The boys

Peter and Stanley hanging out. they seem to recognize each other and know they love looking at each other so they are facing each other in the stroller.

The park with Grandparents

Stanley really enjoyed his Memoral Day. It was fantastic with grandparents hanging out with him at the park. Stanley is quite careful about getting up and down. He can stand for a bit if we let go and he never really falls; he carefully lowers himself to the ground. A few times though he has gotten off balance and I've been impressed how quickly he can catch himself. I haven't seen him bump his head or face in weeks.

Stairs

While here, Lolo and Papa Doug worked a lot with Stanley on going down the stairs "feet first". This is still a bit advanced for Stanley. He is fantastic at going up the stairs, but is not good at down. As soon as we turn him around, he just goes back up the stairs. Apparently, he hasn't yet learned reverse. However, the teaching that Lolo and Papa Doug did will definitely help over time

Feet first Stanley

Cali veggies

We all went to the market this past weekend. We used our new backpack that Kate told us about. It looks like a backpack, but kids shoulder straps are in it. I'm sure it wouldn't hold a really heavy kid, but it was fantastic for Stanley at this age. It also fit a lot of veggies in it.

On it's maiden voyage (beside the 30 minutes Steve spent walking around REI with it on) it worked out very well!

Happy Birthday Halima

Our lives seem to have a semblance of organization only because our our amazing nanny Halima. We come home everyday and the boys are so happy and content, everyone is well fed, the house is picked up, the floors are clean and the laundry folded. I'm not sure how she does it.

It was her birthday last week, so we celebrated with her and Peter's family.
Happy Birthday Halima!

Photo Backlog

Now that we have smart phones, I've been pretty bad about uploading the photos from my old camera. Here is the backlog:

Is your spoon large enough there Stanley? 

Escape

Eating more wood--he loves everything wood to eat.

Eating like a king in Denver

Eating in Dad's old high chair

Stanley still has his smile

With Aunt Liz in Denver

Lolo and Papa Doug

Lolo and Papa Doug were here with us for the long weekend. We went to he park today an hd a great time. Here are some photos that Lolo took today.

The good/bad side of marble

I guess there is a good side of marble--it helps to make a loud one person band. It sure keeps Stanley occupied, though it is at the cost of our ear drums.

Solar eclipse

Sunday afternoon, San Fran was treated to almost a full solar eclipse. We spent it outside with our neighbors. Since our 4 year old neighbor Freya did not really understand the pin hole camera, we decided to make lots of pin hole camera spelling out everyone's names. We also made pin hole camera with our hands.

 

Stanley's name in solar eclipses

the solar eclipse

Culture

Enjoying the SF MOMA like a good city boy.

8 months

Stanley turned 8 months old this past Thursday. This seems to be my favorite age so far, however, I have a feeling the next year worth of 'birthday' posts will all start with "Stanley turned ... old today and this is my favorite age." It is such a joy to play with Stanley and watch him grow and develop so quickly.

Since I posted his 7.5 month old post, he has become very steady on his feet and learned to enjoy eating. Gosh, I wish I could develop so much in just 2 small weeks.

Stanley has really taken to food quite well. He can finally swallow without a gag reflex. He likes to feed himself with his hands or his spoon, but just in the past few days, he has also let us put some food in his mouth with our finger. As you can see from the pictures, this is not a very clean affair.

Black beans

Avocado goatee

In general, he enjoys savory foods and is not very keen on sweet food. After Nurse Faye told us to talk with our doctor, we were told that a way to get rid of Stanley's gag reflex is to give him Cheerios. It worked well and now he particularly loves Cheerios! (well actually Joe's O's the Trader Joe's version). He also loves avocado and plain yogurt. Today, he ate about 2 handful of Cheerios in the morning. For lunch he had yogurt, Cheerios, cherries, and avocado and then for dinner we gave him some rice crispies to expand out from Cheerios. I'll list below the food that he likes/eats at 8 months. We still have trouble getting him to drink water, but we are trying. I'm sure it will take a few more days.

Stanley enjoys eating:
Cheerios, plain yogurt, black beans, squash, avocado,  cherries, carrots, rice crispies, Cheerios :-), nursing
He ate, but didn't particularly like:
Apple, pear, strawberries, green beans, rice cereal with mom's milk

The only 'food' that does not go smoothly is milk in a bottle. Halima still spoons milk down his throat at least a 1-2 times a day when he won't eat at all. He mostly just enjoys when I get home and he can nurse for as long as he wants.

Besides eating, Stanley is very adventurous and curious. He really enjoys exploring everything. For example, we have a soft floor so that he doesn't get hurt. He will spend time pulling up the pieces and eating them. When he is exploring like this, he often talks to himself. The conversation often involves a lot of GaGa, aaahhh or throat gurgles.

Stanley can sit quite well without falling over. Indeed as shown below, his posture is very good at this age.  He is also very capable of climbing the stairs, though going down is still beyond his ability. In addition, Stanley will pull up on everything possible and as the previous post showed, he can even try to walk a bit with his wooden cart. If he can, he still uses his mouth as a 5th appendage to pull his body up a bit more so that he can reach something just beyond his finger tips. It works surprisingly well. I have not yet tried the technique, but luckily for me, not much is beyond my reach. 

For the details of Stanley at 8 months
Stanley weighs in at 19 lbs.

Stanley loves:
- Cheerios
- Pull-up to standing
- Climbing the stairs (we always are with him)
- Exploring everything new
- Wanting what he cannot have
- Grabbing the computer
- Yogurt and avocado
- Eating paper and wood objects
- Watching other kids or babies
- Banging on things to make loud noise
- Talking
- Chewing on wood.

Stanley dislikes:
- Getting his diaper changed, which means that all of us dislike this requirement. He wriggles 10 times before we finally finish
- Sitting in the car seat or stroller when he wants to get down and crawl
- The bottle!!
-Sitting still anytime even during story time

Stanley can:
- Stand without holding on, but just lean his arm against something
- Stand holding onto something that moves
- Walk a bit while pushing his cart
- Crawl like a pro from one side of the house almost to the other
- Eat cheerios by using his fist and thumb. He hasn't yet figured out to use his forefinger and thumb.  (A more advanced skill)
- Get out of almost any hold down while changing his diaper
- Hang off the table or something for about 2 seconds


I'm looking forward to the next month.

Uncle Flounder

Uncle Flounder got to stay on reserver at our house (i.e. waiting to work, but never actually working) from Sunday through Wednesday. It was very helpful for all of us. Stanley really enjoyed spending some time with Flounder.

On Tuesday night before Flounder left, we all headed to the Giant's baseball game. I had won tickets for it. We bundled up in ski coats and pants and spent the evening watching the game. Stanley was mesmerized by the lights, noise, and people. He couldn't bare to smile at the camera he was so stunned/shocked/amazed. He lasted till about the 6th inning and then fell fast asleep and stayed asleep even though the train ride and walk home. Here are some photos of the adventure.
For sure it appears that Stanley is not a baseball fan at 8th months old.

Stanley is a bit overwhelmed with the lights and noise.

Mother's Day

A few days before mother's day, I was telling Steve about how I had neglected to send a card to my mom. He mentioned something about what I wanted to do for mother's day. "What do you mean?" is about all that I could say. Somehow it had never crossed my mind that I got to celebrate mother's day from the other side. 

Well, Steve and Stanley made it a wonderful day for me. They let me sleep-in while they made my favorite breakfast.  (I'm guessing Stanley was not a big part of the cooking, but at least he let Steve do it.) They both came in to wake me up by giving me a precious card and a new running hat. The card had Stanley's hand print on it. Since we did not have any washable paint, Stanley's hand print was done in soy sauce. It worked pretty well as you can see. I am hoping this starts a tradition!

Then for the rest of mother's day, Kate and I both left our boys with the dad's and went for a bike ride. And later in the day, Uncle Flounder watched Stanley while Steve and I went for a date.

It was a wonderful day! I got to spend it with my baby boy, my husband, my brother, and friends. How perfect! I'm a very lucky mom!

Cart Pushing

We got out the wooden cart that Lolo and Papa Doug gave Stanley a week or so ago when our friends Shawn, Rebecca and Violet were visiting, thinking that Violet might like to play with it a bit.  She didn't seem so interested, but since then we have been letting Stanley have a shot at it.  He seems to be taking to it pretty well and almost has the hang of it.  We have to load it down with heavy books and stuff, though, so he doesn't tip it backwards by hanging on the handle with too much weight.  Too bad he doesn't have a longer runway!

I swear I didn't stage this

I usually let Stanley play for a bit on his own when he gets home and normally he sits there chewing on something or banging something on the floor. Today, though, I looked down and saw he had tipped his toy basket over. I didn't think much of it until I looked down a few minutes later and saw this. Pretty clever, I'll have to say.

Window cleaner

I think we should start buying stock in Windex.

Hanging

I was unable to capture a picture of Stanley's new development, but just now, Stanley climbed up the table leg and was holding onto the top of our dining room table when he decided to pick up his feet a few times and hang from the table top by his hands.
My gosh, we have a monkey in our house.

Baby Zuri (and Carolyn) came to visit

Julia's friend Carolyn and her daughter Zuri came over for lunch today. Julia and Carolyn met in prenatal yoga and Stanley and Zuri are only two days apart in age. We had a nice lunch and then went on a walk in the warm sunshine. Now we are back at home relaxing while Stanley naps. I guess it's hard work getting wheeled all over town in a stroller.

Backyard

The weather has been really nice here in San Francisco lately. We've really been enjoying our backyard these last few days, taking Stanley out to play in the grass and crawl around eating sticks and such. I guess we need o take advantage of the good weather before the summer fog starts rolling in every day.

Here is Stanley heading back home up the patio steps the other evening.

Sleep update

So, you never know what is going to happen as a mother. Yesterday, Stanley was getting us up every few minutes...but as for today, after going to bed at 9pm and only waking up twice to eat, it is 8:35 and he is still asleep. I'm going to have to wake him to get him ready to go.
Parenthood sure teaches flexibility! I've enjoyed the last three hours of working in quiet.

The goods and the bads

We try to put fun items onto this blog--it is much more entertaining to read about the good things than hear us complain. However, to be more realistic, I need to write about the last two nights. It has been a rough one for Steve and me.

On Wednesday night, I had a lot of work to do and Steve had to get up very early for an experiment. Steve was getting Stanley's bath ready and I had Stanley up in the front room with me. We have mostly childproofed that room, except for our wine rack. Stanley was playing with his stroller and watching me finish up a few odd'n'ends, when he reached out for the wine bottles. In one split second, he grabbed a bottle of wine and it fell on the marble and shattered all over. Thank gosh it was white wine, but it was all over including a bunch on the carpet. I had already picked him up by the time it shattered, so Stanley was in no risk of getting cut, but boy did we have a lot of clean-up to do. There was shards of glass scattered all about including under the bookcase.

I gave Stanley to Steve for bath-time and I started cleaning up. As I was cleaning, I heard lots of thuds and then some more glass. Stanley has found that he can really do some damage. Apparently in the bathroom he was throwing bottles on the floor and Steve would move them and Stanley would go after them again to throw it on the ground. Then Stanley found the only glass (a thick candle holder) that was in the bathroom in a far off corner and he threw it on the ground. Thank goodness it did not break.

Back in the front room, we had to take everything off the bookcase, move the bookcase, clean and then put it all back. It took us two hours to clean up the mess before we could get Stanley into his crib in the front room.  The house smelled terribly of wine. Halima was staying in our house that night; I was sure she was going to think we sedated Stanley with wine.

Steve and I both needed a glass of wine after that night, but instead we just crawled into bed exhausted without having done our work for the next morning.

Then last night, Stanley had something wrong, gas, teething, who knows. Anyways, he was in pain and would wake up writhing about every 15 minutes. He didn't have a temperature, but boy was he uncomfortable. Even Tylenol didn't help. Even though in the end, Steve and I both took turns sleeping in the living room, I think we are both barely functioning today.

Ugg. Hope you all slept better than us!

Funny Noises

Stanley has been making some strange noises lately.  He sucks on his tongue and makes strange raspberry noises with his lips.  We were able to catch a little bit of it on video a few days ago, so here you go.  It's not a whole lot, but this should give you a little flavor of what we are talking about.  Enjoy.

Sand?

We took Stanley to the Dolores park new sand box this past weekend. I figured he would love it in there since he could roam around and get dirty. But, in fact, he didn't like it very much at all. He was confused why it was so difficult for him to crawl.

Do I have something on my face?

Not so much here, or here, but right in this area...

We fed Stanley some yogurt the other night. He seemed to like it ok, at least what little got in his mouth. Most of it ended up smeared all over his face. Very messy.

Have you guys seen this thing?

"It's, like, totally AWESOME!!!"

He was watching it for a couple of minutes before this, too, while I went and got the camera.

Hair cut

Steve got a hair cut today. We were curious if Stanley would recognize him. Stanley gave Steve a look of what is wrong with your hair, but did not hesitate at all knowing it was his dad.

The other picture is just to show how tall Stanley is right now. He got to the position all on his own.

Stanwich hold the mayo

Stanley at 7.5 month

So readers, if you hadn't noticed, I missed Stanley's 7 month blog post. It has been nagging on me for about 2 weeks now. I'm hoping Stanley won't be mad when he goes back to read his blog years later and notices this absence. The problem is that life, work, traveling, and hanging out with him really get in the way of posting.

It has been so much fun to spend time with him. He laughs, smiles, crawls, explores, and stands like a pro. He is very inquisitive. He loves to study anything new and different, which at this age is just about everything.

Mom, if Halima were here, I'd be outside.
Please take me out there!

Stanley not noticing the large dog near him.
In fact he didn't seem at all bothered by
Morgan licking his entire face.Yuck!

At 6 months 1 week Stanley started crawling. People had mentioned that once babies start crawling, they start to cling to their parents or people they know. This happened almost as soon as Stanley started to crawl. Now, he will crawl away from us, but turns around to make sure Steve, Halima, or I are around or within sight. It was such a drastic change in a few weeks because before that, he was thrilled to be held by anyone. Also, if he falls or bangs himself, he for sure wants mom, dad or Halima to hold him.

On the move

Stanley's 'talking' has also developed a lot in this month. He started with Ga ga noices. Halima thinks it is because she sings a song "Goosy Goosy, Ga, ga, ga, (russian words) Da, da, da." Stanley says Ga and Peter says Da. But over the last 2 weeks Stanley has also been developing more sounds. Some of these sounds are quite peircing to my old ears. But, Stanley is very happy exercising his vocal cords and making these crazy high pitch sounds.

Playing with Dad's toys from when he was little

Stanley's attention span has drastically increased. He can play with one toy for quite a while. He loves wood toys ( anything wood even mixing spoons) and carts them around everywhere.

Studying the flowers and of course the dirt

He will hang onto a toy and climb the stairs with it and then take it over to his room or diaper change and then we find it 10-15 minutes later. Steve gave him a napkin on the plane home from Denver last weekend and it was still in his hand when we put him to bed at our house. (That lasted through the plane, airport, parking shuttle, car, carry home, and diaper change)

Stanley bolding hanging onto a table
and a gate that is not attached

With all of his movement, Stanley is able to explore so much. It really seems like he has become a toddler and not a baby anymore. However, with this exploration, he has had his fair share of bumps. He is getting a bit over confident about his abilities--though as a proud mom, I'm pretty impressed. He can reach well up to items that are far above his head. At the beginning, he had to lean a large amount, but now he can stand quite upright with just one hand on something. Yesterday, he was standing up easily holding onto a toy and with his other hand stablize himself by holding onto the 'stand-up toy' that moves in circles. He seemed just fine. Also, starting when he was 7 months, he can now easily get down from different things--he puts one hand down and then plops onto his bottom.

Going down the stairs will be our next big project. Yesterday I caught him falling off a stair. At least my reaction speed was fast enough to catch him before any body part hit the stair, though I was not fast enough to see him climbing the stairs in the first place. He is quite good about going up the stairs, but when he gets to the top of the third stair he likes to look back at his feat and he sits down usually too close to the edge of the top step. Yikes!

Also, Stanley is quite the flipper. Steve says he has a PhD in flipping. This makes diaper changes particularly difficult!! Usually there are 4-5 flips within 1 diaper change and that is after he has studied a toy.

About 7 months + 1 week, Stanley started to figure out that his tounge in his mouth can help him get food down his throat. It was amazing. Now he loves to eat cheerios and other food as long as no one helps him to eat. I think we have a confident but stubborn little boy on our hands. (For those of you that know his mom, I wonder where he gets it from.)






Stanley loves:
- Standing up. Always standing up!
- Wood toys
- Eating Cheerios
- Avacado
- Pulling himself up
- Being outside
- Nursing
- Being naked
- Flipping over (he mainly goes to his left side)
- Anything electric that he cannot have
- Making noise and banging things on hard surfaces to really make loud noises


Stanley dislikes:
- Sitting down
- Being hungry
- Being tired
- Sleeping in the crib in our room


Stanley can:
- crawl up stairs
- crawl around a large room very easily
- pull up on almost anything
- stand and hold on with only one hand
- eat food (finally!)
- Crawl over something/someone (Even my suitcase)
- reach about 5 inches farther than we expect to get something he wants
- Grab the top of a glass of water and tip it over in all of 0.5 seconds
- talking random sounds particularly Ga Ga Ga

Stanley out of character--he is sitting.
He hasn't quite figured out what
 to do with his sunglasses. They are for
eyes not the mouth.