February 6, 2010

• Derek is seven months old!

  That's right ... my baby turned seven months old yesterday! We'll find out his measurements when we go to the pediatrician next Thursday. He's doing much better with his infections -- the ear infection is gone (although we'll be on the antibiotics until next week), and he's a lot less congested. Unfortunately, being sick has made Derek's eczema flare up again -- all the snot/drool that ends up on his face, our constant wiping off of his face, the fever, and him rubbing his face against the crib sheets add up to some eczema-friendly conditions! We were able to control it somewhat with Aquaphor and a humidifier, but we couldn't keep the flare-up away completely. It's getting better again now. I predict that Derek will be at 100% again this coming week. Hopefully we'll have at least a few weeks' respite before Jack brings home the next preschool illness!

  Anyway, Derek is doing great. His sitting skills improve by the day, it seems. He doesn't topple over as easily now, and he's really delighted by being able to sit and reach for toys. He's also getting pretty adept at creeping and rolling toward toys. Not much longer now until he attempts to crawl.

  My happy sitter!

  

  Making his way toward some toys

  

  Here's a video showing how Derek gets around. Of course, he didn't feel like showing off for the camera, but you get the idea (and it's still cute, I think!).

  As usual, nothing delights Derek more than playing with his big brother. He especially loves cuddle time with Jack in the morning. Before he gets out of bed, Jack will request "cuddle first" with me (or Johnny) and Derek. The two boys lay next to each other and just laugh. I really need to get a video of this! It's the cutest.

  Speaking of Jack, he's keeping us on our toes with his ever-expanding speech skills. He's now able to apply words to new contexts, even without having heard those words said in that context, so we have to be careful with bad words. Last weekend, Johnny lost an important document he'd been working on, and he said, "Fuck!" under his breath at the computer. Jack rushed over and wagged his finger at Johnny, saying, "No fucking, Baba! No fucking! That's very bad. Bad word!" Of course Johnny apologized and agreed that no one should say that word. (To clarify, we don't curse very often ... but a word or two does slip out under duress!) So then, this week, I was driving in the Petco parking lot when a car cut me off, nearly hitting our car. I honked, and immediately Jack said, "YEAH! Fuck him!" I was SHOCKED! So much so that I parked in the nearest spot, whipped my head around and said, "What did you say, Jack?" He replied, "Oops, sorry, Mommy! I said 'fuck'! Is very bad." I told Jack that it's not nice to say that word, and that it hurts people's feelings (Jack's very sensitive to hurting people's feelings, for whatever reason). I can honestly say that neither Johnny nor I have cursed at people after honking at them (we also don't honk that frequently to begin with), and Jack doesn't ride in cars with other adults, so he just somehow knew that that was the appropriate context. After I got over my "what kind of mom am I?" moment, I actually thought it was pretty funny to hear him swear so vehemently in his sweet toddler voice, and with the correct emphasis on each word. Anyway, Johnny and I are very aware of what we say now, and we're also reacting to any bad words pretty calmly (to prevent Jack from doing it to seek attention).

  When he's not swearing like a sailor, our big boy loves to "read." His latest obsession is to pull out all of our magazines and flip through them, making comments as he goes ("Oh, I like this, Mommy," "hmmm," or "very nice!" are his favorite expressions while reading). Sometimes he'll do this for 45 minutes at a time.

  Engrossed in one of Johnny's toy-industry mags

  

  

  Of course, he also still loves to be read to. His favorite (and my current favorite as well) is the award-winning book Bubble Trouble. I highly recommend it -- the illustrations and story are cute (Mabel blows a bubble that traps her baby brother and whisks him away into the air!), there are lots of alliterative tongue-twisters, and the whole thing's done in iambic pentameter. Besides, what other children's book uses the words "nefarious," "grovel," "cavorting," and "cavil"? Everyone run out and buy it today!

  That's it for now. This weekend we're laying low. We might go get a loveseat or something for our playroom so we don't have to sit on the floor all the time while watching the kids play. Other than that, just hanging out at home and watching the rain fall. Hope everyone has good, restful weekends!

  • 12:19 pm
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