3/25/2012

The Tobin Times #7

Filed under: — Aprille @ 8:09 pm

Dear Tobin,

It’s happened.  You’ve reached the biggest milestone for the under-1 set:  you got your first tooth.

It’s right where we’d expect it, bottom left.  You’ve been a little fussy about the whole situation, and despite your prowess at eating solid food and taking your vitamin drops, you can’t seem to keep a full dose of ibuprofen in your mouth. It’s interrupted your sleep, and we’ve all been a little crabby.  You have been doing much more sleeping in your crib, though.  You spend all your naps there now, and you usually do a few hours at bedtime as well. Also, looking back on last month’s TTT, I realize that it’s only been this month that you’ve started taking extended naps.  That’s been a welcome change.  Now you almost always take one long nap (an hour plus) per day, as well as a couple of shorter ones.

You had your first ride in playground swings this month.  For posterity, it has been a freakishly warm March.  We’ve had days and days in a row of record highs—over 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  Therefore, we’ve been outside a lot more than a person might normally in March, and you’ve really enjoyed our walks and trips to the park.  You’re getting so mobile that my strategy of spreading out a blanket for you only sort of works.  Before long, you’re rolling and scootching to the edge so you can grab handfuls of grass out of the ground.  You can’t quite crawl yet, but you’re starting to get where you want to go.  When you’re inside on the carpet, you grab the fibers and pull yourself while pushing with your toes.  Your belly is so chubby you can’t really get it off the ground, but you manage to move from one side of the room to the other, a few inches at a time.

It’s getting harder to keep you clean, with all your floor adventures and solid foods.  Right now your favorite food is probably pureed carrots with applesauce (or c’rapplesauce, as I call it).  You open your mouth wide when I hold the spoon toward you, and I think you’re starting to understand the concept of “more” and associate it with both the word and the ASL sign.

Another fun thing you did this month was see Uncle Tyler.  He’s too tough to admit it, but he loves babies, and it was sweet seeing him with you.  Your brother hogged him most of the time he was visiting, but you were able to get some attention too.

Photo by Gary Clarke

It seems to have gone as quickly as it came, and maybe it was related to teething, but for a few days there you were in a phase of making the funniest faces.  You’d suck your lips into your mouth and look like an old man missing his dentures.  It completely distorted your face, and you didn’t even look like yourself.  You do have a knack for expressions, though a lot of times people describe you as stoic because you’re so calm.  Little do they know you have a full arsenal of wackiness when you choose to display it.  I noticed tonight that you’ve been turning your tongue sideways in order to feel your bottom tooth.  Your eyebrows do amazing things.  Your eyes squish into little slits when you laugh.  Your face is just the best.

I’ve had a hard time getting you to sleep today.  When I tried to rock you, you strained and cried and punched me in the ribs.  I was feeling a little under the weather (you and your brother have both had a cough, and I’m afraid I might be getting a touch of something), and I was not in the mood for it.  This is probably the part where I admit that I don’t do the sleeping thing “right.”  All the parenting books and websites (and the nurse at your doctor’s office) say the parent is supposed to put the baby down while he or she is still asleep, so he or she can learn to fall asleep alone.

I never do that.  I rock you to sleep or nurse you to sleep every time.  When the nurse asks, I just lie.  Well, I don’t completely lie—after you do a “power hour,” you fall asleep on your own.  A power hour is a phrase I use to describe what sometimes happens during the wee hours of the morning.  You decide you don’t want to snooze peacefully between your dad and me, and you roll around, whack us with your limbs, babble, and generally horse around.  Your dad usually sleeps right through it (lucky turd), but I’m a light sleeper.

My major strategy is just to ignore you, since I know you’re safe between us, and eventually you always fall back to sleep on your own.  So yeah, I guess sometimes I let you fall asleep the “right” way.

But usually you fall asleep tucked into the crook of my arm in the soft brown chair in your room.  I’m okay with it.  That’s how I always did it with your brother, and he eventually slept through the night.  Maybe it wasn’t as soon as if I’d left him alone, and it probably won’t be as soon for you either, but that’s okay.  There’s going to come a time when you’ll push me away when I want to cuddle you.  I’m not going to force you out of my arms before you want to leave them.

Sometimes I’m even going to grab you and cuddle you when you don’t want me to.  Like picking your boogers and brushing flakes off your scalp, it’s my right and borderline compulsion as your mother.

I love you, and don’t you forget it, my little Chub-Chub.

Love,

Mommy

2 responses to “The Tobin Times #7”

  1. Danny Novo says:

    Some of the most adorable pictures! I do so wish I had kept up a running diary blog of my kids, but it got too much. Kudos.

  2. Sue Nickels says:

    ditto to those kudos! Life wasn’t so easy 30 years ago with storing everything electronically and I’m in awe of these wonderful tales! Keep up the fabulous writing!

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