Rex walks and mingles

Its official, Rex is walking....not all the time and not without falling. But I think its safe to say that Rex started walking at 11 months. I've been trying to capture a good video of this, but its hard because he usually only takes 3-4 steps before sinking to the ground. He is much faster at crawling, so he still favors that for getting around.

Wipeout for toddlers

Last weekend, Fay and I were walking back from swimming class when we noticed there was to be a little street fair right by our apartment. The local school was holding a fundraiser...with bouncy houses, face painting, and crafts among other distractions. I thought the bouncy houses looked a little advanced for Fay because sometimes she is shy about trying new things -- especially if there are a lot of kids already crowding up the place. But she LOVED the one that was an obstacle course. It reminds me of a TV show called Wipeout where they make adults run through various obstacles with the intention of knocking them on their butts.

Cruising

Yes its been waaaay too long since I've posted anything. I have a ton of photos and videos that I should have posted. But I'll try to be somewhat current. Ryan and I went away for a kids-free vacation at the end of March. We left Fay and Rex with their two grandmas. When we left, Rex was trying to crawl, but mostly just spinning around on his belly. When we returned, he was a crawler! I believe I told my mom "some babies just don't crawl" and she may have taken this to be a challenge. From what I hear, she worked baby Rex the entire time we were gone....taunting him with a stuffed bunny..."Rexie..don't you want the bunny". Moving the bunny just as it came within his reach.

A couple weeks later he was pulling himself up, and now he is full on cruising. It won't be long before we have a walker. Here is one of his first pull-up moments:

Rex's first tooth!

I though Rex was teething starting at 4 months because he's been putting everything into his mouth since then. I'm not sure if he really started that early, but the final results are in. Rex has his first tooth. It has broken through on the bottom right side of his mouth (his right). And now it actually hurts when he grabs my finger and gnaws on it. He also turned 7 months yesterday.

Time is definitely going faster with Rex than it did with Fay when she was a baby. And now that I'm back to work, it will go by even faster. I must remember to take plenty of pictures and videos.

Here's a good one. Rex was being super chatty and noisy, so I decided to make a video. Then it turned into a completely different video....He's been a little stopped up from the new formula.

Back to Work

Next week I will return to work, part-time. I was freelancing before Rex was born, so I'm not returning to the same company. The job search took me about a month and the nanny search took me about 2 weeks. And now, it seems a little surreal that I will be working next week and leaving my little baby boy with a nanny for three entire days! When I returned to work after Fay was born it was earlier than I would've liked. Fay was only 4 1/2 months old. This time I had the luxury of getting to the point where I want to return to work. I crave the stimulation and I am itching to leave the house. Rex is almost 7 months old. But that doesn't mean I'm not sad about the decision. I've been breast feeding Rex since he was born so we've been attached at the hip. Of course I've had my moments away, but never longer than one feeding. So it will feel very strange to be away for 8 hours that first day.

We've been weening this weekend -- yesterday and today I missed one feeding. Tomorrow I will skip two feedings and Tuesday I will go to work. I had some anxiety about him accepting formula instead of my milk. But he is a hungry guy who likes to eat and he had NO PROBLEM with the formula. Pretty funny.

I don't feel all that stressed really. However this morning I woke up with the most painful jaw. I think I must've been grinding my teeth in the night -- no doubt related to this big change. I could barely eat my breakfast this morning it hurt so bad to chew.

I'm really happy with the nanny choice. I think I've gotten really good at this interviewing thing. I used two websites that specialize in child care. I talked with maybe 6 girls and brought three into my home. And one was the clear choice. The qualifications are the easy part -- does she have experience and good references. The hard part is finding someone that I like and can invite into my home every morning. The new nanny, Stephanie, and I ended up talking for two hours during her interview because we were waiting for Rex to wake up from an unusually long nap. So I got to know her really well. We had surprisingly few awkward silences for strangers.

I'm also really excited with my job choice. I will be working for http://playphilo.com They make an iPhone app -- but I will be doing Java on the back end. And since I am part time they have said that I will be doing little independent projects. Which sounds perfect. Autonomy, seniority, part-time. Hopefully its as ideal as it sounds!

Rex wants to be three and Fay wants to read!

Its hard to be a second child. I should know. :) Rex seems be to suffering from a case of the want-to-be-three-s. He has never been fond of tummy time. He cries almost immediately, and from about 4 months on, I've given up on forcing him to have tummy time. Instead, I have propped him in a sitting position. Now he can pretty much sit on his own, so he can play contently for spells at a time. But lately, he has become unsatisfied with just sitting and playing. He will whine and complain until I come over and when I reach for him, he arches his back and stiffens his legs and desperately tries to stand up. So if you support him and help him stand, THEN he wants to walk. He doesn't have much leg control, so he sorta twitches his little feet forward. And at this point you should see the smile on his face. He is just so tickled to be "walking". He is a big boy, and just like his sister.

I was happy to help Rex walk for a while because it was so cute and seemed so ambitious. In little time, it became back-breaking and tiring. But now that he has experienced the thrill of walking he is totally unsatisfied just sitting.

Luckily, my mom came to visit last weekend and she was not happy with the idea of a baby that wouldn't crawl and hasn't rolled over. (I told her I'd read that some babies go straight to walking without crawling). So she looked up some exercises and started rolling Rex around on the floor with his blanket. He got a lot more tummy time this weekend, and I think he is starting to be ok with it again. So, I will try to keep it up.

Fay may have read her first word last week! I know her teacher works on identifying letters and teaching their sounds. But I'm not sure they have really worked on linking letters together to sound out words. So I may be reaching a bit on thinking Fay "read" a word. But I have to write down what I saw because it was just so exciting!

Fay and I were standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus after school. She looked up at the store behind us and said "O"..."Ooop"..."OopN". I just about fell down. I said "Fay are you reading?!" She said "Mommy what is that word?". I said "Open!" She said "No, it says closed!". Always a smart aleck. She gets that from her dad. Then I gave her a huge hug and told her how proud I was that she is reading.

I told Fay's teacher about it the next day and she was cautious to believe Fay was reading....saying that perhaps she remembered the word from class...more of a memorization than sounding out. Seems possible. But I don't really care. It was really fun to be there at the moment of her first read word!

State of Rex

 

I don't write nearly as much on this blog as I did pre-Rex. I was thinking of blaming this on 2nd kid syndrome. In other words, the second kid never gets as much coverage as the first kid because as a mom....I've been there, done that. Perhaps taking photos this time around is just not as interesting. BUT, this is not the case. If fact, I take a ton of photos and videos of Rex....because he'd so cute and because he changes so quickly as babies tend to do. The problem is that I have no time to actually get these photos up on the blog. Not because its not a priority -- just because I have even less time than before, caring for two kids instead of one.

HOWEVER! This week, Rex hit a major milestone. He is sitting up for loooong periods of time without falling over. I wouldn't call him a professional sitter just yet, but he definitely has his amateur status and is improving daily.

The really cool thing is that Fay hit this milestone at almost exactly the same time. So I'm going to show some videos and photos side by side to show you just how crazy similar they look as babies.

[If you are reading this on Facebook, you will have to jump to the blog o see the videos.]

http://eastriverbaby.blogspot.com/2010/12/state-of-rex.html