The Sweetest Boy

Mateo - 

Well, my dear, you are 5 months old!  You are getting more serious about your attempts to crawl.  Today Grammy and I put you on the floor and you managed to turn yourself 90 degrees and scoot forward just a tiny bit.  The incentive for your crawling was the tubing that attaches to Grammy's oxygen machine.  You are desperate to get your hands on it.

The oxygen machine, and the tubing, are a new addition to Grammy's life since her bout with pneumonia earlier this month.  She ended up staying 3 nights at the hospital.  You seemed to be able to tell she was sick, and you looked at her with a very concerned expression.  She is feeling better now, but she still needs the oxygen and she gets tired very easily.  We've had to put our long evening walks on hold for a while.

You are sleeping through the night, though you like to stay up late - until 10 or so.  When you are falling asleep, you close your eyes, raise your eyebrows, and then make really funny groaning sounds.  I think you are singing yourself to sleep.  Or maybe you are trying to keep yourself awake. 

We took you for your first swim.  You seemed comfortable in the water.  There were a few other babies there, and when you saw one of them splash the water with her hand, you tried splashing, too.

Walking in your big boy shoes.

Some pals from Birth to Three

Your cousin Oceana, helping me bake.

 

Still teething.

 

The sweetest boy I know.

I'll Tell You Every Day

Little Teo,

You are four months old!  And I am 33 years old!  Some people come to dread their birthdays after a certain age, but I don't mind getting older.  I think if you keep learning and growing as a person, life can continue to get better and better as you age.  Grammy taught me this.  I hope someday I will be a wise old woman with grandchildren on my lap and a smile on my face.  A princess crown would be nice, too!  

 

As for you, my dear, you have learned to roll over.  You seemed really interested in rolling for about a week, but once you mastered it, you stopped doing it.  I think it really bugs you that you can't crawl yet.  In fact, I think you'd love to be walking and climbing and jumping, too.  You have a lot of energy and determination, and it won't be long before the world is your jungle gym.  

 

  

The other thing you have learned to do this month is make raspberry sounds with your mouth, which is extremely cute.  I have a suspicion that your papa taught you to do this.  He has been taking care of you on the mornings that I am teaching (unless he works, in which case you are with Grammy).  You two are quite a pair . . . my two favorite trouble-makers!

At our Birth to Three group, we learned an alternate (happy) version of "You are My Sunshine."  I sing it to you often, and every time I do, you smile.  Here are the lyrics: 

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.

You make me happy when skies are gray.

You'll always know, dear, how much I love you,

'Cause I'll tell you every day.

The other night dear, when I lay sleeping,

I dreamed I held you in my arms.

When I awoke, dear, I saw you smiling,

So I looked in your bright, shining eyes.

Happy Holidays!

Dear Teo,

Last month, we celebrated your first Thanksgiving with Grammy, Auntie Sarah and Oceana, and we started a new family tradition: The Gratitude Wall.  We have a chalkboard wall in our kitchen, and every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we'll write things that we are grateful for on the wall.  Here is what we have up there this year.

A couple of weeks ago, I returned to work at the Relief Nursery.  The first day I went to work was the first time I've ever been away from you for more than an hour and a half.  I was really nervous because you had never taken a bottle (and cried loudly whenever one was offered to you).  But Grammy and Aunt Sarah worked their magic, and after my four hours of teaching, I came home to find you fussy but not frantic, and Grammy said you hadn't cried much at all (although you still didn't take the bottle). 

So, I took you back to the Nursery for the second half of my work day, where you made friends with my coworkers and seemed to enjoy the excitement of being somewhere new.  Here you are with my friend (and fellow teacher), Jessie H.  We have a joke at work that she is the "Bad Jessie" and I am the "Good Jessie," but I think you bring out her angelic side. 

The second day that I had to leave you to go to work, your papa took care of you, and you were peaceful and happy when I got home.  So, in spite of my concerns, I think this transition will go pretty smoothly . . . at least for you.  As for me, it will take some time to adjust to this new schedule and dividing my energy between work and home. 

The weekend before Christmas, we went up to Portland to see the Grotto - a family tradition.  This year we took the train up, which is a great way to travel with a baby.  You were totally content the whole trip, except that evening in the hotel room.  You seemed really nervous to be going to sleep somewhere other than your own familiar bed.   

Our friends, Kelly and Colin and their three children joined us at the Grotto.

Their youngest daughter, Maya, alternated between calling you "Matato" and "Potato."  

Your first Christmas - We kept things pretty simple this year, enjoyed time with friends and family and ate a lot of good food.  

Oceana trimming the tree.

 Oceana's gingerbread masterpiece (complete with a shop, a playhouse, a garden and a compost heap).

Your Papa cooked Christmas Eve dinner - breaded fish, which was his family's tradition.

Here are some other photos from your third month.  

Checking out your friend, Leto, at Birth to Three. 

Hiking at Mt. Pisgah and Willamette Park. 

  Hanging out with Auntie Sarah.

Chewing on my wrap . . . we think you are teething.

We love you, sweet boy!

Opapa's Visit

Dear Teo,

Last weekend your Grandpa Ben flew out from Oklahoma for a visit. You will know him as Opapa (German for Grandpa).  We had a wonderful time with him.  One thing that I noticed about your Opapa was his open, generous heart. He was obviously delighted in you from the moment he saw you. He never tired of talking to you, telling you the names of things, playing pat-a-cake with you, and getting you to smile.

Your Opapa has a lot to share with you about your family history.  He is a member of the Creek Indian nation, and he finds a lot of meaning in his Native American heritage.  He likes to call you Nokose, your Creek middle name (meaning "bear").

Opapa brought some special gifts for you, including a hand-carved ceremonial bear rattle, a stone bear totem, a beautiful pair of moccasins, and a lizard fetish which is made to hold your umbilical cord.  He also gave you a book about bears.  He wants to pass things on to you that will continue to be meaningful to you for your whole life - things that represent your connection to the Creek culture.

During Opapa's visit we went to a Christmas tree farm. A horse-drawn wagon took us to a field of trees of various types and sizes. We spent about twenty minutes searching for just the right tree. Then your papa cut it and we rode back in on the wagon. Opapa and I drank hot cider while papa got the tree on the car.

When we got home, papa and Oceana got the tree ready, and papa put up Christmas lights on our house. The next day, the decorating continued.  Oceana and Opapa and I made paper snowflakes to hang on the window.

Opapa's visit was a wonderful Christmas gift. We hope to visit him and his wife, Mary Louise, in Oklahoma sometime soon. We really want you to get to know him. His kindness and wisdom will nurture you as you grow.

Our Little Chili Pepper is Two Months Old!

Dear Teo,

My sweet boy, how much you have grown in the last month!

Some of the things you are enjoying these days are: your fish mobile, the game where I stick out my tongue and then you stick out yours, the game where papa lifts you up over his head and then back down over and over until his arms feel like they are going to fall off, having conversations with your Grammy, listening to me tell the story of the Three Little Pigs with silly voices, a book with photos of baby faces, papa's made-up songs, and snuggling with me all night long.

Some things you do not like: riding in the car seat, skipping your morning nap, trying to nurse while people are talking, trying to nurse if I'm not looking in your eyes and holding your hand,  the pacifier, the bottle, hiccups, and 7:00 in the evening (appropriately called the "witching hour" by some parents).

Your Grammy has been babysitting you for about an hour a day.  I use that time to take a shower, go for a run or get chores done.  I often wonder how parents survive without a Grammy (or some loving, patient, intuitive person) nearby. 

And here is your honorary grandma.  We went back for another visit with our midwife at the Birth Center, and this time we remembered to get a photo!!

Papa and I have joined a Birth to Three group.  Birth to Three is a local non-profit organization that brings together parents with babies the same age.  We meet every other week with a facilitator who offers some parent education, and we share with and get to know 9 other families and their babies.  The groups will be really fun once you and the other kids start to notice each other and interact.  I know some people who went through Birth to Three with their babies who are still in contact with the other parents when their kids are teenagers.  It is helpful to have a community of people who are experiencing the same joys and struggles of parenting.

For your first Halloween we dressed you as a chili pepper.  You had your costume on for about 10 minutes, and then seemed to find it irritating, so we took it off.  You slept peacefully through the party we went to, which was no small feat since it was a party of boisterous two-year-olds!  

On your two month birthday, I planned to take a photo of you.  Note to self: don't schedule a photo shoot and vaccinations on the same day.  Actually, don't schedule anything on vaccination day!  You got your shots at 10:30 in the morning.  You cried for most of the day and by 4:00 in the afternoon you were running a fever.  We skipped our Birth to Three group that night, not wanting to put you through yet another car ride, and we ended up taking your photo a couple of days later.

Other family news: 

Your Uncle Levi sent us this amazing shelf that he build.  It is made without any screws or nails.  Instead, it is held together by wooden pegs.  We put it in the kitchen to hold jars of cooking supplies.  It makes me happy every time I look at it because I think of Levi. 

Your papa got me a pizza stone and a bread recipe book, and I have been learning to bake bread.  This (and cooking in general) have been so nurturing for me.  When I met your papa, I literally didn't know how to cook anything more complicated that macaroni and cheese.  Somehow I survived until my young adulthood without ever learning to cook or plan meals.  After some diligent work (and lots of experimenting) on my part, it now feels fairly easy to cook healthy meals for our little family.  I look forward to when you start eating and I can try making your baby food.

Your cousin Oceana has been enjoying helping me bake.  Muffins are her specialty, and she particularly likes any baking project that includes chocolate chips.  She and my sister, Sarah, are going to help me make Thanksgiving dinner this week. 

We have so much to be thankful for this year, Teo.  Most of all, we are thankful for you and all the fun and learning and sweetness you bring to our lives.

All our love,

Mama and Papa