Happy 7 months to you!!!

Dear Caleb,

You are 7 months old today! I cannot believe that you are now closer to your 1st birthday than to being a newborn. You're such a big boy!

Your latest achievements are sitting on your own and beginning to crawl. You've discovered how to rock yourself in the sitting position. This makes you very happy. You have also mastered the commando crawl, and now are working on making your body into a bridge, so you can crawl on your knees soon. You get up in that position and rock back and forth, not knowing what to do next. Keep working at it and you'll get it in no time. I promise to keep cheering you on.

You are also eating all kinds of foods now in addition to nursing. You love everything! Even greens. You are not finicky at all. This is so good, because you know, good nutrition is so important for one's health. You are doing a fantastic job of priming your palate for a variety of wholesome foods to come.

You have really come to adore water! You love to splash, you love to float, and you don’t even mind water in your face. I could not be happier, because I have many-many water adventures planned for you. You just wait and see!

We love taking you everywhere. You are the best little traveler. This week, we will take you to my home country. I think that you will like it. You will get to experience many fun things for the first time, like flying on an airplane, riding on a Metro and yellow streetcar, meeting your grandparents and great-grandparents (did you know you have hair like your great-grandfather, who has a full head of hair at 92?), going to the thermal strands, and visiting castles. Don’t worry though; it won’t all be foreign to you. You will be familiar with the language.

I could go on and on and talk about your great sense of humor, your infectious open-mouthed laughter, how you bat your long eyelashes at me when I speak sweetly to you, or how you understand certain words, like "gyere" (come). But I must wrap it up now, because there's still much to do for the trip. So let me just say that you have been a great joy to your Daddy and I in the past 7 months. You've far exceeded our expectations. We are so thrilled that you are with us. Happy, happy 7 months to you! We love you so very much!!!

Mommy

Splish, splash he was taking a bath

I emerge from the upstairs bathroom looking like a wet duck. My hair is dripping, my makeup is ruined, and water is running down my arms and legs. I fling the wet hair out of my eyes and carry Little Duckling on my arm: a soft bundle of squeaky-cleanness, sporting a fresh face with eyelashes still dripping. His hair smells of Johnson & Johnson bubbles. A smile of contentment rests on his lips as if he had just done a job, and done it well. Why the smile? He just finished BATHING in the BIG TUB. And no, I did not bathe with him. Not this time. Although, looking down at my soppy clothes, I now wish I had.

This bath in the big tub in no way resembled the peaceful, quiet bath time we had shared during Caleb’s early months - back when he was using the baby tub and was a bit apprehensive of the water.

All apprehension officially flew out the window with this bath. I watched him splish and splash, and splish and splash some more. The child’s left arm never did stop. With forceful, sweeping motions, he repeatedly dropped his arm into the water about a hundred times a minute. Not that I had time to count. The right arm did not rest either: it joined in on the fun with almost the same forcefulness as the left. Did water get in his eyes (and nose and mouth)? Oh, yes! Did he seem to care? Not one bit.

I guess, in the past few weeks, he has gotten very familiar with water. He’s been in a lake; he’s been in a pool. He has taken big bathtub baths with Mommy and has even taken showers with each of us. He figures, he KNOWS WATER.

(And while he was thinking he knew water, I did all I could to steady him, and foil his attempts at plunging headfirst INTO the water.)

So... you wonder where the pictures are. My friend, if you had seen what went on in there, you wouldn’t be asking me about the pictures.

Honey, honey, honey...

His new favorite. It’s a puppet book.
(I'm sure the PUPPET part had a lot to do with it!)

Méz, méz, méz...

Micimackó nagyon szereti a mézet.
Micimackó a pocakját dörzsöli.
Ideje enni egy pár falatot! – mondja.
Egy medvének a méz a legjobb eledel.
Micimackó kuncogva habzsolja a mézet. A pocakját rázza a nevetés.
Ajaj! Micimackó arca csupa méz lett!
Nézzenek oda! – dörmögi Mackó. Azzal letörli az arcáról a mézet.
Mmm... nagyon finom volt! Micimackó elálmosodott.
Micimackó nagyot ásit. Majd lehunyja a szemét és mézrõl álmodik.

This is the Hungarian version of Pooh Bear. Sorry, that I did not include the English version. (The very ambitious should be able to find it online.) This book reminds me of one of my favorites from my childhood: the Hungarian Pooh theme song. You can listen to it here:

http://www.zeneszam.hu/html/zenek.htm
(It's the second one down, titled “Micimackó.”) I still love that song!
I think I will have a lot of shopping to do in Hungary.

Sitting (fairly well) and crawling (sort of)

Mom, are you talking about me?

I just wanted to report on a couple of developmental milestones Caleb has reached lately. As you’ve seen from my exciting photos, he is now able to sit by himself fairly well. He can’t sit up on his own yet, but when I put him in the sitting position, he can hold that position for a good while. He also puts his arm out to steady himself or to keep from falling over. He eventually does fall over, but for the most part, he has learned how to fall without hurting himself. Though I still hear a head knock here and there... (Sometimes, I put the Boppy behind him, so he won’t fall straight back.)
He is also practicing the beginnings of a crawl! He scoots himself across the floor, putting one bent elbow in front of the other, drawing up the knees and pushing off with the feet. He gets himself to where he wants to be, so for all intents and purposes, it is sort of a crawl, but it is not the classic version of it. It is more like the beginnings of an army crawl. He still gets tired fast and tends to get frustrated if the object he wants is more than a foot away. I try to encourage him to crawl farther by putting his toys out of reach. If he really wants something, he goes and gets it. I’ve turned around to find him at the other end of a small room, so I know that he can do it.

As I understand, some babies never do the classic (normal) crawl, others graduate from the army crawl to the normal crawl, and others skip crawling altogether. When our pediatrician saw how Caleb could stand on his own two legs, holding on only for balance, she thought that he might skip crawling and be an early walker. I’m glad though that he is doing this army crawl. It prepares me for the next stage: the normal (where did he go?) crawl and/or THE WALKING! Yikes!! We SERIOUSLY need to babyproof our house! NOW!

My very first time at the LAKE (swimmin' with the fishies)

Hi Everyone! This is Caleb. I wanna tell you somethin’. I went to this thing called a LAKE! This is what happened:

All morning, Mommy was tellin’ me: “Calebke, you get to go to the LAKE today! We are taking you!”
I thought to myself: “OK fine, I like to be taken. But what is a LAKE?”

She sounded so happy and excited, I figured out that it must be a good thing. Still, I wondered what it actually WAS. So, I waited it and waited it. All day. And we finally went there in the afternoon and the LAKE turned out to be really nice.

When we got there, Mommy put this whitish stuff all over me. They called it: Sunscreen. But (just between you and I) I don’t think it worked, because the Sun was still shining on me. (??) The Sun was also shining in my eyes. And I didn’t like that. Luckily, Mommy brought me sunglasses.

Daddy took me into the LAKE first. We went real slow. At first, just my toes were touching the LAKE. “Not as warm as my bath,” I thought. Then we went a little deeper. Then MORE deeper. Daddy said my jaw dropped and I looked very serious and surprised. I know! I was experiencing the LAKE! Which was not as warm as my bath! This was all so new to me! Then, the LAKE was up to my waist, then my chest. We were in all the way. By now, it felt warm to me, and I decided that I liked it. I liked it a LOT! I especially liked putting my feet up on my Daddy’s chest and shoveling the LAKE into my mouth with my fist. I would make a splashy and quickly bring my fist up to my mouth and suck on it. Over and over. This was a lot of fun!

Then, Mommy came in with the camera (and a hat). And I had to pose for some LAKE pictures, so that you all could see me having my very first time at the LAKE! And THIS hat, I actually liked. It was a little wet and it kept me nice and cool. Then, Mommy took me and we twirled and floated and swam around together. I like to float!

I kept switching from Mommy to Daddy and back. Sometimes, one of them would go off to the DEEP LAKE to do some DEEP LAKE swimming. When I looked at the DEEP LAKE wistfully, they said I might get to go to that part next time. I sure hope so!

People stopped to talk to us and they said many nice things about me. And we told everyone that this was my first time! At the LAKE! And they were happy for us.

Mommy took me out for a little while, so I could rest from the LAKE and have some applesauce. I appreciated the applesauce, but I told Mommy I didn’t need the rest! I wanted back in! So we got back in the LAKE and we stayed in until we were ready to go. Before we left, Daddy showed me some fishies and said we were swimmin’ with the fishies. He also called Mommy a FISH! And he said that I’m gonna be a fish too!! Eek!

Fish or no fish, one thing’s for sure: I wanna do this again.

Kindermusik

Research proves that integrating music and movement during the first years of life
helps your child's brain reach its full potential.

It’s official. We have secured a spot for Caleb in Kindermusik classes for the fall semester. Yes, they call it a SEMESTER. Like college. Except that he will be attending with his mommy (or daddy).

I came across Kindermusik last winter when I was looking for a music class for my future baby. I was glad to see it offered in our area and thought about signing up for the spring, but he was much too young for it then. He definitely wouldn’t have gotten very much out of it. Since it’s a little pricey, I wouldn’t have wanted to waste my money. Caleb is much more ready for something like this now that he’s older. I think he will get a kick out of the interactive singing, dancing, and playing that will take place, and will enjoy being around all the other babies too. I can't wait to see his reaction to the class!

The Kindermusik philosophy closely matches my own. Their philosophy, as advertised on their website:

Every parent is the child's most important teacher.
Every child is musical.
The home is the most important learning environment.
Music nurtures a child's cognitive, emotional, social, language, and physical development.
Every child should experience the joy, fun, and learning which music brings to life.

The fall semester will run from August 20 to December 14. We will meet once a week for 45 minutes. The youngest class is called Village; it’s for newborn to 1 ½ year olds. Caleb will be 8 months old when it starts and 10 days shy of his 1st birthday when it ends. Wow, that’s a big developmental difference! I will take a crawler into the class in August and probably leave with a walker in December!

We are EATING now!

As you all know, Caleb is now 6 months old, which means we are now EATING!

He has gobbled up everything so far:
Organic bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, green beans, squashes, peaches, apple sauce, prunes.

He EATS heartily from a spoon, opening his mouth wide as the spoon nears and chomping down on it, similar to how he used to chomp down when he was first learning to nurse. It is very cute. The very first bite is usually tentative, and he has a funny expression on his face, as he tastes the food for the first time. By the second bite, he is fully into the experience. He has been convinced. This stuff is GOOD!

He also feeds himself sometimes from a mesh feeder, which allows him to take an active part in EATING. He gets to experience what it’s like to feed himself and practice his motor skills. The food goes behind the mesh cover, so it keeps him from choking on small pieces. So far, I’ve only put peaches and bananas in it, but as he grows you can pretty much put any adult food in there (age appropriate) for baby to chew on without any hazard to him.

I did a lot of research on first foods and I’ve opted to skip the rice cereal and go straight to whole foods. Rice cereal is a highly processed food with little nutritional value (that’s why it’s fortified with synthetic vitamins after the natural vitamins have been processed OUT). It’s also a simple, refined carbohydrate, which is NOT the best food for baby (or anyone). They recommend it as a first food mostly in Western countries. Other regions of the world have other first foods, as varied as coconut, bananas, fish, egg yolks, artichokes, meats (liver!), tomatoes, etc. It seems that the recommendation of rice cereal is mostly cultural, not scientific. It is touted as an easily digestible food (but so are simple vegetables and mild fruits) and rich in added iron (but sweet potatoes are high in naturally occurring iron – shockingly, a fact that the nurse at my pediatrician’s DID NOT KNOW!). There is also some evidence that rice and other highly processed grain cereals actually could be among the worst foods for infants. Everything I’ve learned about nutrition in the last years tells me that this is indeed true. These foods digest very rapidly in the body into sugar, raising blood sugar and insulin levels, which could contribute to later health problems. Since we try to reduce our own intake of highly processed foods, why would we want to give that nutritionally deficient stuff to our baby? Caleb will have plenty of opportunities to try these foods as he grows. It's best in my opinion to start with the best foods that nature has to offer for his little tummy - naturally vitamin-rich organic vegetables and fruits. Rice cereal is also very constipating, and since babies tend to be constipated anyway when they first start solids, we don't need any added help with that!

So we are happily EATING avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes, etc. I fix homemade food for him most times. I bought a little food mill, but many foods can just be mashed up with a fork and diluted with a little water or breastmilk. It makes me happy to know where his food is coming from and to be able to give him the freshest foods by making my own. Occasionally, I will use Organic Gerber or Earth's Best baby food for those times when I don't have time to fix it myself (or those items that are more bothersome to fix at home, such as prunes, apple sauce). In a couple of months, I will also attempt to make my own brown rice cereal by grinding up the unprocessed grains myself, which is much more nutritious than commercial rice cereal. We'll see how that goes and if it's too much trouble. (Otherwise, I may use Earth's Best whole brown rice cereal, which is not refined and processed.)

At this point, Caleb usually eats solids once a day. He really does love it. He often sits at his highchair when we have dinner and takes part in our meal. I know he feels like such a big boy! Of course, we are still nursing, since solids are not supposed to replace breastmilk, only complement it. Breastmilk will remain the most important food in his diet until his first birthday. He hasn't been sick at all yet (though he's been around sick people) and I'm sure that the immunity he receives through me has a lot to do with it!

Many more goodies are on the repertoire of foods to come. Mommy is preparing a feast for you, BabyCakes! You have many more adventuresome, fun EATING experiences in your future! La'Haim!!!