7 months old

Evan is growing so fast! He was into size 9 months clothes last month, and now he's almost out of them.

We started solids this month, and he's loving it! We started with rice cereal, and then moved to pureed vegetables. And we just started with fruits, which he enjoys a lot since he's feeding himself a la Baby Led Weaning. I'm breaking the "rules" though, because we still do pureed vegetables for dinner, and oatmeal with lunch. Oh well, rules are meant to be broken, right?

He's had: sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, squash, vegetable medley, rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, avocado (which he hated, much to my dismay), cantaloupe, strawberry, plum, and mango. He's having organic whole milk mixed in with his cereal, and a whole lot of breast milk!

He can sit for as long as he wants, no problem. Big fat check on that one!

He has started to figure out crawling. He's using his knees, and he's using his arms (one under him, one reaching out) to grab whatever he wants that's out of reach. He's also doing the backwards "crawling". I think next month he'll be fully mobile. ::scary::

Oh, this is a big one. He says "mama"! Ok, so sometimes he says "mamamamamama", but the point is that he seems to say it to call me. We think he really knows I'm mama :D (yes, I have a big smiley face!)

He's very talkative. His grandparents sent him story books with their voices recorded, and he talks back to the book.

He likes grabbing everything, and putting it in his mouth. That includes, but is not limited to, mom's hair, dad's hair, dog hair (from the carpet), napkins, computers, remotes... anything he can reach, really. We usually distract him with a toy before he reaches new objects, though.

He has a big quilt where we lay him down to play. But he loves the carpet, he always finds his way to the carpet. And to the dog hair, which gives mommy a frowny face. It'll be nightmare when he starts crawling...

He's been in a convertible car seat since about 3 weeks ago. Yes, he's that big. And he loves it.

Sleep... no changes there. Still wakes up 3 times per night, but we're thinking of ways to work on that.

He's still cute as can be. We expect no changes there :)

Nighttime schedule

For better or for worse, we're on a pretty regular schedule for nighttime feedings. Evan goes to sleep around 8 pm. We change him, I feed him, burp him, and put him down. Most nights he's still awake when I put him down, but falls asleep within seconds.

Then he wakes up between 11-12, again around 2 am, and around 5 am. So, basically every 3 hours. Since we've been on this schedule (probably close to 2 months by now) he wakes up wet frequently. So I have to change his diaper either at 2-3 am or at 5 am. That, or I have to change his diaper and onesie next time he wakes up, which probably happens because he's wet.

So our solution of using disposables at night because they absorb more is not working too great anymore. I tried using a super stuffed cloth diaper and it just gets too cold with all that pee, and wakes him up nonetheless. So I do the middle of the night diaper change (to cloth, so we still only use one disposable per day), hoping once he stops eating at night he'll be able to sleep through with one night diaper.

But I digress. This waking up 3 times every night is really not working too great for me. He's really easy in that he eats and falls asleep right away, so it really only takes me away from my bed for about 10 minutes. But the vacation was a little brutal on me (We went to North Cascades for 3 days/2 nights). I didn't get any naps, and I was very concerned with responding to Evan's noises as soon as possible so we wouldn't wake up our friends' twins. And we slept on an air mattress which didn't help much either. And I don't drink coffee, and tea doesn't really do that much (and I don't drink tea that often either). So I'm still recuperating from it, and the occasional 4 wake up nights don't help.

I also thought maybe once we started solids he would sleep better, longer, as so many believe. Well, we're up to two solid meals per day (cereal and vegetables) and he's waking up as if he had an alarm set up. So I believe that's false.

My mom told me to try and give him water and not milk... he cried on and off for an hour before really staying asleep, and that's too long for me. So we have two options: either we try again the 3-4 nights in a row cryfest, or we just let him be and I feed him when he wants.

The cryfest, well, you know I don't really like letting him cry like that, and he's a stubborn little one (reminds me of his mom...). The two times we've tried this he cried for a full hour, and I'm not sure I can take it.

Letting him be could be fine, except I think it's more about him falling asleep on thebreast than anything else, and I do want him to fall asleep on his own. But how can I tell if he's waking up because he's hungry or if it's just that he can't go back to sleep on his own? He falls asleep on his own no problems for morning naps and at bedtime, but he has problems in the afternoon and possibly at night. So what's the answer??

I don't know.

I should have some breakfast before he wakes up, so I'll let you ponder that question.

Childhood Crush

When I was 6 years old, I fell in love. He was 3 years older than me, but he could have been 10 years older, I wouldn't have cared. I met him in Mexico City while I was on vacation with my family. He was relatively new in town; he had only been there for about a year. A foreigner from a country far away, he was definitely different in a very charming way. He didn't have to do anything to have me completely fascinated. His name was Keiko, and he was an orca whale.

My mom, brothers and I went to Mexico City to visit my mom's family. It was a great vacation, filled with lots of activities and fun day trips we kids loved. It was on one of those day trips that I met Keiko.

(You may recognize him from a little movie called “Free Willy”)

We went to Reino Aventura, his home in Mexico, pretty much just to see him. He had become the main attraction of the amusement park, and we were very excited to see him perform. And it was magical. There he was, this beautiful black and white creature, so strong and powerful that he could jump clear out of the water, yet such a gentle giant that the trainer could scratch his tongue without concern of harm. The sweetness in his eyes was so mesmerizing, but there was also a little tinge of sadness. Or perhaps he just seemed a little sad, like his bent dorsal fin. I wanted to play with him, share in his magic and hug his sadness away, make him happier. Kind of the way you feel about puppies when you’re 6 years old. But Keiko was no puppy, and he was far more captivating. He was the first animal to sweep me off my feet.

When I was growing up I wanted to be many things: writer, veterinarian, zoo keeper… and orca trainer/researcher. As it turns out, my orca dreams were not meant to be. Keiko was already on his way to freedom by the time I was a senior in high school, and then I learned there aren’t many orcas in Mexican waters. The one researcher in Mexico that could have been interested in letting me work with orcas wanted me to do lab work and no field work, and that was far from what I wanted. So I changed gears and I let that dream go. But I didn’t let go my dreams of seeing Keiko again.

When Keiko’s journey to freedom started, I daydreamed of going to Oregon to visit him (though I doubt his tank was open to the public, not even to a girl with a cool childhood story). Then he was moved to Norway to start his reintroduction to the wild, and I daydreamed of going there to see my childhood friend with a bent dorsal fin interact with wild orcas. It was going to be so great! He would splash around, introducing his new buddies to me. I would cry in utter happiness for seeing that bit of sadness gone from his eyes.

But then I saw his picture on the papers on a Saturday morning. I was excited to learn the latest from my friend, but the news weren’t good. Keiko passed away on December 12, 2003; he was only 27 years old. I was shocked and sad. I would never get to see him in the wild; I would never see him again. That time when I was 6 years old was the only time I saw him, but I remember him dearly. I clipped his picture from the paper, laminated it, and carried it in my wallet for years. I still have it in a box, but I don’t need it, I know that picture by heart.

Seeing Keiko was not an option anymore, but there was still something I wanted to do. I wanted to see wild orcas. Secretly, one of the main reasons why I wanted to do a PhD in British Columbia was their population of wild orcas. We know that didn’t happen, yet life brought us here anyways. The San Juan Islands are right next to B.C., and J, K and L pods are all here as well.

The first time I saw wild orcas it was shear luck. I’d gone to town with Evan to our Library class, but I got the time wrong and it was over before we got there. I was not happy, so I decided to take a detour back home and I drove to Lime Kiln State Park, to cheer me up. I put Evan in his front carrier and we went down the trail. There were tons of people at the lookout area, but they were mostly kids from a school group. It was a bit windy, and I didn’t want to risk Evan getting sick, so I decided not to walk all the way out and I started walking back. And then I heard something, like someone coming out of the water with a snorkel, blowing the water out of the tube. I froze. I couldn’t believe I’d heard that so clearly, so I took a few steps back toward the outlook. A beautiful female orca was coming out of the water a few hundred yards away, popping out to say hello. Well, it wasn’t that I didn’t care anymore about Evan getting sick, it was that I couldn’t just walk away now! I walked all the way out, and there they were: at least two females and one male, just swimming by. Beautiful.

Yet, a few weeks later, it got better. Josh’s parents, Chuck and Debbie, came to visit Evan and they took us whale watching. Tuesday July 06, 2010, what a beautiful day it was. Sunny and warm, the perfect day to be on the water.

We boarded the Odyssey at 2 pm and headed north for an hour and a half, all the way to Canadian waters (that’s right, Evan went international that day!) We were looking for J pod, one of the most iconic orca pods around. Granny, the matriarch of the group, is 99 years old, and she looks healthy as can be. And her son Ruffles, with his distinct dorsal fin, is one of the most recognizable males in the Puget Sound.

As we approached the area where they were supposed to be, we saw several boats moving along the coast of a Canadian island. Podparazzis*, there’s no better way to tell there are orcas around! Binoculars in hand, we finally spotted them, and then we got a little closer and binoculars were no longer necessary (not too close though; you must remain at least 100 yards away from them). There were oh’s and ah’s as they surfaced to breathe, giving us the opportunity to see their beauty.

Ruffles and Granny were at the front of the pod, we saw them first, but they were followed by the rest of the pod in several smaller groups. A couple orcas were breaching, while we looked in awe. Another group of younger orcas where clearly hunting. We could see bubbles coming to the surface before them, and them surfacing for different angles in a small circle. They would perform their little hunting dance, then swim a little further ahead, and do it again.

I always dreamed of watching wild orcas for the first time in the company of a loved one, someone I could kiss in the middle of all that happiness. When I was out on a boat in La Paz, BCS, I would sometimes wonder if we would find a transient orca and I would fulfill my dream, but then I would have a mini panic attack, because there was no one on that boat that I would want to kiss. I should’ve known better, life has a way of working out just perfectly. Not only did I have one loved one to kiss next to me, I had two. Does it get any better than that? I think not.

The captain announced it was time to leave. I looked out to the horizon, and saw Granny doing a perfect breach. The glare of sunlight reflecting on the water behind her made that image one of those that you carry with you in your heart, the ones you don’t need a picture of to remember.

It was the perfect ending to that trip. I was at peace, happy that my friend Keiko got to enjoy the bliss of freedom at the end of his life; happy that I got to fulfill that childhood dream in the company of the two men I love the most.

I have seen orcas from the coast many times since, and the thrill never wears off. They always put a smile on my face. And every time I spot orcas, I wonder if Ruffles, with his unique dorsal fin, is out there. I think I have a new orca crush…

* We heard the term “Podparazzis” from one of the interpreters at Lime Kiln State Park. I’m not clever enough to come up with that!

Fooding 101

The first solid (or semi-solid) meal:

6 months old

Evan is half way to his first birthday!

- Evan is 19 pounds and 27.5 inches.

- He loves rolling over. He has discovered that it's a good way to go places, and has managed to reach the dog beds (about 4-5 feet away from where I set him on the floor) in less that 30 seconds, twice. He's a master roller!

- He still loves standing, and has ventured a few steps while we support him. He still lacks all the coordination for it, but he's intrigued by the walking thing.

- When I lay him on his buppy pillow as if it was a couch (with his rump in the whole), he manages to sit up by himself. He loves doing it and feels very proud of himself, he gives me a big "I did it!" smile!

- He LOVES pulling my hair. And faces, he loves pulling on faces, or any skin, really. And he reaches out for anything and everything. It doesn't matter if things are out of reach, he will launch himself towards them hoping to land close enough. And of course, everything goes into his mouth.

- He can sit on his own, but he has trouble staying there. There's always something more interesting over there, and as I said before he's not afraid to launch himself in any direction.

- He no longer sleeps on his back, he rolls around all over his crib and mostly prefers sleeping on his side, but also enjoys sleeping on his chest. Needless to say, crib is going down one level.

- He loves his exersaucer! Mostly, he loves "tasting" it all, from the dragonfly to the arch that holds the monkeys. He also understands that if he touches the chameleon, it'll play a tune. He's very deliberate about it, he touches it when the tune is over so it plays again.

- He's a jumper. He loooooves jumping up and down. As soon as you hold him to stand, he'll start jumping in excitement.

- He has decided to doesn't like the bottle anymore. He used to take it just fine, but now nothing but mom will do. Oh well, it's not like I go many places without him anyway...

-He's still a very happy boy, and gets attention everywhere we go. He's that cute.

6 months postpartum

That's me 1 week postpartum, 6 weeks postpartum, and 6 months postpartum.

I've lost all my baby weight and then some. I've lost an extra 8 pounds in the past couple of months, so I've decided I can eat as much as I want! I do hope I don't look quite as thin in real life...

My goal was to breastfeed for 6 months. Yay me!! My new goal is 9 months, and we'll see after that. Don't get me wrong, breastfeeding is awesome and it has come very naturally to us, but some days I miss wearing regular and flattering bras (sorry if this is too much information!)

In the meantime, we'll continue breastfeeding and I'll start working on getting Evan used to a sippy cup, so we at least have an alternative for other fluids. And eventually I'll start him on cow's milk. I was never breastfed and I was on cow's milk by age 2 months, I'm sure Evan will survive cow's milk before he turns one. So, 3 more months, and we'll see what we want to do after that.

Breastfeeding has definitely had some influence in my weight loss, I think, because Evan keeps gaining weight no problems, and I keep losing it. My belly is still soft, but then again it's not like I've been working out or anything. I'd be silly to expect it to be hard and strong when I really don't exercise at all (I'm not counting carrying Evan around). And my belly button still looks bigger than it was and sort of stretched. But I won't even think about it until after No. 2. Right now, I don't really mind how it looks, because in all honesty it doesn't look that bad.

I never got stretch marks, seems I'm one of those lucky ones that managed to avoid them. My mom never got them with her three pregnancies, so it runs in the family.

So, all in all, looking good!!