Dear Beckett,
My little big man, this has been your BIGgest month yet!!! You are mobile. It has been a rapid development and has required some fast adaptation on the part of your caretakers. On September 30th, you army-crawled for the first time!! We caught video of your new skill one day later.
You started pulling up with more regularity. Rapidly progressing from needing a solid object to pull yourself up to just needing to hold onto something for balance.
On October 2, our dear friends from Champaign came to visit, bringing their precious girl, Bailey, who had just taken her own first steps! Since that moment, a light bulb went on and you have been unstoppable ever since. We visited Brookfield Zoo again while they were here. It was a mini-reunion of sorts for me as I got to spend time with two of the girls that I survived graduate school with, their husbands, and their kiddos. It had been a very long time since we had all been together, but as we are all mommas now, we had plenty to discuss. :)
On October 10th, you sat-up from a lying down position. You started getting up on all fours regularly and your dad and I help our breaths waiting for that first real crawl. For awhile, you would hover for a moment and then drop to your belly to move around. On October 15th, while your dad and I played with you in your room before bed, we saw you crawl for the first time. Just a few strides before you again dropped to your belly, but you had done it. It was only a couple of days before you had crawling down, but why stop there? Just one day after crawling for the first time, you also started cruising. Omg. To say that your dad and I were stunned would be a huge understatement! You started cruising while holding on to your crib, the sofa, or the rail on the freezer drawer. You were so proud of yourself. It certainly has been fun to watch you figure things out, but. Definitely have to keep a better eye on you now!
You are not walking on your own yet, but I would not be surprised if it happens soon. You will stand unassisted for a few seconds at a time. And you have voluntarily let go of everything a couple times too. Once, you took one wobbly step towards me before falling into my arms. For now, you are perfectly content holding onto our hands (sometimes just one of them) and wandering around.
Bedtime is now 8 pm. We head upstairs around 7. Play for awhile. Then
it's time to nurse, read some stories in the rocker, change into your
jams, wash your face and brush your teeth. We still sing every night
before I kiss you goodnight and put you in your bed. Most nights you go
to sleep without an issue. It is quite lovely not to have to fight
with you.
It is a huge relief that we are down to just one feeding during the night. You are still waking for that feed sometime between midnight and 2 am. Then you will usually sleep until 5, when you nurse again and I can sometimes convince you to snooze with me for awhile longer. Your sleep became challenging again once you really started figuring out how to move. You just cannot turn your brain off, baby. You sit-up and sometimes even stand-up in your crib without really even waking up. We come save you and you just drift back off. And yes, you still sleep with us after your first waking at night. We all get more sleep that way. I suspect this latest bout of overactive brain will continue until you get that walking thing down.
Your current favorite things include:
~giving kisses. To us. To your books with baby pictures in them. To your stuffed animals.
~removing things from cabinets, especially my water bottle because it makes such a lovely sound when dropped on the tile floors
~finger puppet books--Hungry Caterpillar, Little Lamb, Dog I Love Best
~knocking down stacks of pretty much anything
~the Xfinity cable commercial
~making a surprised face when your dad or I say "boo!"
~singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star with the hand motions
In the coming month we will celebrate your first Halloween AND your first birthday. Ohmygoodness. Love you so much!
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
There will be days...
...when your precious babe wakes up cranky, demanding even more of your attention than usual.
...when, even after nearly 11 months and the discovery of a love that is stronger than you could have possibly imagined, you might wonder what you have gotten yourself into.
...when nothing is entertaining and it's all you can do to just make it to naptime.
...when your adorable sleeping babe wakes up a mere 45 minutes into that peaceful nap screaming.
...when you scoop him up, snuggle him, rock him and he falls back to sleep. Quiet again, but only for 15 minutes and then the screaming resumes.
...when he falls back to sleep once more, for another 15 minutes and this time, when the crying begins again, your own tears fall too.
...when you feel like you are not good enough. The toys you play with aren't good enough. The books you read aren't good enough. The crank hangs on, with outbursts of whining.
...when it only seems to end when daddy comes home. You feel relieved, but kinda crappy too.
...when you need to cry. Just let it out. All the frustration. It's okay.
...when all it takes is a simple goodnight kiss from a drowsy little monster in your arms to remind you that it is all worth it.
My monster is getting more teeth. Teeth suck.
Friday, October 12, 2012
45 weeks.
Dear Beckett,
Today is a big day. Today is the first night since you came into my world that I will sleep away from you. In fact, for the next two nights, I will be without you. How silly that this is making me so sad. I am so looking forward to my weekend with your dad in Galena to join in the wedding celebration of a dear friend. I even know that you will have tons of fun with your Oma. But part of me doesn't want to go knowing that I will miss you so very much.
I may have snuggled you extra at bedtime last night. I may have asked for an extra kiss--you do that now, give kisses. And I was less disappointed than usual when you woke at 2 and didn't want to go back in your crib. Okay, I confess, I did not even try putting you back in your crib this morning. I brought you straight into bed with me. There. And I was not even mad when you woke up at 5:30 like usual and wouldn't go back to sleep. I enjoyed your babbling. And snuggles. And lingered in bed with you too long as I spent the next 2 hours rushing around the house like crazy trying to get myself and this house ready for our departure.
Now, I am finally sitting down. And you are snoozing on the sofa next to me as I type this. When you wakeup, we will nurse, I will finish packing and then I will hand you off to Oma and leave. This should not hurt my heart so much.
I read once somewhere, that when you have children, no matter how much you love your spouse, you will love your children even more than that. I did not think this was possible since I'm pretty darn crazy about your dad. But it is true, I do love you more. I love you enough that I want to protect your from this big world and the things that might hurt you. I know that there are things in life that your dad and I deal with every day that are scary or hard. I cannot protect him from that, but I can protect you. For now at least.
I do not expect you that you will get into a lot of trouble while we are gone! I am just babbling now. Surprising myself at how hard a few days away will be for me. Thankfully, the wedding will keep me plenty busy!
This has been a crazy couple of weeks for you, little man. You are SO unbelievably active right now. Constantly wanting to walk, pulling yourself up not consistently, but regularly enough, army-crawling, wanting so badly to cruise, but afraid to let go of our hands. You even get up on all fours quite frequently, causing your dad and I to hold our breath and wait for that first moment of real crawling. I am convinced it will happen while we are gone this weekend. Please wait. :). You are sitting up sometimes now too. You have been practicing that in your sleep! And have done it at least twice so far while you have been awake. I cannot help but think that our recent visit from Bailey and our Champaign family has something to do with all of this.... Bailey had just taken her first steps when they came to visit and I think you know you need to work hard to keep up with her next time you see her!
Your first birthday is rapidly approaching. Only 46 days to go. How is that even possible?! Planing your party is the next big task and I will be jumping in full speed after this weekend. I know you will never remember it, it is really a party for us and our family to celebrate... You!
My little big man, I love you so much. I will never admit to the tears that I am sure will fall as I drive away from you in just a little while. I will miss you so much. This is only the first of many times you or I will have 'sleepovers' away from each other. I hope the first is the hardest.
Love you bunches, Mama
Today is a big day. Today is the first night since you came into my world that I will sleep away from you. In fact, for the next two nights, I will be without you. How silly that this is making me so sad. I am so looking forward to my weekend with your dad in Galena to join in the wedding celebration of a dear friend. I even know that you will have tons of fun with your Oma. But part of me doesn't want to go knowing that I will miss you so very much.
I may have snuggled you extra at bedtime last night. I may have asked for an extra kiss--you do that now, give kisses. And I was less disappointed than usual when you woke at 2 and didn't want to go back in your crib. Okay, I confess, I did not even try putting you back in your crib this morning. I brought you straight into bed with me. There. And I was not even mad when you woke up at 5:30 like usual and wouldn't go back to sleep. I enjoyed your babbling. And snuggles. And lingered in bed with you too long as I spent the next 2 hours rushing around the house like crazy trying to get myself and this house ready for our departure.
Now, I am finally sitting down. And you are snoozing on the sofa next to me as I type this. When you wakeup, we will nurse, I will finish packing and then I will hand you off to Oma and leave. This should not hurt my heart so much.
I read once somewhere, that when you have children, no matter how much you love your spouse, you will love your children even more than that. I did not think this was possible since I'm pretty darn crazy about your dad. But it is true, I do love you more. I love you enough that I want to protect your from this big world and the things that might hurt you. I know that there are things in life that your dad and I deal with every day that are scary or hard. I cannot protect him from that, but I can protect you. For now at least.
I do not expect you that you will get into a lot of trouble while we are gone! I am just babbling now. Surprising myself at how hard a few days away will be for me. Thankfully, the wedding will keep me plenty busy!
This has been a crazy couple of weeks for you, little man. You are SO unbelievably active right now. Constantly wanting to walk, pulling yourself up not consistently, but regularly enough, army-crawling, wanting so badly to cruise, but afraid to let go of our hands. You even get up on all fours quite frequently, causing your dad and I to hold our breath and wait for that first moment of real crawling. I am convinced it will happen while we are gone this weekend. Please wait. :). You are sitting up sometimes now too. You have been practicing that in your sleep! And have done it at least twice so far while you have been awake. I cannot help but think that our recent visit from Bailey and our Champaign family has something to do with all of this.... Bailey had just taken her first steps when they came to visit and I think you know you need to work hard to keep up with her next time you see her!
Your first birthday is rapidly approaching. Only 46 days to go. How is that even possible?! Planing your party is the next big task and I will be jumping in full speed after this weekend. I know you will never remember it, it is really a party for us and our family to celebrate... You!
My little big man, I love you so much. I will never admit to the tears that I am sure will fall as I drive away from you in just a little while. I will miss you so much. This is only the first of many times you or I will have 'sleepovers' away from each other. I hope the first is the hardest.
Love you bunches, Mama
Friday, October 5, 2012
10 months.
Dear Beckett, my little big man, my pumpkin,
You are ten months old. I cannot believe it. I think I've said that every month! But this month in particular, reality is setting in... Soon, I will have a toddler, not a baby. We are starting to plan your first birthday party. One year. I still remember you squirming in my belly. We had another busy month, love.
At your 9 month doc appointment, your doctor gave us the okay for you to eat anything from our plates. You are loving this. You've tried all sorts of things. Some of your more recent favorites include peas, turkey, blackberries, bananas, broccoli, still loving yogurt. Actually, I don't think you've really hated anything. We're also still breastfeeding, although you are slowly starting to drop feeds. I don't really have a timeline in my mind for when we'll stop, we'll just see how it goes.
I neglected to mark when it happened, but sometime between 6 and 9 months you transitioned from 3 naps to 2. This leaves our day a lot more open for outings. We usually find a way to get out of the house at least once. And most times in the afternoon we go out for a long walk. I'm not sure how we'll stay busy once it gets cold! Maybe more trips to the bookstore as you seemed to really enjoy that--even picking out a book for yourself (Peek-a-who?!).
Some big dates...
August 29th. You got up on all fours from sitting. You're still not crawling, but we've seen you up and rocking a few times. You slide backwards quite well. And have sort of started scooting on your butt once in awhile. On this day you also gave me a kiss on the cheek when asked. And managed to put yourself to sleep in crib when I left you awake at bedtime. I thought you were teething last month and you were... But you still are and it got better in some ways (you're not nursing every two hours anymore!) but worse in others... Bedtime went bad for a few days and we had to rock you to sleep. Just another example of how things are constantly changing! I can see those bad teeth. They're not out yet, but almost, almost!
August 31st. Oma the great's 80th birthday. We celebrated with most of the family at lunch. Oma the great was in heaven surrounded by her 3 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. We gave her a photo frame filled with digital photos of all of us. I think it might have been the best gift she ever got.
September 1. You pull to standing for the first time!! You were so proud and immediately started dancing. You've only managed this a few more times since, but I can see you trying to practice constantly. No doubt this is a skill you will soon master.
Over Labor Day weekend, our town holds a festival every year. We made several visits. You definitely enjoyed watching all the people. By next year maybe you'll even get to go on some rides.
We also attended a family wedding in Lake Geneva. This meant that Nona and G'pa visited from Ohio. Unfortunately, we all had colds! But we survived the weekend. You attended the ceremony, looking completely adorable in an outfit crafted by your Oma (pinstripe pants and great little vest and bowtie). And Grandma came along to keep an eye on you while your dad and I enjoyed the reception. You also went on your first boat ride. It was great fun for you to meet Nona's family.
We also celebrated my birthday this month. You bought me a Camelbak water bottle. It's one of the most thoughtful gifts I've received. It was a Monday, so we did not do anything special, but you and I had a good nap together that day and I recognized how lucky I was to have you and your dad in my life.
What else is new this month? You have started playing peekaboo by covering your face and it just melts my heart when I see it. Most recently, you have started doing this at naptime, which is less than ideal, but I can't help but smile! You have become quite proficient at turning your bedroom light off at bedtime. In fact, I think you look forward to it. It's a slider and you manage to slide the little bar all the way down every night. We have also started brushing your teeth before bed.
You are still starting out the night in your crib. After your first wake-up you come to bed with us. You're still an early waker, but we've all kind of gotten used to it.
BIG changes are in store for us in the next couple of months. I can just see it.
Love you bunches, kiddo. Momma
You are ten months old. I cannot believe it. I think I've said that every month! But this month in particular, reality is setting in... Soon, I will have a toddler, not a baby. We are starting to plan your first birthday party. One year. I still remember you squirming in my belly. We had another busy month, love.
At your 9 month doc appointment, your doctor gave us the okay for you to eat anything from our plates. You are loving this. You've tried all sorts of things. Some of your more recent favorites include peas, turkey, blackberries, bananas, broccoli, still loving yogurt. Actually, I don't think you've really hated anything. We're also still breastfeeding, although you are slowly starting to drop feeds. I don't really have a timeline in my mind for when we'll stop, we'll just see how it goes.
I neglected to mark when it happened, but sometime between 6 and 9 months you transitioned from 3 naps to 2. This leaves our day a lot more open for outings. We usually find a way to get out of the house at least once. And most times in the afternoon we go out for a long walk. I'm not sure how we'll stay busy once it gets cold! Maybe more trips to the bookstore as you seemed to really enjoy that--even picking out a book for yourself (Peek-a-who?!).
Some big dates...
August 29th. You got up on all fours from sitting. You're still not crawling, but we've seen you up and rocking a few times. You slide backwards quite well. And have sort of started scooting on your butt once in awhile. On this day you also gave me a kiss on the cheek when asked. And managed to put yourself to sleep in crib when I left you awake at bedtime. I thought you were teething last month and you were... But you still are and it got better in some ways (you're not nursing every two hours anymore!) but worse in others... Bedtime went bad for a few days and we had to rock you to sleep. Just another example of how things are constantly changing! I can see those bad teeth. They're not out yet, but almost, almost!
August 31st. Oma the great's 80th birthday. We celebrated with most of the family at lunch. Oma the great was in heaven surrounded by her 3 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. We gave her a photo frame filled with digital photos of all of us. I think it might have been the best gift she ever got.
September 1. You pull to standing for the first time!! You were so proud and immediately started dancing. You've only managed this a few more times since, but I can see you trying to practice constantly. No doubt this is a skill you will soon master.
Over Labor Day weekend, our town holds a festival every year. We made several visits. You definitely enjoyed watching all the people. By next year maybe you'll even get to go on some rides.
We also attended a family wedding in Lake Geneva. This meant that Nona and G'pa visited from Ohio. Unfortunately, we all had colds! But we survived the weekend. You attended the ceremony, looking completely adorable in an outfit crafted by your Oma (pinstripe pants and great little vest and bowtie). And Grandma came along to keep an eye on you while your dad and I enjoyed the reception. You also went on your first boat ride. It was great fun for you to meet Nona's family.
We also celebrated my birthday this month. You bought me a Camelbak water bottle. It's one of the most thoughtful gifts I've received. It was a Monday, so we did not do anything special, but you and I had a good nap together that day and I recognized how lucky I was to have you and your dad in my life.
What else is new this month? You have started playing peekaboo by covering your face and it just melts my heart when I see it. Most recently, you have started doing this at naptime, which is less than ideal, but I can't help but smile! You have become quite proficient at turning your bedroom light off at bedtime. In fact, I think you look forward to it. It's a slider and you manage to slide the little bar all the way down every night. We have also started brushing your teeth before bed.
You are still starting out the night in your crib. After your first wake-up you come to bed with us. You're still an early waker, but we've all kind of gotten used to it.
BIG changes are in store for us in the next couple of months. I can just see it.
Love you bunches, kiddo. Momma
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