6 mos old, sitting up, & the ocean

Kaua turned six months old on Thursday, May 27. Can you believe it? He is half a year old, and half way to turning 1 year old. OMG, I have so much planning to do for his birthday party!!

But the coolest news is 3 days later, on May 30, he sat up on his own for the first time! Well, we had been working on it for about 1 week now. He'd sit up, but only for a few seconds at a time before toppling over. But on that day, I sat him up and stood behind him to catch him, and he didn't fall...well, not for very long. I told DH to come help me watch him while I grabbed the camera and video camera and recorded away. He lasted about 20 something seconds before listing to the side! That's awesome!

I know that crawling is just a few days if not a couple weeks away now. He is already pulling himself around while on his tummy, sort of inching his way towards something, and he sure knows how to roll himself around. You can set him down somewhere, and he sure as heck will not be in that spot in a few minutes. He's so much more exploratory -- always wanting to look around and touch things. Whenever I carry him, my necklaces, earrings, and hair are fair game, so of course, I've been sans jewlery and putting my hair up. He's becoming stranger fearful, but will warm up to strangers if we sit and talk for a while.

And two days ago, on June 1, we took him to the beach where he took his first dip in the ocean! We have taken him to the beach before, but the water/weathe wasn't always the greatest, but now that its summer, it's beach city! He was reluctant at first, you could tell he was unfamiliar with the sensation of being surrounded by water (I dont give him baths, just showers), and the temperature of the water was new (he's only been in warm water), but eventually, after he realized he could splash with his hands he loosened up a little. I dont think I'd call him overly joyed and laughing, but he definitely tolerated it for a while. I had my flip video camera to capture the moment, but of course, i ran out of batteries, just as soon as we get him into the water. But, I did have my regular camera and captured some of those kodak moments for you to see.
On the job front, unfortunately, my firm cannot afford me. Thus, I'm now in a hunt for a new job while this firm figures out its finances (regardless whether they could afford me, I'd been thinking of looking for a new job anyways). But sadly, that puts our house hunt on hold and hence more living with my mom and squished together in 1 room. =( DH and I really miss our old home with all that room and privacy!

I'm still here!

Hello bloggy buddies.

It's been a while since my last post (a little over 1 week). Just been plowing along with life.

Kaua has had a cold for over 4 weeks now! We took him to the doctors when he first had the cold (April 28) and again on Tuesday (May 18) and basically we've been told that its not serious, there's nothing we can really give him to help it pass, and to just let it run its course. It's been somewhat miserable at night when he wakes himself up coughing, but other than that, he seems to be a happy camper. His cough is pretty bad though. When his congestion was really bad, we'd have to prop him up in his car seat in his crib. Like so....

(Too funny his pose, he's actually sleeping like this. When we walked into the room and saw this, we had to snap a picture).

Luckily, the congestion is getting better, but that darn cough is still there. We've been rubbing Vi.cks on his chest and back in hopes that it'll help, but nope, not much luck there. Poor guy.

In eating news, nope, we still dont have the sprouts of any teeth yet, but we are expanding his food repetoire (sp?). We've went from rice cereal and poi, to squash, peas and today carrots. I had all these big designs to make his food myself, but right now, I just cant find the time to do it...so we're feeding him Earth's Best organic baby firsts from Whole Foods. So easy to just buy the jar and pop it open. He seems to like all the foods we've introduced so far. It's kinda cute when we introduce a new food to him, he shudders and it appears as if he doesn't like the food, but then he'll happily chomp away. He's finishing about 1/3 of a baby food jar in one sitting. He seems to be hungry fairly often (looking at my food when I eat it and showing interest in it), so we've just begun feeding him baby food or rice cereal 3x a day. He eats every time! I've also been feeding him small sips of water from a cup or glass and occassionally when we're on the go, a sippy cup. I read somewhere that getting a child used to a cup or glass now is better than a sippy cup, because at this age they're still maleable to anything. If we get him too accustomed to a nipple or sippy cup, he may not transition to a big boy cup as easily. Ah, whatever, I think I use a regular cup with him because i'm too lazy to go get a sippy cup for him and just give him sips from the water I'm drinking.

I've begun contemplating weaning him off breastmilk. On the one hand, it's just so time consuming and demanding to be pumping every 3 hours or to be present to breast feed him. I really do plan my life around pumping or breast feeding, and I'd love to have the luxury of not having it be that way. But on the other hand, I'm cheap and dont want to spend the money on formula and am worried I'd be taking away any additional health benefits that Kaua may get from my breast milk. DH wants me to continue breast feeding, but only because he read somewhere that its good for Kaua. I will at least do some research as to whether it really makes a difference to breast feed or formula feed your baby after he is six months old. For some reason, I feel as if I read that breast feeding for 6 months is ideal, and after that it doesn't really matter. (but I could just be making that up).

The little guy is about 18 lbs now (17 lbs, 9 oz) and wears size 6-9 month clothing exclusively and some 12 month clothing. He'll be 6 months old on May 27! Half a year away to his first birthday party!

In milestone news, we're working on having him sit by himself unsupported. He can sit pretty well on the couch:

But sitting on his own without any back support is still iffy. He can sit ok, but someone needs to be there to make sure he doesn't topple forward or backward or to the side. It's quite funny really. He's still not a crawler. He doesn't even get up on all fours when on his tummy and I'm not sure how to show him how to do it. He does roll from front to back and vice versa pretty regularly, and sometimes it drives me bananas because when he's sleeping with us, he ALWAYS rolls himself all the way over to me, crowding me on the bed, no matter how often I move him away, he somehow finds his way back to me. And usually, it's his feet or hands that are digging into me. He also loves to be held so that he can stand on his legs. I've heard of babies going directly from back/tummy to standing on their own (skipping the crawling stage) and I wonder if that will be Kaua. One thing is for sure, when he starts to move, we're going to have to baby proof the house. (Hopefully it'll be a house of DH and my own...we're in the market to buy again!)

His bed time is between 7pm and 8pm usually and he takes either two long naps during the day (approximately 1-2 hours) or if there's too much noise and his naps are disturbed, he'll take three cat naps throughout the day. He gets up at the God-awful hours of 5am-6am daily! On the rare occasion, when he gets up before 5am and wants to play, I can sometimes get him to fall back asleep in half an hour and he'll then sleep until about 7 am and that's what I call "sleeping in!" So as you can see, these kind of hours really take a toll on any night life I'd like to have (like I have any option of having a night life....at my new/old hometown, there is nil in the way of nightlife).

Well, that's all in the news of Kaua-chronicles. I hope everyone else is doing well out there!

I'm still here1

Mother's Day

It's here! The long awaited Mother's Day!

I feel so proud and accomplished to reach this long awaited milestone. I feel like I'm a member of the "cool club." As if i get to wear this badge of honor and connect with others out there...you know, those "regular" people who never have or had to worry about bebe-makin-carryin-havin- You know, those people who have never been kid challenged. Yup, I get to walk around all day, expressing "Happy Mother's Day" to random strangers to my heart's content and getting the same in return, while I wave my baby around like a trophy as if I've never had a care in the world about having a kid.

But the truth is..I did have some trouble having Kaua. I had two miscarriages and maybe woulda had more, if it weren't for divine intervention and google and blogs. But enough reflecting on the past. I'm here. I've got the most handsome-est adorable son (well, next to yours out there) and I love that bugger...even though he's a 5am waking booger! lol.

And i've got beautiful purple irises in a vase on our entertainment stand from my DH which he got me this morning b/c he works tomorrow. And I'm a mommy!

Happy Mother's day to all! (angel mommies especially!)

p.s. We moved Kaua onto his next solid food today. We went from rice cereal which kept giving him constipation, to poi. He loved that poi! I mixed it with breast milk and some water and he chomped it like a champ. We froze more servings so he can have it over the next few days.

Stranger Recognition

Kaua is starting to recognize strangers. I really noticed it when I was visiting my dad over the weekend. Unfortunately, my dad is not and has not been a full time resident of the county in which we live for a while now, so he has seen Kaua infrequently. So when I gave Kaua to my dad to hold him, Kaua started crying and making the cutest saddest little face. We tried to “tough it out” by letting Kaua stay in my dad’s arms while I talked to him or played with him, but Kaua wouldn’t have it. He proceeded to cry and his howls got louder and louder till it was a full blown fit. I gave in and took Kaua back and he immediately stopped crying, but he had cried so hard, he had those after-cry sobs (you know, those kind that you cant stop escaping from your mouth no matter how hard you try?). I’d never heard him have those sobs before, so this must have been one very serious cry. Poor thing. Of course, Kaua is fine, but I hope that overtime, we can continue to visit my dad and get Kaua used to his grandpa. It’s the only one he has (other than his great grandpa and my mom’s BF whom we call Grandzim). I feel the most bad for my dad though. Due to his absence here, he is a stranger to all three of my brothers kids, and perhaps he may be one to Kaua. Not if I can help it though.

Mother's Day approaches

I'm so excited, my first legitimate mother's day! I feel as if I'll be celebrating a rite of passage of sorts, on this day. And I believe it too....being a mom is hard work (especially since kaua has a really bad cold and we've been having 7 nights of coughing and sleeplessness!)

Last year for mother's day, I was in early pregnancy with Kaua (9 weeks) and we were in the midst of our east coast trip. So while it was awesome to celebrate mother's day last year with a baby in my belly, this year I get to celebrate mother's day with my son in my arms! It's amazing to think back on my journey towards this point. While short lived in the scheme of things, 6months of heartbreak, it seemed so long. And at the time, I had no idea if I would ever get to celebrate mother's day as a mom. When I read the stories of other bloggers out there who are also getting to celebrate mothers day for the first time either with a new baby in their belly or a new baby in their arms after their own personal struggle to get to where they are now, I feel a sense of awe, wonder, accomplishment and greatfulness. It's such an awesome thing to be a mom; to be a little beings entire world; the total reason for their happiness. The bond between mom and kid is so strong. Next to being a wife, it is the best feeling in the world. I know DH also feels similarly as a father, so when you combine those feelings of motherhood and fatherhood in a loving marriage....the love is boundless. God surely knew what he was doing when he created a family. =)

Too bad DH has to work on mother's day. =( But good news is, my family and I have fun plans to go to the beach. We'll have a BBQ or picnic and the kids can play on the grass or in the sand at the beach. My mom, her BF, my Dad, my grandparents my brother's 3 kids, Kaua and I will all be there. I'm looking forward to it. I just hope the weather cooperates.

What are your mother's day plans?