Thanks for the birthday wishes - my warrantee is officially expired now.
El Rincon is not really in Rochester, but in Canandaigua (and the original's in Sodus, aka "the middle of nowhere"). And it's far and away the best Mexican place we've been to outside of Mexico, so it had to make our list of favorites (apologies to our favorite taco stand at the market). El Rincon had a kitchen fire sometime within the last year, so we've been in withdrawl for a while during their rennovations, but thankfully they reopened a month or two ago. To celebrate my birthday, yesterday we headed down to El Rincon for an enormous and delicious lunch. Nate usually likes Mexican, but he's still in his no-food-on-a-spoon phase, and since rice and beans are a bit messy without utensils, he stuck mainly with goldfish. After lunch the owner came out and he has a daughter who is four days older than Nate. And (here's the kicker!) she can walk and is potty trained. What?! That's crazy. Seriously. Anyway, after lunch we headed out to the outlet malls (via an accidental scenic tour of Phelps), and then Nate picked out a pumpkin. Overall, it was a nice, relaxing day. I was hoping as a present Nate would magically learn how to use the toilet, but instead he left a gift in his diaper.
Nate's super-active brain cells were scientifically recorded to prove how amazing he is at the Rochester Infant Lab, which is affiliated with the University of Rochester's Brain and Cognitive Psych department. How, you may ask, did the RIL researchers come to find our beloved Nate? They singled him out from the many local babies to study how smart he is. Or, if you're into accuracy, we got a letter asking for volunteers to help with a study about infant learning and we agreed.
I was a little apprehensive because they left a message on our machine on Friday reminding us of our appointment and casually mentioning that he'd need to wear a "little cap." Now, we've spent most of the past few months standing in the shade because Nate decided he no longer likes hats, despite his relative baldness, so the idea of him happily hanging out wearing someone else's little cap seemed loaded with troubles. But, for whatever reason, they decided we wouldn't be part of the cap study, and instead they'd be monitoring his eye motions using non-wearable technology. So Nate and his human chair (that's me) got to watch a stimulating video of shapes either staying static on the screen or rotating. Occasionally (here's the kicker!) they'd swap out one of the regular shapes with a new one. In all seriousness, it was pretty interesting to see the results showing what Nate looked at most - he seemed to look longer at the rotating shapes and the ones that were different from the norm (particularly the heart-shaped one. Must be because I was there!) And, according to the woman running the study, he was the far and away the best baby at sitting still and watching the video. I'm not sure what that means, but we'll take it as a compliment (and a cautionary note for his parents who may think his mellow nature is normal for babies, thus encouraging future siblings who turn out more hyper, like his mom).
In mommy news, I don't know how much I've mentioned all the weird hormonal issues that come along with pregnancy and post-pregnancy, but around when we had all those feeding problems when Nate was around four months old I lost lots of hair. Nothing scary (honestly, it was more gross than anything) but way more than usual. Well, I'm sort of happy to report that it all seems to be growing back. I'm only sort of happy because anyone who's had hair longer than Nate knows that it sticks straight out from your scalp until it's long enough to let gravity pull it down. So I have all these funny, short hairs poking out all over the place. I'm sure it'll all grow in just fine, but for now it's just really silly.
As many of you know, we are gigantic Public Market fans. Seriously, I'm not sure how we'll handle being without it. It's our main source of fruit, vegetables, coffee, tacos, cheese, olives, and other misc. food items. We also get most of our plants there, both cut flowers, garden flowers and bushes, and potted plants. There are other public markets, but nothing like this (the one we went to in Oaxaca, Mexico was certainly one-of-a-kind too!) Nate seems to like our weekly visits too - there's lots to see, and he is big enough now to eat the beans and rice that we get from our favorite Mexican taco stand. Yum!
We got Nate's fancy new carseat yesterday. For safety purposes, most carseats now have to be installed in the car by a trained professional who knows the big secret behind how to properly tighten safety belts around different carseats. The store we bought the new seat at has a guy on staff (Mark, I believe) who can do this for us, so even though we bought the seat last week we had to go back yesterday so Mark could fasten the seat into the car. The sales people were all relatively friendly, especially with Nate, but Mark didn't get the memo that he was working at a kids' store and should at least say hello to people. Despite my spaciness (which has hung around even though Nate sleeps pretty well now) I deduced that Mark was the guy who came out of the back of the store, grabbed my carseat, and walked out to the parking lot. I am so clever.
So we pack the old infant seat in the trunk and I attempt to put Nate in his Corvette of carseats and he is not happy at all. He's sqirming and arching his back and screaming. And screaming. And screaming. And because it's the first time we've used the seat and I wasn't quite as clever as I initially thought, all the straps and hooks needed to be adjusted to fit Nate, so now I'm trying to thread, loosen, and tighten straps while Nate's trying to claw his way out of the car. So he screams all the way home, thoroughly enjoying his new ride. (We did make a quick trip today and he was much happier, so hopefully he'll get used to it. Not only because it's safe, but because it cost $250.)
We put our new ride in the middle seat because this is usually the safest place in the car, but now I can't really see well out the back window because I'm short. So although Nate's in what we determined to be the safest seat around, he is perhaps less safe because I can't see where I'm going (or coming from, to be more exact). So I may go back and have it moved over to a side seat if my side mirrors aren't cutting it for me after a few more days.
A day in the life of a baby is filled with emotional extremes. He's kind of like a little teenager who can't talk. But at least he's got a good excuse, since his day filled with a combination of exciting new experiences and frustrations. A teenager, on the other hand, is just filled with hormones. Anyway, the screaming fit in the car was then followed by what Nate seems to find the funniest thing ever - our dogs. In true teenaged fashion, I have been finding them quite annoying, but he thinks they are better than Elmo (or Dora. I hear she's quite popular too). Here's a peak:
Well, that's a very biased "best." We're cramming in all of our favorite Rochester spots before we head back to the capitol of Red Sox Nation. Yesterday we went to our old favorite, the Strong Museum. Nate's more interested in the exhibits now that he's more interactive and able to move around on his own. We went to the mini Wegman's store (another Rochester favorite!) where he proved his Italian roots by attempting to eat the fake garlic and cheese. Then we checked out some of the other exhibits, like the Peter Rabbit garden where instead of vegetables you can pull up colored shapes (circle, square, triangle, and the ever-popular pentagon). Nate can climb up one step now (he can't seem to figure out how to go up a staircase, but he can get up one if it leads to another flat surface), so he enjoyed playing around in exhibits that were six inches (or so) off the main floor. He spent a fair amount of time sitting in a fireplace with a rubber loaf of bread. Add this to our list of Great Lessons to Teach Your Baby. "Hey, kid, it's fun to play in the fireplace!"
Hand gestures have really caught on with Nate. He seems to be beginning to understand what's going on and he's started clapping and waving. And yesterday I asked him, "where's dada?" and he looked right at Thad! He, of course, did nothing when asked where I was. That will be the real milestone! This new comprehension is really exciting, except that it marks the beginning of the "baby sponge" phase, which often leads unintentionally to the "baby swearing or saying an otherwise unaccepted or personal thing out in public." So now we REALLY have to work on cleaning up our language. This shouldn't be too much of a problem, except when it comes to driving. Perhaps Thad will have to chauffeur us all around for a while until I can get control of myself!
Speaking of cars, after months (and for once I'm not being sarcastic) of debate, we have finally settled on a carseat for Nate. He's almost too big for the infant one we have, but definitely too small for the forward-facing seats. So the clever carseat manufacturers will be weasling another $250 from us since we now need to buy an intermediate seat (aka "convertable") that can be used in both rear- and forward-facing positions. Of course, once Nate gets even bigger, he'll outgrow this seat and need a bigger one. Then comes the booster seat... Anyway, we did some research and decided on the latest and greatest - the Recaro. This company makes racecar seats so they're being touted as the new safety-focused seats, which is key in our minds. But their carseat line is relatively new and in high demand. It took us a while to decide between the two convertible models, but we finally settled on the "one." But getting the seat is reminding me of the Cabbage Patch Kids craze back when I was a kid. These babies are selling like hotcakes! Within a few days of when they arrived at our local Gucci baby store, they were all gone. I happened to stop by yesterday and they had JUST received a shipment, so we snatched one up. We get it installed next Tuesday, so hopefully Nate will be more comfortable in his cushy new ride. He still gets to watch the back of the seat, but he'll do it in style (and safety!)
Well, we did it. We accepted an offer on our house and, pending the engineer's inspection, are legally required to move out by November 2. I am SO relieved that the parade of homebuyers are again locked out of our house. I was getting tired of sitting in my car with Nate and two dogs, staking out the house from the parking lot across the street so I could see when the place was empty. We're excited that we sold the place so quickly, so we don't have to deal with the hassle of keeping the place so tidy. But we're sad to be leaving. We put a lot of work into our house, and have a lot of memories here.
One perk of our sales-induced household cleanliness is that Nate can motor around without acting as an unintentional dustbuster. Or maybe "lint brush" is more accurate? It's also been weeks since I've noticed him crawl excitedly over to a ball of fur. Oh, the miracles of Lysol.
It's been quite a crazy week. We put our house on the market on Wednesday and have already had nine showings. This is good, in the grand scheme of trying to sell the house, but it's also been a bit of a rollercoaster. It's bittersweat for us to leave Rochester, because we really do like it here, but we're excited to be closer to our families (and they are clearly excited to be closer to Nate. And us too, I guess). It's strange to have people traipsing through our place. It's annoying to keep the house neat and tidy - not really our forte, to say the least! And it's really annoying to keep vacating the house, with baby and dogs in tow. Luckily, it's been relatively warm out (and today it was uncomfortably hot), so we've been hanging around the local parks a lot.
Onto baby milestones... we think Nate has started clapping. He did it a couple of times earlier this week, and again yesterday. We haven't been able to replicate it on the drop of a dime, but I'm guessing that's just around the corner. Other than that, he's been motoring all over the place like a little wind-up toy with a high-quality radar system that zones in on all things off-limits, like the fireplace. He's also taken to yelling spontaneously, which is quite amusing out in public.
Yesterday we took Nate to his first baseball game to see the Red Wings, our local AAA team (the Twins' minor league affiliate). As the diligent parents we are, we left our camera at home, but luckily Laura and Steve brought theirs. Nate did really well overall, and lasted for the whole game despite not napping. I'm not sure why we thought he would actually fall asleep, what with all the sporatic yelling. He did get to rest a little, though, and ate some sausage. Quite the exciting ballpark experience.
Speaking of sausage, turns out Nate was just sick of mushed up food. Go figure. We gave him some sausage, peppers, and onions Saturday for lunch and he gobbled it down. Then we made some chicken cutlets and carrots for dinner, which he also ate (although the carrots were much preferred over the chicken). So we've decided we're beginning a new stage of meals - Things We Can All Eat. We've done well for a few meals but are quickly running out of menus without nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, egg, tomato, and citrus. Sounds like some evil Top Chef quickfire challenge!
Other than a bit of stuffiness, Nate is back in good health. And cruising all over the house. He is still most interested in things that aren't particularly safe, so we have to keep an eye on him all the time.
The only remaining (possible) health issue is that he's not eating as much as he used to. We're not sure if this is because he's still getting better, if he's not hungry, or just doesn't want what we have to offer. But, really, how can you go wrong with a menu of unseasoned, pureed foods and meat sticks? So he has this new habit of shaking his head side to side and putting up his hands in front of his face as if to say, "Oh, no, no. Not for me, thank you very much!" It was funny at first, and seems quite dramatic, but it's starting to get old. And he seems to do it for everything - various spoon-fed vittles, finger foods, etc. The trick, we have found, is that if you give him a spoon, he will let you feed him. But if he is sans-spoon, it's the head shake. The only other thing that we've consistently gotten him to eat is goldfish. Or would that be "are goldfish?"
Speaking of head shaking, has anyone heard Paul McCartney's new song "Nod Your Head"? I am having a crisis over this song because it is absolutely horrific. I seriously think it could be the worst song ever. Worse than "Mexican Radio" and "Rock'n'Roll Pumpkhin" (say it again!). Worse than the Goldfish jingle, even! I mean, the chorus is, "Nod it up. Nod it down. Side to side. Round and round." Is the song written for Nate? It seems like a good preschooler song, something you'd do right after "The Wheels on the Bus." I've seriously been haunted by the awfulness of this song for a couple of days now. The other night I had a horrible sleep because I kept waking up thinking about "Nod Your Head." For real (at least I've moved on from turkeys!) A big part of my horror is because the song's by Sir Paul, the Guinness Book's most successful musician and composer in pop history. And I assume at this point in his career he can't blame bad music on his record label - I'm betting he gets all the artistic freedom he wants. Yet the man who gave us "Yesterday" is churning out junk like "Nod Your Head"?!?! And I had hoped that all the turmoil in the world would at least result in some good new music (like it did in the late 60s) - boy, was I wrong there!
