Milo's Page

Vital Statistics:

News and Updates

Sunday, 2/6/2005

I told you updates were going to become more sporadic and widely spaced. Anyway, sorry it's been so long. But that means there's lots to tell!
Since our last update, we've been to Albuquerque for Christmas, endured another baby cold, watched in amazement as Milo has learned to sit up, roll around on the floor, babble, and has made other astounding jumps in his mental and physical abilities.
Christmas trip: We flew down to ABQ on December 22nd, Milo's first plane ride! On the whole, he did great. He was pretty interested in all the goings-on at the airport, and managed to nurse more or less when we needed him to during the ascent and descent. He fussed a bit while we were coming in to ABQ, but really not much. Not like those terror flights where there's an inconsolate infant for the whole ride. On the whole we had a great time visiting with Terina's family; Milo thoroughly enjoyed having so many people around to play with him. On the down side, we went through the baby sleep "perfect storm", wherein the new environment, the new people, a nasty cold, and some developmental jumps all conspired to keep Milo from sleeping more than an hour or two at a stretch. So for two weeks it was like having a newborn again. We were so tired. But other than that, it was a dandy trip. Still, I think we're going to make people come visit us for Christmas for a while.
Sleeping: thankfully, Milo got over his cold before we came home, and returned to his good sleep habits within a couple of days after we got home. We've been working to establish a much stricter routine for bedtimes and naptimes, with good results. At night he regularly sleeps from 7:30 or so till around 6:00 the next morning, although about half the time he'll wake up for a half hour or so, at some random point in the night, to yell at us. We ignore it, and he goes back to sleep on his own. Naps are another story. Sometimes he'll go straight to sleep without much fuss, other times he'll scream for a long time before falling asleep (he just went about 40 minutes, as I type this, before giving it up), and he has been known to yell long enough to outlast our patience.
Sitting up: Milo has become quite the expert sitter now. He still can't get to a sitting position by himself, but when placed in one he can stay there for quite a long time. Any more he seems to only flop over when he's trying to reach something that's far away, so it's unclear whether his flopping over is accidental or intentional.
Rolling: In just the past couple of weeks, Milo has not only figured out how to roll from his back to his belly, but how to put that new trick together with the belly-to-back roll in order to move around. It seems almost a foregone conclusion that he'll be crawling for real within another week or two. We are both proud and terrified, and scrambling to baby-proof the house. We put a gate across the stairs yesterday, and have replaced the dangerous glass in our entertainment center with plexiglass, but there's still so much left to do.
Babbling: He has also become much more vocal this past month. About three weeks ago, now, he all of a sudden started babbling in a different, much more intentional way. He'll practice saying "ba-ba-ba-ba", "wa-wa-wa-wa" and other similar (although sometimes less easy to classify) sounds. We encourage him in this, and babble back at him like the parenting books suggest, and have also started making much more use of baby signs so he'll have those in his mind for when he's ready for them too.
Teething: Despite the doctor's indications at his four month checkup, Milo has still not cut his first tooth yet. So I guess he won't be an early teether after all, which really is just fine. They'll come out when they're ready.
Six months old! Milo turned six months old on January 31st (by the calendar), January 30th (by number days since 7/31/04), or January 25th (by lunar months). Take your pick. Although he didn't get to have any, we made him half a cake to celebrate. Along with turning 6 months old, Milo got to go to the doctor for a checkup. The doctor gave him a clean bill of health, and we spent a long time talking with her about feeding. For the past six weeks or so, Milo has been quite keen on watching us eat. We noticed this while were were in Albuquerque for Christmas, and ever since then one of his favorite things to do is to watch us eat dinner. He's just fascinated by the way the fork or spoon goes up full, and comes back down empty. You can see the "hey, where's mine!" gears turning in his little head. So, after talking about it with the doctor, we started feeding him on February 1st. He got the usual first baby food, rice cereal flakes mixed with breastmilk. We nearly made a disaster out of the experience by using milk that had been in the fridge a little too long, but fortunately we tasted it first before giving any. It was so bad we needed to have brownies to get the taste out of our mouths. So we ended up pumping some fresh milk and starting over. Milo just loved it. He ate it right up and seemed to have a great time doing so. We've been doing that ever since, once a day near to our dinnertime. He has done remarkably well with it. He must have been really really ready for food, as it took him almost no time at all to figure out that he's supposed to eat the cereal (as opposed to spitting it out, rubbing all over his face, etc.) Which is not to say that he doesn't lose quite a bit of it down his chin, but on the whole he actually eats a lot more of it than I would have expected.
Our little reader: We read to Milo as much as we can. We read to him before bed, and most times, before naps too. When he's not too tired, he will even turn the pages! We get to the end of the page, and ask "Can you turn the page for me?" and most times, he'll reach out for the page and flip it over. Sometimes it's a bit of a challenge getting him to let go of the page, and sometimes he wants to turn the pages backwards through the book, but hey, he's only six months!
And finally, although this is not about Milo specifically, it bears mentioning: babies are just coming out of the woodwork these days! Terina's best friend Deborah is pregnant, and get this, her due date is August 6th! Just one year minus one day from Milo's due date. And as of January 30th, Milo has a cousin! Jason's sister Lydia had her baby, one Maia Jane Stark, who is just adorable. We can't wait to introduce them!

As updates to this page become more sporadic and widely spaced, it may become less convenient for you to check regularly for updates. If you would prefer to be notified by e-mail when updates are posted, just send Jason an e-mail about it and he'll put you on the mailing list.

Old News

Pictures

Since there are so many pictures now, I'm arranging them in groups by month:

August 2004	September 2004	October 2004
November 2004	December 2004	January 2005

Movies

• Just hanging out, with a little bit of crying at the end.
• Sucking his pacifier.
• Dreaming. You can't really see it in the video, but in person we could see him having rapid eye movement and everything. I wonder what babies dream about?
• Sitting Up. A short movie of Milo sitting up by himself on the couch with only a little help from Daddy.
• Rolling Over. Belly-to-back.
• Laughing