Cold Spaghetti

Easter Morning golf with PapPap! 

Us on Easter Morning…

In the last few days, Will has turned into an incredibly adorable (heartbreakingly adorable) chatterbox. He babbles and babbles and babbles… pointing, gesturing, making faces, throwing his hands in the air, babbling in sentence intonation back and forth with you… it is absolutely hysterical.

Words….
Much more detail and precision with old standbys: Ah-cha (“Good” in Hindi), Wow!, Uh-ho!, El-mo, Ahh-pull, nah-nuh (for “banana”), Ma-Ma, Da-Da, Pap-Pap, Ga-doh (for “gato”), Bye-bye, Hi!, Weee!, Ah-gua, Moo!, Baa!, Ank-U (for “thank you”)

New Additions: Gan-nah (for “Granna”), Doh! (think of Homer Simpson), Moh (as in “more” to ask for more milk or food when he’s hungry), Ahh-gie (for “doggie”), “Mum” (usually said “ma-mum” for me), Sgettio! (as in “Uh-ho, spaghetti-oh!”), Udding! (for “pudding”), Boo! (as in “your hat is soooo booootiful!”)

Animal sounds: Caa-do-do!! (for “cockle-doddle-do!”), Cuck-cuck (for “cluck cluck”), Mee-owww, Ahff! Ahff! (for “ruff-ruff”)

Granna and Will — playing “Uppie Go” (a phrase that I’m told I coined when I was Will’s age).  

Monday night. I was sitting on the couch in the Coraopolis La Quinta, eyes glazed over at mindless tv, nursing my kid, waiting for him to drop off to sleep. Suddenly I hear a familiar voice — telling me about savings at WalMart. Could it be?! YES — one of my Harrold Street college roomies, a buddy from TA-UT at VT, with whom I shared Riva San Vitale, trips through Italy, and weeks of commedia and cold showers. My favorite “white meat” — the Booduh herself — Allison Latta! Wal-Mart’s new coupon lady!!!

Will and Aunt Francis Kolakowski! Aunt Fran made dinner for us on Sunday (including a special veggie lasagna for me!) Will loved playing with her dishwasher (great buttons), exercise ball, and getting lots of attention from everyone!

Will and our Uncle Gus! (Uncle Gus is Grandma Betty’s brother and my Mom’s “movie-star” uncle!)

Running out with Granna’s purse!! Will put one a great show each night at the La Quinta (mom’s home of choice in Coraopolis). He danced, babbled, and ran around us laughing in circles… one of his favorite games was to steal Granna’s purse and run for the door. Although he could open the doors between the rooms (we had a suite which made bedtime for Will SO much easier and took a huge weight off of us) Thankfully, he could not open the door to the hallway! But hanging the purse from his head, running to the door and trying to run out was a fun part of his night!

Visiting Grandma (and Great Grandma!) Betty in Beaver Falls, PA! Mom, Will and I spent 5 days in Pennsylvania this past weekend seeing family and spending time with Grandma. Here we are re-creating an old beloved picture that shows four generations of DiMarzio women (from my Great-Grandma Ann Batistone DiMarzio to me) that was taken when I was under a year old in my PapPap DiMarzio’s living room (now my Uncle Gus’s living room). The original picture is on my piano and I can’t wait to have this one beside it. 

Our latest parenting effort has been to create a firm bedtime for Will. I am NOT supportive of the “cry it out methods” (Ferber, etc.), particularly when the baby is under a year old. So, we’ve worked to establish a bedtime routine for Will (dinner–bathtime–stories–nursing–sleep) that allows him to naturally fall asleep and then put him in his crib. Before, when for whatever reason, this routine didn’t make him nod off, we continued the routine until he was finally asleep. Now, we’re transitioning him to his crib so that the bedtime is firm.

We started last week. The first night, he was angry. He threw a temper tantrum (complete with emptying his crib of toys, taking off and tossing his pants, and crying for about 10-15 minutes.) Paul braved this one and it was by far the worst. I think what is important is that he is old enough to not physically need us for comfort (I feel this is a really big deal) and has slept in his crib long enough for that to be a safe place. Since that first night, he has taken to the crib relatively easily, with maybe a few seconds of protest and then lying down and going to sleep. The trick is that we give him kisses, say goodnight, and put him in the crib — but we stay in the room, seated or lying on the floor, without making eye contact and without saying a word. He gets the hint very quickly and goes to sleep. It is really working great. Bedtime for Will is between 8-8:30… and boy, do we love it!

What we are still working out is what to do during the night. He still joins us in bed and that is okay for now. I’ve been thinking a lot about this and we’ve tried some different methods but ultimately believe that it is natural and physiologically appropriate. We have adjusted to this and while it isn’t as convenient as forcing him to remain in his crib all night, we make it work because we really feel it is the best thing to do.

Some sources that I find useful:
Commentary by Katherine Dettwyler (very well respected medical anthropologist, whose work I greatly admire and recommend widely.)
Dr. Sears’ FAQ