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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

9 - month milestone




Bruce is 9 months old today!


He did great at his check-up. He is 29 and 1/4 inches tall. Weighs 20lbs and 2 ounces. Head circumference is 46.7 cm. His heights is in the 90th percentile. Weight and hc are in the 50th percentile. His hemoglobin was 11.6, which I'm told is normal. We passed on the shot today because he has a cold.

Bruce has been suffering from a cold since Friday and it's a bad one. When he's sick he doesn't like me to leave his side even when I give him a bath. So yes, I get in the tub with him. The other night he wanted to be rocked the entire night. So that's what I did. He slept and I rocked. If I stopped and tried to lay him in his crib he would wake up and cry and wouldn't let go of my t-shirt. That is when I wished we had a rocking chair that reclined. But this too shall pass. He normally loves baths and kicks his little legs with excitement when I put him in there. And he usually never sleeps anywhere but his crib. Last night was much better, he slept 13 hours in his own bed.

Bruce is doing great developmentally. He plays patti cake and claps his own hands. Waves bye bye (kinda, it's more like an open/close with his hand.) Is really good at entertaining himself. Everyday we have roomtime where bruce plays in his room by himself. We are suppose to work this up to 30 minutes and Bruce is at 20 minutes. Of course his room is trashed by the end of roomtime but it is still a very good skill to develop. He mimics us very well. If I laugh, he laughs and if I cry he starts to cry (a mean trick, but I can't help but find it funny.)

He is becoming quite a momma's boy and follows me everywhere. Kiel and I can ask him to come to his room or to where ever we are in the house and he will come. I can say "come on Bruce let's go change your diaper" and he will crawl to his bedroom and sometimes beat me there. He understands the words "baba," "bath," "doggie" and "dada." He also knows these phrases and will do them when we ask "lay down," "hands down," "come here," "get down" and "no."
He helps me get him dressed by putting his arms through his shirt sleeves and undressed by pulling his shirt over his head once I have his arms out of the sleeves.
Bruce has been able to pull himself to a stand ever since he started crawling but did not know how to get back down. Now he can get down by himself. Whenever he stands, jumps or "walks" it is always on his toes. He has yet to stand flat footed. I asked his Dr. about this today and she said I do not need to be alarmed just yet. But if this persists by his 12-month check up we will need to do a brain test. I guess some babies can't sense if they are on their toes or flat footed. I'm sure Bruce will stop being twinkle toes by 12 months and I work with him every day. But whenever I make him stand flat footed he props back on his toes...crazy kid.

He loves electronics, wires and lotion bottles. He loves to be read too, whenever he gets injured I read him a book and it calms him down. He loves, loves, loves music and to hear people sing (except me) but I don't blame him, I sound horrible. He is fascinated by babies, little kids and adults. Babies make him laugh and get him really excited. Painted toe nails intrigue him and whenever we are in relief society at church he crawls around to all the ladies that wear open toed shoes and have painted nails. He then gives you a little tickle and tries to lick your toe...I know gross, but the ladies don't mind it.




Bruce is now eating finger foods! He loves puffs, unsalted soda crackers and grated cheese. He hates anything banana flavored, including banana flavored puffs. He's a good eater but also knows what he likes. He doesn't mind room temperature food but hates anything cold. I have to warm it up to room temp. He hates cold water as well and cries every time he puts his hand in cold water.

He's an excellent sleeper. He sleeps 10 - 12 hours at night and takes 2 two hour naps.

He has eight teeth now! Four on top and four on the bottom.

And lastly he has said a couple words but hasn't said them since so I'm beginning to think it was a fluke. When I was feeding him in his high chair Kiel took the dog outside to go potty. A couple minutes later we heard whistling and Bruce looked up at me and said "dada." Kiel whistles all the time and Bruce loves it, so I thought he associated the whistling with his dad. And he does say "dada" all the time but doesn't necessarily mean it for Kiel. Then a couple days later, I told Bruce to go to the doggie and Bruce repeated "doggie" clear as day. Then he went and patted Montana on the head and said "doggie" two more times. But he hasn't said it since. They were still exciting moments even if they are flukes.

Well i've said a mouthful, hopefully you feel like you know him better!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Loving Love Day

Beautiful pink roses and lilies from my husband! They smell as good as they look. And they get prettier over time. The lilies still need to bloom!



Here is Bruce getting ready to take his Valentine magenta colored daisies.

As you can see she really appreciated it!

Happy valentines day!

Dear Blogger

I like to blog. It helps me update long distant relatives and journal my year with pictures and videos. It's a great idea, I'm glad you made it possible. But here are some things that you should consider adding or changing.

  1. The ability to cut and paste. If I want to blog and a post a recipe I have to type the recipe. It would be nice if I could cut and paste instead. It's annoying blogger.
  2. When I load pictures they all load up top. Why can't it be like the video and load where ever my cursor is? That's lame blogger
  3. While we are on pictures, why can I only load 5 at a time? Be like facebook and let us load more. Come on blogger, get with it already!
  4. Also it would be nice that I could edit my picture after I loaded it. Like say I loaded it to be large and center but now want it to go left. It would be nice if I could do that without having to reload it and "normal." Just a suggestion, blogger.
  5. When a blog is "private" you should have a button that says "request to read blog" or something like that. Instead of telling me that I need to email that person and ask permission. A) I don't have their email address. B) I would feel like less of a stalker if you just let me press the request button. C) My blog is private, and it would make me feel good if people could request my blog. I mean really blogger, I know you can do it. So just do it already.
  6. I think there are a couple more and hey I might be able to do these things and just not know it...is that the case blogger?
Melissa

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Baby Eczema

Well, after being in and out of the doctors for the past month and a half they have finally figured out what the rash is on Bruce's skin. He has eczema. Something he will hopefully grow out of. But as for right now we have to be very careful not to do things that could irritate him. And I should add this is a relief from the other diagnosis' we got: chicken pox, viral infection, staph infection and a yeast rash. (Phew, it's been a hard month.)

I can no longer give him a nightly bath :( He should only be bathed 3 times a week in luke warm water (this differs with other eczema babies, sometimes baths help them, but for Bruce it irritates him.) J&J products also irritate his skin so if anyone wants the giant J&J body wash and lotion bottle I have let me know. I found Aquaphor and Cetaphil are gentle enough for him so we use those. I am a little bummed about the limited baths, he crawls everywhere and I hate putting him to bed "dirty."

This has also added another chore during diaper changes. We put Nystatin cream on his diaper area, Hydrocoritsone ointment all over the irritated parts of his skin, mainly arms, legs, belly and back, and Aquaphor cream on his cheeks and forehead. After only one day of doing this we have seen a huge improvement. Which makes me feel confident about the eczema diagnosis. The good news is we only need to do this for a week. After we get the eczema under control, I hope to find a lotion that will help with skin maintenance. So far, Cetaphil lotion and J&J lotion do not do the trick. I need something thicker, I think I will say hi to some of my skin care friends and try and get a discount on California Baby. The days of me getting free skin care products are over ;( But maybe when my job starts up I will have free access again (I hope!)

We also have to pay closer attention to his clothes. We just bought him four new shirts that are made out of organic cotton, so I hope this helps. I've always washed his clothes in fragrance free detergent so I think this helps and the Dr. said continue to do this and of course I never use dryer sheets on his items.

Anyway if you have noticed in the recent pictures I posted the extra redness on his cheeks and rash on his arms and legs this is why. But I'm glad we finally found out what's wrong. Poor B has been really itchy most of his baby life and hopefully he won't feel that way anymore.

I can get up...

but I can't get down:



We play this game 50 thousand times a day. Bruce pulls himself up onto something and then screams when he wants to get down. I try to teach him to bend his knees but he just locks them on me. All the books I read said to let them scream and they will figure it out. Do you know how loud my child screams? CPS would be called in 2 minutes :D He is getting the hang of it though, he no longer does this in his crib. Progress, progress :D

Friday, February 11, 2011

Valentines Day

Bruce went to his very first V-day party yesterday! It was stressful but also really fun. The kids decorated bags, passed out valentines and ate heart shaped pizza.

Bruce also had his very first taste of candy, not by my choice of course. I don't know what it is about kids but they don't share with the one's they are suppose to and always share with little babies when they shouldn't. I was constantly pulling out skittles, nerds and candy hearts from Brucey's mouth, trying not to have a panic attack myself. (sneaky little kids.) And I guess Bruce got tired of me taking away his treats, because when I tried to take one last candy heart out of his mouth, he clamped his jaw tight and wiggled his head back and forth so by the time I finally got in there it was dust. Oh well, enjoy kid. Because your next sweet will be in five years :D

This year Bruce asked Preslee to be his valentine.
I think it's the giant bows that attract his attention, what do you think?We wish you all a Happy Valentines day as well!

Sleep tight

It's no secret babies are adorable when they're sleeping. And we also know Bruce is a funny guy. He likes his routine to be the same every day and at the same time too! Yesterday I put him down for his nap: Which goes like this; diaper change, say goodbye to the sun and close blinds, turn on fan, lay in crib, hand him his blankie, walk out and shut the door.

He will then roll around and talk to himself for about ten minutes and then fall to sleep. But yesterday it took 45 minutes for him to go to sleep. I couldn't believe it. He played and talked the whole time. After it was safe I went in to check on him and this is what I found:
1. Pants off
2. Comforter no longer folded on side of crib but instead laying on top of comforter
3. Two extra blankets above his head that were on his changing table.
4. A comb and hairbrush that were also on the changing table.

But then there was also the usual: His blankie snuggled up right to his face covering his breathing passages. At least we finally got out of the stage of him wrapping it around his neck.