Post-Christmas Catch Up

Greetings from sunny Ohio (seriously)!  We've had a busy week since returning from the southern road trip.  Lots of great family visits.  And now Zainy Boy is dealing with his first cold.  It's been a rough few days - for us anyway.  He seems to be taking it in stride - smiling through the sniffles and shortened naps.  Too busy to post much, but you all just want the pictures anyway!  You'll see that Zain has been busy practicing some new skills.

Zain's second swim

Grandma Shirley and Grandpa and the "farm cousins"

The attempted cousin picture - it didn't get much better than this  :-)

Meeting Cousin Jen and Uncle Barry

Zain and his "Harley uncles", Terry and Barry

Very popular with 5-year-old girls

Added to his repertoire this week - grabbing the toes!

Meeting Uncle Doug

A Doug hug

Hanging with Grammy

Flying with Mommy

Another new skill - fist eating

An early tripod sit

Looks pleased with himself, yes?  (Always good to have the camera handy...)



Zain has become much more adept at grabbing things recently, sometimes lots of things at once

And big things, too!

Merry Christmas!

Fish

Well, the weather in Florida didn't cooperate (it was warm and lovely right before we got there and the day we left, and it was sweater weather in between), so Zain didn't get his first swim in the pool there.  We couldn't let the speedo go to waste, though!  So on our 2-day "layover" in Asheville, NC, we stayed in a hotel that had an indoor pool.  Shif took Zain for two swims and he loved it!  Didn't seem scared at all, and he kicked his little feet.  I think we have a swimmer. 

Life's a (Cold, Cold) Beach

Our Florida vacation, a.k.a. the festival of sleep deprivation with ocean sounds in the background, is winding down. Today, we'll be hitting the dog beach one more time, then starting to pack up.  We have excellent timing, since we've been experiencing Sarasota through record lows and occasional freezing temperatures - and tomorrow, the day we leave, it's supposed to be lovely and in the high 70s.  Well, we knew it was a gamble when we planned it!  It has still been nice to be able to look right out our front window and see the beach and the Gulf.  We've gotten out for numerous walks, especially at sunset, and the hard-packed sand here has been great to run on.  So, despite the temperatures, we've managed to make the best of it.  Luckily, we had some cold-weather gear with us!

So, about that sleep deprivation.... Zain's been going through a spell where he wants to feed every two hours, all day and night and going to sleep particularly easily.  Probably a growth spurt.  This has made for some very tired mommies.  Things seem to be turning around a bit in the last couple days, though.  We've had to enact a couple new strategies that seem to be working.  After trying every swaddle blanket known to man, we seem to have found one (the Miracle Blanket) that keeps his hyperactive arms under control (and I'm sure potential babysitters will find it a little palatable than duct taping him).  We've had to supplement with formula this week because Shif just can't keep up with demand (he drank 9 oz in one sitting the other day) and so she can get at least some sleep at night.  We found a decent formula here that he actually doesn't seem to find.  Shif's also eating fenugreek, drinking Guinness, and getting massages - all purported milkmakers.  

Mommy instigating

Bye-bye, Florida...

The Sweetie

I realized that the last few posts are mostly devoted to talking about how much Zain screams, so I should mention here that he is the most adorable, sweet, and fun little kid when he is not screaming.  :-)  Actually, the screaming was only when he was falling asleep and has pretty much stopped now that he has reacquainted himself with his paci. 

He really is a sweet little thing.  He always has giant smiles for us when he first sees us - a guaranteed mommy melter.  Yesterday, he farted and started giggling.  We're told this is normal male behaviour and will continue for at least 30 years.  

Yukking it up

Zain has developed all sorts of new skills in the last couple weeks.  He's very reliably getting his hands into his mouth now.  I'm sure this makes him happy, but it also creates very slimy little hands and makes it very hard to get a shirt on him.  He's also become a grabber - he'll grab bibs, Mommy's shirt, burp cloths.  He also loves to grab his new favourite toy, the "crazy ball", and immediately tries to shove the entire thing into his mouth.  

The crazy ball (we love this husky sleeper that was a gift from Jennah and Taz in Atlanta!)

Also grabbable - his own hair!

Zain also "talks" a lot these days.  If this continues and you combine it with Shif's chatty ways, this may mean that I will spend most of the rest of my life in silence.  He has a wide range of coos, squeals, laughs, and grunts.  He seems to develop a new sound every day and then spends most of the day trying it out.  Today, it was a deep man-voice hoot.  We've tried in vain to get a good video of him chatting, but the appearance of the camera seems to be a surefire way to get him to clam up.  We'll keep trying, because he's very entertaining. This video illustrates a small portion of his range.

We're in Florida right now, enjoying not having to pack up all our stuff for another five days.  Temperatures are a bit chilly by Florida standards, but we really can't complain given what what's going on in Ohio and Toronto.  It looks like we won't be busting out Zain's little speedo after all (unless we stay somewhere with an indoor pool on the way home!)  We have gotten a little time on the beach.  That went surprisingly well because it's been windy and Zain hates wind.  It seems to bother his tiny, stuffy little nose.  A few pics from our temporary home:

A diaper change on the beach

 

Co-napping after a long afternoon at the dog beach

Why is this one giving me a bottle?

Um.... yes, you should really use the safety harness

And yes, my first inclination when I saw him like this was to grab the camera, not to help him!  (Disclaimer: I was there the whole time and he was fine!!!)

Going South

A quick post from the road.... After a great visit with my family in Ohio, we headed south Saturday.  We managed to outrun the big snowstorm that dumped on Ohio and northern Kentucky (but not the cold wave), and we've had pretty smooth riding so far.  Zain's car seat tolerance level continues to go up, thankfully!  We're trying not to do more than 4 or 5 hours of actual driving each day.  We stop to feed him when he decides it's time for a snack.  Then we take advantage of his happy car seat time by getting in as many miles as possible, mommies' food and bathroom needs be damned.  We're taking turns sitting in the back seat with him, and we've learned all sorts of tricks for keeping him from having major cryfests and to get him to go to sleep - we're singing, humming, covering of the car seat like it's a birdcage at night, creating faux swaddles by stuffing receiving blankets around his arms.  So far, it's managed to be pretty peaceful.  He's never been one of those babies that falls asleep instantly in a moving car, but he's learning to enjoy it.  

We seem to be spending a lot of time at McDonald's - clean change tables, room to feed, big Cokes, and free wi-fi.  Their change tables are inside the accessible stall in the bathroom, which has led to a few adventures and more time on the learning curve.  The first time Shif changed Zain there, because the change table is right in front of the automatic-flush toilet, she accidentally set off the flush and sent Zain into a screeching fit.  Then, a couple days ago, she realized that the proximity to the toilet also leads to the very real possibility that your diaper bag could be kicked into it! 

Can you tell which city we're in?

Frog legs at McDonald's

We stopped for two days in Atlanta to visit Shif's uncle and cousins (and a surprise visit with an aunt who happened to be in town) and had a really nice visit.  Well, it was nice for us.  I'm not sure what they thought, considering the baby who seemed to be either screaming or sleeping, and was awake enough only for brief hellos. 

Practicing his new favourite trick - standing

Meeting Cousin Taz

With Gully Aunty

Unimpressed by all the attention

Today, we left Atlanta and we'll arrive at our new temporary beach home tomorrow!  We've stopped tonight in southern Georgia.  We got in while it was still daylight, so we went out for a family walk to enjoy temperatures that are finally above freezing!  I can't say the environs of the interstate Valdosta are much to look at, but it feels like vacation to us!

  

Road Trip, Phase 1

Our road trip has begun!  First stop is Ohio to visit family and celebrate Thanksgiving.  We decided to make the normally-9-hour drive over two days, given that Zain’s previous long trip in the car was about and hour and a half.  We drove to Akron the first night.  Normally a 5.5 hour trip, it took us about 8 hours with baby-feeding, dog-walking, and parent-stretching stops.  So we figure for the rest of the trip, we’ll take Google Maps’ estimate of trip length and add 50%.  Zain did pretty well on the trip.  We’re learning how to keep him happy when he’s tired of the car seat, including dealing with the sun.  And Shif is learning interesting ways to breastfeed in the back seat in gas station parking lots (I’m not sure she’ll let me take or post a picture, but it’s amusing). 

Zain's first hotel room

Life in the car seat

Binda babysitting

Zain has been a bit difficult to get to sleep lately, but that might be the result of a growth spurt more than anything else.  He’s developed all sorts of new skills in the last week or so.  First, he’s finally gotten his hands somewhat reliably into his mouth.  For the record, thumb first entered mouth in the restroom of a McDonald’s along I-90 in Erie, Pennsylvania.  Since then, he hasn’t been able to get the thumb back there, but his fist makes regular appearances and he slurps away on it.  This is his new favourite hobby.  Second, he’s started to pull to a stand with our help.  For a week or so, he’s been doing “sit-ups” where we hold his hands and he pulls himself up to a sitting position.  But a couple days ago, I was doing this and he just kept going and pushed himself right up to standing.  He loves to stand up and look around.  The view must be so much better from high up. 

Zain’s taken pretty well to all these new environments he’s been in.  Each new place we’re in, we have to assess where to put him to sleep, whether we use the pack ‘n play or co-sleeper or something else, if the room is too dark or too light, if there’s enough outside noise that we need white noise, how much furniture we need to move in order to plug in the monitor, where to take a bath…. 

Trying to escape from the sink bath





Cuddling with Grammy and Josephine

This week has been packed full for Zain with meeting family members and vicariously enjoying a lot of turkey. 

Meeting Grandpa...

... and Grandma Shirley

One of Zain's new favorite people, Cousin Beth

Uncle Anthony

Thanksgiving with Maya and Anthony

Mr. Popular at the family reunion