Boy Oh Boyers

Our old camera was stolen out of a checked bag on our way home from spending Thanksgiving with Tom's family. :-( But, the consolation is camera shopping is fun -- and then time we seriously upgraded. We picked up the new one yesterday, and as you can see Daddy was trying it out during the bath.

"Hmm, what is that slightly tangy taste on my tongue? It's strange...but I like it!" Rowan's first foray into autumnal vegetables was a grand success yesterday. Grandmommy has been visiting again and doing more work around the house than a gal in her...uh...very late 40's should be allowed to do. :-) After witnessing some rice cereal feedings, Grandmommy was certain that Rowan's palate would take kindly to something besides the bland white goop (which tastes almost identical to breastmilk since that's our liquid of choice for mixing in). Quite right, quite right. He might look startled here, but rest assured after the first taste, Rowan was eagerly downing the fragrant orangeish paste. (A note for all you Southerners out there...I've been informed that in fact there are other types of squash besides the yellow ones we Southerners love to sautee with onions, fry, or put into delicious casseroles. Yep, this baby food was comprised of butternut squash.

So many little things to report.

Rowan is doing splendidly with his baby food. He gets rice cereal at dinner each day, and so far the accompanying items to the rice have been squash and bananas (not at the same time). He's super fond of both those. He hasn't been eager for the rice until today when I mixed it with water instead of breastmilk. I think it gives it a way more rice-y taste, which apparently appeals to Rowan's tastebuds. He lapped it up! At dinner, he finished both the rice and the bananas I had prepared for him, with minimal globbage on the bib. Pretty impressive.

There are raspberries all over the place around here! And by that I mean the kind you make by buzzing your lips, not the kind that grow on vines. Rowan has learned that with almost any toy, if he presses it against his lips in the right way he can make a buzzing sound. It amuses him, so usually while he buzzes he sings a happy hum. Pretty cute!

Nap times are going smoothly on and off. Some days he sleeps like a log, other days he's very restless. Nights are slightly more consistent, though they're not without their hitches. For instance, at this very moment Rowan is screaming after having been fast asleep for nearly an hour. Why did he wake up and cry? I have no idea. He'll go back to sleep on his own.

Of course, his aggravation may be due partly to the sock I've used to cover his hand and lower arm to protect his poor face from his own scratching! He has gotten so fidgety that sometimes (very frequently) his fidgeting turns to his own face for an outlet, and this always ends in bleeding. Bleeding on the sheets, the bib, the clothes, Mommy's clothes...it's awful! A couple of days ago, seriously, he looked as though he had been mauled by a tiger cub. The socks have been helping, and of course the scratches are only superficial so by the end of the day a morning scratch is all but invisible. (I realized the way I'm describing it might sound overly dramatic, so please don't think he's causing himself any serious harm.) (Oh, and he stopped crying now and is back asleep...in case you were worried.)

Last night we took a really long evening walk and got back a little late, so we opted for a quick bath in the kitchen sink rather than the usual lengthy affair. While Daddy laid Rowan on the counter on a folded towel for padding and undressed him, I filled the sink. Daddy spent one second too long unprotected, and got peed on! Not his shirt, not his shoes -- in the mouth!! Of course we laughed so hard we nearly fell over. Now, both parents have had their mouths peed in. In these days of supposed gender equality in parenting, I guess equality of pee is only appropriate.

Well, down in humble south Georgia Rowan has been to his first theme park. Wild Adventures was built just a few miles from Grandmommy and Papa's farm...so an early Christmas gift from them was season passes for us to Wild Adventures. We loaded up everyone last night: Rowan, Mommy, Daddy, Grandmommy, Papa, Aunt Julie, Soon-to-be-Uncle Bobby, and Great-Grammies! We had a great time looking at all the lights, watching the live brass ensemble play carols, riding roller coasters (well, some of us sat them out...but they shall remain nameless), and being shot recklessly far into the air only to fall back down and be stopped again in a gut-wrenching fashion (even more of us sat that out than had chickened out on the roller coaster). Not to name names, but it's unavoidable if I'll tell the cute part: Tom was holding Rowan while I headed onto the screaming shoot-you-in-the-air-with-huge-air-cannon-power ride. I actually had forgotten how sudden it really was, how it takes your breath away and makes you feel like your tonsils have been attacked by the lining of your stomach -- but Tom says as soon the ride started (at approximately the same moment I started screaming like a schoolgirl) Rowan's eyes followed it uuuuuuuuup, doooooown, uuuuup, doooown, uuup, dooown, down. I wish I could have focused on him to get the effect!

Our tickets are season passes, so maybe once when we go I'll take the camera...but darnit if that doesn't slow down the riding of coasters! :-)

We are having a marvelous time down in Georgia with family. Last night we all piled into the minivan and headed off to Wild Adventures again. (As we were loading up, I blindly aimed the camera and snapped a few shots of my overflowing mom-mobile, and this one didn't turn out half bad...though I'm hard pressed to say what Julie and Tom were doing...and Rowan's car seat mirror got all cattywampus so it makes for a pretty distorted view. But I digress.)

We went to the ice skating show. It was really good, much to my surprise. Rowan LOVED it. He was mesmerized by all the lights, music, and the smiling skaters. (By the way, if you have never seen skaters larger than tv-size do spins and jumps, I'll report it's a breathtaking experience indeed. The full weight of a human body being flung into highly risky moves is an adrenaline rush, even for onlookers. Hmm...I have digressed again.) The point is, Rowan loved it and didn't take his eyes off the action for a second. Problem is, I think the dreaded "overstimulation" (which the authors of our baby books like to throw around like a dirty word) appears to have crept into our lives on this occasion! Not that we haven't suspected it before when Rowan has seemed especially excited near bedtime because of some activity, but this time when our dear sweet wonderful boy screamed at the top of his lungs many, many times through the night (and for no short duration), the overstimulation theory seemed like more of a reality than ever before. The skating show had begun at 8pm, then we drove home, gave Rowan a bottle, and tucked him away where he happily drifted off. I'm pretty sure dreams of that skating Frosty woke him up in terror, and thus terror woke us all up! So, where ought I be? Bed, I'll clue you. Off I go.