Monthly Archives: January 2011

Sixes and Sevens (7m)

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This last month has just FLOWN by!!  I can’t believe that Christmas was just over a month ago.  (I’m still trying to get my thank you cards done!!  ack!)  But so much has happened in the last month too:

  • This. Every time we change his diaper. Roly Poly kid.Kieran continues to do wonderfully at Daycare.  (We call it School.)  His teachers are really getting to know him, and he has made friends in his class.  Most mornings, he barely notices when Paul kisses him goodbye because he’s already engrossed in playing!  He’s still the biggest diva in the class, but he’s slowly learning to be patient and to entertain himself.  (He just really really likes company – he doesn’t like to feel like he’s alone.)  Watching the other kids is really helping Kieran grow and learn – he wanted to get up in the high chairs at lunch time, which lead to him having his biggest solid meal each day at school.  He’s starting with Cheerios this week after watching the other kids with theirs.  (His teachers are great about helping him try these things in a very safe way.  Paul and I trust them completely.)
  • Kieran is rolling over from front to back and back to front.  He can log-roll around if he wants to.  He doesn’t seem to want to do that very much yet though, mostly because it would mean rolling away from whoever is on the floor with him.  When he topples over on his play mat, we don’t rush to help him up anymore.  And he’s all over the place in his crib.  We’ve had to move all his stuffed animals out from the far end because he’s actually moving around in there now!
  • Kieran likes to play on his belly now too.  He’ll push himself up on his arms while on his playmat and laugh and laugh.  He does a flippy/spin thing on the changing table that would be amazing if it weren’t quite so annoying during a diaper change.  He’s always trying to roll over during a diaper change, so keeping a hand on him is vital these days.  (No, we don’t think his cloth diapers make it any harder at this point really – he’s be just as squirmy with disposables too.  But we are all the more glad that we don’t have to deal with sharp diaper pins though.)
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Christmas, Continued (a month later…)

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Hooray, another big present to open!He was fascinated by the tree, whcihw as decorated with his hand and foot prints.Kieran gets a jump start on opening presents the day after Christmas.I finally found some time to go through the rest of the Christmas pictures, including the day after Christmas when we finally opened presents.  Kieran had a great time ripping open presents from Kate Osti and her family, Auntie Lisa & Uncle Mikey and from Auntie Kelly, Uncle Peter and Ms. Kara.  He was a little unsure at first, but with a little help from Mama and Daddy, he had a good time unveiling his gifts from friends.

We had a really great First Christmas with our little man.  So much to be thankful for, so much to celebrate.  If you want to see the newest pictures in the Christmas Gallery, click HERE, otherwise you can just check out the whole thing from the beginning.

Success with Solids! (6m1.5w)

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We’ve been trying out solids with Kieran on and off for two weeks now.  It’s kinda hard to find the time to do it during the week, what with out crazy schedule these days – and we don’t want daycare to do it all for us.  But we’re eager to get Kieran on solids at the advice of everyone, in the hopes that it will improve his sleeping and reflux especially.  Not to mention that he’s terribly interested in everything we eat and drink, so we know he’s more than ready!

Today was the magic day, apparently.  I was off work for MLK Jr Day, and Kieran and I had the whole day to ourselves.  We tried oatmeal twice today, and it was a success!  (We’re starting with oatmeal as opposed to rice cereal, since he’s had it before.)

The first time we tried oatmeal, I made it like it says on the canister – which ended up REALLY runny.  Like just about what we were putting in his bottle when we first figured out the reflux.  Kieran didn’t know what to do with it – but swallowing it wasn’t on order.

The first try, starting out.Swallowing didn't come naturally the first time.

He was fascinated with the spoon though, so I let him have it.

Nomming on the spoon was fun, but not terribly nourishing.Ended up letting him have the spoon since he was grabbing for it so much.Maybe inspecting the spoon would make it less weird.

But today we tried it again two times, a little thicker the first time.  Kieran struggled at first, confused why I was giving him essentially formula with a spoon.  But he decided to humor Mama and nom half the bowl!  Later after a nap, we tried it again.  The mess from the first time was epic, so I left him in just a diaper to save on cleanup.  (I didn’t think to take any pictures the first time, but it was messy, lemme tell you.)

I think we hit the sweet spot of an hour and a half post-bottle, and fresh from a nap.  Cuz Kieran was chillin like a tiny villian for his second round of oatmeal today at which we discovered that thicker is MUCH better:

Chilling in the mini-highchair during the 4th attempt.The Thicker runny oatmeal is a winner!

But it sure is messy!  Kieran helped clean up half-way through:

Kieran helps with cleanup halfway through.Much better! Ready for more, Mama!

Kieran still likes helping with the spoon though:

Kieran likes to help with the spoon.

End the end, he ate THE WHOLE BOWL!  I was so proud of him!  He seemed pretty happy with himself too.

All done with the whole bowl!Mama was doing a happy dance, so Kieran joined in! Hooray for Oatmeal!

We’ll keep up with the cereal alone for a week or so, but then we’ll move into homemade baby food purees.  I plan on starting with green veggies first, at the advice of our pediatrician, moving to yellow and orange ones afterwards.  I’m hoping to try fruits after veggies, as I’d rather him not be all about the sweets.   (Or rather, would like him to learn that peas, carrots and sweet potatoes are yummy and sweet before he discovers applesauce and bananas.)  I plan on adding in Greek yogurt wherever I can to help add in some good bacteria into his system as well.  (Anything we can do to help regulate his tummy would be a good thing.)

This is a big step for our little guy.  I’m a teeny bit sad that he’s old enough to be at this stage, but I’m mostly so stinking proud of my little guy and looking forward to helping him explore a whole new world of flavors!  (My friend Kelly is a big inspiration to me on this whole adventure – she’s done amazing things with her little girl and homemade food.  Between her and my local friend Caroline, I’m positive I’ve got good resources to make sure Kieran gets all he needs.  Here’s hoping they don’t mind a million questions in the next couple of weeks!)

Daycare, 2 weeks down (6m1w)

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Kieran is doing great in his daycare.  Or rather, his Early Learning Center.  (I say with tongue not quite firmly planted in cheek.)

We didn’t end up putting Kieran in the daycare around the corner from the house.  It ended up being quite A THING to find a daycare that we liked that would accept Kieran’s cloth diapers.  Over the course of 24 hours, I got well-versed in Section 3.4.3 of the Environmental Health Code for Southern Nevada – which pertains to cloth diapers in a daycare setting.  The initial response I got from all but one of the daycares I called was “Oh no, the Health Department doesn’t allow cloth diapers!” which required my educating them that there was not, in fact any regulation of that sort on the books.  That flustered them all, to say the least.  When pressed, they all said they would have to get back to me regarding whether they would accept Kieran’s cloth diapers or not.  (We realized quickly that we might have to put him in disposables during the day because of this, but we wanted to explore all the options available before making that expensive and environmentally-unfriendly choice.)

On Paul’s 2nd day at work (Tuesday the 28th) Kieran and I toured 5 daycares.  Four were pretty good, and one was a “Hell NO”.  All were within 3 miles of our house.  The final one I toured touted itself as an “Early Learning Center” as opposed to a Daycare.  It’s actually a preschool that starts taking kids at three months.  I had forgotten what the tuition was while touring it and rapidly began thinking that we wouldn’t be able to afford somewhere with this kind of program, with individual curriculum for each child, even in the infants room!   I was impressed that after a little conversation about what we expected in the handling of cloth diapers (just toss the whole dirty thing in the waterproof, zippered bag we’d provide – no rinsing or special handling at all) the director agreed that they could accept Kieran and his fluffy butt the next week.

Paul and I discussed all the facilities that evening and made our decision to go with Hand in Hand Preschool.  The tuition ($200 a week) was right in line with the other centers I’d toured, and it was just over a block away from the house.  Paul accompanied Kieran and me on Thursday to see the place for himself and sign the papers to register our little boy.

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Kieran’s First Christmas (5m4w)

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(Wow, where has half of January gone?  There is SO MUCH I wanna blog about, but there just doesn’t seem to be time these days!)

The Taylor side of the family on Christmas Eve at Grammy & Grampy Gorman's HouseKieran’s first Christmas was really lovely.  Grampa John, Great-Grandma Cat and Uncle Oin came out to spend time with us.  We enjoyed Christmas Eve at Grampy & Grammy’s house with Aunt Cassie, Cousin Grant and Great Grandma Nonny.  (Uncle Kurt was still stuck in Belgium due to a horrific series of winter storms.)  It was a lovely evening that ended with family pictures in front of the Christmas Tree.

Kieran contemplates the crudité on Christmas Day.

Christmas Day was a casual affair at home.  We watched football and hung around the house.  I made lasagna for dinner, and Grammy, Grampy, Nonny Aunt Cassie and Cousin Grant joined us here to partake.  We had munchies before dinner, which Kieran thought were fascinating.  (One of many clues that he’s probably ready to start solids any minute now.)

After dinner, Kieran entertained us all by playing with his blocks, showcasing his newly developed ability to sit up unassisted.  We’re loving his ability to do this, as it opens up myriad other toy and playtime options.  There’s not terribly much you can do when you’re always on your back!  Of course, it helps when there’s someone there to help you re-stack your blocks if you ask nicely.

I love my tidy stack of blocks!They're great for knocking over!Won't someone help me re-stack my blocks?

Daddy however, has a mean streak on occasion.  I have to admit, we had to stop laughing before we could help him up.

Yes, like this. This is how they should be stacked!Daddy is SO mean sometimes.That wasn't nice, Daddy - even if it was funny!

Uh oh. Getting a little wobbly....And then sometimes, Kieran gets a little *too* excited about his blocks and knocks himself over!

Baby overboard!

Merry Christmas, Daddy!We ended the evening with pictures around the tree, once we showed Kieran the pretty lights and what Mama did with all the handprints and footprints she made two weeks before.Inspecting the tree with Mama and Daddy.

All the ornaments were Kieran's hands and feet!Kieran seemed to approve of Mama’s craftiness, and was happy to gift Grammy & Grampy and Grampa John a set of handprints and footprints for their own trees.  Family pictures commenced directly because both babies were about at the end of their good moods.

Merry little Taylor family including Grandma Cat, Grampa John & Uncle Oin!Merry little family.Merry Gorman Family: Grammy Jeanne, Nonny, Auntie Cassie, Cousin Grant & Grampy Tom

A big hug for Uncle Oin before bedtime!Happy Daddy, Tired Baby.

Then it was a big hug for Uncle Oin and a snuggle for Daddy before heading to bed.  Presents from friends would have to wait until Boxing Day.  (And another blog post…)  It was a wonderful day filled with laughter and love.  A perfect first Christmas for our little boy.