June and Then Some

I bet you're wondering how busy a 7/8 month old can really keep us.  Me too.

June was quite a busy month for us; we got to see all of our immediate family and one had to leave home once!  That's right we saw alllllll the Fosters and alllll the Rambergs.  Even have a few photos to prove it.

We had a blast during Grama, Aunt Dani and cousins Audrey and Drew's, visit at the beginning of the month.  We struck out around town and just hung around the neighborhood.  Eamon loved getting to play and watch his older cousins, while his cousins enjoyed feeding him and having him in their laps.  It made for a full apartment, but everyone had a good time.

About a week after they left we hit the road to Philadelphia to see my brother ordained a rabbi and celebrate this achievement and Aunt Ali's completion of her PhD.  We were so proud and so excited to be there to take part in such amazing accomplishments.  Babies abounded (Ali's sister and brother both had babies weeks from Eamon) and so did the chaos of traveling with a wee one.  During the following week in the Poconos let's just say our nights were punctuated with more frequent crying and nursing and our days consisted of numerous cat naps of sheer exhaustion.  We did, however, LOVE meeting our nephew, Max, and getting to see our niece Tina "hold hand" with Eamon and love him up generally.  It was a pleasure to get the family time in since we've missed the last two Thanksgivings when we usually are all together.

And then, at the end of the month, we had the pleasure of hosting Grandad for a weekend.  

We adventured out to a couple of parks with sprinklers, but Eamon didn't really want to get close to any of it.  Instead he preferred splashing around on our porch with glasses of water and "playing" with the elephant watering can (which, as you can see became putting his mouth all over the spout and drinking from it). 

We're feeling pretty luck that we got to see everyone!

The biggest news outside of all the visiting is Eamon's teeth!  The count is up to 8.  So many adorable toothy grins these days.  He's also making lots more sounds, eating tons of different foods (excepting dairy and wheat.  sigh.  A trip to the allergist revealed he's allergic to wheat.  Bye-bye carbs for momma), and sitting and playing quite contentedly in one place.  Yes, that's right, our baby seems to have no interest in moving around and that is just fine by us.

Our Perfect Little Storm

What can I say?  I'm finally, 6 months in, starting to accept that my new constant is change.  Eamon was going a long just fine and dandy, loving his sweet potatoes, when a week and half ago he got his first virus.  Many pathetic hours of cuddling ensued.  Then he started teething again.  (Number 2 is now visible!)  And I'll be darned if he isn't in the middle of a growth spurt and nursing all the time.  He's also decided that 6 am is a perfectly decent time to wake up for the day.  Which means his first nap is at about 8 am.  (What??  Who naps at 8 am?)  Eamon does  - and most days so do I.  Then I had some chocolate Tofutti ice cream and it became very clear that Eamon's skin gets real irritated when I eat soy, so we're dealing with his skin discomfort again and my renewed effort to deprive myself of every enjoyable food.  But wait, there's more: he's dealing with some intense separation anxiety.  And he seems to have lost some interest in eating solid foods....


Don't even get me started on my theories of how this is effecting his sleep.  And my sleep.  Sigh.


Of course this was all timed perfectly with Gramberg's visit.  It took until the last day of her visit, her 4th here, for Eamon to let her hold him for an extended amount of time without whining helplessly and making desperate eye contact with me or Rory.

The hardest part for me throughout all of these milestones is feeling out of sync with Eamon.   I look forward to getting back into a rhythm with him.  Or at least being a little more confident of how to respond to his needs and wants.  


Anyway, it's a good thing swinging makes everything better.

Trips to Dad's work are great too!

Wearing spiffy caps and sucking on apples can cheer anyone up.

In other news we're (or maybe just me) trying to come up with a good nickname for our dear baby.  I shower this kid with many terms of endearment, but none that are viable, life-long nicknames.  There's no rush, I know.   I come from a nicknameless family so I'm concerned about my skills in identifying and cultivating a nickname.  Thus we're recruiting some help.  A couple friends have made some suggestions we're considering....  Smalls (as in Biggie Smalls because Eamon's big), Cheeks (because Eamon's cheeks are SO awesome to pinch, even when their a little red and speckled due to allergies), Amy (because that's how Eamon's cousin Tina says his name at 22 months), and Dizzy (because many of the sounds he's been making recently sound like a trumpet).  I'm not sold on any of them so the search continues....  This could be your chance to (sort of) name my firstborn child!

And Now the Numbers

Eamon weighed in at 17 lbs 5 oz and measured 27.75 inches.  His head was 43 cm around.  The weight and head are at the 50th% mark and length is 75th%.  We're thankful for his medium-sized head as I had an enormous head as a child, so much so that my parents decided to take me to the doctor to get it checked out.  Anyway, here's Eamon looking so smart playing at the doctor's office!  (Don't those things look like some old fashioned intelligence test?  Clearly he's acing it.)

If you look closely you can see the redness on his arms... and legs, cheeks, ankles, belly....  When Dr. Callahan walked in the room the first thing she said was, "He's a poster child for eczema!"  We're so proud.  Sigh.  His irritated skin is why I'm eating dairy free (a true testament to my love if you know how much I adore ice cream) and that has helped lots, but not all the way.  Rather than go gluten and soy free and starve to death, this visit our doctor gave us some prescription strength hydrocortisone cream.  She also recommended a mixture of shea butter and eucerin as his twice daily lotion.  We had a funny/awkward moment when she asked if we knew where to get shea butter.  I paused because I wasn't sure if she meant, "Do you know that this is something from Africa and that black people use it as moisturizer so you should look in the 'specialty' section where products for black people are usually relegated?"  Or if she simply was asking if we knew where to find it....  Anyway, the mixture of lotions and creams is doing the trick and for what seems like the first time in months Eamon's looking clear-skinned and scratching himself less!  Yippee!  Like most semi-hippy moms I've got some reservations about smearing my baby with steroids, but its effective, my baby's more comfortable, and our doctor was all about stopping using the cream as soon as his skin cleared.  

In the last weeks we've discovered some new activities that Eamon likes.

1) swinging

2)  putting everything in his mouth/dancing.  Can you guess our current favorite?

3) eating sweet potatoes.  Grilled sweet potatoes, no less.  We're trying to develop a sophisticated palate early on....  And for this one I've got another poem for you:

sampling solids

smacking on sweet potatoes

mom's tasting freedom

6 months!

Yesterday Eamon turned 6 months old!  His first half birthday!  

Who knew less sleep, a messier house, and more worry would feel this amazing?  Love that baby.

Eamon was at daycare yesterday or I imagine I would have done a full 6 months photo shoot.  His smiles are a little fewer and farther between these days - he's sort of miserable due to his bitty teeth coming in.

And just to prove how much he's grown....

We head to the doctor tomorrow so we can add some stats to the picture evidence of growth.

Well, it's been awhile.  Sorry.

Eamon's great.  And here are some pictures to prove it.


We're starting solid foods.  So far we've had bananas, sweet potatoes, and avacado.  And, as his Gramberg noted, "he wears it well."  The sweet potatoes were the favorite so far, but that might be because they were cold and his coordination improved that little bit so he was getting more in his mouth.  

And just because I like this picture, here you go:

Eamon's inspiring to me in many ways.  Inspiring me to be a better person, make the world a better place, etc, etc.  But most recently, and perhaps superficially, he's been an inspiration from some poetry.  Haikus to be exact.  Here's the latest:

Slobber everywhere

Sucking on my lower lip

My teeth have arrived

I wrote one last week about sleep:

Way too late at night

Them babies make us work hard

Sleep, perchance to dream

I may just write a haiku a day.  And you can all thank little Eamon next time you see him.

And a Happy Belated Valentine's Day to You...

Just one of the many Valentine's Eamon received, this one from Aunt Alice! Take your pick - serious valentine or smiling valentine - either way you win.

Feet!

Who doesn't love feet? Well, if you know me, you'll know the answer to that question is: me. I think they're gross and sweaty pretty much all the time, no matter what. The few of you whose feet I've touched or allowed to touch me should take that as a sign of how much I love you.

Now Eamon's feet, that's a different matter entirely! I tickle and touch those piggies and great round heels and arches. I marvel that they will hold him up one day, sooner than I can imagine, I suppose. I play "this little piggie" and "head, shoulder, knees, and toes," and place his beautiful feet all over my face (gasp!) and give them kisses. He seems to love his feet a lot too, staring at them lots and curling right up into an adorable baby ball, toes, feet or legs held tight or reached for by his little hands. We've even started doing some diaper free or disposable diaper time to facilitate his new found need to get his lower half wiggling. But I digress. With smiles like these when you kiss his feet, who wouldn't be a converted feet lover?