Some Slimming/Making a Stand at 9 Months

At Kole's 9-month doctor's appointment, he weighed 21 pounds even - a slight decrease from the 8-month mark. The doctor says this is normal, as he's now crawling and pulling himself up, active and mobile, losing his baby fat. He's almost squarely at the 50-percentile split of the bell-curve for weight of 9-month-olds in the US. He's slightly above average.
On the other hand, at 31-and-1/4 inches long, he's still above the 95th-percentile of US babies at 9 months - meaning less than 5% of babies are longer than he is. He's a string bean - but healthy as a horse. We've been told to start decreasing his bottled formula and increase his cereal, jarred fruits and vegetables, and other jarred meats for added protein.
The top two teeth are coming. One is very noticeable, while the other is still hidden a bit.

The other major development at 9 months has been in concert with his ability to pull himself upright. Lately, he has become adventurous enough to be standing at the coffee table, know that mom and dad are watching ... then slowly, purposely, let go of the table. We've counted up to 3-Mississippi as the longest stand, but he obviously has great curiosity for standing on his own, and trusts his ability to fall backwards on his butt. Sunday night when I came home from Iowa, he was standing between the coffee table and couch, and began the routine of letting go of the table, and giving a 1-Mississippi count or less before grabbing the couch. He's learning balance and obviously has a great adventurous nature to want to keep getting up and trying it again. It's incredible to watch him and just see the wheels turning inside his head, figuring out this whole business of standing upright.
Photo: Not too many mirrors in the house at ground-level for Kole to check himself out in. But there is a handy reflection in the stainless steel of the kitchen trash can, where he frequently finds a familiar friend.

A Major Sprout at 9 months

Nine months old today. Unbelievable. That's ... almost a year.
The developments from 8 months have been remarkable. He is gaining more coordination from a sit-to-crawl position and vice-versa. The newest trick, as the video shows, is his ability to pull himself up. He's mostly doing it in his crib - where he has presented a new challenge when he's grumpy and not wanting to sleep. He'll now stand in his crib and pout. Sometimes, it's funny to watch him try to stand upright right in the middle of the floor. He'll have nothing to grab or support his weight, but he'll lift his butt in the air, straighten out his legs, do a push-up with his arms ... then try to figure out the next step, then quickly give up.

Jumperoo till you can't stand no more

I posted a photo on this a while ago, but it can't hold a candle to the whole effect of seeing the video. The Jumperoo has been one of Kole's favorite little play things - not so much for the junk on it that he diddles and grabs and plays with, but the kid just loves jumping. He can go an hour solid jumping, then rocking and swaying, back to jumping ... repeat. Well, soon enough, nap time will come around. Luckily for us, God bless him, instead of crying or throwing some other whiney fit, he'll simply just doze of in mid-jump or mid-sway.

Redecorating for the rug-rat

If you don't have a mental image of the house before, you'll have to do your best on my descriptions. I can't find a good wide "before" shot of our living room ... "before" Kole started crawling. I can tell you that our sofa/love-seat combo also had a matching single reclining chair, which sat along side an end table between the love seat and our big counter-top of the kitchen, essentially in the bullseye of the living room. Right up under the counter-top on the living room side were two barstools. Also back in our adjoining dining room against the burgandy wall was a dining table and four chairs.
Well ... Junior needs some romping room, and the bottom rung of the barstools were too easy for him to grab onto. It doesn't take much jostling for them to become top-heavy and wobbly. So, out went those. Out went the recliner (into our bedroom, as a nice addition), and the end table was repositioned in the back of the dining nook - where the dining table was swapped out with the pub table and chairs, which had been in our little breakfast nook off our kitchen.
The end result was a ton of space created for crawling, and soon enough for wrestling and rough-housing. Another staple of Kole's infancy was cleared away ... his, um ... (sniff) ... swing. Little romper is too big for the swing, and once that was moved out, the spot seemed an ideal place for his Jumperoo - which he's also not far from outgrowing.
It's very quick to be sentimental about the swing, and the Papasan, which were calming, soothing friends to Kole when he was at his grumpiest. As we're taking it away, Kathy and I event played the little music box - with repetitive notes that have become imprinted into our brains. Kind of a solemn moment of ... 'Remember how this song would cut through the crying and create instant calm?'. They were once simply objects in a box, inherited at one baby shower or another. They soon became trusy friends.
But, the changes are coming. As you see the pictures, I'm sure you'll notice the little glass bar thing and wine rack with little wine and margarita glasses dangling from them. Something needs to be done there, we know. The house is a work in progress. Next up - safety stops on kitchen drawers and cabinets.

Crawling Just Under the Wire at 8 Month Mark

As you'll see, it didn't take long for the munchkin to start scooting around the floor. Excuse the bib, but he's very slobbery from teething again and he can soak an outfit in less than a half-hour without one.
Different measurement today. Instead of weighing myself without him, then with him, then doing the subtraction to get his weight, today I just sat him on our scale. Our scale measures up to every two-tenths (.0, .2, .4, .6, .8) He weighed 21.4 on our scale, which seems like only a small gain from last month, but this is all rough estimate anyway. We converted the two-tenths weight to ounces, then added a few for loose feet hanging off the scale and came up with 21 lbs, 10 ounces. With the measuring tape on the floor with him laying down he measured 31 inches.

Official Crawling: Drop and Drag

With video soon to come, Kole has officially done an act often enough, over a long enough distance, to where we are ready to proclaim it "crawling". For the past 4-6 weeks he has been involved in activity that has been close to crawling, very crawl-like, resembling a crawl or "worming" around ... but not enough of it done with purpose, repeatedly, until yesterday.
The method of choice that seems to be most effective can best be described as a paraplegic who has to drag himself to the things of his desire. Kole will get on both hands and knees, rock back and forth, dry-hump (see previous post) and make all sorts of appearances of forward motion, before finally belly-flopping on the floor, then using both hands to stretch outward then pull and worm the rest of his body forward. With surprisingly quick repetition, he can reload the hands outward, pull forward, over and over, until he's travelled a distance of less than 10 feet in a very short amount of time, his legs snaking uselessly behind him the whole way.
Video to come soon. Just curious if this is a quick transitional phase, or the crawl method of choice for the near future.

Not quite crawling

We have the camera at the ready at all times in hopes of catching the moment Kole decides to start crawling. We've already filled up a tape of false-alarms. Each episode becomes entertaining in its own way. But, what we got tonight we were not quite expecting. Watch for yourself.

Another play day

I've made mention, and previous posts, about Kathy's friends Beverly and Ellie, who she met in childbirth, infant care and breastfeeding classes offered by Arlington Memorial Hospital. Ellie and Beverly ended up having both their babies just before Kathy on June 15th and 16th. They've all kept in touch, calling or emailing, sharing each other's joys and frustrations with their little ones ever since. Today they got together at our house, where again it wasn't just a chance for the moms to get together, but a chance for the babies to interact with one another - and, out of our own curiosity, see how each kid has developed in relation to the others. Kole is obviously the string bean of the group. Beverly's girl Sarah was put in Kole's 'Jumperoo' thing, and her feet were 2 inches short of the ground. They had to put a phone book beneath her for her feet to push against something. Kole only has about an inch on Noah, the little one of Ellie. Kathy says both her friends were surprised at how Kole laughs. Both thier kids will smile and make loud coo sounds and shreiks. But, Kole will occassionally guffaw like an old man - a big, husky, prolonged chortle with big gasps for air. He's done that for quite a while, in fact.
It's not a matter of comparing Kole with other babies in the sense of - is he more advanced, bigger, better, more refined ... it's not like that. It's not vanity for our kid. I guess deep down it's a sense of ... are we helping him develop at a normal rate to his peers? Are we good parents? If he's behind on basic motor skills, is that a reflection on us and what we've done? I guess it seems more paranoid than anything, but we keep being told that it's normal. But, it is kind of cool to know that he's been laughing heartily way before most kids - a good early trait to brag about.
At any rate - here's some pics of today.
I'll also post a pic of Kole in his new big-boy seat. He now eats in a booster seat we have at our dining room table.
PHOTOS: On the left is Beverly with Sarah, then Kathy with Kole, and on the right is Ellie, the cheeky Brit, with Noah. Then the three little ones together. Then Kathy and Kole at the same dining room table I grew up with.

The Swing growth chart

It's hard to show Kole's growth without some level of consistent scale. One of the few things we have around is his swing ... which he is about to outgrow. The maker, Graco, says on its manual that it's for babies "up to 25 pounds". Well, the little sprout is nearly there. The swing was out absolute life saver suring his early infancy. It seems so cruel now, but we've learned that every young parent goes through those phases and moments of ... 'how in the world do we just get him to be quiet?' Sometimes babies just cry inconsolably and every book and magazine article addresses creative ways of carrying, "shushing", rocking, singing/humming, swaying ... every concievable way of quieting a crying baby. Our go-to silencer was the swing. When we realized that it worked more than three or four times in a row, I went to Costco and bought an enormous brick of D-cell batteries, which the swing took. Slowly over time, head-support cushions were removed, and the back was able to be uprighted. Now, he's about to outgrow it and begin to crawl. I'm sure we'll have our moment of semi-sadness, kind of like when we finally packed up his cradle and retired it to the attic. For now, he's still swinging when he gets grumpy, or right after a feeding when he needs to chill for a bit. We don't have to play the accompanying music - which we both can hum each note of each song on pitch. It's become very familiar domain for him, but it's just about time to pack it up.
PHOTOS: Taken at 3-days old ... 7-weeks old ... 7-months old.

7 Months

Kole cracks the 20 pound and 30-inch barrier at his 7-month measure. He has cut his first tooth, and still working on the other other lower bicuspid. He is still not 'officially' crawling, though he has been seen from time to time on all fours, rocking back-and-forth, with some occasional forward movement, and even arms and legs working in unison in a forward manner. He is definitely sitting up, with his tip-overs fewer and longer in between. He's growing before our eyes and it's very, very neat to experience. Four times a day he'll have 6-ounces of formula, and three of those feedings (all but the last) is followed by cereal and/or some "first-foods" vegetables and fruit.
I'm adding recent photos of he and I playing football on the porch while Mom was out shopping; another big smile he gave that shows off his little tooth (if you click the photo and get the bigger image, you can maybe see the little white smudge on his lower gum); and how he likes to stand up next to one of his toys.

Work Hard, Play Harder

A funny recent episode in Kole's Jumperoo is reason enough for a quick update. His little exercise contraption is one of his favorites - he jumps and sways from side to side in it; he loves standing upright, even with assistance. It's great for us because he can be occupied and contained for a few minutes if we need to leave the room, go to the bathroom, whatever. The Jumperoo is a mini carnival of noise and chaos, music and sound effects. So much so that when there is 20 or more seconds of silence, it practically pierces through the house. Kathy and I have both had situations recently where the silence came. It's almost concerning at first ... only to see Kole passed out cold in the Jumperoo. When I took this picture, he was actually fading in and out of sleep - waking up and jumping up and down for about 10 seconds, then the eyes start to fade, the legs stop, the head bows down and he's out again. I was trying not to laugh out loud and wake him.

The snot and slobber factory from teething is in high gear. He can drench a bib within a few hours, and now he's starting to maintain a thick crust of snot around his nostrils to where it looks impossible to breath. Wiping his nose is a trick. It's weird to see how much he's grown up, because now he just sees the Kleenex coming towards him and he starts slashing his head from side to side, and opens the door wide open for him to lose his cutest-kid-in-the-world demeanor and start pitching a whiney fit. It doesn't help that he just has hard, crusty boogers that don't give easily.
Another photo op - he's sitting up in longer and longer intervals. Sometimes more than a minute, before doing something to throw his balance and go heels-over-diaper backwards. Recently, he rolled right into one of the legs of his Papasan (the little reclined-seat we feed him in) and he hit his head hard enough to cry tears. We think it's the first time we've ever seen legitimate tears from crying. But, it didn't last long, he took it like a boy and was back playing within minutes.
While putting Christmas stuff up in the attic, we also put most of his Newborn to 6-month clothes up there. Kathy bought some of those space saver bags that suck the air out (they actually work quite well!) and we retired a large load of clothes until a new little brother or sister claims them ... perhaps.

90th Birthday wish

There has been a previous post here (on July 16) of Kole with his only living great-grandmother, Ora Wood, the mother of Kathy's mother. She turned 90 on December 30th, and the Wood family got together at her house. If you missed the previous story, Ora still lives on Bennie Lane in the Indian Hills neighborhood of Grand Prairie, about 4 houses from the intersection of Bennie and SW 5th - which is where my grandparents (mother's mom and dad) lived all of my life. Kole did his best to steal the show, as all had a good time.
Kole is Ora Wood's 11th great grandchild, and she also has one great-great grandchild.

And that's 2008

I don't know what you think of 2008, what the history books will say about the late stock market fall, President Bush going out with less than favorable fanfare, Obama elected, wars being all over the Middle East, oil spiking at $145 a barrel, the Beijing Olympics and Michael Phelps' feats ... but, it was a banner year around the Fletcher house. June 18th would figure to be the most memorable day, Kole's birthday, but it was actually June 17th that Kathy and I keep re-living and talking about when we're sipping wine in the hot tub. What a day that was, beginning about 5:00am when Kathy woke up with "cramps", then it led to us being at the hospital before 8:00am, then came pacing the halls of Arlington Memorial ... it was the day that would never end. The June 18th birth date was an early-morning technicality, but what I remember most about the 18th is watching Kathy writhe in unspeakable pain. I was elated, but mentally and physically exhausted from the hours that had preceded.
Lots of pain and discomfort for Kathy most of the year, before and after the birth, but by June 19th the smiles kept adding up. Here at year's end, the smiles beat the frowns by a landslide.
Kole isn't crawling or walking yet, but probably isn't far away from either. We're enjoying our last few moments of setting him down and knowing he'll be close to there if we walk away for 10 seconds. Lots of milestones still to come in 2009, with Kole and with Kathy and I.
Will Kathy return to work? Will Kole have a brother or sister? All questions we've heard before and still don't know the answers to. We agreed at about last April or May that we were going to get through the holidays before discussing any of it. Right now, I'm as thankful as I've ever been for my job and the little freelance gigs that have come along that have kept us comfortably afloat this year. Kathy wasn't making 6-figures in her previous job, but it was a handsome income that is quickly missed when it vanishes in an instant. I say I'm thankful for my job, when it has been as challenging as it ever has in Big 12 Showcase's 13 years on the air. Because of budget cuts and loss of sponsors, we took the show off the road and into studio, and the cuts keep coming. But, pink slips haven't been handed out, so the glass is still half-full here.
I leave you with a picture taken earlier today, December 31st. No - Kole is not pulling himself up just yet. But, if you stand him up in his crib, he'll happily stand and dance for a while.
A happy and safe 2009 to all, and a very hearty thanks for all of you who helped make 2008 unforgettable for us.

Six Months, Doctor's Update

Upon turning 6 months old, Kole was rewarded with a trip to the doctor's office. He weighed 18 pounds, 15 ounces; his length is 29 and 1/4 inches; head circumference 17 and 3/4 inches.
At 29.25 inches, he is above the 97th percentile for 6-month-olds (longer than 97% of the babies in America his same age). Another way of looking at it is - he is exactly the average length of a 12-month-old. His weight is just over the 60th percentile, slightly better than average for his age.
Doctor is very impressed and happy with his health and appearance. He got three shots and one vaccination orally. He whimpered for a bit, but didn't put on a big crying display. He handled it like a boy.

Moments of Discovery

A day short of turning 6 months old, Kole is doing everything but crawling, and he may have developed one of the senses that separates humans from the animals - a sense of his own being.
On the crawling - he has two stances right now. First is the body-surfing stance, essentially balanced on his belly button, hands and feet off the ground. He does this with the idea that his hands and feet are free to reach and kick. But then comes the on-all-fours look - where he's on his hands and knees, rocking slowly. Kathy and/or I will sit there encouraging him to move forward, putting a toy or something he wants out in front of him. But, instead of forward movement, he normally just reverts back to Stance A on the belly. He's getting ever so close - and Kathy and I recognize our fleeting final days of being able to contain him in one general area of the floor.
Another area of discovery is his hands. He looks like he's doing signing for the deaf - or perhaps doing a sock-puppet show without socks. He'll put his hands out, then anything is fair game ... the beauty-pageant wave, the open-close claw, the hippie on acid tripped out by watching his hand wave side to side in front of his eyes ... he'll get both hands working and it's quite amusing. One by-product of this has been mockery. The whole happy-hands thing has created a new world of mimicking. If he appears frustrated, or is obviously hungry and getting a quick case of the red-ass while a bottle is being made, all you have to do is start waving, or open-closing your hands like little chompers, and he'll immediately crack a smile and start doing his hands, putting them out and waving and clasping them.
Another trick for shutting him up when he's upset (are we veteran parents or what!) is to take him to a mirror. He likes what he sees so far. He's fascinated with either Kathy or I through a mirror, and I can only assume that he's fascinated by the prospect of noticing himself. I'll attach photos on this - he even has a little mirror that is one of about four things that dangle from one other little toy he has. But, if we take the mirror and lay it down he will find it, look at the image of himself and hold a frozen stare like a cat that just spotted a mouse. He puts his nose 1 or 2 inches from the mirror and stares. And stares. And stares. It's fun watching and imagining what's going on inside his mind.
He has a doctor's appointment on the 18th, so we'll have an accurate count of his measurements.

Big Day with Santa

Big day at the mall for the little one - another visit with his little pals Noah and Sarah (whose mothers Kathy went through child birth classes, etc.), and a big visit with Santa at the Parks Mall in Arlington. Kole hasn't been strolling with Sarah very long, but felt brave enough in their relationship to begin sucking on her fingers instead of his own. She appeared to enjoy it, and Kole never stopped laughing at her.

Thanksgiving at Wah-Hoo

Scenes from Thanksgiving Day at the Wah-Hoo Ranch - including Kole's after-dinner fireside visit with Grammy, Grandpa Gedy, Grammy's horse Biscuit, and a big smile with Mommy.

Kole's Thanksgiving wishes

Kole gives his own Thanksgiving wishes to everyone ... whales, dolphins and humans. The groan at the end is the ultimate kicker.

Scary Day

When we started this page, we wanted it to be about Kole and not about us. But, since most who read this are concerned friends and family, and if you haven't heard the full story yet, this is as good as any place to explain it.
Monday around 12:30 in the middle of the afternoon, while I was at work, Kathy got a knock at the door. She looked through the peep-hole and saw a young Hispanic-looking guy at the door she did not know. Looked clean cut enough, jeans, tucked-in plaid long-sleeve shirt. Kathy was going to ignore the knocker and wait for him to move on - like a trick-or-treater when you have no more candy. Instead, the guy changed his tune and began banging on the door with a fist, like he was a landlord at the door of a delinquent tenant. Kathy continued to watch out the peep-hole as he walked away, then the black SUV parked on the curb turned off its engine and a second Hispanic-looking guy came to the door and took his turn pounding the door. With Kathy's pulse racing, the second guy took a few steps back, got on a cell phone and appeared to be telling someone our house address - as if he was asking someone if they had the right house. He spoke in Spanish and Kathy couldn't understand. He then put his cell phone down, satisfied with the information given to him, then with Kathy still watching through the peep-hole, watched as the second guy strode purposely towards the door then WHAM! kicked the door with all his might.
Kathy then ran to the bedroom and retrieved the loaded .38 Special I keep in my bedside table - as she's doing this she hears WHAM! .... WHAM! more kicks to the door. By the time she dials 911, a fourth blow had been delivered to the front door in broad daylight.
It's hard to reconstruct this story, but she says the whole time Kole was in his swing, where she put him when she first heard the door knock. Maggie, our cowardly guard dog, mustered a low growl - but even Kathy guesses that she was probably just feeding off of Kathy's own fear, instead of reacting protectively to what was on the other side of the door.
With the 911 operator on line, the kicks stopped and Kathy checked the peep-hole and saw where the two guys and the black SUV were both gone. They left with as many unanswered questions as why they came and picked our house in the first place. The cop eventually arrived and said this had all the characteristics of a typical mid-day burglary attempt.
I took Kathy to the gun range just after we married and tried to get her to accustomed to shooting the gun - but she was just too fearful, and unnerved by the other people shooting large hand cannons just feet away. Still, she had the gun in hand and insists she was ready to use it. The cop later gave her some tips, about keeping the gun closer to her body instead of holding it outstretched like a Charlie's Angels pose. He complimented her on being cool enough to call 911, and said next time, if it escalates to someone attempting to kicking down the door, it might be a good idea to shout something about having a gun, police on the way, etc. Plus, he gave a good pointer to arm our security system (right by our garage door) to where alarms would sound at the first crack of the door.
It was a good stop-down opportunity to review all procedures if the scenario should repeat itself.
I got home before 3:00 and the wine began to flow, taking the edge off of some frayed nerves. In the end, everyone was okay.
Photo: the shoe prints on our front door. Thought we'd have the evidence to compare it to the shoe on the corpse if this should happen again.

Milestones Abound

It's the 18th of the month, which means that Kole turns over another month - and this makes it 5 months. I think I gave as much of an update of emotional and physical development as possible in the previous post, but really in the last 48 hours we've had a groundbreaking development. I'll let you see the video with your own eyes. There's really nothing more I can say or add.
We both weighed ourselves with Kole, then weighed ourselves without him and took the difference. We were about 6 ounces apart, which is as close as we've ever been. So I think we're fairly accurate, though the weight he's put on is fairly significant - over a full pound in a month, plus one inch. Still, he is only slightly ahead of the bell-curve for his age. It's nothing alarming, he's just right on top of that shaded area of averages for height and weight on the growth chart. As the doctor said last month - he's healthy and happy, the portions of what he's eating are not out of whack, everything is fine. He's just on an earlier growth spurt than the average - and that may all catch up when he's between 4 and 5 and other kids have a more significant spurt, or between ages 11-13, etc. It should be noted, however, that this past month he has been eating more solid foods - oatmeal cereal, bananas, peaches and pears, mostly.
Enjoy the video. Monday afternoon I talked to Kathy from work and she was like - I finally saw him do it by himself! I then wondered how he would do if a camera was propped on him. Making his daddy really proud, he glommed the camera and performed on cue!