DO NOT BUY!!

Do not buy toys for your little one!  O.k., maybe that’s a little extreme but here is the reality…they like the real deal.  My son’s playroom is the kitchen.  Not a toy kitchen, but my actual kitchen.  His toy trunk is the cabinet with the plastic storage containers and lids.  The hundreds of real toys go relatively untouched throughout the day.  “Maybe, he’ll play with this toy remote we bought him so he’ll leave the real remote alone”.  Nope, he will not be duped.  I am pretty sure he said “what is this crap” when we gave him the toy remote.  He has two toy cell phones, but nothing is like mommy’s Samsung.  Fortunately most of his toys were gifts so we aren’t too bummed and truthfully, his real toys do come in handy when we are out on the go.  After talking to several veteran parents and my very own mother, it is universal that infants prefer to play with everyday objects.  If I could go back again, I would only get like 3 toys and then bust out the ziplock.   We actually got to the point where we transferred all of the safe dishes to cabinets in which we allow him to play (get safety locks).  I can cook in the kitchen and he will just play in the cabinet for around an hour.  He also has a few favorite drawers where we keep the wooden spoons and the plastic serving and mixing spoons and any piece of kitchenware that is safe.  It is great and free!

Do not buy the high chair that is stylish.  You know which one I am talking about.  The one that everyone gets that matches their dark wood furniture so that it blends in inconspicuously with the rest of the furniture.  What they don’t tell you is after a couple of meals that thing stands out like a sore thumb no matter what type of wood you purchased.  The reason why?  It is the most difficult piece of furniture to clean.  The food gets stuck in the crevasses preventing you from really getting a good clean.  The food sticks onto the wood so you end up damaging the paint when you try to scrub it off.  Oh and joke is on us, we feed the Boogmeister in the kitchen since we have carpet over the dining area; there is no wood in the kitchen so what does it match?  Pass on this one people.  If we have another, we will sell this high chair and get the reliable old plastic ones.

He's Finally Walking

He’s Finally Walking

We had it in our head that he would walk on his 1^st birthday.  He would stand up by himself.  He seemed like he would want to take a step.  It was like he was teasing us.  He would watch us as we held our breath and stared and well…his birthday just came and went without a single step.  We were fortunate that we had been exposed to parents who had little ones that didn’t start walking until 13, 14, and even 15 months because it is easy to get worried about these types of things.  Also, he was premature by 5 weeks so we have always known he could be behind until around two years of age (or not).  Needless to say, as with most things, we focused on the bad.  We kept thinking about the kids that started walking at 9 months and 10 months.  We began to try to force the walking; you know coaxing him with things he loves.    It would seem like he was going to take a step and then he would drop to the ground.  Finally somewhere at the end of his 12^th month, he took his first steps.  Of course we jumped on it and began trying to make him take steps every second like a little puppy doing tricks.  Once again, he showed us and didn’t really do it often.  Finally, shortly after 13 months, he began taking more steps and more and more until fast forward to today (he is 13.5 months) and he just walks circles around the house.  He almost never crawls.  He has broken out into a run a few times.  What I learned from all of this, is don’t rush your child into anything.  Every single milestone with our son has just happened.  We are so very rigid with our plans and our schedules and he just consistently laughs in the face of our ideals.  It’s almost like he never crawled.  We often go back and forth between forcing him into things and letting it happen naturally.  Happening naturally always seems to win.  Of course, we needed a baseline.  You also have to acknowledge a milestone for them.  We would clap when he would travel a longer distance with each session.  Of course by clapping, I mean being hysterical because I was so excited.  Now, with walking, incidences or injuries are increasing so it’s probable a good thing he waited a while to walk. 

Getting Out Round 2

Today the mall became more than just a place for me to shop.  My little one is getting older and starting to realize the outdoors is full of adventures and fun things to do so he get antsy when he’s been inside all day.  Since I live in a valley area, it is way too hot to take him to the park.  I decided to go to our local mall for several reasons.  The first is that there is air conditioning.  The second is that this particular mall has a play area for kids.  The third reason is it is always loud at the mall so no one would notice my super loud child.  Finally, there is so much for him to see that he will be very much stimulated.  I packed up his dinner of Sunflower seed butter sandwich and carrots and Sippy cup full of water and headed on my way.  Of course, I am on a shopping freeze so I had to brush off my window shopping skills.  While I was slowly strolling around, I realized how wonderful it is to get out.  The monotony of coming home sitting in the living room or playing in the living room with CJ, then feeding him, then taking him upstairs, then reading, then getting him ready for bed can make you feel like you are at a dead end job.   It’s is nice to amongst your fellow man and out getting fresh air.  The best part is I am still spending time with my son, which is critical since I work full time, but I am not sitting there counting down the hours for him to go to bed.  It may sound harsh, but I am so excited to see my son when I get home and for the first two hours I can run circles around him.  Eventually by the 3^rd hour you need a break and get exhausted.  Yet his bed time is upon us so there are no breaks for about 4.5 hours and coming home from work to that will make you count down to bed time.  Taking my son out to the mall or other places allows me to spend great time with him without feeling like I am in this zone.  By the time we get home, it’s time for a bath, reading, and bed time.  For some reason, I become re-energized and rejuvenated.  This again was my reminder that you always need to get out and about as a new parent.  You can turn the mall into your play zone.  It is good to find malls that have family bathrooms especially if you are breastfeeding.  I have been to some awesome malls with these insane family rooms.  It makes you want to go there just to utilize the facilities.  Another great place is IKEA.  My husband and I go there for their cheap breakfast.  They have a great family room for changing that they set up with their furniture and then there is a play area for kids.  I greatly appreciate places like that….letting you know they know and appreciate what you are going through as a parent.  The main message here, is get out, you’ll need it.

Peanut Allergy...Really??

Thank goodness for Sunflower Seed Butter (we’ll get to that later), because our little guy seems to be allergic to peanuts.

Between my husband and myself, we have always been nervous about allergies for our son.  I am allergic to scaly fish or fish with fins(not shellfish thank goodness), poppy seeds and I have asthma and my husband has major environmental allergies so we knew something could be passed along.  Yet, we were hoping that this would be one of those times when it skips a generation.  Well so far….we are not quite sure.  A wonderful mother in our playgroup had told us about this product called Sunflower Seed Butter that is sold at Trader Joe’s or TJ’s as I like to call it.  We started giving it to Connor first since peanut butter is a common allergen.  He loved it, it didn’t give him problems and everyone was happy.  Then we got a little bold and decided to try a peanut butter sandwich on our munchkin.  It went smoothly at first and I was soooooo excited.  Then he began to rub his eyes and seemed a little irritated.  Then the red bumps showed up on his face, around his left eye and some near his mouth.  I, of course, was devastated, but thank goodness it was just a mild reaction and it actually went away after a few hours.  He was fine and didn’t miss a beat.

He now has an appointment with the allergist so I am very interested in what test they perform on a 13 month old to find allergies.  My husband and I agreed NO skin allergy test!!!  So we will see what is available.  The optimist side of this is that early exposure to these types of allergens  cause a reaction in little ones, but after like 2 or 3 years of age they grow out of it.  This is why you can’t give babies egg whites or strawberries or peanut butter before 12 months and some recommend longer.  The digestive system isn’t fully developed and so things can cross over (into he blood stream) more easily and cause an allergic reaction.  I am crossing my fingers for the latter.  In the meantime, I hope T.J.’s stocks up on  SS Butter.