Mr. Potato Head

This is the obligatory kid-development post, so consider yourself warned.

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On New Year’s eve, we had the honor of meeting the stunning and ever-so-tiny Godot. It was so much fun to get to meet someone so new, and also completely mind-blowing that Roo was that size just a handful of months ago. It made me feel like Roo, at 15 pounds, is this middle-aged baby. It really was so recently that I could hold him in the crook of my arm, his feet curled up right by my wrist, and hardly notice his weight. These days he’s about doubled his birth weight and his little legs curl around the opposite hip when I hold him like that. After holding Godot I told NSG I wanted another baby, which prompted her to give me EXACTLY the look you would give your wife if she said that to you when your first child was 5 months old. Fair enough. But it’s incredible how I can be enjoying him so much and also still miss him being even smaller.

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We’re starting to move the boy into his own room. We got him a mattress, my mother bought him a crib set off of ebay, and we chopped the legs off of a toddler bed so it sits on the floor. You read that right – no crib. It’s a Montessori thing – the kid should have access to everything in his own (ultra baby-proofed) room. (It’s one of those things that’s important to NSG and felt fine to me, even though I can’t explain it as well as she can so when I tell people they think we’re insane).

Anyway, we started putting him down for naps on his own bed to get him used to it, figuring we were in no rush to get him out of our room but this way it would be a smooth transition. It went so well that we started putting him to sleep in there at night and just bringing him back to our room when he got up to eat. And guess what? Apparently he really, really likes having his own space. It’s going great. He still gets up at night – sometimes once, sometimes twice – but he’s sleeping well, goes down easy, and doesn’t get up any sooner or any more than he does when he’s in the co-sleeper or even in our bed.

We finally pulled his room together, too. It’s not a “nursery,” that’s definitely not our style, but now it looks like a kid-room instead of a random second bedroom plus changing table. My favorite part about it is one of these from Ikea,

 which NSG filled with photos of him and family members and hung on the wall about 2 feet off the floor so he can see it from his bed. Last night when she put him down she showed it to him and talked to him about all the people in the pictures, and he smiled for a solid 5 minutes before he feel asleep.

Oh, the cuteness.

And here’s who else likes the new bed:

 

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And part the last: he ate a potato! We boiled and strained an organic potato within an inch of its’ life, and it actually hit its’ target – assuming the target includes not just the mouth but also the chest, the eyelashes, and the hair. It was a slow and messy and hysterical process, and he didn’t really know what to do with himself but didn’t show any of the not-ready-to-eat signs we were warned about. And afterwards it was, of course, right into the tub for a brisk scrubbing off of the think layer of potato starch that seemed to be covering almost every inch of him.

Next weekend we’ll haul out the food processor and stock up on ice cube trays (thanks for the suggestions, everyone – keep ’em coming!) and start being the Martha freakin’ Stewart of baby food making.

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Finally, and on a totally unrelated note, I have a new post  – Get your own life/Anatomy of a Marriage Ban – up at Lesbian Family dot org about the political train wreck that happened today on the home front.