I'm Going to Start Wearing a Sign

The sign shall read:

*Yes, I'm still breastfeeding.

*No, he's not walking.

*That's cereal under his nose, not snot.

When to Wean?

When MacBaby was one month old, I thought "I am one twelfth of the way done with breastfeeding."

Eleven months later, I no longer have such thoughts. Now that he's well on his way to becoming a foodie, the nursing is more supplemental and not at all bothersome to me.

I'm wondering, do I stick with my plan on stopping at a year, or keep it going?

On one hand, it's really not that big of a deal to keep breastfeeding. MacBaby and I still seem to enjoy the bonding it bring us, and he's capable of enjoying other beverages from bottles, sippy cups and even regular cups. And, when else in our lives will we be able to be that close? When else will I be able to provide for him nutritionally directly from my body?

On the other hand, he's still nursing to go to sleep at night, and I could have a little more freedom during the 7 p.m. hour for all that fun laundry that needs doing.

When do you decide to wean and why?

Drive By Diapering

My child is on the move. This means the changing table is out since he tries to stand up on it while getting his diaper changed.

We change him now on the floor in his room. To say this is a challenge is an understatement.

Frequently, when MacDad is in charge of changing and I'm in our bedroom, adjacent to MacBaby's room, I'll see a streaking baby crawling across the floor. Yesterday, MacDad was charged with changing MacBaby's diaper while I did dishes after lunch. I heard yelling and came upstairs to see a screeching baby standing on his box of diapers and pounding on it, with his diaper half assembled and hanging off his butt. The proud parents just stood there laughing.

Just lying on the floor while we change his diaper, apparently, is not high on MacBaby's priority list.

Any suggestions to make the process more seamless? Or do we just continue to chase after him and pin him down to fasten the diaper?

On the plus side, MacBaby's cruising is proving to be good for my waist line.

All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

I have to imagine that this is what MacBaby is thinking right now, even though he's probably not cognizant of "Christmas" or "teeth." At eight and a half months-old, he has two tiny white specks sticking out of his bottom gums. The development of these buds occurred about two weeks ago.

MacDad and I wonder how his teeth will change his smile and if he'll look goofy with two lone teeth. While I don't obsessively wonder about my son's dental development during my waking life, sometime I dream that he smiles, revealing a whole set of pearly whites. Strange.

In the meantime, he enjoys holding tubes of toothpaste and thinks that when we brush our teeth it's the funniest thing he's ever seen. So, I bought him his very own baby toothbrush. He enjoys chewing on it. Hopefully this leads to good dental hygiene practices. Soon enough, he'll be standing beside us at the sink, brushing his own teeth. For now, we still get a kick out of his gummy grin.

A Budding Bookworm?

MacDad and I are avid readers. Or, at least I used to be.

We introduced MacBaby to books days after he came home from the hospital. Now, he loves them. Banging on them, that is.

MacDad has been reading The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain. Every night, MacBaby grabs the book and tries to beat up Mark Twain.

We try to read Goodnight Moon, which, from adult perspective, is a very strange book, but that's for another post. Instead of listening to the story, MacBaby pounds on the kittens with mittens.

Instead of realizing that MacBaby is at the stage where he likes to bang on everything -- my head included -- I have decided that MacBaby has inherited our love of books.

He also loves to watch MacDad make us dinner, therefore he will be a talented chef. He likes to play with his stuffed whale, therefore he will be a marine biologist. He loves his music class, therefore he will someday shred a mean guitar. He'll sit and watch a baseball game, therefore he will one day win a Golden Glove.

It will be interesting to see, which, if any, of these predictions will come true. In the meantime, it's fun to watch him create his own path in the world. I never knew that, even at seven months, he'd be on his way.

Biology vs. Reality

October is National Work and Family Month and as such there's a lot of talk on the internets about women in the workplace.

An article on MSNBC today remarks that finding childcare falls to the mom, even when both parents work full time. Those in favor of work-life initiatives argue that men need to step up in fighting for the cause. I agree, both parties should be responsible for all aspects of parenting. But, there's one problem -- biology.

Even before our children our born, the balance of power is automatically set up so that women are "in charge" of child rearing. We grow children in our bodies. If we choose to breastfeed, we are the sole providers of nutrition for up to a year. I believe this sets up the inequality that women continue to face as they raise their children.

In a perfect world, I would love for my biology to reign over reality. If I stayed hom, MacBaby would never receive formula, could sleep according to his biological clock and would not be rushed out of the house five days a week when he would prefer more time in his Johnny Jump Up.

But, the reality is, I'm a working mom. I want to invest in my 401(k) and save to help MacBaby with his college tuition. I work now for our family's future.

I hope awareness to these issues will result in more flexibility work environments. The results would benefit moms, kids and dads. I just hope our biology doesn't stand in our way.

What Goes Around Comes Around

Last year, I sported one of MacDad's sweatshirts. The green hoodie, he informed me, had been around since his high school days. At that time, he said, he couldn't have imagined his pregnant wife wearing it.

We have a blanket in our living room I purchased on a whim several years ago at a Pier 1 outlet. The soft, fuzzy and deeply discounted addition is now one of MacBaby's favorites. If you had told me when I bought it that my future six-month-old son would love to languish on it, I would have given you a big eye roll, accompanied by a "whatever."

It's so strange the things we have in our lives that take on new significance as our family grows. I wonder if there's a twinkle in my eye that will some day get a kick out of a rug that we have yet to purchase or a soft sweater we have yet to wear.

Observations and Advice Needed

Don'tcha hate it when your baby is sound asleep and you're awake for no apparent reason staring at him or her (or in the case of some twins him and her)? That happened to me Saturday night. There's nothing like being awake when you really should be sleeping to irritate a person.

In other news, MacBaby is, as his dad tells him every night during dinner, a good eater. So far we have checked off the food list avocados, bananas, carrots, peas and squash. All are quite popular with the little dude, except for the carrots, which we may not have prepare to be mushy enough. Apples are on the menu for later this week. What other foods are baby appropriate to give him? I looked at the baby food jars at the grocery store for inspiration, but these did not yield any new ideas.

Our final issue - saliva. I think MacBaby is teething. He's drooling so much that his chin is getting irritated and turning red. Any advice on how to prevent this? And, what do I put on it after it gets red?

Thank you, in advance, for sharing your parenting expertise.

We Have the Force

Here's a great article from Newsweek about helping minority kids change the perception of what's cool when it comes to education.

In addition to citing a touching story, it reminds me of just how much parents, educators and mentors can shape the minds of the little ones. Parents spend much time talking about how their kids don't listen, but this anecdote proves that sometimes they do.

With this power comes much responsibility. While MacBaby is still little enough that we can curse around him, soon we'll have to change this habit, along with other bad ones. It's daunting to think that your children model their behavior after you. I hope I can do right by him. If the first words out of his mouth are s**t, it will be an indication that I still have some work to do.

Love Hurts

I have made my child bleed twice, both times with the same nasty implement: nail clippers. MacDad believed my "obsession for hygiene" was injuring the dude, but now he's suffering the consequence of letting the little one's fingers grow. The entire MacFamily looks like we own a feral cat. There are tiny scratches all over our faces.

There is no good time to cut MacBaby's fingernails, and, when I actually do find a good time to do it, I still have a hard time ensuring that my work is even and smooth. When he was first born, a nurse recommended I bite them off, which worked for a while. But, now they're sturdier and MacBaby is wigglier.

Any tips for baby manicures? Should I just take him to Beautiful Nails with me?

How Often Should We Bathe Baby?

Since we started Feeding MacBaby rice cereal in the evenings, our lives have become more complicated. The rice cereal-eating has to be coordinated with our dinner. I try to do them at the same time, but inevitably, MacBaby is done eating before we are. This presents a problem since MacBaby is a big mess by the time he finishes his "dinner." There is far more food on his face than in his gullet.

I give him a wipedown, but it would be more convenient to put him directly into the tub, which raises the question in the title of this post. We were bathing MacBaby every other night on the recommendation of the pediatrician. But with advent of rice cereal I feel as though it is now necessary on a nightly basis, lest he go to sleep with rice cereal in his hair.

How often do you bathe your little one? Is nightly too much? An additional question - what shampoo/soap do you use? I was determined not to use these cancer causing agents, but was given them as gifts. I'm planning on switching to organic after they run out.

Working Moms (and Dads) Want to Play Too

I realize I've been posting quite a bit about being a working mom, but just bear with me with this final post on the topic and I'll try to find something else to talk about :)

When I went back to work, I was desperate to find a class or playgroup for MacBaby and I to do together during an evening or weekend. This, it seemed, was an almost impossible task. All fun things for babies and mommies are during the work day. I find this strange for two reasons: 1) I know very few stay at home moms, but these classes are all catered to them and 2) Apparently working dads are incidental in child rearing to early childhood centers.

I finally found one class that I signed up for held one evening a week starting in the fall, but they have yet to confirm my registration due to low participation numbers.

But! MacDad and I successfully took MacBaby to his first parent-child participatory class yesterday - Kidz Rock. The class is geared toward kids zero - five, which turns out to be a fairly substantial age difference. MacBaby was the littlest rocker in the class. He alternated between enthralled and totally freaked. The teacher was all for his participation, though so we'll keep at it. He did get to bang on a drum for a few minutes and seemed to really enjoy that.

Really, it made me feel good being able to take my child to a class that will hopefully be good for his cognitive development and perhaps may lead to him shredding a mean guitar at some point.

Exciting New Developments in the Life of MacBaby

1) MacBaby now recognizes me, smiles and gets excited when I visit him at lunch. Perhaps it's because he knows he's going to eat, but I'll take it.

2) The rice cereal eating is progressing. Last night, in addition to still spitting most of it out, he reached for spoon and was excited to take more bites, which eventually landed on his lap. He is well on his way to becoming a foodie, possibly a master chef.

It's the little things in life. . .

Today is an Exciting Day for the MacFamily Unit

Tonight we're taking MacBaby to the pediatrician for his 4th month checkup. I'm very curious as to whether we'll get the go ahead for solid foods. From what I've read, the little ones start with rice cereal between four and six months. I think MacBaby is exhibiting all the signs for readiness, but I'd be fine with him waiting another two months. He seems perfectly happy and is progressing into infanthood nicely. I don't want to rush things.

This newfound trait - patience - is something I've learned in the past four months.

When MacBaby got home from the hospital, I was anxious for him to put some meat on his bones. I wanted a sturdier baby, one less fragile. But now, the time is zooming by. He smiles and even laughs. He plays in his exersaucer, and gets annoyed when we take him out to play with us. He faces out in his stroller, content to watch the world instead of making eye contact with his parents. He'll be in college before I know it!

So, I'm content for him to exist on breastmilk (and eight bottles of formula per week) for the time being.

By the way, what are the best (actual) books on child development? I feel as though I should have a few more handy as a resource in addition to the all-knowing internets.

Nekkid Time

The New York Times addresses child nudity today, a topic that McDad and I discuss frequently and have set guidelines for.

For instance, we can take pictures of our baby nude and put them in an album, but we do not post them online or share them with others electronically. Someday, he will be a man and may be annoyed that his parents shared pictures of his bits with the world. We're trying to avoid that.

In real life, our child has yet to wear a pair of pants. I've wondered if he should don a pair, but McDad argued that he has the rest of his life to wear pants. Agreed. He will start wearing pants in September when it gets cooler and he's a little older. At nighttime, pajamas are unnecessary. MacBaby sleeps only in a diaper. He seems more comfortable that way and it gives his skin time to breathe. What about airing out his derriere? Unfortunately, he's got to keep tush covered for now as it can explode at any moment.

Funny story about that: soon after we returned from the hospital, McDad decided McBaby needed naked time. I tried to warn him that this was a terrible idea. Sure enough, he got pooped on. Lesson learned.

This topic also alludes to a time in my life which I'm dreading: having to be fully clothed myself. For now, since MacBaby literally survives on a product my body produces, I'm extremely lax about modesty in our household. I will be very sad the day I have to wear clothes around him. When will that happen do you think? Where's the balance between helping your child embrace the natural state and scarring him?

Baby Brains

According to ABC News, researchers believe fetuses at 30 works have some memory. If this is true, then MacBaby will surely recognize the words "ice cream," becuause I said them quite often at that point in my pregnancy.