So Close...

...to walking, that is.

Every time Holden stands on his own two feet, with that determined look in his eye, we think--is this the moment? And apparently his daycare seems to be wondering the same thing. Virtually everyone there--from his teachers to the director, is anxiously awaiting the big milestone. He is apparently the only child there on the verge of this life changing event. He's taken a step or two, once or twice--planting his face into the ground. But not quite yet...so close...soo close.

So what do you think? When will Holden take the big leap?

Apple Picking

About two weeks ago, we took Holden out to Centennial Farms to go apple picking. What a great day! Even though we didn't end up picking that many apples, we all had fun -- and Holden got to take a hay ride on a tractor out to the orchard. The only had part about carrying Holden in the Ergo-carrier was that he got clunked in the head a couple times by apples falling out of the trees (esp. when daddy was reaching for the really high ones ... whoops). We've since made homemade applesauce with the apples, which was delicious. Now we're looking forward to some pumpkin-picking in October, which is just around the corner ... yay fall!!!!!

one small step for man...

Although I'm not sure how much of a "giant leap for mankind" this represents, but Holden has been taking his first steps throughout the past week. He's not walking yet, but he is trying so hard to get there. He has been able to stand on his own now for at least a couple weeks, sometimes for quite a long time (esp. if he has toys or snacks in both hands, distracting his attention from the fact that he's not holding on to anything for support). And a couple times this past week, Holden has decided to take some mini steps forward on his own before he crouches down and crawls or sits.

One thing I've decided recently as a parent is that the big "firsts" that are supposed to happen (like first words, first steps, etc.) ... well, there seems to be a lot of gray area here when it comes to defining them. For example, Holden has been saying "dada" off and on for some time -- and probably with some intentionality behind it -- but we're just not sure it's an official 'first word.' He's also working on "uh oh," but is that even a word? Every once in a while, I swear I hear him say something much more complicated (like "elephant"), and then it doesn't happen again -- so does a baby need to say his or her 'first word' a certain number of times for it to count. And how legible does it need to be. Some of Holden's "dada" utterances might be just as random as the times he says things like "elephant" or "I did it" -- but these certainly don't count, right? Another example is this whole 'first steps' thing. Does it count if he isn't walking, or do his official 'first steps' need to be those steps that lead immediately into walking. Sorry for the long tangent here, but someone needs to chime in on these gray areas of parenting sometimes (or we'll all think it's just us that think these things ... and, I know it's not).

On the daycare front, Holden has been continuing to enjoy his days away from home. No consistent napping yet, but they are working to transition him to one nap for his eventual move to the "toddler classroom." But he gets to play with other kids, and do fun activities like painting, playing with water, and International Wearing Pants on Your Head Day (for which we've been preparing Holden with months of practice).
On the other hand, Holden has had this nasty cold (probably a side effect of daycare). Today, the daycare center called us to pick him up since he had a runny nose. After an unnecessary trip to the doctor, we have a letter that will clear him to return tomorrow (but it made for a rather crazy day). I assume this is just the beginning (ugh).

While all of this comes far from being categorized as a "giant leap for mankind," having a child continues to be a "giant leap" for us parents, at least. And an awesome leap, at that.

Pictures from Daycare

Last week Holden's teachers emailed us some pictures of his adventures at daycare, which have included a few guests and trips to the 'library' in the building.And here he is enjoying one of the books from that library, which we don't actually own:

And here he is with a visiting guitar player, which apparently Holden loved. The teachers tell us he loves music. Of course, we already knew this based on his love for his play piano:

Finally, the famous mirror tunnel that seems to be one of Holden's favorite objects in his room. It's also, incidentally, the culprit for almost every scratch and bump he gets at Daycare, since it tends to throw off his balance.

Week 1 Update

It seems like a brief update is in order now that we have officially ended week one of daycare. Things are still bumpy , and Holden hasn't been napping nearly enough, but on Thursday and Friday he figured out how to sleep on his own in his crib, and on Fri he even took a real 1 1/2 hour nap. He was fussy on those last two days though, due perhaps to teething they said--although I have to wonder if it was more the lack of sleep mixed with a small dose of separation anxiety. That said, we have progress on the nap situation and that's good. And even better, he seemed to be able to nap without a problem today for us. Meanwhile, on the parenting side, it seems we need to figure out some issues for us as well. On day 2 we forgot to bring in his lovey (which resulted in a mad rush to the daycare at noon), and on Friday we left daycare without packing up all the bottles. Every morning has been a rushed struggle to get all the supplies in order.

More to come I'm sure. Right now, I'm just happy to enjoy the weekend with the wee one.

some things just never change

How is it that a simple trip to Target to buy some basic baby supplies for Holden's daycare can turn into a deep probing of parental gender bias in American society? Well, I'll tell you.

It all started as I was browsing through the baby clothes department at Target, trying to quickly find something to buy for Holden (on sale, and something that doesn't look stupid ... apparently two tall orders for Target these days -- esp. after they nixed their "Dwell" line of baby clothing). I noticed a couple stacks of t-shirts sitting on a display rack, and then kept on walking -- but my brain said, "wait, WHAT WAS THAT?!?!" So I stepped back, and took a closer look at the graphic on the t-shirts:
So what's wrong with this picture (besides that it's kind of a crappy iPhone snapshot)? It seems all cute and innocent. I can picture it being worn by baby boys attending a Mets game or a Monster Truck Rally with their dads, and people thinking "Oh how cute!" But if you take even a second to really think about what it is saying, it becomes quite terrible in a hurry. Is there really still a pervasive gender preference that fathers have for male babies? Haven't we gotten past that in this country ... in the 21st century. I mean, we get all shocked when we hear stories coming out of China about infanticide and violence against female babies given that country's strong, documented preference for sons. That type of thinking could never happen here. Perhaps this t-shirt I found in Target was made in China (and they are playing a funny yet complex joke on American consumers).

I decided to probe a bit deeper, and found out that this t-shirt might simply be stating the fact. For example, Gallup polls taken since 1941 consistently show that men would rather have a boy by more than a two-to-one margin. A 2007 Gallup poll of adults in the US showed that all people (not just men, but women too) show a rather sizeable preference for boys -- with the top reasons being that "men can relate to boys better than to girls," "boys can carry on the family name," and "boys are easier to raise." Other reasons included "girls are too emotionally and physically weak" and "girls are too high maintenance." So Target probably just did their saavy market research, and they are profitably tapping into our pervasive gender bias that hasn't changed in the US since 1941 (and that's all the rage in China these days, I hear).

I'm waiting for Target to come out with a whole new line of children's toys (made in China, of course) based on the popular poem from the ancient Chinese "Book of Songs":

"When a son is born,
Let him sleep on the bed,
Clothe him with fine clothes,
And give him jade to play...
When a daughter is born,
Let her sleep on the ground,
Wrap her in common wrappings,
And give broken tiles to play..."

First Day of School ... or, Daycare

So today felt like Holden's first day of school ... only he was going to daycare. Either way, the nerves were on edge from the parental side of things. We readied clothes, bottles, and food for Holden, and headed off to the Learning Center this morning. The center is new (with a brand new building), and we have spent over a month learning about their services -- but also coming to the realization that this is one of the only places we could get Holden into without a waiting list. So today, it was game on.

First of all, Holden is in the "Little Dippers" classroom with two other infants (who are 6 weeks old and 3 months old, so the level of play and interaction with other kids seems limited). Other than being a bit peeved that he's not in the same classroom as his girlfriend Isla, he seemed to love it on his first day. All new toys to play with, and a big room to crawl around at break-neck speed. And new people that cater to your every need. Also, no napping (or, at least, very little napping going on today ... but maybe he was just so excited to be in a new place, and it's just not the same as napping at home, that's for sure).

After dropping him off in the morning, Bryna and I went about our separate ways during the day (me at the Museum, and Bryna at the University). Then, around 12:45pm, we both simultaneously decided to pay Holden a visit. Yes, it is possible we missed him, but we also wanted to check up on this whole daycare thing. When we arrived, Holden had just been put in his crib, asleep. Since he had not napped in the morning and played a ton, he was zonked and fell asleep before we got there. And you know what that means -- short nap. Oh, one other thing ... he had also bonked himself in the nose when trying to walk around a piece of furniture they had there in the room. Yes, this is something we're going to have to get used to (and they are, too, at the daycare center). At the end of the day, Bryna picked up Holden and he seemed happy (but tired from not napping all day). He had played to his heart's content and beyond.

So what do the overbearing parents think after one day of having their little sweetie in day care for one day? Well, we're of course suffering from our own case of separation anxiety, which manifests itself in all kinds of questions and accusations directed toward his new care providers. But, in our defense, I think they also have some things to work out. For instance, we worked really hard to sleep train Holden (ie. getting him to learn to fall asleep on his own, and not just from rocking or nursing) -- and I'm not going to let some daycare teacher take that away as they rock Holden to sleep with a bottle (which is what they seemed to do today, but not what we asked them to do). And who sleeps comfortably under the brightest fluorescent lights known to man -- can't we dim those lights a bit! (sorry, but I hate fluorescent lights). OK, ok, I'm going into crazy, overbearing parent mode, but it's rough sending our 'little bug' off to be cared for by strangers, essentially. It's going to take some adjustment time (for us, and the new daycare center). But, I think we'll survive. I mean, does anyone ever like the first day of school?

10 Months

Time has started to blur (as I hear it often does after a baby turns 6 months), and Holden is making the transition from infant to toddler whether we're ready for it or not. This past month has been a bit rough on the little guy, who took his first big vacation, experienced his first real cold/fever last week, and whose been stalled out on teeth number 5 and 6, both of which have caused him woe for weeks. And to top it all off, tomorrow he starts Day Care. In general, though, he's handled these experiences well, and seems to be healthy and ready for his big day tomorrow.

Suddenly the guy has a full head of hair, can speed crawl, and occasionally even braves standing on his own (without help) for little bits of time. He's been cruising along the furniture, chasing cats around the house, and has taken to telling us animated stories in his own infant language. He's also mastered a few signs ("more," "eat" and "milk," of course) that we had been working on teaching him for weeks. And...we think he's picked up a word or two, mainly "daddy," which he's seems to have started saying with purpose. Of course, he also says dadadada all the time, so do what you want with that one!