Movin' Machine

Unassisted steps with Grandpa

10 months

William is now officially 10 months old! He continues to be a very sweet boy who gets compliments everywhere we go. His current loves include:

Taking a bath. William gets so excited when we turn the water on for the bathtub. He jumps up and down and makes all kinds of noise.

William also loves to play peek-a-boo.

Peek-a-boo

I see you!

William continues to be fascinated with Terra's food and water dishes which is oh-so-fun. He also loves to go up and down the stairs. Who needs a stairmaster when you have a 10-month-old? William is now cruising all over the place and going from couch to table to whatever, as long as it is within arm's reach. He also took his first unassisted step this past weekend. He needs some more work with balance though to get the whole walking thing down. Lily could go from the floor to a standing position (without holding onto anything) proficiently by now, but William has yet to master that skill yet. By far my favorite development is that he is now calling me "mama". He has been saying "ma ma" for a while now, but there was no meaning behind it. Now he clearly uses it to get my attention. I'm pretty sure that he understands who "dada" is as well, and he certainly knows "Lily" and "Terra". It won't be long until he really starts understanding this language thing which is so exciting!

And what has our sweet Lily been up to?

As you could probably tell from the pictures above, Lily has been having fun dressing up her baby brother!

The pop star

America's next Top Chef?

And zebra. :)

My little baby Deetz

Today we had a great Cooking Club gathering. Great food, great people, great times. (Thank you to Carl who willingly volunteered to help clean the house and grill the meats (so manly) for the get-together - he always goes along with my crazy ideas, and I love him for it.) We had seven families attend and had a total of 12 kids scampering through the house! Needless to say, Lily had a grand time. There were a couple of babies William's age as well (both little girls). One of the babies waved good-bye as she left. We were all remarking how impressed we were by this skill at her age. I mentioned that William seemed to have no interest in such things and didn't seem to quite grasp the concept of bye-bye. So naturally, when other guests were leaving later, what does William do? Wave bye-bye - clear as day with a big grin on his face, as if to say, "Oh, yeah? You think I don't get it? Well, I'll show you!" So I stand corrected. And William shows his first sign of being a true Deetz - being underestimated was the only motivation he needed! ;)

Spaghetti!

Hmm...I'm not sure...let's give this a try...

Oh, yeah. Spaghetti's good. Maybe I can get more in if I put my whole fist in there.


I say "yes" to spaghetti!

The clean-up crew arrives


We are slowly introducing regular table foods into William's diet. I think everyone is excited about this next step. William seems to really enjoy regular food, and I can't wait until we can all eat the same thing for all of our meals!

Mini family update

William is really starting to "get" things. Some of my favorite things recently are:

• He tries to put his foot into shoes that are laying around when we are walking with him around the house. (In other words, he gets that shoes are for feet, even though he currently does not wear shoes.)
• He loves pens and tries to "write" on paper whenever possible.
• He continuously tried to put the phone to his ear yesterday.
• We had to lower his crib to the lowest level because he likes to stand in his crib, and he is SO tall!
• His first tooth is FINALLY popping through!!!

Lily getting ready to start Pre-K at her zoned school. I'm really excited about it. Lily just takes it all in stride. I think we have been doing so many different camps, classes, and activities this summer that she just sees it as the next thing. Her teacher came over for a home visit last week that was really nice. The teacher read a book to her about starting school, talked about all the activities they have in school, and made a project with Lily - a picture frame that will hold a picture of our family for the classroom. I was also able to ask her some questions about the program. Overall, I thought it was a very thoughtful way to introduce little ones to their new school and to their teacher. There is also an Open House at the school on Friday, and then she starts on Tuesday! She will only go three days per week in the afternoon, but I feel like this is a big step because it is at her zoned school. Therefore, this is the same school that she will (theoretically) attend for the next 6 years (Pre-K through 5th).

That brings us to the last family update. Carl is currently applying for fellowships for the 2012-13 school year. There are only 2 medical centers in St. Louis that have the fellowship Carl wants (Hematopathology). Therefore, we will apply to medical centers in other cities as well. We are currently looking at 10 different programs in 9 different cities: Bethesda, MD, Memphis, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Seattle, Portland, Ann Arbor, MI, and St. Louis. There are a number of factors that will play into our final decision, but we will hopefully know by Feb, 2011 where we will be. If we end up going to a different city, we will likely rent out our house for the year and then return after the fellowship to look for a permanent job. Carl and I are both up for the adventure. Our only concern was how Lily would handle this, as she would be going into first grade at that time. When I explained the situation to her, in true Lily style, she said that she would prefer to move for the year. It must be in the genes!

9 months

We went for William's 9-month check-up last week, and things are looking great. His stats this time were:
weight - 22 lbs. 2 oz. (75 %)
height - 30.75 in. (>97%)

His recent growth bumped him over his pumpkin seat weight and height limits (22 lbs/30 in) so we moved him up to the big boy seat on Monday! I can't believe that Lily just moved out of this seat about 6 months ago, and William is already in it!

William's fine and gross motor skills continue to improve, and he wants to walk so, so bad. He still doesn't have any teeth, but his hair is slowly growing in, and it looks like we have curls!! Overall, he's healthy & happy and seems to be right on track.

William's latest trick

They're baaack....

Now that William is getting more proficient in his fine and gross motor skills, we have pulled out a lot of Lily's toys from when she was younger. William gives them all two thumbs up!

William definitely has a mischievous side. Whenever we say "no", he smiles or laughs and does the very thing that we did not want him to do. I'm sure that it is reinforced by our giggles and tickles because he is just too darn cute!

Finger-licking good

William is a thumb-sucker - no question about it - and he has been practically from birth. Lily loved her pacifier and never sucked her thumb so this is new territory for us. I'm a little nervous about eventually having to break this habit, but for now, he is simply smitten with that thumb!

8-months and counting

William is now officially 8 months old - wow! I was so much better at giving monthly updates for Lily, but somehow that just hasn't happened for William. Here is the update for now...

At 8 months, William is still doing the army crawl. Lily was crawling on all fours with ease by this point, but the truth is that William gets around just as quickly and effectively as Lily did. So, he may decide to skip the more traditional crawling altogether. He has also only pulled up a handful of times, but he does love to be in the standing position and would like nothing more than to figure out that walking thing.

As far as eating and sleeping goes, if we were at home all day, his schedule would look something like this:
7 am - Wake up and breastfeed
8 am - 4 oz. pureed food
9:30 am - Bottle
9:30 - 11:30 am - Nap
11:30 - Breastfeed
12 noon - 4 oz. pureed food
1:30 pm - Bottle
1:30 - 3:30 pm - Nap
3:30 pm - Breastfeed
5 pm - 4 oz. pureed food
6 pm - Breastfeed
7 pm - Bottle
7 pm - 7 am - Sleep

Of course, we rarely stay at home all day, but his schedule usually is a close variation of this.

William has started a new habit of waking up 1/2 hour after we lay him down for the night. At first, we attempted to soothe and console him but found that our efforts were fruitless. So we now let him "cry it out" for a little while, and he goes back to sleep and stays asleep the rest of the night. It is just one of those mysteries that will probably never be solved.

William's hair has started growing in a little (from the center out). It is hard to tell its true color or to know if it is going to be curly or not. His eyebrows are so light that I think he is going to be a very light or sandy brown, if not blond. I'm really, really hoping for curls but that remains to be seen.

Lily also had teeth by the time she was 8 months, but we we still have no teefers with William. I know that many books say that babies can now handle cooked and finely chopped bits of food, but I am not comfortable with that until he has teeth. So, for now we will stick with pureed fruits and vegetables, although I may start giving him some more roughly mashed bananas or avocados. I like to wait for meats until around 9 months, so that will be coming next month.

As far as toys go, William seems to be drawn to toys that roll - anything with wheels - which is amazing to me. Almost exclusively, William has all the same toys that Lily had as a baby. Yet, he is drawn to the more "boyish" toys. It could be just a difference between children, but there is something to be said about natural gender differences in toy selection.

William continues to be a truly happy baby that will smile for anyone and everyone. He engages people with his eyes in a way that is truly remarkable. We've had several funny experiences in stores with William. In one store, a woman followed us through the store and tried several different ways to get around me and the cart to reach Carl holding William. Then she asked to hold him! In another store, I had a woman grab my arm, look into my eyes, and say very seriously, "You have truly beautiful children." As their mother, I'm not going to disagree, but if you could say it without touching me, that would be great.

William also seems to have something about him that I can only describe as emotional intelligence. I know it may sound crazy, but when I went to pick him up yesterday morning, he could sense that something was wrong with me. He didn't reach out to me and smile like he does every single morning. Instead, he stared at me in a way that almost made me cry. He looked so deeply into my eyes and the concern that I could see in him was amazing. I don't think I'll ever forget his expression in that moment.

One thing is certain. William has captured the hearts of EVERYONE in this family. Because of his consistent, pleasant disposition, it is hard to be around him and not be joyful.

New ways to distract while making dinner

Puffs

Water in a sippy cup

Uniquely William

William is really not much of a crier. When he is unhappy with a situation, he does a funny little tongue roll. It is his very own language created to let us know that his current situation is need of correction. In the video, I had his food out, but he could not reach it and it was not going into his mouth. A very unacceptable situation indeed. William has continued in his eating oddesey without a hitch. New foods we added include: oranges, strawberries, blackberries, pineapple, apricots, zucchini, prunes, grapes, plums, potatoes, and garbanzo beans. We have not found a food yet that William does not like. He is currently eating three squares per day and growing like a weed!

He's mobile!

So William is not crawling yet, but he is officially a "scoocher". As you can see in the video, his scooching enables him to get into everything his little heart desires. Oh boy!!

Happy boy

William is almost always smiling, laughing, or giggling. The most common remark we get from others is, "He is such a happy baby". And he truly is. Even when he is completely exhausted or ready to eat, you can almost always get him to smile. He has such an amiable personality.

The latest development with William is that he started babbling (using syllables such as "da da" or "goo goo") about a week ago. When he first made the "ga ga" sound, even Lily noticed right away. She looked at me and knew something was different from his former cooing. It is so exciting to be in process leading to his first words. We can't wait!

William rolls all over the floor now and can get to anything he desires with his twisting, turning and scooching. His efforts are usually put toward getting to Lily's DVDs - he loves those things! Also, he has an unfortunate proclivity for cords. I know that this is just the beginning of the need for increased diligence in keeping an eye on him...I'm afraid the days of him getting into everything are upon us! Below is a short video of giggly William on Mother's Day.

Adventures of Lily and William

We had a princess birthday party at our next door neighbor's house yesterday that started at 4:30 pm. Lily decided that she needed to start getting ready for the party around 1:30 pm. After playing for a couple hours, she completely passed out and took a little snooze prior to the party.

William has graduated from eating in the Bumbo seat to eating in the high chair!


Lily passed out again, this time after a birthday party last weekend. At this party, Lily got to meet Uniqua and Tyrone from the Backyardigans. It was very exciting.

Lily playing "teacher" after school one day. Her teachers must dress a little differently than mine did. ;)

Lily teaching William the fine art of bubble-blowing.