Yesterday Jasper started strolling around his baby jail as if he’d been doing it his whole life (witness the middle clip of him walking WHILE chewing ice in the mesh feeder!)
It was amazing to watch the little light bulb go off in his head when he learned how to use his upper body and core to balance his shifting weight. So instead of step step fall, step step fall, its step step balance, step step balance.
Little Jasper, your mommy is so proud. And yet so sentimental mushy and sad. My little monkey moo is a toddler. How did this happen??
I’m taking a mini-posting vacation today, relatives coming over in a minute. But I’ve been wanting to do a little series on the random tidbits of information that I’ve picked up here and there that surprised me. I figure if I didn’t know them at one time, some of you might not either!
So here’s something that isn’t so useful for us with the 6+ month olds, but if you are still exclusively breastfeeding, this tip is priceless..
Did you know that if you put something stained by breastfed poop (you know, that bright yellow stuff that is impossible to get out of anything?) in the sun that the stain will completely disappear? Apparently the thing that makes the poop bright yellow is the Bilirubin, the same thing that causes jaundice and is cured by sunlight. And so sunlight too “cures” the bilirubin stains by bleaching them out!
This phenomenon totally blew me away when I first discovered it, and it saved many articles of clothing from certain doom. Most of you mommies probably knew this already, but I know we have a few pregnant readers who might find this information as surprising as I did!
Jasper’s strange high chair behavior just before the “End of Purees”.
Recently, Linda Commented:
I was wondering how Jasper is doing in the food department. What finger foods does he like best? Was it hard to get him to eat? I’m having the hardest time getting my 9 month old to eat anything besides banana, so I would appreciate any advice you can spare.
I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while, so thanks for the prompt Linda!
About two weeks ago Jasper started refusing to take purees from me. And when I say me, I really mean me. He takes them FINE at daycare – finishes both his breakfast and lunch purees. He will take them as long as I am not the one to give him the first bite! It’s really bizarre. I actually have to get my dad or anyone handy to give him the first bite so he tastes it and wants more, because as soon as I come at him with a spoon he turns his head away!
Refusal of purees isn’t even something I knew was a stage until I read it on the nest.com message boards. I guess baby’s little independent streak really starts asserting itself around the 10 month mark and feeding themselves is top on the agenda! (My theory as to why daycare can get him to eat them is because they don’t do finger foods with him so he doesn’t expect it as an alternative to purees.)
Luckily, a week or two before the end of purees he had started to really get the hang of finger foods. It took some practice though.. his favorites were all so slimy he had a hard time grasping them! But he has since gotten to be a pro. He can now down half an avocado in one sitting with only a small portion of it ending up as decorative guacamole on his clothes. (Did I mention that he insists on eating without a bib?)
But anyway, to answer Linda’s question, right now Jasper is subsisting on a diet very heavy in avocado, but here are a few other things we’ve tried that he loves:
1) Fish. I think maybe Jasper is a polar bear at heart. Last night he ate an adult size portion of wild salmon! Fish is a great finger food because the flakes are easy to grasp. The trickiest thing about fish is picking a healthy one. Basically I would stay away from all the ones you were told not to eat while pregnant, i.e. the large fish that are very high in mercury (tuna etc.) But even farmed salmon is pretty icky when you read up on it, so we have only been feeding him wild salmon.
2) Egg Yolks. According to the Super Baby Foods book, babies can have 1 egg yolk every other day (or three to four a week).
3) Melon. Jasper goes crazy for Honey Dew! When it’s really ripe it’s so soft that I can give him pretty big chunks which makes it easier for him to pick up without it sliding away from him (same goes with avocado, it’s so mushy we can get away with bigger pieces).
4) Blueberries: at first I was peeling them, but now I can cut them in half or quarters for extra large ones and he just goes to town. (note that berries can be allergens and some books say not to introduce them until later.)
5) Cheese. I added cheese to this list not because Jasper likes it, but because he is probably the only baby (and certainly the only family member!) that DOESN’T like it. We first tried colby with him because it’s extra soft, but he hated it apparently so much that he now refuses anything white that even slightly resembles cheese! This is unfortunate because I think he might like Mozzarella that has a slightly sweeter taste if I could just get him to try it.
That’s about our entire repertoire at this point, so this is where my advice ends. Linda and I could both benefit from your suggestions: What finger foods does or did your baby love at the 9-12 month stage?
As promised, here is my brief review of the new HD pocket camcorder I ordered a few weeks ago when Amazon had it as the gold box deal for just $130 (the current price fluctuates daily, but as of this writing it is $144 + $5.99 shipping, so about $150).
In short, I’m in love! Here are the things I really like:
1) The picture quality is amazing. We attached it to my parent’s 40 inch wide screen HD TV via the HDMI cord that comes with it (with the Flip Mino HD the cord must be purchased separately) and it looked perfect. No pixelation or fuzziness, just crisp clear and beautiful.
2) I love the widescreen 16:9 vs 4:3 ratio. Granted it’s going to make things difficult to mix these new videos with my old 4:3 videos in a video/slideshow, but moving forward I love the extra space.. it makes even our little home videos feel cinematic!
3) The included extras. I already spoke about the HDMI cord, but they also include a cable to extend the USB connection on the device. This comes in really handy if you have an older desktop that doesn’t have a front USB port. It also comes with a clear gummy protective case.
4) Size and weight: It’s tiny! Truly fits in your pocket.. or diaper bag without adding any weight. This is perhaps the best quality of any mini digicam vs. a traditional one.. you won’t ever feel like it’s too big to lug around or too hard to set up. It’s so easy to use that you will actually USE it.
5) Specs: It has twice as much storage (8GB) and twice as much playtime (2 hours) as the Mino HD but also costs less.
Here’s what I didn’t love so much:
1) The included software to make “movies” hangs and doesn’t work when I attempt to use the “create a movie” function which I think is meant to allow you to create movies with images etc. and also to mix two movies together.
I didn’t end up really needing it because most movies I just edit the start and end time and download to my computer (which this does fine) and upload as is. In the example movie below I wanted to put two clips together so I used Windows Movie Maker which comes installed on all windows machines or can be downloaded for free. (Just remember you need to go to Tools, Options and then click on the Advanced tab and select the 16:9 ratio rather than 4:3 and also PAL rather than NTSC. Otherwise you will end up with black bars on bottom and top and a squished ratio like I did here before I figured this out!)
The Bottom Line
All in all this is a very worthy upgrade from my non HD Flip and I recommend it without hesitation. If you don’t have any sort of camcorder then this is a great one to look into.. the price, quality and extras make it much more competitive than the comparable Flip.
Wouldn’t this make such a great group shower gift? What could be more wonderful than giving the gift of being able to capture all baby’s firsts to share with family and friends – in Widescreen HD no less!
Here is a video I made this weekend of Jasper using his new Walker. Notice his excited squeals, he LOVES the independence of being able to “walk” and also is a bit of a speed junkie as you’re about to see..
Clearly an adrenaline junky.. it’s only going to get worse isn’t it? *Sigh*.
SO this is a real email I received over the weekend:
Subject: child of the future
Message: Hi Ariana,
I couldn’t help but notice your son’s birth date on your “about” page
says he was born August 19, 2009. Sweet. he’s from the future! You’ve
got skills..hee.
:)
There you have it folks, my child is so advanced he’s actually FROM THE FUTURE! (His mother on the otherhand, is obviously a complete airhead… How long can I use the mommy brain excuse for? I plan on milking it as long as possible!)
As if to prove the point, Jasper said his first words Friday night!!!
It was at the end of feeding him dinner and he was starting to fuss: dropping food overboard and pulling his bib off like he always does when he’s had enough. So I did the baby sign they use at daycare for “all done” (sort of like clapping your hands as if you were brushing food off of them) and asked him “All done?”
He looked right at me, clapped his little hands together and said “all done!”
You can imagine how excited I was.. I would have thought I was imagining things if my mom wasn’t standing right there and hadn’t heard it too.
Afterwards, I was changing his diaper before bed and saying “Jasper, I can’t believe you are such a big boy, you said all done ” and then he said it again!
Of course he’s only half way said it since, so it’s not like I can really say he’s talking yet, but it was such an exciting moment I had to share. I did try to capture it on video, but I only succeeded in getting him doing the throwing the food overboard and pulling off his bib routine.
As a substitute, perhaps you will enjoy this little video of his other newly acquired skill, tilting back the sippy and drinking from it all by himself! If you stay tuned until the end you will be rewarded with a kiss.
The weekend was not all good though, yesterday was really rough. There wasn’t a single nursing session that I was able to have a let down and I am afraid our nursing days are very very numbered. I know we’re so close to a year and weaning isn’t far off anyway, but I was really hoping to make it the whole 12 months. We’ll see what today brings..
Some months back I stumbled upon a free Lightroom preset pack from the Presets Heaven blog called PH the Weddings. There is one preset in that package called “PH fantasy wedding” that the author created for images of brides and grooms on the beach. I use it on EVERYTHING!
Seriously, everything.
In fact, when I try to deliberately NOT use it and see what I come up with on my own, I later compare it to what this preset can do and I always ditch mine in favor of the preset version! It’s like image editing crack, once you’ve seen it you just CAN’T go back to the dull version after. I’m sure I’ll OD at some point a few years or a few months or even a few hours from now and wonder why I liked so much, but right now I’m just plain addicted.. see for yourself:
First versions are SOOC (straight out of camera), second are edited with the PH Fantasy Dress preset:
Kimberly alerted me to the fact that if you become a facebook fan of Mommy Necklaces, you can order anything you want from the store at 40% off through midnight tonight!
You may remember from the mommy necklace photoshoot post how much I love mine.. but you may not know that I wear it every single day. If I don’t, I get the scratches, pinches and gouges to show for it.
For whatever reason, babies just love these. When I see Jasper’s girlfriends Peyton and Lola they want me to hold them simply so they can chew on my necklace. Yes, I am very popular with the under two set :)
Just thought I’d pass the tip on in case you had been thinking about getting one for yourself or as a gift.
When I was offered the opportunity to review this product from Nowali I didn’t hesitate. Why? Because judging by the responses to my sock post a few months ago, footwear is a hot topic among mommies!
Plus, socks and shoes in one - What’s not to love?
Of course I never would never recommend anything to you without trying it first and I am happy to say that these Moccasins lived up to my expectations.
First of all, they stay on. As you all know, that’s half the battle right there. Other things that I love about this Swedish import is that they are washable, have the a flexible non-skid leather sole ( similar to robeez), are adorable and are actually stitched together by hand. You don’t find that kind of quality very often these days.
And last but not least, I think they are super cute. I love the brown stripe pair I picked out for Jasper, but it was a tough choice between those and the T-Rex style:
Nowali T-Rex Moccasins
(BTW, the soles aren’t really platformy looking like they are in the image above. Just so you know.)
And how cute would these look over tights in the fall for girls?
Confetti Nowalis
All you have to do to enter to win the pair of your choice is browse the selection of moccasin styles on the Nowali website and post a comment here stating which pair you would like if you win. Entry deadline is July 10th, winner will be announced Monday July 13th.
If you simply cannot wait (or do not win!) you can also use the coupon code HAPPYFEET which gets you 10% off + free shipping for orders over $40.
A few weeks ago Jasper started making these little kissy sounds. It’s so unbearably cute I have to grit my teeth whenever he does it. Normally he’ll kiss a few times in a row, but last night he wasn’t feeling it so much (tooth #2 is halfway through and times have been tough around here.) But I did manage to capture a fleeting kiss in each of the clips in the video below – don’t look away for a second or you might miss them!
But as cute as the kissing is, this, which is what happened while trying to get him to make kissy sounds is even cuter:
Speaking of kisses, I noticed over this past week that Jasper seems to really be understanding and responding to verbal commands which is so surprising and exciting!
Two examples I can think of recently are that when we actually SAY the word kiss just in passing he makes the kissy sound. On father’s Day when we were trying to get Jasper to look at the camera Jeff said “Look at Mommy” and as soon as he said the word “Mommy” Jasper looked right at me. Now that I think about it, he’s also been waving just when we say “bye-bye” for weeks even if we just say bye-bye whereas at first we’d have to wave to get him to imitate the motion.
I guess this is the beginning of two-way communication? At long last!
The pictures are much better than the reality. I can’t really get into it, but let’s just say that I shouldn’t be surprised after my horrible mother’s day that father’s day would be similarly crappy, particularly given the state of things.
I think I did OK on the gifts though..
I got my dad a light-weight monkeysuit that has Teflon so is resistant to water and stains - Perfect for his notorious yard work. He’s always out back mucking around in something dirty. Plus, one piece means less entry points for tics which is a big concern in our area where Lyme’s disease runs rampant.
Here’s dad modeling his suit and playing air guitar (after I told him he looked like one of the talking heads!)
How cute is he?
I guess mechanic’s clothing was the theme of the day. I was SOOOO excited when I found The Busted Knuckle Garage for many reasons… One is because I wanted to get Jeff a mechanic’s shirt for when he works on his motorcycle. Two is because I wanted it personalized, which they offer. Three because we had joked just a week before that whenever Jeff works on the house or his bike he ALWAYS busts his knuckles without fail. Four because they had a matching onesie for Jasper, and five because they have AMAZING customer service – they went really out of their way to make sure I’d get the shirt in time for Father’s day!
Here is the other side of the front where you can see Jeff’s name:
And here, just because this was a sweet moment:
And lastly, all three generations in their father’s day mechanics attire:
The busted knuckle has all sorts of other great gifts that feature their super cute logo with the bandaid on the finger and the hilarious caption (”repair and despair all under one roof”).
I wish I could have told you about the site before father’s day, but obviously that would have spoiled the surprise for Jeff. There’s always next year though right?
Ariana (aka becoming-mom) is a 30 something self admitted helicopter mom with a habit of blurting out everything about infertility, pregnancy, birth, parenting and just about anything else to anyone who will listen. (read more...)
