Seth 32 Weeks

Dear Seth,

You are 32 weeks old now and I'm getting exhausted. I'm going to switch to a prenatal with iron in it to see if that helps a little. Like you would care. Anyway, your mobility has improved literally leaps and bounds in the last week. You are ALL over the place. You see something across the room and you can actually GET IT! Your crawl is more of a "dive forward, then crawl with one leg, then push with the other foot, then sit up, repeat" but you can do it all day. For about a week you got a bit of a rug burn on your forehead from face planting so often, but you've got a lot more control now and it has faded away. Then when you get to the side of the couch, up you go, just like you've been doing it your whole life. I watched you today get into your first "mischief" in which you pulled up on the entertainment center and started grabbing stuff and throwing it to the ground. Just some empty DVD cases and the box my phone came in thankfully. There is going to need to be some serious baby proofing done in the coming weeks, I cannot put it off any longer.

Your sleep has definitely suffered as a result of your discovery of movement. You just want to wake up or stay awake to practice all the time. Even when you're clearly tired and fussing and moaning with your eyes closed in my arms, you're still trying to sit up and as soon as I lay you down you roll over and up you go into a sort of downward dog position, but with your forehead on the mattress. I know that pose has its own name actually, but it's not coming to me at the moment.

You are content now as long as you have FREEDOM. You're impatient in the stroller and in the high chair so I need lots of distractions while I feed you, especially if it's not something you're a huge fan of (like edamame or peas). The other day daddy juggled and you stared at him and dutifully opened your mouth while I hurriedly shoveled your dinner in. My tri weekly running is going to come to a halt as well if I can't figure out how to entertain you in the stroller because you only last now about 15 minutes before you start crying. But set you down in the middle of an empty room and you're ecstatic! You flap your arms with glee and LAUGH at just about everything these days. You LOVE to bounce and finally got the hang of the Johnny Jump up, which is a relief. If only there were a doorway in the kitchen to hang you in. But you're happy there for a bit while I get dressed or tidy up my bedroom. No longer can I just stick you in the middle of the bed because in half a second flat you will be diving face first off the edge to the ground.

Another one of your latest tricks is flipping over on the changing table. I'm starting to have to wrestle you to get your diaper changed or your pajamas on. You're going to be learning "no" pretty fast.

Next week we are taking your first trip TO THE OCEAN! Yaaaayyyyyyyy! This is a trip I look forward to all year long. On Saturday morning bright and early we are taking you to Seaside, OR for a week. It's going to be a long drive to get there, especially because I'm not sure how happy you'll be hanging out in the car seat for that much time. But once we get there I am sure you will be fascinated by the wind and waves and sand and seagulls and crabs, not to mention a whole new big house to explore. Can't wait!

Love,
Mama

On a completely different note

If you follow my blog because you want to see what Seth is up to, this post is not for you.  It really has nothing to do with him, aside from the incidental fact that I'm his mom and these are my thoughts.  My blog, my rules.

First of all, I discovered Aveeno shampoo this past week and it is A-mazing.  For some reason ever since I've been showering in the downstairs bathroom when I get out my hair is all matted, I think maybe because of the angle of the shower head, but who knows.  Since childhood I have had this hatred/fear of combing through wet tangled hair, so I've also been using CHI Keratin hair mist as a detangler slash leave-in conditioner.  My hair has been SUPER silky ever since starting this regimin and I can't stop running my fingers through it.  So thought I'd share that in case any of my female "bleaders" are in a hair product rut they've been looking to escape from.  Or male ones I guess, if there are any.  Eric did jokingly whine that his hair was super soft when I told him he better keep his mitts off my shampoo and go get some VO5 for himself.  ;)

The road that is immediately adjacent to my parking lot at work is closed due to some utility work, but local traffic obviously is ok.  So of course this means people think they can just swerve into oncoming traffic in order to get around the sign.  Hello, am I invisible?  Also, there are two lanes that turn from 3rd Ave eastbound onto the freeway, but you have to cross 2 other lanes in order to get to the on ramp.  For some reason people in the outside lane always think they are the only car on the road so they cut me off on the inside 90% of the time.  Thankfully my cat like reflexes enable me to avoid accidents there on a weekly basis.

I've mentioned a couple of times that we (Seth and I) have been working our way through a Couch to 5k program, which if the name isn't explanatory enough, is a training program designed to get you off "the couch" to running a 5k.  Clever, right?  So I've been using this app on my droid to guide me through the process and the latest version of the app allows me to automatically post to Facebook when I complete a session.  Who cares, the point is that yesterday one of my BFs asked if I was going to run in a marathon.  Which is really funny because that very day, or maybe the day before, I had been pondering that EXACT question as I was driving along on my way home from work.  It's like she read my mind!!  To make a long story short, the answer of course is an emphatic "NOT LIKELY!"  So you can stop reading now if that's all you needed to know.

But since this is my blog I will continue with the long story.  Like I said, the other day which I'm pretty sure now was Monday because how this all came about was that as I was driving home I was actually looking forward to my run, which is SO weird because I've always hated running and thought runners were weird and used to say things like "I'm not a runner" and "I don't run" whenever someone would ask if I wanted to go running.  Wow, was that ever a run-on sentence (HA HA!!).  Anyway.  So I was also thinking to myself "how far do I actually want to be able to run?"  Marathon?  Out of the question.  I still think marathon runners are kind of weird (no offense).  I mean, seriously, even if you run a 7 minute mile, which is pretty freakin' fast, a marathon still takes more than 3 hours.  THREE HOURS!!!!  That's just silly to me.  The reason I am running is A) it is good exercise and B) it makes me feel good.  Three hours to me is an excessive period of time to be exercising at a stretch.  I don't have that kind of time.  And if I can get the same "feel good" benefit in 30 minutes then really what is the point?  So even a half marathon I thought is probably not on my radar. 

Even I'm getting bored now with this post, so time to wrap it up.  What I settled on for my immediate goal is the Turkey Trot, which is a Thanksgiving Day "fun run" 5k.  I should be done with the Couch to 5k program by early September and then after that I can work on running faster.  Not sure yet what my goal is in terms of speed but I'm thinking probably in the neighborhood of a 9ish minute mile.  That would make me feel somewhat respectable.  I've also set my sights on Bloomsday 2011, which is May 1st and is 12k.  I decided that's my max.  If I can run Bloomsday, or at least finish in about 90 minutes, I'll be happy.  Sorry Seth (OMG there he is again!!), if you're pushing a stroller in Bloomsday you have to walk or you're disqualified and banned for life, so you'll have to sit this one out or convince Nana or Auntie Natalie to push you.

Seth 31 Weeks

Dear Seth,

You are 31 weeks old today. You crawl. You scoot. You roll. You pivot. You sit up. You stand up. You fall down. You're officially mobile.

Here you are pulling yourself up on the side of the crib.



And the result:


Note the above was an accidental photo, it's not like I watched you fall down and thought "oh gotta get that on camera!" My intention was really to take a picture of the proud look on your face, but it all went horribly wrong and I just happened to be snapping a picture right when you lost your grip. I swear I dropped the camera in the midst of the ensuing screams and picked you right up. You made a miraculous recovery and will live to pull yourself up again.

You are BUSY BUSY BUSY. You don't stop moving until you fall asleep, which you do sometimes mid crawl. So CUTE!!



I love you mucho little dude.

Love,
Mama

Seth 7 Months

Dear Seth,

At 8:17am on a Tuesday, just 7 short months ago, you came into this world. You gave us all the biggest fright when you didn't cry at first because you couldn't breathe. Thankfully we were in a hospital with doctors and nurses close by, who sprung into action, got your oxygen going and to this day you still hardly ever cry. I was just looking at some of your newborn pictures and I cannot believe my eyes. Your legs were soooo skinny! And your pacifier took up like half your face! You were just a helpless little blob who stared blankly at me during the brief moments of calm in between endless hours of sleeping and eating. So much has changed. Now you are big, and strong, and you've got personality!

To date your longest stretch of sleep at night has been 7.5 hours. You still wake up usually twice to eat and maybe twice more just to fuss. Daddy does a good job fielding them all and I help out a bit with the eating part. Lately your fussing is mainly due to your ability to sit up, but then not lay down again and get comfortable. It's like you wake up and say to yourself "let me just try this one more time real quick" and up you go. "Oh shoot, now what? Whaaaa!" Either that, or like you did the other day, you'll tip over and bang your head on the side of the crib and end up wedged in the corner. Those screams got me up to your room in a jiffy! Naps - still 2 or 3 a day, depending on what else we have going on. We're back to a bit of a power struggle at nap time but I do find you're much happier if I rock you for a little while before laying you down. I know I run the risk of getting you too used to it... but I kinda like it, it's the only time you're snuggley. Meh. I'm pretty sure I won't have to come down and rock you to sleep in your dorm room, so it's all good.

You do. not. like. peas. It's one of the only things I've given you so far that you stopped opening your mouth for. You've had other stuff where you made faces and scrunched up your forehead a bit, but down the hatch it went. Peas, not so much. You take after your mom I guess, I hate them too. Another trait you have that resembles Mama is that it takes you awhile to wake up. After your naps and in the morning you are quiet and glassy eyed for about 5 minutes staring around with a very serious look on your face. You won't crack a smile for anything. Then it's like a switch flips on and the motor starts running. You start yelling (yes, Y-E-L-L-I-N-G) and babbling and smiling and trying to 'git' stuff. It's pretty cute.

Let's see... speaking of yelling... no longer can we take you to a restaurant and have a peaceful meal while you gaze in silent open mouthed wonder around the room. Last weekend we had dinner at the Spaghetti Factory and they seated us downstairs in a smallish dining area, which was lame. You sat in the high chair and yelled at the top of your lungs. Not the whole time mind you, but a lot. You weren't crying or being bratty or anything like that, just enjoying the sound of your own voice. It made me sweat a little bit but it was also then easier to shovel food into your mouth. Next time we're going to Red Robin, you might blend in more there.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Grandpa's house and went swimming, again. You love the water. I even dunked you under a few times and other than a very surprised look on your face and some sputtering, you didn't seem to mind. We also went to the park last week and went for a ride on the swings. You liked that okay but it wasn't the huge hit I thought it would be. I think you had more fun after I sat you down in the grass.

We did have to lower the crib mattress this week. I came in and you were sitting up holding on to the bars, pulling on them (and knocking your head against the rail). I thought it is way too risky just hoping you'll learn to pull yourself up when we're there to supervise. So down it went. You can push yourself up to standing now with some assistance, so it's probably a good thing. Today when I came home from work you were in the middle of the floor surrounded by pillows and your dad was just watching you struggle to stand up. It's like you had decided crawling was too much trouble so maybe you'd try a new strategy. There's no way you're gonna walk soon though, you've got a lot to learn when it comes to balancing on those little feet.

This week you got the second cold of your life. This one wasn't as bad as the first one and it ran its course in just about 4 days. It started with a runny nose and sneezing and ended with a few coughs here and there. Not a lot of marathon naps like last time so it must have been pretty minor. You were only slightly less pleasant than usual.

Still just the two teeth on the bottom so far. But I suspect we'll be seeing some others pop out of nowhere any day now. For a few weeks there it seemed the drool slowed way down but today I noticed the faucets were back on full blast. And you are kind of a fussy butt sometimes.

Well it is wayyy past my bed time, so I best be wrapping this up. Tomorrow we're heading out for one more weekend at Grandpa's house and then in another week you'll be spending the night ALONE at Nana and Grandpa Haynes' while Mama and Daddy go to the Yakima Valley for a hospital benefit dinner and dance, and perhaps some wine tasting as well. Mama is a little nervous about leaving you with someone other than Daddy for a whole 24 hours, but also excited about the potential for uninterrupted sleep.

Love and kisses,
Mama

My little monkey

So the latest is that Seth can push up to a sitting position on his own. Today when he woke up from his nap I went in there and he was sitting up in his crib crying. He stiffens his whole body and screams as loud as he can, it's hilarious... and not. So now I'm sure his sleep will be disrupted by his need to wake up and practice crawling and sitting up. I had to take the mobile down off the crib because he can reach it now. And pretty soon we'll have to lower the mattress since he can almost pull himself up on stuff. Just when my back was starting to feel normal again.

Seth meets Steve Zahn

So on Monday we were out doing our Couch to 5k run and who did we happen to see? Steve Zahn! You may know him from Reality Bites, That Thing You Do, or Riding in Cars with Boys, or You've Got Mail, or more recently Management with Jenifer Aniston, or my personal favorite, Saving Silverman - "Before Judith, our fun level was at an all time high. Ninety-three, it is now an eight." Anyway. So...apparently he is in town filming his latest movie. On Monday I was kind of kicking myself for not stopping him to get a picture or something so I decided since I was going running again today I might as well go at about the same time again, on the same route. I actually walked from Gonzaga into downtown and did some shopping and then came back a totally different way. But as luck would have it, on my way across the bridge back to the Gonzaga campus I looked up and THERE HE WAS AGAIN! I couldn't believe it and mustered up the courage to stop him. At first he was like "WHAAAT?" (he had headphones on). But then he was totally cool and even turned the stroller around so that the sun would not be behind them while I took the picture. Then he said something about what a fun age Seth was and how he missed those days (some fan I am I did not even know he had kids!!) and I thanked him and we ran our separate ways. At one point Seth actually was looking at the camera and smiling, but my dumb phone is slow so this is what I got. Either way, AWESOME!

P.S. In the picture I am pretty sure Seth was trying to grab Steve's iPod. That would have been funny.