Old Stuff Part III

These are all from when Adam was 7 months old.

still lookin' pretty babyish at the beginning of the eighth month
He gets much older looking pretty quickly.

in need of a haircut


Mom and Adam posing


Dad and Adam posing

Dad and Adam candid


"Yay! Guitar!"

"Whaddya mean I'm not supposed to be playing with the guitar?"


"But _Dad_ lets me!"


"not CDs either?"

We have since purchased a CD storage album. The discs haven't made it into the album yet, but they will soon. Soonish.

"The Diaper Genie, then. Surely! ... No?"

"I'll settle for the camera."

The following series is Adam's reaction to not being able to reach the camera. That - and - this was just around the day his first two teeth broke through.

"Please, can I have the camera?"

"Why can't I have the camera?"

"But... but... but... I want the camera. PLEASE!"

"It's not fair!"

"Now you're just making me mad. You know I can't climb on the bed to get it."

Adam only just learned how to climb onto our bed by himself at around 9 months (two or three weeks ago.)

"This is the worst day of my life."

"And this is the best."

"Mango. mmm. all gone."

apres coif

ready for the Toronto Northern Lights Christmas party

I can't remember why Adam and Dion went but I did not. curling?

Something's funny.

7 months's edition of the eye colour series

Other events that occurred while Adam was 7 months old:

- Marlies' game with two of Dion's WoW buddies. Adam drained 6 oz of milk in about two minutes right before the third period, which he slept through entirely. The other thing I remember in particular is that Sparty pulled out the classically funny, "I can see who wears the pants in the family" when he greeted us because Dion had Adam in the Snugli. I bit my tongue and let it slide without comment but I wanted to say, "Yeah, cuz I so obviously wear the pants. That, Cult Leader, er, Guild Leader, er, Sparty, is why Dion's still playing 30 hours of Wow every week - perhaps more. Ha ha ha. Joke's on me."

- Nathan Tsang's birthday party

- Nathan and Shana's open house (party), where I took quite a bit of ribbing because I was still dressing in Adam in sleepers day and night. I finally gave up on the sleepers a couple of weeks later because he'd worn through the feet of all his 12-month sleepers. They really aren't made for crawling.

- The snowsuit shopping saga. Actually this began while he was five months old and finished when he was getting close to eight months old.

- Smile and duck. Adam really started to show a definite preference for his mama while he was 7 months.

- Still not close to sleeping through the night. We were getting four straight hours out of him maybe twice a week. I posted this on the Tsang blog:

Back in October, Dion convinced me to try letting him cry. I was doing pretty well but at about the hour-and-a-half mark, the crying became pathetically sad. I collapsed into sobs myself. And then Dion betrayed me completely and took him out of the crib. He said that he can handle Adam's crying but not mine. I think Adam was still too young for it to work. For now, he's still getting up every few hours and I rationalise that it's a good thing because Christmas can't ruin his sleep. Although, I suppose he could unlearn day and night.

- We met Isabel Sophia Kwong.

- Most of Adam's babbling resembled Zulu more than English. Lots of clicks, clucks, and tsks.

- Adam developed a love for I Love You Through and Through. Its recitation still settles him nearly instantly. Dion and I particularly love "Youououououour MAAAAD side!" Adam's favourite page to look at these days is "Your happy side." It's not in the book, but we're using "Your LOUD side!" quite a bit these days.

- I don't remember if I mentioned his fake laughs and fake cries. Usually the fake cries turned into genuine laughs because he'd be peeking through squinting eyes and would catch my laughing at his fake crying. The fake, exaggerated smile was usually reserved for me. He still uses the fake laugh when he wants to be the centre of attention.

snow

I love snow. It was a beautiful walk into school this morning. So pretty and quiet. Adam and I played in the snow briefly in the afternoon. He wasn't as interested by it as I thought he'd be. Ah well. Good photo op anyway. Yes, that is a down-filled Roots snowsuit. I got it so late in the season that it was marked WAY down. I can't remember if I blogged the snowsuit shopping saga. 'nuff said.

just chillin'

Adam and Dion played before bed, too.

9-month check up

Another clean bill of health and growth on Friday.

age	WEIGHT			HEIGHT
mos	lb,oz	%ile		in	%ile
0	7,1	25		20.5	75
1	9,11	50
2	13,4	84		24	85
3
4	17,12	93		27	95+
5
6	20,4	90		28.7	95+*
7
8
9	22,12	82		30	94

Percentiles from http://www.mybirthcare.com/favorites/babygrowthchart.asp. Although our paed has never been more specific than "Adam remains taller and heavier than 90 percent of his peers" - even for his most recent weight. And I'm sooo happy with our paediatrician, Dr. Aaron Lindzon. That man runs a tight ship. I am almost always on my way out of his office as I am scheduled to enter it. But I never feel rushed and get all of my questions answered.

The only bad news at the appointment is that Adam has excema. I had it when I was a young child, until about grade one or two. Hopefully he'll outgrow it, too. We've switched back to baby detergent for his things. He also has a fragrance-free body wash and moisturiser, which we're supposed to use after every bath, which he is supposed to have EVERY DAY. I was quite surprised at this advice and disappointed with the increase in bedtime production. I've also bought a pack of 7th Generation diapers because they are chlorine and fragrance free. I really ought to have been buying them all along out of environmental conscientiousness but I've been too cheap (Pampers BabyDry approx 26 cents each at Shoppers, 7th Gen approx 54 cents each. ouch but still not going cloth. fuggetaboutit.) Hopefully all these steps will clear up the excema and we won't need to apply hydrocortisone cream often, if ever.

Some recent photos of Adam

I think I'll call this series Camera Shy. They're rare shots because Adam loves, loves, loves the camera.

Sweet and innocent, eh? No, no. Serious carnivor:


Just kidding. Beets:



Beets. Only on bath night. Diaper only. Seriously.


And the most recent in the Eye Colour series. Click the photo to enlarge it:

Welcome!

Clare Elizabeth Ho

born at 3:00 am on January 17, 2008
6 lb 14 oz, 19.75"

They had a safe and quick delivery at Toronto East General Hospital. Way to go, Rebecca! She says she had a great support team but we all know who did all the heavy lifting.

The new family was resting at home by sunrise.

Hallowe'en special

This post is hardly about Hallowe'en actually. It's mostly about photography.

Anyway.... We stopped by Dion's office at Keele and Bloor, as invited on Hallowe'en.

The devil costume was provided by PohPoh.

Yep. A real little devil.

Keele and Bloor is also the location of High Park so we stopped there for the formal Hallowe'en portraits. I'm kinda kicking myself for not cranking down my ISO setting for the first half of the shots. They're a little washed out. Ah well.

I'm also kicking myself because I didn't realise until I got home and saw the shots that most of them have the grass horizon passing through Adam's head.

I've printed this one out and posted it above my desk at school.

The car ride home knocked Adam out. Since I had my camera handy when we got home, I kept shooting. The flash popped up automatically for this one. Not a useless shot, but not one I'd normally post. I turned off my flash but, unfortunately, too late. The camera had already awakened Adam.

Wow, what a difference without a flash, eh?! Sooooo much better.

"I had been asleep! @$#^^ camera!"

"Hey, this crinkles."

Old Stuff Part II

These are all from when Adam was 6 months old. There will be a separate Hallowe'en special.

destructo at work.

Lemme 'splain 'bout that there shiner. We moved Adam's crib out of our room shortly after he turned 6 months, when the risk of SIDS drops quite sharply. But before we did that, his crib was right next to our bed. And in a 3 am stupor, Adam awoke, saw/smelled me and pounced at me. Unfortunately, the bars of his crib stopped his progress. Ouch.

He actually seems to sleep more soundly in his own room than in our room - though not as soundly as in our bed. Also around 6 months, we got Adam a sleep bag (picture a very long vest with the hem all sown up well below the feet. He likes it and it helps the transition from warm arms to cool crib. It has a whole in the back so that it can be used with 5-point harnesses in the stroller and carseat. Very handy.

too cute! Adam still plays with the rattle at the bottom of this picture. By 6 months, Adam had located all of the door stop springs in our apartment. He's still playing with them and another oldy-but-goody, the cordless phone. Another favourite toy was the funnel - I mean megaphone - that I handed him in haste one day. Funny. He liked the megaphone but around the end of 6 months developed a fraidy-babyish fear of the vacuum cleaner, crashing dishes, and the blender.

But still the best toy ever: Kevin and Su's bunny, which very kindly let Adam catch him and touch his face occasionally while we played Bohnanza, my favourite game of late.

Ah. Back in the day. Sleep came so easily.

"Are you touching my piano?"

Adam's coming after the camera.

coming after the camera again! You have no idea how many photos I have of Adam going after the camera.

The pose is totally GQ. The photo is totally security camera.

one of Adam's first solid meals. We started a week before he turned 6 months. The novelty has worn off. He's a boob man. But today, he did sit happily in his high chair for his first banana.

First foods: rice cereal, oat cereal, carrots, sweet potato, rutabaga, cauliflower, butternut squash, wheat cereal, MANGO!, Arrowroot crackers, soy cereal, whole wheat penne slices, egg yolks, BANANA!
Coming up: avocado

"yo, yo!"

Funny faces: around the end 6 months, Adam developed a fake cry. Very cute. He'd squish up his face and cry but peek through to see what we were going to do about it. Usually, I'd laugh. So he'd laugh too. He had another funny face - a really exaggerated smile that he usually reserved for me. He hasn't done those much lately.

LOL.

Ai yai yai

teething + separation anxiety + sniffles + holiday schedule = sleep battles royale

I think we're winning though. Tonight: cried it out for 30 minutes. It has been well over an hour before. What Adam doesn't know is that if he makes it through the week, he's probably home free until March Break. I don't have the strength for battles while I'm working.

OMG. I'm too cocky. He just started crying again 30 minutes after falling asleep.

Keep scrolling. This is today's second post.

Old Stuff Part I

I'm going to try posting some old stuff about once every few days. These are all from when Adam was 5 months old.

pals

or maybe not. My kid's a brute.

Adam and Uncle Chi

at Uncle Steve and Auntie Loo Sean's wedding.

at Uncle Steve and Auntie Loo Sean's wedding.

The blog leave continues ....

I'm just in for a brief visit.

Adam - so cute I could almost cry. Actually, I almost did. As I was feeding Adam his solids this evening, I was opening my mouth wide for each spoonful to encourage him to do the same. As usual, he had a spoon or two in his own hands. One time, as he opened up for a spoonful, he started feeding me! He did this several times with varying degrees of success with getting the spoon into my mouth. Sometimes it was the wrong end of the spoon or just some sticky fingers. Naturally, I chimed in with the due yummy noises. The humour of all this was not lost on Adam. Oh, the giggles!

blog leave of absence

Hi faithful and sporadic readers!

I am taking a leave of absence from the blog and picasaweb. Perhaps Dion will take it up but don't hold your breath. I'll probably come back to it, like I did when I took a year off ultimate. I'm out of love with the blog. Besides my previously blogged issues surrounding content and audience, there is a pita factor. There's always something I'd rather be doing with the little free time I have.

I used to think, "Oooh, I want to blog this." Now I think, "Ugh. I should blog this." I've had many entry ideas over the past several weeks, e.g., Hallowe'en, Bunnanza (yes, BUNNanza), and the run-of-the-mill developmental stuff for Adam (solids, sleep, blah blah blah) but never a moment where the urge struck me to post.

Those of you who responded to my previous post will get emails if and when the blog resumes. In the mean time you can remove Lew Family Blog from your bookmarks. I feel like I should apologise but I'm tired of "should."

over and out,
Karen

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