Road Trip NY-Florida

This was our Spring trip:
2 kids, ages 1 and almost 3, in a car for 3 days, 21 hours from NY to Miami, Florida.

We have done this trip before but never with toddler and never with just 2 drivers.

Our basic rules of the trip were:
When we need to stop, we stop.  We made many frequent trips to McDonald's playplaces along route 95.  Lucky for us there are many along this route

We were very flexible in our route.  We had an itinerary in mind, but we adapted it as needed.  Our motel bookings were all cheap with day of cancellations allowed.  Miami was the only hotel we planned far in advance, the rest were little dingy places along the way.

We did not drive at night, because drivers need their beauty sleep and with only 2 drivers we tended to have the passenger awake to assist with kids and keep the driver alert.  For this reason it took us 3 nights to get there and 3 nights to get back.  We built this time into our trip.

Downloading the kids favorite videos on our phone gave us some piece and quiet during tense moments of the trip when we couldn't stop and this allowed us to cover some distance.  The current favorite videos are Elmo and Thomas the Train.  Unfortunately the 1 year old likes Elmo and the 3 year old likes Thomas, so this caused some disagreements on what to watch and we had to alternate to keep the backseat wailing to a minimum.


Some of our planned stops along the way included: Washington DC, Children's Museum in Richmond (this was a big hit), and Magnolia Plantation and Gardens near Charleston, SC (very beautiful in the spring and it has a petting zoo), Savannah, GA waterfront and parks, St. Augustine, FL (splash park at the pier) and of course Downtown Disney.  We decided not to spend the big bucks on the real Disney since there is plenty for kids at the shops in Downtown Disney.  They have a little train ride and all the characters in the store for them to get excited about.  Stop we didn't particularly love: South of the Border. The food was so bad and it was really dead.  I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning there.  Great place to shoot a zombie movie.  We did get some shot of the kids next to the animal statues and Pedro though.

Pictures from Magnolia Plantation and Gardens:

The Price of Christmas

I have some qualms to pick with the world on the prices of some very basic toys.   My two year old loves trains and for his last birthday I bought USED on Amazon the Thomas and Percy trains with a mailcar which totalled about $17 and a Orbrium figure eight train track with a 2 trains included, which cost about $22.  New wooden Thomas trains cost about $15 each for the smaller trains and $20-$25 for the longer trains.  If we were to buy him a whole set of trains this could get very pricey, easily $200 or more.  Instead our son pretends the generic trains from Orbrium are other engines like Spencer, Diesel and Gordon.  The basic circle track on Toyrus.com goes for $29.99 alone, and that does not include the bridge and tunnel I got with my cheaper knock off version.  I also got him the large box of Duplos (with the 150 pieces), which cost $59.99 on sale.  The normal price is $74.99!!
Really?!  75 bucks for a box of blocks and of those 150 pieces most of them are the small square blocks which we all know doesn't support a good building structure.  And this didn't even come with a bucket to store them or the building plate.  Let's not kid ourselves parents, I want good toys for my kids so I can enjoy playing with them too!  (playing with my kids of course)

I may be totally crazy but I do think that the prices of very basic good solid toys nowadays is way too high.  In my Christmas research these are some of the expensive toys that I plan to not buy my son.  This is not because I don't love him, its because I will probably find a perfectly good used one on Craigslist or in the trash tomorrow.

Radio Flyer My First Sport Scooter 

• $39.99
• (really?  It's a baby scooter and we will only use this a few times when the weather is good before he outgrows it!)
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7 Train (Flushing Local) Wooden Train

Price: $12.95

(I was at Grand Central and I get that this is a specialty item for NY tourists or NY enthusiasts, but I think that a train should not be more than $5.  I would buy him this if I could get 3 for $12.95. Instead I will buy a generic train at Target for $2.99 and stick a purple 7 on it)

• 
  

Independence is a Wonderful Thing

"Let me do it myself!"
Its great to hear those words.  
Our 2 year old baby is moving on up in the world: pulling up his pants, trying to use the potty, (with plenty of reminders) washing his hands almost exclusively by himself, turning off the TV, getting into bed. Getting into his booster seat and feeding himself.  

 With an 8 month old who can't do anything himself except get into trouble every second (by attempting to eat wires, outlets, falling down on hard things, eating everything off the floor--it's a game we play every day to keep this kid alive, while he tries to do everything he can to harm himself!) 

Having one child with some independence is a beautiful thing

 

Same Parents, Totally Different Personalities

Now that my youngest is 8.5 months old and my oldest is almost 29 months old I'm getting a much better sense of just how different my two sons are:

 Here are some comparisons:

 Size: They can pretty much wear the same sizing in clothes now with some exceptions. My 2 year old is long and lanky and my 8 month old is big for his age, length and width and full of baby fat rolls!

 Eyes: 8 month old got the true baby blues and my 2 year old is a brown eyed boy. Both my hubby and I have a mixture, I'm hazel (brown with greenish tint) and his are lighter (green, with a bluish tint)

 Beach play:  My 2 year old still dislikes getting dirty and beaches and making sand castles are not really his cup of tea.  He's ok when there is a tool involved, aka using the shovel to put sand in a bucket, but the minute sand gets all over his fingers I hear "Mama, mama, my hands are dirty!"   [Um, yeah we are at the beach]
Meanwhile his brother is not one to sit calmly on the blanket.  He is off in less than a millisecond grabbing and pulling the sand into his hands and directly into his mouth!  Question to all parents of children like my youngest son:  Should I just let him consume the beach and hope he will eventually realize how disgusting sand is as a food source?  Or will he just continue to eat it until he chokes causing himself worse harm?  I ended up compromising with my 8 month old destructive force of nature and let him crawl on the wet sand by the water an immerse himself in a nice muddy mess, while my older son stood on the waters edge holding my hand and trying not to get too dirty.

4 month old & 24 month old at play

Working Full Time is Not Natural or Easy

Yup with 2 babies and a full-time position I'm definitely with them on this one
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-brenoff/work-life-balance-on-the-nail-its-not-natural-work-full-time_b_2679674.html

Baby #2

Our big bouncy baby boy arrived a few days early and showed up very fast.  I had a much quicker labor with #2 than #1.  I woke up at 3:45am feeling cramps that were only a few minutes apart and increased in intensity very fast.  At 4:30am we had made it into the car with my father-in-law and just my luck a huge tractor trailer had made a wrong turn and got stuck on the bridge and we were stuck right in the center of the bridge--no traffic moving in either direction.  I was on the floor of the backseat at that point just yelling.  I believe I was screaming at my husband and father-in-law they needed to start moving that traffic along now!  My husband left the car and ran to the front of the bridge to see about getting a police escort.  My generally talkative and very opinionated father-in-law did not say a word that entire time.  He was as silent as a mouse as I carried on in the back seat writhing in pain.  I could have used something to keep my mind off the pain at that point and I remember thinking I need my husband to come back so he can count while I breathe through this.

In the end after a police escort and an ambulance ride with some very junior looking EMTs who did not look at all ready to assist in birthing a child if it came down to this, we made it too the hospital.  Luckily my OBGYN was on the shift that morning and with the ambulance stretcher and EMTs I didn't have to wait in the waiting room and fill out paperwork this time, they brought me right in.  This was how I should have done it the first time! (more about that episode later).  After the resident determined my status (8 cm), and contractions about 1.5 min apart, she asked if I would like an epidural.  Isn't it a little late for one?  I really wanted the pain to go away, but what's the point if I would be pushing before then.  The doctor came in and asked if I felt like pushing.  I told her I did need to go #2 and #1.  She said to wait.  Well, I waiting until I couldn't anymore and then she said it was up to me if I wanted to try pushing.  I told her I did, I wanted that kid out!  She told me he was still a little high up but I should go for it if I wanted since this might help the pain.  They didn't break the water this time even though the nurse got upset with me for moving with all the monitors strapped to my belly.  The doctor was right, pushing did help ease the pain.  The water didn't break until after his shoulders came out and I had no tearing.  He was also bigger by almost a pound than my 1st, so go figure.  It felt as if that sac acted as a cushion.  I felt ok after giving birth, not like a chopped up piece of meat down there as I was the first round.  Baby was healthy and we only stayed 1 night.  Overall a much quicker and easier experience.  My body knew what to do this time and I knew what to expect.  Like they say, practice makes...well in birthing's case never perfect, but at least a little easier!   

18 months with More Words, Buckles and Zippers

At 18 months old now, our baby is definitely well on the way to becoming a little boy with more words and more adult tasks to take on.

Here are some of the recent new word additions: "airplane, basketball, ball, Elmo, Thank you" (I actually haven't hear him say this, but they say he does at daycare and once for Papa), names all the kids at daycare and the daycare provider by name now, he can even name some relatives.  "A, B, C, D," (sometimes he gets to E).  He sings this quite a bit now.  He will say some phrases like "Oh, no Mama," "Oh no Papa,"  "Oh no, Me," or to any other object that falls.  Other phrases are "Hey mama" and Hey papa" when we come home.  We're very casual in our family ;)  Some Spanish words are "zapatos" "mio" and "carrer"  or "calle" for street.  He says "sandals" for the English version of shoes, which makes sense because he did wear sandals all summer.  He also says "Baby" for babies he sees and baby dolls.  Yesterday we saw his cousins and the 4 year old had a doll, which he took and got very attached to; even cried when he had to give it back.  I personally think its fine for him to play with a baby doll.  Since he will have a real baby brother soon, I feel like it could be a good thing for him to get him used to the whole baby thing. 

Other great forms of distraction for him now are buckles and zippers.  He loves to buckle anything with a buckle, but he doesn't yet know how to unbuckle, so once it's buckled he says, "Open,"  which is our cue to help.  Zippers he is fine with on his own, except for starting off the bottom of a jacket.  The worst thing about his love of zippering is now that it is getting cold he unzippers all his sweaters and coats and we have to constantly zipper him back up. 

Supreme Rudeness on the Subway

Up until a few weeks ago I rarely ever had anyone offer me a seat on the subway, but now at 6+ (almost 7 months) I am looking very obviously pregnant and now taking the subway during rush hour has become a game of "Will anyone offer their seat to the pregnant woman?"  I would say maybe half the time if I'm standing near someone nice they will offer up a seat.  The rest of the time I just stand for those 25 minutes while everyone looks down or away from my general direction.  One time a woman looked at my belly about 5 or 6 times before looking around (I guess to check if anyone else would offer) and then tentatively asking if I wanted to sit. 

I get it that people, and generally its the guys, don't want to give up their nice comfy plastic seats.  It's easier to pretend not to notice.

So this is what was going on yesterday when another woman, also standing on the train, loudly asks me if anyone has offered their seat.  [This is not the first time a woman has come to my rescue to find me a seat.]  I tell her no, but not to worry about it.  She of course is not about to let the row of able bodied men sitting in front of me get away with this and again very loudly asks any of them if they can give me their seat.  All but one man looks away and pretend not to hear her.  The one man actually looks up at me and says right to my face, "No."  He said it quietly enough so the woman trying to get me a seat didn't hear him, but I have to say I was really shocked.  And having been in this city for over 10 years I've seen alot of rudeness.  I mean I get that none of those guys wanted to give up a seat.  Obviously if they wanted to they would have already, but to actually tell someone to their face, "No I'm not giving up my seat because I'm choosing to be an inconsiderate ***" was something new for me.

End of story, none of those guys gave up their seats, although only the one was brutally honest with me about his feelings on giving up seats to pregnant women (perhaps he feels the same way about the elderly and disabled).  Instead a woman (of course it was a woman) on the other side of the train got up for me.

Another blog about the cold shoulders pregnancy gets on the subway:
http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2012/07/26/being-a-pregnant-woman-on-the-train-is-no-fun/

And another funny Times article.   I have been offered seats in my last pregnancy by white guys, although more often than not, no guys (no matter what color) offered their seat.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/complaint-box-subway-squatters/

  

2 Babies or 2 Cats?

Almost 2 months ago, when I was head deep in the toilet with morning sickness and not anywhere near capable to function as caretaker to anyone let alone myself, our cat got very sick. We came home from a 3 day weekend trip to find our almost 6 year old cat laying on the floor in a mess of blood and vomit. We thought he was dead or very near death.

This cat had been to the vet more than once already because he would spend forever in the kitty litter doing his business and then rub his butt on our carpets when he emerged. The vet decided there was nothing wrong with him and charged us $300 to drug him up and pop his anal glands. The cat seemed to lessen the but rubbing for a few months, or at least he did it when we weren't around, but we still would find vomit every so often and since we have 2 cats we were never sure if it was one cat or both.  

We called the animal hospitals, human society and finally got a hold of the same vet who had looked at him before who agreed to see him late on a holiday. The vet finally discovered the issue was a urinary tract infection, which apparently if not treated right away can be fatal to cats. My husband refused to pay the full amount for all the treatment needing to be done for the procedures, since we felt this should have been caught a year ago when we first brought him in. To save our cats life, I suppose, the vet gave us a discount and threw in a free bag of special food, which we were told he would need to have for the rest of his life and the antibiotics for 1 week. We were told the UTI is something some cats are prone to and this condition is one that may come back. It was then we decided we would be best off to find another home for our 6 year old and 5 year old cats. My husband would be away on business in two weeks and I was in no position to be cleaning litter or taking care of a sick cat. The plan was to have family members come over every afternoon to watch our little boy so I could focus on myself and just getting to and from work everyday, which at that time I sometimes was unable to accomplish. If I had been in my normal healthy state I would have been more upset about giving away our cats, but I knew I couldn't take care of them and having a sick cat around a pregnant woman and a baby was bad news.

First we asked family members and friends if they were interested in taking them in; no one was. They were willing to help out with our one year old, but not our cats. We called shelters, but this would be a last resort since most didn't take adult cats and the one that did was a drop off service that promised to keep them alive for 72 hours, but after that there was no guarantee if the shelter was too crowded. I knew our younger cat would never survive in a shelter because he is wild and scared of people. Knowing him he would get scared and scratch someone and that would be the end of it. Not thinking there was much hope we decided to try posting an add on Craigslist. If you go on craigslist under pets you'll find at least 25 new postings for cats and about 2 for dogs. We didn't expect much but figured why not try anyway. That night at about midnight I got a text. We expected it to be a prank, at that hour, but it actually was an interested family! They had a big mouse problem and we had put on the ad that our cats were great at keeping rodents and roaches away.

 I have to say there are some moments now where I miss our cats but ultimately this was the right decision. I am only now beginning to feel less sick and it is still difficult to chase around an energetic one year old in my weakened hormonal state. Now our only problem is the visiting roach family who got the memo that our cats are now gone.

Baby #2 is on the way!

Hot and Cold with Daycare

We started our son in a home daycare about 3 weeks ago.  The first few times he was a little fussy when we dropped him off but would be playing and fine when I picked him up.  The first few times I picked him up he was very occupied with the toys and didn't even seem interested in leaving.  We started him part time, only 3 days a week and the transition seemed to be going well.  Last week I dropped him off in the morning, which is usually my husband's job because of our shifts and he was very very upset.  He didn't want to walk in the door and kept holding onto me when I tried to put him down or give him to the daycare provider.  I was really upset by this, since I thought he was transitioning well.  I had to leave him crying, but I listened outside the door and he stopped crying right after I left.  When I called an hour later the daycare provider said he was fine after I left and was playing with the toys.  But, then when I went to pick him up he seemed upset again and ran up to me and started clinging to my legs.  If he had always acted like this I would think there was something wrong, but to start acting like this after 3 weeks seems very strange.  He was the same way when my husband dropped him off this morning.  I wonder if he is now realizing we are dropping him here every day or if it could be something else.  He's also teething again, since his fingers are always in his mouth and drool is everywhere.  Could he have more anxiety now because of the teething?  We've decided to give it another week or 2 and see if he adjusts.  It's hard because we both hate to see him this upset, although my husband says he was the same way no matter how good the place was.  He said he was just shy around strangers and would miss his parents and cry when they left him and cry when they picked him up, so I'm hoping it's just an attachment thing which and he'll just need some time to feel comfortable.

My one year old dislikes Sand and Grass?

Granted we are raising this kid in a concrete jungle, but I figured once we exposed him to the beach and grassy parks this summer he would dive right in.  Don't all kids like to build sandcastles and put their hands and feet in wet sand?  I guess not.  At the beach our son sticks right to the sheet we put down and doesn't attempt to play with his cousin with her pail and shovel.  He also had some fear of the ocean this time and when we would stand him in the wet sand he would cry or try to keep his feet up as we hold him, anything he could do to avoid contact. 
At a grassy park with some other kids his age or younger all the other kids are off and running around barefoot exploring the grass and everything in it, while our son prefers to sit on the blanket and play with some cups and a fake picnic basket.  When I try to put him on the grass he doesn't seem comfortable and just stands there for a moment and then quickly makes his way back to the blanket area.  He is fine walking on hardwood floors, linoleum, carpet, on concrete or rubber in the playgrounds, but apparently not sand or grass.  I'm guessing he wouldn't like dirt or mud either.  In some ways I don't try to force this because it will keep him clean but in other ways I wonder if this is normal or if he will have some weird OCD against the playing like other kids do in the natural outdoors.

Mamas please try to control your daughters!

Recently my son and I are walking back from his daycare and this little girl about his age on a leash (see previous post on leashes and how they should be used) walks right up to him and grabs his toy.  The mother is walking on the other side of her daughter but not close enough (it's a long leash) and does nothing to try to get her to give the toy back.  Instead she smiles and says "Besito, Besito," which with even my very poor Spanish I believe means "Kiss Kiss."  So this little girl (who we have never seen or met before) tries to grab my son and give him a big wet smooch.

Now I am not as much of a worrier about germs as I used to be when he was first born, but this was a bit ridiculous.  Not to seem extreme but the mother obviously is not only not reprimanding her daughter for grabbing other kids toys but is actually encouraging her to molest them.  I am not her parent and should not need to be taking his toys back from her or remove her from my son and his things. 

I then say something like "Ok now that was very nice but we need to go" and take the toy from her and try to have my son walk on the other side of me to avoid this little grabby kisser.
Then to my shock the mother is letting her daughter grab onto the stroller which I am trying to push while my son walks next to me and again says to her "Besito Sonya, Besito!"  So the little girl again tries to get to my son to kiss him.  Honestly this was really too much.  Any normal person would see that my little boy is not at all interested in being kissed, nor am I as his mother, and this girl should not be encouraged to walk up to strange boys and kiss them on the street.  I can only imagine what life that will lead her into in the future.  My son is not at all comfortable around strangers and I think this to be a good thing.  I would never encourage him to walk up to strangers (children or adults) and grab them or their things. 

I then had to say "Ok now that's enough  We have to go"  I unlatch the girl from my stroller and pick my son up (who is not at all happy with any of this) and put him in the stroller and make as fast an exit as we can.  As his mother I agree my little boy is very cute and hard to resist, but please try to control your daughters around him!

More Words for our Tri Lingual Toddler!

**A few phrases I forgot to add to this list as of 7/18:

"Oh No!"  He says it soo perfectly with just the right concern in his voice and usually when something is dropped.  I love it!

"Uh oh"  This is a fairly new phrase which he has started to say more consistently.***


Our adorable now 15 month old is growing up rapidly.

Here are some more words he's added to his vocabulary:

"Aapple" - he definitely knows apple first and foremost stands for the green (granny smith) or red delicious apples you find in the store or in his big picture books.  He does think this word may also work for oranges, tomatoes or any other type of bright colored round fruit.  I've been trying to correct this but so far the words orange and tomato have not left his lips.  Yesterday I picked him up from his first day at daycare and he was sitting with 2 3 year old girls having a tea party with them, holding a fake orange, exclaiming "apple!"  The three year old immediately showed me she knew the difference between these confusing fruit.

             "Apple" Versus Apple 


"No, no, no, no"  -- loves to say this when he means no or when he means yes and wants something or everything he can't have.  When he wants something he holds his hand out at the object and frantically turns his wrist in a sort of grab/wave indicating he wants something over there, and probably something I will not give him.   I think we have been saying No a lot more in the last few months, since he's started doing all the things he shouldn't be doing: walking/running on the couch, climbing over the couch barriers we have in place to get to things like outlets, cables, TV, remotes and cell phones.  Now every time he says "No" and shakes his head, I say "Yes" and nod.


"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy"  -- the kid will walk around the apartment saying this to me to daddy, to the babysitter to his toys, to basically anyone or anything.  I try to respond so he will understand this is actually my name, but then after the 15th or 20th "mommy" in a row I usually give up.

"Dada" or "Baba" -- we think Baba might be Papa because he tends to say it to his father.  He certainly knows who Mama and Papa are because when we ask him he points to the correct person.


"Guitar" -- he doesn't actually say this correctly yet but he will say something close enough that I can understand

"Water" or "wagwa"  -- I think he's a little confused with saying this word correctly because his sitters are all spanish and they say Agua.  He understands both "agua" and "water" as well as "hoches peet" (which is do you want to drink" in Russian.

These are the words he speaks on a regular basis that actually make sense to us.  He will speak fluent conversations to us in his own language.  He will talk to himself and his toys as well.  We will ask him a question and he will respond and maybe point to something, but I or my husband will have no idea what he's saying.

He seems to understand a lot, definitely most of the basic stuff we say to him, in mostly English, some Russian, and probably a good amount of Spanish.  I don't actually know how much spanish he understands since I don't speak it.  I'm guessing it's probably more than I think, since he's around Spanish speaking all day when I'm at work.  If he can understand and speak English and 2 other languages pretty well by the time he hits pre-K, I think that will help my son a lot in the long run.  And since I only speak and understand English well, maybe soon I'll be learning from him!

"We have a runner!"

In a recent episode of Modern Family Cam and Mitch attach a baby leash to their 3 year old daughter, Lily so she won't run away on a trip to Disneyland.  Since I've been a mom I've noticed more babies in general and on the streets in NYC I've seen plenty of babies on leashes.  In the show Cam and Mitch feel very self conscious about having Lily on a leash, but I think its a very practical idea.  My one year old is definitely a runner.  We open the door to the hallway and he bolts to the elevator and bangs on the door to go down.  There are also stairs, behind a door adjacent to the elevator, and this kid has no sense of any fear.  He loves stairs and will beeline toward them so if you're not quick enough that's where he's headed next.  He doesn't take after me at all. I was always very careful and scared of dangerous thing, loud things and heights taller than me (still am).  On the street he's very fond of cars and will pull you toward the street to get a closer look.  He loves loud noises and gets very excited when we turn the vacuum cleaner on.  He tries to out-scream it (and we have a very loud vacuum).  Like I said no sense of danger or fear.  Climbing onto high surfaces like a 3.5 ft couch table and then trying to walk off is his idea of a great time (luckily so far we've always caught him!)  For a kid like this strapping him in a stroller or on a leash in non baby proof or public places is a very safe and necessary idea if we want him to survive to age 2.

Lily on a Leash

I guess if you put an animal on their back it looks cuter than the dog leashes? 

I was looking for a funny picture of a person walking their dog and baby on leashes together, but couldn't find one.   

Please submit if you do!

(or a baby on a leash and a dog in a stroller, that would be just as good! ;)

Favorite Word

Our baby is now officially a Toddler at 13+ months he is walk/running everywhere.  And his vocabulary is growing quite a bit.  Unfortunately one of his favorite phrases to say recently sounds like "oh shit."  He walks around the apartment now saying "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit" and everyone asks if that's really what he's saying.  I may have said "shit" once or twice but usually its just once, probably because I'm a klutz and can't walk without hurting or burning myself.  I don't walk around all day cursing like my potty mouth kid.  It's actually really funny and its hard not to laugh or egg him on.  We are such terrible parents encouraging language like this in a kid who doesn't even say Mama or Dada to us yet. 

Aside from the cursing I wonder if we are confusing him on what things are.  When I say, "Where's Mama?"  Instead of pointing to me he will point to a picture of us on the wall.  Great, now not only does he not know I'm Mama, he thinks the picture of me is Mama.  I feel like an absentee mother. 


He points to everything and we will name things as best we can, but some things we've taught him the English word and other things we've taught him the Russian word and his babysitters all speak Spanish, or English with a Spanish accent.  I've heard kids in bilingual household take longer to speak so I guess for now we'll be using the universal language of cursing.  Oh *&$%!

We've reached stage 5+, of almost walking

From about 10 months on, we've been anticipating that any day this kid was going to start taking steps by himself.  It's been a much slower process than we thought with a lot of encouragement required.  We have a book that details the stages to walking:

Stage 1: baby learns to "cruise" holding on to furniture (he started doing this right after he started standing on furniture, at about 9 1/2 months)

Stage 2: can "cruise" with one hand, while other hand holds a toy.  This feat was accomplished very soon after stage 1 for our baby

Stage 3: can cross gaps between one support and next, can cross any gap that can be spanned by his 2 arms.  (our baby also mastered this by around 10 months.

Stage 4: will throw himself toward the support that is close, but not close to reach with his arm span.  (This he could do several months ago as well.  But it also says once they can do this they should be able to stand alone, which our baby did not do and still has very little interest in doing.  He is always falling or throwing his weight in one direction or another and doesn't seem to get the concept of standing still and then carefully taking "baby steps".)

Stage 5:  can toddle 2 or 3 steps to get where he is going. (Our kid can toddle the entire length of the playground or living room and has been able to for over a month.  But he doesn't hold his balance and is like a running catapult that will go faster and faster to try to catch himself as he run/falls.  We have to run after him and catch him before a big crash occurs.)

Only in the last few days  (he's about 12 1/2 months) has he started to gain more supported walking, where now he can actually walk between 2 objects, without falling over into them, or losing his balance midway and falling on his back or face.  Very soon I'm anticipating/hoping he will reach stage 6 which is fully independent walking with that great thing called balance and less of this dangerous 'no thought for gravity' fall-walking.   Perhaps if I'm lucky after this he will master patience and standing in one spot (but probably not)

Traveling with an 8 month old to Hawaii

Since I don't think too many people have attempted this feat, I would like to share how we did it.

Flights: from NY this is a very long flight.  11+ hours each way...and we did the slightly shorter flights from Newark.  We couldn't find a direct flight that worked for us so we managed to break up the trip on the way there by stopping overnight in SFO.  We also flew during the day to SFO and then Honolulu the next morning.  Honolulu is about a 5 and 1/2 hour flight from San Fran.  We also go pretty lucky because we although we did not purchase and extra seat for our newly crawling baby the planes to and from California were not full so we relocated to the back of the plane on both flights and had a full row to ourselves.

On the way back we took a Red Eye.  We did have a stop over in LA for an hour or so but this was basically a better flight than on the way there because he slept for a better part of the trip.

If you are flying with an infant under two I don't recommend paying extra for their own seat.  There's really no reason to.  I feel its not worth the extra money and you should take advantage of them flying for free while you can.  I was still breastfeeding at this time so I tried to feed him on take offs and landings.  One of the takeoffs he wouldn't eat but he didn't seem to have any discomfort.  When he didn't eat we tried to have him suck on a teether.

The only thing that did annoy me was that even though the planes to and from California had plenty of extra seats the stewardess refused to let us bring on the car seat and made us leave it at the entrance to go with the luggage.  I understand we didn't pay for the seat but since we got one anyway then let our baby be safer and have a seat that will actually hold him in place during any turbulence.

The best stuff for surviving and thriving on this trip:

Bebe Au Lait Nursing cover.  This really is the best nursing cover.  I would nurse him everywhere in this.  It's great because it has a little opening made with some wire on the top that allows you to see the baby, but not everyone else to see your nipples.

Ergo Baby Carrier:  this carrier cost us almost as much as our $130 cheap Combi stroller, but it was definitely worth it.  I tried several carriers before this one, even the famous and expensive baby bjorn and my back always hurt.  I would use this carrier over any $600 stroller.  We hiked all over Hawaii with it and it's great for the city.   The MTA's occasional elevators and non handicap accessible turnstiles are definitely not stroller accessible and neither are all the people on crowded subways.  If I don't need to bring a stroller to Manhattan I use this carrier. 

The best toys.  If your kid has some favorite toys, take them away and hide them week before you go and bring them out one by one, as they become necessary, as a special surprise for this trip.  We have this little butterfly that makes cute baby sounds and lights up when you pull it's tail.  This was the best distraction toy ever invented for this trip.

When we got to Hawaii we had booked a Norwegian Cruise.  This is mainly a cruise to see the islands, not the type of cruise where there will be much to do on the ship.  Basically, a expensive shuttle around the islands with some free food.  If you are looking to see all the islands with an infant I highly recommend taking a cruise, since it does make it much easier.  I would not recommend taking any tours, but do some research and rent a car on the islands you will want to explore.  We tried to do one tour on Hilo and the 4 hour tour to the volcano national park somehow ended up as a 7+ hour tour with stops at the Macadamia Nut Factory, the Orchid shop and the chocolate shop.  By the end of it, understandably our baby had had enough of being strapped to a car seat with only 1/2 hr intervals to see another tourist trap.  We are not the kind of tourists who go on trips to shop and all these tours seem to be mostly about that, maybe because for many tourists this is an important part of the trip.  Like the guy who came back from the Nut factory with his multi variety bags of nuts saying, "Man, I don't even like nuts, but they really sucked me in!"  Renting a car may seem a like more work to research where to go and more pricey, but its really worth it.  On Maui and Kauai we rented cars and did exactly what we wanted to do, visit some beaches, hike in a bamboo forest, look for whales and take in some gorgeous sceneries. 

What a difference a year makes

Here's a "then versus now" shot of my beautiful little boy swaddled like a little bug on 3/27/11

and now on 3/27/12.

 I tried to wrap him in the same receiving blanket and don him in his matching newborn cap.

As you can see he has grown and accomplished a good deal, mastering the tricky yet satisfying technique of nose picking.