Fun in the sun!

This past Saturday was so nice, Miguel, Syler and I decided to meet up with some great friends, Jen (Miguel's cousin) and Shannon (Jen's partner) and have lunch in Northampton. We met Jen and Shannon at the Northampton Brewery, which is known for its homemade beer and great food, and then we did some window shopping before getting some very delicious homemade ice cream at Herrell's. It was nice enjoying a weekend day with my husband and catching up with some great people. Here are some pictures of Sy throughout our day.


Once we left the restaurant we started walking around, and after a few minutes we decided to check and see how Syler was doing. This is how we found him.



A close up!


Hellooooo!!!!


All tuckered out after some fun in the sun!

Favorite Toys

Here are a few of Syler's favorite toys.

1. Eric Carle Developmental Elephant


2. Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes


3. Infantino Car Seat Buddies


4. Harmonization Fascination Station


5. Fisher-Price Stack & Roll Cups


6. Infantino Jittery Jungle Pals - Lion & Elephant

*Syler doesn't have any of the ones pictured. His is an orange deer with dangly legs. *

7. Infantino Peek, Rattle and Teether


8. Tiddliwinks Safari Bear Blanket Satin Lion Cream White


9. Monkeys Swing on Banana Ring by Sassy

* Syler has the one with a green, red, and purple moneky, and his monkey's don't have rings on them*

10. MiYim Organic Cotton Lovie Blankee - Monkey


11. Baby Signing Time Videos:

7 months old!!!!!

7 months old!!

(Sorry this is a so late!) Syler turned 7 months old last week!!! Holy cow!!!! It hit me a little bit that in just a few short months he is going to be 1 years old.. Wow!!! He is getting so big so fast. I simply can’t believe it.
What’s going on with Syler.

Likes:

- Talking: Syler is a BIG talker. He takes after his daddy in this area. We hear a lot of ba, ma, ah, ha etc.
- The color RED. Syler LOVES anything that is red: toys, balloons, cups, plates, my nalgene bottle.
- Baths: Syler loves taking a bath. He is constantly kicking his legs while in the bath.. Too funny!
- Toys toys, toys. Syler loves toys
- Books, books, books.. He loves being read to and he is also at the stage where he grabs the books and eats them.
- Sleeping… I swear this kid is a lazy teenager inside.. He loves sleeping. Not that I am complaining.
- Oatmeal cereal. Kid can’t get enough.
- Baby food… Mainly vegi’s. He does have his favorite fruits though. He really likes pear’s and banana’s.
- Sitting in his car seat and riding in the car. Syler has always enjoyed riding in the car, but would most definitely fall asleep within a few minutes. Now, he seems to stay awake longer and enjoys looking out the window, which is the cutest thing. He also has this toy that attached to the handle of the car seat that he likes to play with.
- Still loves his bouncer, but I think we are starting to hit the stage where he is growing out of his bouncer. So Miguel and I need to figure out what we are going to do and how we are going to transition him out of the habit of using it.
- Syler likes chewing on and holding his spoon after he eats.
- Recently, Syler has started noticing himself in mirrors. He stares at himself and sometimes smiles.

Dislikes:

- I have to say that Syler’s BIGGEST dislike is having his face cleaned after eating. He hates this.
- Syler’s next biggest dislike is having his nose cleaned/picked. He just absolutely hates this too.
- Tummy time: This is just an ongoing thing, but now that Sy knows how to roll over, he immediately tucks his arm and rolls as soon as we put him on his belly.
- At the moment, and hopefully it is just a phase, but Syler has a growing dislike for drinking from a bottle. This has been a growing dislike over the past couple of weeks. So the majority of his milk intake is through rice or oatmeal cereal.




What’s new/updates:

- Over February break Syler said Mama!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited!!!!
- He also is able to sit up on his own (with just a little spotting to make sure he doesn’t take a hard tumble).
- Baby signing videos: We, Syler and I, have started watching signing videos. He gets excited when the video comes on and he seems to really enjoy them.
- Starting solids. Syler has had a taste of chicken and pasta. Both of which the doctor suggested to start with. Watching Syler eat these things is kind of funny because he is not quite sure what to do with it. It doesn’t squish in his mouth and he has no teeth to chew it, so it usually ends up coming out of his mouth and rolling (sliding with the drool) down his chin.
- Syler’s grasping ability has gotten much better. He is able to pass objects form one hand to the other, grasp objects with only one hand, bring these items to his mouth. He reaches for items and, sometimes, gets frustrated when he can’t reach something.
- Mentioned in previous posts; Syler is over the dislike of having his winter hat put on or sitting at red lights.
- Syler continues to do a great job sleeping in his crib.
- Stranger Anxiety: We have come to the stage where Stranger Anxiety has set in. We have learned, after he screamed in Dziadziu’s face when I passed him over, that Syler needs a couple of minutes to ‘size up’ the other person before he will comfortably go to that person. Once he has had that opportunity to feel that person out, he is fine. And, if he is not okay once we pass him over, we just simply take him back, let him reset, and then give him back. Then he is usually fine.
- No new news in the teething department. He is still drooling a lot, but nothing has broken through yet.
- We started putting Syler in his walker this month. He doesn’t really do much in it except play at this moment. He does push himself backwards, but nothing to get too excited about.

Next post: Syler's favorite toys

6 month doctors visit

A couple days late getting this post up, but Sy went to the doctors on Monday for his 6 month Child Wellness Visit and his 6 month vaccines. The doctor's appointment went really well. Syler is weighing in at 17 lbs 6 oz and measures at 26 inches long. Both of which place him in the average range for his age. Awesome!!!! The doctor is happy with how Syler is developing and growing. There is only one area that we need to work on, and that is strengthening his back muscle. The doctor wasn't overly concerned about the lack of strength and his minor inability to sit without support. So we simply just need to place him in the sitting position without support, just spotting. We also discussed with the doctor Syler's lack of interest in drinking milk from the bottle. Over the past week and a half he has been consuming less and less milk from the bottle, but devouring his cereal and or baby food. So, the doc said to get stage 2-3 nipples, which will allow more milk to come out of the nipple at once. We will try new nipples.

Next came the vaccines. Even though it is not the most pleasurable thing for either parent or child, I must say that Syler handled this round of shots like a champ. He only cried at the initial pinch of the needle and that was it. Then afterwords he was happy as a clam. Once shots were done. We were done... Sy's next appointment isn't for another 3 months, and the nice thing is he won't be getting any shots then, just some blood drawn.

The time has come.....

Well, I think the time as a milk producing mama is slowly coming to an end. This past month and a half my milk production has decreased drastically. I am not sure if it was because I went away for 3 days in late December and I wasn't able to pump nearly as much as I did prior to the trip, or if it is just my body saying my time is ending. Am I happy about this......... NO, and I'm disappointed. I was hoping that I would be able to produce milk until Syler was about 8 months to a year old. I have tried everything from eating more oatmeal, drinking ensure, pumping more and drinking Yogi Tea for Nursing Mothers (all recommended either from Circle of Moms or from co-workers). None of which helped. So, as long as I can produce enough to get him the recommended 24-32 ounces of milk a day we won't have to do formula, otherwise, formula it is until he turns a year old.

6 months old!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW!!!!!!!!! I cannot believe that Syler is already 6 months old!!!. It feels like just yesterday Miguel and I were driving back and forth to the hospital every 3 hours to visit Sy in the CCN/NICU. But, today he is a happy/healthy little clam enjoy his little baby life.

*Likes:
~ Teething Rings and any toy her can put in his mouth. Yes folks he is at the stage where he puts anything in his mouth.
~ Still loves his orange deer, but he has a 2 new loves. A little white bear headed blanket and an Eric Carle Elephant that hits all 5 senses.
~ Sitting up: Lately, Syler prefers to sit up and play rather than lying in his back.
~ Taking a bath. Sy loves taking baths. He splashes and squeals the whole time.
~ Bouncer: Syler still loves his bouncer, but we feel he is started to outgrow the bouncer. So we are starting to transition him to other things like his boppy.
~ Books & reading: Syler continues to enjoy reading, which is just fabulous. He seems to be more interested in the books themselves. He tries to hold them, put them in his mouth and turn the pages.
~ Talking: Holy chatterbox let me tell you. Yes, he is taking after his daddy in this department. Besides hearing lots of goo’s, ga’s, gurgles, and ah’s, we also hear ma, ba, ga, oo, la, ha. Syler also makes this noise very similar to the noise of Chubaka, but just a baby version.
~ Giggles: Syler has definitely developed his ability to giggle, which you can see a video of him giggling away on a previous post. I must say baby giggles and laughter is thee best sound in the world!
~ Watching things: Syler LOVES watching and is fascinated by the cats and dog. Whenever they come near him he just stares at them, and he follows them with his eyes as they walk away.
~ Touching/Petting: Because our cats, especially Oscar, are so friendly we are able to get Sy close enough to wear he can touch and “pet” (more like grab chunks of their hair) them.
~ Syler’s grabbing has greatly improved. He is able to reach, grasp, pass items from one hand to the other and his movements are much smoother.
~ Sitting up: Syler’s ability to sit up has also improved. He needs very little assistance sitting now, which is great, and as I mentioned above, he rather sit than lay on his back.
~ I had mentioned in my last birthday update that Syler doesn’t like getting dress. I must say this has improved greatly. He doesn’t mind having cloths pulled over his head, but he doesn’t like having the cloths bunched up around his neck while waiting to have his arms put through the sleeves.

*Dislikes:
~ Tummy time: I am still hoping that some day Syler will like tummy time, but right now he still pretty much hates it. I do have to stay that when we place him on his belly he doesn’t immediately cry. Only after about a minute or two does he start to cry. But, what he does do it as soon as we place him on his belly he arches his back, sticks his arms straight out to the side, locks his legs and pretends he is superman. We can just rock him back and forth on his belly. Pretty cute!!!
~ Syler doesn’t like having his hat put on once he is in his car seat. Not quite sure why.
~ Syler is still not a fan of red lights.

*New/Updates:
~ Since Syler was born, maybe even a little while before he was born, I have been toying around with the idea of teaching Syler how to sign. Well, after spending some time with some friends, Sean and Becky, and their son, Colin, I have decided to teach Sy how to sign. I made my final decision after watching Colin sign a little bit and after seeing the signing video Colin enjoys watching.
~ Miguel and I took Syler to get his 6 month old pictures taken. We went to Target because their picture packages were the least expensive and they take a pretty good picture. Well, Syler did a great job and it was so much fun. The photographer was great and this is where we learned the “Ah Boo” trick you can see in the video I posted my last post. The photographer saying that to Syler was the golden ticket to get him to smile, and he did more than smile each time. He also gave her lots of giggles.
~ On January 30, 2010, Syler finally rolled over. I have been waiting for this since I read in a book that babies can start to roll over from age 3 month on. So since he turned 3 month I have been waiting for him to roll over. He finally did and I think my excitement startled him more than him actually rolling over. As soon as he did, I started cheering and clapping because I was only a little excited, hehehehe ☺
~ Syler has found his feet and toes, both of which he really enjoys licking and putting them in his mouth.
~ Along with finding his feet and toes, Syler has also found his thumb. Sucking his thumb has not become a habit yet and hopefully won’t. But he also enjoys sucking on all of his fingers too.
~ Baby food: Well, this month we started giving Syler baby foot. Of course we gave him vegetables first for the fear that if we gave fruit first he wouldn’t eat/like any veggie’s. He seems to like veggies a little more than fruit. He doesn’t like applesauce or carrots, but loves pears.
~ Syler still remains (knock on wood) on a pretty consistent sleeping pattern. He goes to bed around 9-9:30 and wakes up around 7-7:30. He sleeps straight through the night. He continues to take one long nap in the morning and then 1 to 2 naps after that. Miguel and I have been very lucky in the sleeping department.
~ Along with his sleeping well, Syler is also sleeping in his crib. We transitioned him into his crib a few weeks back because he was getting too big for the bassinet. We started him out a couple of nap times and nights sleeping in the pack-n-play because it was just a little bigger than the bassinet, but after a few nights in that and Sy doing really well, we just moved him right into his crib. He has been doing absolute great!
~ No new news in the teething department.

** Up coming post: back to work/daddy day care/ tia’s house, doctors & fungus, 6 month vaccines.**

Ah Boo!!!!

Ah Boo!!! from Sarah Barroso on Vimeo.

6 month post coming soon!!!!!