Posts tagged teething

Well, I have gotten woefully behind on posting on my blog. Life has happened. The baby is still (STILL!) not sleeping through the night consistantly, and when he actually DOES sleep through, he’s up and ready to go at 6 or 6:30 am. That is, after a night of crying out in his sleep. So needless to say, this mama is still walking around in a sleep-deprived fog. I tell myself that I’ll get my payback when he’s a teenager… haha! (I’m totally kidding. But yet not…)

Sweet baby John is nearly a year old now. A YEAR. How crazy is that? He’s pulling himself up on furniture and starting to cruise around a little. He eats like a man- 13-15 4.25 oz jars of baby food A DAY. I pretty much have to suppliment by making as much homemade baby food as I can to offset the cost. (Baby food is expensive at around 55 cents a container. It adds up!) It’s so much cheaper to make my own. For example, for about $10, I made about $60 worth of baby food. Sweet peas, butternut squash with apples, bannannas, applesauce, pears, and prunes are among his favorite homemade foods. We don’t give him a lot of prunes and pears any more, however, because those definitely work well to loosen up his bowel movements.

He’s still on Stage 2 baby foods. He has a pretty strong aversion to any type of texture whatsoever. Even if I mash something like a teeny tiny piece of bananna and put it in his mouth, he’ll gag and throw up. The pediatrician said this is pretty normal for his age and to start brushing his tongue with a toothbrush twice a day to desensitize him. Oddly enough, however, the tongue-brushing doesn’t bother John at all, and he will even hum while I do it. Crazy baby.

He has about four top teeth and two bottom teeth, with two more starting to poke through on the bottom. And he is chewing on everything! I seriously have to make sure I keep my floors swept because he’ll pick up anything from random bits of debris to tufts of cat fur and put them in his mouth. I always know when this has happened because I’ll hear him start to gag. Once, I even had to stick my finger down his throat and do the “finger swoop” to discover he’d tried to eat a piece of paper which had then gotten stuck in his throat. Oh that baby stresses me out with his eating everything! But one look at his beautiful smile and everything is a-ok.

And look, below is a picture of Nathan I put on this blog about four years ago when he was about the same then age as John is now. Look at how similar they look! I love it! My brother and I don’t look much alike- he looks more like our dad and I look more like our mom. So for me, it’s so cool that my boys look so much a like. They even have the same smile! Handsome little fellas, I tell ya.

Nathan is all-in-all still an amazing big brother, but now that John’s older, Nathan is definitely starting to have his moments. Sibling rivalry, perhaps? I remember picking on my poor sweet baby brother constantly when we were little, so I can’t say what he’s doing is suprising. Thankfully, these moments are still far outweigh by how patient and loving he is towards John. He’s great with keeping John occupied and sharing his toys with him. He’s even “decorated” his brother with stickers!

As for Nathan, he is about to graduate preschool and will be moving on to Kindergarten in the fall. I can’t believe my oldest baby will be in elementary school. He’s doing fabulous in school, and his testing shows he has far exceeded his peers with excellent scores on his academic testing. I’m telling you, this kid is brilliant. The main issues he lags on is still his fine and gross motor skills and social skills, but fortunately, he’s receiving the appropriate help for those at school (due to him having high-funtioning Autism.) Gosh, I sure do love my Nathan.

Oh! And Nathan lost his first tooth!! It was one of his front bottom teeth- the first one he got when he was 6 months old. We noticed it was loose one day, and a few days later, it was definitely ready to come out. I asked Nathan if he was ok with me pulling it out and he exuberently replied with a resounding YES! So I pulled it out. I didn’t even have to pull hard. And Nathan didn’t cry! That night, we put it under his pillow, and since it was his very first tooth that he lost, the Tooth Fairy left him a Lego set along with a little note. He was as proud as he could be. I, on the other hand, found the tooth-loss to be bittersweet. My baby is growing up. And when I look at that little tooth (which I have saved, of course), I am flooded with memories of all the times he bit me, all the baby foods he ate with that tooth, the transition to table foods… it’s hard not to get teary-eyed sometimes.

My boys are the most wonderful things to have ever happened to us!! Even with their moments of bickering, they are practically inseperable. I LOVE it! Wherever you see one, you’ll more than likely see the other. It is my hope and prayer they continue to be close as they grow into adults. Having a sibling is awesome, especially one you’re really close to. Just look at those sweet little faces. We are so blessed to have such amazing kids. Our hearts are full.