A Little Boy with Excellent Dental Hygiene

Nick loves brushing his teeth, as you can see. He was so excited about this routine dental procedure that he was singing and chattering away. Every night, it's my job to brush his teeth with his toddler toothbrush (Greg handles it in the morning). He lets me brush all five of his teeth, as well as his gums, but then he wants to do it himself. And so he does. . . Nicholas brushes and sucks on the toothbrush and bites it. I don't discourage this because I figure it's good practice. It must feel good on his gums, because his toothbrush has little bumps all over it. I think he might be teething again, because of the drooling and the chewing of everything in sight.

New Baby Skills and the Babyproofing Necessary to Counteract Said Skills

Nick has been displaying some new baby skills lately. Like slapping daddy five, when he's in the right mood. He hasn't figured out "Up high" yet, but he's working on it. As you can see, Nick easily pulls up to our cocktail table and walks around it. He can hold on with one hand and grab his bottle. Then he leans his head back to try to drink, and falls and bumps his head. At least he understands gravity; he knows that he has to lean either his head or the bottle back to get the milk.

Nicholas also climbs stairs. Yesterday he climbed up five stairs, with me behind him, of course. We've been trying to prevent him from going up, but he makes a beeline for the stairs every chance he gets. Molly (one of our cats) sleeps on the stairs, and he likes to chase her as she retreats backwards up one stair at a time. She does not like his "gentle" caresses, his hair pulling, or his face slapping.

He's been teething lately, poor guy. I think it's the upper two that are coming in now. I'd probably be ticked off if my gums were swollen, too.

This afternoon I realized that Nick can strip the wallpaper off of the walls. Then he eats the strips. I'm not sure how to stop him from doing this. (I immediately got the wallpaper from him, but still.) The cats have already started the job, and now he's finishing the wallpaper stripping job. Sigh. He's pretty cute, though, I'll give him that.

We've been using the baby cage to block Nick from all sorts of things lately. We're blocking the stairs, the entertainment center, and the dining room.

Before my eyes, Nick is changing from a baby to a little boy. Even his pout is adorable, although it's also infuriating. It's hard to believe that Nick is 10 1/2 months old. Wow. The difference is astonishing. See him today? Well, below is his picture as a newborn. Huge difference. He's no longer a 6 lb. weakling. Today Nick weighed in at 21 pounds. Carrying him in the carseat is quite a load. I guess we've certainly been feeding him enough. :)

To your right: Nicholas on November 23, 2008. This was only three days after we left the hospital.

A Cheerio Munchin' Head-Bangin' Baby

Nick has figured out the pincher grip, and now he can pick up Cheerios and eat them with his two teeth. The other tooth popped through yesterday, so now there is a matching set of chompers. He has about a 3:1 ratio when you figure how many he drops for every one he eats, but at least he can get them in his mouth. He likes to talk with food in his mouth, too, but I figure it's a little early for etiquette lessons. I took this video this morning as he was munching and chatting.

Today his new trick was banging his head. No matter where I put him down all day, he promptly scooted backwards as far as he could go until his head banged into something. Then he cried pitifully until I picked him up. So I'd go put him down and he would scoot somewhere else and bump his head. Even in the baby cage he'd scoot until he hit his head on something. Sigh. He didn't hit his head very hard, but the poor guy must have a headache from all that bumping.


After my YMCA visit on Wednesday, I ended up doing one of those Pilates DVDs Thursday. I figure I'll rest today and do some kind of exercise tomorrow. You'd think that the pilates would be easy, but it left me incredibly sore. Nick thinks it's hilarious when I use the resistance bands to stretch my legs over my head. He watched me the whole time, entranced by my grunts of pain.


The funny thing about the Pilates workout is that I feel a lot older than my 31 years. The tape is pretty good, and I like the resistance band even though I'm using the purple, or wimp, band. In fact, there are three ladies who do the exercises, and throughout the whole tape, the teacher keeps saying, "If you're a beginner. . ." or "if you're following Charlotte. . ." and I was both a beginner and following Charlotte. Charlotte was the elderly lady who had to do modified versions of the exercises. I followed her and I still feel like I tried to scale a mountain. Or step in front of a truck.


It was also really hard trying to complete a workout with a screaming baby in the room. Nick wasn't upset or anything, he just likes to shriek. I'm supposed to be concentrating on my breathing and stretching, and all I can hear is "Aaaaaarhaaaaaaaaggaaaaaaa!!!"

I will try to persevere and continue working out more often. In the meantime, here's a picture of Nick dancing with his daddy.

First Tooth!

It finally popped through today! Nick has his first tooth. It is on the bottom on his right. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but it's definitely there. My baby is growing up!

Greg was actually the one to find it first. Nick bit him. Then I verified by getting bitten myself. There is definitely a white little tooth in there. The other one is still bothering him quite a bit. Teething rings and teething cookies only help a little bit.

Nick spent his day trying to pull up on everything in sight. He can only do it when I'm standing by him and he grabs my hands. But, boy does he try.

Here, you can see him trying to pull up on the side of the stairs. I spent much of my day chasing Nick around and helping him to stand. He promptly starts dancing when I hold his little hands. Maybe I should sign him up for lessons when he gets a little older.

I went to the library today and got another whole bag of books to read. I really love the way I can read a book or two every day in the summer. It's something I miss during the school year. For me, it's not the same thing to read a book in little bits. I want to sit down and finish the whole darned thing, while sipping on a nice cup of tea. During the school year, I sometimes have to read a book over two or even three days. This reading thing has always been an addiction with me. there was point when I used to read at stoplights, but that was years ago. I miss having my own classroom, simply because I could have D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) time every day for 20 or 30 minutes. (I read, too, of course.) When I worked as an administrative assistant some years ago, I'm ashamed to say I read multiple books under my desk while looking busy. In my own defense, though, I type 90+ words per minute, so they didn't give me enough work to do.

Today I read "The Bean Trees," By Barbara Kingsolver. I really enjoyed it. It's about a young woman who decides she doesn't like her life in Kentucky, so she takes off for parts unknown in an old beat-up car with no starter. In a parking lot in Oklahoma, someone hands her a toddler and begs her to take her. I won't ruin the story, but all I will say is that she meets some great people. Actually, it's my favorite novel by her so far, thanks to the likeable characters. I have always enjoyed novels about women who make their own destinies. I find something irresistable about people who actually DO something to effect change in their lives.

Below you can see some video I took today of Nick with his tool bench and hammer. My stepfather was over today working on Nick's bathroom, and he could hear the banging. So Nick decided to do some banging of his own. I thought it was pretty cute. At 8 months, I'm not sure if he was trying to copy his grandpa or not, but it sure seemed like it.

Lima Beans and Homemade Granola Bars

Not together, thank goodness! I actually like lima beans. My mom used to make this ham and lima bean stew dish that was pretty good, so I figured maybe Nick would like them, too. I was completely wrong. This is the rather petulant face he made when when I tried to give him more lima beans. It's like he's saying, "More of those? No way."

Next time I'll have to mix something with the lima beans. Perhaps that will make them tastier. In my own defense, I did try them first, and I didn't think they were half bad, although I wouldn't normally choose to eat them pureed.

Nick is still struggling with the whole teething thing; he actually has two that are coming in simultaneously. The picture below shows his swollen gums. His first teeth will be on the bottom gum, in the center. Nicholas has symptoms that I definitelyrecognize. Teething is just like PMS! He is moody, randomly in pain, always wants a cookie, and he suddenly flies off the handle and starts yelling and/or crying for no reason. Hmm. I know just how he feels, poor guy. Only thing is, I can't give him a nice glass of wine, a midol, and a brownie. That's what I would do if it were me.
And orajel? Well, it works, if I can get it in his mouth. He sees me coming with the tube and starts fighting like mad. Then, once I put a dab on his sore gums, he makes the peanut butter face. You know, the same face a dog makes when you give him peanut butter. That stuff must work, because once the orajel is on, he calms down. I suppose it's better than putting whiskey on his gums. No, I would never do that. Not for the baby, anyway. When my wisdom teeth were coming in, though. . .

I had a great day today, although it started out messed up. I thought I had to tutor, so I woke up at 6:30 a.m., rushed into the shower and out the door, only to arrive at my student's home and ring the bell to find no one home. I screwed up, and I wasn't supposed to tutor today; the family is out of town. I believe that is yet another example of what you would call "baby brain."

Much of my day was spent in the kitchen, making homemade baby food (like lima beans), granola bars, and bread. I love to cook, so this was great. Nick got lots of playtime on the floor, and I got to bake while listening to NPR. (I'm afraid I'm addicted. Nick is going to start talking like Carl Kasell one of these days.)

One of the recipes I messed with was a relatively healthy version of granola bars. I love the Kashi dark chocolate cherry bars, because they're high-protein and fiber. However, they are also expensive! So I combined several recipes and came up with this one.

Homemade Granola Bars

2 cups of oats, any kind
½ cup of brown sugar Splenda mix
1 cup of white whole wheat flour
2T of wheat germ
2T of golden milled flaxseed
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. salt
1 ½ t. vanilla
½ cup of honey (I measured generously)
2T molasses
½ cup of almonds (I put them in the food processor first)
¼ cup (or more) bittersweet chocolate chips
¼ cup (or more) dried cherries

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly spray an 11 x 13 inch baking pan with canola spray.
2. Put the dry ingredients in first, then the wet. Mix together, making sure to distribute the honey and molasses well. The dough will be sticky and crumbly.
3. Press the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Make sure you press hard. I used the palms of both of my hands.
4. Bake for 20 minutes or until it is lightly browned.
5. Cool completely and then cut into bars.