Bryce will have a passport

Now that his papa landed a job in far away Bulgaria, meaning on the old continent, Europe, Bryce needed to get a passport so we can all travel and visit him.
The process is very simple and painless.:)

Steps to follow:


1. Go on the Travel.State.Gov website where you will find out what papers you need to file;

2. Take the baby and bring him to an authorized place that takes passport photos;

3. Put all the paper and the pictures in an envelope, just to be organized;:)

4. Take your baby and /or your partner and go to any local postal office where you will file all the demanded documents and pay the fees for the issue of the book itself; ( in our case, this action took us like 15 minutes and we paid $86)

5. (optional) you can check-up on line the status of your application;

That's about it. We will wait for the passport to show up in our mailbox in about 3-4 weeks. And after that: travel,travel, travel.:)

Our first play date

Today was our first group play date. I've signed up on this website in my neighborhood that basically organizes meet-ups with moms and their babies.
Today we had our first "Stroller group play date" and it was awesome. There were like 6 moms and their babies ranging from 5-9 months. At first, we just strolled around the park then we stopped and sit on the grass letting the babies to know each other.
Bryce had such an interesting reaction: he was very cautious kind of shy at first, just looking around trying to understand how come there were so many creatures his size, and after he got a little bit comfortable with the environment, he started crawling and interacting more with his peers. :)
It was a neat experience for mommy, too, as she got the chance to have some adult conversation and to share some experience.
So, a big YES to the next one. Can't hardly wait.

More solids...and we're learning

As I've stated before, we make little steps towards this big thing called THE SOLIDS.

We've played with bananas, boiled carrots and broccoli and in the last couples of days we've tried a little bit of rice cereals.

I've mixed in a small bowl one table spoon of rice cereal with 4 table spoons of formula, put the bowl on his tray and I've waited to see what would happen. Of course, his fingers were all over the bawl and while I let him play, I got a soft spoon and tried to feed him some of that stuff.

He opened his mouth with no hesitation, being intrigued by the object that got into his mouth as well as by its content but without spilling it out; no, no, he just swallowed everything even if there was still a grimace on his face. :))He had around 2-3 little spoons of that mixture.

I don't even know what to make out of it. He is not yet 5 months, he will only be 5 months in one week from now, so accordingly to almost all the books I've read, I should still wait a good full month. Is he ready for the solids?

- he sits all by himself in the highchair

- he is very interested in what we're eating, he's watching us with big interest;

- if he's on our lap, he reaches for the plate in front of us and even grabs the food we try to put in our mouths;

Hmmm......as rational as I've been so far, no paranoia whatsoever, I think I will just go with what my gut is telling me...I will just fallow my instincts; that is what I did so far and it seemed to have worked. My books will be my guidelines....my inner, motherly instincts will be my final decisions.

I will keep you posted.

Rolling over is my thing

I could not but notice in delight how much he likes rolling over lately. It is like his favorite thing. He likes to do it everywhere I laid him flat, in our bed, in his crib, in the playard.

I will try to upload a video as soon as my hubby will teach me how. :)) With You Tube is so much easy.

Lately, he also loves to lift up his head like an attempt to raise in the sitting position from the back position.

He's doing and saying so many amazing things and it is so hard to catch him on camera 'cause when I turned it on he becomes very, very aware of it. I wonder if he will be as much interested in this object in the future as he is now. Remember, his father started making movies when he was only 5 so there is a gene right there. :)))

I'm so thrilled with his development and there are so many more thrilling moments to come.

The play with solids

So, we're slowly approaching 5 months of age. One more month and we will be kinda of ready to start on solids.

Thanks to a great mom, I got introduced to the concept of BLW or Baby led weaning. In her blog, she is writing notes about how this method works as well as her experience with her baby.

The book is called " Baby-led weaning" and is written by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett. As the authors agreed themselves, this is not a new concept at all, moms used it involuntarily or not during the years. This method makes so much sense and gives the baby the chance of choosing and playing and discovering and having fun and all with a great result: LEARNING TO EAT!!!

The first thing I did was purchasing a high chair; Bryce was already joining us at the table, but he was either in the bouncer or in our lap. He LOVES being around us and watching us doing stuff but wait: WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO IGNORE HIM!!! He needs to be a part of what we're doing!!! :))) Geez, so much personality, already!!!!

So, since we got the chair, I tried to see if he was interesting in some other edible shapes. So, I peeled a banana and offered it to him. He grabbed it and after that it was a crazy chase of the banana in the tray, on his face, on his lap, on his clothes etc....

In the book, they kinda of advise you not to: stare, laugh, appraise....Believe me it is very hard...

I look forward to more food adventures...Good bye clean kitchen....And, oh, BTW, we do have a doggie ( MQQM, you know what I mean -:))) - my alive mop. LOL!!!!

More stories to come...until then.....HAPPY NEW YEAR AND AN AWESOME 2010!!!!

4 months check-up

Last Thursday, December 10th we had the 4th month check-up. @ almost 4 months, my baby is:

- 14 pounds 10 ounces

- 25 3/4 inches

We, also, repeat the 2 vaccines from 2 months : Deptacel and HIB. No side effects.

Today, December 14th as we were doing our morning routine, more specifically, the tummy time, my baby started to crawl....ok crawl is too much to say, it was more "warm-wl", meaning from the tummy position he started to push his legs moving forward. So funny to watch but in the same time one more step in his development.

Oh, wait, I have to go, he pooped BIG TIME.:))))

We will be back.

My baby is very active

Oh, yeah, ladies and gentlemen, my baby is uber, super, duper active. He wakes up @ around 6:00-7:00 am and first he starts by talking: "Inghh....guuu...." , I believe it means: " Ok, let's go and play" as he says it every morning. So, here I am @ 7:00 am, leaving my warm and comfy bed, eyes still closed, taking Bryce and putting him in the playard. That's the first stop, after about 20 minutes it's time to play with mummy: he lays on my knees and we have different conversations and plenty of smiles, all culminating with some tummy time. That's our schedule @ around 4 months. And we like to be persistent.

Recently, I purchased a Bamboo baby sitter, a foam, blue kinda of chair that presumably helps him sit. We will see. People are inventing so many gadgets lately, more or less useful. But, anyway we are playing in there for like 3-5 minutes.

All in all, next week, December 18th we will be 4 months old, and we kinda have a routine already:

- 6:30-7:00 am - wake up time ( maybe some food)

- 7:00- 9:30 am - playing time

- 9:30-10:00 am - food and sleep

- 11:00 - 11:30 am - wake up and more play

- 1:00- 1:30 pm - food and lunch sleep

- 2:30-3:00 - wake up and some more fun for the rest of the afternoon (maybe some short naps)

- 7:00- 9:00 pm - food and preparing for the night sleep

- 11:00-11:30 pm - one more bottle

- 3:00-3:30 am - more food

- 4:00- 6:30 am - another sleep

after that, another day starts.

I love my baby with all the tired days and crazy schedules, he is a bundle of joy and smiles.

PS: I forgot to mention. He likes to eat his big toe, too. Mr. Patato.

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Do we really have to go out???

It's a fact!!! Bryce hates the car seat. And whatever comes with it: shopping, walks, going out...He is rarely quiet in it. Maybe when the car seat is actually in the stroller and the stroller is moving!!! Otherwise, BIG ISSUE!!! So, what is left?? To "peacefully" not leave the house until he's...what....one year old????!!!! Or use one of the new inventions: infant carrier, sling, pouch etc. But wait, not even those ones are easy to use:

1.Infant carrier: for some (unknown) reason you need 2 persons to use the carrier: one- is the person that actually wears the carrier, the second is the person that helps you to take

the baby in and out the carrier.

2. Sling/pouch : for Christ sake, do you really have to use tons of yardage to make something like this??? I mean, literally I look like a mummy once I wrapped it around myself and now you have this bulky material around you plus a wiggly baby. Not so comfy.

So, it's either that I don't know how to use these baby wonders or there is something more out there to be invented.

Did I tell you that papa is the guru of Amazon??? Oh, yeah, he totally is. So, in this respect, we got a big, colorful book , and baby Bryce was very interested in it. If, there is one thing that I LOVE the most about him is the way he pays attention to everything. He just looks interested in things that happen around him. Like, for example, watching Cliffi, our hairy dog, passing by: "hey, dude, who are you? I would love to poke you. I mean, wait, I WILL poke you, very soon."

Yeah, my life (with Bryce) just doesn't get boring anymore!!!! And there are so many more un-boring moments to come.

The first 3 months

I've waited for these 3 months to pass. Just because everybody speaks about them as the milestone, as the forth trimester, that basically is a time of fussiness and acknowledgement of the new world.

Bryce only cried if hungry, not even dirty diapers seemed to bother, slept quite ok for a baby ( so not so many sleepless nights, almost any for papa).

Now, that he's already 3 months and half ( Geez I feel he's so big already), I've decided it's time for me to start and write some thoughts, day to day data, basically record his development with a little bit of fun, laugh, poop, milk and rock'n roll. So, let the fun begin...