spring time

the weather has been amazing. meaning lots of park days. lots of vitamin D and sunshine. lots of stroller rides. and lots of smiles.and a new big boy carseat! yay! 

Eight

happy happy 8 month birthday my sweet boy!! wow, i can't believe it's been 8 months since you were born. it has seriously been the best 8 months of my life and such a crazy journey to see you grow into a little boy. from such a tiny tiny helpless baby(well not that tiny, you were 9.5lbs) to this amazingly strong little dude that you are. you are seriously stronger than me. you are solid when i hold you. you have a death grip of a chimpanzee. (that's the one animal that came to mind that would have a really strong grip) your personality is coming out more and more. you let that out long ago, but now it's to its fullest. i can just tell you are going to be a funny little jokester that runs around laughing, bursting with energy. you are going to be a tough cookie, which isn't a bad thing, just sometimes scary. you are like me, your mama. you fear nothing. you try to walk on your own, even though you know you can't even stand yet. you could care less about getting hurt and bonking your poor little head. you rarely cry when you hurt yourself. and if you do, you're over it in like 2 seconds. you really just shed tears of being surprised, not pain. you love your animals, zoe and elliot. they love you back. you are getting less allergic to zoe's saliva and don't break out in hives every time she licks your face. you LOVE your dada! he is the funniest thing in your mind. you love to ride on his shoulders and stare down on him with the biggest grin ever. you love to pull his beard to hoist yourself to standing. you love to stare directly into his eyes and smile while cooing and piercing your lips. you love to eat. especially what we are eating. you hold your breath and get bright red and flap your arms when something tastes really good and excited you. and what the most amazing thing is, is you love us. and little boy, we love you. times a million infinity. 

The Latest

i had written a very long post last week, and then it got deleted. i can't even remember one thing that it said. probably what i was feeling emotionally at that specific time. which is totally different most likely to what i am feeling now. the days are up and down. at least there has been a reason behind all the bronson fussiness. a good reason. we got two BIG front top teeth the other day. and boy are they gigantic! i can't believe these teeth are going to fit in this little man's mouth. yesterday he was quite happy, considering. i worked. but when b came to feed i brought him into my work to see everybody. he was all giggles and smiles. no stranger anxiety. comfortable as can be. sometimes i wonder if he remembers the voices of the girls i work with. i mean he did spend 9 months listening to them babble all day long while in the womb. he takes to them very well. makes me look good! 

POOP: and finally i've found the way to regular bowel movements. it's called REAL sweet potatoes! YES. 

SLEEP: sleeping good considering tooth pain. just been waking up a tab bit early for my liking, but that will go back to normal i'm sure when the teeth have come in a little more.

EATING: loves it. just like his mama! i had a dream that i caught bronson sucking on the sriracha cap. i freaked. but then realized he didn't mind the taste or spicy-ness, so i let him continue to eat sriracha. no big deal. 

SKILLZ: he crawls. he crawls really really good. he's got the coordination down now. left hand/right leg. right hand/left leg. and his cute little butt wiggling in the air. precious. and hearing the smacking of his hands while they hit and flap the ground is the best. you always know when bronson is entering a room. getting pretty good at pulling to standing. not as wobbly as before. starting to transfer around the furniture a bit. once in a while i will see him trying to stand up to his feet from standing without any support. i tell him he's not quite ready for this and to slow down please. learning to sit back down, meaning learning to fall safely, is getting less frightening. i used to freak, but now he squats down to sitting position. way less panic attacks now. 

BITING:yes, he bites. not while feeding. but he bites your fat. like the arm. or dada's chest. or my left over belly fat. man does it hurt. i try not to yelp, but it's impossible. i've read if you have such a big reaction, they are more likely to continue to bite because they see they can get a reaction out of you. 

anyways, here are some pics of the last couple weeks. also please sent good vibes to my kitty elliot who is at the vet right now with a 103 degree fever. hasn't had any food or water for 3 days. they are putting him on iv fluids and meds and doing blood work. 

and thank you Zsa Zsa for coming to visit bronson and me!!! 

the two B's!

Ben and Bronson FINALLY got to have a play date today. i've been working so much that i haven't been able to hang out with sara and this little cutie. it had been like 5 weeks since they last saw each other. it's crazy how much happens in 5 weeks with infants. ben has grown so much, and they are both just crawling all over the place. i'm hoping these two will grow up being the best of friends. 

 b, of course passed out on the way home. when i went to pull him out of the car seat, he was snoring away. unfortunately, he woke up before i could put him down in the crib. and once he wakes from a power nap, there is no putting him down until the next round. ugh! love this little nugget so much! i get to be with him the next few days to myself while jon is working in the city. glad we were able to get out for a short walk today while it was nice. i was literally in just a t-shirt today. ridics!! the next few days it is supposed to rain pretty hard. YIPEE! 

progress report

i am happy and ecstatic to say that B FINALLY sits without support. occasionally he will be too tired to sit anymore and will just plop over and bonk his head on the floor. ouch. but it happens. that's how they learn to balance. which is what i'm slowly learning. as i used to be there for every tilt in the wrong direction, now i kind of let him do it on his own, and he actually auto corrects himself on his own before he falls down. and now since i've stopped being an annoying, worried, over protective mother, he's been able to learn to sit. such a huge milestone. it only took 7 months. which reminds me, B is now 7 months old, as of Feb 18th! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BOY. 

sleeping: he sleeps through the entire night again. yay! he is done teething until the top one's start to come in, which isn't supposed to be until 9 months. bedtime is at 7:30pm..he wakes up between 6-7am. goes back down for his nap once in a while right after a feeding. or sometimes he stays up for a couple hours and takes him morning nap then. he like to try to have his naps be at least an hour. we average 1.5 hours each nap. sometimes 2-2.5 hours if we're lucky. but of course we have our bad days when naps are only 20 mins long. this doesn't mean he is even grumpy and is perfectly happy wit no sleep. but then there are the days where he can have tons of sleep and he is the grumpiest of all times. i have no idea what determines his sadness/fussiness. usually it's sleep. and the past 2 weeks haven't been the usual happy bronson that we know. :(

eating: bananas, apples, and avocados are the newest things we've tried. doing the 4 day thing still, so it's taking a while. just bought some organic frozen blueberries, so i think we will try that next. i read that frozen fruit is actually more nutritious. and fresher, even though its frozen. doesn't seem so fresh, eh? B still LOVES his Tri Vi Sol. aka Vitamin D. if he could just eat this at all times, he would be satisfied. goes to show you if you start stuff from infancy, they are bound to end up liking it. 

poop: hasn't happened. been a week. gave lots of water and prunes today, so hopefully that will get things moving for tomorrow. 

Anxiety: yes this stranger anxiety and separation anxiety has happened. i was dreading the moment my baby cared who was caring him. luckily he is 50/50 with jon and me, so it's not just mommy at all times. i work a lot, so jon is with B more than i am with him. he is super dad. it's insane. he gets everything done while watching the baby. grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, post office, dinner ready, etc. they have their whole little routine of errands they do together. it's quite sweet. 

playing: toys are really a big thing right now. he have these stackable numbered cups, and every time i stack them, B has to make sure they are knocked down immediately. so we play this game where i try to stack them all up before he knocks them all down again. he always wins. he hates when things are neatly placed. haha. i got B a toy cell phone that lights up and plays songs, since he is so obsessed with mine. we have many phone conversations a day. he is so interactive. sometimes he really surprises me with how sharp he is. we go in the bedroom (the one place with carpet) and just let him have it. he crawls all over. (of course after a big vacuuming) 

baths: ohhh B has learned to splash the water around. it's quite funny. he just hits the water with his hands and cracks up. this summer we will start baby swim lessons, since he likes the water so much. 

we haven't gone on any trips lately. hopefully we will be heading to San Francisco soon to visit Zsa Zsa and PaPa. we miss them. it's been all work and no play lately. poor little bronson needs some excitement in his life. hopefully this means we will be able to see Surya/Nick/Mikio too!! 

<3

Prunes!

Prunes, prunes, nothing but prunes. b loves his fruit. avocados are next. do parent really have their baby try everything for four days to see if they have an allergy?? if this is the case, it's going to take a long time until he tries anything. someone at work told me that you only have to do this if the parents have a specific allergy to something. i'm kind of stumped on what to do. i feel like you can only go so far. i'm sure there's a point where you give up and just starting giving your baby whatever/whenever and stop paying attention to what day you're on. as for the moment i will continue on this four day rule, but feeling like this may not last too much longer. 

the days have been a little boring lately. it's been pouring here the last few days, which has kept us inside for 3 consecutive days, which has given B the opportunity to get really really good at standing. standing with one hand. standing with no hands (for like 3 seconds) and back to standing with one hand and trying to pick a toy up with the other hand. taking plastic rings off his cone. carefully picking and choosing toys. excitably aware of noise and whats going on around him. especially the dog and cat. oh the cat. he loves to just grab the cat with full hand force. usually i have to pry his hands off the cat, and by the end of it he has a hand full full of cat hair. (poor elliot). he loves to just stare at zoe and laugh with with such amusement. 

Poop: it happened today. it woke him up from his sleep. the minute i open the door i knew. i could smell it. my whole hand smelled from just carrying him down stairs. i had to wear a plastic glove while putting him in the sink to wash him because it literally makes your hand permanently stink for like the whole day, even after hand washes after hand washes. seriously.this 'shit' is gross. the cool part though is; there is no leaking of the poo. no up the back. no out the sides. it's all contained now because the consistency of the poop if super thick. so that's a plus i guess. 

sitting: getting a little better. but still not his number one priority. 

words: no mama's yet. the best is when all he does is 'ta' 'ta' 'ta' all day long. it's very quick when he says it. it is the cutest thing. i just repeat right back 'ta, ta, ta'. 

teeth: i believe your second tooth has pushed through. the gum is really white. it's hard to tell though. and that other little tooth of yours so the most adorable things ever. i heart his little teeth. 

naps: sometimes he is awesome. the other day he sucked. it's so unpredictable. i think he is getting tired faster since all he does is pull himself to standing in the crib the whole time, so then he will just pass out by sliding back down the crib railing into the weirdest positions. pretty funny. 

diapers: we are soon going to going up to size 3 diapers. woop woop! only because B's legs are so dang fat that it makes the diapers too small to shut close. but for now, we need to finish the size 2 ones we have, then we can get into that size 3 stash. 

and off to bed for me. good night all. 

Puppy Bowl

yesterday for the super bowl, we went to a puppy bowl party. you can tell how into sports our friends are. the boys skated the bowl all day, while the girls and B hung out in the house. it was cold. b almost tried a chili hot dog. almost. 

B was so tired after that day of socializing. he fell asleep on the way home. we almost had a successful carseat to crib transfer, but he woke up right when we set him in the crib. which was fine with me. i was secretly hoping he would wake up. since i hadn't changed his diaper the whole time we were gone. and i think it's more logical to feed him right before bed so he doesn't wake up in the middle of the night starving. 

first night of uninterrupted in SO long. thank you Mr. B!! that felt good. to actually sleep. it's a weird feeling waking up at 6:30am with no interruptions. you kind of wake up in a peaceful/franticness. i say peaceful because you're so rested from a full nights sleep, but frantic because a part of you thinks you didn't hear the baby crying all night. what happened? omg, is he okay?? but of course, he way fine. so fine. just sleeping. i especially worried because i was on monitor/baby duty last night, since papa had to wake up at 3:30am for work in the bay. i thanked B all morning. kissing his head and saying 'thank you for letting mama sleep. thank you. i love you.why can't you be like that every night '

UPDATE on the BABES:

food: latest kick has been pears and peas. the peas are so gross, i almost don't want to make him eat them. but he loves them. one more day of peas then we can try something new. i'm thinking whatever has the most fiber in them. 

bowel movements: not happening. this is day 5. i just keep telling him it will happen. and we do the poo dance like five times a day. which consists of me bouncing him around and singing 'we're gunna poo today. poo. poo. poo.' repeat like twenty times. it's a really cool song. 

development: still doesn't sit. nothing new so far. getting really really good at standing up with the help of the crib railing. the couch. the clothes basket. or me. has the biggest laugh EVER. its makes me crack up! 

sleep: as i said last night was the first night, in a long time, B's slept through the whole night. i dunno, maybe his tooth isn't hurting as much. his first nap today was 1.5 hours. his afternoon so far has been an hour. still snoozing away though...

our day: we had a nice stroll through the neighborhood today. sunny but cold. went to wells fargo to pay the cc bill. walked up the butt buster hill over to Lucy's house. we played and hung out there for a while. came home, ate some peas, and had a little visit from Memaw. then we will go to the grocery store when he wakes up. 

papa won't be home til late tonight, so i will bathe b alone. it's hard to alone still because he won't sit yet. haha. but he loves his baths. loves to kick his legs so the water splashes. he loves to hold on to his shark bath toy. he loves when i fill the bath toy with water and squirt him in the mouth. he loves to try to drink the water when i'm rinsing off his head. he loves water. he obviously doesn't get this from me. maybe because he's a cancer; water sign. but then i'm a scorpio, which is a water sign too. apparently having a water sign has nothing to do with actually enjoying being in water or not.