The Berry's Blog

at 8:43 AM | 1 comments    
Labels: Colin

Enjoying the Park - no fireworks for us this year, it is just way too crowded for me.
Colin requesting to be let out. My next house will be HUGE!
As you can see we are back in g's again. It was just an in between size thing that was giving us trouble. (Personally I would rather bridge the gap with disposables for a few weeks than have them make another size) Now that he is a solid large we haven't had any trouble. Oh and if you want to try g's on the cheap check out my friend Daisy's blog for an amazing discount (I think its like 50% off). You only have until July 31st.

at 9:28 PM | 6 comments    
Labels: holiday, pictures

Colin and I had our first baby swim class on Thursday. I had said I would consider it a success if he got into the pool and didn't scream the whole time. So it was a success! It was a bit rainy that day so it was a little chilly and the water in the pool, while not cold, certainly wasn't warm. I've never been good at swimming in chilly water so there were times in the pool where I wasn't sure which one of us was shaking. None of the other babies seemed to notice or mind... (I guess that makes me realize how much of a 'baby' I really am!) Colin really just wanted to hold onto me, we were supposed to encourage the babies to turn around to do things but Colin really wasn't having it. We'll work on that more next week.

Babies are supposed to be holding the wall.. that wasn't happening.

Lots of Mama's and babies!Cheesin'

at 10:13 PM | 4 comments    
Labels: classes, Colin, pictures

Too cute not to share. This took all of 10 mins for him to mimic, not something I went out to teach him he just started saying Na na na so I started singing and he started singing back.

Na Na Na Na from Rebecca Berry on Vimeo.

at 6:46 AM | 5 comments    
Labels: Colin, video

Taking Steps from Rebecca Berry on Vimeo.

at 6:45 AM | 3 comments    

Sean and I took Colin up to visit my family. Here are some pictures from our weekend.

Colin playing with a ball.

Look at that smile!

Someday we are going to look at this picture and say "Look how young we were!"

The Proud Papa (as in Father)

Colin making a funny face

Colin and the ball again.

Gardening with Grandma

Happy 2nd Birthday Lukas!

The Jones girls and their boys, nearly one year later.

A nice way to end the day.

at 8:13 PM | 5 comments    
Labels: family, Lukas, pictures

A photo series of Colin steppin'. This is the best I've gotten so far.

at 12:42 PM | 2 comments    
Labels: Colin, pictures

We took Colin to his first baseball game on Saturday. It was the Fox game so it started at 4pm, This was the only 4pm home game all year so we have been planning on going to this game since early May (1pm starts are mid-nap and 7pm starts are bed time). This was also our first time in the new citiFIELD. The game was pretty rainy but we were luckily under another level and protected. We endured an hour rain delay but unfortunately the Mets lost. Here are some pictures of our trip...

Me and my baby

Sean and Colin. Colin says Mets are #1

at 8:46 PM | 6 comments    
Labels: Mets, pictures

On Thursday, June 18th Colin took two consecutive steps by himself. On Friday he took three steps (teeny tiny steps, but steps none the less). Saturday morning he took 4 or 5, I lost count in my excitement! Sean was able to see it for the first time, and Colin even had enough strength left to take a few steps for my parents on the web cam. So far he only walks when he is focused on something else. We have tried to get him to walk between us and he gets giggling and his legs turn to jello. He basically just takes a step and then dives for Sean's outstretched arms. He then turns around and crawls back to me to do it again. I wouldn't call him 'walking' yet but he has taken his first steps. I'll try to catch it on camera soon.

at 11:01 PM | 2 comments    
Labels: Colin

Yesterday it rained all day long so Colin and I were trapped in the house. Colin was starting to get cranky with this situation until I remembered I had a bag full of craft pom-pom's. Boy was that a fun activity for the little guy. Please note-there are various sizes and some are clearly a choking hazard so he was monitored closely while playing. As you can see he was totally engrossed in the activity and could not be bothered to look at the camera for a photo.

at 8:15 PM | 5 comments    
Labels: Colin, pictures

at 10:09 AM | 11 comments    

It's that time of the month again (No not THAT time!) Colin is officially 11 months old. He seems to be getting taller but I won't have an official measurement until next month. I realized yesterday that I can hold his hands while he walks without bending over. I took today's pictures in the 'garden entrance' area of our building.


What's new this month?

Sleeping: Things are going well. He is typically getting up around 11pm/1am/5am which I can deal with. He does seem to be better at re-settling himself because we often hear him wake up at other times but doesn't need us to go back to sleep. We are also steadily working toward getting him to put himself to sleep without needing us at all. He gets put in the crib semi-awake these days and it doing well with that.

Weaning: Colin is now down to 4 nursing sessions a day. I've eliminated the session after his first nap and will eliminate the second naps session this weekend. He still isn't good about drinking milk so I've been giving him a snack of yogurt (2oz) plus some fruit and o's and that seems to do the trick. I've had to move up his overnight feeding from 3am to 1am but I'm confident once he is used to the new routine I will be able to eliminate that one too. When I loose the second naps feeding I think I'll just move up dinner an hour and then give a yogurt snack at 6pm. I offer milk at every meal and snack but he only drinks about 2oz all day. We are giving regular whole milk now instead of trying to get him used to formula just to switch again.

Likes:

• His new walk-behind walker and the blocks that are in it.
• Balls, although he doesn't have many, sometimes the dryer balls become toys! He loves watching them roll and trying to throw them.
  
• Doors and baby gates. He likes opening and closing them repeatedly. He is so interested in the gate at the kitchen door that I don't really have to worry about him coming into the kitchen. If the gate is open he will play with it until he closes it himself.
• Gagging himself. Obviously I'm not a fan of this behavior!
• New Favorite Foods: whole blueberries, watermelon (no lasting trauma from the falling fruit incident) , mac and cheese, and yogurt.

• Face washing (still!) You would think after all this time and after doing it 4 times a day he would get used to it. Nope!
• Chicken. He really doesn't like it and I think its a texture thing. We havn't tried beef yet because we don't eat much beef... same with fish. I worry a little about protien but I try to make sure he gets it from other places. Mac and Cheese has a surprising amount of protein, especially if you make it with yogurt! He isn't an egg yolk fan and he can't have whole eggs or peanut butter yet. Beans are hit and miss.
• Not being allowed to stand up in the bath. We are now compromsing and letting him kneel since he is now stable on his knees.
  
• The vacuum and hair dryer. He was over this for a while but now he is fearful of them again.
  

• Walking very well assisted and now often one handed. He has taken a few steps unassisted (and by that I mean 1 step a few times not a few steps in a row) but I'm not ready to call that walking. I think this month he'll do it but it could be more like 6 weeks.
  
• Signs/Words: "All done" is now only signed.. he never moved passed mimicing it verbally. He also signs more, but only when you ask him if he wants more. He just started signing 'dirty' this week and has mimiced it verbally twice. Seems like an odd sign to use I know. It is from an opposites book, I will sign the words I know as I read it and this one must have looked fun to him. I'm not entirely sure he knows what it means but if I say 'dirty' he will sign it. Here is a picture of him signing it.
  
  
• He is much better at manipulating his world now, he has re-discovered some of his toys with buttons and sound because he can push the buttons intentionally now and get it to make sounds. Obviously the cordless phone is also fun for him.

at 3:17 PM | 6 comments    
Labels: Colin is X old, pictures

Cheese!

No, Gap didn't pay for this advertisement...come to think of it neither did I.

This outfit is a hand-me-down.

A couple pitures from this morning before his nap

Nap? No thank you Mama. (It only lasted 40 mins)

Colin must have been really worn out from all that walking because he slept from 7:45ish until 2:00am!! After a quick snack he was a little challenging to put back to sleep but did sleep again until 5:00 (and then on and off until 6:45.) I don't expect him to repeat this performance anytime soon so I'm not worried about jinxing anything by reporting a one night success story.

Check back on the 17th for an 11-month update. (Can you believe it 11 months?!?)

at 10:16 AM | 6 comments    
Labels: Colin, pictures, sleep

1. They were baby watermelons not full size ones
2. They fell onto his lap not his head
3. He is a pretty sturdy kid now at nearly 11 months old.
4. He is a brute, physical injury doesn't usually cause him much distress.

Do other people think twice about where they park their strollers in the produce department? I never really considered the potential dangers of the produce department! Did you?

at 5:28 PM | 5 comments    
Labels: life lesson

Okay we have finally *finished* baby-proofing. Remember the original post?My big solution to all my problems in the living room was just to move everything out. Our bedroom is now overly crowded and a bit dorm room-ish with the desk, desk chair, filing cabinet, arm chair and laundry center now sharing space with our actual bedroom furniture. Here are the after photos of the LR.

at 3:53 PM | 6 comments    

Colin has been ready for a 'walker' (the kind you walk behind not sit in)for a little while so when I saw this one online I couldn't resist. This walker also has a bead maze and two compartments for blocks (with three different kinds of blocks inside) and it can be a stroller for a toy if he wants. It is not an eco-friendly toy unfortunately so the plastic blocks are probably made with PVC, but we'll just try to keep them out of his mouth. I absolutely love finding multi-functional toys like this.
Check out how much he LOVES his new toy. There are other similar videos if you click through to the vimeo site. The extra voices you may hear are Chris and Oana.

New Toy 2 from Rebecca Berry on Vimeo.

at 8:42 PM | 6 comments    
Labels: Colin, video

Colin and I made an impromptu trip to CT to visit Erin and the boys. Sean was going to be at school all evening and Erin's husband was out of town on business so I decided to drive up and visit. Since Erin didn't get out of class until 12 I decided to go and get Colin's hair cut at the same place Sam and Ben go. After a bit of a hairy last hour of the drive Colin was not too pleased about this new chair he was being strapped into, or the stranger who was man handling his head. Here are the photos.

DURING: (poor baby)



AFTER:

Am I happy with this cut, no not really. I understand why it was necessary but I'm not a huge fan of the buzz cut. His hair isn't soft anymore and he still looks like he has a mohawk. However, I do concede that the after is better than the before.

at 10:50 PM | 11 comments    
Labels: Colin, pictures

This weekend we took Colin to the queens zoo. It is a pretty small zoo but it has a petting zoo. We didn't really expect Colin to care much but we needed to get him out of the house on such a pretty day so off we went.

Colin and a sheep!

Reaching out again. Yes I think I have the whitest child on earth. Don't worry he had sunscreen on!

Colin and I check out the Scottish Cow. I'm pretty sure the cow didn't want his nose picked by Colin so I'm holding him back.

And the trip home... we were about 45mins late for his afternoon nap and he made sure to let us know!

at 3:25 PM | 4 comments    
Labels: Colin, pictures

I found some HFCS free ice pops so I let Colin try one. Check out his reaction. Too cute.

Colin eating an ice pop. from Rebecca Berry on Vimeo.

at 3:56 PM | 14 comments    
Labels: Colin, humor, video

I'm attempting to reject superstition and go ahead and discuss the success we have had with sleeping this week. After a very awful week or so, the last five days or so have been going really well. Colin has been sleeping 4-5 1/2 hours at a stretch between 9/10 and 2/3. Last night he only woke up TWICE! That is a miracle in my opinion. I attribute our success to a few things.

1. I re-instated a 3:30 feeding. I had him not eating until 5:00 but during our very bad week I had mistakenly tried to replace another daytime nursing session with formula. It went very badly and I had to feed Colin overnight because he was just so hungry. The next night he slept 5 hours until 3:30 and woke up hungry so I decided to 'reward' his long sleep by allowing him to nurse (and I was just so exhausted from the previous horrible night, I couldn't stomach the idea of fighting with him for hours again.) Since then he seems to be compromising with me. If I let him eat at 3:30, he will sleep from 9/10ish until around that time. He then goes back to sleep until 5:30/6:00.
   
2. The more he eats during his dinner meal the longer he sleeps. I'm really trying to boost protein and calories with his last real meal of the day. If he eats 4oz or more it seems to lead to 4+ hours of sleeping. He is a much better eater lately so this has become realistic.
3. He is starting to allow stomach sleeping. It was an accident that he ended up on his stomach one night, I thought for sure I would be back in his room in 10 mins but he slept 5 hours. The next night Sean got him to roll onto his stomach again and he stayed down for 4 hours. Now we are really encouraging this new position. Sean discovered that patting him on the back fast and firmly discourages him from pushing up to a crawl and he goes to sleep.
   

at 10:26 AM | 1 comments    
Labels: sleep