Archive for May, 2009

10 months

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

As we enter the 10th month of life for Marshall James Rhodes I am once again overwhelmed by his growth … intelligence … and overall amazing-ness!! There’s so much to report – but I’ll stick to the major stuff.

He discovered our (covered) outlets – so happy we’ve baby-proofed (at least those!). He is crawling up stairs – well the 2 stairs we have on our front stoop around me and apparently more when he’s with Natalie (our lovely and wonderful nanny). He is discovering new sounds and noises – this weeks favorite is squealing. I actually love this so much that I squeal back … yes I’m encouraging this behavior and secretly hoping he’ll do it at inappropriate times to annoy those around us. OK not really … but I do encourage it because it’s ADORABLE!! He has also started crawling with one foot on the ground – kind of monkey like. Also adorable … He’s also enjoying pushing anything with wheels around while on his knees – his train – mini cars – his caterpillar … and yes – its adorable … :)

His appetite continues to be great – this week we tried tofu (not a fan), swiss cheese (he liked it at first – but not so much later) and blueberries (little frozen ones which he LOVES).

That’s it for this week … wonder what comes next!!

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Whoa!

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

So it’s been awhile since I’ve written and LOTS has happened. I will try to keep it logical … but no promises from this mommy brain! ha!

I’ve been off work since last Friday and able to hang with the dude everyday … all day … and boy – let me tell you I LOVE it! Today was HARD … returning to work. Boo! Oh well … has to be done for now.

So let’s see … we’ve been super busy and Marshall has been growing like a weed! He’s cruising everywhere! He’s starting to do the “squats” where he’s up and then down and up and then down and up and then down … and he holds stuff in his hand while he does it … which to me means he’s getting stronger in his legs and not using his arms as much. I’m not really sure about the progression from standing to cruising to walking and how long it takes – but we’re in no hurry at all! And from what I hear it takes a while … so whew for that!

Marshall is  definitely a TALKER! I was going through in my mind the other day all the sounds he can make (cuz someone told me that babies actually learn to make all the letter sounds in their first year – WOW!). We’ll just go with consonants – B, D, F, G, H, L, R, T, V … added to A mostly and he’s been saying “DAT” all the time lately! Still no MaMa but I’m not worried. I’ve convinced myself it will be the first thing he says – with association. hee hee. He is learning words tho – he knows who Daddy is, and the kitties. He totally gets “eat” and “milk” and “bed” … it’s amazing. I think his memory is getting better to – for instance. Last weekend we were hangin in the living room and he bee-lined for the back (his room) … we couldn’t figure out what he was doing – but he had recently discovered the handles on his dresser and decided at that moment THAT was what he wanted to do – so off he went! Crazy.

OK – food. Our boy is an EATER! He loves food … and eating … and learning to eat … and (mostly) trying new stuff. This week we introduced chicken and rice cakes. He even started liking peas and carrots this week! Add that to his love of cheese, bread, broccoli, bananas, peaches, apricots (those are just finger foods) … this week I think we’ll try some pasta and maybe I’ll try to make some turkey meatballs for him to try. He’s getting more into exploring and picks out the stuff on the tray he likes – leaving the less desireable stuff for last. Ha ha.

In other news … I lost our camera. With it went some cute pics from our last swim class at Mt. Scott, MJ sleeping, and photos of the “urban wolf” we’ve spotted on our commute home from work. I was totally bummed (and still am) but we got a new camera quickly so I could continue taking pics of the little dude. Can’t miss a beat!

I’m sure there’s more but that’s all I can think of right now.

Until next time …

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Hard to keep up!!

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

I think we’ve officially entered the point of no return … where life starts to move so quickly it’s hard to keep up! I’m not sure if it’s because we’ve been so busy … or if can no longer do anything when Marshall is awake – cuz he’s a fast little bugger – and curious! All I know is that I have NO idea what we did over the last week … perhaps I need a journal! Ha – who has time for that?

Let’s see … backtracking … on Thursday we went to our last class of the session at Mt. Scott and they turned on the water toys and slide – which was super fun! We re-enrolled in the class – and while I call it “Gymboree in the water” and not really “swim” class … I think the more time dude spends in the water the better. Besides – being able to go down that slide with him was such fun it was totally worth it!

The weekend was filled with house stuff. We had to get ready for installation of new heating and air conditioning system in the house. In case I haven’t mentioned it previously – we have ancient electric baseboard heaters in our house. Not only are they dangerous for curious little boys – BUT they are also extremely costly. The 2 rooms we don’t have those in, have cadet heaters – Marshall’s room and the bathroom. Also dangerous. Needless to say – we knew when we moved into the house that a new HVAC system would be top of our home improvement list. So I got several bids from contractors and finally decided on Jacob’s. We are switching to gas, getting a new water heater, ducted system in the ceiling that will pump both warm and cool air – and filter it. They started work today and should be done early next week.

So … in preparation for that – we had big projects this last weekend. I cleared the areas needed in garage and Daddy moved one of our raised planters – no small feat! Let’s just say … they won’t be moved again … probably ever. Heh. We also went to the Saturday Farmers Market and bought tomato plants – which is very exciting! Weeded a little and overall enjoyed a busy weekend of housework and such.

Marshall is … moving. Standing – cruising – crawling (fast!). Leave him in one spot for a second and the next he’s across the room standing on something else. He also chases us through the house – and he’s getting quicker. He’s loving being “gotten” – hide and go seek – and being thrown up in the air. He’s eating all kinds of solids now. This week we added avocado (which he will only eat with banana), broccoli, peas and carrots to his repertoire of solids (which so far includes cheese, wheat toast, bananas, peaches, o’s and Gerber Graduates). Usually first introductions of things don’t go over well … but 2nd or third can be better liked sometimes. So the peas, carrots and broccoli aren’t winners … yet. The peas – it seems – may elude us forever – but it doesn’t deter us from continuing to try. Natalie said he likes the peas til they pop – then he spits them out at her. Silly dude. He seems to be starting to focus on the textures … and some things … well they just don’t stay in the mouth (pears, avocado, egg yolk – to name a few).

Other than that – just staying busy busy busy – watching our boy grow – enjoying every moment with love and amazement.

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