Rocco and David

Rocco and Lucas

Not so regular

it's August 4th and I'm just now getting around to updating this blog. My days fly now that Rocco is so mobile. I basically chase him throughout the day. He a handful and is in a bad stage of hitting so I find myself saying , "no hitting" at least 10 times a day. Sometimes he begins to cry after I say no hitting. He must understand that he's in trouble. It sure doesn't stop him though. He's also in a biting stage and well, it HURTS. There are moments in between the hitting and biting where I wonder what happened to my little baby? He's still sweet and awfully cute but he's...um...a handful.

Crawling Around

Here he is motoring around the house this morning.

Bath Time

Our nightly ritual goes like this:

We begin every night (except for weekends) at 5:30PM. We begin with oatmeal dinner. I blend it with cinnamon and almond milk and he LOVES it. Tonight I added banana to the blender and he tolerated it. He still isn't a huge fan. Then at about 5:50ish we go to the bathroom where he takes his bath. He hangs out in the water for about 10 minutes and then I take him to our bedroom and I give him a little massage and put his pajamas on. After that we read 1-2 books, I breast feed him and then somewhere around 6:20-6:40PM he is asleep and is transferred to his crib.

It's been a good ritual except that the last week we've had some breastfeeding issues which have required me to call La Leche League. He begins to cry and push me away. I was so scared that he was trying to self ween so I called LLL and they told me that they don't believe any baby self weens before 1 year and that he must be experiencing some major changes. I told the counselor about his new teeth, his new ability to crawl and sleeping in the crib. She told me to GIVE HIM LOTS AND LOTS OF ATTENTION. I have to emphasize this because I swear to god, i don't think that I have more to give this little baby. He gets so much attention already. I can't even count how many times he is kissed and hugged and held throughout the day. But I didn't want to get into an " I already love my baby sufficiently" conversation so instead of putting him on the floor so he could motor around, I just held him longer than I usually do and what do you know - he started eating again. He seems to go on strike every other day and when he does I put him on my lap and sing, "row row row your boat, gently down the stream...merrily...merrily...merrily....life is but a dream...." because he loves this song. I sing this a couple of times and kiss him about 20 times THEN he'll eat.

High Maintenance.

so many changes

The last 3 weeks have been full of changes. Rocco's two front teeth came through, he began sleeping in his crib regularly (well except for naps and the morning hours), he started crawling, he finished his baby sign language class and began swimming classes at the Berkeley warm pool. It's been more busy than usual now that I have him involved in so many activities. I barely have time to shower or eat these days. Unfortunately when I do go to eat, it hasn't been very healthy. I am a slave to sugar. It's bad. I'm trying all the time to stop but I give in, then feel guilty, give in a little more than go to sleep. One day I'll break the habit. Until then I will complain and "talk" about it.

Ok, back to the real reason I write this blog: Rocco. He is changing before our eyes. It's been such a trip to see it all. One day he is sitting, then he is crawling, and now he is trying to stand up on his own. His crawl is getting faster and faster and he chases me around the house. We laugh a lot and I have so much fun with him. Now that he is moving around I'm constantly following him around. He's had a few minor accidents already. He banged his head against the wall, a chair, the door...etc. Luckily his little falls haven't required any medical care, usually a kiss takes care of the pain.

Today I had the mister in his lederhosen. They still don't fit entirely but he's close...

I think that by his birthday he SHOULD fit into them. I can't believe he's turning a year old in less than 2 months. I've lost my baby. He's knocking on toddlerville's door .

Crawling towards the camera