Life in the Boonies

Frank wakes up around 7am. No more night wakenings. From there his day and ours start. Daddy takes his morning bath while mom plays with Frank in bed. He likes to pull up on the window sill to play with the blinds. He lets all the light in to tell everyone it is morning time. Eventually mommy gets up as well and gives him his morning nursing. While mommy takes her shower, Frank plays on the floor. He crawls all over the place. The toilet room is forbiddened so the door is closed shut. He is allowed to wander from our room to his if we lock the staircase gate. He likes to pull up and stand by the bath tub and play with his ducky and tug on the shower curtains. When daddy is all ready, we drive him down to the Bart station.

Now it is close to 8am so we start our breakfast preparations. Frank’s breakfast consists of two bowls. One contains 3 tablespoons of mix grain cereal with some wheat germs, 3 spoonfuls of homemade yogart and water mixed to a thick consistency. The other contains a whole peach, deskinned, and chopped into little chunks. Frank sits in his highchair and eats cheerios when mom is almost done preparing it for him. He grabs the cheerios with either hand. Sometimes he tries to get more than one at a time. Then he shoves them into his mouth. Soon all 6 are gone. Mom checks the floor and the sides of his chair. All gone. With bib on, mom feed Frank the cereal topped with peaches. Occasionally we use the sign language for eat and more. Then we shakes our hands and say all gone, finish. Frank likes to tilt to the side and back in between bites. Maybe he is checking out how mom looks sideways. He kicks his feet to indicate more and faster. When Frank is done, he gets his sippy cup and watch mom eat her cereal. He often interupts her by throwing the cup on the floor so she has to bend down to retrieve it.

As usual, Frank has a poopy diaper after breakfast. Changing him is getting harder since he doesn’t like to stay on his back. Mom uses the cow arch to distract him. After several struggles, he has a new diaper. Then mom chases after him to get the buttons snapped on. We go back upstairs to gather the laundry. Frank likes to follow mom around when she does chores. If she just sits by the computer, he comes by the chair and tries to climb up mom’s leg until she gives up and picks him up. Today we missed watching the backyard sprinkler. By 9:30 Frank is starting to rub his eyes. In the crib with his snowflake fleece blanket, Frank takes his first nap. Mom now gets to brush her teeth and wash her face.

An hour later Frank is awake and happy. Not at first though. He rarely wakes up happy. Mom pats and takes him to the bathroom with mirrors and we play who’s that cutie in the mirror game. When he is done waking up we head downstairs. Frank plays by the coffee table. Pulls up, sits down, pulls up, sits down, and crawling all over the place. Some favorite play areas include the puzzle board, snapware cardboard box next to the CD shelf, toy shelf with the Brio train tracks, fridge with the kitten magnet, boing boing thing behind the doors, and stairs. Frank pulls the puzzle board over and hits his head. He forgot about the last time. It was several weeks ago before he was truely crawling. No lessons learned here. Mom tries to explain bang bang on head when you pull here. Last time he wimpered and stayed away. This time he looked cursiously and wanted to try it again. I guess we’ll have to move it out of reach this time.

Around 11:30, Frank gets his second nursing. A few minutes and he is done. We get ready for lunch. But first the laundry is done and Frank plays on the side while mom folds. He likes to pull on the basket and take all the clothes out. For lunch Frank gets two bowls again. One has the same cereal mix as breakfast with an additional spoonful of cottage cheese. The other bowl has a large half of an avocado mashed. Frank eats them mixed together so he doesn’t get mad at wanting just avocados. After that is done, Frank is mad and wants more. At the suggestion of a cookie he calms down, smiles and kicks his feet with excitement. Mom uses the sign language for cookie but I think he knows the word(sound) instead. He feeds himself an arrowroot cookie while mom makes a sandwich for herself. Frank likes to watch. No more cookie means sippy cup time. Much like the morning meal, he throws, mom picks up. Another poopy after lunch. Same struggle.

Some more playtime and Frank is getting tired again. Slightly earlier today but maybe he is still recovering from the cold. Nap #2 a few minutes before 2pm. Meanwhile, mom shops online for some fall/winter clothes for Frank and chats with dad. Long nap today lasting 1 1/2 hours. After waking up some, Frank gets his afternoon nursing. He is very bad and bit mom. Mom got mad and was going to not feed him. That made him sad and so we tried again. No biting this time so all is well. Around 4pm mom feeds Frank a Barlett pear. Mom eats the skin off and Frank takes bites off with mom holding it. He loves the pear. He is getting better at dealing with it being finished. Today he was not happy but calmed down while mom threw away the cord and washed her hands. The previous days, he would yell until mom picked him up.

Lot more standing up and sitting down by the coffee table. One not so smooth transition landed with some head bumping but no biggie. Some cruising and mom tries to capture it on video. Only partly successful since whenever Frank saw the camcorder, he would get back down and crawl over to mom and reach for it. We didn’t go out for our usual afternoon walk. Today we are waiting for daddy to go with us after work. Around 5pm mom eats some grapes. Frank looks at her with such hopeful eyes. Mom bites off smaller pieces and places them on her hand for Frank to pick up. He did it. Not as easy as the cheerios being slightly slippery.

We zoom off to pick daddy up at the Bart station. No bath tonight so we head out for a family walk. Up the street and around and park. Back home for dinner at 6:30pm. Two bowls again. Cereal mix like lunch. Today mom made it 4 tablespoons of cereal. The other bowl is 2 cubes of califlower and 1 cube of beets. A cookie afterwards. We start getting ready for bedtime. Frank brushes his teeth, gets a new diaper for the night, and changes into PJs. Mom picks out “Caps for Sale” to read tonight. That held Frank’s attention for 5 seconds. Zoom, he’s on his knees climbing over mom. Now he is up standing by the coffee table. Toys are being chewed on and thrown off the table. Next thing mom sees is red spitup all over his sleeves. Following the trail, mom cleans up the floor, the toys, Frank, etc. Should he get a new sleeper? Nah. Good thing cuz 5 mins later, more landed on this one. Finally we finished the story with some altered storyline that amused daddy since he was the only one really listening. Frank is not looking sleepy even though it is 7:30. He crawls into the kitchen to see what daddy is doing. Mom picks him up, turns off some lights, and takes him to his room. He sucks his thumb to get ready for soothing himself to sleep. He is put down with his snowflake blankie at 7:45pm.