jeremy&jethro

Food Hits, Food Misses

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We’ve been trying to introduce Jethro to a variety of food tastes and textures. So far, the hits are banana, rice, wheat, and mixed vegetables. He especially loves the sweet, fragrant mix of banana cereal and milk!

The other menu choices were not so well-received though.  We tried feeding him Gerber green beans and the chicken and veggies dinner. As you can see in these series of photos, this is what he thinks of the work of the chefs at Gerber.

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Shiny Happy Baby

The grin that’s worth a thousand words.

This is Jethro at around 6AM, happy as a hamster, grinning at the sound of my voice. What a great sight to wake up to, huh?

This kid seems to be a morning person; he loves to start the day frolicking. You can see his crib literally shaking as though there was a herd of elephants in there. Sometimes I would keep quiet, not let on that I was also awake, just to see what he would do. What a ruckus! I peep in and there he is, rolling back and forth, kicking at the covers, throwing pillows this way and that. At 6 in the morning.

When at last he sees me, he lets out a gurgle or a tiny shriek, so pleased he is that I’m there to pick him up for his morning neck nuzzle. Ah, what a warm, cuddly, fragrant bundle of baby this is! Yum yum yum.

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Tooth Guy

I remember Jeremy teething, suffering through that painful spurting of the first set of enamels through gums. He lost his appetite for solids and took to his bottle like an infant. He would slobber what seemed like copious amounts of drool, and get very very cranky. Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night and cry from the itchy pain. What an aggravation. How I wished I could take the pain away.

But, in the same vein, I remember how cute he looked with just his two lower front teeth in an impish grin. Very goofy.

It always seemed to me that he couldn’t stop grinning.

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The New Chewable

Here’s a new favorite toy for a drooling, soon to be teething baby: a strange hybrid of lizard, alligator, and wacky salamander.

It’s soft and chewy, with a rattle filled with colorful beads on one end, a thin yellow tongue on the other. Plus, it squeaks in the middle. Jethro loves it so, he can play for minutes on end with it, sometimes content to just stare at the bright colors. More often than not though, he likes to bite or chomp down on it, or best of all, drown it in drool.

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Milk Dreaming

Proof that Jethro has appetite to burn:  sleep feeding!

I love how he would finish the last bit of milk from his 4-ounce bottle, and sometimes ask for more. Or how he would put off sleeping until he’s done with feeding.

Just this weekend, I bought two new 8-oz. bottles for him, since the little bottles are fast becoming obsolete. Jethro barely got through the 6-oz. feeds before we transitioned him to 8-oz. batches. Less feeds to make, and he finishes them in no time at all.

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In Long Pants

My, don't they grow up so fast!

I have been putting off that rite of passage of dressing Jeremy in long pants for quite some time now. I wanted him to remain a baby at least, clothes-wise. Ah, but in life, the inevitable has a way of asserting itself. His Lola May sent us another one of her packages, and among the lot was a pair of khakis with Jeremy's name on it.

It was a perfect fit. So here he is at last, in long pants. But I needn't have fretted, he's still a baby after all—that bottle is a dead giveaway.

Lookit That Smile!

Click on Mickey to see an even bigger pic.

Look at that smile. Jeremy, at age two, is quite the charmer. He doesn’t know it yet, but being cute goes a long way towards getting what you want.

One time while I was trying to get him to take a nap, he kept distracting me with smiles and all sorts of mischief. He would half-close his eyes and pretend to be asleep, then when I would look at him in the face he would burst out laughing. Before I knew it, two hours have gone by and all we did was horse around, nap time forgotten.

There was that time also when we were all at our wit’s end telling him to keep off the refrigerator. He was constantly opening it and pretending to be choosing something to take out. After about fifty thousand instances of chasing after him to the kitchen, I was exhausted. I plopped down on a chair and was soon absorbed in watching TV.

For a full five minutes there was silence, then I heard a soft chuckle behind me. I turned to see a grinning Jeremy, eyes twinkling. Grasped tightly in both hands was the bottle of wine we were chilling for New Year’s. He was so proud of himself, pleased that he was able to lug that bottle from the kitchen fridge, down two steps of stairs, and into the living room where I was sitting. It’s a good thing that I do not startle easily.

How can you scold such a charming mug?  I tell you this boy has a killer smile.

 

Just Say No

You know you’ve been doing too much rule reinforcing with your kid when he turns around and flings the rule back at you.

One night, exhausted and just about ready to climb into bed, I was rushing to get Jeremy to settle down and prepare to go to sleep. As usual he was all over the room, opening closets, fiddling with doorknobs, rearranging things.

I was telling him “Jeremy, no no no no no” and wagging my finger to indicate that no, he is absolutely not to touch the electric fan.

I may have been saying no a few times too many that night since all of a sudden, Jeremy turns around and in a perfect, dead-pan imitation of me, wags his finger and says, “Mama, no no no no no.”

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Boy In The Bath

Bath time for baby Jethro is a happy experience. It’s always a let’s grab the faucet, kick everything in sight, and drench everyone while we’re at it, event.

I used to bathe him in a tiny little basin when he was just days old. Into the third or fourth week though, he was crowding the basin, spilling water rather than getting clean.

We tried to break him into using Jeremy’s blue plastic bathtub, but no, it was too much trouble to do so. Jethro kept wiggling and kicking, and the tub was pushed around in so many directions it made me dizzy.

So now we soak Jethro in the sink! There he is, happy to be drenched in cool water and be rid of baby grime. Afterwards, he is bundled snugly in his towel (oooh) and kissed to distraction (yummy baby smell!). I especially love the warm, sweet scent of the folds of his chubby, chubby neck. 

 

Into The Bathrobe!

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Well, I guess I've lost out on The Great Bathrobe Race.

I've long wanted to get Jeremy into a bathrobe, just because those things look so well, hmm... cute. And here he is now! Lola Nanay got him into this blue terry cloth and Lolo Tatay took the picture.  This was after his evening bath, that's why he looks so guapo, very fresh and yummy-smelling. Even in bare feet.

Doesn't he look proud of himself? Or does that smile means he's plotting some new mischief?

Oh, I so miss this boy.