Friday, March 2, 2012

To the Kitchen and Beyond!!

Getting a decent picture of Gordon Lee hasn't been such an easy task recently.  This is the view I have of him most of the time.


He just wants to move move move all the time! That's good because it keeps me pretty active. :) But he has recently learned that he can venture beyond the living room, and that there all sorts of places in the house to explore.  Oh my! He particularly likes finding his way into the kitchen because of the cabinets that are at his level, but he also goes for the bathroom, dining room, stairs..basically anywhere that is not the living room.


Unless I can be very quick to snap a picture, he comes at me with full speed the instant he sees a camera.


On top of all of that, he is basically constantly "talking" now.  He loves making little high-pitched sounds as well as going "ba ba ba bbbbb" or "ma ma ma mmm" the majority of the time. 

Last night, he was making his way out of the living room toward the trash can when I proclaimed, "Gordon Lee, you cannot get into the trash can" to which he appropriately replied, "Uh huh." No joke.  We just erupted in laughter after that.  

There isn't a dull moment in our house now (unless it is nap time)!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

What Really Matters

Today marks 1 week since I decided to step away from Facebook for Lent, and I must say that overall I feel good.  The closest I can come to describing how this feels is like going from eating so much junk food that you feel sick to eating healthy.  It just feels refreshing and good!


That said, I do not plan to be away from it forever and I definitely miss certain aspects of it.  I have friends who are expecting babies who are sure to deliver while I'm away from Facebook, and I am dying to see the pictures of their precious little ones.  I miss having other mothers who I talk to on a regular basis who provide me with encouragement and helpful tips.


But what I certainly do not miss is the very thing that led me to get away from it.  It was constantly reading about how things should be done. Or I would just have done something I was excited about with Gordon Lee only to see that somebody else had a reason to believe that it was "wrong" (in reality there was no right or wrong just different ways of doing things).  All of my excitement would begin to deflate upon seeing that, and there was simply no reason for it!  I DEFINITELY have noticed that not hearing or reading that garbage any longer has been great! We are enjoying him and I'm not thinking about comparing myself to other moms or needing to justify why I do things the way I do them.


I remember some article I had read from TODAY Moms awhile back.  I can't remember the topic because I read their articles a lot.   However, I do recall it being a very controversial topic that resulted in many women attacking each other saying, "Well I do things this way..." with a tone of self-importance.  Or they would say, "I feel sorry for the baby who..." In essence, attacking a mother because you feel sorry for her baby.  You might as well say, "You are a bad mother and I'm clearly better and more caring than you are." One mother came to the comments to say, "It is sad how we as mothers are always trying to one-up each other.  When one mom shares her story about a hospital birth another one comes along to say, 'Well I had a home birth' and continues to go on how she is clearly a stronger and better mother for it.  And it shouldn't be that way! We shouldn't be trying to one-up each other or comparing what we do.  We should be lifting each other up in the struggles we ALL face no matter how we parent, and we should be encouraging knowing it is a challenge." I really liked her comment and I myself had discovered how I was frequently feeling a need to defend my decisions or say, "Well I do it this way." Seriously, who cares? It doesn't matter, and what it leads to is an attitude of self-importance as if you are somebody special just because you are a mother.


Yes, you are somebody special in a way.  I'm not downplaying the role of a mother.  But none of us is the be all and end all because we are mothers and making decisions for our children.  And no way we do things gives us any more importance than other moms or makes anyone better or stronger.  And if we think we are, we are way too focused on ourselves.


So, yeah, that's what I LOVE about being away from it all.  Most of my time is spent focusing on my child and not myself and how I parent.  Ultimately, I feel so much more at peace and so much more fulfilled.  

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Chatterbox

Gordon Lee has been very talkative today! He seems to have different types of days.  Yesterday was a very fussy day for him in which I indulged in a much-needed glass of wine at the end of it to relieve my throbbing head.  Today has been much better.  He is very happy and inquisitive today and extremely talkative.  Below is a video of him trying to say something.  It would be so nice to know what it is! :)  He has been so vocal that I am half expecting him to just say something comprehensible.



Monday, February 27, 2012

Tiny Tornado

G.Lee walked across the living room tonight! Lee and I were both so shocked neither one of us thought to get a camera out to record it.  After that, he just took a few steps here and there.  But he is getting close! Even if he is just starting to walk, he has definitely mastered crawling and wastes no time in getting his hands on whatever he can get.


Here he is sitting contentedly with an XBox controller (batteries removed) in the midst of toys he has strewn all across the living room floor.

And yet again, after wreaking havoc on the living room with all of his toys, he decides to abandon them all and come see Mommy.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Just Out of Reach

Gordon Lee is always trying to pull himself up on anything he can find.  Somehow, he even managed to pull himself up on a door! He put his hands flat against it and got himself up that way.


Well, we obviously are having to find ways to keep things out of his reach.  I also knew my end tables with tablecloths covering them would have to go eventually.  I just had no clue it would be this soon! Everything else that Gordon Lee has done has been right around the "normal" time for a baby to do it (e.g. rolling over, smiling, laughing, sitting up, etc.).  However, he seems to be very eager to pull himself up and also to walk! I did not expect this to happen so soon.  I walked at right around a year and I heard that most babies usually walk somewhere around 1 year.


However, as I have recently discovered, there are those extra active babies out there who walk as early as 9 months.  And after hearing other people's experiences with their babies who were early walkers, it looks as if Gordon Lee is going to be walking by 9 months.  


He takes steps already.  But with this new development comes trying to find ways to keep his curious mind engaged (because it is natural for babies to want to explore) without allowing him to get into danger.  It's a lot harder than it might seem.  But I did discover recently, that he basically wants ANYTHING that is out of reach.  It doesn't matter what it is.  As long as he has to pull himself up to get it, he wants it! 


I figured this out after watching him play several times and abandon his toys that are available in abundance for drinks sitting on tables, or remote controls, or any other number of things he is not supposed to have.  So, I started putting his toys up on a couch for him to get, and it worked! He doesn't care what he is trying to get just as long as it is up somewhere.  Since he really doesn't seem to understand (or maybe care) what the word "no" means, we have to get creative.


Here is a short video of him excitedly going after a ball that is up on the sofa.