Learning How to Be Parents

It's been an educational couple of weeks. I thought we were natural parenting pros. I was incorrect. We're getting better though.

Here are some fun items of note!

1) How to get the kid to sleep better/longer
Keep him awake as long as possible! Bradley goes down like a rock these days and takes long naps. It's delightful for all involved.

Nathan was beyond delighted when Bradley fell asleep like this at our parenting group meeting.

Sleeping on tummy!

Bradley is now sleeping on his stomach a good portion of the time! Technically you're supposed to stop swaddling when they do this, but we had my mom make special one armed legless swaddles so we're keeping it up for the time being. Bradley is a muscle man and has no problem pushing himself up on the one arm that's out of the swaddle. It's pretty funny to watch too. If he's really good at one armed push ups when he gets older I'm taking the credit.

 And here he is waking up from a nap. I love the part where he's relieved to see that he's not alone.

2) How to feed the kid solids
Don't play games, shovel it in. Unless you are feeding him vegetables and it's important to take pictures of the faces he makes at vegetables. Hilarious.

My mom demonstrating how to feed the baby yams.

3) It's okay to laugh at your child
The faces he makes at vegetables ... I want to feed him peas and yellow squash for every meal

It's also okay to chuckle at this face. Food everywhere!

4) When you're sick, can you hold the kid?
Not if you can help it, even if you're his mommy and you have to hold him so he can breast feed. I had the most horrible cold over the weekend and Poppa Nathan got to take over. He's a champ. We barely left the house all weekend because of my cold and on Monday when he went back to work he sent me a text saying how much he missed our weekend fun. Love this man. No photos from the weekend, only illness.

5) How gentle do you have to be with a 4 and a half month old baby?
Bradley loves it when I lay down on the couch and bounce him on my leg and gently crash him into the couch and/or pillows. He also likes being bounced upside down on his head. We're THIS close to getting to stack blocks and knock them down, I can feel it!
 

Feeding Photos and Video

And here are a bunch of photos and a video of me feeding the baby. Bradley is growing increasingly opinionated when it comes to his solid food. He has quickly developed a sweet tooth and hates all the vegetables and loves all the fruits. We are already battling over the veggies ... it started at 4 months and will end when he's 23 if my brothers are any indication of what we have to expect. But man oh man, when we give him something he likes! We can hold spoonfuls of applesauce in front of him and he will lunge forward with his mouth open wide in order to get at it. Applesauce is his favorite by far. So far he's had rice cereal, peas, applesauce, yellow squash, yams, bananas, and pears. We've only been doing this solid food thing for three weeks, not too shabby!

I think I'm feeding him yellow squash. This is when he still tolerated it.

Feeding time is pretty fun. I was told to make sure I congratulated him a bunch on being a good eater. Done!

Looking right at me. Such a cutie!

Oh my. Is that really my excited face?

A video of happy eating! Hopefully this balances out all the times I will whip out the camera when Bradley hates a meal. Sad eating faces are funnier that happy eating faces.

Current concerns:

1) My child has taken to scratching at everything. I know he is just checking out different materials and feelings but ... he scratches at whatever he's lying on when it's tummy time. And he likes scratching at books now as well as my arms. Is this normal behavior?

2) My child pinches now! He got Sookie once and she yowled and he got my arm while I was helping him fall asleep and I yowled too. I guess it's the next stage after scratching. This kid's got a grip!

3) My child is fat. He is such a chunk. He's in 9 month clothes now and barely fits into 12 month clothes because the crazy people who make baby clothes assume that your child grows taller, not wider by the time they're a year old. I need to find a husky child baby clothes store.


So we're learning a lot and getting into a bit of a routine, which is very nice. Nathan and I got to go out on a date about a two weeks ago! An official date, without the kid! My parents watched Bradley and we played tennis and then had a couple drinks at the Newcastle Golf Course. Fancy shmancy.

Grown-Up Stuff

Nathan and I have been able to do more now that Bradley is getting bigger. Nathan went out for a day on the lake with some guy friends for Seafair, I win an amazing wife award for letting him be gone from 11am-8pm on a Saturday for this adventure. He spent a day out in the sun, drinking beer and having water fights with other people out on the water.

I spent my day indoors, with some friends from our parenting group and then at a baby shower for our friend Christine who is expecting. We've been saying that her daughter is going to be Bradley's future wife, and after the baby shower I'm pretty sure it's all settled but the dowry.

It really was a pretty fun day for both of us, I'm jealous of Nathan's time out on the boat but I get to go swimming with Bradley while he is at work so perhaps it evens out.

Other Items of Note:

Bradley definitely likes my singing. I wasn't sure before now but when he's fussy and I start to sing to him he usually settles down for at least a little while. Unfortunately for Bradley, I can only sing Twinkle Twinkle so many times before going crazy so I mostly sing You're Just Too Good to Be True, A You're Adorable, You Are My Sunshine, Disney songs (Upon a Dream and The Lion Sleeps Tonight are my favorites), and Backstreet Boys songs. Is it bad parenting if I teach him choreography? I think it will be maaaaahvelous! 

And our poor cats. They're so neglected but they better cherish these days. Meg runs in front of me when I walk and flops down on the ground in my path so maybe I'll pet her. Layla runs around crying and casually rubs her tail against my leg when I'm sitting playing with Bradley. And poor Sookie wants to cuddle in between me and Bradley when I'm holding him, but that's going to stop soon now that he's getting grabby. They're going to get far too much attention very soon, they don't know what's coming.

Kitty pictures! Hurray!

Wherever I go, the kittens, they follow.

Layla acting out in order to get attention

It worked. I pulled her out of the linen closet and gave her pets.

Favorite Bradleyism of the Week:

Bradley has a love/hate relationship with nature. As in he loves to tear leaves off of branches. We've started taking him out on the deck to help keep him occupied when we're trying to extend his awake time so he'll go down better for his nap. He loves going outside, especially when he gets to play with leaves. It's adorable to watch. I typically carry him on my right hip now since he's close to 18 lbs and he grips tightly on to me with his legs and reaches out with his right arm to get at the leaves.


So much good stuff. I feel like we're finally settling into the parenting thing. And this weekend Bradley gets to meet his big cousin Emmett for the first time! Emmett is 6 months older than Bradley and I plan on taking approximately 1 million photos of the two of them together. Can't wait!