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'Tis the Season

2:43 pm CST December 19, 2008
The holidays are upon us ... and along with the holiday spirit comes the holiday stress. I was absolutely drowning in it up until yesterday, but today is a better day. I won't bore you with all of the details, but let's just say I put WAY too much effort into Adam's holiday party (which was yesterday) and the gifts for his teachers. They (his 5 teachers AND the woman in charge of the food AND the security guards) were all very appreciative though, and that made me feel good. After all, who deserves our thanks more than the people who take good care of our baby every day? As for the party ... well, we didn't exactly get to enjoy the party because Adam had his 6-month doctor's appointment. Am I fun mom or what? This weekend we just need to focus on packing for New York. I will be so happy, come Tuesday, when we get on that plane and I can just SIT THERE AND DO NOTHING for 2 hours. Of course, this will probably be the plane trip that Adam decides to act crazy. And if he does, what can I really do but laugh (and drink)?
All stress aside, I am seriously infected with the holiday spirit. The house is decorated, complete with the most perfect tree I think we've ever picked out, and I made a holiday mix of Christmas songs that actually aren't lame (unless you think The Jackson Five are lame, in which case you and I can no longer be friends). So the whole house smells and sounds like Christmas. Adam is kind of interested in the lights on the tree, but really no more so than anything else in the house -- and certainly not as much as Lucy. It's official -- he has a full-blown obsession with the dog. And the feeling is quite mutual. We also did the obligatory picture with Santa last week. We were determined not to wait in line at a shopping mall all day, and luckily, a neighbor of ours told us that Santa would be making an appearance at the Winter Wonderland in Grant Park. Imagine our delight when we got there to find that we were second in line. We got some great pictures of our little guy with the old bearded guy, and then we went on our merry way. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes. It was truly a Christmas miracle.
Since I last wrote, Adam has tried carrots, sweet potatoes and peas (in that order). At first he didn't seem crazy about the carrots, but I'm thinking he was just thrown off by the newness of them because he's on his second round of carrots now, and Ms. Nicolette (at daycare) says he really seems to like them. He absolutely LOVES sweet potatoes, and he takes down the peas pretty quickly as well. We also got some oatmeal, which we'll introduce after he finishes his rice cereal. He has 3 official meals a day now, in addition to nursing and formula bottles -- I still can't believe he's old enough for all of this. We took the infant sling out of his bathtub earlier this week, and now he just sits supported at an incline. Bath time is much more fun for him now, as he's figured out that hitting the water makes a big splash. He's also getting really good at sitting. He can sit unassisted for a decent length of time until, ultimately, he crashes. Don’t worry -- we only let him "crash" when we're on the bed -- and he actually likes it. He's also become quite the little talker. In addition to his "ah-goos" and "k's," he's recently added "mmm" and "b" sounds to his repertoire. In the mornings, after we change him and feed him, we bring him into our room and he basically entertains himself while we finish getting ready. He sounds like a little bird, just chirping and cooing away. I just love his sweet little baby sounds.
We've taken advantage of both of our daycare's "Parents Night Out" evenings, and Adam has handled them really well. We generally try not to mess with his night-time schedule too much, so most of the time, we either have friends over to our place or we get a babysitter so that he can sleep uninterrupted. But we decided that, at some point, we needed to see how he handled sleeping away from home. We're lucky that he's such a good sleeper, and we assumed that he would fall asleep without any trouble but that he might be a little grouchy about being moved around. Well, the first night, we got to the center at 10:30 to find him out and about in the "bye-bye buggy" with 3 of his little friends. He looked a little sleepy, but happy. He ended up crashing in the car on the way home, and he more or less stayed asleep when I moved him into his crib. Our second night out, he was sound asleep when we picked him up, and he had no trouble whatsoever being moved to the car or to his crib. I'm sure we'll still try to avoid it, but it's nice to know that it's not the end of the world if he needs to go to sleep somewhere else.
About 2 weeks ago, we had our first fever incident. We were over at our friends' (Dave and Sue's) house when we noticed that he felt really hot. Sue had just gotten a first aid kit at her baby shower that morning and offered to let us use the thermometer. We thanked her but declined her offer. I mean, I'm sure our sons will be as close as 2 boys can be, but I don't think they'd want us using the same butt thermometer on them. Eric ran down the street to CVS to get a thermometer and some Infant Tylenol. It turns out, Adam had a fever of 102. Surprisingly, I didn't panic. I knew it was just a matter of time before he ended up with a fever. It was so sad, though, to see him looking so pathetic. We called his doctor's office and spoke with a nurse, who told us it was likely either caused by his congestion, teething or a combination of the two. She told us to give him the Tylenol and not to worry unless his fever went up or lasted for more than 48 hours. The Tylenol did the trick -- his fever started going down immediately, and by the next day, it was gone and he was back to his usual happy self. He did develop a cough though, so we decided to take him in last week just to get him checked out. The doctor said it was just a cold and nothing to worry about. In fact, he was impressed that this was Adam's fist fever, considering the fact that he's been in daycare for 3 months now.
As I mentioned above, Adam had his 6-month appointment yesterday. (Can someone please tell me how this little boy of mine already half a year old??) He weighs 16 pounds, 14 ounces (25-50%) and is 27 1/4 inches long (75-90%). At first I was a little concerned that he's gone down in his percentile for weight, but Dr. Colton assured us that that's not uncommon for babies who grow so much in length. Apparently breast-fed babies are at their chubbiest at 4 months old, and they tend to slim down some from there. He said that Adam has great strength, sits really well and is a very healthy boy overall. He also said that he's "the life of the party" and "clearly has no trouble with his social skills." Such a proud-mommy moment. At the end of his appointment, he took his 4 shots like a big boy. He obviously cried while he was being stuck, but as soon as the nurse said we could pick him up, he stopped. And I made it through with no tears of my own, thankyouverymuch.
So yeah ... I'm a slacker mom and haven't taken Adam's 6-month picture with the blocks yet. Surprisingly, 3 people have already asked me about said picture. I'm only 2 days late, people! I promise to post them as soon as possible. In the meantime, the pictures below will have to suffice. We're spending Christmas with the Berardi family in New York next week, and we're really looking forward to seeing everyone. In addition to this being his first Christmas, this will also be Adam's first time meeting his great-aunts, great-uncles and cousins. We come back next Saturday and will get to spend a couple of days with my family before my parents head back to Texas. I hope you all enjoy the holidays! I'll try to update around the new year.
XOXO