Nordic skiing!

This morning we woke up at a run, assembled the baby ski sled, made breakfast, and packed warm clothing for the day. Then we drove up to Teacup Lake with Steve, Emilie and Anne for our first attempt taking Dustin cross-country skiing. Dustin indicated compliance by sleeping most of the way up to Mount Hood.

Dustin slipped comfortably into his big, soft, fuzzy snow suit, and seemed to immediately go limp inside of it. He was much more like a stuffed animal than his typical muscle-baby persona.

We all skied around the 6 km. "easy" loop. I (Jessi) was towing Dustin, and Jeff was just learning the slips and slides of nordic skis, so it was easy to stay together. Dustin continued to show his approval by sleeping through most of the ride. I think he enjoyed having the cold air blow on his face, and the rocking motion of skiing. We had lunch inside the warming hut,
and Dustin entertained everyone with his many tricks: getting food all over his mouth, turning upside down, and his personal rendition of "wheels on the bus" that brings the house down every time.

Dad took a turn at towing the ski sled back to the parking lot, and if you look closely at the photo above, you can see Dustin laughing at him when he fell. This seems to be common: mom puts Dustin to sleep, and dad makes Dustin laugh.

Regardless, he slept most of the way back home, and we all went to bed that night with smiles on our faces.

Look At Me!

It seems more and more that Dustin is giving me the "Look at me, Dad!" look. He is just progressing so quickly and seems to be doing new things daily. Just look at these two pictures, and you'll understand what I mean.

Just this past week I went to day care to pick him up and there he was standing on his own. Cheryl, his teacher, says she didn't put him there, so he must have pulled himself up. It just seems like he is ready to walk, but I keep hoping that he will crawl. They say crawling is so beneficial to brain development that I just don't want him to skip it. If it was up to Dustin, I think he would just skip crawling and jump to walking. Either way, we figure he will be an early walker.


In the same week, we decided to try out the cart seat rather than bring in the car seat. He seemed so excited to be sitting up rather than laying back. I guess the ceiling in stores can get quite boring, but all the colorful jars kept him mesmerized. A couple of times we needed to catch him as he tried to lunge for something interesting. Now, I understand what the little straps are for.

I sat up on my own!

I've been irritable the last couple of days. My cheeks have been rosy, which is not usual. I'm getting over my first daycare cold, and I've got a bit of diaper rash going. So I like to let mom, dad, and the daycare ladies know that things aren't quite right with me.

Mom wants to shower me with love and attention after she picks me up from daycare, so we had a fun night together. We played on the bed for a while, where I can really scoot around because I can plow my face into the blanket, and propel myself forward with my legs. I like to scoot over towards mom, but then she gets in the way of my progress, and I get frustrated trying to plow into her. Next she took careof my bottles in the kitchen, and I got to watch everything and try to touch it because she had me in the sling on her hip. Finally, she set me down on my blanket, and she took some time to practice her cello. I rolled around and grabbed for some toys. I don't cry when she practices her cello. It's hard to get a word in edgewise! But I had this great breakthrough: starting on my hands and knees, I would tuck my little legs under me, and push myself up to a seated position! This is a first. Then, of course, I tried to wiggle and jump my way up to standing, but had no luck. Mom says I need to grab hold of something to pull myself up with, but I don't understand.

Here's just a random picture from last weekend for this post.

6-month check-up

We went to our new Portland pediatrician this morning for Dustin's 6-month checkup. You can see from the picture at the left that Dustin enjoyed the outing. He LOVES paper. The crinklier the better. We generally try to keep paper away from him, because the inks and treatments are not usually designed to be eaten. But the sterile examination bench paper seemed like a reasonable option of paper to allow him to play with. I remember bringing the tiny, immobile newborn baby to his 2-day pediatrician appointment back in July, where we could just set him on the paper, and he could not do anything with his arms, eyes, head, or anything. How much our baby has changed and grown in just a half year!

The shots weren't too bad. He cried briefly, and then seemed to forget about it. The pediatrician told us that we have a normal, healthy baby boy. But I could have told you that before we even walked into the doctor's office.

Day care

You may have noticed that this is the longest time that we haven't updated the Dustin blog. After our whirlwind Christmas and holiday travels, Jessi started working full-time at Lewis & Clark college on January 2nd. And that's where the silence began!

Dustin started going to day care. We chose a daycare close to our house, CCLC (Childrens' Creative Learning Center), that impressed us with the fun activities that the preschoolers were doing, the general cleanliness and competency that we experienced when we toured the facility. Logically, I really think that day care is a good thing for Dustin. He fusses at home because he gets bored with the plain walls, and with our limited attention as we try to get other things done around the house. At day care there are lots of toys, and a stimulating environment. There are other kids to watch and interact with. And there are teachers who actually know what to do with babies. Furthermore, I could tell that Jeff and I were really struggling while taking care of Dustin full time. Our relationship was getting strained, and the stress level in the household was rising.

But even with this rational justification of bringing Dustin to day care, it was So Hard. His second day at day care I went with Jeff to drop him off. It was a peaceful day at daycare, and we placed Dustin in the little exer-saucer (like he has at home, see this older post). He started to play, and we just walked out of the door. I cried gently all the way to work. Jeff was surprised that I was so emotional. It brings tears to my eyes just to write about it now. I think it was from his little face, that just seemed vacantly content. Like we could put him down anywhere, and he would deal with it. We could drop him off at a fire station, and he would grow up with someone else, and never remember us, and he would be just fine. It made me want to hold him closer, tighter, and never let him go, so he would know how much I love him. So he would get all the best possible starts to this budding life of his.

I have dropping him off or picked him up a handful of times since then, and it has not gotten any easier. All of the remaining times there has been some level of crying going on in the infant room. There are 8 babies and 2 care takers. So at any given time, 2 babies are being handled, 2 babies are asleep, and 4 babies are left to play on their own. I have rarely seen Dustin crying when I pick him up, but the crying makes me feel like it is a stressed environment, and the caretakers are not quite able to keep up with the baby's demands. I think this is just the way of day care and the way of babies. Crying is normal. It is not a sign of stress or distress. Dustin is happy at home, seems content to be left at day care, and seems content to come home with us at the end of the day.

I don't have any pictures to post, because this new part of my life has less time with Dustin, and fewer opportunities for pictures. Maybe I'll hassle the ladies at daycare for a group photo I can share with you all at some point.

New Year's Resolution

I have been thinking long hard about what would be a good New Year's Resolution for me, and I have decided it would be that I'm going to become a man. Yep, you read that correctly; I'm going to become a man over the next year, and I have plan to do it!

First step is no more pink diapers. Diapers are okay as long as they're not pink. Mom thought it would okay to pick up pink diapers. She would say, "Who can see your underpants, anyway?". But everyone knows that you see a baby's underpants. Even if that wasn't the case, I know that I'm wearing pink.

Second step: meat on the bone. Yep, I'm not eating regular found, but to become a man, I need to skip that step and go right to meat on the bone. I have included a picture to prove that I'm well on my way.

Third step..... maybe I will get to step three after my nap.

Happy New Years.