Daily Baby Essentials -6+ Months Update

Back when Remington was 2 months old, I posted about items we use on a daily basis for a baby. Now, that I've had more time with a baby 24/7, here is an updated list.

1. Bottles- Remington's primary food is still formula. Everything I've read says that it should be until about a year old. He does eat baby food and/or rice cereal at least once a day.

2. Pacifier- We still use them quite a bit. Remington likes to pull it out of his month and play, but he still likes to fall asleep with one. We also continue to use the Wubbanubs, especially in the car. They're easier to find when he throws it.

3. Highchair- A must when you start feeding baby food.

4. Bib- We need more, but good when feeding.

5. Cloth diapers/burp rags- Great for cleaning up baby drool (which gets worse with teething).

6. Links- Remington loves swinging, grabbing, and chewing on these things.

7. Diaper trash can with lid- We never did get a Diaper genie (why waste the money on a glorified trash can?), but yuck... a lid to close off the smell is a must.

8. Sleep and Play pajamas- Now that it's getting hotter, we're finding thin pajamas for Remington to wear to sleep. I think we're going to start just using onsies though. In my opinion, it's better if he's too cold than too hot (SIDs and all..).

9. Excersauser- Remington loves it. It's also a good place to put him when you have to run to the door or bathroom or whatever. It keeps him contained. This will really be useful as he's starting to try to crawl.

10. Books- I have so many, but I want to make sure Remington is read to constantly and grows up to love books. His favorite book is "That's Not My Dragon...". The whole "That's Not My..." series is amazing. Remington has two more and he loves them too. The pages seem a bit thicker than other board books so he can grab them easier. He also likes the touch and feel feature of those books.

11. Diapers, Wipes, Formula, Clothes, Crib, Carseat- These basics are still in use. Right now, Remington is wearing size 3 diapers. He mostly wears 6-9 month clothes, but can still fit in some 3-6 month stuff.

12. Num Starter Sippy Cup- This is a great first sippy cup. The spout is made of the same stuff as bottle nipples. It's slit on two sides, and I have yet to see it leak. It also has handles on two sides. Remington was able to figure out how to use it right away. He loves drinking apple juice from it.

13. 6 month toys- I know when I look through the toys or baby aisle I wonder what toys I can start buying for a baby. Almost all the toys seem to start 6 months, there's hardly anything for younger than that. This is mostly due to development. Babies younger than 6 months aren't really going to play with toys anyway, and they don't have the memory to pick up something they dropped. Now that Remington is old enough, I'm excited for toy shopping. I'm sure I'll be eating my words when he's like 6 years old... We haven't really bought him anything yet, we'll leave that to 'Crazy Uncle Kyle', :).  Of the toys we do have, the following are ones Remington enjoys: Fisher Price Amazing Animals Spinnin' Around Musical Zoo. Fisher Price Stack 'n Surprise Blocks Songs 'n Smiles Sillytown. Fisher Price Little Superstar Classical Stacker. Fisher Price Precious Planet Rattle Link Pack.

I think that's everything. Not a lot has changed, other than not needing things we used to. It's so much easier since he's able to sit on his own. Hope this again helps someone.

Are You Ready to be a Mom?

I found this the other day on another blog. It's hilarious and sadly true. I haven't experienced some of these first hand yet, but working with preschoolers and elementary school kids has shown me a glimpse. Personally 2nd and 3rd grade seem to be the worse. I'm not looking forward to Remington being that age.
 
ARE YOU READY FOR MOTHERHOOD?

Lesson 1:
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the newspaper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2:
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their.
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breast feeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior. Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3:
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel.
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4:
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out.
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favourite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5:
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6:
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7:
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys.

Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8:
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9:
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10:
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11:
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.


Hope you enjoyed! Mom's to be - if you find this scary... here's the truth of it. All of the above "challenges" and "annoyances" are wiped out within seconds by any of the following:
(1) One big smile
(2) A giggle
(3) A hug or kiss
(4) An "I love you Mommy" 
etc.

You Capture:Depth of Field

I love technical photo challenges, so I was up for this one from You Capture at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

This week is Depth of Field: "depth of field (DOF) is the portion of a scene that appears acceptably sharp in the image. Although a lens can precisely focus at only one distance, the decrease in sharpness is gradual on each side of the focused distance, so that within the DOF, the unsharpness is imperceptible under normal viewing conditions."

Here are some pictures of a toy train we picked up at a garage sale for Remington last weekend. 

 Here's another slight bit of DOF. This first one focused on Landon, the second one on Remington.  Mostly I just love these pictures!

And finally, some flower pictures.

For more depth of field examples, click below.

3 Year Anniversary

3 Years ago, Landon and I were married. It was a great wedding and it's been a great marriage. I seriously love him more now than I even did that day. A lot has changed this last year with the addition of Remington. It's just made everything greater. Watching Landon with Remington is amazing, he is a great dad. Here are some pictures of our wedding.

May 19th, 2007
Lisa and Landon

Parade

I took Remington to his first parade yesterday. Our town has a day where all the schools in the country get off and are able to go to a carnival and parade. Remington did pretty well. He didn't cry at any sirens and was happy being held or sitting in his stroller.

A Firetruck

Flyover

The crowd

Bagpipes

Pictures

I've been a blog slacker recently. Work is super busy as we head toward the end of the year, and I've been ultra stressed. So, enjoy some pictures for now. I'm sure I'll be back up and blogging weekly after May.

He's standing!

Mother's Day

Meeting my brother's in laws.

6 Months

Remington turned 6 months old Thursday (April 29th). I can't believe it's already been half a year. He just keeps getting cuter and cuter!

Definition of Developmental milestones record - 6 months:

This article describes the skills and growth targets for 6-month-old infants.

Physical and motor skill markers:

• Able to hold almost all weight when supported in a standing position - He's been doing this really well for a couple weeks now.
• Able to transfer objects from one hand to the other - Yes, but he usually just holds things with both hands so he can chew on what ever he has.
• Able to lift chest and head while on stomach, holding the weight on hands (often occurs by 4 months)- He's been doing this since 4 months.
• Able to pick up a dropped object- Yep
• Able to roll from back to stomach- Actually no. He still isn't rolling over. I'm going to ask the doctor about it at his appointment on Monday.
• Able to sit in a high chair with a straight back- Yes, see the pictures I took. He's been able to sit since just shortly after 5 months.
• Able to sit on the floor with lower back support- He's able to sit for quite a while unsupported.
• Beginning of teething- Oh yeah, and it sucks. He gets so cranky and it's hard to comfort him.
• Increased drooling- Yes, and it's gross.
• Should be able to sleep 6 - 8 hour stretches at night- Thank goodness! He's been seeping through the night since 3 months! It's awesome!
• Should have doubled birth weight (birth weight often doubles by 4 months, and it would be cause for concern if this hasn't happened by 6 months)- He did by 4months, luckily. We had problems with weight gain earlier. I'm curious to see what he weighs now.

 

Sensory and cognitive markers:

• Begins to fear strangers - Not yet, but he sometimes just looks wearily at people. But, other times, he'll smile.
• Begins to imitate actions- He sometimes imitates sounds. I haven't really noticed actions.
• Begins to realize that if an object is dropped, it is still there and just needs to be picked up- Yes. I knew to look for this milestone, and he's mostly got it down.
• Can locate sounds not made directly at the ear level- Yeah, mostly. Sometimes he looks around and then finds it.
• Enjoys hearing own voice- Probably, he screams enough, lol.
• Makes sounds (vocalizes) to mirror and toys- Yes.
• Makes sounds resembling one-syllable words (example: da-da, ba-ba)- Not yet, but he'll get there.
• Prefers more complex sounds- Hmm, I guess. It's hard to tell.
• Recognizes parents- Oh yeah. He always smiles when we come in the room if we've been gone.
• Starts to imitate sounds- A little bit
• Vision is between 20/60 and 20/40- Who knows, but with m horrible eyesight, he'll probably need glasses eventually.

Play recommendations:

• Read, sing, and talk to your child- We read and talk to him all the time. Landon occasionally sings silly songs for him.
• Imitate words such as "mama" to help baby learn language- Not too much, we mostly use adult words.
• Play peek-a-boo- Once or twice.
• Provide an unbreakable mirror- Yep.
• Provide large, bright-colored toys that make noise or have moving parts (avoid toys with small parts)- He has plenty.
• Provide paper to tear- Haven't done this. Don't really want to start a habit, :)
• Speak clearly- Yes.
• Start naming parts of the body and the environment- Sometimes.
• Use body movements and actions to teach language- I want to start baby signs in a bit.
• Use the word "no" infrequently- Yep.