10 months old + barreling towards toddlerhood

Wow, looking back I see I deemed April "crazy" ... I don't even really remember April.  May officially set the new gold standard for crazy and definitely set the record for most changes for our little boy in his life thus far.  We kicked off May with strabismus surgery to correct Rowan's misaligned eyes.  We took him to the surgical center at dawn on May 2 and while I teetered on the edge of nervous collapse, his surgeon adjusted his eye muscles while Rowan was under general anesthesia.  The whole surgery including anesthesia only took about 30 minutes and Rowan was awake almost immediately afterwards.  He was definitely not happy in immediate recovery, but overall he was a real champ.  When we got home he drank most of a bottle and then conked out for about three hours.  When he awoke he was his old self, plenty happy and eager to eat and play with his toys.  Of course, his eyes took quite awhile to heal and at first they were very startling and rather unsettling to look at ...

Passed out post-op

What?  Is there something on my face?

Lots of visitors for Red Eye Rowan

We went to Ithaca for Mother's Day weekend to visit Ben's family and attend our nephew Geoffrey's birthday party in Binghampton.  Rowan was surprisingly good the entire trip - far less whining and crying than usual in the car and he even did well sleeping in the different crib.  We even got to stop in at our friend Abbey's barn sale and catch up with her, too.  Overall, it was a really wonderful weekend, topped off with a Mother's Day picnic lunch of Viva Taqueria at Taughannock State Park.

9 days post-op and starting to look healed!

Yup, we are so cool.

Oh, hello.  Just hanging out.

This is The Rowan Face.

I LOVE this picture! Great Mom's Day :)

We had already cleared out the living room before his surgery by moving the coffee table to a corner and moving one of the corner tables upstairs - and it's a good thing, too, because once he started to heal, Rowan needed some serious room to play.  He had already become very adept at sitting up and using his fine motor skills to play independently, but he was lagging slightly in gross motor skills (he had only rolled over a couple times and showed no interest in any kind of creeping or crawling.)  I suppose it is possible that his misaligned eyes were playing a role in that slight delay - he might have felt unsure of his depth perception or something.  Anywho, not long after his surgery Rowan became a cruising and crawling machine.  I wasn't surprised that he took to cruising - after all, it allows him to stand up and feel like the adult man he seems to think he is - but he was very resistant to crawling at first.  He could do it, but he would complain and cry the whole time, like it was paining him.  But, of course, he quickly realized he could get around much faster and to more parts of the house on all fours.  Then he decided he liked crawling.  But he still would prefer if he could walk ...

And, of course, this fun new skill was not far behind:

May was a great month for visiting with great people - Rowan even got to meet Avi, the boy who is destined to be his BFF.  Well, maybe not, but I sure do love his mom, Erin. :)  Avi is only a little less than two months older than Rowan and I'm sure they will love to play together someday.  They did have fun checking each other out this visit, but I'm sure they will come up with all sorts of clever ways to play once they get a little older and a little more mobile.

Aw, I love how sweetly Rowan is looking at Avi!

This spring was one of the all-time hottest we have ever had in WNY and we have been struggling to keep cool.  Rowan is like me - he definitely gets cranky when he is hot.  One night we decided to take dinner to the lake so we could enjoy the breeze and dip our toes in the water.  It was surprisingly warm - it has been hot, but Lake Ontario is super deep, so the water must have been very still lately.  It was nice that it was so warm, though, because Rowan loved splashing around.  I can't wait to take him swimming this summer.

Oh, hi.

Such a flirt!

GRRRAAAHHH!

Just chilling with Daddy

So Rowan's sleep habits started to deteriorate last month - it turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg.  A few nights ago we couldn't put him down at all without him waking up almost immediately and screaming desperately.  We were afraid he was sick or something was wrong - he seemed so ridiculously anguished - so we took him to the doctor.  According to the doctor, there is nothing wrong with him and the doctor believes that Rowan is starting to have separation anxiety.  Basically, we can either hold him for as long as necessary every time he is upset ... or we can let him cry it out and learn to self-soothe.  The latter is heartbreaking and so hard to listen to, but we just can't give up on sleep ourselves indefinitely.  It is frustrating for me because I try to rationalize it - like, how can you have separation anxiety?  You don't even have to go to daycare or basically ever have a baby-sitter!  Sigh.  I know babies aren't rational and our little guy is absolutely no exception.  It is just hard because I have plenty of anxiety of my own right now and it is hard to keep that in check when he gets so sad and angry.  Sometimes I feel like I'm no good at calming him down and I'm sure it is because he can sense how tightly wound I am.  I'm really glad Ben is home more now because I really don't know how I would be holding up otherwise.

Healed eyeballs!

Still a total flirt!

Rowan has always liked music and awhile ago he learned "dancing" (waving his arms and wiggling.)   Now he responds to the word "wiggle" and sometimes he just shakes his little bum.  Also, he has several YouTube favorites and "girlfriends."  See how excited he gets watching Alexa Narvaez:

We don't let him watch too much TV and he doesn't usually stand that close.  But he does like to watch music videos and we usually spend about 15-30 minutes a day doing that with him.  The rest of the day he is cruising and crawling around, playing with his toys, climbing the stairs, going on walks, and exploring outside.  He is also getting more and more talkative - he finally says "Mama" and he has been having a lot of fun experimenting with "G" sounds.  The other day we had a funny back and forth - I kept saying "mama" and he kept yelling "dada!" back to me with increasing volume and forcefulness.  He thinks he is funny.


Rowan's Likes: peekaboo (particularly when a blanket or towel is involved or around corners), ice cream, climbing basically anything he can, graham crackers, Puffs, playing in water, music, examining objects (esp. forbidden ones - he is still obsessed with my glasses :\)


Rowan's Dislikes: going to bed, most solid foods (we keep offering regular foods, per his doctor, but he mostly tosses them aside with disdain ... there have been some funny exceptions though, like the other day when he tore up a buckwheat pancake),  losing his balance (although he is getting a lot better - both at balancing and tolerating very minor falls), getting dressed or changed, and being hot