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I was anxious about today’s visit since the weekend. I feel so badly when they have to poke and prod my baby. Maddox was already a little cranky today because the appointment was smack dab in the middle of his morning nap time. Back when we made the appointment he wasn’t on any sort of schedule yet. Now we know better, and his 6 month check-up is before his nap time. He was a trooper today, none the less.

This time, I remembered to write out a list of all the things I wanted to ask the pediatrician.

Freezing, thawing breast milk
Face scratching
Teething & when to use Tylonol
Solid Foods
Boogie extraction

I have several bottles worth of breast milk frozen. Last week or so I decided to pull the oldest one out and thaw it to see how the baby liked it. I thawed it slowly in cool water. It ended up smelling fishy. We have nothing fishy in the freezer, so something happened during the freezing or thawing process. I thought that maybe it was just old, so I thawed the most recent bag. It too was fishy smelling. They didn’t smell sour or rancid like bad milk, but they did have some sort of funk going on. We figured it was probably not bad, but instead of chancing it, I just tossed both. Today the pediatrician said that it was most likely not bad, and if the baby takes it, then its fine. She said the baby won’t drink bad milk. That is kind of what we figured, but I’ve only got one baby and lots of milk. Better be safe than sick.

Face Scratching – part of life. Deal with it and try to minimize it.

Teething & Tylenol – she advises against Tylonol until the discomfort becomes fairly bad. Start with cold teethers for numbing. Oragel #1 doesn’t work.

Solid Foods – wait until 6 months. or 5 1/2 mo. with total head control. Rice cereal with breast milk.

Boogie Extraction – she squirted saline water up each of his nostrils until he blew it out. The GIANT sticky boogie flew out and stuck to his porcupine onsie. It looked uncomfortable, but very effective. She sent us home with a couple more saline sticks for future baby torture.

Stats:
Weight 18lb 14.3 oz (100 %)
Height 25 3/8 in (75 %)
Head Cir 16 in (41 1/2 cm) (25 %)

We knew we had a big baby, but holy cow! His weight was off the charts! When pressed to give me a percentile number she said 100. Crazy.

Did I mention he was 100th Percentile for Weight???! OMG.

We had a little dinner party at Rob’s house this past weekend.
The menu: Homemade, hand-cut pasta with Braised Chicken, lacinato kale and wild mushrooms. Apple Pie

Every week now Maddox is changing and growing more into a little boy. Recently added to his repertoire are grabbing, laughing out loud, holding toys, putting things in his mouth, and being distracted while nursing.

The behaviors begin slowly, then all of a sudden something clicks and he does it all the time. Like grabbing. Only recently did he start reaching for things and sort of, kind of, holding them (if you helped get his fingers around the toy), but he didn’t seem to understand what he was doing. At the early stages of reaching he wouldn’t even open his fist, just sort of hit the intended object. Now, only a week later he is reaching for, and picking up his plastic ring toys [Thanks Juniper!], and whapping them around. He is also more deliberate when hitting the bears on his chair.

Yesterday in the car he accidently dropped/threw his rings. He started complaining (and loudly). Eventually I figured out what the problem was, and handed him a new toy (since I was driving and could not reach the rings from under my seat). He was again happy. To me, that was a milestone! Him enjoying a toy, and noticing when he no longer had it, and wanting it back. It was him being aware of his surroundings. My little worm baby is officially gone. I love where Maddox is at now, but I already miss him being a little baby. They really do grow up so fast!

He is a very distracted nurser theses days. Like many things to come, it is both funny and annoying at the same time. He stares at my new CC Skye necklace, tugs at my shirt, kicks his legs, and looks at me and giggles. Every distraction results in him un-latching. Gotta say my nipples are really taking a beating! but whatever…

Today Maddox was in a great mood and full of energy. He likes to sit. A lot.
It’s pretty much his favorite thing to do. He likes to be pulled up by his hands into the sitting position. Now he’ll sort of reach out and grab on to my fingers when I hold them out for him, then he immediately tries to sit up. When lying on his back or in his car seat he leans forward pulling himself up from his chest and his neck and head. He doesn’t get very far on his own, but he works really hard at it and will be a great sitter some day. At this stage he is considered a “pre-sitter”.

It was funny the first time several weeks ago when he first tried to sit up in his car seat. He and I were driving, and I looked back in the mirror and saw him slunched over and crooked in his seat. I thought “uh-oh, the baby fell over”, and I reached back and tried to push his body up in his seat. I was met with resistance! I soon realized he was doing it on purpose and using his tiny little muscles to try to sit up!

These photos were from today when we were reading books. I had him sort of sitting up with a pillow on the far side in case he started to teeter over. I like to be able to see his facial expressions when I read to him, so now I have him sit next to me instead of on me. It’s difficult to tell sometimes if he is excited or totally over stimulated and cranky. Turns out it is always excited, but its hard to tell without looking.

He sort of, kind of turned a page all by himself! I was very excited. 😎
He was totally into the book Peek-A Who? that our neighbor gave him when he was born. I think it will be a hit for a while to come.

For years I’ve dreamed of going to the Sound of Music Sing-a-Long-a at the Castro Theater. I just found out that there are two more nights of it. I’m trying to figure out if its doable with a 3 month old. Perhaps I’ll buy tickets for tomorrow night and if its too loud then we can leave. Hrmmm…. Sounds fun!

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed a spectacular meal with my parents at Michael Mina in San Francisco. Delish!!

We started off with a bottle of Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose (one of my favorite celebratory wines). Then with dinner we shared a bottle of  1983 Château Margaux that my father brought up from his cellar. 

This is was what I ordered:

Pork ~ Terrine, Belly, Short Rib
• Tête de Cochon, Foie Gras, Cornichon Gelée
• Frisée au Lardon, Quail Egg, Sherry Mignonette
• Bourguignon, Forest Mushrooms, Potato Gnocchi

Brandt Farm Beef ~ Steakhouse Sides
• Filet Tail, Sweet Carrots, Béarnaise Reduction
• Short Rib, La Ratte Potatoes, Natural Jus
• Dry Aged Rib-eye, Forest Mushrooms, Sauce Bordelaise

Quince ~ Fall Spices
• Membrillo, Sablé, Spiced Yogurt
• Orange Blossom Doughnuts, Cardamom, Quince Jelly
• Cobbler, Frangipane, Ginger Ice Cream

(It didn’t seem worth waking the baby up for the photo)

When Maddox was born we purchased a Boppy Travel Swing, and a Bjorn Bouncy Chair. Up until recently we primarily used the swing. Now that Maddox is more aware, and has better muscle control, he seems to really dig the chair.

While I was in with the dentist being tortured, Dallas and Maddox waited patiently.

Here are some crappy (but cute) iPhone photos of Maddox. 

An afternoon at Downtown Disney…

Dallas’ company had their holiday party at Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney, a place I never knew existed before. I had a good time seeing all my friends, but left the whole Disney compound left me feeling generally unimpressed and overspent. I am pretty sure I would have felt differently had I actually gone to California Adventure or Disneyland itself. But we just rolled in Friday and back out on Sunday. 

Maddox and I at the lunch table:

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel Christmas Tree:

The family arrives tomorrow and we are all ready with our sparkly tree and wrapped gifts!  Merry Christmas everyone!