Just in time for his six months, William started a new behavior: blowing bubbles accompanied by strings of babbles often starting with the letter b. While messy, it was adorable and fun to capture in photos.
Category: Personal
Lunch with Shauna
It’s tough sometimes getting schedules together. I hadn’t seen Shauna since the week of William’s birth even though we had discussed getting together often. Finally, both our schedules opened up so that we could meet, with William in tow.
On Fridays We Speak Spanish
William loves new places and experiences. I’ve jokingly called his trips to see Maribel his Disneyland as there are always so many fun activities for him as well as at least one other boy, usually two around. In addition to having fun he also is learning, especially as we started a new tradition a month ago, with Fridays being Spanish only days.
Maribel is a native Spanish speaker, whereas I speak it only a little (un poco). Most of the Spanish I know is from high school, though it occurred to me yesterday that I can have Siri help me with translations. I had the program translate this for me as William seemed a bit confused to be put in his stroller.
Maribel loves speaking to him in Spanish. One of the other children that she watches speaks it to her a lot also. He looks at Maribel so intently when she speaks to him in English or Spanish. I’ve read that by six months, babies brains have developed to be more receptive to the language or languages they hear often.
Here she is trying to sing to him and show him how to dance a bit as well.
He couldn’t really decide if he should look at her or me, his mom who is always photographing him.
With Spanish only Fridays, he’s getting a lot of practice. Today Matt worked late, so I had to pick him up and he got even more hours of Spanish immersion. With lots of Spanish on Friday and her switching between English and Spanish both on Wednesdays and Thursdays, he gets a lot of practice from a native Speaker. Candy and I speak to him a bit in Spanish. Hopefully he enjoys it as entertainment and I way to learn.
~ Danielle
Learning Through Play
While William is several years away from attending school, right now is one of the most important times in his life for learning. Babies are eager to explore the world and love new experiences. A lot of their learning is through play.
Portrait Session at Church
A few months ago my church had started advertising photo sessions to put new members in the directory. We were invited to come, however, all the sessions were at hours that I was working. Bonnie really wanted me to be able to be included, so she made sure there were evening hours. The session start time was a bit after William’s bedtime, however, so I wasn’t sure how cranky he’d be.
Car Seat Adjustments at Church Nursery
When going places, I have to work backwards to figure out how much time I’ll need to get there on time with William. I can’t predict if he’ll be fussy or need a diaper change or something else from home, so I try to blanket in some extra time. Today took a bit longer to get out of the house, yet traffic was surprisingly light, so in the end I had plenty of time to get William to the church nursery and be on time for service.
The Day After Staying Up Too Late
After a night in which William and I both stayed up later than normal, I had a theory that William would wake up less during the night to breastfeed and that he’d sleep in longer. While I was wrong on both counts, both he and I ended up taking long naps in the afternoon today.
Up Way Past His Bedtime
I’ve wondered where the phrase “slept like a baby” came from. Contrary to whoever coined it, babies often don’t sleep for long periods of time without waking up, and they get overtired easily and will fuss and cry instead of sleeping as they don’t realize they are so tired and need to sleep. William’s bedtime is technically around 7:30 or so, which gives me time to hang with him a bit then try to convince him to sleep. Tonight, he was convinced he wasn’t going to do so.
Table Volunteering at Church with William
One of the things I love about my church is the many opportunities to volunteer. Even as a busy new mom, I’ve found ways to continue to volunteer. The Outreach committee needed a volunteer today to man the Crop Walk sign up station at the after service social hour. After confirming that I could do so with William with me (as the nursery was closed at that time), I signed up. I’d joked that depending on his needs I might have to use only one hand for part of the time and that’s what happened.
Sometimes William sleeps right through church service in the nursery. Other times he’s very alert and engaged in playing with the staff. When he’s like this Matt and I sometimes refer to him by the nickname Wide Awake Bear.
I had thought perhaps he would sleep this time, yet he didn’t even take a small nap. Instead he happily played with his ball and engaged with the teachers and other boy there.
So the nursery was staffed today by the B set of teachers, ladies who are unable to stay later after service, I had to sneak out of church before the last hymn and pick up William and his things. I was glad I had practiced with the Baby Bjorn at the baby shower the day before. He happily was close to me while we talked to people about signing up for the walk or making an open donation to the charity.
William enjoyed being approached by many people. Since he’s in nursery for most services from beginning to end, he got to hang out with people he has rarely seen, or in some cases hadn’t met.
Even with him there, I was still able to take in three donation checks and get one walker signed up. It would have been easier had I been alone, yet, it was definitely more fun for me and him for him to be there.
~ Danielle
Outdoor Baby Shower for Our Neighbors
Today Matt, William and I went to the first outdoor baby shower we’d ever been to for our upstairs neighbors, Todd and Yuka. It’s been fun seeing Yuka’s bump grow over the last few months. As the guests knew their baby in utero is a boy, many people wore blue to shower including Matt and I, and even William started out with an outfit with blue stripes in it though we had to change him to another one midway through the party.
Over 40 First Time Mom 