Baby Ethan just learned how to drink through a straw yesterday!  We were out w/gpa at a local HK style cafe (my fave) and when he started fussy, I gave him my cold milk tea to play with!  He knows that the straw goes in your mouth but before yesterday he hasn’t really known what to do with it…so giving it to him is harmless right? WRONG!  In front of other diners he almost sucked up some of the milktea! Bahh!! LOL  Sooooo cute!  I cleared out the straw (as much as i can) and I put it in his glass of water and sure enough he was drinking!

Now I keep a small stash of straws in the diaper bag

I recommend this over a sippy cup.  Its cheaper, convenient and you can cut them to size!

This is the sippy cup w/straw we have and when let him have a go at it this morning he didn’t like it well he did…as a teether lol

My sister-in-law said it perfectly when she said these last months would just whiz by!

In this past month he’s accomplished:

• crawling is now a breeze; so much that he’s lost a bit of interest in standing or walking since this gets him around much more efficiently with less bumps to the head
• he stands quite well on his own
• he can finger feed – but who really wants to when someone else will feed you faster?
• I’ve taught him to feed me and high five w/his hands and feet lol
• he can follow my voice to find me across the condo
• he’s mastered climbing the stairs (as long as no one distracts him from behind too much – it may push him off balance)

We were entertaining for most of the July month which is why, I assume,  it passed so quickly.  Family were in town from Calgary so it was exploring, dining at different restaurants and many family gatherings with close friends night after night.  So much so that its wreaked havoc on Ethan’s somewhat schedule/routine.

His naps went from 1 1/2 – 2hrs to 30 mins!  My guess is he got used to napping in the car only to wake up after 20-30mins when we reached our given destination…poor baby.  Since they’ve been gone, I’ve been trying to put him back on a schedule (I lie, this was probably the first attempt for me to really put him on any type of a strict schedule) but I found that each time he didn’t abide by the routine set out for him…I’d get frustrated and he wouldn’t sleep.

SO I’m on a new tactic – I let him cry it out during the day (mind you, I can only handle him crying it out when he’s not too upset…so I’m monitor that quite closely.  Thankfully, he’s only crying in such a way that I know its for attention and he’s doing no harm to himself).  Today is officially day 2.  Yesterday we were quite successful: the whole ordeal took about an hour: 1/2 of that he spent playing happily in his crib and the other half – usually when he sees me – he spent crying and eventually falling asleep!  The best outcome was the fact that he slept for almost 2 hours!   A feat I haven’t seen in weeks!  After his nap he ate fabulously as well, he barely needed me to entertain him with books or toys!  Also, when I changed his diaper, he wasn’t rolling over like he always does!  What an amazing ordeal  Unfortunately since he woke up from this nap around 3:30 so it was too late for his 2nd nap.  He wasn’t tired til about 6ish which was when we were on our way to my sister-in-laws.  He slept in the car on the way up awoke once we arrived.  When it came time for bedtime, he didn’t sleep til around 10:30-11ish but he shockingly slept all the way thru til about 4 and then again around 6:30ish.  This is a great accomplishment compared the nights earlier when he’d wake up almost every 2-3 hrs and I’d have to nurse him back to sleep.  Thank goodness we’re on the right track back to good sleep!  I can’t tell you how many time’s I’ve googled “10 month old not sleeping through the night”

How time flies!  I haven’t posted in ages and I’m only doing so now for my faithful reader Ang

Some accomplishments include:

• fully capable of crawling (with some spills here and there) but he’s only interested in crawling to get to stability so he can climb up to a standing position (couch, ottoman, friendly visitor).
• a great eater: LOVES Chicken congee, rice, bananas, mangoes and blueberries but will also eat peas, spinach (oops, high in nitrates should wait til a little later), yogurt
• babbling lots and always likes to interrupt your conversations
• he’s onto his 4th tooth: the bottom 2 have come out entirely, the top left is almost fully emerged and the top right is following closely

Now since he’s such a great eater (can easily polish off a adult size rice bowl (smaller than say a pasta bowl) full of congee) I’ve decided to invest in a better high chair equipped with a tray to satisfy his interest in playing with food.  Not to mention, catch the juices of the watermelon he happily loves to squish.

Currently we have this at our condo:

At my parents’ house we have this:

Now I’m looking at either this Phil & Ted’s Me Too chair for $49.99 (only @ Moms to Be and More…its $59.99 everywhere else):

or this Stokke Tripp Trapp for $319 in Canada, $249 at Target, and $179 euros in Italy (hmph!):

Hrm….

As it turns out, I’m not alone…tons of moms go thru this:

http://www.mamapedia.com/article/1-yo-boy-standing-in-crib-wont-sleep

He’s so eager to walk/crawl and talk that not being able to drives him nuts!  He’s so happy when I lift him up w/2 fingers that he jumps into my arms and giggles!  He’s starting to test his limits bit by bit and I’m trying to condition him to stop crying/fussing for attention when seated in his highchair or restaurants’ high chairs (I think he got spoiled on the cruise when we so desperately wanted to please people with a quiet/well behaved baby that we’d pick him up immediately after one peep).  Just today I very politely said “no” when he started to fuss after eating his lunchtime congee.  I used a lower leveled tone and also smiled – when he stopped fussing and just looked at me, I’d ask if he wanted to be picked up and then picked him up  We’ll see how well this works!

Other benchmarks:

• he’s sitting up pretty well on his own (tho the odd times he falls, he seems to find the one place that’s not covered by the foam mats
• he’s constantly trying to use things to lift himself up into a standing position (ex. toys, crib rails – we have to lower the mattress…, peoples fingers)
• he babbles more and more – when he wakes up, while he’s jumping in his jumperoo, riding in the car
• interacts better with his gfs
• learned how to use the steering wheel on his vtech driving toy = One happy daddy
• LOVES homemade congee!  Its become the best avenue to introduce different foods.

We’ve successfully been to Europe and back and are overjoyed to talk about it!  We travelled to Barcelona where we boarded the Norwegian Jade with ports of call including: Monte Carlo, Monaco, Florence, Rome, Naples and Palma de Mallorca.  Within the 7 day cruise – there was only one day at sea…and how we cherished that day at sea to re-cooperate!

The worst part was probably flying there via Air Transat.  It was a red-eye flight…so he was extra fussy unfamiliar with his surroundings and eager to sleep!  Once we arrived and he accumulated enough sleep through short naps here and there it progressively got better.  And since we were so focussed on Ethan’s sleep, hubby and I were failed to catch up on our own!  This combined with a very busy port lineup meant a very tiring and grueling couple days/nights…poor hubby – he hates walking and is always beaten by my need to see everything…

Once we somewhat caught up on our Zzzss the trip was amazing!  Baby Ethan was napping well thanks to the stroller bumping on the cobblestone streets…the only thing he was lacking were regular feedings *oops*.  We gave him tons of water and organic mum mums but it wasn’t until we’d get back onto the cruiseship where I could really nurse him and give him solids *the cruise ship was so nice to prepare anything we wanted for Ethan – we chose pureed mangoes, yams (which they misinterpreted for potatoes twice) and papayas*.  This and the change in schedule led to Baby Ethan not pooping for almost the entire week!  We tried everything – even Yogurt (as mentioned to another mommy friend) to no avail  Finally when we gave him TONS of papaya – he pooped the night before our departure as well as during the ENTIRE flight home.

We took Norwegian Cruise Line and it was only mediocre.  We’ve sailed on Carnival in the past and we found that it provided better quality service and food.  They did have facilities for kids under 2 – a little small room w/windows with toys and Ethan’s favourite – a jumperoo!  The highlight of our cruise was a hostess at one of the main dining rooms aboard the ship – she was hilarious! Loved to play with Ethan and even jumped around like a monkey to put a smile on his face!

Our flight home – again with Air Transat was horrible!  The seats are tiny and it was fully booked to the point where no parties were seated together!  Me and Ethan were seated in very last row (thank goodness they have lumbar support for the flight attendants!) w/another mother and her 6yr old son.

The flight was horrible:

• the service was terrible
• my hubby got water poured him 3 times
• 1 flight attendant poured coffee over our laps – cms away from my face…bleh!
• the changetables on the flight were being repaired so myself and another mom were forced to change diapers on our seat
  • a flight attendant – unaware of the out of order changetable even made a remark to the other mom about changing diapers at her seat!

If the price isn’t THAT much cheaper – we will pay extra NOT to fly Air Transat – unfortunately, I believe this was one of the only flights available direct.

yay

SO I thought I’d attempt to share our journey here in hopes to help others who may be traveling w/a LO… =P

• I’ve been lucky to have a friend lend us an inflatable bathtub to use on the cruise – that way we can bathe Ethan without getting soaked ourselves in the shower stall!
• I’m researching shore excursions at each port we’re visiting to see what tours are available as well as special treatment w/an infant
  • seems I can just laphold Baby Ethan in my arms on the private tours – *phew* I really don’t wanna lug our carseat w/us…am I a bad mother?
• found out the ship will likely puree some fruits/vegs for baby Ethan and I can even request rice porriage to be made for him   This will definitely save on luggage space!
• infant swimming is probably out of the questions – most cruiselines have a no diaper policy which means you can only go swimming if your potty trained.  They simply don’t have the cleaning system equipped for filtering such messes (I think DisneyCruise does)

I’ll update as it comes…

Achievements this past month?

• finally learned how to roll over – mainly back to front but he’ll fall over onto his back sometimes too
• he’s very vocal – babbling, complaining and even screaming lol
• 2 bottom front teeth! – many sleepless nights…ok so he woke up once or twice lol
• learned to grab his feet!

Been a very exciting month

blah…

My list of achievements include:

1. Shopping in Target (minus the gas used to drive there lol)
2. Shopping at Walmart (why would anyone buy J&J Shampoo from Toys R Us?)
3. Making my own baby food (though I buy organic for Baby Ethan)
4. Make my own anything!

I’ve come across this fantastic page on making your own baby items!  Everything Your Mama Made & More!  How fantastic!  Though I have yet to start on any of her projects, the instructions are easy and the pictures are both helpful and adorable!  And for any of you readers who read my post about the pillows I made…I’m pretty confident I can tackle these ones too