A Bad Sign?

A few mornings ago, I got up to feed Kiren around 4 am (Kiren's sleeping pattern for the past few weeks involves going to sleep around 7 pm, waking up to eat once between 4 and 5ish, and then waking up for good around 7am). For once, I managed to get out of the bed without waking up Vivek. But when I got back from putting Kiren back to sleep, Vivek was awake and had a story for me. Apparently after I left, our dog jumped into my recently vacated, warm spot. Vivek woke up and heard Kiren fussing a bit, and he started gently poking the dog, saying "Hey Aims, the baby is fussing -- he might be hungry." Needless to say, Bailey didn't respond as he expected, so he woke up further to see why I was ignoring him. He was pretty startled when he realized it was Bailey instead of me!

I Love My Wolverines!

This past Thursday evening, we took Kiren to his first basketball game. We had season tickets to basketball last year, and despite being some of the only people in the stadium (MI is not that good at basketball, typically), we really enjoyed ourselves. So we decided to get season tickets again this year. The Wolverines have a new head coach, so there is even a bit of a buzz around the team (this is still mainly a football town, though). The Big 10 has a dumb rule that requires everyone to have a ticket -- yes, that's right, our 5.5 month old has to have his own ticket. Luckily the tickets for basketball aren't all that expensive (did I mention we're not very good?).

The evening games usually start at 7, which is just about the time that Kiren typically goes to bed. So we're a bit worried that this is going to be a challenging season. For any game that we really, really want to watch, we'll get a babysitter, but we're going to try to take Kiren to as many of the other games as possible because we don't care if we have to leave early.

On Thursday evening, for that first first game, our goal was just to make it to halftime. It was an exhibition against Ferris State, so we were pretty sure that we wouldn't be missing a close game. Kiren was an angel, and we made it WAY past halftime. He didn't get fussy until well into the second half. He seemed to be pretty intrigued by the motion on the court (we sit in the upper deck, so it must have looked a bit like television to him, which also catches his eye quite often), and I think he liked the band music too. Michigan was up by almost 40 points or something, so we felt it was safe to leave with about 8 minutes to go.

All in all, it was an excellent outing and it hopefully bodes well for the rest of the season -- go Blue!!

Yum, Rice Cereal

Just before our four month appointment, Kiren was going through a big growth spurt, and I didn't feel that I had enough milk for him during our breastfeeding sessions (or I had just enough to keep him from fussing, but not enough to be sure that he didn't want just a little more). After a few days, I called our pediatrician's office to see if I could try to some solid food to supplement. The nurse said that the very, very earliest they suggest solid food is four months, so she felt we should wait. Just about the time I needed to decide whether to listen that advice, Kiren stopped eating as much (and my milk supply likely adjusted too). We made it to the four month appointment, and the doc said that it wasn't necessary, but we were welcome to try some solid food if we wanted. So we tried some very liquid-y rice cereal that very evening, and Kiren had no idea what to do with it. He didn't know how to swallow it, so it ended up all over his chin and outfit. We could see that he wasn't ready for solids, so we waited another month.

I tried it again on October 9th, and Kiren still wasn't sure what to do with the food. I probably would have waited a few more weeks before trying again, but during the next week, Kiren started watching us eat very intently and opening his mouth when we were taking a bite.

So we tried rice cereal again just a week later (Oct. 16th) to see if he'd figured out what to do with the food. As we were beginning, my never-can-be-still boy was flailing his arms about. Vivek asked me if I wanted him to hold Kiren's arms down, and I assured him I had it. A few seconds later, rice cereal was all over my shirt, my pants, the floor, the high chair, and, of course, Kiren's face and hair. Kiren had managed to bring his arms down and flip over the entire bowl of food I was holding. Through laughter, I scooped a few spoonfuls off the tray to see if it was going to work this time. Sure enough, Kiren had figured out how to swallow food. That didn't mean that it didn't get all over him after that; to the contrary, half of every bite ended up on his chin or shirt. But since he seemed to like those few bites okay, I made another bowl of cereal, and he gobbled it up the entire bowl. Here's a series of pics taken during that feeding (if you look closely, he has cereal all over him).

The last one makes it seem that he loves the food, and it is definitely the best smile we've ever caught on camera. But in truth, Vivek was behind me making Kiren giggle.

Since then, we've given him some rice cereal every day between regular feedings, and it seems to be going just fine. Last week, Vivek branched out and tried applesauce, and I tried it again the next day. That was not a hit, at all. Kiren made the most sour face I've ever seen. Since then, he's also made a sour face at the banana baby food. Hmm, he doesn't seem to like anything with taste!
As sour as this face is, it doesn't even do justice to the first face he made.