Ten Months Old - July 15

Eko’s mobility is developing before our eyes. His tummy skooch has become a confident hands-knees crawl, but he’s not exclusive. He’ll pick whatever style gets him to the object of his curiosity the fastest, whether it’s a speed-crawl to the kitty or an otter-style tummy slide across a smooth floor to a forbidden outlet. He can quickly pull himself to his feet, then cruise around the perimeter of the room using tables, gates, banisters, our legs, even a smooth wall. We still have some time before those first independent steps, but for now, he doesn’t seem very interested in walking. He wants to go vertical. Once he’s up, he’s looking for the next handhold high above his head or digging in a foot or knee, always trying to get higher. He’s already climbed our stairs in less than thirty seconds! After a few tumble-filled weeks, he can now lower himself back to the floor just as smoothly and catches his falls most of the time. When he discovers a new move, he practices it over and over until he gets it just right.

Teething continues to preoccupy Eko, filling our days with the clove-smell of Gummomile oil and leaving no new object unchewed. Last month, we thought we were only dealing with the top four incisors coming all at once, when really his lower two incisors were close behind. Now his little smile has eight teeth which he uses to bite bits of our food, but usually then spits out since he has no way to chew it yet. He’s still not entirely convinced that food is a great idea, but we’ve tried to maintain a three-meal-a-day schedule to get him into the routine. His favorite is yogurt, and if we’re sneaky, we can mix some purees into it. He’s fascinated by whatever we’re eating, so we give him solids he can hold and taste, like orange slices (he nurses the juice out) and toast corners (demolished into a dozen soggy bits beneath the high chair). His real love is for blueberries.We have a routine: take a tiny bite, squish the innards into his mouth, and eat the rest ourselves. We’ve been practicing baby sign, so we're constantly demonstrating for Eko the gesture meaning ‘more’ as he begs for more and more berries. Meals usually have a few eagerly accepted spoonfulls before dissolving into manic finger-painting of greenbean goo all over his high chair tray. We figure the tactile/sensory exploration is just as important as learning about flavors.

Eko loves music! With a juke-box of a father, this is no surprise, but it’s still adorable. He gets so excited when we play Just Dance on the Xbox, waving his arms and bouncing (he ‘dances’ the most to Harry Belafonte’s Jump the Line, of course.) He’ll often bob to the music, even when we just sing or clap, and loves to drum on any surface, be it the couch or Jade’s head as he rides on her shoulders. And Jay has to run through his standard repertoire of Belafonte's Turn the World Around, Phish's Dirt, and Simon & Garfunkel's The Boxer when it's his turn to lull Eko to sleep.

We still enjoy sharing our bed with Eko, but as the summer has gotten hotter and he’s gotten bigger and more mobile, our queen-size bed has seemed more like a threat than the cozy nest it once was. Our fears manifested when he rolled out of bed in the middle of the night. The carpet broke his fall and he was more surprised than hurt, quickly falling back to asleep. (It was worse for Jade. She had nightmares the rest of the night as she kept him firmly in her grasp.) The next day the bedframe was dismantled and the bed put on the floor. Eko loves it—it’s like a whole new playground. But this experience only affirmed the need to get serious about the crib transition.

We hear of babies his age who, upon moving to their own room in their own crib, begin to sleep longer once they realize mom’s not going to be there for snacking all night. This was not the case with Eko, though we are slowly making progress. He now falls asleep in our arms much faster than before and transitions a lot more easily into the crib shortly after, though it can take a few tries. He takes all of his naps in the crib without much fuss. The trouble is that when he wakes up mid-nap, he’s on his feet within seconds and we have to pick him up, soothe him back to sleep, and cross our fingers that we can lay him in his crib again without waking him. Bedtime is even trickier. During the day, 90 minutes is a great nap, but it means a lot of interventions to get through a night. Once it hits 11:30, he simply refuses to be put back in that crib and wakes each time we transfer him.

So we accept that for now he’s a part-time cribber, a part-time cosleeper. Back to our bed he goes, where he seems to drift off next to Jade with relief. He clearly feels the most comfortable here: he sleeps deeply, only stirring a little to nurse or ‘ask’ for a change in position. Even in the bed we’re noticing that he needs less physical contact and less nursing to fall back asleep. The transition is slower than we imagined, but we’re trying to be respectful of his temperament while challenging him gently… and still getting enough sleep to function the next day.

Eko’s communication is also blossoming. He clearly asks for Mama-mama, and says Dada a lot, too. When we make sounds, he’ll often respond with his own version (an elephant trumpet is his favorite, but he can also mimic laughs, moos, and mews). He calls booby ‘boo’ and each time he and Jay walk the stairs, he calls out BA! when they get to the stair that makes a natural echo. (Daddy taught him that!)

We're fortunate to have seen many of our friends and family this month, some meeting Eko in person for the first time. Rob and Joanna drove up from Virginia to spend the 4th of July in northern Vermont and made a stop in New Hampshire. We spent a lot of time at home, catching up and playing with Eko, but the five of us managed to squeeze in a short hike up Black Mountain before they headed north. Eko demonstrated his amazing new standing abilities, repeatedly surprising Jade by pulling many drinks into her lap!

The following weekend was TogetherFest, a mostly annual event we've been hosting since 2004.  TogetherFest began as a 5-year anniversary celebration with our friends and family, but continued as more of a Harmon-Fee family reunion with larger gatherings occurring every few years. For our 13th anniversary, we decided to host a bigger event this year at the Path of Life Sculpture Garden, a spot we first visited when Jade was 31 weeks pregnant. To see original slideshow, click here. With a potluck brunch spread out and a few tents to shade us from the sun, we hung out with a bunch of adorable families in front of the driftwood band that represents creativity, eventually gathering everyone at family for a group photo and some songs. Kids picked berries and folks got (briefly) lost in the maze. It was great to see everyone, including Sierra and Jubilee (our youngest guests, at 2 months old), Jay's sister Maureen (who braved a dead battery and engine trouble to make it), and Jay's nephews, Billy and Jakob, who were meeting their cousin for the first time.

The Harmon side wasn't able to attend TogetherFest this year, so we hosted a separate event the following weekend to celebrate Jade's father's retirement. It was especially momentous to see Mykel and his family who moved to California two years ago and were meeting our Eko and Adam’s Demsond and Leo for the first time. Six adults and five kids all under one roof braving the oppressive heat and humidity! Children of all ages were walking a fine line between contentment and meltdown, but for every cry there was three times as much giggling and a lot of really sweet comradery. Sophia and Kai loved the lake, and the kiddy pool helped the little guys cool off! It was wonderful to see everyone together again and to have all of our children playing together for the first time.

Eko was very inspired by his older, more mobile cousins. The day after they left, he started crawling faster than ever. We'll find out how influential they were over the coming weeks, as Eko becomes even more adventurous on his feet.

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Eko Song 6 - June 2012

Nine Months Old - June 15

Nine months have passed since Eko's birth, which means that his time spent outside the womb is now equal to his time within. In only nine months, he's grown from a 7lbs. 6oz. wrinkly and fragile baby into a 21ish lb. semi-independent little boy. Every day he builds upon the progress he made the day before and every month he seems to have developed into an entirely new creature.

Last month we were excited to see Eko crawling for the first time, prompting us to start baby proofing. We gated the stairs and moved everything low to higher ground. Eko now happily roams the entire first floor in relative safety. It's such a delight to watch him crawl around the circle, disappearing through one doorway and reappearing around the staircase again, slowed down only by his fascination with the baseboard heater (very resonant), the paint tape on the floor (it's like a taggie), the cat door... okay, anything round, shiny, rainbowy, or made with nylon strapping slows him down... but he eventually makes his way back to the living room again. We thought our hands were full keeping him away from wires and the various only-visible-to-the-baby-eye items on the floor... But then, while playing on the bathroom floor, he reached his little hands up onto the bathtub and pulled himself into a standing position. With this new skill achieved, he now tries to pull himself up on everything, even the crib.

Yes, the crib.  Recognizing that Eko has reached a certain degree of independence, we decided now would be a good time to begin his peaceful transition to his own bed and eventually his own room. Since his birth, Eko has slept in our queen-sized bed with us, and for the first many months Jade could not imagine parting with him at night. But as he's metamorphosed into more of his own little person, she's felt herself take a step back, physically and energetically. It feels very natural and a lot safer for him to sleep in his own space.

We had been using a co-sleeper for naps, but since he began crawling (often in his sleep) the nest of pillows barricading him on the bed had become ridiculous to rebuild for each nap. We've had a crib for him all along, so we moved it into our room and to our astonishment, his first crib nap lasted two hours. He seems to view it as just another place to sleep. We even wonder if he's a little relieved to be on that spacious, cool mattress. He's adjusted so well to it that we've already had to move the mattress down—he quickly learned it was a great climbing wall. After a nighttime routine of bath, massage, and book, we're still rocking and nursing him to sleep and then easing him into the crib, and he's usually back in the big bed with us an hour after we go to sleep, but baby steps. Helping him learn to fall asleep in the crib and stay there longer is the next adventure. Still, he's consistently getting either two long naps or three shorter naps and around 11 hours at night, but his new teeth have definitely shaken up his routine. 

This month, Eko has been working on all four of his upper incisors, making him uncommonly irritable. His little nose has been running continuously and he's been teething hard on anything he can gnaw, from icy teethers and toys to buckles, name tags, and our cell phones (which is why our phones are occasionally gummed up with drool or green beans). He even grinds his teeth together, a chilling sound as he explores his new gear. For the most part, he seems to be handling teething calmly, but with so much physical development going on at once it's only natural that he experience bouts of frustration and fussiness, but these moments are in the minority.

Eko has also been extra sweet this month. Some days he's all smiles and wild laughter... especially when he's playing outside. Over Momorial Day weekend, while Oma and Grandpa were visiting, we set up our screened-in tent to create a shaded play space on our deck for him. Even though we put down quilts and carpets, Eko would continuously crawl to an edge and fixate on the deck's peeling paint. He's also splashed around in his kiddie pool while our resident bulfrog Rupert croaks in the distance, hiked Black Mt. for the second time, and ridden around in his new Chariot (courtesy of Graham and Lee). Eko loves being outside so much he's often upset to come back in.

Our teething, crawling, standing boy has also been adding new sounds to his repertoire. Wawa eventually turned into dada (which could mean mean "daddy," "Sasha," or something else entirely) and soon after he began saying ba-mama-mama. He'll also just blurt out "da" or "ma" on their own. When he's not mama-ing or dada-ing, he's mainly giggling, which can now be triggered with diabolical laughter or even staring. Our little happy guy has also just begun to see books as something to sit and enjoy rather than just gnaw on. It makes our book-loving hearts sing to see him get so excited about his farm animal book, and even crawl over to his book shelf to "choose" a few before bedtime.

No big trips this month, but we did bring Eko to Manchester, NH, to meet Jess and Scott's newborn girl, Sierra. And in anticipation of this year's TogetherFest, we visited the Path of Life Sculpture Garden in Windsor, VT, which we first wandered when Jade was pregnant. After all the rain we've experienced, the grounds were a little soggy for crawling, but we picnicked at the site representing Sorrow (and made it a little happier), swung for a while in the hammock at shady Respite, and ended with a trek through the hedge maze that represents Adventure. Afterward, we grabbed some local ice cream and a ginger wheat beer from Harpoon next door. Eko, now a master glass-sipper, was upset not to be offered a taste of the golden water in that pretty glass.

Just a few days ago, Eko came down with his first fever. He's obviously uncomfortable, acting lethargic and moaning a lot, but at the same time he's the sweetest little thing. He's still so easy to make giggle (a little deliriously—Miss Piggy cracks hm up!) and just wants to be held all the time, which we accept willingly. The fever also causes him to wake up a lot throughout the night. We're all a little dazed during the day, but he's already perking up and returning to his usual cheerful, adventurous self.

And so we wrap up nine months of sharing our lives with this incredible little being we call Kokopelli, Ekopotomus, and Doodle Bug. Don't be surprised if our next post begins, "let the walking begin." It's just amazing how much he learns and grows in such a short amount of time, but we continuously resist the urge to claim "it goes so fast." The fact is, it just never stops changing... nor would we ever want it to. Would we ever put down a book because we had just read a particularly well written chapter? No... we continue to consume the rest of the book and await the author's next one. Just because the moment changes doesn't mean it's gone, which is what this blog is all about.

Our advice to all parents and parents-to-be, revel in the experience and don't lament the passing of time. At the end of every moment is another one just waiting to be experienced. Keep this in mind when you find yourself saying, "the summer went fast" or "before you know it, they're in college."

 

Revel.

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Eko Song 5 - May 2012

Eight Months Old - May 15

Eko can no longer be contained!  He spent his 8th month learning how to skooch across the floor by tucking in his knees, digging in his toes, and pulling himself forward on his belly. We are still a little stunned by the realization that our little baby boy is mobile.  He was first tempted to skooch by the dangling lens cap on the camera. Each day he fine-tuned his new skill in order to reach other prohibited items, like Jay's hair, a cell phone, or the wires sticking out of our walls. But he rapidly became more adventurous and curious of the distances he could cover. He surprised our Sophia's Hearth group when he skooched himself over to a wooden tunnel, crawled in, and pulled himself all the way through to the other side.  It wasn't long before he discovered he could follow his daddy out of the living room and into the hallway.  He's now traversed the entire first floor of the house, and he's getting faster! He's so eager that a toe blister didn't even seem to slow him down. (Jade attached an old towel to his chest, so he helps us clean like a little baby Rumba.) Our days of leaving him on the floor and expecting him to be there when we return are over. The urgency to baby-proof is upon us!

Eko is making more connections every day. He responds rapidly to simple questions and requests, such as, "Where's Daddy?" (Looks right at him) "Come to mommy!" (Skooches over with a big smile) "Can I chew your gummy teether?" (Pops it in your mouth)  We've been encouraging him to play Jade's conga drum, and he enjoyed it so much that Jay gave him the Sesame Street drum he's had since he was a little boy. Eko officially became a percussionist. Now if he sees a drum close by, he'll  start beating the floor, his leg, or our chests with gusto! Our water baby loves baths so much that the merest mention of "kicky-kicky" sends him into wiggling squeals of glee. He can also recognize the word "camera."  (Big surprise!) One night Jade was looking for it and said, "Eko, where did Daddy put that camera?" Eko turned around and looked right at a pile on the table. She ignored him—we're so used to narrating our actions that we don't expect him to actually listen. She looked all over the house. And where was the camera? On that pile. Such a helpful little guy! His hide-n-seek skills are also advancing; he understands that toys can be hidden under bigger toys, and mommies can hide under blankets. Another skill in the works is waving; when someone waves to him, he'll eventually lift his hand and wiggle his fingers, but just as often he waves to himself instead.

Food is still kind of hit and miss with Eko. We've slowly been letting him taste different purees and mashes. Sometimes he's interested, usually he's not. He's seemed to like green beans, avocado and apples, but doesn't eat much in one sitting. He prefers to drum on his high chair tray. If food is on our plates or a drink in our cups, it's instantly a thousand times more delicious. Bananas off a baby spoon? Tolerable. Bananas off of a slice of red pepper from Daddy's salad? Marvelous. But Mommy's milk continues to be the food of choice for our little boy.

Although it's been a cooler spring, and the huge increase in ticks make us nervous, we try to get Eko outside as much as possible. He loves it and often whines when we come back inside. We'll sit out on the lawn and let him play with (and inevitably taste) grass, leaves, and safe flowers. (We do a lot of tick checks!) He often takes carrier naps while we walk our road or mow the lawn. (It's an electric mower, so the hum is mellow and soothing, though it's a pretty tough workout!) Jay even hiked Eko to the top of Mount Wantastiquet, which overlooks Brattleboro from the New Hampshire side of the river.  After sleeping during the ascent, Eko woke up at the top ready for a photo session, then fell asleep again on the hike down.

Eko is getting a little shy as he becomes more mobile, but he's still very happy to see familiar faces. He's always a work-stopper at Jade's office as everyone gathers round to play peekaboo and try to win a smile, and at the library Jay's coworkers don't even seem to mind when he's loud!

This month we were able to connect with friends we haven't seen in a long time. We took Eko down to Jenny and David's homestead where we mingled with their goats, listened to their 1 1/2 year old, Josiah, perform barnyard sounds, and let 8 year old Melina show us how to sled down a sand mound.  Having returned from their winter in New Orleans, Saturn and Dalia stopped by and couldn't believe how big he'd gotten since they'd last seen him at three weeks old.

Ben and Bridget came over with their daughter, Mirabelle (Bella for short). Eko thought Bella was hysterical as she crawled over and around him in circles.  Eko, a great devotee of his Sasha kitty, also met his first kittens at Haley and Marley's. They were too fast for him as they darted around Haley's garden, but he wanted to touch (i.e. squeeze) one so badly!

Speaking of new life, our friends keep creating new future friends for Eko, so a quick "Welcome to the world" to Jess and Scott's little girl, Sierra, Junio and Katie's girl, Jubilee, and Laura and Caleb's boy, Shaw. As Jay told Eko when he was first born, "Every day the world will make a little bit more and a little bit less sense."

We wrapped up Eko's 8th month with his first trip to New York City. Aside from visiting Jay's family in Staten Island, the purpose of this adventure was to help our good friends Onie and Kuan celebrate both their recent marriage and birth of their little boy, Marcus, at a hall in Chinatown called (awesomely) The Golden Unicorn.  After Eko's last swim class of the season (kicky-kicky!!), we drove down with a blissfully sleeping and contented little boy. He didn't even mind our stop at Ikea for his first high chair (note to parents, this Ikea has a nice breastfeeding "family" room. We love the Swedes.) "This will be so easy," we said to ourselves. He got fussy as we looked for parking in Manhattan, but who doesn't?  Eko really needed to sleep before the party, so he eventually napped in his carrier while we wandered around the busy boardwalks and little green spaces at the South Street Seaport, which neighbors Chinatown.

When we finally rode the elevator into the hall of The Golden Unicorn, Eko was met with loud music, dozens of voices, bright colors and happy stranger's faces. There is only so much new stuff a baby can absorb in a day before he goes haywire—Eko lost it. (Sorry Kuan!) He finally warmed up and the three of us were able to catch up with Jay's good friends from high school, Helen and Christine (and her adorable son and daughter, Nicholas and Madison), hug the busy new parents, and ogle little 2 month old Marcus.

Oddly, it's not the prepared moments you cherish, but the unexpected. Jade will always fondly look back on this scene as a classic new-mama moment: She and Eko squeezed into the tiny women's bathroom having a breastfeeding session with Onie and baby Marcus while Christine changed her little Nicholas (standing room only!) 

Jade was rapidly coming down with something, but we'd come all this way, and Onie had worked so hard on her party, so she tried to be a trooper. By the time the main courses were being served, she and Eko were both toast. No amount of walking up and down the streets of Chinatown would soothe him (though he found all the lights and smells intensely interesting!) They gratefully went right to sleep at Jay's sister's house in Staten Island, with two very eager little cousins wanting to play with Eko that very moment.  All was well the next day, Jade's first Mother's Day. The boys were so sweet with their baby cousin, crawling all over the house with him and keeping him safe. We were also finally able to introduce Eko to Jay's cousin, Cathy. 

The visit was great. The ride back north was uncomfortable for us all. We hadn't anticipated two hours of traffic on the George Washington Bridge! For the next five hours we used every toy, song, and distracting trick we could think of, and Jade is now quite adept at car-seat breastfeeding. Eko finally, finally fell asleep toward the end of the long journey and stayed asleep through the transfer to bed.  Poor little guy.  Next time it's night travel all the way.

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Seven Months Old - April 15

Eko is seven months old today! The light in his eyes gets more curious and his face gets more expressive every day. He shows a wide range of feelings from flirting with mommy's camera to cackling at daddy's tickle to sneering with disgust at the taste of sweet potato.

Eko has been to four swim classes and loves being in the water. He's the youngest in the class, so while the other kids learn to blow bubbles or use the float noodles, he spends most of the half hour floating on his tummy and kicking. He'll also float on his back with just his head supported and even goes for quick underwater dives—he's surprised when he surfaces, but never scared. Both of his parents struggle with swimming anxiety, so we're hopeful that this early immersion will help him develop a fun relationship with water.

We continue to attend a play group at Sophia's Hearth on Wednesday afternoons. For an hour and a half, babies roam the room freely while parents sing and observe, then give updates, vent frustrations, and ask one another questions. It's tricky to balance naps and play group, so some days Eko gets tired in the middle of class, but he seems to enjoy being around the other kids, teething on new toys and showing off his amazing giggle skills.

This month we dealt with our first bout of explosive poop, which lasted for almost a week! Eko thought the whole thing was pretty funny and never showed signs of being ill. Still, for peace of mind we contacted our naturopath, who assured us that a little loose poop was nothing to worry about. It likely resulted from Jade's consumption of cabbage, chocolate, and an office potluck lunch coupled with Eko's first encounter with winter squash, culminating in a perfect storm that made our nights a little more complicated than usual. As we continue to introduce Eko to different foods, Jade will pay closer attention to her own diet to avoid more digestive drama. So far, Eko's still not so sure about this solid food business. We've tried avocado, sweet potato, and peas, and each has been met first with curiosity, then incredulity and disgust! Oma says Jade didn't take to food until about ten months, and he's clearly thriving on breast milk (at Eko's six month checkup, we discovered that he now weighs 20lbs, though he did drop from the 98th to the 85th percentile) so we're in no hurry!

Oma and Grandpa have visited twice this month while looking for their perfect piece of land for their new home. Eko basks in their attention—special songs and lots of cuddling! As his only grandparents, we look forward to having them just around the corner and really cherish the opportunity that he can grow up with them closely involved in his life. We're also excited to one day watch Eko play with the many new little ones recently born (like Onie and Kuan's little Marcus) or due any day (like Jess and Scott's Sierra-in-the-Belly, who we visited for a St. Patty's Day feast with an evening of peekaboo for entertainment).

Eko is generally a very easy-going little fellow, very curious of the world around him and willing to face new situations without apprehension. For example, Eko began this month perfecting the back-to-front roll, followed by the front-to-back roll, until he could roll 360 degrees with gusto as he made his way to toys across the room. But the poor little guy has recently begun showing some separation anxiety in the afternoons when Jay goes to work, a time of day referred to as the witching hour. His distress is easily solved by hanging out with mommy in his Boba carrier as they cook dinner, bake cookies, or take long walks together.

We're continually amazed at how aware and clever Eko is. Recently, he's begun to respond to his own name and he's figured out that the rainbows in the room originate from a crystal hung above his changing table—within days of its hanging, Eko would look back and forth from the ceiling to the crystal before the sun made its way to that side of the house. When we cover Eko's face with a cloth, he can now pull it off himself, making peekaboo much more exciting. He's figuring out how to rock in the wooden rocking duck that was passed on to us from the always generous Rigby family. (He's still too small to really enjoy it to its full potential, but, like most things, he's discovered that it doubles as a teether.)

Finally, to answer the question that's on everyone's mind, Eko is a great sleeper (knock on wood.) His napping routine changes constantly, but he still normally goes down for the night in our bed at 8ish and wakes up the next morning at 7ish. He sleeps through the night, though he may wiggle around when he wants to change position or be cuddled and he nurses in his sleep two or three times, but neither he nor Jade normally wake up fully. It may be that his size helps him sleep, but sometimes Sasha's warmth comforts him when mommy's not around (they've only grown closer and Eko gets so giddy when he sees her, wanting to touch her with his pinchy hands as we referee). So far we've been very pleased with bedtime, but if tomorrow he refuses to sleep through night, we can at least take comfort in the knowledge that we had seven months of restful co-sleeping.

Enjoy our third installment of Eko Song and thanks for following the Eko Blog.

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