In the last month, SO many things have changed.
First off, we went to America. I tried not to get too stressed about the flight but I think that on the first journey - the way there - this was unavoidable. I was so nervous that his ears would hurt, slightly nervous that he'd scream the whole way, and scared at the thought of me not getting ANY sleep (it was an overnight flight.) It didn't go ALL bad - the most difficult part was (other than the bus ride TO the airport) the first 15 minutes before take-off. Reuben does not like sitting still and waiting! I got really frustrated/flustered at my squiggly crying baby on my lap, but once that was overwith he slept on and off the whole way with only one or two tantrums. We landed and were greeted by some wonderful friends, Jenny and Jimmy and their BEAUTIFUL little girl, Lizzy, who is 10 months old. Reuben has a lot of girlfriends and Lizzy is definitely one of them. Our friends drove us back home, to South Portland, and our "vacation" commenced. Vacation MY BUTT. The second day we were there, all of us were sick with something. Adam was throwing up, my throat was on fire and Reuben was coughing up a lung. By day 5, we took Reuben to the doctor and it was confirmed that he had bronchiolitus - a respiratory virus which lasted exactly 2 weeks. Yay. He stayed sick until the day we returned the England. Fortunately towards the end of it he was smiling a bit more and my family and friends got to see him more himself than he was in the beginning!
Reuben and Lizzy playing!
The trip as a whole - while not perfect, a lot of plans got changed or didn't happen, we were sick, and my nana ended up in the hospital (she's doing better now though), was good. I was so happy for my little boy to meet his Uncle Joe and Auntie Julie, his cousins Amelia and Andrew, his Uncle Ed and his Great Nana. He also got to meet literally about 100 of my friends. It was an insane couple of weeks but we enjoyed it as much as we possibly could.
On the way home, the flight was not NEARLY as bad. It was probably the best flight I've ever had, with or without a baby. It was really relaxed and before we got the the airport we went and visited our friends Ashley and Eric and their incredibly beautiful little girl, Addi. She's another one of Reuben's girlfriends. It was so much fun seeing them, we took pictures which you can see at http://ashsarconfess.blogspot.com. After our visit we headed for the airport and Reuben was PERFECT on the flight. All was as perfect as could be and we are so glad to be home. Only bad part of the flight was my losing my cell phone. Blah.
Ashley, Addi, Reuben and I.
Okay. That's one thing thats happened in the last month. But for Reuben, developmentally, he has changed drastically! While his sleep was destroyed by time differences and jetlag, he is doing much better. At night he doesn't need me to rock him back to sleep after I feed him. He is going to bed at his normal time (around 7pm), and his daytime naps are much more regular - which is a HUGE stress relief for me. I'm still working on getting his naps to MORE than 35-45 minutes at a time, but I know we'll get there.
Reuben can move now. He can get up on his knees and "rock", and he can crawl in a circle and backwards. That whole "moving forward" is overrated anyways (we'll get there someday!)
He is sitting up completely on his own now. He is so much more independant than he was even 3 weeks ago, which is crazy.
He is now eating anything! While we were in America I gave him some squash (yes, the VEGETABLE) and he LIKED it! It was a miracle. haha. When we got back last week, I offered him some mixed vegetables and what did he do? Ate all of it! Since then he has been having and enjoying everything. Squash, sweet potato, parsnip, peas, any fruit still, and more. He even had pureed pasta with zucchini and tomato the other day. I don't know what happened or why he all of a sudden decided to like stuff but I won't complain! So happy to have gotten through that phase without a battle.
I think that's all for now, I must get going - I'm trying to get the little nugget to take a nap. He must know that I'm saying good things about him - he's refusing to sleep.
Until next time!
