It's Wordless Wednesday!
Also, go visit Brad and see the question I asked for his Ask Brad the Stay At Home Dad feature!
More Weekly Winners.
Happy Birthday to one of my bloggy BFF's Dawn!!! Incidentally, February 24th, 2007 was Little Man's due date. I'm sure there will be thought provoking, mind-altering revelations about this once I'm not sick. Which will be...oh, say May??? Dang Winter sucks.
For my second Thursday Thirteen ever, I give you Thirteen Things I Love About Little Man Being Thirteen Months Old:
1. He can communicate better. He knows how to sign for nurse, eat, all done and dog. He also barks like a dog, says, "MMMMmmmmm" when he sees a food he likes/wants, and grunts/complains when something isn't to his liking.
2. He still rests his head on my chest and sucks his thumb when he's tired and/or just needs mommy. I love this and soak up every second I can get.
3. It's cute to see him cruising around. All of his age-appropriate (not corrected age) accomplishments truly amaze me.
4. Cruising means SHOES!! Which means shopping for Little Man.
5. His hair is long and super cute:
Hair! from VDog on Vimeo.
6. He is nursing less. While I love the comforting magic and super powers of the boobs, we were still nursing 8-12 times a day at nine months. Now, we're at probably 6 times a day, with "magical quick nips" here and there. It is RARE that we nurse less than 6 times a day.
7. He can actually play with Sasha (harasses her is more like it) and generally LOVES dogs. He has a love affair with the Norwich Terrier puppy across the street (Hector), and grins, giggles, and squishes up his face when Hector tries to kiss him. Little Man also uses his arm in a "get off me!" kind of way when Hector is getting all up in his grill, which is SUPER CUTE.
Doggy Time from VDog on Vimeo.
8. He now studies things with his eyes and hands/fingers instead of his mouth. This means I can give him my cell phone (oooh...craaaack) without worrying about him flooding the motherboard with drool.
9. He is now in LOOOOOVE with his Daddy.
10. He now has the cutest toothy smile (8 teeth so far!).
11. He can now eat cheese and yogurt!
12. And drink from a sippy cup!! Woot!
13. He's not a baby, not quite a toddler. Totally cute! I'm holding on to the last semblances of babyhood.
You may remember way back in November that I told you how prematurity was no joke. Well, here's your chance to help do something about it:
We are joining Team BigGuy (aka Team Aidan), to March for Babies. We are all hoping to raise money for the March of Dimes's fight against prematurity.
Here's what Cracker #7, Karen, has to say:
Yes, it’s that time of year again and Team Aidan is back! I can’t believe it’s been a year already. This year, Aidan is the Bay Area 2008 Ambassador and Bryan and I will be probably speaking at this year’s walk.
For those of you who want to participate, you can go to our team page and sign up to be part of our team, donate or do both. There’s also a link to my personal page on the homepage. I’m very excited for the walk this year, as we are the Bay Area Ambassador Family, and I’m hoping to vamp it up a bit and surpass last year’s donations of $6,500. I’m hoping we can do it because we’re starting much sooner this year. If you have any ideas about some good fund raising activities, please share. You’ve all been so generous already and I want you to know that we appreciate it greatly.
We can’t imagine life without our big guy and without the research and commitment of the March of Dimes, he might not be with us today. Can you imagine that? Weird, right? It really is a great organization and is committed to stomping out prematurity and birth defects. Every baby deserves a healthy start, and if we can prevent even one family from having to go through what we did, our efforts are worth it.
California is...
warm breezes on afternoon walks filled with the scent of orange blossoms...
beautiful views and the smell of salty air...
bare feet on hardwood floors on a hot day...
lemon verbena and jasmine and lavender and rosemary all growing in my neighborhood...
friendly people and funky people...
clean air buses passing me by...
the UPS man who knows Sasha and me, and now, the Little Man, and waves as he drives by...
a bunch of Crackers all living in one giant state...
all ME.
I will always be Californian. It is who I am.
Jennifer asked me today if I will always live here. I didn't get a chance to answer her.
Sasha, Little Man and I went out for a wonderful walk this afternoon and hit all of our neighborhood "spots." It felt like summer. It was just the thing I needed to help give me a break from this winter funk that has been enveloping me for months now.
(So for the record, I MAY live somewhere else, but ya can't take the California outta the girl! (Totally!))
Sippy! from VDog on Vimeo.
Little Man has started "fake" eating and drinking, which is super cute. He pulls food out of the air, or an empty paper bag, and pretends to put it in his mouth. It really is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Problem is that he does it when he thinks no one is watching -- when he's just off in space cadet land by himself. So once he notices me watching him, he gets kinda shy. Thus, no video of that -- yet.
I've been working on getting Little Man to take a sippy cup from about four months on. He has always regarded it as something to play with and chew on. Now that he is "drinking" from paper cups in the bath tub (actually he does get some bath water some of the time), and generally mimicking our eating and drinking behavior, he has finally learned how to use the sippy like a normal baby. And for that I am grateful.
In other news, we have started daytime weaning much by default. A few "Dad"urdays (Saturdays) with Warrior off and on have made Little Man less intense about the boob during the day.
Little Man has even gone down for a nap two Saturdays in a row without nursing first. (Totally unbelievable to me!) This past Saturday, I was even there with him, and he just didn't want to nurse. Before OR after his nap. I was SHOCKED!
That's the news from our neck of the woods! Hope you all are well and thriving.
-VDog
