabric book that unzips open and has several things for the baby to play with: buttoning, sticking things like street lights and apples with velcro on various other things like apple trees or in backpacks or in a train car. It has counting and emotions and snaps with shapes. Despite the fact that the label says it is for 2+ year olds, my son got really into it at 1 year & 3 months. He picks it up daily and brings it to me or his daddy or anyone else willing to sit down and spend a half hour looking at it. And we do sit down with him- we have that rule, otherwise all of the parts that come off of it (4 apples, 4 emotions on the faces of bears, 4 shapes, a penguin, an elephant, 3 stop lights and more) would be scattered around the house.
Our version is red and white striped and has a flower and a sunshine on the cover. It's a great learning book and I can see us using it for years to come!

Travel woes

When our toddler was just a baby, I probably complained about how much more work it was to go anywhere: we had to make sure enough diapers were washed (and dry!), pack several changes of clothes for the baby (and us since he tended to get our clothes dirty too!), remember all of the baby food supplies, breast pump supplies, boppy, blankets, toys and miscellaneous crap that goes with the modern American baby.

Now our boy is a toddler and we STILL have to pack like that (minus the breast pump supplies and plus more of the food items), however he is a biped now and quite quick and clever. Knowing he will get into everything, all of the packed items are put neatly on the couch, which he can't quite get onto yet, but he's still able to pull several bags down and unpack them as fast as we are able to pack them. So, a morning of packing ends up being a morning of packing and re-packing and re-packing. I hope parents of babies can read this and appreciate how much easier it is to pack ALL of that baby crap ONLY ONCE. Yes, the caps were necessary there.

Sleep Problems

Our baby was sleep deprived. This is what we tried:
1.       90 minute sleep cycle. FAIL
2.       4:30 naps daily. Napping at the same time every day. FAIL
3.       8:00-8:00 bed time, naps at 10:00 & 2:00. FAIL
4.       6:00 bed time. SUCCESS!

The main problem with our baby right now is sleep deprivation. This started at about ten months of age, maybe a little sooner, and we are still battling it. I thought it started at about the time we travelled to California (which really messed up his schedule) but the fact that he learned to crawl right before the trip might have had something to do with it. I read that once a baby learns a new skill, like crawling or standing or walking, he doesn't sleep as well. And sure enough, after a few months of joyously sleeping through the night, he was up again, sometimes twice, in the middle of the night. So I talked to some friends who referred some books. 

The first book was The 90 minute sleep book. The gist of the book is that babies are on a 90 minute cycle in which they go from alert to sleepy. So if you pay attention to when they wake up, 90 minutes (or 3 hours, or 4 1/2 hours) later they are in their sleepy phase. There is about a 15 minute window in which it is easier to get the child to fall asleep. Other new parents I have talked to have said that the 90 minute method worked for awhile and then it didn't. This could be because young babies (the first few months) nap more often and so will fall asleep every 90 minutes. Older babies don't need to nap quite as much, so they get sleepy after 2 or 3 sleep schedules. For my 10 month old, it was 4 1/2 hours, or 3 sleep cycles before he was sleepy again. The other thing that makes it difficult, is if the baby is sleeping in their crib, or anywhere but in your arms, it's hard to know the exact moment they woke up, unless they always wake up crying. 

The second thing I took from the book is how to know that your baby is sleep deprived. There are several things, one of which is waking up crying rather than happy. Also, they wake up easier (noise, light affect them), they sleep lighter, they don't nap as long, they fight sleep, etc. Every one of the symptoms mentioned described our baby at 10 months. And so we knew he was sleep deprived. And we knew to try to watch the clock to pay attention to the 90 minute cycles. But although it might be "easier" to get the baby to sleep after 90 minutes, it doesn't mean you will be successful at it, especially if the baby is sleep deprived and has the symptom of fighting sleep! As you can see from the symptoms above, a sleep deprived baby has difficulty getting to sleep and staying asleep. It takes some serious patience and frustration from the parents. And library books!

The second book was Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Other than the fact that it is written for the stay-at-home mom and the busily working father (seriously, what century is this?!) it has some good points. In fact, I read a mother's story in it that sounded exactly like our baby- down to the times he was falling asleep and the method in which we used to get him to sleep. There were also plenty of stories in there with the same BS: "We tried this for three days and it worked!" "After just a few minutes he was asleep!" which I read while listening to my baby cry and cry in the next room after a week of the same trial and no success. Which made me want to punch the people reporting their stories. But punching a book would be stupid.

In an effort for him to get more sleep, I tried everything I could to get him to take a 4:30 nap. (We shucked the 90 minute crap and decided that sleeping at the same time every day was the key to getting him to sleep easier).

The solution, repeated over and over throughout the book, is earlier bed time. We had been putting our son to sleep around 8:30-9:00 and the book says 7:00 is a good bed time. In order to do that, the book says he shouldn't be going down for a nap after 3:00. 

Okay! Once again, new plan. No more 90 minute cycles. No more 4:30 naps. 

• Day 1: he's super fussy, but he will not nap, so no problem! Fast forward an hour and he's sitting in    his high chair waiting for his food to be prepared, and he falls asleep. Well, no dinner tonight but at least he's getting an earlier bed time!
• Day 2: He falls asleep at 4:15 and he is OUT. Exhausted. Good nap.
• Day 3: He falls asleep at 4:30 and sleeps, in his crib, for an hour. So, basically as soon as we change up the schedule, he starts to nap at 4:30? Maybe he's just exhausted because he only sleeps in the morning at the babysitter's.  

Okay! New plan. The book suggests (over and over) to put an 11 month old baby to bed at 7:00 pm, wake them up at 7:00 am, and put them down for naps at 9:00 am and 1:00 pm. It's supposed to work with the baby's biological clock. But it doesn't work for our schedules. So we decided to shift it an hour and have him sleep from 8:00-8:00 and take naps at 10:00 and 2:00. He already naps at 10:00 every day. The 2:00 one will be the difficult one to establish, and he is at the babysitter's at 2:00 for 4 days a week.

The babysitter does not let him cry himself to sleep. Therefore, some days he goes without a nap while he's there. This has been a problem, but if they only thing we ever complain about is the fact that they don't let him cry, we should probably not complain too much. 

So, the shifted biological clock plan didn't work either. Seems you can't screw with a baby's biological clock. We found after trying different bedtimes that he falls asleep pretty well around 6:00 every night. At first, he would wake up at 4:30 consistently. And not go back to sleep. Major sleep deprivation for us! So daddy insisted that we let him cry in his crib between 4:30-5:30 until he got used to sleeping until 5:30. It was hard. But after a few days, he was sleeping until 5:30! Success? No, he then began the habit of pooping around 4:30 each morning- the one thing he could do that would keep him from laying in his crib for an extra hour! So we would get up, change the poopy diaper and put him back in the crib where he slept until about 5:45. 

He hasn't been napping as well as we would like him to, but the change in his bed time has allowed him to get at least 11 hours of sleep overnight, and he seems to be much less fussy and less clumsy because of it. My new advice to friends with babies: earlier bed times! Just try it!

Sleep problems seem to be common among babies. And once again, like all things baby, there are dozens of books out there with dozens of suggestions, some of them contradicting each other! They say "find out what works best for your baby". What works best is adequate sleep. How do we get there? After over a month of exhaustion (baby sleep deprivation=parent sleep deprivation) try everything even if it doesn't work with your schedule. Like crazy early bedtimes!

Fast forward a few months: Bed time is around 6:00. He is absolutely exhausted by then. If he skips his afternoon nap then he will be in bed around 5:30. He was sleeping until about 5:45 and then when daylight savings happened, he started sleeping until 6:30 am. That would make sense except we fell back, so that hour moved in the opposite direction. He wakes up and plays and only starts to cry a little after he's been playing in the crib for awhile. We still struggle with him getting decent naps, but at least he is no longer suffering from sleep deprivation.

Baby's first vacation

In May, we went to California. Before the trip, it was a little stressful trying to figure out what all was needed for the baby, and how to pack it all without paying extraordinary luggage fees! What I learned was that airports are quite family-friendly! Oh, and our little boy was absolutely in his element at the airport. This was quite fortunate since we had a couple of hour long delays at the Cedar Rapids airport. A small airport with not a lot of entertainment. Unless you are 10 months old. Having just acquired his crawling skills, he spent an hour crawling around on the airport floor, chasing after a little plastic cup. He had a blast. Then, when we put him in his stroller, he made adorable smiley faces at all the strangers he got to catch his eye. This was entertaining for us as well, since we got to see many strangers, including men in fancy business suits and the type of shoes that need to be shined, talking baby talk to our little guy.  This continued throughout the trip. By the time we boarded the plane, he was exhausted. I nursed him and he was out. Slept almost the entire flight to Denver. We also learned that airplanes are not very baby friendly. They don't really have a way to change a diaper. when we asked, the flight attendant suggested we hold him with one arm and change his diaper with the other. Um, he's over 20 pounds. We waited for the plane to land. Luckily he didn't fuss. But next time you are on a plane with a screaming baby you'll know there's a pretty good chance they have a wet or poopy diaper and the parents have no way of doing anything about it. Luckily, we had just barely enough time to change his diaper at the airport before boarding the second plane.

We learned that you can check a car seat (no charge) and take the stroller to the gate to check (no charge). It doesn't matter what the size of the stroller is. So why not bring the mammoth stroller? Because in the airport, you will be taking the baby in and out of the stroller so often, it will be much better if you don't have to strap him into the 5 point harness. Plus, it was just easier to travel around with a much smaller stroller. Plus, if we lost the thing, we could replace it for about $19 at any big chain department store. Plus, we're unlikely to lose it since it's highly unlikely that a $19 stroller is going to get stolen. In fact, people tend to be happy to get rid of them. We got ours for free, anyway!

And security lines were a breeze. The Cedar Rapids airport was small. There was no one in line for security. We chatted with the security people for a bit because they seemed bored. Bored people, on the clock, tend to make a lot of googly eyes at babies. Small airports can be great. Leaving San Francisco, for some reason, took about 1 1/2 hours at the ticket counter. No shit. People in front and behind us had missed their flights and were LIVID. Traveling with two parents was a huge plus here because I got to take the baby out of the line, to the bathroom to change his diaper, etc. during that time while my husband held the place in line. Then, there was a super long line for security, but we got to go through the family line, which no one was in. So, we breezed through security and got to the gate in time and we didn't miss our flight! Thanks to our baby, we were not livid! And I thought traveling with babies would be more stressful.

Baby Bjorn style

The trip went pretty well, everywhere we went, he was getting a super long walk in his stroller, which he loved. Knowing we were maybe being a little excessive, we brought the stroller AND the Baby Bjorn AND the Moby. But we used them all! My husband likes the Bjorn better, but it hurts my shoulders, so the Moby was for me. And the stroller was great so that we didn't have him in a carrier when walking around outside on hot days.

Breast feeding was handy. I have never breastfed in public so much, but when he was hungry, I could provide. I looked for park benches in the shade. at one point I had to feed him in a restaurant. I had a thin blanket that i covered him with, and the waitress said people do that all the time there, so it didn't seem too awkward. Also, it wasn't like I was going to see anyone I knew!

We did run out of clothes for the baby. I was going to look for a laundromat to do a load, but the timing worked out so that we could do the laundry at our friend's house during dinner one night. It was great being halfway through the vacation and having all clean clothes for the baby!

Having only worn cloth diapers, we had to figure out what to do for the vacation. If we packed the diapers, they would take up too much room, requiring another suitcase ($25-$35 each way). Plus, we would have to find a laundromat every few days. We went with the Grovia disposable inserts, and they worked great. 

After the trip, I realized having planned this for weeks and having organized lists worked well. We had everything we needed and it went pretty smoothly. The one thing I didn't realize was that we wouldn't be able to do as much as we wanted to because the most important thing when traveling with a 10 month old is that he gets adequate naps, so that means a lot of hours hanging out in the hotel room. Which isn't such a bad thing, just look at those cheeks.

Book Review: Yellow and Round

This book is a cute and fun way to teach your baby about opposites, with a hole in the middle so that it's easy for babies to grab and help turn the pages. But it's written in cursive, which is odd for any kid's book. I mean, they don't learn how to read cursive until like 3rd grade, right? So maybe I shouldn't be thinking about that when my baby is just at the stages of learning to turn the page and look at the pictures, and not even close to learning how to read the words. But this cursive is the kind of cursive that's even hard for me to read. And I come from a family with a history of some seriously bad penmanship, so if I'm having a hard time reading the damn cursivey words, I can't imagine the struggles other parents across America are having with this book! Luckily, though- there is only one word on each page, so once you figure it out it's not so bad.

Book Review: Rooster's Off to See the World

I can't tell you much about this book. We checked it out from the library because my son has enjoyed other books by Eric Carle (The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Hungry Caterpillar). During the time we had the book at our house, I tried several times to open it and read it to the little boy. The rooster goes off and finds two other animals, then three other animals, then four. I assume it keeps going like that but we barely ever made it past three. After about 3 pages of this book, he batted it out of my hands or took it and threw it to the ground. Sound like he's being fussy and just isn't in the mood for reading? No, at 13 months, he was totally happy when I picked another book- ANY other book- off the shelf to read to him. There was just something about the Rooster book that he was NOT havin' any of it!

Book Review: Very Hairy Bear

This book is to kid's books what Public Enemy was to rap. What Red Hot Chili Peppers are to rock. There, I made the comparison. Only because of they way they use words to rhyme within the lines to tell the story, and not in the traditional last-word-of-each-line rhyme. I don't know a better way to describe it, it's just really well written. And my son enjoyed it.

Sleep Problems

The main problem with our baby right now is sleep deprivation. This started at about ten months of age, maybe a little sooner, and we are still battling it. I thought it started at about the time we traveled to California (which really messed up his schedule) but the fact that he learned to crawl right before the trip might have had something to do with it. I read that once a baby learns a new skill, like crawling or standing or walking, he doesn't sleep as well. And sure enough, after a few months of joyously sleeping through the night, he was up again, sometimes twice, in the middle of the night. So I talked to some friends and got referred to some books. 

The first book was The 90 minute sleep book. What I got from that is that babies are on a 90 minute cycle in which they are alert and sleepy. So if you pay attention to when they wake up, 90 minutes (or 3 hours, or 4 1/2 hours) later they are in their sleepy phase. There is about a 15 minute window in which it is easier to get the child to fall asleep. Other new parents I have talked to have said that the 90 minute method worked for awhile and then it didn't. Part of me thinks this could be because young babies (the first few months) nap more often and so will fall asleep every 90 minutes. Older babies don't need to nap quite as much, so they get sleepy after 2 or 3 sleep schedules. For my 10 month old, it was 4 1/2 hours, or 3 sleep cycles before he was sleepy again. The other thing that makes it difficult, is if the baby is sleeping in their crib, or anywhere but in your arms, it's hard to know the exact moment they woke up, unless they always wake up crying. 

The second thing I took from the book is how to know that your baby is sleep deprived. There are several things, one of which is waking up crying rather than happy. Also, they wake up easier (noise, light affect them), they sleep lighter, they don't nap as long, they fight sleep, etc. Every one of the symptoms mentioned described our baby at 10 months. And so we knew he was sleep deprived. And we knew to try to watch the clock to pay attention to the 90 minute cycles. But although it might be "easier" to get the baby to sleep after 90 minutes, it doesn't mean you will be successful at it, especially if the baby is sleep deprived and has the symptom of fighting sleep!

The second book is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Which is a great book title. Other than the fact that it is written for the stay-at-home mom and the busily working father (seriously, what century is this?!) it has some good points. In fact, I read a mother's story in it that sounded exactly like our baby- down to the times he was falling asleep and the method in which we used to get him to sleep. (I have to say though, there were plenty of stories in there with the same BS: "we tried this for three days and it worked!" "After just a few minutes he was asleep!" which I read while listening to my baby cry and cry in the next room after a week of the same trial and no success. Which made me want to punch the people reporting their stories. But punching a book would be stupid.)

The solution, repeated over and over throughout the book, is earlier bed time. We had been putting our son to sleep around 8:30-9:00 and the book says 7:00 is a good bed time. In an effort to get him to get more sleep, I was trying everything I could to get him used to a 4:30 nap. (We shucked the 90 minute crap and decided that sleeping at the same time every day was the key to getting him to sleep easier). Well, this book says he shouldn't be going down for a nap after 3:00 if we are going to give him an earlier bed time. 

Okay! Once again, new plan. No more 90 minute cycles. No more 4:30 naps.

Day 1: he's super fussy, but he will not nap, so no problem! Fast forward an hour and he's sitting in his high chair waiting for his food to be prepared, and he falls asleep. Well, no dinner tonight but at least he's getting an earlier bed time!

Day 2: He falls asleep at 4:15 and he is OUT. Exhausted. Good nap.

Day 3: He falls asleep at 4:30 and sleeps, in his crib, for an hour. So, basically as soon as we change up the schedule, he starts to nap at 4:30? Maybe he's just exhausted because he only sleeps in the morning at the babysitter's.  

Okay! New plan. The book suggests (over and over) to put an 11 month old baby to bed at 7:00 pm, wake them up at 7:00 am, and put them down for naps at 9:00 am and 1:00 pm. It's supposed to work with the baby's biological clock. But it doesn't work for our schedules. So we decided to shift it an hour and have him sleep from 8:00-8:00 (with 1 feeding, hopefully around 6 am) and naps at 10:00 and 2:00. He already naps at 10:00 every day. The 2:00 one will be the difficult one to establish, and he is at the babysitter's at 2:00 for 4 days a week.

No, that plan didn't work either. Seems you can't screw with a baby's biological clock. And babies do have different biological clocks. We found after trying different bedtimes that he falls asleep pretty well around 6:00 every night, and he would sleep through the night if he didn't have a habit of pooping around 4:30-5:00 each morning! Lately, we get up, change the poopy diaper and put him back in the crib where he will sleep until about 5:30-5:45. 

He hasn't been napping as well as we would like him to, but the change in his bed time has allowed him to get at least 11 hours of sleep overnight, and he seems to be much less fussy and less clumsy because of it. My new advice to friends with babies: earlier bed times! Just try it! And expect everyone you know to say "He goes to bed at six? Really?!" (Including the pediatrician)

Sleep problems seem to be common among babies. And once again, like all things baby, there are dozens of books out there with dozens of suggestions, some of them contradicting each other. They say "find out what works best for your baby". What works best is adequate sleep. How do we get there? After three months of exhaustion (baby sleep deprivation=parent sleep deprivation) we are willing to keep trying and experimenting!

Breaking Balls

We received this Vtech Move & Crawl Ball from a friend, so we did not waste the $14 on it. While it entertained our baby for a few weeks (it rolls on its own!) we found it odd that it says things like "Where's the kitty?" and then you hit the kitty and... nothing. No reward! "Where's the number 3?" Hit number 3, and, nope. Our little one year-old liked to chase it around the kitchen floor and giggle at it. He then picked it up and threw it. And picked it up and dropped it. And dropped it and tossed it some more. And I was thinking how glad I was that we chose to NOT remodel our kitchen floor with real ceramic tile, as much as he was banging the ball around. Even so, he managed to break the thing. Silly me, I thought toys meant for toddlers would be indestructible. Guess it depends on the kid.
He'll be bummed that the ball is gone, but I'll be happy to not hear that damn instrumental toy version of "For he's a jolly good fellow" again!

Book Review: Where is Baby's Birthday Cake?

by Karen Katz
This book is a fun one to read to babies who are beginning to interact with their books. And it has a plot, unlike many baby books. It could probably be considered a "mystery" since you are trying to find baby's birthday cake throughout the book. The gender-neutral baby is dressed in a very wizard-like outfit and looks to be about one, even though (spoiler alert!) the cake in the end has 4 candles. Baby looks "under mommy's bed". I'm wondering if mommy and daddy are sleeping in separate beds, or if this is written for the single mom, which would be cool. But the last page has both mommy and daddy in it. I guess it could be mommy and boyfriend-of-the month. If so, kudos to Katz for keeping things modern!
While looking for the cake, baby finds ice cream in the refrigerator. I'm not sure why they are keeping the ice cream in the refrigerator. I know I don't keep it there. And it isn't just any old ice cream either, it's fancy triple scooped ice cream of various colors, with cookies and sprinkles and cherries on top! And, baby is eventually going to (spoiler alert!) have a freakin' CAKE too! Yeesh. Behind the wrapping paper, baby finds all his/her party "friends". These are teddy bears. The poor one or four-year-old doesn't have any human babies to help him/her find the cake? And, the poor one or four year-old is going to eat all those ice cream sundaes and cake alone?! When the baby finally (spoiler alert!) finds the cake, baby's parents are behind him/her cheering in happiness. They are practically identical to all of the parents on Southpark, down to the '60s clothing and the no-necks. That part is great, I have to admit.

Book Review: I Love You, Good Night

by John Buller and Susan Schade
This book is a heartwarming book to read to a baby, showcasing the various ways in which we love things. It starts off with "I love you like I love blueberry pancakes". Which is really sweet, but personally, I love chocolate chip pancakes more. And I really love chocolate chip pancakes that also have strawberries and walnuts. And if you really want to go into details, I love the fresh Iowa grown strawberries and not that crap shipped from California. I just don't feel like I should be telling my son that I love him like something that I kinda like but I would love him more if he were different. Maybe that's the foodie in me.
Then the book goes on to say "I love you like vines love trees". This wouldn't bother me except for the illustration of ivy vines wrapped around the trunk of a tree. I lived in Oregon for six years and I saw the ivy sucking the life blood out of the forests. I helped to pull ivy vines out of the woods. The shit is invasive. The environmentalist in me doesn't want to send that message to my son.
"I love you like boots love splashing in puddles": the literalist in me doesn't want my baby to think that inanimate objects feel love. But kids do probably think their stuffed animals love them, so I'll let that one slide.
"I love you like the moon at night: big and round and warm and bright". The scientist in me is going to go ahead and point out that the moon is no tropical island.
In conclusion, this is probably a decent book if you don't dissect it like I did.

How To Puree Baby Food?

Life lesson learned tonight: pureeing cooked kale (with a little water) in a blender = bad idea. After a year of my mother suggesting all sorts of designated "baby food makers" and me telling her "no, we have enough crap in the kitchen" or "why would we get one of those when we have a food processor, a blender and an immersion blender?!" I'm starting to wonder if she was right. (Don't tell her I said that.) You are thinking, "Why didn't you choose the food processor to make the pureed kale?" "Well," I'm answering, "Because I already broke that last month." Not the motor, but the plastic lid. Something about sleep deprivation and hurrying up in the midst of making a bunch of different types of baby food, I twisted the lid and the stupid thing broke. So I've been using the blender, intended for things like margaritas and smoothies, to make all my baby food. Not my baby food. His baby food. You know what I mean.
So tonight after stirring and whirring and flipping between low and high and blend and liquify, it started to sound different. Then it started to smell different. Then, about the time I was thinking I should maybe stop doing this to the poor blender, it started to smoke. Oops. This is why EVERYONE SHOULD OWN AN IMMERSION BLENDER. There. I shouted it. As I looked at the chunks of kale remaining in the goop, thinking that my baby shouldn't be eating that, I remembered the immersion blender! I poured the kale goop into the kitchen aid bowl (okay, I tried using the immersion blender in the blender briefly in an attempt to dirty less dishes and quickly realized it was a stupid idea) and immersion blended that goop into a suitable-for-babies goop! And with no lid, it made a hell of a mess. So now, I not only have an extra dish to clean, I have a whole kitchen to clean! But I got 2 ice cube trays full of kale freezing as I type, so it wasn't a loss. The blender might be broken, but I needed a new one anyway. I think the source of the problem was strands of kale wrapped around the blender blades.
And I have a baby that loves kale. Really. Which makes it all worth it.

Teaching a Baby What NOT To Do

At one year old, my son is starting to get it when I say things like "stop" "don't" (I try not to overuse "no"). It doesn't mean he stops putting his hand in the water bowl or trying to crawl into the kitty litter box. It means he kind of acknowledges that he is doing something that is getting a reaction out of me.
The latest lesson: to go around the cat instead of on top of the cat. While we (and the dog) allow him to crawl on top of and over the dog (who is 63 pounds) (gotta admire the cleverness of figuring out the shortest distance from point A to point B!) we discourage him crawling over the 10 pound cat. The cat agrees with his growling and flexing of the claws. And, I think he's starting to learn! Conclusion: it is possible to teach a one year old rights and wrongs, as long as you have a growling feline with claws to back you up.

Fresh Air

It's great to take a summer evening stroll with the baby and the dog. And it's handy to have the compartment to store stuff under the stroller! And the drink holders! No more walking around with a plastic bag-o-poo, it can be knotted up and stored in the stroller compartment, freeing up both hands for the stroller/leash!
And, something to cross of the bucket list: finding a flattened plastic bag of dog shit still sitting in the stroller compartment the next time you go to use it!

To Blog or To Sleep

If you want to be a writer, even an amateur one, the pros will all tell you the same thing: write every day, even if it's only a little bit. The blog is a great outlet for such advice. With an infant and a blog about learning how to be a parent, apparently there should be no limit to the topics I can write about. But, every day I'm faced with this choice: blog or sleep? And this choice: dishes or sleep? And laundry or sleep? And shower or sleep? And exercise or sleep? The intelligent side of my brain always pushes me toward the pillow, and so sleep wins. I'm still a bit sleep-deprived, but I think (hope) things are improving. Expect a big detailed blog about Getting an Infant To Sleep and Nap on a Regular Schedule in the future, once I have some conclusion for it all. In the meantime, brain, blogging won the choice tonight!

Question on Child Social Behavioral Development

Is it wrong to have inanimate objects telling babies that they love them?
Does this confusion, in fact, cause excessive drool?
Please discuss.

Freezer Cube Food

I have been making baby food by steaming the food: broccoli, green beans; baking plain chicken breasts in a little water; peeling carrots. Then I use the blender or food processor and grate the food, pulsing a few times, letting it go on high for about 60 seconds, then scraping it into an ice cube tray (raw carrots are above).
Next, I freeze it overnight and then put the food cubes into a freezer Ziploc. I was using regular ziplocks but I think they're more susceptible to freezer burn since the plastic is thinner. If you want to be more environmentally friendly, you could re-use the bags. Labeling is important because you might forget which vegetable that blob of green represents.
When it's time to eat, I stick a cube or two of food into a small ceramic dish in a pot of water and add a little water, then bring it to a simmer. I need to mash it up with a fork or spoon to get it to melt faster. I don't add too much water because it gets so hot that I usually need to add some cold water to get it back down to edible temperature.
Pictured above is a cube of green beans with a cube of pears.
Important lesson learned: do not use a half pint canning jar. The bottom will break because of the heat. Glass jars have flat bottoms. Ceramic bowls do not. Usually.
When the food is heated up, add some powdered oatmeal or rice cereal and water to the right consistency, test the temperature, and serve!
I like to have a variety of cubes in the freezer so that my little boy gets a rotating selection of meat, veggies and fruit.

Breastfeeding: How Often and for How Long?

How often should you breastfeed? The best answer I found came from Better Baby Food which said "on demand". Feeding my 8 month old six times a day, I agree with this the most. But I thought I would share what other books were suggesting after starting the baby on solid foods:

Super Baby Food:

6 month olds should be breastfed 5-6 times a day

7 month olds should be breastfed 5 times a day

8 month olds should be breastfed 4-5 times a day

9 month olds should be breastfed 3-5 times a day

10 month olds should be breastfed 2-5 times a day

Well-Fed Baby:

6 month olds should be breastfed 5 times a day

7 month olds should be breastfed 5 times a day

8 month olds should be breastfed 4-5 times a day

9 month olds should be breastfed 3-5 times a day

10 month olds should be breastfed 3-4 times a day

12 month olds should be breastfed 3+ times a day

Blender Baby Foods:

6 month olds should be breastfed 3 times a day

7 month olds should be breastfed 3 times a day

8 month olds should be breastfed 1 time a day!

9 month olds should be breastfed 4 times a day

12 month olds should be breastfed 0 times a day/ they recommend cow's milk. I don't know if they messed up in the charts or what, but it would be pretty difficult for the body to go from feeding once a day to 4 times a day!

When to start citrus?

I remembered reading that you shouldn't give any citrus foods to infants until they are 12 months old, but I wasn't sure why, so I looked it up. One source Super Baby Foods said to wait until 12 months because oranges are a common allergen (437). The Well-Fed Baby said to give citrus foods to infants over 10 months old. The Blender Baby Food book has recipes that call for 1/2 cup of orange juice in them: one recipe (58) meant for six month olds has a note that says to substitute water for stomachs irritated by citrus, but recipes on page 72 (for 6 months) and page 118 (for 8 months) do not say anything about the orange juice ingredient. The Homemade Baby Food book says you should wait until the baby is over 12 months old for tomatoes and orange juice because of digestion. I have heard that it is harder for kidneys to digest oranges, but that didn't come from a book or a doctor.

In conclusion, whether it's for allergies or digestion, I would wait 12 months. I do wonder about foods (including processed infant foods) that include citric acid as an ingredient. My guess is that it's such a small amount that it won't matter too much.

Bumbo

When our friend (a professional photographer) took pictures of our baby at 4 months, she introduced us to the Bumbo, a baby seat made out of a plastic yet sort of squishy type of styrofoam. It's shaped in such a way that holds the baby up in a seated position. We got away with "the green chair" for as long as we could, which served a similar purpose, except in more of a lying down position. The green chair worked great on hard floors because he could kick his legs and rock himself. The Bumbo, or "the blue chair" as we now call it, is a great thing to have to sit him somewhere safe while we do something quick, like take off a coat or shoes. But we didn't buy one because we didn't feel like spending $40 on something that we would only use for a few months. Quite literally, the very day that we had our baby sitting up on his own for about2-3 minutes at a time (before flopping backward or sideways), our friends with a newborn loaned us their Bumbo. It has been great, but we are estimating a solid 2-3 weeks of use before he has outgrown it. At 7 1/2 months, he thrusts his butt up to the point that he is very close to getting himself out of the chair, and I definitely don't feel safe leaving him unattended in it!
You might see in the photo that it comes with a tray, but we never had the chance to use it since he was already pretty big for it.
In conclusion, definitely get one if it is free from a friend.

Diaper inserts

At around 5-6 months we began using the term "overnighters" referring to diapers to wear while sleeping overnight, around 9-10 hours (if we are lucky). We always use the Bum Genius brand diaper (see blog) and it began with one large and one small (or newborn sized) insert. After a very short time, it became two large inserts, both of which are folded over at the end: they come with snaps to adjust to the size of the diaper, and since our baby is wearing the diapers on the middle-sized adjustment, the inserts are set to the first snap, which makes them the proper length. If you use Bum Genius diapers, you totally know what I'm talking about. If you don't use them, you are probably completely lost right now. So I'll include photos to help.

You have to offset the two large inserts so that the fold-over is on opposite ends, otherwise it would be way too bulky in one spot. Even on opposite ends, the bulk at the top end creates an awkward lump for the baby to sleep on. Still, in the morning, both inserts are soaked through and they work pretty well. For a short while. Then you'll get the occasional leak, which requires a change of clothes, a change of blanket, a change of sheets. This means more laundry to do, more time wasted. I thought, my baby is only seven months old and I have friends with two year olds wearing cloth diapers overnight, so I asked one of them. (If you don't already have friends with two-year-olds in cloth diapers, go out and find some NOW! Or talk to me in a year and a half.) My friend suggested Hemp Babies Doublers. I was not familiar with the term "doublers" but as far as I can tell, it means "inserts". Maybe it refers to "extra inserts" as in, double up the inserts. You seriously have to learn a whole new vocabulary when you have an infant!

I searched Amazon.com, which is such an amazing website. Remember when they first invented Amazon.com? It was all about buying books, and I wasn't a fan because I liked to shop at the local bookstore. I still do, and I highly recommend Prairie Lights for new books and The Haunted Bookshop for used books. Anyway, I'm a fan of Amazon.com because it seems like whenever I can't find something at a local store, or even online, Amazon has it. For example, I set my co-workers to the task of looking at the grocery stores and convenience stores for grape bubble gum. I used to always chew grape gum but I hadn't seen it in years. Where did it go? No one could find any. Then, one day my co-worker surprised me, she had searched it on Amazon and sure enough, you can buy grape gum on the website! The downside is that you have to buy a LOT of it. Another example, when my favorite food coop had every brand of Tom's of Maine toothpaste on sale except the kind I get ($8 per tube), I searched Amazon and found it for $5 per tube. Side note- I complained and since then, the coop has included it in their sales and I have not had to buy it online. But I know it's there for the future. Another tip- flea medications which tend to be overpriced at the vet are available on Amazon. To summarize this extremely long-winded review of one of the world's most popular websites, Amazon did NOT have any Hemp Babies Doublers! I know! I was stunned. Then I remembered the website Nell's Natural Babies.

Nell's website is similar to Cottonbabies.com, but I like it better. We actually registered at Cottonbabies but we didn't have much luck with the registration. I mean, the people trying to buy us things on that site didn't have much luck with the registration, which is why we hardly got anything from there, even though we really wanted some of that stuff. We did get our diaper pail from Cottonbabies, which I highly recommend if you are using cloth diapers. The diaper liner, however is not entirely leak proof.

Nell's is the website that we rented newborn diapers from, and they have a great selection of cloth diaper-related items, including Hemp Babies doublers! Take that, Amazon! Apparently, if you wash the hemp doublers several times they become even more absorbent, but we only washed them once, and to sum up a short story that has become quite long, one Bum Genius large insert + one Hemp Babies doubler worked AWESOME after my baby slept for about 10 hours. Both were very soaked but no leaks! And look at me, with time to write this super long story instead of doing another load of piss-soaked baby laundry!

Update: I bought 4 hemp doublers from Nell's ($3 each) and I plan on buying 4 more in the near future. I can tell that soon we will be using 2 hemp doublers with one microfiber insert. And sometimes little boy likes to poop in his fresh new clean overnighter before bed, which means we go through those inserts rather quickly!