William's Milestones
What's going on with William today ...
Monday, September 29, 2003: William has 5 teeth now, and two more on the way. He is standing solo a lot. He could easily walk now ... he just doesn't realize he can. As he studies Joshua (who is now walking unassisted) he will no doubt push himself to catch up. At his 9 month check-up he weighed just under 25 pounds and measured 30 inches long. He's doing great ... he's healthy, developmentally ahead of the curve, and SO SWEET!!! He's really starting to do better with eating. He still refuses to feed himself, or to hold his own bottle, but he will at least sit and eat solids. Gran made chicken soup this past weekend and he really enjoyed eating potatos, carrots, and green beans out of that. He also is absolutely insane about baby goldfish! His favorite game is throwing the ball ... he'll sit for very long periods of time and throw the ball back and forth with us. He has an amazing throw ... he can huck that ball all the way across the room. Our little bug is doing beautifully and we enjoy every second with him!!
Monday, August 11, 2003: William is just growing by leaps and bounds. He'll be 8 months old in ONE WEEK ... if you can believe that. He is totally mobile now. He crawls everywhere, and can sit up by himself. That's a huge milestone, cuz now when he falls over he can just pop himself back up. He's easily over 22 pounds now ... HUGE. We did something big this weekend ... we transitioned from Alimentum (the specialized formula) to regular. He's doing just fine so far. Hopefully he will continue to be fine. He's also sleeping better. He went through a little phase there where he was waking up multiple times at night. But now it's just once ... or sometimes, like last night, he just sleeps straight on through. YAY. Also, William started Turtle Tots full-time last Monday. Mommy cried all day on Monday and William cried all day on Tuesday. But after that we were both just fine!! Finally, this is his last week of swimming lessons. He's had such a great time! He LOVES the water. His swim coach, Russ, says that the butterfly will be his event.
Wednesday, July 23, 2003: William just returned from his first big trip. He did so great ... very little complaining on the airplanes, slept beautifully (despite a 3-hour time zone change), and utterly went with the flow at all times. What a great kid!! He just started crawling a couple of days ago. Well, actually he drags himself across the floor, but close enough. His appetite has really picked up. He's starting to enjoy his solids more and is like a little bird waiting for each bite with his mouth gaping open! William starts swimming lessons on August 4. He absolutely LOVES swimming pools, seemingly no matter how cold, so I think he'll really enjoy this. He's up to 21 pounds now. What a big boy!!!
Saturday, June 28, 2003: William now has both bottom teeth. Again, no apparent problems cutting the second one. He's eating more solids now. We've added squash, carrots and bananas to the repetoire. Monday we will introduce green beans, and then peas. He needs some greens in the mix!! He is very close to crawling ... that's for sure. But for now he just rolls wherever he wishes to go. His 6 month check-up (and immunizations) had to be postponed because he was sick last week. We'll probably have to do that next week. But as of last week, he weighed in at a whopping 20 pounds. WOW!!!!!! It's so funny ... he's the 3rd from the youngest baby at Turtle Tots, but by far the biggest. Our little tank! Grandma and Grandpa visited last week from California, and so did Grandpa Angelo and Gran-Susan. William enjoyed that a lot!! And we're starting to get ourselves together to head to Cali. He's so excited to see Granny Stephanie, the Aunties, and to meet his Great-Dede and all of his Gilmore family!! Lots of fun coming up!
Thursday, June 19, 2003: Sorry I've been lame on timing again! William is all over the place now ... he can roll anywhere he wants to go. He can also sit up by himself and play with his toys. He REALLY likes that!! He cut his first tooth a week ago. He never even made any sort of fuss ... it just appeared. He's very proud of it and shows it off all the time! He's back on solids again. So far he eats rice cereal, sweet potatos, potatos, and we're getting ready for squash. We're going through all the veggies first, as fruits have been a little tough on his tummy. William painted his first picture at school last week (a sailboat ... we're gonna mat and frame it of course ... he has an exquisite sense of color and composition!!!) and starts swimming lessons next week. We're really looking forward to that. Lots more going on, but that's the big news for now. Love to all!!
Saturday, May 17, 2003: Unbelievable though it may be, our William will be 5 months old tomorrow. Where has the time gone? He is a very healthy, happy, BIG 5 month old! The new thing going on this past week is HAIR GROWTH! Literally, you can sit and watch it grow. It is visibly longer each morning. It's fabulous ... so soft and sticking STRAIGHT up off his head. And very blonde. He still has one little patch of his original red hair at the nape of his neck, but the rest of his head is covered in blonde fuzz! He's doing well. He is still spitting up a whole lot. Resuming the Prilosec has not been as helpful with that as we had hoped. We will get in touch with his specialist next week and ask some questions, but this is probably just the way it's going to be for a while. I don't know when babies grow out of spitting up, but we're hoping it's SOON!!! William's new sound is gargling (with his saliva). And he still loves to squeal and laugh. He's so much fun! And he finds most everything very entertaining. We have a happy little boy on our hands. Are we lucky or what?!
Monday, May 5, 2003: William has started laughing a lot. Mostly he screams with delight at things. But if you work really hard he will laugh! He's happy most of the time, and we are enjoying him SO MUCH!!!!!! Unfortunately, taking him off the Prilosec was not successful. He has resumed some tummy troubles, including excessive spitting up, trouble passing gas and some pain. We re-started the Prilosec a few days ago, so hopefully he'll be feeling better soon. The doctor may also up his dose a bit ... we'll know later today. We have also taken him off solids. We will resume those at his 6 month birthday unless he starts "begging" before then. He enjoyed solids ... especially the part where he spit it all over Mommy! Fun stuff! He wasn't quite ready and we're gonna let his tummy rest for a while. Also, he may have to stay on the specialized formula until his first birthday. We were hoping to transition him to regular formula in August, but that may not be possible. We'll revisit that idea in a few months. He doesn't mind, so there it is! William is also getting very coordinated and is rolling around like a champ.
Tuesday, April 22, 2003: William is growing up so fast. We can hardly keep up with him. He's rolling over consistently now ... he finally figured out what to do with that arm that keeps getting in his way!! He smiles, coos, and squeals a lot now. He still doesn't laugh at things. We can't wait for that. It's coming soon, because he gets so tickled with things that he literally smiles with his whole body. We're just waiting for the noise to come out. William moved into his own room a couple of weeks ago. We tried co-sleeping in the beginning, and he didn't like it. Then we moved his crib into our room, and he did okay with that. Now that he's in his own room he's doing wonderfully. We're realizing that he's just a very independent little boy who likes his own space! What a tremendous quality to have! We're very proud of that. He's been eating applesauce for a few days now. He likes it, I think, but prefers his bottle still. We'll give him an opportunity to eat each day. At some point, he'll catch on. We took him off Prilosec last week, and so far he's doing great. And we give him his antiacids every third feeding now. So far, so good. We're keeping our fingers crossed! He went to the pediatrician last Friday and weighed in at 17 lbs., 1.5 oz. BIG boy. His favorite things in the world these days: cuddling with his Mom and Dad, playing in his exersaucer, spending time with his grandparents, aunties, uncle and cousin, watching Baby Einstein videos, reading books, and talking while we lay in bed. He has no teeth yet, but is clearly teething. He drools like crazy, chews on anything and everything, and tugs at his ears all the time. They're coming!
So, here we are, at the beginning of William's fourth month of life. So far parenthood has been the best of times and the worst of times. But the tough times are so far behind us now, and the joy that William brings to our lives is far beyond measure. He's the whole world to us, and we thank God everyday for sending him to us. We are truly blessed and we know it!
Stay tuned for more news ...