2nd Year Check Up

Harvey had his visit to the pediatrician last Monday.

23 Pounds 12 Ounces (5-10 percentile)
34 1/2 inches (50 percentile).

I love the expression on his face here. I can't quite figure what it means. Any guesses?

We were told to look forward to "toilet control" after age 3 and that crib days will last for another year before we switch to a regular bed. He also told us that up to 8 oz. daily is PLENTY of milk.

The hard part was that the doctor told us that our next visit won't be for another year! I think we as parents are being "weaned" from doctor visits. I gues our little peanut is on his way!

Toddlerhood is Here to Stay

He's climbing. It's official. We bought him a little table and chairs and the first thing he did was to stand on top of it (and fall off) He's got all four molars and he has learned how to throw a tantrum. Yes folks, he's a real live toddler as far as I am concerned. He has knocked over 2 lamps, broken dishes, ripped pages out of books, and even has phone conversations in a secret language. Everyone in the apartment building knows Harvy. He has been dubbed "King of the Aberwyck" (we'll put that on his resume when he get's older). He is a real pro at getting on and off of his tricycle. And mom is getting to be a real pro at figuring out how to keep him quiet during a telephone conversation. Which takes some real planning and kniving. Pictured here with his new t-shirt from Aunt Theresa from Nicaragua. He's getting kind of chubby!

Getting Into Everything

He never opened the third drawer....until last week!

Please send us your caption for this photo...Winners will be posted soon!

Weaning

Harvey is taking this adjustment like a champ. He's so ready to move on and embrace his independence. He still craves a lot of "snuggle" time which he initiates by jumping into my lap with a book in hand. Mom on the otherhand is definitely feeling the emotional/hormonal turbulence rising up from within. Today marks the 2 week mark of when we commenced the official "weaning" process. It is also the second consecutive day of no nursing. The morning nursing session was the last to go. It was a very sweet family time having our Harvey "sandwich" before breakfast. But now Harvey likes to feed himself oatios and fruit and cheese while enjoying a sippy cup of rice milk instead. It is weird how I can miss my own baby when he is sitting right before my eyes - smiling and laughing as if to say, "I love you Mom! What are you crying about? Oh, and could you please wind up the Jack-In-The-Box again?"

You've Come a Long Way Baby Harvey!

17 Pounds 13 Ounces, 30 Inches

Head Circumference: 17 7/8 inches

He's such a lightweight! Even with the teddy bear in hand he was still in the "blue region" or just under 5% for weight. Height was 50th percentile. Harvey was a completely different baby at Dr. King's office today. He was playing with the toys, pulling EVERY magazine off of the rack and walking around looking for trouble. At one point, while we were in the examination room he managed to grab hold of the liquid hand soap and was blowing bubbles before we could stop him! This week he was upgraded to a new infant carseat and the pediatrician told us we could go ahead and have him sit facing forward. Wow, Harvey, you are really growing up!

Totally Tired

It was really pushing it...taking a flash photo of a sleeping baby. Takes a lot of nerve to do that! Harvey took 74 consecutive steps yesterday. Joe and I watched and counted together. It was a very sweet family moment. The other day Harvey helped me take off his onesie! He has a new game that he likes to play - crashing the melodie bells into one another. He gets such a chuckle out of it. The sound of his laughter could melt the hearts of stone.

Texas Two Stepper

Greetings to our loyal blog-readers! I won't bore you with lame excuses for our extended hiatus. Suffice it to say, Harvey keeps us incredibly busy. Promises to give a complete pictoral representation of H. Sebastian's introduction to Le monde de France will be kept. Today I write to you, gentle reader, to announce that our (not-so-little anymore) peanut has been taking steps independently! It started on the day he turned 10 months - just one step. Joe witnessed 3 steps on Aug 5. This week I captured FIVE steps on the video camera. He still prefers crawling as his preferred method of transportation. I wonder if we should get him a leash? Or maybe a honing/GPS type device? Stay tuned...

Take a Stand

I wasn't able to get a picture of this momentous occasion, but I figured I have to get it blogged in. Yesterday, Harvey was messing around with the dishwasher - one of his favorite toys, along with my computer hard drive, the refrigerator and the vacuum cleaner. I needed to close the door to start the machine. So when I pried his fingers off, I expected him to fall backwards as usual, but this time he stood there on his own two feet, balancing and grunting with deep concentration and pride. I started screaming to the piano tuner, "LOOK LOOK! He's standing by himself!" The tuner didn't seem very excited by this news and didn't get there fast enough to witness this terrific baby balancing act, but those 5 seconds were the most delicious 5 seconds of parenthood to date. Time literally stood still (sorry about the bad pun) To me, it was more exciting than crawling or rolling over or even the day he played his first scale on the piano. (just kidding - just wanted to keep the readers on their toes - oops another bad pun). My mother commented that he will walk before we take off for France. Any bets?

Precious

It's another of those magical pictures. This was actually taken by our friend Jim on New Year's in San Antonio. Harvey was so fragile back then. Here are some of his latest tricks which will require additional childproofing:
1. Pulls himself up to stand in his highchair and rocks back and forth wildly enjoying the sound of the chairlegs bumping against the uneven floor.
2. Opens the cabinet doors
3. Speed crawls when he hears me open the dishwasher and goes right for the drawers which he can roll back and forth.
3. Manipulates the decorative folding screen in the living room (we had to put a heavy basket in front of it so it wouldn't topple on him)
He is also getting wise to the idea that I still exist even when I am not in the room, so putting him to bed at night has opened up a new can of (screaming) worms.
Ah, the joys of witnessing growth and development

"MA MA"

Today he said it; very clearly, and Joe was there to witness it. I was lying in bed coughing like crazy feeling like I wanted to die from whatever bug I have been sick with since Thursday. I was musing over the fact that my voice has been lowered 2 octaves when I heard that little voice scream to be nursed...."MAMA"

Look Ma, One Hand!

Harvey is finally able to balance himself on his four-wheeler. He was so proud of himself! He also took to eating broccoli this week. He'll eat just anything as long as I stir a teaspoon of bananas in the bowl.

Hungry Baby

The book he is eating in the photo was sent from Aunt Rosemary in San Antonio. She and Barbara get the award for having more "baby bait" than anyone else I know. These women adore having babies around and have cribs and toys and books and music and just about anything else that could entice infants AND parents to frequent their homes. What a treat!!!!

Meanwhile our little muncher is eating solid foods three times a day. He also goes through 3 bibs and three onesies a day and requires a hose-down after each feeding! The pediatrician told us to introduce one new food every three days or so. So far we (yes, Joe and I are sampling HS's goodies) have had (in chronological order)
Rice Cereal
Pears
Peas
Sweet Potatoes
Bananas
Oatmeal Cereal
Harvey has managed to chew up lots of other paper goods: catalogues, brochures for Fontainebleau, Business Cards and other items that he is able to grab from my clutches. He is very quick and very strong. Fortunately he doesn't cry when I take anything away from him.(YET!)

12 pounds 12 ounces, 25 2/3 inches

Today the Pediatrician gave us our lesson in sleep and food scheduling for our 4 1/2 month old baby. Up until now the protocol has been feed-on-demand (basically every 3 hours). But today we were given the green light to introduce solid foods into Harvey's diet via spoonfeeding. I felt a little threatened by the mention of rice cereal: "Isn't my milk good enough? I was hoping to breastfeed Harvey until the end of the first year." Dr. King reassured me that Harvey wouldn't give up on mother's milk; that the 3 times a day regimen of cereal, fruits and veggies would be in alternation with breastfeeding. Joe's question raised a different concern: "Will the diapers start to smell?" (For those who are curious, the answer was, "No.")

Growing Like a....Weed

I zippered up a bag containing the Layette Set (that's baby speak for the clothes that an infant wears during the first weeks after birth) and put it away until the next baby comes along. Harvey's legs are just too darned LONG! Everyday I take out a new outfit labeled "6 months" and remark to myself, "Oh, that won't fit him for a while, but I'll try it on him just to see how far he has to go!" And his not-so-little-anymore body just glides right in and hugs him like it was custom tailored. I guess I have some sort of mommy denial syndrome that causes me to see my child through lenses that make him still look like he's that tiny little peanut that we took home from the Birth Center.