I have never been more thankful that Tarzan is a teacher than this year.
In fact, most years I have been bitter that Tarzan gets 12 weeks off in the summer (plus 1 at Thanksgiving, another 1 in the spring AND the 3 at Christmas)
Not because I think he's not working. He works hard during the school year, including Saturdays, I don't envy him AT ALL his getting up at 5am all year long to go to school and he still manages some substitute time during the summer, just for kicks and because he gets bored on vacation.
But usually, on his vacations, *I* still had to go to work and so I was jealous.
This time around though, we have Cheetah, I have no pressing work to go to, so we have time together.
Which is awesome.
And we decided to start taking advantage of the many, many cultural institutions here in the Jungle.
Despite Cheetah being only seven months old - and unlikely to remember it - we took him to one of the local museums to see the "art" that was recently installed.
Cheetah slept through it:
When he did wake up he was not impressed with the statues:
The historical locale:
Or his parents:
In fact, all he really cared about was watching the wheels on the stroller go around:
And the traffic:
Though he did try and pull up a tuft of his first grass:
Tarzan and I had a blast though and we look forward to many summer adventures this year and in the years to come.
This is me and it's looking good.
So this is why one is not supposed to use regular dish soap in the dishwasher:
I wasn't washing dishes, just cleaning the machine - light, quick periodic wash as recommended. I thought using the 'extra strength' cleaner would be a good idea.
It was not.
Had to repeatedly cancel and restart the cycle until the suds subsided enough for it to complete the whole thing and rinse out.
This is me and at least the dishwasher is squeaky clean!
So it's only been three months since I did a post of significance about Cheetah and his growth and development. But babies don't change that much in three months right?
Right?!?!
(Shut up.)
So let's see where we are:
At the end of March, my family went north to see my brother and his family for his daughter's baptism:
The drive is about 8 hours one way and Tarzan had to work on the Friday - the baptism was Saturday morning - so we drove it straight through.
It was Cheetah's first road trip and he handled it remarkably well I thought:
Especially given his attitude towards nursing at that time.
Which was angry.
He'd start nursing, then after a minute or two, stop and scream, then try again, then stop and scream, then refuse to eat at all. We tried a number of things but he was just mad. As in, he was mad he wasn't getting enough to eat from it.
His four month appointment was in the middle of March and the doctor thought he was a little light - he weighed as much at 4 months as my baby brother did, at birth - so she recommended we try solid food. Cereal, applesauce, the usual, and there has been no question that was the right call.
Before starting 'real' food:
After:
He's much happier - as is the doctor who was pleased to see him on the growth chart at his six month appointment - and Cheetah has even returned to nursing regularly and pleasantly.
On the whole, he's a very cheerful baby:
Tarzan asks me periodically if a baby can be "too happy." I don't think so, but complete strangers will stop us while shopping to comment how "zen" he is.
On the way home from the road trip we stopped to see ATL:
Tarzan got in some performance art:
It was a nice trip.
April started out with Gamma visiting her sister's house, down south of us, and we got to visit. Tarzan did some work:
And Gamma got some baby:
I decided that as Cheetah was 5 months old he could probably start wearing his 3-6 month clothing. (Since I finally remembered it was there and put them on the shelf.)
He's almost grown out of some of them already...May was a month of achievements. We learned that Cheetah is a man of decisiveness. He does what he needs to, when he wants to.
And he can't be pushed to do it sooner.
Tarzan posted about Cheetah learning to sit up. Literally the day before (Thursday) he was falling forward on his face, or sideways, or backwards when put in a sitting position. Friday, he was good with it and hasn't slumped over since.
Similar case with rolling over back-to-front. He learned the front-to-back thing months ago and we joked he may never learn to go the other way - he doesn't like tummy time, still - but Wednesday this last week he was playing on his back and his toy got just out of his reach, so he rolled all the way over to get it and then rolled back. I almost missed it, it was such a fluid, quick effort.
The good news; once he does it, he can do it again:
He loves food and hasn't refused anything yet. He eats baby cereal - plus Mommy's Cheerios - applesauce, pears, prunes, bananas, sweet potatoes, green beans and the baby 'cookies,' with great delight:
Carrots will come next. One day he was greatly interested in Mommy's lunch and helped himself:
Without teeth he could only drool on it but he went at it for a good 20 minutes.
Another day it was an apple slice:
He has discovered his tongue in the last few weeks and spends a lot of his time practicing "spitting" while we drive, or sit in church, or have family prayer or whatever.
We moved Cheetah out of our room and into his own this week. Interestingly, he has slept through every night since. It's weird, but despite the monitor and the fact he's only 8 feet down the hall, I sort of miss him. The first night - though he slept soundly - I did not. I must have woken up three times to go and check on him and make sure the monitor was working properly.
So irritated with myself.
It doesn't make noise when they baby is asleep Jane...
This is me, also learning new things.
