My Name Is Now Mom

This is one serious baby She means business TerraDactyl has been conducting a very extensive long term study investigating the behavior of different objects that fall from varying heights.  She is collecting a wealth of data.  Some items have an initial velocity of 0 m/s while others do have an initial velocity (both positive and negative).  Often she requires a research assistant to retrieve these items (over and over and over).  But sometimes she comes up with clever ways to perform her experiments by herself.  I captured one such instance below: Investigating the surroundings Inspecting the items available for testing Setting the experiment up The experiment begins And it continues in the video below.  Oh, does the experiment continue... In other news...  You can tell just how desperate Riley is for someone to play with him based on just how patient he's willing to be during play time.  I caught a video of hi...

I sanitized my first two board books yesterday!  I bought two board books from Goodwill -- Llama Llama Red Pajama and a felt flap book called Where's the Unicorn .  Yes, it sounds crazy to "wash" a book.  But considering just how thoroughly TerraDactyl attempts to eat her board books, I figured it was worth it.  I'm totally blaming my sister for introducing me to the concept of washing used books.  I'm only a weirdo because she's a weirdo.  If it weren't for her, I'd be totally normal.  Scout's Honor. Busy playing, but not willing to let go of that pacifier As TerraDactyl has been recovering from her cold, somehow she has shifted her bedtime from 7:30pm to 4pm.  Which means I have to wake up at 2am for a feeding and then 4am for the day.  Which is so not cool.  I was willing to consider starting my day at 5am.  But no way am I willing to start it at 4am.  I am neither delivering newspapers nor TPing someone's house (the...

Riley has been giving TerraDactyl lessons on how to be helpful I was trying to pack a bag with clothes and TerraDactyl kept crawling into the bag.  If it were Riley, I'd say he was worried I was going to leave without him.  But I think TerraDactyl was just exploring a bit.  She's never really watched me pack a bag before, so it was a new and unusual activity. How ''bout now?  Am I being helpful now? TerraDactyl is no longer happy with riding around the house in a front pack/wrap (it's still OK if we're out for a walk).  But she's perfectly fine if I'm holding her on my hip.  And of course, TerraDactyl doesn't want to put the effort in to hold on to me with her arms and legs (she CAN do this, she just chooses not to).  When she's all limp, it's a lot harder for me to hold her.  So, I've started practicing some side wraps to see if TerraDactyl will be satisfied with that.  So far she seems to be.  But it might just be the novel...

FINALLY!  TerraDactyl has finally fully figured out her pacifier!  She's more than 8 months old and she's just getting into the infant pacifier.  This particular pacifier actually says it's for babies less than 6 months, but since TerraDactyl still doesn't have any teeth, it's still OK for her.  She actually dragged this guy all over the house yesterday.  She got her finger stuck inside the pacifier part and just left it there while she crawled around.  When she finally tried to get her finger out, it was a little frustrating for her.  BUT she showed zero indications of holding a grudge against the pacifier after her finger was freed.  The downside to this development is that now we'll have to deal with breaking up with the pacifier someday down the line.  Oh, and now I've got to figure out how to wash the adorable stuffed animal, because TerraDactyl dragged that thing ALL over the house!  He's looking a little grungy today. A little...

TerraDactyl seems to be feeling better.  She's still napping more than usual, so I don't think she's totally healthy, but when she's awake, she's much more active and getting into all sorts of things.  She's getting so good at crawling and grabbing and trying to stand up...  my productivity is pretty low.  It would be nice if I could stick her in her jumper, but she wants to be moving .  Lil' stinker. Playing with all the toys Trigger Warning:  If you've got a weak stomach (or are just not a fan of TMI), just skip this paragraph.  Yesterday morning we found out just what happens to a baby that's got a constantly runny nose.  I was holding TerraDactyl and she started coughing and then...  She puked up all that snot and phlegm she's been swallowing for the last week.  It was not normal spit up or vomit.  It was very viscous.  But afterward she seemed pretty happy.  Poor kiddo.  I hope she learns to blow her nose ...

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends having your baby sleep in the same room as the parents (but not your bed) for the first 6 months of the baby's life , ideally a full year.  (This is to help reduce the risk of SIDS).  So I've had TerraDactyl sleeping in a bassinet next to my side of the bed.  Mid-wave!  It doesn't look like much, but this was totally a wave. However, as TerraDactyl has gotten older, she's started pulling up on things.  One morning I opened my eyes to see TerraDactyl staring at me over the side of her bassinet.  I blinked, and she disappeared.  I blinked again, and she was back.  She didn't have enough control to stay up like that (I'm pretty sure she face planted), but it was still concerning that it wouldn't be long before she'd be falling OUT of the bassinet.  So, after 8 months, it was time to transition to sleeping in her crib.  Our bedroom is not big enough to fit the crib, so that means TerraDact...