Phew

Well.

It's been kind of an exhausting couple weeks. We drove home to RI for Easter only to have Jack come down with a killer cold (complete with his first fever - awesome) and ended up driving back to NYC on Easter morning with my mom, who came to watch Jack for the week. Ended up in the ped's office twice, since one night he was so congested that he was having some trouble breathing, only to be told by the dr that a) Tylenol/Ibuprofen has never done anything good for anyone and there's no reason to ever give it to my child and b) we like it when babies get sick because it shows that everything's working properly and c) the thing I needed to do was to sit Jack in front of a hot steam vaporizer for 5-10 minutes TWENTY TIMES A DAY and he would be fine. Oh, and don't call the after-hours number unless I'm on my way to the hospital with him. Now, this wasn't our normal dr - this was one of the other docs in the practice since ours was on vacation last week, but needless to say, I was not thrilled with the action plan of 20 hot steams a day. Seriously? Was I supposed to wake him up to steam him again? Quit my job to fit in all 20 steams? You would literally be sitting this kid in front of the steamer *which he hates, by the way* like every hour all day long, for 5 days straight. I just don't think that's helpful medical advice.

But whatever. So last week sucked. It got to the point where if you laid him in his crib on his back, he'd just cough so much he couldn't sleep, so he ended up sleeping with me for a few nights (which NEVER happens - not even when he was a baby), which was good for him but not so good for me, sleep-wise. Poor little guy. And my poor mother ended up getting sick too, which just rounded out the fun.

But in happier news, everyone seems recovered now and we're back to normal. Jack's latest trick is pulling himself up to standing. For a couple days, he was only pulling up on a person - say, if I were laying on the ground on my side, he'd kind of drag himself up and lean on me. Now, he's discovered that he can pull up on ANYTHING that's taller than he is, and he is delighted to greet me after a nap by standing up in his crib. Since as usual, his crib is the testing ground for new tricks, I've seen him actually cruising around the perimeter of it. It's kind of hysterical to see him try and navigate a corner and watch how deliberate his actions are as he tries to figure out how to let go of one side and grab another.

Another big development is that he's finally started saying "mama". I'm sure he doesn't know what it means exactly, but he only says it when he wants something from me (to be taken out of his crib, to be fed, or if he falls over and wants to be picked up) It's kind of awesome though, hearing it, even though most of the time it's said in frustration or impatience.

I'm not sure why these pictures are so badly placed on the page, but here you go:

Looking at flowers in Papa's garden

Before the sickness really hit

So I didn't get to take an legitimate Easter pics, but I staged one yesterday of Jack in his would-have-been Easter outfit. In 15 years, who will even remember that we didn't take it Easter morning, right? 

Saying hello to the bees!

Post-recovery. First merry-go-round ride! He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be terrified or excited...

On the Move

I knew this kid had the devil inside him, but wow. Now that he's 100% officially crawling, it's crazy times over here. I put him on the floor and turn around to empty the diaper pail (which takes less than a minute) and he's literally on the other side of the apartment licking the vacuum cleaner. Really, Jack???

He's also figured out how to go back to sitting from crawling, which is quite helpful, since what good is it to crawl over to the toy you want only to find that you have to play with it while lying on your belly. No fun!

He's loving his newfound freedom and is still pretty delighted with himself that he has the run of the place. I've done a half-ass job of childproofing, but I'm going to have to up my game pretty soon. Do other people do any kind of securing of the television? Mine is on top of a pretty high, pretty heavy modular shelving unit, and I can't imagine he'd be able to get to it, even when he's pulling up, but is that wishful thinking? Should I secure it to the walls somehow??

Another opinion question: so Jack tries out all his new moves (crawling, sitting, rolling over) in his crib before he performs them for the outside world, so as a result there's lots of activity in there. Now that he's really moving, the bumps into the side of the crib have gotten harder (to the point where I can hear the loud thunk over the baby monitor, sometimes followed by wailing). So crib bumpers seem like they'd be pretty great in this case, but are they this terrible thing that somehow he'll find a way to suffocate on? He's past the most dangerous SIDS time, and can roll over as necessary... Do other have bumpers? Do I just keep letting him bump his head? Now that he's starting to practice pulling up to standing, that's getting to be a bit of a fall...

I'm sure I'll have pictures to post after Easter (going back to RI to see the family), but here's another video for you. To put it in context, let me remind you that Jack is incapable of sitting still for more than a second, so this is pretty much the only thing that can stop him in his tracks. He's completely fascinated, every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGUvDLHz4bA