 | Diary Navigation:
|
January 16, 2003
Hey Everyone,
Well, once again it’s taken forever for me to update my diary. But this time I was out of town for a month. And I had the best intentions of staying online – but you know what they say about good intentions. Since I have so much to say – I think I will borrow the format that so many diary writers use, and divide this monster by headings!
Flying with a Nine Month Old
When I last left you I was fretting over flying alone with a very active, very curious nine month old. Well, I cannot tell you what a pleasure he was. It didn’t start out well. I was casually waiting in the Air Canada terminal, feeding Sam and waiting for our flight to be called. However when I looked around at the boards I couldn’t see our flight. So I looked at my ticket and we were departing from the other terminal!! I freaked – it’s a good 10 minute hike around winding pathways, up and down, to get to the complete opposite end of the airport. But we made it. Of course I missed pre-boarding and now I can see why people with babies pre-board. It was a gong show. But we luckily had a row to ourselves. Sam played and played and looked out the window and fiddled with the knobs on the chairs. Then I gave him his bottle, he fell asleep, I laid him over two seats and he was out for the rest of the flight. I got to watch the movie, eat the dinner and even read my book. He was the same on the way home, although he stayed up an hour later – contentedly so. I figure he was just adjusting to the two hour time change, because he had no problem with it when we came home. Both ways, we just threw him into his normal routine with the two hour adjustment and both ways he just went with the flow. What a guy! The thing I was most worried about was, well, relieving myself on the plane. I am a frequent washroom visitor and how do you do that with a baby in tow? Well, the first time I brought Sam with me and he sat on the counter and played with the sink. The second time I was fortunate enough to have struck up a conversation with the woman across the row from me. She watched Sam as she was walking the aisle with her 6 month old who would not settle down. Peeing dilemma solved!
Poppy Rules!
We stayed with my mother and father for three weeks. Right away it was evident that Sam was his Poppy’s boy. I have mentioned it before but I’ll say it again – my dad is fabulous with Sam. As my mother is disabled – dad did all of the physical stuff, the changing, the bathing etc. And he did it with pure glee. And my mom gained new confidence in her abilities. She didn’t think she could lift him and she thought he’d be scared of her lack of voice. But she figured out a way to carry him and he thought her voice was funny. Plus he kept playing with her neck brace – he wasn’t scared, he was intrigued. But alas he preferred Poppy’s company. I would come upstairs in the morning to see dad playing CDs and dancing with Sam – Sam’s feet flailing away to the beat of the music. Dad would play the piano and Sam would squeal in delight. They looked after Sam the week were in the Dominican Republic and when I got back my dad actually thanked me for the best week of his life. I wish we lived closer so Sam would be part of their lives on a more regular basis.
Christmas and New Year’s
Christmas is always a big deal at my parent’s house. My mom goes all out with the decorations. This year she even had a theme, “I Believe.” She is a florist so the house had so many beautiful floral arrangements and wreaths. Sam was really good around the tree – in fact he wasn’t all that interested in it. But the pile of presents beneath it was another story. He saw that pile as yet another climbing challenge. I hear most babies revel in the paper on Christmas Day -- Sam reveled in the climb. When he’d get to the top of a pile he’d sit on the top present and flash us all with a big smile. Too cute. We only bought him one thing for Christmas – the FP Farm. But MAN my relatives did not exercise the same restraint. We had to pack up a crate to bring back on the plane. Our house now looks like Fisher Price threw up in it. Ah well, he’s having fun. New Year’s was a bust. I now haven’t managed to stay up for two years in a row. If it weren’t for the fact that San woke up crying at 11:55, I wouldn’t have even noticed the New Year ringing in. One of my resolutions will be to stay up until midnight next year!
Fun, Sun and Girly Drinks
On the second we flew to the Dominican. What a great time of year to travel. We were burnt from all of the lead up to the holidays and then --- ahhhhhh – relaxation. We had a lovely hotel with a great beach and pool area, and our room fronted right on the white sandy beach. The only problem we ran into was that NOBODY spoke English. And this is an international resort. It was kind of frustrating – we couldn’t convince anyone to bring us soap for three days! And I couldn’t get tea at the restaurants without a lot of charades. I don’t know if it was just this resort or if it is the island culture – but every other resort I’ve gone to around the Caribbean has had a great deal of English speaking personnel. I was fine about being away from Sam --- I knew he was having a blast with Nanny and Poppy. The last two days I started to get antsy to see him though! My parents would send emails every day with photos of his daily activities, and every evening after supper we’d go to the little Internet café to get our Sam update. It worked well.
Sleep? What’s that?
The only REAL downside to our whole trip is that I seem to have lost the ability to sleep. I have always been a poor sleeper, but since Sam’s been born I’ve had WAY more insomnia than usual. He sleeps fine – but not I! But when I arrived in Ottawa I stopped sleeping all together. Every three nights or so I would be a babbling mess, so I would take a Gravol or something that makes you drowsy, to get a few hours here and there. I even tried my father’s heavy duty sleeping pills (this was New Years) and they put me to sleep alright, but when Sam woke us at 11 :55 I couldn’t get back to sleep and I felt drugged and horrible the rest of the night. It was no better in the Dominican. But I took Gravol every night there, so I could get some sleep every night. I have no idea what to do about this. I know I have to call my doctor since I look like a sack of hammers (huge circles under my eyes, my skin is broken out etc .tc.). But I just don’t want to be put on drugs – I want this fixed. Ergs!
What Sam’s Doing Now
But onto more interesting stuff! Sam is a speed crawler now. And when he gets an idea of where he wants to go (i.e. the dog dishes), I can bring him to another room, distract away but he will immediately turn around and motor to his intended destination! Books are the only distraction that really works. That and Baby Einstein or Baby Shakespeare. He is in love with those videos. I’m the type of person who leaves the TV on in the background during the day (TLC is my channel of choice!!) and Sam pretty much ignores it. But the SECOND I pop in those videos he lays down, puts his head down and he is enthralled. It’s like a drug for him. And it mellows him out so well, it’s the only time I can lay him down for a nap (once it’s over of course) and he’ll go to sleep without crying.
You know the song, “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth?” Well, Sam popped one on Christmas Eve, one on Christmas Day. Then on Boxing day another bottom tooth popped. And sometime while we were away he popped two more on top. That’s 5 teeth in three weeks! And they really don’t seem to be bothering him – not like when the first two emerged. As a matter of fact, he’s a whole other baby since he came off the antibiotics. He is so happy and content 99% of the time. The only time he cries is when I put him down to sleep. That tells you how hard they were on his little system.
Sam is now very interested in our food and I give him a taste of everything (pretty much) that I eat. We are going to buy a mini-chopper on the weekend and start chopping our meals up into Sam-sized chunks. He handles big people food very well, he hasn’t choked on anything yet. And he can stuff a whole Arrowroot in his mouth at once. Very attractive.
Although Sam crawls and climbs everywhere, I don’t thing he’s anywhere near walking. He can’t stand on his own at all, he has terrible balance even when walking along furniture. But he can get down now from standing so I don’t have to worry about too many falls anymore – it rarely happens.
Sam has just started using consonants. I wonder if his teeth had anything to do with it? He has never been very verbal, so I was surprised when he all of a sudden started the dadadad and cacacaca. Doug loves the dadada, even though it has nothing to do with him!
OK – I was going to write more about going back to work in two weeks, and about the body image issues I’m struggling with right now, but this is a novel already. Maybe I can actually update in one week’s time. If you’ve read all of this – I commend you – it’s just fodder for his baby book, not really all that interesting to the outside world!
I hope everyone has a happy and prosperous 2003!
Jenn and Sam
 |  |
|
want to keep a diary on iParenting?
Authoring a diary on the iParenting network allows you to chronicle your family's story, preserving it for years to come. It's also a great way to get the most out of the iParenting community. Click here to start...
|
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families. 
