Our Baby Size Life!

Archive for the ‘Baby’ Category

Today I thought I’d tell you about Sam’s favorite toy.  Like most babies, Sam has a bunch of toys that were either given to him as gifts from family and friends, hand-me-downs or bought by Melissa and I.  We do, however, try to control the amount of toys he plays with as not to spoil him.  So we have little batches of three or four toys on each floor of the house, so that no matter where he is, Sam’s entertainment is covered.  I recently purchased this little jewel: The Fisher Price Roll-a-Rounds Swirlin Surprise Gumballs!  It’s probably his best toy so far.  He loves it.  He sees it and he boots right over to give it a whack.

The great thing about this toy is it interactive.  It plays some funky music and flashes a nice little light show when Sammy smacks the lever on the side, which also causes those little balls to come spiraling down and out the bottom.  When we need a couple minutes, we plop him down in front of it and he sits there for a good twenty minutes before deciding to wander off and get himself into trouble. It comes with about a dozen different “gumballs” that are all decorated in various ways and textures.  Which is probably also the biggest problem!

These freakin gumballs roll everywhere! Thus the “Ankle Breakers” in the title of this post.  We are definitely more careful when Sam is playing with it, cause we know he’s sent a ball or two across the room… or through the kitchen… or at the bottom of the stairs… or just behind the chair your sitting on. You get the idea.  In order to keep things sane, and keep our butts off crutches, we’ve hidden most of the gumballs and have left him with five.  That way there easy to count quickly and we don’t spend too long looking for them around the house!

It is, however, really funny watching him go at this thing.  He grabs those gumballs and tries to fit them in his mouth, which is, of course, impossible, they are way to big.  But it hilarious to see him try! At first he had a little trouble figuring out how to put the balls into the open top of the toy.  He would smack the ball against the top edge, and end up losing his grip on the ball.  Now, he just grabs the top rim and pulls the whole thing down!  Smart kid eh? He doesn’t go to the hole… It comes to him!  That pic on the right, were Sam looks a little less than happy, was taken when I tried to show him how to put the balls in the top and not to topple the toy over.  Didn’t go well.  He’s started to do it the right way now, but he still likes tugging on the top… Which spills all the balls onto the floor at once.  Which is probably his plan… Hmmm… Does he know about our life insurance policy?

Well that’s it for today.  I thought I’d share about what Sam’s favorite toy is.  If you need a great baby gift for someone, I’d recommend it.  Just warn them about those killer ankle breaker balls!

Thanks for reading!

Sam has changed.  He now has two little teeth poking through his bottom gum line. He eats “solid” food.  He sits up on his own, and now folks, he’s mobile!  No I didn’t set him up with an iPhone of duct tape him to a skateboard.  He’s done it all by himself by working hard and getting his little body in gear: he’s starting to crawl! We’ve been noticing him rolling and working his way around the floor for about a month now, but his movement has been more rotational than straight forward or backward.  One night this week, we were playing in the basement, when Melissa jumped with excitement and yelled to me that he was trying to crawl forward.

I ran downstairs and sure enough, Sam was shakily holding up on all fours, gently swaying front to back.  He had this puzzled look on his face as if he was either unsure on how to proceed or still trying to figure out how he got “up” there.  Three inches off the ground is high for a baby I guess. He looked up at me and I must have distracted him, because he lost his balance and flopped on his belly.  That’s when we grabbed the camera and recorded the first part of the video below.  Sam tried again a few more times, but he was pooped.  All the effort and excitement had worn him out, so off to bed he went dreaming, I’m sure, of all the potential havoc he could cause Mom and Dad once he successfully gets to crawling!

The next day, after a good breakfast, nap and morning snack, Sam wanted to try again.  So down he went on the floor and what happened next was quite a sight to see for us.  It may not seem as quite the amazing event to most, but to Melissa and I, this was a big moment. You’ll see that in the second part of the video, which you can view just below.  Enjoy!

As you can see, this is just the beginning.  Soon, Sam will be scooting around the floor getting his hands into everything he wants and beginning his plan to take over the world.  And he will, yet again, test another level of his parents patience!

As always, thanks for reading!

Sam’s been eating his share of fruits and vegetables for the past 6 weeks know, and we’ve noticed that he keeps asking for more and more.  So, we decided that it’s probably time for his to have something a little more consistent in his little belly.  Up to now, Melissa has been making Sam’s purees from scratch which I must admit, have tasted very good so far.  Sam’s now tasted peas, carrots, squash, sweet potato, pears, bananas and apples.  That’s your basic start for any infants solid food phase, but now Sam was eating at an incredible rate.  Every meal we would have to give more and more as he would cry when his portion was finished.  He likes eating so much, that he gets impatient in between spoonfuls of food!  I don’t even have time to give him some food, swoop the spoon back to his plate and then come back to his mouth before he starts wiggling in his chair, slapping the counter top, turning beat red and making grunting sounds through pursed lips!  It’s funny to watch!

Melissa picked up some chicken puree from a company called “La Mère Poule”, that translates to “Mother Hen” in English.  It’s a company that specializes in frozen baby foods made from all natural products with nothing added.  The ingredients for the chicken puree were – water and chicken.  That’s it.  Since I have this little policy to taste everything we give to Sam (yes that included breast milk ), I was a little worried about how this would taste since it wasn’t homemade.  I dipped a spoon into the gray, pale, lumpy stuff and slowly raised the spoon to my slightly shaking lips…and it was good.  Melissa tried it next and was also pleasantly surprised that the kitchen floor wasn’t covered in our vomit.

Now we had the final test: Sam.  He was sitting there, expectant, in his high chair watching us eat what he knew was his food.  He had a slight smile in the corner of his mouth as Melissa approached with the little bowl full of chicken paste.  I won’t spoil his reaction to you in writing, but instead invite you to check out the clip below! We laughed and I hope you will too. Enjoy!

I took last Friday afternoon off as it’s part off my workplace’s initiative for a summer schedule.  We get every second Friday afternoon off if you’ve done the required hours, and last week was my turn!  Naturally, I took advantage and spent the day with Sam and Melissa doing things that new families do, namely have fun together!  Plus the budget’s a little tighter now, so a nice afternoon outside together was a perfect way to spend the sunny afternoon. So, Sammy-boy grabbed his shades and we headed for the door!

We’ve done this a few times now, we just grab a blanket and head outside on our lawn.  Melissa was busy working on a Christmas project (yes I know!!! In September no less!!), so Sam and I chilled on the blanket with a couple of his toys, not mine , and of course… the camera!

We must have spent a couple hours in the nice breeze just playing away, with only a couple regurgitation accidents.  That might seem trivial to some of you, but to a Dad who’s lying on his back, holding his son above him… it’s important.  So here’s a few pics of that really cool afternoon.  Funny how those simple afternoons, you know the ones that don’t require electricity, fill us with the best memories…  Here’s hoping you get to have one soon!

Enjoy!

Toppling over!	Sammy doing his Ray Charles	Sam wants grass!
Sam & Dad	Sam through the jungle brush!	Sam scoping out the neighborhood

Today’s post is the finale of my “Sam’s Big Gift” mini series of posts detailing, in hopefully humorous fashion, our adventures of last week’s trip to the hospital.  To get yourself acquainted with the rest of the series, why not read up on Part 1, Part 2 and (while you’re at it) Part 3 before proceeding?  It’ll put you into the context of what happened and how we got to the hospital.

And now for the rest of the story…

After my episode with the needle from Hell, nurse Sandi (not her real name) let me rest up a bit before “The Big Move”.  The nurses now deemed us self sufficient enough to be placed into an observation room, away from the crazy happenings of the triage hallway/cot area.   This was a welcome change, even though it took them 20 minutes of tugging and pushing my stretcher around the tight hallways of the hospital, before settling on a room that could fit both my stretcher and Melissa’s.  They would put me in one ammonia smelling room only to come fetch me three minutes later to park me in a bio-waste smelling room.  Just as Sandi pushed me into that nasty second room, an orderly came by and said that he hadn’t cleaned that room yet hence the smell of the previous occupant lingering in the air. Nice.  Now I had a throat full of bile and a nose full of sh*t.

So off we went for another session of musical chairs, this time landing me in a room with an 80 year old lady.  Sandi apparently thought that this lady, who was two and a half times my age and had a belly button between her boobs, was my wife.  Sigh… Enter nurse Mandi (never saw nurse Sandi again) who whisked me away yet again, away from my geriatric roommate to finally bring me to the last room I would visit in this hospital.  Mandi pushed me into the double sized room and assured me Melissa was on her way and considering how the last 20 minutes went, I hardly believed her.  But then, a noise found itself to my ear.  It was low a first, almost an unpleasant, incomprehensible buzz that quickly grew louder into a jabbering of words being rapidly and enthusiastically exchanged.  Words in the voice of Melissa and her sister chatting away as they approached the room.  Happy to see Melissa for the first time since we left the ambulance a few hours earlier, I greeted her with a blown kiss.  She smiled too, happy to be back together.

Myriam, Melissa’s sister, brought our bags to the door of the room and repeated a routine she must have done a hundred and sixty times that day: throw on a visitor’s gown and put on rubber gloves.  You see, Melissa and I were in “quarantine” due to the unknown nature of our illness.  So Myriam had no choice but to put on and take off, every time she stepped from or into the room, her gown and gloves.  Even back in the triage area, she had to change when she went between our cots. An annoying precaution to be sure, but to this day she hasn’t been sick!  Myriam was a great help to us and we were thankful that she was there as we are not sure what we would’ve done without her.

Read on here!

Last week, Melissa and I had a little bit of time on our hands, being at home and quarantined from the rest of the world.  I was just hanging around with my son Sam and decided to pick up the camera and start shooting.  The gallery below is the result. I just tried to get a bunch of Sam’s expressions on camera and the starkness of the black and white just seems to make his features pop.

So here’s a little fun we had, just taking it easy and relaxing on our bed, with Sammy hamming it up for Dad and his ever present camera!

Enjoy!

Ok folks, time for the rest of our mini family crisis story! If you’re unaware of what happened or just need a recap, start off by reading Sam’s Big Gift: Part 1 first, then come back here for the rest.

Last time I left off when the paramedics entered the room, so I that’s where I’ll pick it up. Melissa and I are lying in our bed, side by side, both of us in our pyjamas with wet face cloths on our foreheads and a pile of blankets at our feet when they step into the room. The paramedics, we’ll call them Jack and Jill, were immediately smiling at the sight of us and quickly apologized for doing so, explaining that they found us to be too cute not to smile. Assuring them that we weren’t insulted but would appreciate their help as well as their good humor, they took the hint and proceeded to introduce themselves and ask us a series of symptom, medical and family history questions. They then took our vitals while easily chatting with my Dad, who had come to take care of Sam, and Melissa’s sister Myriam, who was going to follow us to the hospital. They explained to us that the big concern is that we were suffering from dehydration and they strongly recommend we see a doctor, preferably a hospital.

I was feeling relatively OK by that point, my last visit to the porcelain throne had been about 90 minutes earlier and, although my body was very weak, my stomach was feeling stronger. So, I pushed for them to take Melissa because she wasn’t doing good, but Jill cut me off like a neutered dog saying that since we both fell ill around the same time, we both had to go. This would ensure we were sick with the same thing, whether it be viral or food poisoning or something more sinister which they only referred to as a “mediacized public health emergency”. That was, of course, bull. We all new they were talking about the MapleLeaf meat virus outbreak thingy that’s been on the news for a couple weeks now: Listeriose.

Keep reading here!

It’s been a pretty eventful last couple of days around our household and it all began last Saturday evening while I was feeding Sam, who seemed a little odd in his behavior. Sparing you the details, suffice to say he just didn’t seem “right”.

We’re on the living room couch, he’s sitting on my lap and I’m gently patting him on the back to get that mid-bottle burp out, when suddenly, Sam projectile vomits in one fell splash, all over my arm, leg, couch and floor. Surprised by the amount of fluid Sam has produced and deemed to share with his Dad, I call over to Melissa for some help with the clean up. And true to form, reliable Mom, comes walking over with one half of a paper towel. Upon arriving at the scene of the spill, Melissa quickly sees that no matter what the absorption capabilities of the paper towel, a half will not do. So as she turns to fetch more, Sam accentuates the point by vomiting again twice in rapid succession all over the place. You know, to hit the spots he missed before.

Melissa and I clean up the mess, Sam and myself all the while making us wonder what caused Sam to have an involuntary reflux of gastro-intestinal acids… umm to puke. So we go through the check list of usual suspects and settle on it maybe being his milk. We thought this because since that morning, Sam had not been finishing his bottles, always leaving an ounce or two, which he’d never done. So I took his unfinished bottle and squeezed a few drops into my mouth to taste it, immediately noticing and odd taste. I then asked Melissa to do the same and she confirmed that it was probably the milk. So we threw out all his made bottles, washed, and made new bottles from another formula box we had bought. Sam was happy and playful the rest of that evening, so we thought nothing more of it. He did what he had to do, and that was that.

Boy were we wrong…

Today our son, Samuel, started eating his first vegetable: Peas!!! He’s been tasting various cereals this past week and a half, and today, we felt he was ready to graduate to his first vegetable. We had a varied choice of veggies to pick from, since Melissa wanted to make the puray herself. So we thought about taking a sweet tasting veggie first, wanting to avoid the turnips of the world, and came up with a final choice of sweet potato or peas. Peas won out because… well they’re peas dammit! Cute, green, nice round shape, sweet… what more could you ask for in a vegetable?!

So in the blender a bunch of frozen peas went, add a little water, hit the button and presto… neon green pea puray! I told myself that when Sammy started eating “solids” that I would taste everything we give him, and I have been. Of the three cereals we’ve fed him (rice, barley and wheat) the wheat cereal was the best. So here I am staring down the barrel at a spoonful of radio-active looking snot , with Melissa looking on expectantly, as I raise the spoon to my lips and taste. “Wow! That’s really pea-y!” I say. But it’s good. It’s a raw, green, earthly taste that I rarely have the pleasure of savoring anymore with all the seasonings, spices and additives (like butter) that we put on our food. Melissa emboldened by my enthusiasm digs in herself and is pleased with the taste, although she wouldn’t eat a bowl full.

The peas have passed the parent test, now it’s time for the big show, the king of the crib, the dude of the diaper…Sam! We strap him into his highchair and remove all his toys from the tray. This is the signal he recognizes that food is on the way. Now by this point he’s already had a bottle, so he’s expecting a cereal since that’s all he’s ever had to this point. Melissa lets me have the honor of Sam’s first veggie feeding, so I load up his spoon with the green paste and send it in towards his expectant mouth at a leisurely pace, gentleman-like, not to rushed. Sam’s ninja defenses immediately perk up, arms and hands waving a complex pattern through the air to intercept any inbound intruders… like my cargo heavy, green-glowing spoon. Even though I’m only still a rookie spoon pilot, I deftly avoid his co-ordinated hand swipes and drop the spoon’s payload right into his mouth like Luke running the Death-Star trench. I pull the spoon up and away quickly, awaiting the look on Sam’s face… and we get this:

A happy smile and a “gimme some more!!!” look! Well, I guess we’ll have to give him some turnip to see those funny baby reaction faces. Maybe next week! Here’s a couple more shots from the feeding… and yes, it kind of got a little messy… but none of it was my fault I assure you!

Besides, as you can see, he was having a lot of fun! After his meal, Sam decided to kick back in his spaghetti pillow, do some reading and chew on a little after dinner “Q”… Ahhh the baby life!

Meanwhile, Dad finished the peas!

Thanks for reading!

Well Sam hit the 6 month mark on August 20th, which traditionally brings about the fact that most babies are ready for some heavy-duty feedings. That’s right folks, that 8oz of milk doesn’t get you as far as it used too! So Melissa and I started feeding him a little bit of cereal after his bottle every morning and afternoon. We started him off easy of a couple teaspoons of rice cereal mixed with water and so far… he seems to love it! As you can see from the pics, Mom and Dad still need a little training handling the spoon, as Sam always wears a little of the food he’s eating, and not through his own actions!

We’ve started feeding him barley cereal and his reaction was the same to the rice cereal: a slight hesitation, rumpled brow, mild frown… but then he’s somehow convinced it’s great grub and hungrily empties the spoonful. Of course we feed him in his brand spanking new high chair, which he loves being in. Whenever we eat supper, Melissa and I put him in the highchair and he sits at the table with us… because he likes being part of our dinner time. That’s right, we’re now into family dinners! Sam also likes playing with your typical measuring cup set. However, he tends to stick the handles of the measuring cups into his mouth, instigating an involuntary gastric reversal… he makes himself puke! Here he is on the left about to do just that.

After his belly’s full, Sam is ready for some hardcore baby playing! Tupperware beware! But to give those tortured plastic containers a little break, Mom takes Sammy-boy outside for a little spin through the air! Next week we start the vegetables which will guarantee some funnier reactions on Sam’s part. We can’t wait! Check back here for some pics and video, hopefully you’ll have some laughs! I know I won’t when I start changing those diapers…