A coat tree in the bathroom? Why yes. Doesn't everyone put their coats in the bathroom?
Tully is on the move army crawling, and it never fails that he heads straight for this coat rack in the corner of our entry hall. I was putting away groceries today, and he made it from the middle of our living room to the coats in about three seconds flat. I always know when he's about to get into something he shouldn't because he stops banging whatever it is that's OK to play with or stops babbling. Instead of worrying about him pulling the coat rack on his head, I decided to move it to a room where I can close the door. So, if you come to visit, you'll have a place to put your coat when while you use the restroom. Genius.
P.S. Check out John's furry weird hat on the top right of the rack. This hat, complete with ear flaps, totally cracks me up but is super functional in the winter. I'll have to remember to sneak a pic next time he wears it.
I received a notification recently about the BOB stroller "recall", which turns out not to be much of a recall at all. I'm amazed that BOB has to put out notifications like this to prevent litigation. I had to register my email address and all sorts of other personal information to get the full details on said "recall," but I eventually found out you need to take a pair of tweezers and pull the paper-like backing off the inside of the canopy embroidery (see photo above), so your kid doesn't tear it off and choke. Two seconds and some tweezers. Problem solved. Now you know.
My aunt and uncle drove in from Colorado last week, so they stopped by the house to meet Tully. While they were visiting, we showed my aunt the new crocheted hats we got in for the little business venture my mom and I are doing to sell baby stuff. I'm helping my mom out in my free time (ha!), so my dining room is serving as the inventory tagging space until we get everything set up. Tully will probably kill me for this one day, but I think he makes a pretty cute girl.
Aunt B and Tully
We're also selling vintage pedal toys, so Tully gave the junior trike a test ride. He is obsessed with watching the pedals. Even when we take him off the trike, he finds it in the corner and inspects the pedals over and over again. I can already hear him saying, "M-om (you know, the two syllable version), why did you put me on a PINK trike? And more importantly, why did you blast it all over the internet?!" Sorry, baby, I loved watching your little legs kick with joy while you were riding it and just had to share.
It's been a month already? Sheesh. I've written a lot of posts in my head, but sadly none of them made it to print. I can't miss Tully's monthly update though, so here goes.
6 month stats (WHO Charts)
Weight 17 lbs 6 oz (48%) (49% last month)
Height 27.5 in (85%) (73% last month)
Head 17.13 in (55%) (49% last month)
He's right on track, happy, and healthy, but for some reason our pediatrician is strongly encouraging weaning. Um, hold up! We are nowhere near ready to wean--we're just getting good at this! So now we're on the hunt for a new pediatrician. This reminds me of my decision to change from my Ob-Gyn to a midwife at 34 weeks pregnant. Am I the only person that does this? My whole life I've gone to regular doctors and never had a problem, but these issues seem to be deal-breakers. So I called a pediatrician recommended to us by my Bradley childbirth class instructor. Unfortunately Dr. Ross is only taking maternity/newborn cases. Boo. My next thought was to see if my lactation consultant had a good recommendation. I didn't realize she was in the same building with Dr. Ross, but she's offered to see if he'd make an exception and take Tully as a patient. Fingers crossed! (Update: Dr. Ross took Tully as a patient! My lactation consultant is truly an angel.)
While I've been busy worrying about which doctor we'll see, Tully's been busy with the following:
Army crawling
Teething
Laughing
Grabbing everything and putting it in his mouth
Babbling, especially when he first wakes up
Playing and laughing at himself in the mirror (this never gets old)
Continuing to wake up every 3 hrs or so at night
Enjoying watching cars/trucks/buses/people
Here is his army crawl in action. Check out the old man hair in the back too.
He got his first tooth while we were in DC in September, and the second one came in a week later. And based on the lack of sleep we're all getting, I'm guessing #3 is going to appear any day now. For the most part, Tully is a trooper with this whole teething business, but sometimes I can tell they really hurt him. Poor baby!
Look, Ma, two teeth! And yes, he is standing in his crib. Time to lower...again.
Oh, and see his little birthmark on his middle finger? It's a dark spot where a ring would be.
We get the best laughs out of Tully when we hold him out in front of us, facing the ground and chase Zach around in the front yard. I need to get a video of this, but he thinks chasing Zach is the most hilarious thing in the whole world. He also went crazy babbling and squealing when he would wait on me at the top of the metro escalator on a recent trip to DC. He LOVED the buses, cars, trucks, horns, and people. I've never seen him so excited. He had a great week with Grammy while I got work done in the office. He even came to the office to visit me one day. The only downside was the RIDICULOUS amount of luggage required to travel with a baby.
This was the luggage for all three of us, but still...that red bag on top of the black suitcase was dedicated to only diapers. I used to travel to DC for a week with only the green suitcase and a purse that was large enough to carry my laptop. (L to R) We had a large suitcase, small duffel with diapers, a roller-board carry-on, cooler with milk, carry-on for under the seat, infant carrier, and stroller. In addition to all of that, I carried the baby. Thank goodness Grammy was traveling with us! We never would have made it.
Of all the stories I can think of from DC, the one that stands out the most was when "momma bear" came out on the plane ride home. Tully and I were intentionally the last ones to board the plane, so Grammy had all the bags put away, and as soon as we sat down the plane took off. As planned, Tully immediately nursed to sleep and was resting quietly in my arms. Next thing I know he's jumping out of his skin because the lady in our row is opening her heavy duty double velcro bag. Repeatedly. Like 10 times repeatedly. She would get out a pen and then put it back. Get out chapstick, put it back. Same for her ginger chews (two of them), magazines, kindle, cell phone, notepad, pen (again), and finally another ginger chew. Tully woke up each time but luckily settled back to sleep for the most part. My mom and I looked at each other like, "You've GOT to be kidding me." I said to my mom, "If she does it one more time, I will say something." Sure enough...RIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPP! I politely leaned forward and told the lady my baby was being so good and quiet, and asked her if she knew that each time she opened her bag, it was startling him. Maybe she didn't know, right? She looked at me with the most pathetic, snotty look I've ever seen and said in a high-pitched voice, "Well, I don't know what to do!" I informed her that she could get everything out she needed the first time or not get it out at all. (Hear my momma bear roar?) She quietly put her bag down, left it open, and didn't make much noise the rest of the flight. I don't expect complete silence on an airplane. I mean, c'mon, you've heard the flight attendant announcements, right? Tully is a champ at sleeping through most of those, but the velcro was just too much.
Read about Tully's other DC adventures with Grammy here:
Day 1 - New tooth, hotel room, and stroller rides Day 2 - Bethesda Row adventure (Mmmm....cookies!) Day 3 - Laundry day and tour of Bethesda in pajamas Day 4 - Tully visits NRC, rides the metro and meets Ms. Virginia Day 5 - Strolling in the rain Last Day - Grammy's version of the snooty velcro lady
Once we made it back home, we got into our regular routine again, and we introduced Tully to apples. We're doing a "Baby Led Weaning" approach to introducing solids. This was the first time he showed real interest in solid food, and it was pretty funny when he was smelling the apples. Near the end of this clip, he actually gets some juice in his nose, and you can see his sour face. This continued for about 20 minutes, which is an eternity on Tully Time.
