Happy Belated Easter!

Well, we made it through a busy Easter weekend. We had a lot of fun, though I wish Jacob would have slept just a little better. He had some cranky moments but a lot of them seemed to do with being tired...and between the two of us I think we would have had even more fun if we were both well-rested! Craig was in the same boat yesterday, as well, after two straight nights on a bus somewhere between Buffalo and Boston. I think he'll be catching up on his sleep for days. Everyone from both sides of the family seemed to enjoy watching Jacob. His new crawling and pulling up exploits make him extra entertaining. He's really getting pretty good at crawling, and definitely wants to get around most of the time. He's getting better with pulling up, too. He definitely can do it, but it seems to be a matter of getting his feet in the right position and getting a good angle on whatever his support object is. As long as he gets all of that in place, it's a breeze. Otherwise he can get a little stuck. He'll figure it out, though. This weekend he also seemed to be more able to take steps. He's not cruising along furniture or looking like he's even remotely close to walking, but if you hold his hands and lead him along, once in a while he will actually take steps. He also likes to climb me when I'm holding him once in a while these days, so I guess those legs are really starting to get some good use. Jacob is also babbling a lot more, which is a bit of a relief. As you may recall I was a little worried a few weeks back because he wasn't really making any sounds that sounded like anything. Nothing that could be taken as a syllable or that made it sound like he was trying to have a real conversation. I figured it was just a matter of time, and sure enough, he seems to be doing it more and more. He's been making lots of different sounds, some of which sound almost like a foreign language or something--closer to words than baby sounds. So, yeah, he kept us entertained.

He made the family rounds on Friday night at prunes and noodles, but was not a fan of going to church in the evening for the Good Friday service. He just didn't want to sit still. He was fine when we were moving around out in the narthex, but sitting in the pews was a no-go for most of the second half of the service. He did LOVE the red cords that they gave us to drape over a cross. The cords were made out of a stretchy red fabric and were supposed to symbolize our sin. We had to take them up to the altar and drape them over the cross (Jacob was screeching because he did not want to let go--lovely.) and when they stood the draped cross up, it had this cool, almost dripping-blood-like look. Not as creepy as it sounds, I swear. He slept terribly that night, waking up a lot. I held him in bed for a bit but didn't sleep with him for too long.

Saturday we went back to Uncle Jeff's house for breakfast, and he got to play the old piano that has occupied that corner of the living for many years dating back to it being my grandparents' house. More crawling and pulling up (on the nice coffee table with all rounded edges!), and then back home. He fell asleep on the way, so my mom and I popped him right into the stroller when we got home and took him on a walk. It was a little cool, but the sun was nice. Eventually we spent some time with my friend Heather and her husband Peter, and then I left a napping (sort of) Jacob with my parents while Heather, Peter and I ventured to an NT tradition, Platters Chocolate. Yum. While the chocolate can be obscenely expensive, it's so good and worth the splurge once in a while. While their chocolate is part of my Christmas world as well, they ARE Easter chocolate in my mind...primarily because we used to sell it as a fundraiser for Easter every year in grade school, and it was always the chocolate in my Easter basket. They specialize in orange chocolate (chocolate with a hint of orange flavor--much better than you might think), which is a Buffalo thing. All of the food that was around this weekend (and Jacob's evil eye when I was eating it in front of him) really makes me look forward to next year when he can indulge in some of the good stuff. This year there was a lot of, "Hmmmm...I wonder if he can eat that?" I did give him a little tiny piece of ham and a couple little pieces of jello. Of course, last night I noticed that he had some pink patches on his back, so I'm hoping it wasn't an allergic reaction to anything. Ugh. Hopefully just dry skin or something.

Later Saturday we went to Arby's for dinner (I gave Jacob a tiny piece of plain beef), then went to visit Great-Grandma Ellman for a bit. Lots of rolling and crawling there, which made Great-Grandma very nervous on account of the gigantic flower arrangement that was sitting in the middle of her coffee table...Jacob kept eyeing it up! Saturday night overnight was another rough one...better but still rough. Craig got in around 6:15am. We all went to church. Jacob was a little better this time, though he slept through half of it. He ate a bunch of Cheerios at breakfast in the church gym and had fun banging spoons. We went back to my parents and packed up, but not before Jacob got his first Easter basket! Of course, even though the stuff in there was fun, he was more into the Easter grass! I happened to have some paper Easter grass, which I figured would be less messy than plastic Easter grass which gets all over. It was less messy, except that when Jacob drooled and it got on the grass, the green dye came off of it and got on his shirt a bit. Arg. Still, he had fun while it lasted, grabbing the grass and shaking it around. Nice rustling sound it created! After we packed the car, we were off to Craig's family gathering.

We had a good time there. Jacob met some new family members that he hadn't seen yet, so that was nice. I feel bad that some people missed out on him during that whole "baby" phase, when he could just be held quietly in your arms, but schedules just didn't work. Hopefully they'll get to see more of him this summer since Craig isn't working weekends and we have a series of birthday parties from May through July. He'll only get more fun from here, anyway.

We ended up leaving earlier than expected, mostly because Craig was just beat. Two nights of bus "sleeping" (meaning, an hour or two a night) caught up with him, and he was ready to come home and relax. Can't say I blame him...and I wasn't far behind anyway. As usual, it was rough knowing that we had the hour and a half drive ahead of us. Someday I definitely hope we can avoid that. We have a good life here in Rochester, but it would definitely make things easier (in a lot of ways) to live back in Buffalo near to our families. On our way home from visits and parties, we always dream of what it would be like to have a 20 minute (or less!) drive home! But in this economy, we're just lucky to have jobs and it would be a tough call to voluntarily leave them at any point in order to move, because there's no guarantee a new job will hold. Of course, I'd like to get a bigger house before we have any more kids (ours is filling up fast!) so at some point we'd have to ponder where our priorities lie. I don't want to have to move twice in a row!! But that's another issue for another time...

In any event, it was a nice Easter and I will hopefully post some pictures soon! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, as well!

Easter and Stuff

I am really looking forward to the weekend...which actually starts tomorrow! I am off work and Jacob and I (and Craig, separately) are heading to Buffalo. Craig has a lacrosse game in Buffalo tomorrow night, then is off to Boston for another game on Saturday. He'll make it back to Buffalo sometime on Sunday morning. Not ideal, for sure, but at least he'll make it there eventually...definitely in time for visiting his family, and hopefully in time for mine, too. Jacob and I will be spending a couple days with my parents, and I know all parties are looking forward to it! Tomorrow evening is a Good Friday Binkley family tradition--prunes and noodles. I think it's a German thing, but all I know is that my Grandma put it on for years, and we've done our best as a family to keep it going in the years since she passed away. It's pretty much what it sounds like: prunes (stewed, maybe?) and noodles (egg?). You serve the prune juice (not "prune juice" but juice from the stewed prunes) over the noodles and add in some buttery crutons. Many of us (particularly the younger generation) opt to forego the juice and just douse the noodles and crutons in butter and parmesan. I did try the juice last year, though, and it was okay. It's always nice to hang out with the family, and even better since Jacob has a new skill to show off! Saturday we're going to spend some time with my longtime friend Heather, perhaps taking a trip to an NT Easter tradition--Platters Chocolate. Yum. It'll probably be jammed, but I think it will be fun. She hasn't seen Jacob since Christmas, so he's definitely changed since then.

Incidentally, I was just laughing a little yesterday when I studied a picture of Jacob on my wall. It was the professional picture we had done before Christmas to give as gifts, and it struck me how little hair he had there compared to now. He still only has this really fine head of baby hair, but there's actually some length to it now and he doesn't look too cue-ball-ish...at least not compared to that Christmas picture. It's amazing how you don't really notice changes on your own baby until you have something to reference back to.

Sunday we'll do church and see whatever family we can...probably lunch with my Mom's side and then off to Craig's family gathering. I am looking forward to giving Jacob his first Easter basket, even if it won't have any candy and he won't be able to appreciate it that much yet. But I'm still excited to give him his little bunny-themed rubber ball, bunny in a carrot car rattle, and a couple plastic eggs full of Cheerios. He will like shaking the eggs, and then have a snack later :) I bought him a cute orange gingham shirt yesterday for the occasion. I was hoping for green, but the orange will work. Next year maybe we'll try dyeing eggs or an Easter egg hunt or something like that. He'll be able to eat chocolate by then, too, so perhaps Easter will be a little more of an event for him.

I can't help but think back to last year, when I was really starting to look pregnant at Easter. Of course, Easter was waaaay early last year so by this time last year I was really getting big. But Easter was an exciting time...sitting in church feeling the baby move, wearing my first maternity dress for the first time, showing my new belly off to family...it was neat. This year things are vastly different, from my parents going to a different church to the complete change in lifestyle that a baby brings. Should be a fun weekend. I just hope Jacob sleeps. He finally did last night, by the way, which was awesome. I don't know if it was the extra dose of food he got at day care (they accidentally made up a second batch of fruit and cereal and didn't want to waste it) or if finally elevating the end of his mattress did it. Could be his reflux was bugging him, and elevating the mattress helped. We shall see how tonight goes. I'd say that it wouldn't matter since I'm not working, but we're making the most of my time off and getting our taxes done in the morning...so we're on our normal schedule even though I'm not going to work :-P Still, the day off will be great and I am really looking forward to the holiday. If I don't get a chance to blog again, have a very Happy Easter!

Crying it out

Jacob has been waking up every night since the beginning of the weekend, and it's been a tough run. Almost like clockwork, around 1 or 2am he'll wake up crying. When we go in to comfort him, he'll quiet down but will still whine a bit. Lately he's also been tossing and turning quite a bit when we go in. No matter how long we rock him or rub his back, inevitably when we stop, he starts right up again. This can go on for an hour or more. It's extra difficult when we have work the next day. For me, my 6am alarm looms all too close in the midst of those middle of the night disturbances. It's been a rough week at work, to say the least. Bad projects seem that much worse when you just can't focus. Most nights we've been bringing him into our bed to sleep on or next to us for at least a little while. When he seems to be deeply asleep, I'll take him back to his crib and he usually sleeps the rest of the night without an issue. I've said all along that that's a bad habit to get into--that it basically worsens the problem because he's already waking up hard to comfort...let alone when he gets used to sleeping with someone and needs that to sleep at all.

Last night he woke up again. Craig went in twice, I went in once. At one point we just decided to see if he would cry it out and fall asleep on his own. We'd pondered that other nights, but last night we really gave it a shot. Craig's second trip in was near the end of that process, but eventually he did go back to sleep without sleeping with us. While I'd love to think it will make a difference (some people swear that technique works right away when it's used at bedtime), I don't know if Jacob would have the cognitive ability while half-asleep at 3am to make whatever connection in his mind that cry-it-out success stories make when they become functional sleepers. Listening to him cry was hard, but honestly, I've been so tired and this whole situation has been so frustrating that sympathy was in short supply last night. I felt bad...but not bad enough to get up more than once. I guess the biggest issue is that there isn't anything visibly obvious as to why Jacob wakes up. If he was waking up sucking on his hands like a madman, obviously it would be teething and we'd grab the Tylenol. If he was sick, we'd do what we could to make him comfortable. But not knowing what's wrong, it's hard to know if there's a real reason or if he's just wanting some company. Maybe it's gas/constipation (trying Mylicon before bed and giving him prune juice again...no luck so far). Maybe it's his reflux...but we're doing everything we can to help him there already. But ultimately, whatever it is, the goal would be to help him be a functional sleeper in the midst of it. Sure, we want him to sleep so he's energetic, happy and healthy, but that shouldn't be at the expense of our sleep or accomplished in a way that makes him a less effective sleeper in the long run. So if we can work around the problem and help him sleep through it, that would be better for everyone. But I just don't know what it will take to get there since we don't know what the problem is. It's definitely frustrating but we're hoping he just grows out of this soon or we find a workable solution in the meantime.

In other news...crawling is coming along. He's still not exactly motoring around, but he's getting better and it's been fun to watch. It's nice to be able to put him on the floor and let him go get the toys he wants to play with. Last night he alternated between his newest moose (fresh from Craig's trip to Colorado), his peek-a-blocks, and his activity table that started this whole crawling thing. It's sort of a neat thing to see him be able to express himself like that. Instead of just being handed a toy and simply playing with it or dropping it, now when he drops it we know why...at least when he specifically goes after something else. I keep thinking how fun it will be for him at day care to be able to get around the room he's been in for so long, on his own terms. They've made it an interesting and safe room to crawl around, so I think it will be an enlightening experience for him. As it is he's the oldest full time kid in the room (one little girl keeps going back and forth because she's very attached to the one teacher but she's old enough for the next room), so he's getting some new experiences these days when he goes into the other room and hangs out with the "big kids". Yesterday he played with bubbles, and this morning when I left him there, he was getting to play with Cool Whip. All the kids were in high chairs getting dollops of Cool Whip on their trays, and being able to mush it around. At first I was a little concerned about the dairy element of it all (kids under 1 aren't supposed to get it), but was hoping he just wouldn't figure out to put it in his mouth (hasn't figured out Cheerios yet...why Cool Whip?)...but then I figured out that it's non-dairy. I hope he had fun and is enjoying his sensory experiences.

Anyway, wish us luck for tonight...

Another milestone...

On the heels of starting to crawl this weekend, milestone #2 of the weekend is much less significant, and he's only repeated it once since, but Jacob has also started pulling up. He's done it twice in his crib, and that's it. He rolled over in his crib long before he ever did it elsewhere, so I guess we'll see how soon he figures out the angles for pulling up in the real world (a.k.a. the living room). He'd been working hard at that for a while now, rattling the drop side rail of the crib like a prisoner, getting up to his knees, and slobbering up the rail as best he could from wherever he could get to. But at one point this weekend when I had him playing in his crib for a couple minutes (I may have been getting his medicine ready or something...much easier with two hands), I walked back into the room and there he was, standing up smiling at me! He did it again yesterday evening as well, I think.

All of the fun and excitement of visitors and milestones almost would have had this as an A+ weekend, but Jacob slept terribly the last two nights. Both nights I/we have given up and had him sleep with us for a little while. When you desperately need sleep and that's the only way it will happen, that's how it goes. I've said it before...it's a bad habit to get into, but it just seems like there isn't any other way. When he gets in this sort of mood, Jacob just won't go back to sleep (let alone stop whining/crying) unless he's right near us. The second you stop rubbing his back and step out of the room or set him back down after extended rocking, he starts crying again. And we've tried to wait out the crying a couple times, but he's persistent. I think the new crawling developments have made it that much worse, because last night he was even sitting up and moving all over the crib when he was awake. He still only seems half awake a lot of the time, too, which I think probably makes him that much more irrational (as if a 9-1/2 month old is ever rational, but...). I've read that babies who hit big developmental milestones tend to wake up more, in essence to practice their newfound skills, but this same sort of thing has been happening on and off for weeks so I'm not sure what's up. Gas? Constipation? Teething? Growth spurt? Nothing is emerging as the big winner, so I am perplexed. But when he's awake Jacob's been pretty great lately...still has his moments but 90% of the time he's happy or at least content.

In other news, I am officially liking the reworked living setup. It looks a lot bigger, and I don't have to contend with sitting on our beaten down ottoman anymore. I still have no idea what happened to it, but the cushioning in one area was completely decimated and it was awkward to try to sit on it. So now it's a modified coffee table, merely there to hold the newspaper, be a footrest, or for Jacob to try to pull up on. Adding the chaise to the chair (instead of the couch)makes getting into and out of the chair much easier, and the whole flow of the room is better. It's been a nice change, surprisingly.

We'll see how quickly he gets good at this crawling thing, and in the meantime we need to start thinking about babyproofing. Ugh.

Big day!

Well, we had been looking forward to today ever since my parents decided yesterday to come to Rochester for the day. My cousin Chris and his family were coming to Rochester to visit his parents, and my parents figured they could kill two birds with one stone and come see everyone! And it worked out really well because we're in the midst of four days without Craig (two Knighthawks games out west) and it's always nice to have a little break from single parenthood. No matter how great Jacob is, it's nice to have a bit of a diversion...particularly one that will hold him and play with him for a few minutes while I run and do something else! He's been in a pretty great mood for the past few days, so I can't really complain. He slept pretty well the last two nights, as well...only awake for about 10 minutes last night and slept in until about 7:30 today...ahhhhh. Still, it was nice to see my parents, as well as Chris, Kellie, Anna (who's the smartest 21-month-old I know!), my Aunt Lynne and Uncle Cliff, and of course, Lori. We had a really nice afternoon, and Jacob was generally really well-behaved. He had his serious spurts, but very few meltdowns. Lots of smiles in between, though!

Once we got back to our house, my mom and I were playing with Jacob on the floor. He really loves his peek-a-blocks, which we were having a good time with. But then I brought out what's probably his favorite toy right now, a hand-me-down activity table from Uncle Brad's family. It's got some stacking rings, a few of those pop beads, a spinning noisemaker, and some other activities he hasn't completely figured out yet. Lately Jacob's been pulling up to his knees and enjoying standing while supported, so the table is perfect for him to play at. When I brought it out, he got pretty excited, and before we knew it, he was crawling toward it!

Jacob's been close to crawling for a bit now. He started rocking a while back and lately has been getting closer to lifting his legs. He's been trying to launch himself forward and was really getting quite the jump in the past couple days. Mostly his crawling attempts ended in face-plants or he just sat back down before trying too hard, but you could tell he was merely days away. My goal was to have him crawling by next weekend when we're back home for Easter and seeing a lot of family for the first time in a while (or ever!). We played with him a lot on the floor during our visit today, but all of a sudden when we got back home he just figured it out! He did it a few more times, so we know it wasn't a fluke. He's still got some practicing to do, but he's really got it! Unfortunately Craig wasn't here to see it, but it was nice to share it with Grandma and Grandpa!

As a result of today's big event and Jacob's constant obsession with our coffee table, I decided that it was officially time to move the living room around to make it more Jacob friendly. The coffee table got pushed into a corner, the end table got moved across the room, the chaise extension on the couch moved to the armchair, and the armchair's ottoman is now in front of the couch as a sort of soft coffee table. It gives Jacob two softer things to pull up on and takes away his biggest temptation...or at least moves a lot of the less baby-proofed stuff a bit out of the way so it won't be as easy for him to find them. He still will, I know, but it will take a little longer than it would have before. The room definitely looks bigger now and he's got some extra room to play. It will take some getting used to, but I think it's good for now.

Anyway, here's some video of one of his crawls. It's not a great angle and it makes him look a little more clumsy than the crawling really was, but you get the idea. And there are a couple cute smiles, too, so if nothing else it's worth it for that! Enjoy...

Things I never thought I'd say...

Having a baby definitely changes your life. And even if you know that going in, there are still some things that surprise you. I decided to try to compile a list of things that I have said or frequently say that I never thought would come out of my mouth...

1) "Where did my curves go?" - I am not exactly complaining about this one, but I currently weigh about 10 pounds less than my average weight the past couple years. That's so crazy. I think I can only credit breastfeeding, though...the extra 500 calories a day have allowed me to keep eating what I want. I do work out once a week, but that doesn't do a heck of a lot. I was told by an athletic trainer that breastfeeding causes you to lose fat from the butt-hip-thigh region. And apparently, that's true because I suddenly have a flat butt and I'm pretty up and down straight from my waist to my hips. Surprisingly, I feel like I appear heavier in clothes these days, only because my stomach is still flabby and I don't have the hourglass effect to make my waist look smaller. So odd.

2) "Stop eating that _(insert large object here)_!" - So far I think I've said that about tables, shopping carts, and chairs, among other things. Jacob likes to chew on things, and quite frequently we'll catch him trying to chew tables at restaurants from his high chair, much to our chagrin. Last weekend he was trying to chew part of the shopping cart at Target, and I already related the chair-as-chew-toy story in my last post. And that's not even getting into the many other more normal things he's attempted to chew...namely stuffed moose and various body parts.

3) "I'm so happy he pooped." - Yep, you know you're a parent when poop is worthy of a celebration. For a while I feared them completely because most of them were blowouts (and even then I was grateful if he went often because it could help lessen the quantity that might come out at once), but now that he's sometimes on the verge of constipation--namely, it's a lot firmer and less frequent--each poop is a little relief that he's functioning okay.

4) "What was the poop like?" - Again, you know you're a parent when poop is a normal, non-flinch-worthy conversation...as normal as talking about the weather. And because of the issues mentioned above, I now have to ask about his poop at daycare or any time someone else changes his diaper.

5) Any conversation related to the tail end of my own digestive tract - I at least thought that would wait another 20 years or so to come up in conversation, but labor is the gift that keeps on giving...it threw my system off a little, for a few reasons. And it took a long time and a nice high fiber diet to make sure everything was functioning again.

6) "Yummy!" as it relates to any form of pureed food - I was one of those people who cringed during any baby food-related shower game, and I still won't taste them, but I have come to an understanding with baby food. I think it's gross, but I can deal with its existence and will even sometimes lick a splatter off my hand--but pretty much only if it's fruit. But still...Jacob needs to think it's the best thing going, so I frequently have to say an enthusiastic "Yummy!" even if it's really not. But then again, his diet consisted of milk for the first six months of his life, so what does he know?

7) "7am? That's sleeping in!" - My perspective on sleep and sleeping in have definitely changed. Before Jacob I was convinced that 4am didn't even exist...I never saw it for more than, say, a quick glance at the clock if I happened to wake up for a brief moment. Early on in this experience I got quite familiar with times like that. Fortunately those occurrences have been fewer and farther between since Jacob started sleeping through the night, but once in a while we do see those terrible wee hours. My alarm goes off at 6am each morning and I get out of bed by 6:30, so if I ever get to actually sleep until 7 on the weekends, it is sleeping in. And if Craig happens to take a morning shift with Jacob and lets me sleep later (since he usually gets a good 1-1/2 - 2 hours more sleep than me), even better. It's a wonderful thing to even lay in bed until 8am.

I can't remember if I had more in mind when I conceived of this topic, but I think these are some pretty good ones...

Picture Day

It's been a while, so it's time again for some pictures!

Here are a couple pictures showing Jacob's rash. It's tough to see but you can probably see the blotchiness a little on his belly, back and neck. It only lasted a couple days and didn't seem to itch or anything.



Here's Jacob's first official ride on the swings at the playground on Saturday. I'm not entirely sure what the deal was with this swing, because it wasn't like the baby swings of my youth (it was bigger), but my guess is that it might be for special ed kids at the school, if they need to be strapped in. Still, it worked for Jacob. The only problem was that the swing faced the sun so he could hardly open his eyes to enjoy it. Sunglasses are coming soon...

Here are two pictures I took while sitting at the computer while Jacob tried to figure out this crawling thing. He can still move himself around pretty good despite not being able to crawl. He managed to spin and roll and scoot a couple feet when he decided that the bottom of the chair made a good chew toy. Oh, to have the ability to read a baby's mind...

Looking mischievous already!

Such a handsome little man!