My How They Change! Documenting Baby As They Grow Up

I believe every month during a baby’s first year is a birthday milestone.  I only celebrated the half-birthday and I’m so excited about Sayle’s upcoming first birthday party that I’m already making plans. To celebrate Sayle’s monthly milestones I take a picture of him on the 25th of every month.  When he was three months old I started adding a little sign to note how many months old he is and which month it is, just in case I can’t do the math later.  I really enjoy comparing the pictures to see how much he has changed in the past ten months-I swear his …

Knowing The Differences In Your Child’s Cry

During Sayle’s first three months every peep he made resulted in me picking him up.  I read enough books, articles, and journals on the long term affects of an insecure baby but I also knew there was a line between a secure baby and spoiled baby.

Granted, you cannot spoil a newborn, but the last thing I wanted to do was handicap his ability to self soothe.  One of my new mom anxieties was being able to tell the difference between a “need cry” and a whine.         

I was given some very good advice from a friend …

Baby Play-Date

Sayle is a very social baby.  He smiles and engages with others easily, showing particular interest in children.  Most of my friends who I have daily contact with have older babies and toddlers, which makes ”play time” impossible.  They are either too rough with Sayle or have no interest in him as he cannot do the cool things they can do (i.e.-run, jump, talk, etc.)  

Cheryl is a friend of mine and her son, Beau is one day older than Sayle.  Our schedules have not allowed us to get the boys together since they were five months old, so over the holiday break we had the opportunity to schedule …

Sayle is a Chunky Monkey!

For the first six months of Sayle’s life his height and weight were average.  In fact, he was in the 50th percentile for his weight and 50th percentile for his height during his six month check up-obviously a baby can’t get more average than that.  Lately, people have commented that Sayle was a big baby, which was initially surprising to me.  I noticed he had put on some weight since I switched him to formula and started him on baby food.  He went from my little monkey to my chunky monkey and I loved it!  I adored his big rosy cheeks, pudgy hands, fat thighs, and dimples.  Babies are supposed to be fat, it is part of their charm-but I …

Unsolicited Advice-Why Do People Speak Without Thinking?

 

One evening I had a conversation with my aunt who has never had any children of her own and she was asking me about the book “What to Expect During the First Year.” I informed her while I found the book helpful for certain issues, I found the book to paint a best case scenario regarding what the baby should be doing by certain ages. For instance, the book says Sayle should be crawling by now. Rather than crawling, he is “belly scooting” in order to grab anything that is within 360 degrees of him, but …

Baby Sayle’s Cunning Protests

When Sayle was five months old he started to detest his carrier.  If he didn’t feel like being in the carrier he cried in order to vocalize his displeasure with me.  Thankfully, his displeasure was short-lived in that as soon as I picked the carrier up to put him in the car he was all smiles and coos again.In the past month however, I have noticed he has become more cunning in his protests to my decisions.One morning I tried to pop him in his car …