Some Fresh Air in the Park

Yesterday I took a day off school and went with my mother-in-law and my baby’s two cousins (13 and 14) to the park. It was awesome. It was Andres’ (my baby) first time at the park, well at the playground anyway. I’m glad I took the camcorder. I went on the slide with him and he was smiling all the way. Then there are little steering wheels at the side of the playground and I stood there holding him while he steered us. He almost crashed into his cousin who was filming him drive.

We also bought McDonald’s for our little picnic and I can tell he is going to be such a little trouble maker. Everything he sees he wants. He sees me drinking soda and he lunges for it, he sees his cousins holding little toy arrows and gun and he lunges for that too. We still had some french fries left over and put them aside. He eyed them and lunged at them grabbing them and then he was shaking it (he shakes everything like if it’s his rattle) and spilled all the fries on him. He paid no attention, he wanted the little box not the fries. We were all eating the fries he spilled on himself, telling him he tasted good; nice and salty.

He needed the fresh air. I try to take him at least out in the backyard with the dogs, so he’s not breathing in all that stuffy air inside the house and room. It’s been very hot lately so I haven’t taken him out as much as I use to.

Our room, where we sleep, has no windows because it’s actually the basement. But it doesn’t feel like the basement because it’s been remodeled to look very nice with tiled floor and a closet. But what I don’t like is that it has no window!! And we cannot change rooms because all the other rooms are occupied already. We should have stayed at the other room we had, but the reason we changed was because of the baby. His stuff takes up a lot of space and the other room was barely enough for both of us, and now the baby is here and we have just enough room for everything.

Is living in the basement bad for the baby? That’s something I’d like to know I mean there is no fresh air coming in, he doesn’t see the sun in the morning. The only thing do get is the crickets in the night, we hear those loud and clear!

Am I Holding him Back?

My husband is a barber and he works in his mother’s Beauty Salon, and THAT is why he (with his mother) is able to take care of our little one while I’m at school. Thank God we do not have to have a strange babysitter. Anyway, at what I’m getting at, I was washing some of my husband’s combs when I overheard what a lady who works there said to my mother-in-law:

“Don’t you [meaning any of us] put him in his walker? He’s almost seven months, he should be crawling already, and just about ready to walk”

I’m wondering, well first of all I’m the mother, I don’t understand why she’s not telling me or my husband, why the grandma? Second of all, my son has his walker, I always put him in there, but he doesn’t reach the floor yet, what am I to do? I couldn’t say anything because I know my mother-in-law, she always says to listen and be quiet, she doesn’t like us (my husband and I) to get involved with anyone, whatever the reason may be. I have to respect her, after all it IS her shop.

Anyway, there I went again- off what I was getting at, are we holding our baby too much? I don’t know if I’m holding my baby too much, but sometimes it’s just easier for me to hold him than to leave him be. It’s not that I don’t want to leave him be and become independent, it’s just that the house is big and I have so much to do; I’m constantly going there, here and up and down, and I’m not about to leave him in a room unattended. I don’t think it’s safe to leave him alone. So now he wants to be in arms all the time. I put him down so I can wash the dishes and he starts crying. I’m sure this is all our fault.  He’s almost going to be seven months, should he be crawling already?

I remember his doctor told me that he is fine and by now, six months, he should be just about to sit, or just sitting (and that is exactly where he was). So those people who say their babies did everything early, are they pushing them too fast? Or are they helping them? By carrying him, are we holding him back from reaching his potential?

A Baby Drinking from a Cup?

My baby boy is going to be seven months very soon. He’s been breast fed most of the time and prefers it than taking the bottle. When I give him water sometimes I have to give it to him in a cup because he likes to hold a cup (more like play with them and spill everything in it). Sometimes I’m drinking water, or whatever, and he sees me and leans forward with his hands up wanting to grab it. It’s weird. I try to give him water in his bottle, but he doesn’t really suck on it, he mostly bites it (maybe it’s because he’s teething?), but when I give him from the cup he puts it to his mouth and sticks out his tongue, wanting to suck the water out. It’s kind of cute. Of course there are always spills here and there, but he manages to take some pretty big gulps. I can hear those gulps!