My Crazy Little Monkey

Steven is almost 11 months old now, and he's figuring out how to get into everything. He can't walk yet, but he can stand up while holding onto the couch, the wall, the table, ect... and he can climb like crazy.

First he figured out how drawers worked and had fun emptying them all out for a few weeks (he still does every chance he gets). Then he realized that if he grabbed onto a drawer, he could do a chin-up and see what was on top of the TV cabinet. We can't leave anything solid on the floor by the cabinet anymore because he'll do a chin-up and swing his feet around to find something to stand on and then he'll start pulling everything down from on top of the cabinet.

At least he understands basic commands now... if you can get his attention. He understands "no" and "down", but if you don't say them sternly enough he just laughs. He definitely listens when you yell, but I try only to do it when he's doing something dangerous.

We've also switched him to homo milk (that was actually about a month ago, I just forgot to write it). I thought we had to wait a year, but the baby clinic told be differently. It's still expensive, but not nearly as bad as formula. It does go bad really fast, though. I usually try to grab his bottle and rinse it out when he's done drinking because if I leave it for an hour the bit of milk left in it will curdle.

Nat Med Talk

Some of you may know that I'm a natural medicine buff (I don't think I've really talked about it here yet) and some of you know that I'm a bit of a forum buff, too... I kind of get lost once I get writing on forums because there's always something new to research or debate. I love learning, so sometimes someone will post a question and even though I've never even thought about it before I'll suddenly be curious and spend hours on Google compiling an answer.

Anyways, I found Nat Med Talk the other day and I'm loving it. It's an awesome community of natural medicine buffs, all of whom are extremely supportive and patient. Some of their beliefs are a little more extreme than mine, but most of them are accepting of everyone's choices. I've been a member of communities before where taking Tylenol was practically a crime!

The forum is very well organized, and it's easy to have a look around and see if your question has already been answered before you post it. The admin even tacks the posts that are likely to apply to a lot of people up at the top of the sub-forums, such as the post about vitamin D reducing your chances of getting breast cancer in the Women's Health sub-forum.

If you're into natural medicine, check it out. Just please remember to double check everything. Most of the people on the forum aren't professionals, so even though they've done the research you should double check it just to be safe. Also, if you have something really serious, please go to the doctor instead of asking an online community for advice.

Growing Tree Toys Sale!

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I thought I'd get caught up again after the wedding, but instead I've been concentrating on stocking up my Etsy store before school starts.

Anyways, just found out that Growing Tree Toys is having a sale August 3rd to August 8th and thought I'd share. You'll get 25% off any order, no matter how big or small it is, so check it out!

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

I just got an e-mail newsletter from BareOrganics.ca that reminded me of this awesome book by Dr. Seuss. If you don't already have it in your collection, I highly recommend it. Nothing beats Dr. Seuss' genius poetry combined with an eco-friendly message... plus the Lorax is pretty cute.

Standing up

Steven is getting more and more mobile. Since figuring out how to crawl, it seems like he's always working on the next step. His army crawl is still faster than his regular crawl, but he's figured out how to get up on his hands and knees when he needs the extra leverage or height. He's also climbing all over everything and loves standing up with the help of our footstools to see what we're up to.

Needless to say, it's no longer enough to keep dangerous things off the floor. Now we have to keep everything out of his reach. So we can't leave anything on the couches anymore and we have to be careful about cords, bags and anything else hanging over the edge of tables.

He hasn't yet figured out how to walk with the help of a chair or couch, but I have a feeling it will be quite an adventure when he does.

Teething Woes

Steven has been relatively good with teething so far. His first four teeth didn't give him too much trouble - he got a teething fever once or twice and was generally happy with whatever teether we handed him.

However, this fifth one seems to be giving him trouble. He won't take any of the teethers, is only happy when he's eating and spends most of his time screaming until he's red in the face. That's even after giving him Oragel and/or Tylenol. This morning he quieted down for a bit while I was holding him - he actually fell asleep for almost 3 hours, not counting the times I tried to put him down and he woke up long enough to screech until I picked him up again. Now he's not even happy when he's being held...

So I'm on a search for new ideas. If anyone has stories to share, feel free to comment or send me an e-mail. I'll let you know if I find anything.

Cookie Monster

Yesterday we were at Foodland and I was putting stuff on the cashier's counter when I noticed Steven holding a box of cookies. I asked Bill if he'd given them to him because he sometimes does things like that to be cute ("how did those get there?"), but he hadn't picked them up. So I took them away, which caused quite a bit of fussiness all of a sudden - Steven doesn't normally complain, but I guess he really wanted those cookies.

It took me a while to figure out how he had gotten a hold of them. There's a shelf full of cookies at the end of the fridge/freezer aisle, right beside the milk. I put the stroller right beside them when I was looking at the personal frozen meals, and I guess he decided they looked good.

The ironic part is that I put back the cookies he picked out for himself and forgot to get more of the baby ones he normally eats. Guess I'm going back today - but this time I'll keep him away from the shelves.