San Francisco Summer #2

It's Ronan's second summer in SF and this one is proving to be a lot warmer than his first. It's actually sunny here. It's sometimes... hot. We've gone an entire week without using the heater. What is going on here? We're not sure how to deal with morning sunlight and we feel a little insecure without the bank of fog that follows both of us as we leave for Palo Alto and Berkeley. But of course, we're thrilled that Ronan can have a "real" summer. And a scorcher it is!

So, sun and summer have replaced baby blogging. It's funny how an activity like blogging can be almost obsessive, and then once you take a break -- poof -- that drive to post all the time vanishes. I won't even try to recap Ronan's last month and a half (14.5 to 16 months) so I'll just describe what he likes to do now. No pictures yet, since we're still trying to figure out our new iMac.

1. First steps! He's been a crawler (a fast rabbit) for many months but we knew he'd walk when he darn well pleased. We couldn't really show him any incentives for walking over crawling because he showed US that he could get everything he wanted -- snacks, electronics, ladders, drawers, doors, latches, animals, cell phones, hugs -- by crawling, kneeling, and climbing over everything in sight. If there were ever a crawl-a-thon, I think he'd win. He's relentless! Hot pavement, rocks, mud, twigs, gravel, wet grass... it makes no difference to him. After 7-8 months of this, I'm sure his palms and knees are like leather. We took him to Best Buy last weekend, and people literally stopped in their tracks and stared at the little dynamo racing down the aisles to the flat-screen monitors and cords. I jogged to keep up with him and a couple of times I almost tripped over him as he abruptly switched directions and took off for the sound systems. We've always thought crawling is so much better than walking because he gets into enough trouble on all fours; who knows how fast and energetic he'll be on two legs??! (But, I will look forward to not having to clean Best Buy floor grime off his hands all the time.)

But anyway, back to walking. On Monday he took his first few steps! Lisa said he walked a few paces, laughed, clapped, and sat down. Every day since then, he's been spending lots of time "walking" things round and round the house. It's sooooo adorable to watch his feet flap on the floor like a little duck. Everyone is talking about youtube, so when we figure out how to get digital video clips onto our iMac, we'll post something up. (Of course I've been saying that for a year now!)

2. Signs. He's added a few more signs to his repetoire. He does "hot" (blowing), "bath" (hands washing hair), "no" (what do you think?) "happy" (clapping hands), "milk" (squeezing fist), "dog" (a very funny "woof!"). He has also created a few signs of his own that we haven't decoded yet.

3. Words! We think his first word was "Hi!" which developed from the "Ay ay!" he said for many months, with a big smile, whenever someone walked into the room. He loves saying Hi to everyone as often as he can. It's so sweet. He also says "Oh" a lot, like when he bumps into something and falls down: "Oh." And when he's pushing his toy walker and it slams into a wall: "Oh." It's terribly cute. Lately, he has started saying "Wow." We'll be driving along in relative silence, and then suddenly, a little "Wow" comes from the backseat.

We think a pretty big cognitive leap for the little guy was when he was able to sign "hot" for things (the stove) and feelings (100 degrees at a friend's BBQ). Not bad! The boy's first abstract thought. :-)

4. Games. Okay, Ronan loooooves playing games. His favorite game is called "Strong Man," and cousin Kristi taught it to him at Idyllwild. It goes like this: Ronan pushes you (your arm, your leg, your chest) and you go flying across the room, usually with loud groans, and land on the floor. He runs up to you (where you've fallen) and pushes you again. And you go flying or rolling even further. He loves this game. He laughs so hard he's almost not breathing. And he can't wait to catch up with you so he can push you again. Strong Man can take up a whole room, or a whole house if you have the energy. We think it might give him slightly delusional views of his own strength, so we plan to curb Strong Man before he starts pre-school so he doesn't go around shoving other kids and laughing. ;-)

Ronan has taken Peekaboo to a new level recently by playing it with himself. It's too cute. I say "Peek a boo, Ronan" and he hides his eyes with his little fists, grinning as if I can't see him. Then he drops his hands and bursts out laughing. Then it's fists up and he's hiding from me again. When we get to the peekaboo page of his Curious George book, he plays along with George.

5. Cupboards and clothes. Ronan still loves opening cupboards and drawers, going through all the contents, and rearranging things for us. He went through a period of hiding things (biscuits, magnets) in tupperware and pots and pans inside the cupboards. And he's figured out the childproofed locks on the silverware drawers so he now gets to "set" our floor with forks, vegetable brushes, ladles, and potato mashers. Ronan's also in a clotheshorse phase now. He loves the shoes, belts, and ties in Daddy's closet (mommy's clothes aren't nearly as fun!). And when he gets the opportunity, he takes all his little clothes out of his set of drawers, flings them on the rug, and piles them all back in. How thoughtful! A funny thing that Ronan has started doing: taking our housekeys and trying to "unlock" all the doors and cupboards in the house. This will keep him busy for at least 15 minutes.

He can now reach all the doorknobs and try to turn them. Uh-oh. Our small saving grace is that most of our doors are pretty old so you need to lean in and turn the knob for the door to open. Still, we're going to put those big plastic bubble things over the most dangerous doors and, at last, install the gate on the steps leading to the basement.

6. Eating. He's chowing a ton these days. Not truly adult food, but toddlerized versions of it, certainly. I'm often amazed at how much he can pack into that tiny tummy. For breakfast it's usually a big bowl of whole grain cereal mixed with yogurt and banana, melon balls, toast and milk. Lunch is a bowl of pasta with veggies or meat, a tangerine, cheese, and milk. Dinner is meat, veggies, fruit, and cereal, with some yogurt or cottage cheese for dessert. And he has carrots and apples and veggie chips for snacks during the day.

From 9 - 14 months, he fed himself with a spoon at least half the time, but lately he has "forgotten" how to do this. We're picking up the slack, of course, but wondering what happened?? Did we get too lazy and not let him feed himself enough? We now put the spoon on his tray, and he just stares at it! He pokes the food and smears it all around. Sometimes, when he's really hungry, he leans his whole head down and tries to eat the food off the spoon, but he will not pick up the spoon. Now THAT is funny.

We always thought we wouldn't give him any junk food, but over the weekend in Sausalito, the hot sunny lazy weather got to our heads. We gave him a few french fries from that burger joint that always has a long line -- he loved them. And we also gave him his first sip of soda! Bad parents! And it wasn't even normal soda -- it was Diet Coke! I thought he'd have a coughing fit, but he really, really liked it.... Uh-oh...

7. 15-month stats. At Ronan's 15 month well-baby visit, he weighed 25 pounds (55%) and was 34 inches (94%). He cried inconsolably through the whole visit. It was so sad. It wasn't even because of the shots (those weren't so bad); it was the whole atmosphere and the fact that he couldn't crawl around and touch everything.

8. How could I forget our most important development? Weaning. I weaned Ronan on his 15-month birthday, and it was pleasantly easy for both of us (though I missed it a lot in the beginning). He probably would have been fine weaning at 8 months (remember all those nursing strikes he did?), but I was determined to nurse him at least a year. I'm so glad I made it to 15 months. I'll certainly miss those special bonding times, just him and me in the quiet of his room, but it is SO nice to be free and have my body back too! And weaning has allowed both C & I to do his bedtime ritual of bathing, brushing teeth, and reading books together. It's all good. And what a relief to pack away the breastpump, bottles, and milk bags. :-)

9. Reading. One of our favorite times of the day is reading to him before bed. He really looks forward to it too. He reclines in our lap, sucks his thumb, and turns the pages. When we say "The End," he signs "more" and touches our lips. His favorite books these days are Goodnight Moon, The Going to Bed Book, I Love My Daddy, and Curious George - The Movie. We didn't really understand it when other parents said they read books dozens of times to their kids, but now we do! Ronan says "more" at the end of every book so we end up reading each one 2 or 3 times and we leave his room sleepy and ready for bed too.

Lastly, many thanks to auntie Kristine, who came to visit (and babysit) in early July. It was sooo nice of her to watch Ronan on July 7, so Christian and I could go out for our 4-year wedding anniversary. A delish dinner at La Folie and a night at the Campton Place Hotel, sans bebe -- it was a perfect getaway without having to leave our city. And Kristine got lots of Ronan love to last her till... October? Can't wait to see you again, Kristine. :-)