small successes

Add ear infection to the list of things keeping Elias from sleeping well lately, another one of those firsts I wasn't exactly thrilled to jot down in the baby book. After a particularly rough day and night last Tuesday, I took Elias in to the pediatrician on Wednesday morning and sure enough, his ears were infected. We're about 2/3 of the way through a week and a half of antibiotics. Fortunately, Elias seemed to be feeling much better by the weekend, just in time to travel to Connecticut to attend his cousin's first communion and belated birthday celebrations.


I think this past weekend was our most successful visit yet and I have to give most of the credit to the portable booster seat I purchased earlier in the week.


My brother and his family are well out of the baby years so even though there are extra hands to help out, we always struggle a bit with recreating there some of the "stations" we've set up here at home. Most frustrating has always been meal-time, with either myself or Neal trying to hold a squirmy baby and eat at the same time, all the while keeping little hands from getting into foods he doesn't yet have the green light to try. I considered getting a used exercauser for him but he's mostly over the jumperoo we have here at home. It finally dawned on me to look into portable high chairs and the great thing about what I found, of course, is that Elias will eventually transition to the booster seat full-time. Let me tell you, it was worth all twenty bucks, and then some. I'm totally schlepping this thing to restaurants as well, since I'm not a huge fan of wooden high chairs. Those things have got to be even germier than shopping carts and there's no tray for finger foods, toys, or other things to keep Elias entertained while Neal and I inhale our food. Not that we eat out much these days, but it's nice to know this recent purchase might make those rare occasions a little more enjoyable.

Otherwise, Elias slept through about half of his cousin's communion and Neal kept him entertained in the "cry room" - which was basically the overflow room where all the people who preferred to chat went during the hour and a half ceremony - and outside the church.

Later that day we went to his other cousin's baseball game.


He seemed to enjoy watching all of the activity between games in particular, as they tidied up the field. Since the game didn't start until after 6, however, we only lasted a couple of innings before we headed back to get the bedtime routine underway.

Speaking of which (and backing up a bit...as usual, I'm behind on my baby blogging duties), washing Elias's hair has gotten to be more of a challenge the past couple of months. When he was smaller, we'd put him in the reclining newborn side of his bathtub and were mostly successful at wetting, washing, and rinsing his head and hair without getting water and soap in his eyes. But as he's gotten bigger, he's gotten better at resisting having his head tilted back and the water, etc., basically just runs down his face. Initially, he didn't seem to mind too much and a combination of hands and washcloths would keep most of the suds out. But over the past couple of weeks he's started to protest and developed a bit of dandruff in the front, where we were doing the poorest job of rinsing. We tried one of those pitchers with the elastic side, but, as I'd read, this doesn't really work too well if your baby doesn't want to tilt his or her head back. I read some reviews of the related shampoo visor, however, that claimed they worked better for babies and younger toddlers, and although what I found at Babies 'R' Us isn't exactly what I saw online, they seem to be doing the trick so far.




In fact, Elias seems to kind of enjoy watching the water flow off of the visor and into the tub. It's always really gratifying to find something that even partially solves one of the current problems at hand. I realized I've become really pessimistic since I thought for sure the five bucks or so I spent on this two-pack would be a waste and that maybe we could still get some use out of these as sun visors this summer. Occasionally, things actually work out the way you want them to.