11 months old

The weather in the Bay Area has been sunny, warm and all around gorgeous for the past week - and Anderson's disposition matches this, as usual. Did you expect me to say anything different?  I don't have any growth stats for this month as we don't see the pediatrician again until his birthday. However, I know for a fact he had a bit of a spurt this month. He is a solid little boy.  The past month has been great; besides the growth spurt we've seen more and more jumps in his physical and mental abilities. 

While he still needs just even the smallest items to push himself into a standing position, once he's in that position you need to watch out.  Just yesterday he penguin/drunk sailor walked from the window in his bedroom into the office to squat down and torture Evita while she was trying to eat.  Not once in this little journey did he lean or hold on to anything, nor did he fall.  Watch out! I don't yet consider him a walker because he prefers crawling at this point but he can most definitely walk. We bought him his first official walking shoes at Stride Rite, but have only tested them out once.  He does not like wearing shoes and will barely stand up when he's in them so we're going to try and make an effort to get him used to them.  Anderson does have some pretty cool kicks he recieved as gifts such as some Nikes, Pumas and Chuck Taylors - I can't wait until he is ready and willing to rock these great kicks.

Other than walking he's working on babbling.  He may have picked up the chatter bug from mom.  He still doesn't come close to saying anything and doesn't really even say ma or da yet, but I do think he is talking about something when he babbles.  He has cute little arm motions when he "talks" so you know there is something really important being said.  He also mimics a lot; especially if you make the "Indian" whooping sound.  The kid has skillz when it comes to that.  Anderson cracks us up. He'll randomly start doing it in the car, so we sit in the front seat and do it ourselves and he'll repeat it back.  Yup, forget words or even smoke signals, us Birketts communicate by tapping our hands to our mouths while making sounds. He also has 6 (?!) little chompers.

So I guess it's time to start planning the first birthday party.  I hope the weather stays just as nice in the next month.  We're planning on keeping the party to a small handful of family and close friends outside at a park. I think I might try and whip up a little adult party to celebrate our survival of this first year.  Anderson will also get his passport stamped for the very first time right before his first birthday on our trip to Mexico. It makes me giddy just thinking about it.  His passport is locked away at the bank right now, but his picture is from when he was maybe three months old.  I can't wait to see it.  I believe one of Bri's fingers makes and appearance since he coldn't even sit up at the time. So fun!

Happiness in a Jar

Bri and I like to believe we are cultured people. We enjoy traveling and experiencing different foods. Personally, when I think comfort food I think of a hot plate of Chicken Vindaloo over rice. Bri might think Panang Beef from Thai II. As our solid food journey with Anderson continues we've found ourselves asking, when can we introduce cinnamon, curry, how about cumin etc...? Well I've been consulting my favorite baby food website: www.wholesomebabyfoods.com and adding in what I have on hand. Anderson doesn't seem to have any food allergies so far (*Knocks on wood*). Lately you can tell A prefers finger food over purees so we're trying to find a balance. This is proving hard to introduce some foods because I'm just a bit hesitant to give my 10 month old a little cut of spicy vindaloo off my plate.

Well I've hit the holy grail of baby food at my local Whole Foods Market! I've been making most of A's food from scratch, save for the WM Yogurt and Oatmeal. Occasionally for convenience we use Earth's Best Stage 3 dinners and even they were starting to seem limiting in their flavors. For some reason I decided to see if WF carried jarred baby food and guess what- they do. Not sure why it was a surprise to me. They carry the Earth's Best and to my surprise much more variety than I have seen before. I was ecstatic to see they had some asparagus - A loves this but its really hard to find a nice looking bunch this time of year. When I do find one I steam and feed it to him so this was great to see in a jar. As I was stocking my cart with new EB flavors (who doesn't like a short cut for dinner now and then, right?) a jar caught my eye. Could it be? No way. Yes! My eyes did not deceive me, right there was a jar of baby Dal. I look around and I see not just Dal, but Thai, Japanese, Eastern European and Polynesian. I grabbed up some Dal, Thai and Polynesian to start. I can't wait to go back and try the rest. Last night Bri fed Anderson the Dal to great success. He loved it! It smelled just like the Dal you would order in and Indian restaurant - lentils, cumin, yum! Even better news - it's all organic. I did a google search and it looks like it may be only available in No. Cal and the Pacific Northwest in stores, but you can order from Amazon if interested.

Check 'em out!
http://www.worldbabyfoods.com/

Our Must Have Items

NOTE: I'm not sure what's going on but the formatting for blogger has been awkward.  Apologies.

I've been meaning to put a list together of our must have items for some time now, but I'm finally getting off my butt to do it.  There are two reasons 1.) I didn't want to forget if/when we have another kid and 2.) because some great friends and family (yes, plural!) are exepcting a little bundle.  I think two are due in the same week.  So exciting! These are the items we wouldn't hesitate to purchase again. Without further adeau here is the Birkett's List of items. 

Mom's Gear:

Gilligan & O'Malley Nursing Tanks from Target

Palmer's Stretch Mark Lotion

Massage after Birth (if your hospital offers this I highly reccomend!)

Beer!

Medela Freestyle.  Great for occasional home use and work.  The size is great. I can't imagine having to tote around the huge pumps that have to stay in their bags.  I got a great price from http://www.milksmile.com/   It was considerably less than the stores and they gave free shipping. They do not post the price on their website, you have to call to get it.  I can't rave enough about them.  The man on the phone told me about Premie nipples for our bottles to help get Anderson off the bottle and then through them in for free. 'Cause god knows pumping every 2 hours for 5 weeks is a nightmare! *shakes fist at the darn tongue tie*

Dr. Sears' "The Baby Book".  Best reference material I have in my library.  I thumb through it to see what milestones I can expect, what he says about certain types of diaper rash and there was even a little post about tongue tie.

Baby Bargains - good book to weed out all the crap baby gear out there.  Just trust your gut on what you think you're going to need.

Newborn:

Swaddle Me - in fleece and cotton

Soft-sided carrier: We have 3 - Beco, Ergo and Bjorn (we only paid for 1). I prefer the Beco or Ergo over the Bjorn.

Angel Dear Lovey.  We have two, one for home and one for daycare (and a spare just in case one gets lost)

Dr. Brown's Bottles

Footed Sleepers

Sleep Sacks - we didn't know about these for some time

Pack n Play -  we used it as the bassinet in our room and it has traveled with us to several locations.

That's it for those early days. The Lovey didn't really come into play until about month 3, but we kept it on our bed to acquire our scent for some time.

Baby Gear:
*some of these items were not used until he was a few months old, but I'm only including items we used all.the.time*

Space Saver High Chair
Lamaze Mirror or any Lamaze Toy to be honest
Books, Books, Books and Books - we read at any chance we can get.
Music Table
A good tummy time mat.  
Diaper Cream from Target - no joke it's good stuff and considerably less than the name brand stuff.
Target Diapers - when we use disposables we use these.  He wears them at daycare too. Best price around and we don't have many issues.  Just use a size larger than you would in other brands. 
We have two strollers - the Bob Revolution and a Maclaren. Both are very different and we like them.

We have been blessed and were gifted and handed down several items such as a swing, a vibrating chair, an exercise saucer, the jumper etc.. Anderson didn't LOVE these items like other babies we heard have.  Yes, he used or uses them, just not make or break with us.  Borrowing or being handed some of these were key.

10 Months old

He looks thrilled to have his picture taken doesn't he? Ha. He is cut from my cloth - A doesn't like being woken up. This past week he was waking up all by himself really early (5:30 am, early) and I was getting nervous. Luckily it was short lived and the past two days he's been waking up around 6:30 or so.  Either way, he doens't like having his picture taken when he's still sleepy.

I think he hit a bit of a growth spurt in the last few weeks.  He seems taller.  Not huge, but significantly taller. He's wearing 6-9 month clothes and doesn't seem to be close to growing out of 9 month pants anytime soon.

If you've seen the post below then you know that Anderson took his first 3 steps in his 9th month.  He doesn't repeat it too often, but every now and then he'll take a step towards me or towards the couch.  He doesn't stand on his own yet from squating, only if he can pull up on something but I get the feeling that is his next milestone. Anderson has pretty good balance, now it's just a matter of leg strength. No words at this point, still babbling and it consists mostly of da da da. Although I think he might be starting to really connect da with Brian.  On a rare occasion he says ma ma ma, but I don't hold it against him; Anderson reaches out for me when he really wants to be comforted. :-)

Anderson is a fast crawler and is always on the go.  It's non-stop when you are with him.  I look forward to meal times every now and then, just becuase he sits in his chair and can't move around!  He's eating a lot of table foods now.  Meatballs have been a hit.  I usually cut one up and toss a spoon full of yogurt on top and he gobbles it up. This month was significant in the fact that Anderson weaned from breastfeeding. After all the struggles and problems I'm proud to say we made it to 9 months and one week!  If I wasn't working we may have been able to have kept up at least one feeding to his first year, but we were both ready. 

So I can't find spell check on my updated blogger, hmmm. I'll try and proofread later, but right now I should get back to work!

First Steps!

Yes you read the correctly, tonight Anderson took his first three steps.  CRAZY! Bri and I were in disbelief when it happened and then proceeded to call everyone we knew.  We are those parents apparently. Ha! 

Here's how it all went down.  As you may have read we have a blog for Anderson (www.anderson365.com) and I like to shoot a picture a day. They're not too exciting, but that's our life. Well Anderson's latest trick this weekend was to stand all by himself. He does it in spurts and you can tell it is quite the little core workout for him  He'll go a few seconds and then is pretty tired and won't do it for hours and if he does repeat standing it is for about 2 seconds at most.  Anyhow, he was standing for a few seconds and Bri grabbed the camera. Low and behold just as Bri was taking the photo of him STILL standing he took one step and then two more in fast succession.  He didn't fall but continued to stand and then lowered himself down. 

So while this picture looks like he's just standing, it's the beginning of his very first steps! AWWWW.

In a blink of an eye

And like that 3/4 of a year has past. I feel like a broken record when I write these monthly posts but I really can't believe how fast time has gone by.  I'm amazed every single day.  Anderson had his 9 month well baby check up on Friday and I'm happy to report he's gaining weight at a normal rate again.  He's still a pretty small guy, and I think compared to the average baby his age he looks more like a 6 month old. We'll take it though as his clothes are getting some good use. He now weighs in at just under 17lbs.  A is eating a bunch of solids now and the Dr. gave us the go ahead to eat anything but nuts or shellfish, he especially wants him to really go at it with the finger foods and allow him to pick off our plates (in small bite size portions) So be it! This weekend alone he had his first sample of pizza, scrambled eggs and some of dad's chicken parm.  He does usually eat really healthy, I swear. We're not trying to start him off on a bad foot. Pasquale's is a hard place for him not to be able to sample the pizza - it's a Birkett family tradition.

Anderson has a huge personality. He is so freaking happy. Smiles, laughs and plays.  He has a little music table and now has even started to dance/butt shake when he presses the buttons and songs come on. Its a rare day when he really cries.  The holidays were a bit of a challenge only because he missed a few naps in all the excitement.  He still sleeps approx. 12 hours at night, so you're not going to hear much more than happiness from his parents.

So what's he been up to?  He's working on some more teeth; a top tooth (not the center ones but next to it) has broke the surface but is barely visible and we can see that the same one on the other side might make an appearance in the very near future. Anderson also stands up (using an object to help) and cruises a small bit.  Oy vey! Our daycare provider thinks he might be closer to walking than we are prepared for.  I'm a bit selfish and hope she's wrong.  I want him to hold off on that skill for a while. Otherwise he's really no longer my baby. Plus, I don't know of any babies that have walked without the aid of a pusher or walker before a year old, so I hope he follows suit.

On another note, poor Evita.  She's just not herself lately and I think it has to do with Anderson's new found mobility.  She's on edge until about 8pm every night and is quite the yappy dog these days.  If you make a noise by putting something on the counter - she barks.  Wind outside? She barks.  Baby crawling after her, hand reached out to pet (grab) - she barks and cowers.  Poor Poor little lady.  So we're going to give her some down time next month and go away for the long weekend.  :-) Evita will get 3 nights of being completely spoiled at doggie daycare/boarding sans baby.  They love her there and we love them.  She even gets to sleep in bed with them just like she does here at home.  Yup, and we pay them for this.  Ha, I guess it's better than taking her to the Wag and she gets just a typical dog run.  That's not her idea of a vacation.  At the same time Anderson will hopefully be getting his first glimpse and feel for the snow in Tahoe! No skiing/boarding for him for the next few years, but I will be sure to let him get a feel for the snow - if only for the super cute photo op.

A new blog

I'll continue to update this blog as normal and as time permits but I have added a new blog to keep up with.  The new blog is more of a project and less blogging per say.  It's called Anderson 365 and I'm going to upload a photo a day for 2010.