Bitty and Giant finally meet

Look who's here for a visit!


I'd met Morgan before, but Torsten hadn't, and my sister hadn't met Callum, and the babies hadn't met each other. It was a very sad state of affairs given that they are already many months old (Morgan is one month younger than Callum). But now that's all been remedied, and the cousins are together at last.


THANK GOODNESS.

(Also, these two are still at opposite ends of the growth chart. Morgan is just over 11 pounds at 5 months, and Callum is almost 24 pounds at six months. We are all waiting curiously to find out if they veer toward each other, size-wise, as they get older. And in the meantime we are all vastly enjoying holding them side by side and marveling at the difference.)

Six months

Dear Callum,

Today you are six months old. That still hasn't really sunk in. I keep thinking about when you were a newborn, with scrawny (!) legs, and we were waiting for you to do things like smile and grasp a toy if we put it in your hands. And now you're so BIG, and not just physically.


This whole month has felt like one long developmental explosion for you. It started when you figured out how to say some consonants--specifically ba and ma but sometimes also la and pa--and also began noticing and getting upset when you lost a toy or your dad or I left the room. You love toys, or really anything you can grab on your own and then alternately stuff in your mouth or bang on the nearest surface, and if we hold one in front of you we are rewarded with a giant grin and an attempted grab. The flip side is that when you drop the toy out of reach, there is a moment of stunned silence followed by total dissolving into tears. We are constantly impressed by your fine motor skills--many times we've observed you reaching for a far-away toy that we're sure you won't be able to pick up, only to see you carefully pull it closer and then wrap your fingers around it and put it straight into your mouth.


You've also gotten much better at sitting up on your own this month. You can do it for several minutes at a time, or sometimes indefinitely, until we pick you up. You've started to figure out how to not just sit until you lose your balance, but also maintain your balance if you start to lean. We've watched you catch yourself if you start to fall, and also lean very far forward to pick something up and then straighten back up on your own. Of course sometimes you still tip over, or occasionally pitch yourself backward, but not nearly as much as before.


You've become much more interactive this month. You have a real grown-up-sounding chuckle and screech of laughter and you do it all the time. You've started enjoying peekaboo--you stare intently at our hands when we cover our faces, and when we pull them aside and say "peekaboo!" you blink in surprise and then give us a huge smile or occasionally even a laugh. You like to grab our faces and sometimes you pull us toward you and press your mouth against our faces in a way that seems very much like you are trying to give us a kiss. You laugh hysterically when we kiss you, and you also like to pat and stare at other babies. One day we walked by someone with a seven-month-old when we were out in the neighborhood, and when you caught sight of the other baby you just started laughing. You also smile at yourself in the mirror and reach out to pat your reflection.


We tried out solid foods with you again this month, and it went much better than the previous attempt. You have tried and clearly enjoyed oat cereal, carrots, squash, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, and pears. I'm pretty sure you would eat nothing but pears ever again if we let you, but overall you don't seem to be too picky, at least not yet. However, you made it clear that you were not a fan of avocado by retching and then actually making yourself throw up, and you don't seem to like zucchini, either. We also aren't sure of your opinion on brown rice quite yet. But we'll keep trying. So far you've only eaten cereal and purees, but I'm planning to talk to your pediatrician at your appointment this week about starting some finger foods and seeing how you do.


By far your biggest development this month has been your rolling. You've been rolling front to back for a few months now, but this month you figured out how to roll back to front, and with the combination of those two things, you're suddenly mobile. You will happily spend an hour or more rolling from one side of the living room to the other. You roll over to grab for things that are out of reach, you try to roll over during diaper changes, and you roll over in your crib. We still put you to sleep on your back but in the last week or so we've come in to check on you several times only to discover you sleeping peacefully on your belly.


Just in the last week or so, you've started imitating sounds. So far the only one you can do successfully is "ba." Your dad or I will say "baba" to you and you will stare at our mouths for a second before saying softly, "Beh. Beh." You have such a loud voice most of the time but when you're "talking" in response to us you have this sweet little baby voice that just slays me with cuteness. You also try to imitate other sounds but so far they either come out as spitting, sticking out your tongue, or a "ba" sound.


You are still growing like nuts. We won't get your official measurements until your pediatrician appointment later this week, but our unofficial home measurements have you at well over 28 inches long and close to 24 pounds. You're the size of an average one-year-old, fully in size 12-18 month clothing, and your dad and I are developing sore arms from hauling you around. I wonder if now that you're rolling so much, and getting relatively close to crawling, your growth will finally taper off the way people have been telling me it will for months now. You also continue to sleep well. You seemed to regress slightly last month, but you've been back to sleeping through the night (knock on wood) for a few weeks now. Your latest thing is to take just one massive, 2.5- or 3-hour nap in the middle of the day, then go down for the night around 8 and sleep for 12 hours or so. This is a pretty big change from your previous schedule, but if you decide to stick with it, we certainly will not be complaining. You've more or less outgrown your swing at this point, but luckily the transition to napping in the crib has been relatively painless for all of us.


You had a lot of firsts this month. First baseball game. First fireworks. First vacation, and first road trip. First hike and first swim. And you've adapted great to all of it. You are just such an easygoing baby; as long as your basic needs are met, you are more than willing to go with the flow. We can take you to new places with tons of stimulation, keep you out late, and you will just roll with it. You exude a sense of confidence that I find surprising for a six-month-old. I wouldn't think of "self-confident" as a term to describe babies, usually, but it's one of the first words that comes to mind when I look at you.


You are still absolutely obsessed with your daddy. You love to sit on his lap and have a conversation with him, where he talks to you in German and you shriek and babble back at him. You also display a surprising fascination with books--you will happily let us read to you for ages, and look right at the book and grab at the pages as we read the words.


You've also started displaying much more of an interest in Montana this month. With the advent of solid foods, she's become more interested in you too, and will come near you when you're eating and even try to lick your hands when she sees the chance. You watch her all the time, whenever she's in the room. When you hear her you turn around to get a better look, and wherever she goes, your eyes follow her. When she comes near, you twist in all directions to try to get your hand on her. I know you're just touching her the way you like to touch everything, but I like to think of it as petting. And it really does look like you're petting her when you bury your fingers in her fur or stroke her ears.


The first half-year of your life has been an absolutely amazing, wonderful experience. I'm one of those very verbal people who is hardly ever at a loss for words--but when I look at you and think about everything you do and are, I am just overwhelmed in a way that can't be articulated. You're only six months old but you are already so very YOU, and we feel so very lucky that we get to be the ones to raise you. We love living with you and getting to know you. And we love getting to know the family that the three of us have become.


Love,
Mama

Baby's first road trip

Earlier this week we spent four nights in Santa Fe. It was the baby's first vacation and his first car ride of more than 30 minutes. It was also the first vacation Torsten and I taken in almost two years. And it was awesome. (Full photo set here.)


First of all, Callum was an amazing traveler. An absolute dream. It's about a six-hour drive from Denver to Santa Fe, and on the way down he hardly made a peep. He slept or stared quietly out the window the whole way. The whole time we were in Santa Fe he was totally relaxed and not fussy. He slept beautifully in his Pack N Play--he slept through the night every night we were there, and on the last morning he actually slept until 9:30. On the ride home he fussed for a few minutes and otherwise was entirely peaceful. He didn't nap on any specific schedule, and I think it helps that he doesn't have a strict schedule at home: he naps when he's tired, usually in his crib, sometimes in his swing. Because he sleeps so well at night, we have the luxury of not having to worry about when or how often he naps during the day. And that was our saving grace on this vacation. We had only one difficult hour on the whole vacation, and it was our own fault: he seemed tired so we tried to make him nap even though he didn't want to, and so he screamed. When we finally gave up and just took him outside, he was immediately fine again, and stayed that way for the rest of the trip.


I'm still just so amazed at how well it went. Our expectations were low and we were prepared for the worst--screaming during the entire drive, not sleeping at all, extreme fussiness preventing us from eating in restaurants or doing anything fun or relaxing--and it wasn't like that at all. In fact, it wasn't even all THAT different from a pre-baby vacation. It helped a lot that we didn't have any sort of schedule or plans. After we all had breakfast, we would go somewhere out of town where the landscape was lovely. After it got too hot, we'd return to the hotel to rest in our room. Once we had our energy back, we'd hang out in the hotel pool for awhile. Then when it cooled down for the evening, we'd walk into town and find somewhere to eat dinner. It was just lots of walking, lounging, swimming, and driving. It was fantastic.



I will say that Santa Fe is not the most stroller-friendly town I've ever been to--the sidewalks are incredibly uneven and often narrow--but the people are incredibly friendly. Luckily it doesn't bother us when strangers touch our baby--as long as they don't stick their fingers in his mouth, which nobody ever has--because he got incredible amounts of compliments and caresses from total strangers on the street. The most often-heard compliment was "look at those THIGHS!" which I must say, he definitely deserves.

(Baby sunglasses are surprisingly useful. Seriously. The UV index in New Mexico is very high.)

The landscape in New Mexico is just stunning. We tried to go to Bandelier National Monument, but 99% of the park is closed due to 30,000 of its 70,000 acres being burned by the Las Conchas Fire, and what trails were open were not baby-friendly, so we just drove around the nearby Jemez Mountains instead, admired the landscape, and felt really sad about all the burned trees we saw.


We also wanted to go to Tent Rocks National Monument, but it was closed, again because of the fire, so instead we picked Plaza Blanca, and it did not disappoint.



The baby had a lot of firsts on this trip. First time sitting in a restaurant high chair. First time swimming in a pool. First hike. First trip to Trader Joe's (and first time riding in a shopping cart). And he seemed to enjoy all of it.



And we enjoyed it too. It was a real family trip, better than we possibly could have envisioned. I know he won't always be such an easy traveler, but I have to say that it was really amazing to get to go on a vacation with our baby. Just as we enjoy vacations for the chance to spend stress-free time with each other, it was wonderful to get to spend all this beautiful quality time with him. And the fabulous setting didn't hurt either. We will definitely be back to Santa Fe. Hopefully soon.

Why eating contests bother me

I like summer. It stays light really late. We grill on the patio for dinner several times per week. Everything is lush and green and blooming, and everyone has a relaxed vibe. It's like even though most of us are working full-time just like the rest of the year, we still have somewhat of a summer break attitude. Plus it's the time for beach vacations, hikes in the mountains, and BBQ parties.

But it seems like it's also always summertime when I hear about something that really grosses me out--eating contests. Pie-eating and hot dog-eating seem to be the two most prevalent kinds. Maybe it's because these things often happen at county fairs, which tend to be a summertime event? Or maybe it's because of that relaxed, "hey, we're on vacation!" summer attitude I was describing. Either way, eating contests seem to happen in the summer. And I think they're gross.

I partly think they're gross because the physical act of stuffing as much food as possible down your throat in the shortest possible amount of time seems inherently icky. I have never observed an eating contest, and I have no desire to change that, but from what I hear from people who have seen them, it's gag-inducing to watch. And I'm not surprised. It sounds sickening, and not just for the participants.

But that's not actually what bothers me about eating contests, really. I mean, lots of people do things that I find boring or unappealing, so I don't partake, they do, and we all move on with our lives, you know? But I guess what bothers me most is the wastefulness involved.

Let me be clear: I'm not a member of the clean plate club. I'll never tell Callum that he has to finish his dinner because children in Ethiopia are starving. Him being more full than he wants to be, or choking down something he's not interested in, won't change the plight of starving children anywhere. To me, they're separate things.

But I draw the line between someone not finishing the food on their plate, food which presumably was a reasonable portion to begin with, and people making a game out of wasting food on a massive scale. Eating more than 60 hot dogs within 10 minutes? That's excessive. It's not healthy. It's not nutritious. It's not even an enjoyable indulgence. It's a miserable, gross, vomit-inducing experience done only for bragging rights. And I think it's horrifying.

I know we waste food on a massive scale in a million other ways. And those bother me too. Food supply issues are fascinating and complex, and I know very little about them, really. But something about eating contests in particular really highlights this issue for me. Leaving aside the fact that competitive eating can actually be dangerous for participants, I guess it's the way it's a pure media spectacle. It almost feels like mockery--that we have such an abundance of food that people can jam 62 hot dogs down their throat for sport--while other people, right in this country and all around the world, don't even have one hot dog, or anything else, to eat for dinner. And we're showing that off for news outlets to share with the entire country as though this were just a silly, harmless little tradition.

It just feels disrespectful. And I don't think it's harmless at all.