Story Time

Stephanie got Linus a copy of the board book "Dinosaur Roar." This was a favorite of Brandon's that Star bought for him when he was a wee one. I read to Linus every day. We stick to the same two books for a week or so and then I pick two different ones. This way he can get to know them really well. Lately we've been reading "Who Am I? Birds" and "Wow! Babies!" I notice that when I read the page about the baby ostrich, Linus responds more. I wonder if this is because it is my favorite page and I read it more enthusiastically. The book about babies has photos of babies and Linus likes looking at them. There isn't much text to read, so I just explain what the babies are doing.

A couple of weeks ago Stephanie emailed all of us Crease girls to ask what our favorite books were from childhood because she was attending a baby shower and everyone was supposed to bring a favorite book. That let loose a torrent of emails back and forth about favorite books and who has copies of ones that are now out of print. Two of my favorites to this day are Amelia Bedelia books and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books.

P.S. Blogger won't let me italicize the book titles, so they are in quotes.

Monkey Outfit

We had a couple of days with cool, damp weather last week, so Linus had a chance to wear his monkey outfit from Star and John. He looked so cute. I only hope the carrot washes out of it!

We had a fun weekend. We saw Susan Friday night before she left for Boston to visit Star. She brought her basset hound puppy, Lucy, over to Sara's so we got to meet her. She is super cute. We saw Romeo and Juliet with Stephanie and Brian on Saturday night and during the day we saw Julius Caesar, all while Linus was playing with Sara. The absolute coolest thing happened to me at lunch on Saturday: I met Jim Devita. As in, "Ooh la la, Jim Devita." He's my favorite actor at APT and I have a crush on him like other people have crushes on movie stars. He shook my hand--twice. When I introduced myself he introduced himself as Jimmy. Swoon. Matthew humored me. What a great spouse.

I took Linus in to see Dr. Gast today about his rash that got worse over the weekend. Of course when he got up this morning it was mostly gone. Dr. Gast says there isn't anything to worry about; maybe it was the carrots or maybe it was viral. He did say to put lotion on the eczema behind Linus' ears. The nurse weighed Linus with his clothes on and he weighed 16 pounds, 13 ounces. He's gained over a pound in three weeks.

Million Dollar Smile

This is one of the many gorgeous smiles I've received this week from little Linus. After I feed him, he plays with his links in his highchair. He's usually in a great mood because his tummy is full and I think he loves sitting up and playing. Plus, he can see what I'm doing, i.e. dishes, chopping vegetables, wiping down the stove.

Infant massage class was fun. There were seven babies in attendance babbling, whimpering, giggling, etc. We had a fun time. Halfway through class I changed Linus' diaper on the mat we were on and he fountained big time. Oops!

Off to Madison today and before we go, hope to see Erin before she heads off to college. She's attending UW Madison. Eighteen years ago I was heading off to the UW. Amazing how the time has flown by.

Rash Update

I called my friend Pat, who knows all about babies, and she agrees that it is probably a response to the carrots he's been eating. We'll just keep an eye on the rash and not feed him carrots for a while.

Another update: photos are now posted for the carrot eating post.

Parenting Dilemma

Linus has a bit of a rash on his cheeks and his back. Our problem is in deciding whether to take him in to see the doctor or not. I say that since he isn't sick and the rash looks pretty minor, that we don't go to the doctor. Matthew wants a doctor's opinion, but won't say definitively for me to take Linus in.

Linus has started reaching for toys when he is on his tummy. The motivation appears to be that he wants the toys in his mouth! This morning we are going to a free class about infant massage and this weekend we will be in Madison at Sara's. She will be playing with Linus while Matthew and I attend some shows at APT. It has been rainy and I'm hoping it clears up in time for our shows.

Apparently Safari and Blogger are not getting along right now. Apple is aware of it, so hopefully a fix comes out soon so I can post photos.

Big Pants Beget Little Pants

I bought a pattern to make Linus some pants, shirts, and a little fleece hoodie. The pattern is at Simplicity and you can look up pattern 5316. It turns out that the pattern pieces for pants are small enough that I can cut them from old pants of ours. Matthew's pants tend to wear out at the cuffs, which leaves plenty of good fabric to make pants for Linus. I started by cutting out pieces from my first pair of maternity pants. I tore out a knee when I fell in Dallas last November, but there is still enough good fabric to use. Right now my plan is to make two pairs of pants, a shirt from a knit shirt of mine that is stained (but still has plenty of good fabric for a baby shirt), and I bought striped fleece to make a little hoodie.

My browser continues to crash when I try to add photos. I use Safari and perhaps Blogger has changed in some way that it doesn't work with Safari. Hopefully they fix it.

And the Winning Vegetable Is...

Carrots! We let Linus choose for himself from the peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes that I was able to find from the organic brand of which I approve. First he grabbed at his rice cereal, then our cereal on the lower shelf, and then he reached for his carrots. He didn't respond strongly either way to the carrots, but ate them up just fine. He sure looked cute with carrots on his face.

Since he has been taking such short naps, he fizzles out earlier in the evening. Last night he went to bed at 7, which gave me time to mow the lawn and sew.

P.S. I've been trying to post this since Monday morning and it keeps crashing when I try to upload the photos, so no pictures for now.

Cute Baby

Linus has been particularly charming this week: smiling, chuckling, curious, enthusiastic. I've had a lot of fun with him. The only real challenge this week has been that he has only taken half hour naps, which leaves me very little time to accomplish anything. I've been putting my well developed organizational skills to work and use to-do lists and multi-tasking to get some things done during my small windows of opportunity.

On Monday, Linus was on the sun porch while I made a Thai cucumber sesame salad. I peeked around the door frame to check on him and saw a mouse run by. I ran out to see it and boy was it cute. After photographing it, I opened up the door to the outside and got the broom to help encourage it to head in that direction. Then it occurred to me to put Linus in the play pen so that the mouse wouldn't run onto Linus' blanket. Linus might think it was a relative of his stuffed Mickey Mouse and try to chomp on its nose! From the play pen, Linus was amused by my following the mouse around. In the end, the mouse perched on the door jam, looked down for a second, then jumped down and ran across the deck really fast. It sure was cute.

Here are photos of the mouse and of Linus on his way to the Farmers' Market Wednesday evening. Who is cuter? (Pardon the dust bunny attached to the mouse's foot.)

What should be Linus' second food? I vote for banana and Matthew votes for sweet potatoes.

Bite Out of Crime

While I was in agonizing labor with Linus, a drug dealer stole Stephanie's camera and took photos with it. The police kept the memory card for evidence and they just released it to us. I picked it up for Stephanie so she didn't have to make the drive. So now we have pictures of his baby. At least we are guessing it is his. Here is a picture of the very large thief holding a very tiny baby. He is so large that when they arrested him, they had to take him to the police station in an ambulance because he couldn't fit in the police car. He wasn't arrested for stealing the camera, but for having bag upon bag of marijuana in his car.
The other picture is of Linus posing with the evidence for the scrapbook. His birthday is on it after all! He, of course, put it in his mouth. What kind of mother am I?! For all I know it was stored next to bags of crack at the station!!!!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Linus rolled over for the first time this morning! He rolled over from his tummy onto his back. He almost accomplished this yesterday afternoon, but the crib kept him from rolling all the way over. Matthew had Linus doing tummy time on the gym and he rolled himself over. Matthew said it wasn't very controlled, but he accomplished it nonetheless. Hooray for Linus!

Linus didn't get to watch me mow the lawn last night because there were too many mosquitoes. Perfect weather for humans appears to be perfect weather for mosquitoes.

(Photo: Linus is modeling the tie dyed onesie Matthew made for him.)

Another Blog

Linus is on another blog; that of our beloved coffee shop, Kavarna. To check him out, visit: Kavarna

Pretty cool!

Trampoline!

We had a great weekend. The weather was perfect for spending time outside. Saturday we went to Bonnie's beach for a cookout. Erica's family was there, too, so that meant there were three little boys. I took Linus on the trampoline and gently bounced. He seemed to like it. He also liked watching me from the sidelines. He got to see his first camp fire while the rest of us made s'mores. Erica's boys, Carson and Connor, are lots of fun. Next year Linus will be able to play in the sand with them.

Yesterday we took care of things around the house, like laundry and yard work. Linus took a four hour nap late in the day. Around seven I finally turned on the light and cut his nails, which woke him up. We were afraid he'd stay up late, but after feeding him and playing with him a bit, he was ready for bed. Good thing, because we were tired.

Guy's Night

Matthew and Linus enjoyed a guy's night last night while I attended my book club. They went to the concert at the Garden and had a fun time. My book club started up again after a several month hiatus. It was fun to see the group again and meet two new people.

Linus wasn't sleepy at bed time, perhaps because he took a nap when he got home from the concert. We thought he was out for the night, but it was just a nap. I finally read him a bed time story from a book geared to six- or seven-year-olds. I read it three times and he started nodding off. I rocked him a bit and put him to bed and that finally did the trick. I never envisioned I'd be reading a bedtime story to a 4-month old. I pictured that happening when he was in his big boy bed at around 2 years old. Just another example of how he was destined to love books because he was born during National Library Week.

In the morning Linus and I attended a class called "Sign Language for Tots." He talked to his keys throughout much of the class. I've been teasing him that maybe he wanted to teach the class. The theory behind sign language for babies is that one can avoid a lot of frustration if your toddler can tell you what he wants. Apparently a child around 10 months old can start learning the signs for eat, milk, and more. I'm going to do some more research on this.

TALL Baby

Linus has liked playing "Tall Baby" for quite a while. He's nearly always enjoyed standing up on our laps with our support. It turns out he really is a tall baby. He is 26 inches long, which puts him at the 90th percentile. Wow! I guessed right on with that one. He weighed in at 15 pounds, 7 ounces. I was only off by an ounce. This puts him in the 75th percentile for weight. He is still in the 75th percentile for his head size. Dr. Gast says he has no concerns about Linus and that he is doing well.

Linus seemed fine after his shots, but then started crying really hard at 3:30 p.m. and didn't stop for well over an hour. Something was definitely wrong. He had a temperature, but what is considered normal after immunizations. I called Matthew, who kindly came home from work, and I called the doctor's office. After being on hold a very long time for his nurse, she took down my concerns and said she'd give the doctor the message when he was finished with his patient. We never heard back. After over an hour, I called back and got the after hours nurse. She said to give Linus Tylenol because maybe he was in pain. By this time Linus had cried himself to sleep and woke up with smiles. I went and picked up some Tylenol and gave him some. He slept through the night and seems happy with the world. I, however, slept fitfully. It is really stressful when something is obviously wrong with your baby and you don't know what it is. I'm also still upset that I never got a call back.

Typical Peaceful Day

Yesterday was your average, pretty good day. Linus helped me do three loads of laundry and vacuum under the fridge. We played with his blocks and rattles, read a few books, sang songs, and giggled. When Matthew came home, we had dinner and then I finished mowing the lawn. Matthew put Linus in his carrier and he actually tolerated it. His legs looked so bumpy under the fabric; it was pretty funny. The two of them picked up sticks so I could mow. After all the yard work, Linus had his last meal of the day and went to sleep. He is napping right now and he has his 4-month doctor visit at 10. I'll have his vital statistics for you tomorrow. My guesses are the following: he weighs 15.5 pounds, is 26 inches long, and his head will be more like in the 85th percentile. Anyone else want to take a guess?

Lawn

Linus loves watching us mow the lawn. On Saturday evening, Linus sat with Matthew and watched me mow the front yard. Last night, Linus sat with me to watch Matthew mow part of the back yard. The mosquitoes were dreadful! Linus has a little mosquito bite on his forehead. It doesn't seem to bother him a bit, while I'm scratching my bites until they bleed. Eek!

Linus has started rolling over onto his side to get at his toys. He only rolls over onto his right side and hasn't rolled onto his tummy yet.

This photo has nothing to do with Linus, but you've just got to see it. Our friends, Lynn and Rodney, came over to help us cut the box spring in half so we could fit it up the stairs and into the guest room. Lynn cut slits in the fabric on the sides, Rodney cut the support boards in half, and then everyone helped bend it in half. What a riot!

Life is Good

The heat wave finally ended and it feels so incredibly good to have the windows open and to feel the breeze blowing in. We are having a lot of fun with Linus and are enjoying our lives with him. Linda and Alex invited us to their cookout they were having for their employees. Alex served a huge spread of delicious vegetable dishes and it was a lively crowd. Little Johanna went to bed around 7, but Linus continued partying. He was very sociable and talked Carly's ear off. He had so much fun, he was too wired at his bedtime. He was tired out and fussy, but just couldn't relax to fall asleep until after 10.

He is very generous with his smiles. Baby smiles make people so happy. I love seeing how people respond when Linus smiles for them. I think it probably adds a year to their lives.

Anyone know how Brian can get his pictures of Linus off of his cell phone and onto a computer?

See how Linus has his right arm out? He does this a lot. Seth thinks Linus is signaling a turn.

Busy Summer Days/First Food

Linus has had an action-packed few days! Thursday morning Linus learned how to pull on Miss Cow on his bouncy seat and make her play Old MacDonald Had a Farm. I got so excited, I called Matthew at work to share the news about Linus' new talent. Around noon we met up with friends of mine to have a picnic in a downtown park with a a jazz group playing some great music. Linus had fun walking around with my friend Jeanne, meeting all sorts of new people. That evening Matthew, Linus, and I attended the concert at the Garden. There was a large crowd, with people in their lawn chairs lined up along the path we took to our favorite spot to sit. As we walked by with Linus, I could hear, "Ohhhhhh," as people looked at our adorable child. Made me feel like we were royalty. Or at least Linus was. We chose to attend this event instead of Taste on Broadway because we thought Linus would like it more. He was worn out by the end, but hung in there until we got home to feed him before tucking him in.

On Friday, Linus and I went to help Kristin with canning dilly beans. Linus was a trouper, as was Kristin, since I wasn't particularly helpful while looking after Linus.

Today was the big day: first food. Just as the book described, he made a face, but still swallowed it and accepted more. I figured Matthew should give Linus his first food since I was the first to feed Linus when he was born. We both took a turn spoonfeeding him rice cereal and cheering him on. The first picture is of Linus' first spoonful. As you can see from the second picture, taken several spoonfuls later, he was raring to go. He didn't have any allergic reactions, so Matthew fed him cereal again while I made dinner. He was definitely getting the hang of this cereal business.

Four Months Old

Linus is four months old today. This morning I told him all the ways in which he is different from when he was a newborn: "talks," holds his rattle, puts things in his mouth, "stands" tall, smiles, looks at books, etc. Here is a photo of him doing tummy time. He holds his head up well, but he gets frustrated and crabby.

One year ago today I found out I was pregnant. Wow! What a ride the last year has been. Being a mom is great; being pregnant wasn't so great. Certain smells still remind me of morning sickness. I am overjoyed to have little Linus. He sure is fun.

We didn't get to the Farmers' Market last night. Linus was worn out from tie dying and took a three hour nap, and then it rained really hard so I'm sure the farmers packed up and went home. We were invited to the Garden to tie dye with leftover dye from a class they held Monday. Matthew tie dyed two onesies and a diaper for Linus. They look cool. I'll photograph them on Linus and then post the pictures to the blog sometime in the near future.

Countdown to Cereal

According to the advice given by pediatricians, Linus can have rice cereal as of this Thursday. Over the weekend we put Linus in the highchair to see how he would do with sitting up. With him safely buckled in and the tray in as far as it goes, he sat up quite well. He seems to have the stamina to sit long enough for some cereal. I'm on the hunt for organic rice cereal that isn't by Gerber. I have two places to look. We figure that the best time for his first try at eating is in the morning, since that is when he is the most content. For Matthew to be a part of it, that means waiting until the weekend. I think we need to try sooner because the kid seems hungry. He's started waking up between 4 and 5 a.m. to eat and then goes back to sleep. Breastmilk and formula just aren't doing it for him anymore.

Enjoy these cute pictures. We thought he was looking so big until we put him in the highchair. His little legs are so cute peeking out under the tray. Star, he's in the monkey outfit. More pictures to come!