Bye...

After 3 months of no haircuts (since his birthday), we tried giving Basti's head a trim.  Tried because he cried till he was all tears and snot so we had to stop.  During that attempt we got the sides, but not the top.  I think it looks a little funny and he gets crazy bed heads, but oh well.

Appetite comes and goes, still.  I know I should be used to it by now...  but I keep hoping he will just eat and not spit it all out.  They say to pick your battles as a parent or it will be constant war against the incomprehensible will of a baby/toddler leading to insanity, so eating shouldn't be an issue but a fun play time.  Still it can get frustrating when you think you've finally found something somewhat healthy that he will eat but the next time it just goes flying in the air.  WHHHAAA...

Pooping.  Yikes.  He poops about every 3 days now, even though I try to give him some "special" water (with stool softener) every day.  But when he poops you know it cause it stinks up the whole room.  And the clean up is no laughing matter...  it sticks to his butt like clay, so after some attempts at wiping he gets an emergency bath super quick.  The other day with all the struggling and juggling, he ended up sitting on my leg with his dirty butt...  so my pants went straight to the wash and I had to bleach the bath tub.  Nice!

Now that we've reduced nursing by about 50%...  Mommy needs to stop eating so much.  Darn.  No more second breakfast or 11sies or second dinner.  Even though I still get hunger attacks so severe that I feel like barfing (yes I know, makes no sense).  Ugh.  But I need to watch it because I've gained some weight very quickly.

Party was a success...  Poppy reports that Basti took 4 unassisted steps while I was out getting balloons.  We had a full house with 15 adults, 6 dogs and Basti Baby.  For the all american party we had burgers, hot dogs, and apple pie.  A lot of apple pie.  I bought 2 apple pies.  Then a guest brought another store bought apple pie.  And then another guest brought a home made apple pie.  Apple pie overload.  At around 7pm, Basti politely started saying "bye" and waving to all our guests...  hee hee.  So everybody left.

Tonight is leave on our big adventure south.  !!!

Quickly...

Let's see...  Basti Wasti is 1 week shy of turning 16 months.  What?!?  Crazy how some days seem to go by so slowly (when he is cranky and whiny) but the overall is going by FAST!

Tia Hen and Tio Jav came to visit mid month.  We managed to adventure all the way to SF to the Academy of Sciences.  I think Basti enjoyed it...  lots of huge fish to point at, love the aquariums there.  We also rolled around eating our way through town.  Basti was quite a trooper through our adventures.  The biggest highlight of the week with Tia Hen was Basti took his first unassisted steps!  Woa!  We were in the kitchen when Basti took his first 2 steps, Hen and I screamed "Philipp!" (he was in the bedroom).  Poppy rushed out wondering if something bad had happened.  Oops.  Then Basti managed another 2 steps.  And that was it.  Another day Basti took 1 step on his own as I was trying to feed him some breakfast.  And well, that was it.  Now he's not a big fan of walking practice...  he shakes his head no when I have him stand up and he knows what's coming.  So I won't push him anymore.  He will walk again when he is ready.

I plan to some day write a post on my insights into the crazy world of breastfeeding.  Today is not the day.  So long story short: I've finally weaned Basti off pre-naptime nursing.  Tuesday was our first day going to nap "dry".  After just a minute or two of complaining, he quickly drifted off to sleepy world.  Wednesday was even better, no complaining.  But then Thursday came...  and it was all tears, snot and screaming.  Basti only took 1 nap and for only an hour.  And Friday was the same thing.  Which means Mommy was drained of all energy and Basti was quite cranky, not a good combo.

Thank goodness today he decided to go down for his first nap without a peep.  Yey!   So we're off to a good start to the day...  and we need our energy because today we're having a party to celebrate Poppy becoming a US citizen!

And Monday night we have a long drive to go visit Basti's cousins for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

15 Month Basti

Basti is 15 months old!  WOW!

In the last month he has accomplished a lot:

- Stand on his own for up to 10 seconds.

- Climb onto everything: ottoman, coffee table, couch, boxes, drawers.

- Climb up the play structures at the park...  and given time (with me spotting him, of course), he will go down the slide on his own.
- With some guidance at first, figured out how to put the wooden rounds on the peg of the stacking tower
- Starting to take an interest in sorting blocks.
- He has taken more interest in Baby Time at the local Library and hanging out with his buddy Samuel.

- Mealtime mess has reduced GREATLY.  Basti will point at what he wants and often lets me know when he's "all done" with hand signals.  If I could remember to do sign language with him...  

- He shakes his head "no" when he doesn't want whatever it is I'm offering him.

- Sometimes he says HI.  Often he says BYE and waves.  Pretty cute.  He also randomly says bye to big white buses or trucks.

- He likes to press the light switches on the wall (Poppy showed him that trick), and sometimes says BYE to the light after turning it off.

Stats from his 15 month check up:

- Weight: 21 lb 14 oz

- Length: 30.5 in

- Head: 48 cm

14 Month Basti

Basti is cruising, climbing, squeezing himself into every little nook and cranny.  He loves to empty out drawers, and fling anything he can get his hands on.  As soon as he spots Maja's food and water bowls, he commando crawls towards them hoping to get his hands into them.  He likes to throw balls hoping Maja will go get them, and if she doesn't then he gets them himself and throws again.  And his favorite toys are the ones in Maja's toy box.

Last week Basti dropped one of his naps...  which means I don't get to nap.  Whaaaa.  His one nap is now at around 11am, and he's out for about 1.5 hours.  The timing puts a crimp into our lunch dates with friends.  Unfortunately, Basti is very tired in the afternoon...  He will hang out quietly in his crib for a bit, that re-energizes him some but not enough.  So by 6pm he is ready to pass out.  Still adjusting to his new schedule.

For the Fall semester we signed up for a baby class/playdate at a local Waldorf school.  It's only once a week for 1.5 hours.  I knew it was going to be granola (given where we live...), but this is so granola it's crunchy.  So not necessarily my type of crowd.  But Basti has a great time playing and interacting with other babies and parents.  For the infant program, they follow many of the RIE methods in parenting.  Turns out I have a book on RIE and didn't even know it, so I've read through most of it and now understand better why we do what we do (or don't do) in class.  And although the RIE methods sort of simplify the role of a parent, they are quite challenging to implement given we are always on the go.  Work in progress.

Cheese Monkey

So many updates on Basti's developments, I can't keep track.

Right after we got back from Germany, Basti started sleeping through the night...  average of 10.5 hours straight.  Nice!  But once he turned 13 months, he started waking in the way early morning.  Now it's anybody's guess what he will do...  For the last few days it has been difficult getting him to sleep at night.  What's going on Basti?

His appetite comes and goes.  Sometimes he'll sit at the table for an hour continuously shoving stuff into his mouth, other times everything ends up on the floor with one swoop of the arm.  One day he loves grapes, the next he just throws them off his tray.  But one thing is pretty consistent...  he is SO messy.

Sometimes he will purposely sneak food under his tray to give to Maja.  Caught him throwing stuff behind his back too!  Or there are times he will just aim for her with a piece of chicken.  And then there's the double chew method...  he puts a bunch of stuff in his mouth, chews a bit, spits it out, sorts it, and puts it back in his mouth.  He's learned to eat corn on the cob, not typewriter style like me yet.  Ha ha.

Basti has figured out that shaking his head side to side means no.  Started doing it when trying to feed him something he didn't want.  Sometimes it sounds like he says no also.

I've stopped giving Basti the stool softener, he manages to go on his own now.  Although there is a bit of straining...  he more often poops when he is eating, so he will try to stand up on his high chair and I can tell it's that time.

One thing he definitely shouldn't be putting in his mouth is paper.  But he always manages to grab some stray piece of paper and rip it and put it in house mouth.  I know he has paper in his mouth when he looks at me and grins like this:

And then the real fun starts trying to get it out of his mouth.  Sometimes I just let him chew on it for a bit and he will spit it out on his own.  Now he likes to sneak into the bathroom to unroll the toilet paper roll, rip it up, and scatter is as he commando crawls away.

Basti is able to entertain himself for little bits of time here and there.  He'll sit quietly flipping through books (often they're upside down and he's going backwards).  His clear favorites are books with flaps, but sometimes he has a hard time opening a flap and then it ends up torn.  Oops.  He is also starting to want to climb onto everything, he is still not big enough to get onto the couch on his own.  But he surprised me by climbing onto/into/over a hamper.

He is also learning by imitating us, which is pretty cool.  When he feels like it...  he'll put toys into containers, or drop balls into his tumbling tower, make noises, etc, etc.  Maja and Basti have been playing together, pretty cute to see, but always with supervision.  They play "swap the toy", where Basti grabs a toy and Maja takes it, so Basti grabs another one, which Maja gets too but drops the first toy so Basti can go get it.  And then they play ball, except Maja doesn't know how to throw the ball back, so it's a work in progress.

The coolest development happened last week Friday, when he figured out he could walk forward by pushing his little car.  It's best he does it on the carpet, as the car goes too fast and slips on the hard floor.  He's still kinda wobbly, but practicing.

Basti and I made new friends at the local library baby time.  Baby S is 2.5 months younger than Basti and he lives just a mile away from us.  So for the last few weeks we have been getting together on impromptu play dates...  and with unpredictable babies that's the best way to go.

There and Back Again

We survived the trip to Germany!

Basti was a happy trooper on the flights, phew.  For the most part he was awake and curious, wanting to climb, touch lights and buttons, smile and wave at anybody going by.  The toughest part was the 7 hour flight from Newark to Stuttgart, Basti was too excited and over tired to sleep, and I had a baaad headache.  But through all this, only 1 tear was shed (his, not mine).  Finally managed to get him to pass out with 2 hours left to the flight.  The flight attendants were all surprised and relieved Basti was such a happy camper.

Our first stop once in Germany was Onkel W's house, Tante I and Cousin H got to meet Basti for the first time!  Basti definitely enjoyed meeting new people and getting lots of attention.

Basti had his first experience "gardening".  We let him loose in the backyard and he had a blast ripping up grass, picking up leaves, sticking his fingers in dirt, ripping out basil and swirling it in a pot with rain water (pesto?).

Poppy enjoyed feeding Basti maultaschen and flaedlesuppe.  My absolute favorite meal of the trip was at the awesome Adler in Oberried: pork medallions in fresh Pfifferlingen mushroom sauce with "Shlumpfnudel".

We got to show Basti Freiburg, Rottenburg, and Tubingen.  We had our usual family meal with the extended family in Rottenburg.

 

The return flight was much better...  even though we had more tears from Basti, he woke up exhausted on the flight from Newark back home, but we were able to get him to calm down quickly.

Basti improved greatly on his "cruising" techniques during our hotel stays, and now wants to climb up on anything to reach further up.  He even tried climbing up on Maja.

Maja Bear stayed with the big dogs during our trip.  She was very happy to have us back.

12 Month Check-Up

So many things to report, so little time (and focus).  Basti had his 12 month check-up with his doctor last Thursday, here are the stats:

Weight: 20 # 6 oz
Length: 28.5 in
Head Circumference: 46.5 cm

All pretty average.  Although everybody keeps saying what a big boy he is...  but he really isn't.  Basti has green light to eat ANYTHING he wants.  Just beware of chocking hazards, like popcorn.

Basti's "playroom" (the dining room since we don't have a table) looks like a toy store after all the gifts he got for his birthday.  So I put away about half the new toys in the closet, and plan on swapping out toys weekly so he doesn't get bored of the same ones.  Now we're ready for play dates to come over, lots to keep the kiddies entertained.

Finally his 8th tooth is coming out, slowly, to complete all the front teeth.  I keep forgetting to "brush" his teeth to get the routine going, probably because I know the brushing doesn't really do much.

Basti is standing with more confidence now, holding on to anything and everything.  Commando crawling with a toy in his mouth is sometimes his preferred mode of transport (the other being anybody's arms, especially if there are glasses or a necklace to tug on).  Several people have reported seeing him cruising (walking sideways while holding on to furniture), but I have yet to see it.  He did take a couple of tentative steps over the weekend holding on to the back of his little car, but he quickly sat down afterwards.

Maja has been trying to play with Basti...  When Basti is ripping paper (gift tissue, instruction booklet, magazine), Maja will grab a piece and rip it too.  Or if Basti is carrying a toy around, Maja will try to take it to play keep away.  And then Basti is always trying to grab Maja's squeaky tennis balls.

Basti babbles a lot.  Sometimes it sounds like a word, but I'm sure it's just his random syllable generator so happens to make a word combination.  A couple of weeks ago Basti would wave at Maja whenever we got home from the pool or store.  And then I heard him say "Aja".  Which I thought was likely his way of saying "Maja!".  First word with meaning???  But now he says Aja to everythning...  so who knows.

Swimming classes are finally over!  And we have a happy floating baby!  It's quite a sight to see him go in the water looking around underwater and then flipping over on his own (due to ISR regulations I won't post any videos on this site because it is public).

Weekend was full of social events for little Basti.  Saturday we went to a baby shower and a birthday bbq, both in SF.  Sunday we had a picnic at a winery in Napa with friends from out of town.  Oh, and then dinner at home with an overnight guest.

Now we get ready for our next BIG adventure: Germany!  Poppy is very excited about introducing Basti to real German food.  And I'm excited about the yummy salads (and I'm not a salad fan).  I am quite anxious about the long flights though...  Here we go!

Going to miss you Maja Bear!