But Dad http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/ Covering parenting, childhood, babies and all the joys of parenthood. en Copyright 2008 Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:09:22 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.31 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Almost a year old It's hard to believe that in less than a month Lexi will be a year old.
It's also pretty impressive when you look back at all the stuff she's learned in that year:
sitting up on her own
standing
walking (with some help)
talking (hi, mama, dada)
waving
clapping
hugging and kissing (all though kissing has become head-butting)
laughing and laughing at her own jokes
how to feed herself
holding her own bottle
Signing "all done" and "more"
Playing with toys the "right" way - as opposed to just banging them together or on the floor
Playing by herself
and whole list of other things that I am forgetting at the moment.

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2007/01/almost_a_year_old.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2007/01/almost_a_year_old.html Over-Achiever Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:09:22 -0600 Hi. Well, it's official. Lexi can say "Hi." For a week or so now she's been jabbering something that sounded like hi, but we weren't sure if she knew what she was saying. Then it moved to copying us when we said. Tonight at swim lessons Lexi greeted everyone who entered the locker room with a "Hi." I asked a friend to help me figure out if I was just being an over-excited mom or if she really was saying hi. And my friend agreed that she was actually greeting people. Then while we were waiting for swim lessons to start, 2 different strangers commented on how cute it was that Lexi was saying hi to everyone.

So I've decided that since several people, including strangers, have commented on her ability to say hi, it's official - Lexi's first word, at 9 months, is "hi."*

*By making the above statement I realize that Lexi will now refuse to say hi to anyone who wants to hear her say it.

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/11/hi.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/11/hi.html Over-Achiever Wed, 01 Nov 2006 20:48:54 -0600 Still Sitting Up I've come to the realization that my daughter is never going to learn to crawl. She learned to sit up and is great at it. She can also roll over from front to back and back to front, but at almost 8 1/2 months she has barely made an attempt at crawling. Now, I know that all kids learn to do things at differnt rates and that some kids skip crawling entirely and go straight to walking, so I'm not actually worried about our current situation. I find it entertaining that she is perfectly content to sit on the floor and have people bring her toys to her since she is so opinionated about what she does and doesn't want to play with.

Lexi has a friend who is three weeks younger than her and had to go to physical therapy for something with her neck muscles (she would only look in one direction when she was a newborn) Anyway, her friend is now crawling and pulling herself up into a sit. When the girls are together, Cosette is scooting all over and Lexi just sits and watches.

Silly baby.

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/10/still_sitting_up.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/10/still_sitting_up.html Health Sat, 07 Oct 2006 20:57:34 -0600 Sitting Up Lexi learned to sit up last week. For the past few weeks or so she's been able to hold herself up if she was leaning against something, but would slowly slump foreward or to the side. Last week she figured out how to keep her balance and stay sitting up without any help. She's loving it because she can now sit and reach for toys, play with things, read books (okay look at the pictures (okay, chew on books)).

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/08/sitting_up.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/08/sitting_up.html Sun, 13 Aug 2006 19:21:47 -0600 Kid's Stuff With Previous Experience... Once Upon A Child is the best. kid's store. ever. If you have a kid, know somebody with a kid, teach kids, you have got to check out this store. It's a second hand shop that sells only baby/kid gear. I went there on Friday to look for a few games for my class room. I spent $25 and came back with Monopoly Jr., Scrabble Jr., Guess Who? (remember Guess Who? I loved that game) as well as 6 new toys for Lexi. I had to restrain myself from browsing in the clothing section since she needs nothing in the way of new clothes. Plus, you can put your name on a "wish list" so if someone comes in to sell a certain item that you want, the store will call you before they put it out on the floor for sale.

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/08/kids_stuff_with_previous_exper.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/08/kids_stuff_with_previous_exper.html Baby Stuff Sat, 05 Aug 2006 21:09:13 -0600 July 31, 2006 It's hard to believe Madeleine is 6 months old today.

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/07/july_31_2006.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/07/july_31_2006.html Mon, 31 Jul 2006 15:43:32 -0600 What Lexi Can Do Now When Lexi was about 5 weeks old I listed what she could do, now that she's 5 months old, she's added to her list of tricks.

She can now:
roll from back to front
grab and hold onto things (including my hair)
eat solid foods (if you count rice cereal as a solid)
respond to her name
laugh
make weird screechy sounds
grab her toes
watch the dogs wrestle
pull the handles on her swing the make the lights flash
sit up with little help
and hold her head and shoulders up

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/07/what_lexi_can_do_now.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/07/what_lexi_can_do_now.html Over-Achiever Wed, 12 Jul 2006 21:31:07 -0600 So they all rolled over and one fell out... Okay, nobody fell out, but Madeleine did figure out how to roll over today. About a month ago she flung herself from her back to her front while throwing a fit in her crib. And she hadn't made any progress since then. Today, however, she was lying on her baby gym playing with her feet and she decided to give it another try. After several attempts and then getting stuck on her arm she managed to roll over from her back to her front. Then when I put her down for a nap, she immediately flipped over onto her stomach - although I think it scared her because she started screaming. Now that she's up from her nap she has rolled herself over three more times, so I don't think it's a fluke. I think she has it figured out.

Now she just has to figure out how to go from her front to back because once she flips to her stomach she gets mad that she's on her stomach.

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/07/so_they_all_rolled_over_and_on.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/07/so_they_all_rolled_over_and_on.html Over-Achiever Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:18:10 -0600 Screaming Madeleine has learned how to scream. Not "I'm-so-mad-if-you-don't-get-me-out-of-this-carseat-right-now-i'll-scream" screams, but the "hey-look-how-loud-my-voice-is-now" type of screams. She'll let out a scream and then realize it was her, look around to see if anyone else noticed and then do it again. Kevin caught some of it in video, although this is when she was just figuring it out and it was quieter and cute. Now she's switched over to soundling like a velociraptor on the hunt.

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/06/screaming.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/06/screaming.html Over-Achiever Sun, 04 Jun 2006 17:27:17 -0600 Baby Gear Part 2 Lexi weighs about 12 lbs. The stuff she owns weighs about 12 tons. I think every room in our house now has baby gear cramed in at least one corner. And honestly, about half the stuff is just gathering dust.

Here's what lying around:
Carseat - need that - obvisouly
Crib - yup, need that too
Bassinet - Used it 4 nights and now it holds dirty laundry
Pack-n-Play - haven't used it yet, but we've only been out of town once.
Swing - She really likes it
Bouncy-Seat - she really liked it until we upgraded to a swing.
Tummy - mat - makes me feel less guilty about laying her on the hardwood floors.
Boppy Pillow - I use it occasionally, but bed pillows work fine too, maybe I'll use it more when Lexi starts sitting up.
Sling - wouldn't give this up for the world. Lexi loves it and so do I.
Wipe Warmer - (see previous post)
Exer-saucer - haven't tried it yet.
Backpack - need it for all her stuff.
Diaper Genie - I'm fine with throwing diapers in a regular garbage can, but I didn't want to find out if the dogs would pull them out again.

And the list doesn't even include all of her clothes, stuffed animals, burp rags, bottles, nuks, hats, books, blankets, baby monitors, and other stuff I can't think of at the moment.

Here's what we don't have lying aroud:
Stroller
Highchair (but one is coming)
Jumperoo

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/03/baby_gear_part_2.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/03/baby_gear_part_2.html Baby Stuff Sat, 25 Mar 2006 15:56:36 -0600 Baby Gear There is a ton of stuff out there that baby companies try and pitch as a "must have" and absolutely essential product to raising a happy baby but in reality the product is pretty much just one more thing to take up space. One of those things is the Wipe Warmer. It's a little heated box to put the wet-wipes in so you don't truamatize your infant in the middle of the night with a freezing cold wet-wipe on his/her little butt. This sounds like a good idea but we found out that the wipes don't actually get very warm and in the time between pulling them out of the warmer and wiping her butt, they cool off to their original temperature. And, the last 20 wipes or so are wasted because they completely dry out before you can use them. Oh well, I guess it's back to room temperature wipes for Lexi. Hopefully, it won't lead her to years of therapy.

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/03/baby_gear.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/03/baby_gear.html Baby Stuff Sat, 25 Mar 2006 15:47:38 -0600 The Joy of Baby Swings So we got Lexi a new swing the other day--a neglecto-matic, as some people call them. Ours is a little travel one, not so much because we want to travel with it but because our house is so small we don't have a spare room to devote to the baby swing.

We got a Fisher Price Aquarium Take-Along Swing. It's small, works well, plays non-annoying music and has pretty lights and fishies. Plus a crotch belt!

But the instructions included a few priceless gems:

The maximum weight limit for this product is 25 lbs. If your child weighs less than 25 lbs., but is really active and appears to be able to climb out of the swing, immediately discontinue its use.

Active=OK. Really active=bad. Got it.

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/03/the_joy_of_baby_swings.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/03/the_joy_of_baby_swings.html Baby Stuff Fri, 17 Mar 2006 13:16:06 -0600 Talking Lexi has started "talking" in the last week or so. She used to make only two noises - cry or grunt. Now she's added "happy" noises like cooing to her vocabulary. We have much more indepth conversations now.

I read somewhere (or maybe someone told me) that when a baby is born they are able to make the sounds of every language. Basically, they are a blank slate and will start to miimic the sounds of the culture they are growing up in, growing stronger in their native language and losing the ability to mimic other languages. It makes me wish I knew a second language so Lexi could hear/learn more than one right from the start.

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/03/talking.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/03/talking.html Over-Achiever Thu, 09 Mar 2006 08:47:05 -0600 What Madeleine Can Do Madeleine is now 5 1/2 weeks old. Here is what she has accomplished in that amount of time:
Holding her head up
Sucking on a nuk
Sucking on her fist
Turning her head to watch her mobile
Making and holding eye contact
Smiling
Grabbing Mazie's ears
Grabbing her own ears
Kicking her legs
Sticking out her tongue when she sees someone else do it
Raising her eyebrows when she sees someone else do it
Recognizing her dad's voice
Recognizing her mom's voice

What have you learned to do in the last 5 1/2 weeks?

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/03/what_madeleine_can_do.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/03/what_madeleine_can_do.html Over-Achiever Thu, 09 Mar 2006 08:37:18 -0600 Baby Names We've only had our baby for three and a half weeks, and I already find myself calling her anything under the sun. We named her Madeleine Alexis, with Madeleine as the pretty, formal name and Lexi as a nickname (Maddy is not an option).

But in addition to Madeleine and Lexi, I've also found myself calling her Lex, Monkey, Peanut, Goober, Little Girl, Chica, Kiddo, Buckeroo (?!), Fuss Box, the closely related Squawk Box, Freak, Stinky Butt, Squirt, and my personal favorite--Grunty McGruntsalot.

I am so incredibly a dad.

]]> http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/02/baby_names.html http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/parenting/2006/02/baby_names.html Baby Stuff Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:11:00 -0600