10 things that frustrate us about Massimo (at 12 months)

Though parenthood is pretty great, it ain’t all bliss. To be fair…

Rachel’s list:

1. How difficult it often is to get him to sleep. Sometimes an hour or more or just waiting for him to wear himself out rolling around the bed.
2. He insists on sticking his hands into the glass of water after taking a drink.
3. He screams if we take something away from him or don’t let him have what he wants.
4. He pulls my hair and completely ignores my “no.” In other cases of “no” he stops and starts to cry.
5. Sitting on the potty isn’t as fun as standing up from the potty.
6. He tears my glasses off. All The Time.
7. It’s impossible to take the photos I want because he wants to hold the camera.
8. Talking on the phone is nearly impossible while I’m holding him. He MUST have the phone.
9. He wants to help empty the dishwasher. Starting with the forks. That, or he simply wants to get into the dishwasher (which he has done).
10. If he doesn’t want to be held, he puts his arms straight up and goes limp while kicking his legs. Fun. Especially in the grocery store.

Stefano’s list:

1. Not getting enough time with him (i.e., getting home just before his bedtime during the week).
2. His new found love of pulling out my chest hairs in clumps (yes, it hurts and he thinks it’s hilarious).
3. The fact that he has my temper, and lacks the ability to control it.
4. His fascination with and gravitation towards electronics that he cannot have, including my iPhone.
5. Not knowing what is wrong when he wakes up crying at night for no apparent reason.
6. Trying to get him to bed when he is excited or in a refusing mood.
7. Knowing that I should not get mad at him, yet feeling my own temper heating up at times.
8. When he stubbornly throws or drops stuff (incl. behind the couch) when he knows you are asking him not to (and then laughs about it).
9. When he gets excited and leaves his potty too soon, making a mess on the floor.
10. Seeing him get hurt!

Photos of Massimo’s 12th month can be found over at flickr. Though admittedly I haven’t added them all yet.

10 things we love about Massimo (at 12 months)

Okay, so Massimo turns 13 months in two days, but at least we wrote this up at 12 months. I saw something similar over at blue milk and thought it was a grand idea. Granted, Stefano and I have different interpretations of the exercise, but that’s okay. You get the point.

Rachel’s list:

1. The way he cuddles with Saki. He’s been doing it for months, but now it’s a whole production.
2. The way he tears up tissues and puts the little bits in his mouth, but then spits them out if I ask/tell him to.
3. The climbing. He’s not able to walk yet, but he’d climb up a wall if he could.
4. The one-armed, almost one-legged crawl he does when carrying something from point A to point B.
5. He eats with such gusto (breastfeeding and solids).
6. How he calls “em em” when he wants me at night.
7. He stands next to the bathtub and peers into it as it’s filling up. Sometimes he’s so excited he starts throwing stuff into the water (socks, his potty, etc.).
8. He tries to comb his own hair, but always holds the comb upside down. Similarly, he holds the phone to his ear, but backwards (receiver facing out).
9. He gets over-the-top excited when Stefano gets home from work. So sweet.
10. He has a new coy look that he gives to strangers. It’s the closest to shyness that he’s gotten.

Stefano’s list:

1. His jaw dropping smile (exposing his bottom teeth)!
2. Noticing and witnessing as he learns new things (like cruising and climbing), and being there to teach him things.
3. The expression on his face and the warm welcome he greets me with when I arrive home.
4. Spending time with him!
5. The way he cuddles with me when he gets tired or when he is being shy.
6. The way he falls asleep in my arms.
7. The way he gets so excited when we pass other children and dogs, cats, birds, ducks and other small animals.
8. The ability to spoil him, in a good way.
9. The way he eats like a big boy already now.
10. His beautiful big blue eyes.

We’re undecided how often we’ll do this (every month? every other month? four times a year?), but we’ll definitely be doing it again. Rarely do we take time to reflect on these things, so it’s a great opportunity for us as parents (and perhaps something fun for Massimo to look back on some day).

ONE YEAR!

Can you believe it’s already been a year? That’s right, Massimo turned 12 months old last month (on the 14th of May). This year has been the fastest, most fun, most satisfying, and possibly most confusing year of our lives (so far). Mo was a complete person at birth, but it’s been so neat to see how he’s developed and grown and to see the person he’s becoming. He remains extremely happy, but he’s got quite a temper too. He’s a social boy who loves hanging out with lots of people, but he has started to show a hint of shyness around strangers. Not shyness, really, but he definitely acknowledges strangers in a specific way (with a bit of a coy look). It doesn’t take too much for them to get a smile out of him, though.

He’s very curious, as I suppose most children are. He doesn’t just want to pull everything out of the cabinets, but spends a long time studying each object and figuring out how it works. He loves things with multiple parts and buttons. He’s crazy about electronics, so the tv, phones, cameras, dishwasher, washing machine are all of great interest to him. He’s a master at finding new ways to play with old and familiar toys. And he loves socks.

Though at 12 months and one week he still was not walking on his own (but he was walking very well when holding just one hand), he now takes 8-10 steps at a time and does this often throughout the day. He’s a pro at crawling. He crawls faster than most people walk. The only difficulty is carrying stuff around. He’ll either carry it in his mouth, or he’ll hold it and do a one-armed crawl. It’s really impressive, actually. And even though he can’t walk, he LOVES to climb. This morning I turned around and found him sitting on a chair! He had used Stefano’s briefcase as a stool. Fortunately his legs are still short enough that he isn’t able to climb much, but he tries climbing our headboard (we won’t let him), from the sofa onto the windowsills, and he wishes he could climb into the tub. We’re very glad he’s not able to do the latter, but he will stand outside the tub while it’s filling up for his bath time. He stands there and throws stuff in. A few days ago, I walked in and found his potty, a pair of socks, and a pen floating in the tub.

Mo is still breastfeeding and we have no plans to stop, though his feeding pattern has definitely changed. He LOVES food. An example of a lunch he had recently is cheese ravioli with a home-made pasta sauce (plus carrots and zucchini with yogurt and bread) for lunch.  Spinach quiche is also popular. Today he had beets, kiwi, cottage cheese, and a cream of cauliflower and potato soup with truffle oil. Since he started feeding himself at six months, he’s really a pro now. He eats what we eat, minus all the salt, sugar, and meat. He mostly eats with his hands right off of his high chair tray, but he also eats off of real plates with real cutlery. He eats his morning cereal out of a glass bowl with his silver spoon from Tiffany’s. The only thing that’s a “problem” is that he always spills his water if it’s in a regular cup. It’s not that he isn’t able to hold it properly, it’s that he likes spilling it. This morning he was in the bedroom and pulled my glass of water from the nightstand. I walked into the room and heard slurping. When I walked around the edge of the bed, there he was sitting in a puddle of water drinking what was left in the glass.

Of course parenting Massimo isn’t ALL fun. It often takes over an hour to get him to sleep at bedtime and naptime, and he often won’t accept anyone at night except his mama (this is a fairly new development). Massimo can sometimes be aggressive with other babies and with us, and teaching him to be gentle, well… it hasn’t worked so far. He also likes to wake us up every morning by yanking my hair or pulling Stefano’s nose. And we still have that cliche struggle of finding balance between work and family. For Stefano, his long hours sometimes cause him to miss Mo’s bedtime. For me, as Mo’s primary caretaker, I don’t have enough hours for my work. And “me time” doesn’t exist, for either of Mo’s parents…

In Mo’s first year, he traveled to Stockholm (twice), Brussels, plus the U.S. (Texas, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, and New York). In this coming year, we’re hoping to make it to Spain, Finland, Germany, and England (and the U.S. again). Traveling with a baby has it’s challenges, but the memories we have are worth it all.

There’s so much more to say about Massimo turning a year old, but suffice it to say that we’re proud, amazed, and looking forward to this coming year. When we took Mo out for his birthday dinner (at Bocca), Stefano toasted us by saying, “Happy birthday, Massimo! We survived the first year!” To which I responded, “Survived? I think we thrived.”

All of Massimo’s birthday photos can be found on flickr.

8, 9, 10, 11 months!

If you recall, Massimo turned seven months in Austin, Texas. And he turned eight months in Key West. We had a blast with friends there for about a week, and Massimo’s eight month birthday made it that much more special.

For months nine through eleven, we were back home in Tallinn, but his eleven month birthday was in our new apartment! You can see the sofa is different, and our flash was out of batteries so we didn’t get many photos. Plus, as usual, Mo would not sit still! He started crawling well around nine months, standing with furniture and semi-cruising at ten months, and standing and squatting in the middle of the room with lots of furniture cruising at eleven months. The standing thing is now constant, and he’s walking better each day. We can tell he’s thinking about taking steps, which is new. We were beginning to wonder if he was going to be content with just crawling for the rest of his life. His new crawling thing is holding something in one hand and crawling using only one hand along with doing something crab-like with one leg. It’s quite entertaining, but I can’t find the video camera anywhere. Hopefully it’s not gone for good (though I wouldn’t completely mind getting the Flip HD).

Massimo’s language development has amazed us. He’s still not saying much more than dada and aitäh (thank you in Estonian) and emem (similar to mother in Estonian, but we never say ema, so I think he’s just indicating that he’s hungry or likes what he’s eating. And goygoy is still very popular and he always says that with a smile and a little giggle. But what amazes us is how much he understands. He understands “Where is…?” questions, as long as he knows the final word. The words he clearly knows (among others) are phone, Saki (his lovey), paci or pacifier, London Bear (a teddy bear Stefano bought in London), Opa (we have a photo of his grandfather in our bedroom), and banana. He also understands phrases like “backwards” and “behind you.” But maybe I should be saving these things for his 12 month birthday…

The Blogging Resumes!

It’s been much too long since we last posted, but fear not for all is well! Massimo and I spent the month of December in Austin, Texas with his Oma, Opa, Uncle Jesse, Aunt Nicole, and cousin Una (is cousin supposed to be capitalized?). We had a blast and kept very busy. In January, Stefano joined us as we traveled to Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, Key West, DC, and Manhattan before returning to Tallinn at the end of the month. It took a while to recover and even longer to sort through and upload all the photos! But they’re finally up (see the December, January, February, and March sets): Photos of Massimo Eli.

Mo is still doing fantastic. He had some slight sniffles recently and a fever when his third tooth came in, but overall his health is really excellent. He still hasn’t received any vaccinations, and we’ve decided to hold off until he starts spending more time around other kids. Breastfeeding is still going strong with no end in sight, and Massimo also eats three solid meals a day (and I mean solid in both senses). His recent thing has been tasting food then spitting it out, which is great fun. And when he’s done eating, anything left on his tray is moved bit by bit onto his lap or the floor (depending on his mood). You can check out his BLW photo set to get a better idea. We took some hilarious photos just the other night and will upload them soon.

Like most babies his age (10 months now), Mo is crawling (fast!) and standing and walking (with assistance). There’s no telling when he’ll be walking for real. It could be in a few weeks or a few months. He has started feeding me recently. He gets a big kick out of that. He absolutely LOVES music and starts dancing and clapping and waving his arms whenever he hears it. This weekend we bought him a little potty and he’s been using it regularly already. Three times today. What else? Hmm. He also LOVES books. It’s nice to have a shared love, plus three books buy me an additional 30 minutes of semi-sleep each morning. He turns the pages and points at the things he sees and talks about them.

Time for bed for me, but I wanted to get you caught up quickly so we can resume our posts without too much hanging over our heads! More posts to come!

happy holidays

skin deep

These past few days I’ve been obsessively search the Environmental Working Group’s Cosmetics Database to see if all of the products we use are up to snuff. As it turns out, most of them are not. According to EWG’s site, “Due to gaping loopholes in federal law, companies can put virtually any ingredient into personal care products. Even worse, the government does not require pre-market safety tests for any of them.” Even the brands I thought I could trust (like Dr. Hauschka’s and The Body Shop) aren’t worthy of that trust. I’m so bummed that all of the companies claiming to be good actually aren’t. The only exception I’ve found so far is Dr. Bronner’s, though I’m sure there must be others.

I was happy to learn that the Weleda Calendula Oil we use for Massimo rates well (although that’s one of the few Weleda baby products that rates well), as does his Dr. Bronner’s soap. His Burt’s Bees products are also a disappointment. Thanks to the Cosmetics Database, I was also able to find a great and safe sunblock for him for Florida. Only the best for my boy!

I was a Body Shop girl before moving to Tallinn, but once we moved there I started buying EVERYTHING from that store. Probably because it was one of the few brands I was already familiar with and liked, and there are several stores there. My foundation, face wash, toner, eye makeup remover, facial scrub, mask, and many of my hand and body lotions and lip glosses are from there. And now I feel I should find something else, considering all of my favorite products failed the EWG’s thorough testing. Ugh. I do believe knowledge is power, but sometimes it can be depressing!

seven months

Massimo turned seven months in Austin, Texas. Here he is on his Oma and Opa’s sofa with Bunny. Perhaps you also noticed his teeth? The two of them made their appearance recently and caused quite a stir (especially in the sleep department). Still, Massu remains as good-natured as ever and is having a blast with his extended family (pics of him with his cousin Una to come). The boy is far more interested in using his hands than his feet, so no crawling yet. He does a kind of backwards squirm, but he isn’t motivated to move beyond that just yet. Maybe next month, although a stationary baby is not a bad thing! I’m still able to run around the house without having to worry about him getting into things.

More pics from this month can be found on flickr.

down in the valley

I don’t know many (any?) lullabies, and the ones I’ve discovered either have not-so-nice lyrics (Rock-a-bye Baby, for example, since I don’t like the thought of falling babies) or have an annoying melody or sappy silliness about them. So I decided to take a song I liked the sound of and get creative with the lyrics. This is what I sing to Massimo each night as he falls asleep:

Down In The Valley  –  Valley So Low
Hang Your Head Over  –  Hear The Wind Blow
Hear The Wind Blow Love  –  Hear The Wind Blow
Hang Your Head Over  –  Hear The Wind Blow

Roses Love Sunshine  –  Violets Love Dew
Angels In Heaven  –  Know I Love You
Know I Love You Dear  –  Know I Love You
Angels In Heaven  –  Know I Love You

Build Me A Castle — A Hundred Feet High
So I Can See The Sun — As It Goes By
As It Goes By Love — As It Goes By
So I Can See The Sun — As It Goes By

The Day Is Over  –  And Out Of Sight
Good Night My Darling  — To You A Good Night
To You A Good Night Dear — To You A Good Night
Good Night My Darling  –  To You A Good Night

It’s a traditional American folk tune, and if you don’t know the melody, you can hear it here. I’ve been meaning to fully learn the lyrics of What a Wonderful World, too, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. What songs do (or did) you sing?

Hypnobabies holiday discount

I’ve sung the praises of Hypnobabies before, and here’s a little extra encouragement for those considering the self-study program:

This year, in light of our current economy challenges, we have decided to give a 20% discount on all products at Hypnobabies throughout December, as our gift to all Hypno-Moms! PLEASE use the following code at checkout to order: HOLIDAY.

I’m considering getting a few of the extra CDs, since I’ve already shared my program twice in Estonia and would like to have some of the extras on hand for future borrowers (in case they need them). On a related note, Hypnobabies also has the extras available as downloadable MP3s.