Here's a nice update on how Kyler is doing..
Sleep:
Bedtime is about 10:00pm, but we are working on moving that up. Typically, he sleeps until about 3:00am and then wants to nurse. After that he sleeps until 7:00am then nurses and sleeps until about 10:00am. Sometimes he will go back to sleep after that feeding but not always. Typical get up time is around 10:30-11:00am. At around 1:00pm, he takes his first nap which ranges from 1.5 to 2 hours. His second nap is usually around 5:00pm and is 1.5 to 2 hours as well.
Usually, he falls asleep on his side but then rolls onto his stomach after a bit. Ever since he learned to roll over he has become a belly sleeper. He can be a very light and restless sleeper, but usually he sleeps fairly well.
We are currently working on transitioning Kyler to his crib, but he absolutely despises the thing and we only have one bedroom so that makes it hard when he wakes up as he can see us. Hopefully we will find a 2 bedroom apartment fairly soon..
Most of the time, I put Kyler to sleep and he really wouldn't have it any other way. He usually gets quite fussy if I'm not there, but that's another thing we are working on.
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| This is what I often wake up to. Love it! (7 months) |
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| Asleep on the airplane (7.5 months) |
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| Butt in the air (KC, 7.5mo) |
Eat:
Other than breastfeeding, Kyler is now eating 2 solid meals each day. We will soon be making that 3 solid meals once we find a couple more foods that Kyler likes. Currently he has a late lunch of yogurt, some pureed fruits and some solid fruits (like bananas). He absolutely loves yogurt and most fruits - especially pears. Dinner is usually pears, if he had something other than pears at lunch, a vegetable puree if we can find one (not easy here in Finland) and we're working on adding a meat but Kyler hasn't liked any of the meat meals we have found here (so far). While we were back in KC, Kyler had a couple of meat dishes that he ate just fine but the ones here have potatoes and carrots as top ingredients and he dislikes both of those. While we were on vacation in Scotland, he spontaneously learned how to drink out of a straw and now that has become a favorite thing to do.. I'm almost convinced he would drink anything if it had a straw in it. Also, when we go to restaurants, Kyler now sits in a high chair like a big boy.
Likes: Pears, yogurt of any variety, raspberries, apples, bananas, prunes, essentially all fruits minus some lingonberry mixes (very popular here), sweet potatoes, squash, cheese, cottage cheese, smoked salmon, Gerber Graduates puffs (yogurt and other variety) and water. I'm sure I'm missing some, but it's hard when he's had so many foods.
Dislikes: Any of the meaty meals we've tried here so far, carrots, peas, potatoes, porridge (unless it's warm and mixed with a ton of fruit) and rice cereal.
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| Prunes (6 months) |
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| Chillin' (6.5 months) |
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| Chillin' Again (8 months) |
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| Foot (8 months) |
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| Big boy at the table in Scotland (8 months) |
Play:
Now that he is mobile, Kyler doesn't mind being on his stomach anymore and actually spends quite a bit of time on it. In the mornings I lay him down on his play mat and he stares at the toys for a bit and plays on his back, but once he's woken up completely he rolls over and goes, goes, goes. His favorite thing to do is to find any lint, dust bunnies or other random things that he shouldn't have and try to put them in his mouth before we stop him. With his small hands, he can reach places that are hard to clean (and he knows these places well) or when he's being particularly crafty, he'll find a book and shove it under something repeatedly to pull out dust bunnies. He's quite smart. He also likes to try and find any cords. Anyone want to fly over here with a baby play yard enclosure?!
Kyler still loves his jumperoo and can practically jump his way out of it. He's crazy and has some crazy strong legs.. which makes us wonder why he likes to use his arms for crawling. Unfortunately for us, he's almost on the highest height setting for his jumperoo. Crazy!
As for toys, he likes lights and sounds, but really anything that ISN'T a toy is usually his favorite. He like remotes, game controllers, dials (like on our audio receiver or on a thermostat), books (crumpling pages and eating them), paper, eye glasses and of course dirt/lint/dust.. just to name a few :p. He also quite enjoys banging things together to make all sorts of noise or slamming them on the floor. I'm sure our downstairs neighbors LOVE us!
There are times when Kyler is absolutely fascinated by his hands and stares at them, opens and closes them, rolls his wrist around, etc. (see photo). He is also walking quite well with our support and enjoys making raspberries or "seasoning" as we call it. He certainly keeps us on our toes and I'm sure he will continue to do so for quite some time.
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| Jumperoo! (6 months) |
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| Playmat Time (6.5 months) |
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| Kyler LOVED his first balloon! (7.5 months) |
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| Ahhh, my hand! (8 months) |
Pee and Poo:
Just kidding.. I wouldn't really write about that on here. Though we have had some fun times from when he shot poo onto the floor and bed when he was a tiny little baby to the super icky and messy blowouts (ask my mom about this one.. she has experience from our last visit to KC), I'm sure nobody really wants to read about Kai's BM's and wee-wees. :)
Sorry it's been so long since I wrote, but based on the fact that this blog took me over a week to complete, it's simply not easy to do. I hope you enjoy all of the pictures and the update on Kyler. We will keep folks updated on when our next trip to the US will be. I will add more photos at a later date, but I wanted to get the blog up, so this is what you get.. live with it :p. For now, I will leave you with a couple of photos from Scotland.
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| Hey, look at me, Daddy! (8 months) |
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| Dinner with Mommy and Daddy! (8 months) |
