The Berry's Blog

Merry Christmas One and all.

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:46:00 +0000

Christmas Card out takes for your enjoyment.

The "stage"

Playing with some toys.

I'm too sexy for my shirt

How many more pictures are you going to take mom?

This is my fake smile.

And the winner was:

"Christmas is Ruined"

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:29:00 +0000

This is an "old" saying in my house that dates back to the year my mom tried to change the garland on the Christmas tree (and is tongue in cheek in case that isn't clear.) I think I was in high school but I can't remember for sure, but I came home and saw the tree and was quite disturbed by this change. I joking yelled that Christmas was ruined and stomped off to my room to add dramatic flair. Every year we find another reason to joke how Christmas was ruined that year, one year it was the present that was left after "the last gift" (which is always for KRISTY!) was opened, another year it was the wrong flavor juice in the Christmas morning punch. Anyway, this year "Christmas is ruined" because I can not make any Christmas cookies! Our oven is not going to be replaced in time. I was planning on making cookies at my Mother in Laws house but our plans to go out there today were foiled by the 8 inches of snow that fell here (up to 24 out there) last night. Serious bummer! Christmas cookies are a tradition I have brought with me from "home" and this year it just doesn't look like it will happen. So Mom, for old times sake "Christmas is RUINED!"

Colin is 17 months old

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 03:37:00 +0000

That was a fast and dynamic month. Colin is now 17 months old. We will visit the doctor soon to get Colin's second dose of flu next week. I will update height and weight at that point.

Sleeping: Colin sleeps through the night nearly every night. He may cry out for a few seconds once every couple nights but hasn't required intervention in at least two weeks. This time period includes a short trip to CT to visit Erin and the boys. New location, different crib, no music (I forgot it) and NO HICCUP in sleeping. The boy is amazing. His naps are going well too. His naps are usually just over an hour but can stretch up to 2 hrs (Erin will tell you he took a three hour nap at her house, but that is highly unusual and he was actually in the car seat (in her heated garage) which is his favorite place to sleep.) He is a totally different child when it comes to sleep. We are even able to transfer a sleeping baby into the crib from the car seat without any protest. He has even attached well to his 'puppies'! He found the second puppy and decided that one needed to join him and the little one in the crib too.

Likes:

Airplanes and buses. When we are out and about (which happens less and less in this weather) he loves to point out the airplanes and buses he sees or hears. Often seeing or hearing them before I do making me search for what he is talking about.The boy has some pretty good ears and eyes.
Fire trucks and garbage trucks. Similar to the airplanes and buses but these are usually seen from our windows. Colin will get very excited and demand to be taken to the window to see the truck as soon as he hears it. He was in the tub one night when he heard a fire truck, we thought we could convince him to ignore it but that was not successful. That bath ended rather abruptly. The garbage trucks usually come by in the very early am and take about 5-10 minutes to 'eat' all the garbage from our building so Colin really enjoys watching them.
Swinging. This one started in the summer but I kept forgetting to mention it. The swings are Colin's favorite thing on the playground. Unfortunately we aren't able to go as often as we were last month. After a very mild and warm fall things have gotten cold rather quickly.
Balls. He is all boy here. He loves his balls. Sean pulled out two containers of tennis balls last week that I didn't even know we had and Colin had such a good time throwing them around and then putting them back into the container only to dump them out again. He played with that by himself for a good 20 minutes or more.
Monkeys. All of a sudden Colin loves monkeys, particularly his monkey pj's that Amy gave him for his birthday. EVERY night when I tell him it is "jammy time" he says "ooo ooo ahh ahh, bunkeys?" asking if he can put on his monkey pajamas! His laundry only gets done every other Monday so 12 nights in 14 he gets dissapointed.
The Christmas houses and tree. We put up our Christmas decorations this month. As soon as Colin goes out to the living room after waking up in the morning he requests that the tree and the houses be turned on. Literally within 2 minutes of entering the room, I don't even remember they are there that quickly at that hour.
Simba. This is the dog on our floor, not the Disney character. We can hear Simba (a Pomeranian) bark when he is getting ready to go for a walk, so Colin will start signing and saying "dog, dog, dog" so that we can go out and see the dog. Although when Colin actually gets out there he seems more afraid of the dog than anything. He does like to hold the leash but as little as Simba is, he can still pull Colin over.

Dislikes:

Blanket. Colin really hates blankets. I've tried to put them on him in the stroller or car seat now that it is so cold and he won't have any of it. Luckily we have a 'foot muff' that came with the stroller and he will tolerate that because it doesn't have to actually touch him. At night he won't allow a blanket to cover him either and since he puts himself to sleep now we can't put one on him after he is asleep.
The vacuum. We have actually made great strides with this this month. He will allow me to vacuum but he isn't happy about it. We actually developed a ritual that was all his doing as he taught me what would make him comfortable while the vacuum was one. I will pull it out and we say hello to it. After about 2 or 3 minutes I plug it in and put it in the far side of the living room. Without turning it on, I walk Colin over to the love seat and he will stand planted against it while I return to the vacuum and vacuum the far side of the room. When I start getting too close to him he will let me know he wants to switch sides, so I turn off the vacuum and walk him to the storage ottoman under the window. Then he stands planted against that while I finish vacuuming the LR. After I move into the dining room he will usually pick a book out and read it by the ottoman but he rarely moves beyond the halfway point of the LR until I finish and turn off the machine. Then as I'm winding up the cord he excitedly says bye bye and we put it back in the closet. I suppose this is actually preferable to him loving the vacuum cleaner so much I can't vacuum without his help.

Mashed Potatoes! In addition to his dislike for protein sources, Colin also dislikes mashed potatoes. I can't possibly understand why this is. He acts like you've put sand on his tongue when you give him a spoonful of potatoes. Sean and I are both totally perplexed by this.

New things

Colin has officially entered the two word stage. He regularly says "Hi mama", "Bless You" and "I you" (for I love you). He will also add words after "no" and "more" to let us know what he wants or doesn't want. This has really blasted him out of baby status, going back and re-reading his 16 month post, he seems much older this month.
Shapes. Colin can identify octagons, ovals, circles, and stars. I recently made him some flash cards and a 'slot' ( a box with a hole cut to fit a flash card) and he really enjoys identifying the card and putting it in the slot. This came about when he tried to put the cards in the heater vent (luckily they are too big to fit, although apparently his forks DO fit!), so I decided to re-direct this activity. We also have cards with colors on them but he hasn't clued in on that yet. He can say what color I'm signing but he can't seem to figure out what 'colors' are (I'm hopeful this is just a developmental thing and not a physical issue, I think it is early yet so I'm trying not to be psycho about it.)
Eating with utensils.He has been trying to a while but he just started to really get the hang of it this month. He still isn't great at it but he is very interested in trying. Typically Colin gets a fork or spoon and Sean or I get one. He still allows us to feed him without complaint, although he does like to trade spoons sometimes. You almost get the impression he thinks ours works better than his, when in reality it is the operator.
He started pointing out Mama, Dada and Colin this month. He doesn't actually say his own name yet but when you ask who Colin is he smiles shyly and points to himself. He will sit in his high chair and point to Sean and say Dada and then me and say Mama, over and over again. It is kind of funny.
Colin also readily identifies people in pictures without being asked. Particularly, Grandpa (sounds like papa), Aunt Katie (katie), his cousin Lukas (tis) and my cousin Ashley (ashey). These are some of the pictures on the side of the refrigerator next to his high chair, he is much less interested in the albums I've put together these days. If you want to be on the side of the fridge you have to send me a picture! =) I plan on updating these photos in the new year.

The Dry Skin Solution!

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:29:00 +0000

It's winter, that means most people have dry skin (or maybe just those of us who can't control the heat in their 85 degree apartments.) I'm telling you I found the solution! I recently started usingSafflower Oil
as a moisturizer. Straight up! I just slather a little bit on after a shower and hello hydration. Of course being oil, it takes a little while to absorb but it is SO worth the time, and I only use it once a week it works so well. I swear it is a miracle cure, no more dry itchy skin. I've even been using it on Colin, putting a cap full in his bath water. It has no noticeable scent and there are no questionable ingredients. I just wish I could use it more on my hands, but its a little too greasy for that.

You should know that oil is a breeding ground for bacteria so it is best to put the oil in small container and clean it out really well between re-fills. That way you don't contaminate your 'source' and have to toss the whole bottle. Also, having a bottle of cooking oil in your bathroom might confuse some people. If you try this you have to let me know how it works for you!!

Waiting for a ruleing on BPA from the FDA...

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:46:00 +0000

The FDA should be coming out with a new ruling on BPA any day now...

Here's hoping they do the right thing, and not what the lobbyists want them to do.

This is some good news::
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/79111742.html

The winner is...

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:27:00 +0000

Kristy!

I totally didn't fix this so my sister would win I swear. I even thought about doing it over again because it seemed wrong but this is how it came out so I'm going with it. Here is my screen shot showing the date and time and the random number that I got when I put my info into random.org. I am a little late with this post, you can blame Julie I was responding to an email from her.

Congratulations to Kristy, thanks to everyone else for playing.

Third time is a charm.

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:42:00 +0000

I finally gave in and took Colin to get his hair cut. I've been enjoying the curls as its gotten longer but unfortunately it isn't really curly enough to stay curly after it is dry so it ends up quite frazzly in the back, particularly after he has slept on it. I made him an appointment for this morning at a salon in town that another mom recommended, but when I arrived I was told by (and I'm not judging here simply stating a fact) a transvestite that no one there at that time cut childrens hair. The receptionist had poor English skills so I wasn't too surprised that '18 month old' wasn't understood. I really should make more of an attempt to speak Spanish but the few times I've tried they assume I'm fluent and I'm not. So I left, and I wasn't that upset, I don't think we were their typical clientele. I drove down the street and saw a few more salons but wasn't really sure if I wanted to just walk into a place with a child who isn't good at haircuts without any recommendation or research. Then I saw Josephine's and I remembered reading a lot of recommendations for it on a local list serve. So we went in. Colin did really well. He started to get upset and cry when she put the apron on him because he didn't like it on his neck. However, she walked away and came back with a lollipop and he was sold! (I wish I had thought of this because I have organic HFCS free ones here at the house but I didn't so he ate a traditional lollipop and loved every minute of it.) Once again there was a bit of a language barrier, she asked me if I wanted it medium or large and I had NO idea what that meant, so I said ' a trim'. I did manage to convey that I did NOT want her to use the buzzer on his neck, things were going well and I didn't want to ruin it. It is shorter than I would prefer but I'm not going to get picky, its cut WELL and I won't have to go back for awhile so I'm happy. No more curls, but it wasn't really working curly anyway. Here are some pictures.

Someone is starting to look more like his daddy!

I was really nervous that lollipop was going to get everywhere, but it was nothing compared to the cream cheese from the bagel he willingly traded it for. In case you forgot, this is what he looked like on Friday. It was messy, but it was pretty cute!

Indoor adventures.

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:38:00 +0000

Today it was exceptionally cold, with a 'real feel' temperature close to 10 degrees (very cold for this area). So there was no chance of us venturing out into the cold unnecessarily. Additionally there is a nasty virus being passed between the kids in the neighborhood so I haven't wanted to take Colin to any of our usual kid friendly haunts. If he doesn't come down with it this weekend we are probably in the clear.
Here are some pictures of my attempt to jump through hoops today to keep Colin entertained in between his asking to watch 'time' (baby signing time, or sometimes any TV program) and asking to go bye bye.

The Giraffe tent makes an appearance in our living room!

We had a picnic lunch inside the tent. Although he was a bit distracted and didn't exactly eat well. We also put all the living room pillows inside and spent close to an hour and a half just reading books (not shown). His nap was on the short side so I wasn't surprised that he was willing to relax for a bit.

Later in the afternoon, we set up a tether ball in his bedroom doorway.

As you can see this was a huge hit.

He had fun making it arc in the hallway. Looks like we survived the day!

The Gift of Cute.

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Merry Christmas blog readers, I'm giving one lucky reader a gift! I'm hosting my first give-away!! I recently ordered some Christmas presents on etsy.com from Rain Cloud Studio, they arrived this week and I am so excited to give them to their intended recipients (who may or may not read the blog, I'm not sure, I might be giving a little away but I'm not too concerned.) When I ordered she was having a promotion to buy three get one free so I got one for myself too (that promotion is still running by the way). This one:

I've worn it every day since I got it. Even Colin likes it, although he seems to think its a lion (its close!) These pendants are seriously cute! I wish she had bigger prints I would totally hang them in Colin's room!! In order to spread the word about her studio, she has agreed to give a pendant away to one of my lucky readers! All you need to do is visit her page and pick out which pendant is your favorite. Leave me a comment telling me which one you like and I'll choose a commenter based on a random number generator. If you want a extra chance, tell your friends (using whatever social media form you use, blogger, twitter, facebook) about this giveaway and leave me a comment with a link telling me what you did.

Good Luck! The winner will be chosen on Monday at 8:00pm. Get your comments in before then. (If your an anonymous commenter don't forget to leave your name and e-mail.)

You've probably got time to get some last minute gifts of your own, so get your pendants while she is still running the sale and buy three get one free promotion!!

Blast from the past

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:10:00 +0000

This is one of my favorite songs that I preformed with my high school select choir. This is not the group I performed with (we didn't hold our music or use a cd player! for shame!) but just a random video I found. This song really requires a strong male section so I picked the version based on that. (However former CHSSC members be warned, they kind of butcher the last note.)
Enjoy

A word (or 289) on why I dont use Facebook.

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:40:00 +0000

I have nothing against social media sights, I used to use MySpace and enjoyed it. The reason I can not create a Facebook page is because I am not a responsible internet user, in fact some might say I have an internet addiction (although that is probably an exaggeration husband!) Couple that with the fact that I have more work to do than I have free time and I can't 'afford' to have a Facebook account. I know myself well enough to know I would spend hours sucked into it, neglecting my thesis, husband, child, house etc.

When the time comes that I don't have to sit at my computer for four and a half hours a day (while Colin sleeps) working on my PhD dissertation I will happily get an account (especially since I should theoretically finish before Sean does so I'll have to occupy my time somehow since he will be working.)

So why do I even blog? Doesn't that take time? Yes, yes it does, but I NEED it. Since I 'stay at home' blogging keeps me sane, and feeling connected and I believe makes me a better parent (and as you’ve probably noticed, I don’t proofread that well so it doesn’t really take that much time.) And Twitter? Why is that okay? Eh! As you saw from the comments, no one I 'know' uses twitter I follow a few people, but generally don't care that much so I rarely check what people are saying. AND (and this is a big one) there are no giant backlogs of pictures and comments and conversations to search endlessly. These may be the justifications of an addict but it is what it is. I draw the line at facebook.

New Feature- Twitter

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:55:00 +0000

I've had a twitter account for a while now, but I don't really use it much. Recently after seeing its use in other places I thought I would start posting (sorry tweeting!) there more frequently. Sometimes I have a brief thought that isn't really blog post length, so I've started posting those thoughts on twitter. Since none of you know I have a twitter account I made it so you can read those posts (oops tweets) now in my twitter side bar. Of course, there is the chance that no one really cares about these random thoughts, but no one said you have to read them. I'm guessing my mother will enjoy this new development, and maybe Elaine since she is almost always my first comment I get the impression she checks in frequently! Technically, I should now be able to 'tweet' from my phone but I haven't worked that out yet...

Hope you enjoy the new feature.

Thanksgiving (and beyond) Photos

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Thanksgiving project.

The final result

My little Indian boy is ready for dinner!

Kristeen and Carter came to visit.

Colin likes his new buddy!

Colin and Lukas playing a familiar game.

We took Colin to see the Lights on the Lake. Since we were going less than 2 miles an hour he was allowed to get out of his car seat.

Colin pulled off a tricky manuever and got into Sean's lap while he was pretending to climb into the back seat. He did enjoy the lights, but since it was getting late he was mostly asleep by the time we finished the trail.

November Video.

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:10:00 +0000

I didn't get this video up during the month of November but it was recorded in November so it still counts! I have the LCD screen flipped around so he can see it and watch himself, which is why he is so interested in looking at the camera. Also about a third of the way into it Sadie decided to attack the strap so I almost dropped the camera.
Enjoy!

Colins Animal Sounds from Rebecca Berry on Vimeo.

Oh Joy!

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:14:00 +0000

We arrived home late last night only to find our oven beeping strangely and displaying an error code. We have had to unplug it and are unable to use it until it gets fixed or replaced. (Since we are planning a major kitchen renovation in the next six months or so we are probably just going to replace it, but I wasn't quite ready for this)

Looks like it will be crock pot week at the Berry house.

Colin at Play

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:26:00 +0000

A few pictures from the start of our week.

Colin really enjoys riding on his push walker

He removes all the blocks from the lower compartment so he can put his feet in it. My guess is it makes him feel more stable.

Trying on Mommy's boots!

He has a new fascination with trying to fit IN boxes, he is still working on the idea that some boxes are too small to get into.

He is a little dissapointed.

I just got wheels for my laundry carts so now we can take them all the way to the laundry room as is.. Colin thinks they are great fun and pulled this one all the way back to our door. He loves to help!

End of Story- Sleeping through the Night!

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:36:00 +0000

We began overnight training earlier this week and it couldn't have gone better. The last two nights Colin has woken up once but cried for less than a minute (and only halfheartedly) and put himself back to sleep. He has also started waking up after 6:30 in the morning which is a much better time than 5:00.
Naps have been going well too. In the last few months Colin has started waking up too early from his nap and needing help to go back to sleep. Sometimes I could hold him for a minute and put him back down, other times I couldn't put him down, but he would fall totally asleep on me and not just be snuggling. So today when he woke up at his normal 1hr 10 min mark I waited. He whimpered on and off for about 3 minutes and went back to sleep. He ended up waking up after 2hrs and 45 minutes! Which is almost unheard of for him. He still didn't wake up happy, but he was holding his puppy when I went in to get him! Looks like he at least has a friend, if not a real attachment!! It just gives me something to bring with him from home when we travel to help transition him to new places.
Now we just have to work on ME sleeping through the night. To be honest I feel worse this week (as in more tired) than I have in a while, I'm not sure if that is part of the recovery or what but I certainly have not been sleeping as well as Colin has. I think it will take a while to recover from roughly 20ish months of sleep deprivation.
I expect set backs at some point. Our first big test will come when we travel for Thanksgiving, but since Colin is very used to my parents house I'm optimistic it will only take a little coaxing to keep him on a good path there.
So that is it. End of Story.

Colin is 16 months old.

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:32:00 +0000

Laughing at the cats.

Ta Da! Sweet 16 months! =) No height and weight this month, you'll have to wait until next month when we get his next flu shot (or maybe no one except me cares!) MMR was delayed until after the seasonal flu vaccines are finished so I'm guessing he will get that sometime around 19 months. We still have no intention of giving him a swine flu vaccine.

Sleeping! TA DA! I finally have truly good news to report in this section. Sean and I pulled the plug on the no-cry sleep solution in favor of the some-cry sleep solution and it seems to be working. If you haven't already, you can click back through the posts about that here, and here to learn more. His overnight sleep has improved a lot in the last week and a half. Previously, he would wake up anywhere from 2 to 6 times but averaged about 3 or 4, now he is only getting up once(twice at the worst). Training at nap time didn't go that poorly either. This remains a work in progress. We still have to do overnight training.
During this time I've also been trying to introduce a transitional object or 'lovie'. My mom found some of my childhood Gund puppies that were still in good shape so she cleaned them up and let him play with them. Colin seemed to be showing an interest in the littlest one so I went full speed ahead trying to get him to attach to it. When he didn't chuck it out of the crib (like he did his pants!) on that first night of sleep training I figured we had a shot. I have been trying to hold it behind my head so he can't get to my hair while we are rocking overnight, it worked for awhile but he has leaned how to get around it now. We'll have to see...

Looking more and more like a big boy and less and less like a baby.

Likes:

The cats. Colin really loves the cats right now. They on the other hand aren't so thrilled with him, but are learning to move quicker. Unfortunately for them, their tail is the last thing he can get to and boy does he try. When he connects and holds on, Sean or I have to intervene to release the cat, and nearly always get a warning bite (teeth touch flesh but they don't bite down.) They seem to know he isn't responsible for his actions and don't try to punish him. He doesn't seem to understand the warning signs so I'm sure it won't be long before they bite or scratch him. He will surely deserve it.
Climbing! Last month this was cute, now it is dangerous. I've had to move furniture around so he can't get too high off the ground by going from one thing to another.While we have rules about which things he can climb on and which he can't, we are still working on him following those rules.
Go-go-going. It is the first thing he says in the morning and the last thing he says at night. It is downright exhausting.
Mommy's Make-up bag. It is filled with all sorts of treasures Colin would love to play with! Luckily he still can't figure out how to open anything!
Capping and Uncapping chap stick. Who would have thought a chap stick tube would provide so much entertainment. I recently sacrificed a tube of Nivea chap stick so that he could play with it all the time. It has a nice long cap so it isn't a chocking hazard like most others. The actual product when into the garbage since that was too messy. Now if only I could locate both pieces at the same time!!

Poor guys face look a little beat up right now. The scratch on his nose if from running face first into a dryer. Looks like he got the klutz gene from his mother. On top of that he also has a drool rash

Dislikes:

Getting ready to go-go-go. For a kid who wants to go so badly you would think he would be willing to come put his shoes and coat on. Nope! I have to chase him down if I actually want to get them on.
Brushing his teeth. Somehow this went from one of his favorite activities to something he wants nothing to do with. I'm guessing canines coming in had something to do with it.
The vacuum. He is still not to sure about this! It certainly makes it hard to keep the floors clean.
Meat/beans/eggs: Apparently protein sources are a no-go for Colin. Thank God for peanut butter, mac and cheese and yogurt! Colin is still holding strong to his vegetarian status.
The box is always more fun than the contents at this age! The bulk of the Christmas shopping is happening online this year so our dining room looks like a mail room.

New Things:

Teeth: Sometime last week his upper left canine broke through. He was cranky for maybe two hours. That was the easiest tooth to date.
Counting. About mid month Sean taught Colin to count to three. To be honest, he never says 1, but if you get him started he can say two, three, or more accurately: two, 'REEEE'. He used to put a finger up for one, but he stopped.
Letters. Just last week Colin has started saying letter names. I kept hearing what sounded like different pieces of the alphabet ('c d e', or 'q r s') so I started asking him to repeat the letters after me and he can say many of them but will substitute 'o' or 's' if the letter is hard to say. The fun part is trying to sing with him. He just randomly interjects a letter here or there (typically 's') while you sing the song. Pretty cute. We are working on signing the letters and he does see them written during the ABC signing time but he is not yet identifying them by sight.
Screaming. I had hoped to avoid this particular toddler trait, and I almost thought we had since his expressive language is so good, but just recently when he gets frustrated he starts to scream. Not an ear piercing scream, more of a grunting scream. For example, when we wait in lines at the store and we aren't moving fast enough he starts to scream intermittently. Nothing I can say to him will make him stop for very long.
Helping. This one is just too sweet. Colin has discovered his ability to help out Mom and Dad. His favorite tasks are feeding the cats their morning treats, throwing things into the household garbage and taking the garbage to the garbage shoot outside our door. He also enjoys pushing the cart or stroller and helping with the laundry.
Cleaning up: Along that same line Colin has started picking up his own toys and putting them away. I attribute this solely to his music class. Watching all the other kids help clean up the instruments or scarves and being praised for doing so has spilled over into doing the same thing at home.
Biting. We aren't sure what the purpose of this is at this point. He doesn't bite down hard, but he will occasionally find a piece of exposed flesh on either Sean or I and just take a little nibble. Not out of anger or anything like that, just as if he wants to see what it will feel like. We obviously are discouraging this.
Words and Signs. Colin basically repeats lots of sounds these days and we often hear him say things but aren't sure if he is saying them intentionally or if we are making sense out of nonsense syllables. His babbling is very cute because he has always nodded while he 'talks' as if he is conveying something very important. I have never caught it on video but it charms everyone who sees it.

See it isn't just a messy face!

Sleep Training Update: Napping Edition

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:18:00 +0000

On Saturday we started sleep training naps. So instead of holding and rocking Colin until he falls asleep we read three books, followed by one book in the crib and then I give him kisses, lay him down and walk away. Once again it wasn't as difficult as we (I) expected. He cried for probably a total of five minutes on and off over the next ten. The hardest part was laying him down and reading him that last book when he started opening and closing his legs, pivoting them on his ankles. I have a very similar mannerism that I do (unintentionally) when I get nervous or feel like I'm going to cry. To see him to do a similar movement just made me feel horrible, but of course I know I'm doing the 'right thing' by teaching how to sleep.
Day two: About the same as day one. On and off crying but not longer than 5 minutes total.
Day three: About 5 minutes after I left he started to cry for two minutes, presumably out of frustration that he wasn't asleep and was hoping I would come help.

In summary: Sleep training nap time was no big deal.

Overnights are improving, Colin seems to be only getting up once (maybe twice) overnight these days. Although 'morning' seems to be coming earlier, which is no fun for anyone. Colin is just once again proving that he sleeps like a 'Berry' and since hes sleeping more overnight, doesn't need to sleep until 7am, preferring instead to get up in the 5 o'clock hour. Unfortunately, he falls asleep more like a 'Jones' in that he struggles with it instead of dropping off like a stone into water.

We are thinking about pushing up the overnight training to Wednesday night so that Colin gets a full week to get into the groove before we travel for Thanksgiving. Hopefully that will go just as well as the napping did.

Fall Photos

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:13:00 +0000

Some pictures from our recent trip north.

Colin's current favorite dinner is pasta. Can you tell?

Never to young to help out in the yard.

All this raking is hard work Grandpa!

Now its time for fun! Tossing Colin into the leaf pile.

A happier child you could not find.

Annabelle came over to visit Colin says "Listen, we have to talk about this whole sleeping 10 hours thing, its just unnecessary"

"Sorry schweethawt, I'm spoken for"

Colin shares his pirates booty with his future wife Lily and future sister in law Evelyn. I don't know why arranged marriages aren't more common.

What was I so afraid of?

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:40:00 +0000

I think I've said "why did I waste so much time worrying about that?" about a dozen Colin related issues already. You would think I would learn to relax. That said, I have absolutely no regrets about waiting this long, or actually going through with the plan. I will stand firmly in my believe that this worked because we were all ready. There was no other way I could have done this unless I felt I had exhausted all other options. I have to thank my very patient and understanding husband for giving me the time to do that. It is a very good think he loves me.

In this post I am going to attempt to outline my fears about having Colin cry it out (CIO), in the hope that anyone else out there who shares these fears might be comforted by the fact that they were all totally unfounded.

Fear: That CIO would break my happy baby. Colin isn't now nor was he ever a crier, I can always calm him down and mostly I can do it easily, I was afraid making him CIO would change his overall mood and make him crankier. Fact: So far I have not detected any changes in his overall disposition. He is still a happy kid most of the time, regardless of the fact that he has spent some time crying alone.
Fear: That Colin would resent me for making him CIO. Fact: I can't speak for how he will react to me since I've only been the point man for the first time tonight, but he was not angry with Sean at all the day after the worst night. In fact I think he was in a very good mood that day.
Fear: That Colin would not be 'textbook' and would cry for hours. Everyone feels like there baby is 'special', along those lines I thought Colin would be the worst and longest crier ever. Many people told me it wouldn't be as bad as I thought... I think I may even owe my mother $100 because we made a bet. I was THAT sure. Fact: He never cried for more than 20 mins.
Fear: That he was too young/old to CIO. Depending on when you asked I had a different fear. Fact: I don't know if there is a magic age for CIO, people have to make the choice that works for them and go with it. Like I said, we were all ready, and that is why it worked.
Fear:I was being a bad parent by neglecting my child in his time of need. My gut was screaming that this wasn't the right thing to do, I was helpless but to follow that intuition until I could no longer deny that I was the real problem here. Fact: I think in some extreme cases there may be in a fine line between CIO and neglect or even neglect that people will claim is sleep training but for the most part it is a teaching tool like any other. It has its benefits and its pitfalls but it works or people wouldn't use it. Some people spank some don't, some would call that abuse, others wouldn't. There is a lot of gray area in parenting unfortunately. If your gut says CIO is wrong for you, it probably is, but remain open minded. I may have said I would never do it in the heat of an argument but logically and at least here on the blog I left the door open.
Fear: That letting my child cry would mean I would desensitize myself to him and no longer attend to his needs or wake up when he cried. Fact: Unfortunately I can't really speak to this yet since we are only on day 4 but I'm pretty sure it is also unfounded. I'll come back to this in another month.
Finally, this one is probably the biggie... and something that paralyzed me for a long time. I'm almost afraid to write it down for fear that someone will absorb this fear as there own but I hope that readers will see this for the disordered thinking that it is. (THAT SAID, if you are impressionable and have a young infant you might like to have CIO in the near future you might not want to read anymore) Fear: That my child would die of SIDS and I would have last head him crying. I never really was afraid that CIO would cause Colin to succumb to SIDS, because trust me I looked for a link for a while and never found anything to substantiate that idea. I was afraid he would succumb to SIDS and that I would have wasted precious time torturing the both of us when I could have been holding and loving him. Since Colin is now 15 months old his risk of SIDS is lower so this fear took a back seat which. Fact: I think all parents fear SIDS to some degree. For me that fear really modified my behavior, if someone had told me jumping up and down outside your child's room would decrease his risk of SIDS I would have done it. I put Colin to sleep on his back or side, I bought a chemical free mattress, I made sure air was circulating in his room, and I never put toys in his crib until he was very mobile. I am just very impressionable (in all aspects of life) so I couldn't get past this.

I think what it finally came down to for me was this: Colin flipped out in his car seat a few months ago at nap time since we were trying to time our drive with his nap. He wanted to be held but I couldn't take him out. He had to cry and fuss for a significant amount of time before he finally fell asleep. I figured CIO in his crib couldn't be much different than that. But if he had never flipped out like that, I might never have been able to do this...

The time has come... updated

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:55:00 +0000

...to let non-sleeping babies cry. This is probably one of the hardest decisions Sean and I have made as parents, mostly due to the fact that we didn't really agree. Since Colin was born I felt strongly that I would not/could not let him cry himself to sleep. It just didn't feel right, so I read a lot of books and gravitated toward the 'no-cry' camp because it was in line with they way I was feeling. Colin wasn't ever a crier, I could always soothe him by picking him up and holding him so when I started to get panic-attacks when he would cry, leaving him to cry was NOT an option. I was convinced I could get him to sleep without torturing both of us and making him cry. Honestly, we almost got there, unfortunately our success coincided with Colin's marathon teething and I think he made an association with the pain and going to sleep by himself. A few times while putting him down for a nap he would fight me so I tied to leave him to do it himself but I never made it more than a few minutes.
Over the last couple of months, Colin's sleeping has degraded more and more and it has become clear that he knew he was manipulating us. I knew we had to do something but grabbed onto any excuse not to: he was teething, we were going away that weekend, Sean was going to Chicago.. all valid reasons but excuses none the less.
When I got home from a week upstate Sean said we were doing it. I wanted to give him a week to re-acclimate but we finally decided 'a fresh start' was the better approach, since he would just re-acclimate to our old routine and possibly make it harder. After some discussion we agreed to compromise and follow the plan laid out in Sleeping Through the Night by Jodi Mindell (There is also a Revised Edition.) I liked this plan because she concentrated at the bedtime routine, and allowed you to do your normal overnight routine (for us, picking him up and rocking or walking him back to sleep.) Her theory is that 80% of children who put themselves to sleep will easily put themselves back to sleep. We had found this to be mostly true for Colin since the nights he put himself to sleep he slept much better than the nights we helped him. She also insists on frequent checks to reassure everyone that things were okay. We spent the evening discussing with Colin what was going to happen. I think he is old enough to understand what we are saying but not really old enough to be able to anticipate the fear.
Knowing I was the weak link, Sean asked me to leave the house for the process but I felt that wasn't a very good precedent to set. I couldn't just leave the hard things for him to do, and if Colin was going to go through it, so was I.
I set myself up in the tub so I could run the water loudly if I started to loose control. I got a book to read to help the time pass, and a pad and pen so I could document the event. I tried to put on my 'scientific observer' hat and to be honest I think that mind set helped me cope.
Everyone who I talked to who has been through this said it was never as bad as they thought, and that turned out to be true for us as well. I thought for sure Colin would be way worse than the 'textbook' case of 40 mins of crying on night 1, and hour on night 2 and about 20 mins on night 3. I was prepared for him to go on for at least 2 hours on night 1. Nope! 20 minutes! Night 2, I was again prepared for a marathon thinking we just got lucky with a very tired baby but Colin only cried for 2 minuets! He didn't go right to sleep but he wasn't upset. He even said 'bye bye' to Sean as he was turning off the light.
The author suggests giving him two weeks before repeating the routine overnight if necessary. The first night he woke up twice before getting up for the day around 6:15 and last night he slept straight through until 5:30 (which was probably a little early for him to wake up because he wasn't exactly happy about it but eventually he committed to waking up and was fine.) We will have to wait and see what his new wake up time will be.
Sean wants to do the routine himself again tonight to make sure Colin is solidified in it before I try. We are pretty sure he will give me a bit more trouble, but I was also sure he would cry for a long time so I guess we will see.
We aren't though the woods yet, but so far we have all handled this remarkably well. I have more to say about my fears going in but I'll save that for another post.

*Night Three* - Colin cried when Sean put him in the crib, and all through his last book, but as soon as Sean left the room he was totally quiet. Overnight was a different story. He woke up once at 10:30ish and again at 2:30, although he pretty much refused to be put down until he decided to get up for the day at 6:30.. Sean and I took turns holding him and for the most part he was quiet but as soon as he was laid down he would flip out. He may have had a stomach ache, I gave him pomegranate for the first time and the seeds may be too much for his sensitive tummy.

*Night Four*- Mommy's turn! Unfortunately Sean got called to school for an all hands on deck meeting tonight. We were all a little nervous about me going it alone, but Colin did fine. Again he cried through the book in the crib (which we may have to eliminate it isn't really working as a transition, its more like torture) and he cried on and off for about two minutes after I left but I never had to go in and check on him. So HOORAY! I think we are over the worst (and it wasn't even bad.) The plan is to start nap training this Saturday, and then work on overnight if he isn't sleeping though on his own the week after that.

Introducing..

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:13:00 +0000

Colin's new buddy Carter Fredrick Cool was born to Brian and Kristeen on November 1st 2009 just after 7:00pm. This little guy put Kristeen through the ringer, at a hefty 8lbs 7oz and 21 inches long. To top it all off he was 18 days early! While I think Kristeen and Brain would have preferred a couple more weeks to prepare, Carter really wanted me to be home for the big event. A few weeks ago I put in my request for a Nov 2nd birth so I am being blamed for his early arrival, which is just fine by me.

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys.

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:54:00 +0000

Go ahead and try to tell me he isn't the cutest little cowboy you've ever seen!!! I will call you a LIAR!!! I'm actually glad he was afraid of the puppy dog costume, this turned out WAY cuter.

There is a new sheriff in town boys!
(click for a close up of that face!!)

Happy Halloween!!!

'Colin-ese'

beckyberry05@gmail.com (Becky) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:53:00 +0000

Sometime in September I realized I had un-intentionally posted (at least) one video every month since last October when I posted the first (post-natal) video of Colin. Now that I know that, I'm feeling the pressure to get videos up every month... Here is this months installment.

Colin says a lot of things, but many of his 'words' would be unintelligible to everyone but Sean and I. Here are some of the words Colin says oddly. See below the video for my attempt to spell what he says. Some of the words he signs too, which is how we even knew what he was saying in the first place.

Colin-ese 1 from Rebecca Berry on Vimeo.

Hi- Hi
Water- Ba
Banana- Na (I forgot to have him say milk which is Ma)
Juice- tse
grapes-pts
open -o
up-ap
baby-bebey
baby signing time-baby ti
no-nah
bye bye-buh buh

And here is another video because I remembered some other funny words later. This is by no means all the words he can say (let alone sign), just those that came to mind as words Colin says oddly.

Colin-ese 2 from Rebecca Berry on Vimeo.

Thank you- dih dih (not to be confused with dada)
shoes- chtoose
socks- cocks
garbage- bage (not to be confused with bus)
Bus- bus
train-tete

Now you too can understand what Colin is saying!!