Breasfeeding nostolgia

I'm planning on weaning Ho'ea from breast feeding and have just started the process today.  He is only 9 months old. I'm doing it earlier than usual because in a little over 1 month, I will be going on a 4 day trip without him for a hula competition and I know that I will not have the time (or the desire) to be pumping every three hours while away.  Not to mention, he is very dependent upon the breast at night, and to help alleviate the stress on his sitter (my mom), it would be best if he was already weaned before then.

BUT, I'm feeling very sad and reluctant that I'm going to be stopping the breast feeding.  Granted, there will be many benefits to stopping, all of which I'm looking forward to, but I can't help but feel sad that this will likely be the last time I'll be breast feeding....ever.  I don't think we have it in us to have another baby.  Our hands are so full with the two boys, I could not imagine another one.  Neither could we financially afford it as well.  So with that said, Ho'ea will very likely be our last.  And everything I do with him, will be...the last time...sigh.

Do I have a lifetime of nostolgia associated with all of Ho'ea's milestones to look forward to? (the last child to breast feed, the last child to go to school, the last child to graduate, the last child to go to college...etc.).

Haven't posted in a photo in a while.  Here is a picture of the boys, taken yesterday, Ho'ea age 9 mos. and Kaua age 2 (almost 2.5).  We celebrated DH's birthday by staying at a hotel that had a really cool kids pool area.  The kids had sooo much fun!

Preschool for lateborn boys?

We've registered Kaua for preschool for the 2012-2013 academic school year! I'm still not sure if we're doing the right thing, but my gut is telling me I am. We toured a few (ok just two) preschools, and the two (ok, really top 1) that I would like to send him to do NOT take children under three. Since kaua was late born (Nov.27), he wont be turning three till practically the very end of the year. And because of that, he wont be able to enter kindergarten (according to the state DOE) until he is already 5 (and will be turning 6 that year...crazy yeah?)

So technically, he shouldn't be starting school until 2013-2014...but come on...he'll be almost 4 by that time, and he will be SOOOOOO bored stuck at home with Gigi and Papa (great grandparents). His cousin, who turned 3 in January of this year, will be going to preschool, so he's losing his playmate. His brother, the wonderful Ho'ea, will be there, but yah...so been there and done that, kaua is moving on (actually they adore each other, but that's not the point).

Anyways, I think kaua is ready for school. He is fairly social (but does get shy sometimes) and LOVEs to play. He is so active that if he is not stimulated, he can get into trouble (aren't they all like that?...actually, no, his girl cousin is very well behaved...unlike others.....aka Kaua). My only concern for Kaua starting school is that he is not fully potty trained. Oh, trust me, we're working on it....everyday, several times a day, and yah, it is a challenge. He does go, and often, but still, he goes in his diaper as well. We've had friends suggest to take away the diaper/pull up, and i tried that today, and we had two accidents. I will keep trying of course, because, hello, he starts school in four months!!! Yikes.

But we chose this preschool because the director specifically told us on numerous occasions that they would help work with him (ie. take him every hour, etc). Their take home handbook did freak me out b/c it said that more than 4 accidents a week could result in removal from the school.

Other good points about the school, it is literally 3 minutes away from home and my work; student to teacher ratio is great, 28 kids, 5 teachers, tuition is ok - $600/mo. includes breakfast, snacks and all drinks (lunch is add'l $3/day or pack your own), strict no juice or candy/chocolate policy, and great curriculum/social development focus - not sure what the technical term is called (but 5 of their 6 six kids who applied for THE private elementary school to get into here, were accepted), this is a christian school (yay, GOD!), and the director was very friendly and her personality clicked with mine.

The cons - I think, I dont know, I'm a newbie at this - lunch is not included in the tuition, their lower playground with plastic play slide was under rennovations (and didn't look like it had an end date in sight), the class room didn't look brand new or very high tech, other teachers didn't appear very warm (but I didn't speak with any of them), Kaua cried when he thought I left him - I went into the class room to register him and left him outside and in about 5 minutes he started crying for me (shocker! this boy usually could care less if he ran away from me at the mall or in a crowd!), Kaua may not be potty trained in time and if he is not ready, we had to pay a NONREFUNDABLE $300 registration fee (which gets applied for school supplies/snacks etc for the school year), the fee, however, can be applied to the following year if he does go.

Anyways, this is a big deal for us...sending Kaua to preschool, especially because he is a late born boy. The director said based on watching him interact with the other children she thought he was definitely ready. I told her my concerns about his late birthday and lack of being fully potty trained yet and she reassured me that it all depends upon the child, and for her, the biggest concern was weather he could be socially ready. She explained that they have had 2 and 1/2 year olds before and pointed out some kids who had also started "early" and would therefore be three year preschoolers. She even said her son attended and he had started when he was two as well.

We've got four months to get Kaua prepped. Going to really start focusing on getting him potty trained, using his "words", enunciation, and dressing himself. I hope we're not pushing him to quickly...I dont think we are, but i want to be aware of the possibility. Feedback? similar experiences? Advice?

More on little brother Ho'ea in another post. (He's doing good --- still has eczema though, but he does have 8 teeth!)

He Eats!

Within the past few days the eating situation with Kaua has totally changed. He now eats without world war III breaking out between him and me. It's probably a combination of me figuring out what foods he likes and him actually wanting more food. He still generally only likes big people food and will occasionally let me slip in some baby food if its fruits or veggies. He does not like baby foods with the meats in it. I'm starting to be able to recognize when he wants more food. The other day, I gave him pastele and gandule rice and he couldn't get enough of it. He also has now figured out when I'm eating and will come up to me at any time of the day to get a bite of whatever it is I'm eating. It's nice to see him eat, but at the same time, he seems to always want to be eating. I've found that instead of shoving food in his face, I have to hide food when I'm eating it because he'll want to eat even after he's already had a meal!

The other cool thing Kaua does, which he just started today, but we've been working on getting him to do for a while --- he waves bye-bye!! =)

The Way He Looks At Me

I wrote this post on august 10 but am only getting a chance to post it now:

I just had to record these moments. Last night as I was playing with Kaua, I realized (and actually reveled in) the fact that Kaua loves and adores me so much. His face just lights up everytime I see him after being away from him. Usually, he whines for me if I dont come to him after he has seen me or heard me, but when I go straight to him and tell him hello and give him some love and attention, he just glows. He gives me the hugest goofiest smiles, laughs contagiously and is genuinely super excited to see me. (Think of how a puppy gets when he sees his master). And when I continue to shower him with love, attention and affection, that boy shines. He'll keep on playing, but every now and then, he'll look up at me to make sure he has my attention and smiles everytime I look at him, no matter what. He loves when we play together, you can just tell he basks in my affection. It's truly an amazing feeling, to be this little man's whole world. It makes you feel good inside, feel protective, feel like you just want to do everything to continue being this little man's whole world. So as we played together last night, I really paid attention to him and just enjoyed being in his company without the distraction of conversations with other people or watching the television or thinking of other things like house work. I thought, I could not imagine having another child, because how could I divide my attention and love between two? Obviously, since I have never been in such a situation, I cannot conceive of the idea, just as before I had Kaua, I had no idea what being a parent to him would be like. But I'm sure I'll find space in my heart for two children. (No, I'm not pregnant, haven't even seen AF yet and I'm guessing I wont until I stop BFing). It's amazing to be "a mommy" and I am reminded again at how blessed I am and am ever so grateful to have this opportunity.

Kaua is 8.5 months old now. He has three teeth which are all on the bottom and still just growing in. He crawls fairly well, but still not quite on his knees, more of an army crawl. He loves to be pulled to a standing position but cannot pull himself to standing position yet. He can get from sitting to crawling, but hasn't mastered getting from crawling position back to sitting. I've seen him get in the position on his own a couple times, but not how he's done it (like he'll be sitting up in his crib when I get him). He prefers people food over baby food (I'm guessing its the texture of baby food he doesn't care for), so he eats a lot of cereal (cheerios), rice, long rice, noodles, crackers and bread with baby food mixed in. I need to get him that mesh bag so we can put fruits and veggies in it. He can feed himself crackers and cereal but has not developed his pincer grasp, so watching him actually get the food into his mouth, which is hit or miss, is quite hilarious. I keep reminding myself to record this so as not to forget it. He says mama and dada but you can tell he doesn't know that it refers to us, and he defintely does not say it on command. I just tried to start teaching him to wave hi and bye last night and he didn't get it, but you can tell that he's a little more interested in doing what I'm doing, so I'm sure he'll get the hang of it in a month or two. He had another cold recently so his nose is running and as most kids do, he hates when I wipe his nose. He still nurses to sleep and gets up to nurse 2 or 3 times a night. He still sleeps with us in bed, although he does start out in his crib, but then I bring him to our bed when he gets up for the first feeding, because I'm too lazy to sit up and nurse or bring him back to his crib when he's done (usually because I fall asleep when he nurses too). He's still an early riser (between 6am and 7am), but on the occasionaly day, he'll sleep till after 7am. Kaua loves girls and will tend to like certain girls over others, not sure why (but usually he'll love the girls who are good with kids). Kaua laughs and plays often and still loves to bang on things with toys, crinkle paper and generally do anything that makes noise. He still doesn't appear to have any interest in t.v. when I put on pbs kids shows for him. He has certain areas where he knows are off limits in the house (like under a side table where there are electrical cords/outlets) and he always tries to crawl there first! (Baby proofing!!) He is clearly bigger for his age, more so in height than weight. His next pediatrician appointment is at the end of this month. We start a traveling preschool next week (2x a week, two hours each time) and I'm excited to see what's in store for him there.

8 month old

I've got an 8 month old son today!! Wow how time flies! Gonna do a quickie post just to update:

What's new on the 8 month old agenda? well we've got an army crawler (not really new), we've got a major 'opihi (he whines whenever mommy is out of sight) (I'm chalking this up to me being a stay at home mom, so he's not used to being apart from me), we've got a child who loves to eat finger foods more than baby food, but is still really finicky with most foods, he likes breads, cheerios, rice and rice noodles, he hates cheese (threw up both times I offered it to him), he is picky with which strangers he'll go too, he appears to like some more than others and usually only girls, he wears clothing that is made for 12 month olds or older, he weighs 20 pounds, loves to make noises by banging things together or crackling paper or plastic bags, loves to be put in a standing position and bouncing (we chalk this up to his bouncer), loves to be in water but has recently started to dislike baths, still sleeps with us in bed for most of the night which is driving us/me crazy (I really need to figure out how to ween him from this bad habit, or actually how to ween myself from this bad habit), still breastfeeding him, but am supplementing with formula at least 1x a day b/c my milk supply does not seem adequate for him, he is a distracted nurser and will stop and relatch himself fairly frequently during nursing sessions, he still needs to nurse to fall asleep (but I'm working on phasing this out without a pacifier, which he still wont accept), he literally SCREAMS in a very high pitch whenever he is unhappy and even sometimes when he is happy, we've switched from his infant carseat stroller to the fancy schmancy umbrella stroller (He loves being upright more), he is more handsome than ever, and the best thing in both my and DH life (hands down).

i start a new temp. job tomorrow for 3-4 weeks. Good company, decent pay, easy/mundane job, am hoping this leads to a new career and/or a permanent future job. Dh and I are hoping to move out and are looking for a place to rent.

two teets and an army crawler

Kaua now has two teeth (two teets, which is what I've been calling them) poking through! His bottom two teeth are coming in. Still not big enough to really see when he smiles, but when they are, I'm posting a picture of his new "toothy" grin. (If I can find my camera that is! Ugh!!)

He is also now a fairly efficient army crawler. I think that crawling really is coming around the corner. I better get ready, because when I put him down, he wont stay put for long. For instance, I usully put him down when I'm in the kitchen, and when I turned my back on him, he started crawling towards an outlet socket. That really made me realize that baby proofing is definitely in store. Yikes, I haven't read up on these things and really need to get prepared!

Gummy bear no more!

So yesterday, my little guy did this:

He stood up on his own. He's still not crawling (but trying really hard to army crawl!), but he's very very into standing up. So sometimes, I'll prop him up on the couch so he can watch the "action" in the kitchen. He's been feeling really sturdy lately, so I decided to let him go and he was able to balance himself standing up for a short time. I made DH run to get the camera to capture the moment. (Of course I'm there to catch him should he fall, hence my hand in the picture.)

And TODAY, my little gummy bear is no longer.......his first tooth is just barely poking through! I've been feeling his gums for what seems like months now, expecting a tooth and nothing. I was beginning to think he'd be a gummy bear for life. But nope, this morning, I discovered a change in his gums. We've got a little tooth! You can barely see it (when you get a very short lived glimpse into Kaua's mouth), but it's coming! I'm excited, but at the same time nostolgic. This is the end of an era. I wonder if his whole life will be like this....excited that he's making it to the next milestone, but nostoligc that my little boy is growing up. I'm a little surprised he's toothing. He didn't seem more fussy than normal, but then again, when I think about it, he has been a little whiny lately. I had just chalked it up to him becoming more needy of me. Maybe it was the tooth?

Summer is going well. We're having TONS of fun doing outdoor activities. Going to the beach or the pool on a weekly basis at least. Lotsa travel plans too. We already did one short trip and are doing two more over the next month interisland. Still on the job hunt, but am not letting that damper our fun!

And now for more cutie patootie photos:

6 mos old, sitting up, & the ocean

Kaua turned six months old on Thursday, May 27. Can you believe it? He is half a year old, and half way to turning 1 year old. OMG, I have so much planning to do for his birthday party!!

But the coolest news is 3 days later, on May 30, he sat up on his own for the first time! Well, we had been working on it for about 1 week now. He'd sit up, but only for a few seconds at a time before toppling over. But on that day, I sat him up and stood behind him to catch him, and he didn't fall...well, not for very long. I told DH to come help me watch him while I grabbed the camera and video camera and recorded away. He lasted about 20 something seconds before listing to the side! That's awesome!

I know that crawling is just a few days if not a couple weeks away now. He is already pulling himself around while on his tummy, sort of inching his way towards something, and he sure knows how to roll himself around. You can set him down somewhere, and he sure as heck will not be in that spot in a few minutes. He's so much more exploratory -- always wanting to look around and touch things. Whenever I carry him, my necklaces, earrings, and hair are fair game, so of course, I've been sans jewlery and putting my hair up. He's becoming stranger fearful, but will warm up to strangers if we sit and talk for a while.

And two days ago, on June 1, we took him to the beach where he took his first dip in the ocean! We have taken him to the beach before, but the water/weathe wasn't always the greatest, but now that its summer, it's beach city! He was reluctant at first, you could tell he was unfamiliar with the sensation of being surrounded by water (I dont give him baths, just showers), and the temperature of the water was new (he's only been in warm water), but eventually, after he realized he could splash with his hands he loosened up a little. I dont think I'd call him overly joyed and laughing, but he definitely tolerated it for a while. I had my flip video camera to capture the moment, but of course, i ran out of batteries, just as soon as we get him into the water. But, I did have my regular camera and captured some of those kodak moments for you to see.
On the job front, unfortunately, my firm cannot afford me. Thus, I'm now in a hunt for a new job while this firm figures out its finances (regardless whether they could afford me, I'd been thinking of looking for a new job anyways). But sadly, that puts our house hunt on hold and hence more living with my mom and squished together in 1 room. =( DH and I really miss our old home with all that room and privacy!

I'm still here!

Hello bloggy buddies.

It's been a while since my last post (a little over 1 week). Just been plowing along with life.

Kaua has had a cold for over 4 weeks now! We took him to the doctors when he first had the cold (April 28) and again on Tuesday (May 18) and basically we've been told that its not serious, there's nothing we can really give him to help it pass, and to just let it run its course. It's been somewhat miserable at night when he wakes himself up coughing, but other than that, he seems to be a happy camper. His cough is pretty bad though. When his congestion was really bad, we'd have to prop him up in his car seat in his crib. Like so....

(Too funny his pose, he's actually sleeping like this. When we walked into the room and saw this, we had to snap a picture).

Luckily, the congestion is getting better, but that darn cough is still there. We've been rubbing Vi.cks on his chest and back in hopes that it'll help, but nope, not much luck there. Poor guy.

In eating news, nope, we still dont have the sprouts of any teeth yet, but we are expanding his food repetoire (sp?). We've went from rice cereal and poi, to squash, peas and today carrots. I had all these big designs to make his food myself, but right now, I just cant find the time to do it...so we're feeding him Earth's Best organic baby firsts from Whole Foods. So easy to just buy the jar and pop it open. He seems to like all the foods we've introduced so far. It's kinda cute when we introduce a new food to him, he shudders and it appears as if he doesn't like the food, but then he'll happily chomp away. He's finishing about 1/3 of a baby food jar in one sitting. He seems to be hungry fairly often (looking at my food when I eat it and showing interest in it), so we've just begun feeding him baby food or rice cereal 3x a day. He eats every time! I've also been feeding him small sips of water from a cup or glass and occassionally when we're on the go, a sippy cup. I read somewhere that getting a child used to a cup or glass now is better than a sippy cup, because at this age they're still maleable to anything. If we get him too accustomed to a nipple or sippy cup, he may not transition to a big boy cup as easily. Ah, whatever, I think I use a regular cup with him because i'm too lazy to go get a sippy cup for him and just give him sips from the water I'm drinking.

I've begun contemplating weaning him off breastmilk. On the one hand, it's just so time consuming and demanding to be pumping every 3 hours or to be present to breast feed him. I really do plan my life around pumping or breast feeding, and I'd love to have the luxury of not having it be that way. But on the other hand, I'm cheap and dont want to spend the money on formula and am worried I'd be taking away any additional health benefits that Kaua may get from my breast milk. DH wants me to continue breast feeding, but only because he read somewhere that its good for Kaua. I will at least do some research as to whether it really makes a difference to breast feed or formula feed your baby after he is six months old. For some reason, I feel as if I read that breast feeding for 6 months is ideal, and after that it doesn't really matter. (but I could just be making that up).

The little guy is about 18 lbs now (17 lbs, 9 oz) and wears size 6-9 month clothing exclusively and some 12 month clothing. He'll be 6 months old on May 27! Half a year away to his first birthday party!

In milestone news, we're working on having him sit by himself unsupported. He can sit pretty well on the couch:

But sitting on his own without any back support is still iffy. He can sit ok, but someone needs to be there to make sure he doesn't topple forward or backward or to the side. It's quite funny really. He's still not a crawler. He doesn't even get up on all fours when on his tummy and I'm not sure how to show him how to do it. He does roll from front to back and vice versa pretty regularly, and sometimes it drives me bananas because when he's sleeping with us, he ALWAYS rolls himself all the way over to me, crowding me on the bed, no matter how often I move him away, he somehow finds his way back to me. And usually, it's his feet or hands that are digging into me. He also loves to be held so that he can stand on his legs. I've heard of babies going directly from back/tummy to standing on their own (skipping the crawling stage) and I wonder if that will be Kaua. One thing is for sure, when he starts to move, we're going to have to baby proof the house. (Hopefully it'll be a house of DH and my own...we're in the market to buy again!)

His bed time is between 7pm and 8pm usually and he takes either two long naps during the day (approximately 1-2 hours) or if there's too much noise and his naps are disturbed, he'll take three cat naps throughout the day. He gets up at the God-awful hours of 5am-6am daily! On the rare occasion, when he gets up before 5am and wants to play, I can sometimes get him to fall back asleep in half an hour and he'll then sleep until about 7 am and that's what I call "sleeping in!" So as you can see, these kind of hours really take a toll on any night life I'd like to have (like I have any option of having a night life....at my new/old hometown, there is nil in the way of nightlife).

Well, that's all in the news of Kaua-chronicles. I hope everyone else is doing well out there!

Rolling

Kaua is a late bloomer in the rolling department (I think). He finally rolled over from tummy to back the day before Easter. He was about 4 months and 1 week old at the time. He did it again the day after Easter too. Each time he did it, I congratulated him and then put him back on his tummy to see if he'd do it again. He didn't replicate it. I dont think he quite realizes that he can roll over. He does know how to turn onto his side, he just doesn't quite get himself all the way over.

I wonder if he'll be a late crawler?

We got him a jumper for Easter. He sure loves that though!

Oh, and man oh man, does he have a bald spot on the back of his head where his head touches the floor/blanket etc. It looks really bizarre. Any other hairy headed babies have this?

12 weeks old and droolin'

My handsome boy made 12 weeks old on Friday. He's getting so big, that we've started putting him in 6 month old clothes!!! (But I think that for this outfit, the sizes are just running small, because really, 6 month old clothes? He's not even a full 3 months yet!)

And lately, he's been such the drooler. We've had to keep him in bibs or his clothes would be all wet. I think this means he's getting to the age where he's learning about new things by putting it in his mouth and therefore, his mouth is preparing for all of that tasting he's about to do by making extra saliva.

Also on the newest milestone agenda - Kaua is reaching for his toys.....although he's not very good at it. He's just learning how to grip his toys. For the most part, I have to put the toy up to his hand and sometimes, he'll get a finger or two around it. Then once he has the toy in hand, he'll try to get the toy to his mouth, but usually, he loses it along the way towards his mouth. And most of the time, when he does get the toy into his hand, he doesn't even realize he's got something in his hand. But its all adorable to me, nonetheless.

It's so amazing to see him learning new things! However, I'm still waiting for him to roll over. He seems quite content to just stay on his back and hasn't really progressed much during his tummy time, despite the number of times we put him on his tummy. Ah well, each baby progresses at his own pace.

Lately, he's also been saying "mum, mum, mum." which to me sounds a lot like "mom, mom, mom" and of course, I tease DH to no end saying he's calling me. I dont think he really knows that he's saying mom, but it's a start! DH was at first a little jealous and has been trying to teach Kaua, da-da-da, but it's not working. But DH has found a way to turn it around on me by saying that every time Kaua cries, he's calling me (because he does say "mum, mum, mum" mostly when he's irratated or crying) and then hands over the whining baby for me to comfort. Uh-oh, I wonder if this could be the beginning of the trend where the crying turns into nagging for mommy?

As for my life, I'm still a stay at home mom and am starting to feel a bit guilty about not contributing to our finances. I've made a promise to myself to really start applying and looking for jobs come March, right after we take a neighbor island trip to visit with friends and go to a wedding....

Tummy time - we've got head movement!

Kaua is getting slight better at tummy time. Now he can turn his head from one side to the other, albeit fairly slow, and only when he feels like it. Here's a video of him doing it today at 9 weeks old and 3 days. I'm such a proud mommy....every little new accomplishment is sooo exciting!

In news about me: I just turned down my first job offer. It was with the first firm I interviewed with and I knew it wouldn't be a good fit. They also were looking for someone who could work full time, and when I say full time, I mean, kill yourself working 60 - 70 hour work weeks. Not my cup of tea. However, I do feel a little bad because I do need a job. I just know I wouldn't have been happy there, especially with Kaua still so young. I really want to spend time with him at least until he's 4-6 months old. The place I interviewed with on Friday was more promising. The personalities seemed to be a better fit. Unfortunately, I dont think there will be much work for me and it will definitely be part time and probably not much in pay. He said he'll call me if work does come up, but we'll see. I have another interview tomorrow with another place. I heard this person is a "yeller" but that she also treats her employees with lots of good things...like an annual trip to Las Vegas. Will let you know how that goes.

Good news in the DH arena. He's finally done with training and back at his old station. This makes for a much happier DH. Sad because he's gone for 3 straight days, but happy because then he'll be home for 6 days straight. =)

another milestone - talking to toys

Last week saturday (at 7weeks 1 day old), I noticed Kaua started talking to his stuffed animals when I was changing his diaper. This is new. He had been talking to us (when I say talking, I mean he says "Ah" and coos"), for a week or so, but this was the first time I saw him talking to his toys. Super cute. I caught it on video for you to see, but I've been having difficulty uploading it.

I just read a great post by fellow blogger recalling some of the moments in her son's early days. It got me to thinking of my early days (well, it is still early, but you know how time flies). Now, I dont mean to brag (ok, well, maybe I do, it's my blog and of course all moms want to brag about their kids, it's a given), but i think I've got it pretty easy with kaua. I mean, I always felt that he was an easy baby, but I really do think I've got it pretty good with him based upon my conversations with others and reading about others' stories. Of course, this isn't to say my baby is better than anyone elses. I just wanted to share (primarily for my own self) my experiences with Kaua in his early days.

1. Kaua pretty much from birth knew when it was night and when it was day, and would sleep primarily more during the night.

2. Kaua started sleeping through the night very early, I'd say maybe by 3-4 weeks old. And when I mean sleeping through the night, I mean he'd sleep for stretches of 5-6 hours consistently. The other night, he slept for 8 hours. Of course, this wreaks havoc on my boobies who get super full with milk during this time. And of course there are a couple nights where he'll not want to go back to sleep right away after getting up to eat which is usally between 3-5 a.m. which drives me crazy, b/c I'm super tired at this time. During these times, I wake up DH to help play with him because I'm at my wits end after an hour of him not going to sleep. And DH obliges me, even though he has to get up to go to physical training at 5am.

3. Kaua was a good latcher right from birth. In fact, he nursed about 1 hour after he was born and latched as soon as I put him to the breast. He nursed on each boob for a good hour straight (of course he was pacifiying himself for most of the time, but I didn't know that at the time).

4. Kaua doesn't cry very much. Dont get me wrong, he does cry, but I'd say for only a combined total of less than an hour in a 24 hour period. I attribute this however, to the fact that I'm with him primarily and I know his body language and can appease him before he cries. He does fuss though.

5. Kaua will contentedly stare at the t.v. when we're watching football (or other t.v. program), hang out on the bed or couch by himself (with me in the room of course) or will play on his playmat for long periods of time. Of course we play with him often, but its so helpful that he can occupy himself if necessary. For example, as I type this blog, he is up on the bed right next to me, just staring away at the room (the window I believe), keeping himself occupied.

6. Kaua immediatley loved baths (but most babies do, right?).

7. Kaua eats generally on a schedule, every 2-3 hours during the day, except occasionally in the evenings where he'll eat more frequently which I heard called "cluster feeding" (but I notice this causes him to sleep for longer periods of time in the night which is helpful)!

I'm sure there's more, but I've let him play by himself for long enough...so gotta sign off!