Post #200: My, how time flies!

I often think "oh, I should blog about that" and then never find/make the time. All kinds of interesting tidbits lost forever -- alas. For instance, here's a post that I started but never finished:

*****

Squeaker walks over to the electric socket, reaches down and pulls on the child-protective cover. "No no no," he says solemnly, as he works his fingernails under the cover, ready to yank it out. "No no no."

Squeaker is yelling in his high chair. "What do you want?" I ask. I make the sign for "more" and he signs "more" back to me. "More what? More peas?" He shakes his head no. "More crackers?" He shakes his head no. "More pineapple?" He yells in frustration and points to the refrigerator. I pull out the sippy cup of milk. He grabs it and chugs a few swigs.

Squeaker has my gunky cold, waking in the morning with crusty nose and eyes. I wet a washcloth and gently remove all the dried mucus. He yells at the indignity, then, realizing that his face feels better without all the crusts, relaxes into it with a big toothy smile, and claps his hands when I finish.

***

Oh yeah, that cold really knocked us out. I had it first, then Squeaker, then the Mister. I was the sickest -- actually got an ear infection and had to go to the doctor for antibiotics. Couldn't hear out of my left ear for over 3 weeks. No wonder I haven't been blogging!

Squeaker is growing like a weed. He's a super high-energy kid (no surprise there), running full-speed from one thing to the next, testing boundaries every three seconds or so as he goes. He's very verbal, gesticulating grandly as he talks, although his comprehensible vocabulary is still limited -- Ball (bah), Kitty (kee), Shoes (schuss), Baby, Out, Up, Daddy, and NoNoNo (usually imitating one of us after we've shooed him away from some forbidden corner of the house). He can sign "Milk," "More," and "All Done." He pretty much refuses to say "Mama" or any variation thereof, and I'm becoming resigned to the idea that he's going to be a teenager who refers to his mother as "hey you."

He has 8 teeth and has spent the past month cutting 2 molars that don't seem to have any intention of actually coming through his gums anytime soon. He had his first real haircut last week, courtesy of the Mister's clippers. Squeaker cried the whole time and emerged looking much older. He's definitely a little boy now, full of opinions and personality. How did this happen?

He's sweet and loving, blowing kisses to strangers in the grocery store and hugging us with long long squeezes around our necks. He's also stubborn and strong-willed, and has begun throwing the most adorable temper tantrums. "Adorable" in the sense that you can see him calculating how effective his yelling is, and then squeeeeeezing out an extra tear or two for better effect.

I can't imagine life without him.

Sleep is both better and not. He's slowly getting the idea of self-soothing, but it's through nothing we've done. He's just growing into it. Oh, by the way, the sleep book we've had the most success with is this one -- the rest of them were no help whatsoever. Because we alternate bedtime duty and the Mister hasn't had time to read any of the book yet (sigh!), we're not really following all of the steps, but I've tried to incorporate a few of the tips into our routine, and they've been helpful for me, if not for the baby. Squeaker is taking one long nap in the morning and one in the afternoon -- for our nanny, that is. For us on the weekends, he fights napping and then only stays asleep for 15 or 30 minutes. I think he's probably just too excited that we're home and available to him. This morning -- miracle of miracles!! -- he slept for almost an hour. And then proceeded to be so demanding that the Mister took him to the park to let him run off some energy.

Sometimes at night, Squeaker will go to sleep almost immediately, but that's usually when the Mister has bedtime duty. I think because I'm not home during the day, Squeaker wants to spend extra time with me at night by staying awake as long as he can. Which is sweet, but ... Sometimes, it's a 2-hour battle. Plus, on nights when his teeth bother him, he's awake every hour. He's never yet slept through the night -- or, for that matter, for more than 4 hours in a row. He still wants at least one and sometimes two bottles in the middle of the night, down from 3 or 4 a few months ago. He's a grazer during the day, eating lots of vegetables and crackers and not so much of the filling foods or protein we tempt him with, so I suspect he's been using his night feedings to get a lot of his calories. I'm trying to convince him to drink more milk during the day (soy, because he appears to be lactose intolerant), and on those days, he seems to be less hungry at night.

Even with these changes over time, the accumulated sleep deprivation from the past 14 months makes any small improvements seem negligible. Other people tell me about putting their child in their crib with a lovey and turning out the light and then not hearing from them again until the morning. I want to either strangle them with my bare hands or, even better, invite them to stay the night at our house for a few nights. Heh.

I know I've said this before, but, well, it's a good thing he's so freaking cute.

 

Comments

[Sue]

He is absolutely adorable!

[luna]

oh he is so super cute. that sleep deprivation thing is tough though. takes a toll on everyone. I will have to check out that book though. baby j's sleep isn't as bad as that but there are some strong similarities and nothing else has worked for us.

and this line? "I couldn't imagine life without him" -- that says it all, doesn't it?

[Tiffany]

He is very freaking cute! Look at those eyes and that smile!

[Sharon]

Squeaker sounds alot like my Matthew -- he was a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad sleeper. He's still not great but relative to where we were, no complaints. He's also very, very verbal and reaaallllyyyy high energy. And super duper cute. I can totally relate.