Let's start off with me - I WENT OUT TONIGHT AFTER ETHAN WENT TO BED! Sure, I was only gone for an hour and a half but wow was it a magical hour and a half! I met a friend for coffee. She texted me saying she didn't want to go home yet (has a baby too) and asked if I wanted to meet. I said sure and she thought I was joking...nope. So 9pm, I headed out to meet her for coffee (well tea actually!) It was great.
Ok back to little Ethan. He amazes me in soooo many ways. When he was younger, I of course loved to hang out with him, but he was so demanding that I looked forward to his nap times. When he woke, I would kinda slump and then go get him. NOW, when he goes for a nap, I have my routine down pat, get it done, have time for myself (because he sleeps 2.5 hours on most days now!) and when he's up, I am excited :D He is SO MUCH FUN. He is learning to walk - he uses a walker or walks on furniture, but crawling is very scarce these days. He only crawls to someplace he can walk along lol.
He is very interactive now. He plays with me. We throw a ball back and forth, he climbs all over me, he crawls towards me then lays down with his back towards me so I can tickle him and he lets out the biggest belly laughs ever!
He says a few "words" if you want to call it that. In our eyes, he is talking and communicates with words and sign language. What does he say you ask? He says" Mama, Dada, Doggie, Hi, Ya. He signs "More", "Milk", "Doggie". We are working on "eat", "poop" and "hi". Tomorrow we start Baby Signing at the Library so maybe we can learn some more!
We also joined "Mother Goose" but it's at 1pm and it is smack dab in the middle of his nap and that boy needs his sleep, so I don't think it's going to work out for us! I am also planning to take him to the Early Years Centre more often now because he is at a good age where he can interact with the kids now and get involved. Plus I can get out and talk to other moms too.
When I'm in the kitchen, which is a lot, he is always there. Of course, if it's unsafe for him to hang out with me in there, he goes in his playpen for a minute or two (ie, taking something out of the oven). He sorts my pantry out - all over the floor ;) He's trying to figure out the door locks on the cabinets....soon enough he will be handing them back to me!
We are done with purees. If he does get a puree, he sucks it out of the pouch. I'm done making them though. He pretty much just eats what we are having for that meal. Todays menu went like this:
BREAKFAST - Oatmeal mixed with prunes (ok so he gets purees, but this boy needs his prunes!)
LUNCH - roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots, cottage cheese
SNACK - grapes and a baby cookie
DINNER - chicken and kale casserole
It's fantastic and he eats pretty much all that I give him. I'd say he eats at least a 1/4 cup of food a day. On top of that, he still nurses 5-6 times per day. Yeah, we are working on getting it down, especially throughout the night, but that warrants a completely different post!
I have been lacking very badly on photos these days......I did manage to take a few yesterday but I did not manage to put them on the computer. Sorry - there will be some to come, I promise. He is quite darling these days :)
My days are FULL now. We are up by 8:30 (the latest). I breastfeed him, and then we get changed and go downstairs to play for a bit. Then we have breakfast, and then play some more.
He goes down for a nap around 11:30 and sleeps these days for 2.5 hours. Sometimes it's less, but the average is 2.5. This means he takes only one nap a day.....arrgh! At least he sleeps right!
After his nap we are up again and I make lunch. We sit and eat and then we do errands afterwards. We are usually home by 4 and then I prep dinner, play, eat, play some more, let him run around naked for 20 minutes, give him his bath, then bed.
He is still waking during the night at least 2 times. It's exhausting and I'm ready for him to be done, but unfortunately, he is not ready to be done, so we must stick it out a bit longer! I think when Ryan is on afternoons, we will try to wean him from night feedings. Two weeks away......please pray for us!
It's time for me to hit the sack before my night shift starts, but here is a photo of Ethan that I took yesterday of him walking. Don't you just LOVE that puffy diaper bum! :)
