The Sippy Cup

As of late, Johnny has shown increasing interest in what John and I drink. If it comes in a cup, Johnny is reaching for it. This reaching has been the cause of lots of spilled milk and changed clothes because he's quick. So, since he has shown so much interest lately, I got him a sippy cup, just to see what he would do with it. Turns out, he's quite a champ with the sippy cup... but he's not particularly interested in drinking anything in it, he just likes to bite on the sippy part of the cup. Still, I consider him a genius.

A boy and his giraffe

Everyone, meet Sophie. 

Sophie is a giraffe toy made by some French company out of organic something-or-other and must taste delicious because Johnny is constantly nomming on her. She is, by far, one of Johnny's favorite toys for obvious reasons: she squeaks, has fun coloring, a cute face, can be held easily by small hands and has a nice texture for gumming on.

Reaching for the stars (literally)

Now that Johnny is paying more attention to his surroundings, he's starting to reach for things he's interested in. Things like our food, clothes, various toys and the mobile on his swing. The mobile on his swing is composed of these cute little lambs and stars and he's almost big enough to grab them. He might be getting too big for the swing. *sigh*

A sense of humor

One of the fun things about Johnny is I get to hear him laugh almost every day. He's starting to develop a sense of humor and it is so much fun! However, he will laugh at something one day and then find it totally asinine the next; he's very discriminating. I took this video while I was doing my hair and he was just being a gigglepants, so I had to record it. Enjoy!

To view on YouTube click here

Morning Constitutional

Johnny and I have established at least a little bit of a routine. Every morning he gets up at 6am and then we eat breakfast with John before he goes to work. After that, Johnny gets fed, then gets a bath and it's into the stroller for a walk. We are walking by 7:30am sharp almost every morning. Then, by about 7:50am he's sound asleep, even as we walk next to the freeway (on a nice, safe walking/bike route) with the cars whizzing by, he remains undisturbed. When we get home, I leave him in the stroller and stroll him into the guest room, where he snoozes the rest of the morning. It's a good time for me to get a snack, shower and putz around the house a bit. He wakes up around 11:15am and is in a stellar mood. It seems he likes having a morning routine as much as I do!

Bay Bridge Walk 2010

Yesterday, we participated in the Bay Bridge Walk/Run over the Coronado Bridge with my mom, brother, Aunt Teri and Uncle Steve. We got there kind of early and Johnny was already asleep, so John oh-so-carefully moved the carseat from the car to the stroller so we could head up to the start line to wait for my family. Normally, Johnny takes a nice morning nap in his stroller from about 7:45am to 11:15am. It was not a normal day. He woke up while we waited for the race to start, but he was in a good mood, so John took him out of the stroller and walked with him for the first half of the race. There were lots of people who thought he was SO CUTE that they needed a picture of him. For the first mile, random people would walk backwards in front of John to take a picture of Johnny in his cute little bear suit (courtesy of Auntie Julie). I should have been a little weirded out by strangers taking Johnny's picture, but instead I soaked up the flattery. Because really, he is pretty adorable. You be the judge.

Ode to Dr. Ferber

Johnny has sleep issues. He doesn't nap longer than 45 minutes, he wakes up at least twice a night (but he isn't hungry), and getting him to sleep at night is a test of will of patience. Normally, John will change his diaper and get him into pajamas while playing quietly with him then hand him off to me so I can nurse him to sleep. About 45 minutes to an hour later, I quietly get up from the chair, tiptoe to the crib, gently lay him down, and pray that he will stay asleep. If he doesn't, then I sit back down and nurse him some more. Needless to say, this is a very long process which not only I protest, but my poor abused nipples do as well (sorry, that might have been TMI... eh, whatever).

So this week, on Mother's Day, John and I embarked on a journey with Dr. Ferber, author of Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems. I read the book about a month ago, but didn't have the heart to start "Ferberizing" until now. For a long time, I thought Johnny was just hungry at night, but then I stopped nursing him at night and just focused on getting him back to sleep and he was fine. He was just waking up and needed help from me. Well, it is nice to be needed, but I've heard horror stories from other moms who are still getting up with their children twice a night at age 2. I'm already delirious and snippy from the lack of sleep in the last five months, can you imagine what kind of a b*tch I'd be after two years of interrupted night sleep and no naps? Exactly. And so enters Dr. Ferber.

Dr. Ferber is not a proponent of "cry it out" like so many people think, but he does think that it's difficult to teach a child to sleep without a little crying. So, he suggests a "check and console" method where you check on your child after a certain interval of time to let them know that you are there and not abandoning them. You check in increasing intervals of time throughout the evening. For instance, start with 3 minutes, then 5, 7, 10 and continue to go in every 10 minutes. The next night do 5, 10, and 15 minutes, etc. Eventually your child will get the idea that you're still there, but you're not a "sleep prop" anymore.

We started on the night of Mother's Day (ridiculous, right?) and he cried for 45 minutes after we put him down (we were checking on him during those 45 minutes). The next night, we put him down and there was NO CRYING! Whoo-hoo!! So here we are, a few days later, and he will cry and whimper for a few minutes and then he's done and asleep. The night wakings have gotten better, too, as I haven't even had to go into his room when he wakes up; he'll just yell for a little bit and then pass out. AND to top it off, his naps have gotten better! We actually have three solid naps a day! The first one is 2.5 - 3 hours long, the next is 1.5 - 2, and the last is 1 hour. And guess what? They happen about the same time every day!!!!! Hello routine, I have missed you dearly.

All of this sleeping adds up to him being an incredibly happy baby when he is awake. The evenings are joyous and full of smiles instead of tortured cries from an overtired baby. WIN!

5 months!

I'm 5 months old today!

I've been slacking on the updates lately, I know. My mom just doesn't want me to spend too much time on the Interwebz because she thinks it'll rot my brain. So, I check my favorite blogs, some funny YouTube videos and before you know it, my computer time is up. 

Anyway.

This month has brought all kinds of changes! I went to my first baseball game and did extremely well there. Grandma Durso took some adorable pictures of me, which Mom might have to post later. I'm getting so much better at grabbing things besides my burp cloths; rattles, stuffed animals, and Daddy's arm hair are some of my favorite things to grab and bring to my mouth. I've become an expert on sucking on my fingers, my favorites are my index and middle fingers on my right hand. Delish! I am getting stronger all the time and am now able to turn onto my side and plant my face into the floor. Eventually I'll figure out how to roll over completely from my back to my tummy... right now I can't figure out what to do with my darn arm. Maybe I'll get Mom to videotape my attempts and post them later; we'll see. In the meantime, here are some new pictures for you!