Baby’s Connections

When you think back, way back, what are the first memories of your friends? The first memory that comes to my mind is of my fist kindergarten friends.  Giggly twin girls Masha and Dasha that looked more alike than drops of water. Most of the teachers couldn’t recognize which one was Masha and which one was Dasha. I remember that the only difference was that Dasha had a cute little mole on the side of her cheek… or was it Masha… Then I also remember a skinny tall red headed boy whose name of Yura, but everybody called him a “Match” because he was incredibly skinny with a fiery hair.

So, since Oscar is growing up and becomes acutely aware of the people around him I wanted him to know that he is not the only baby on earth and that there is more of his kind than he thinks. I remembered that several times after pregnancy I was contacted by Birth to Three (Parenting Now!) organization and invited to visit Baby’s Connections. However, at that time we were too busy adjusting to the routine and going out with a newborn just to socialize seemed like an ordeal. Now, it’s a different story, Oscar is so much more manageable in terms of going out. If he is not tired, he will be looking around in fascination and be quiet not knowing how to take what is going on. In short, I decided to go to one of the Baby’s Connections meetings to see how he will react to others. Our first trip was a success, although, he was a bit tired, he was taken by other babies. I could see it in his face that he didn’t expect to meet anyone that behaved and looked similar to him. We were hanging out with 7-9 month old crowd since Oscar is deceivingly big for his age and already attempts to walk around (with your support of course). After that trip it was decided that we will come again. Our next visit Oscar found a friend, and it had to be a girl, a precious tiny 6month old cutie with big blue sparkling eyes and curly long eyelashes. It was so adorable to see how they seemed to make their way towards each other in a crowded room.  They were both salivating like crazy chewing on their hands, as soon as they reached each other they stretch their hands towards each other mouths although saying: “Here you go, you can munch on my hand while I chew on yours.” They started cooing and smiling having a great conversation. It was a shame that his little friend had to go home soon after, so we left as well. In our next visit Oscar acquainted with another little cutie pie and had a blast playing around. For anyone who has little ones and are in Eugene, I think it’s a great idea to come to Parenting Now for Baby’s Connections. Your little one will have a great time socializing with other babies and you will have fun finding out tons of useful information from other mothers.         

Teething and other fun stuff

Today we hit exciting four month mark. Oscar is a big and strong boy, growing faster than I could ever imagine. He is always on the move or so he wishes he could be. He is trying to roll, crawl, walk and jump… yes, all at the same time. I see we have trouble on our hands and need to make sure that our house is baby proof as soon as possible.  Oscar is more aware of the surroundings and other people around him which makes going out more fun for all three of us. And if a “stranger” holds him for a second, the whole world will be crushing down and it will never be the same. So, Tanya, you need to come visit us more often!!! Oscar is mesmerized by our furry friends and I have a feeling he can’t wait to get his little hands on them as soon as he can scoot himself fast enough. What I’m noticing more and more each day is that Oscar, not to my surprise, is a very talkative guy. Squeals of joy and throat gargling is his way to communicate now, and every day he invents and tries out new ear piercing sounds that my husband only can handle wearing both earplugs and headphones at the same time.    

Teething… we finally arrived to the dreaded teething period as well. Everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING goes in the mouth: hands, all the toys around, blankets, our fingers and NOTHING is quite satisfying. What’s worse is when you thought that your night routine was set, you and your little one finally started getting some sleep then the horrible teething would ruin that for you. As soon as Oscar turned three months his sleep during the day became pretty much non-existent while at night it would be constant rocking and singing. But as I mentioned before we don’t have a little guy on our hands, so my arms were sore from trying to continuously rock him to sleep, since he grew out of his swing already. And as soon as you think he is asleep his eyes will pop back open, and you’ll have to start all over again. So, desperate mama got a “promote healthy sleep book”, read it with a speed of the lightning, and some advice was very valid but in general our sleep problems continued. However, still desperate mama found an amazing cure that gave us both peace and healthy happy sleep back. The miraculous solution that I found was Camilia drops that soothed his pain within minutes and let him have a good sleep. I know that we still might be boxes of Camilia away from our first tooth. But, oh, how happy we all will be when that first tooth arrives!