Being Sara

Xander decided last week that he no longer wanted to be carried outside - he wanted to walk on his own. If I attempt to carry him, he screams at the top of his lungs from point A to point B, and flops and wiggles, making it nearly impossible to not drop him.

This tactic was very effective in letting us know that he is a “big boy” and can walk on his own. So, we’ve started letting him walk to and from the car, into day care, into the house, into stores, etc. It takes us more than twice as long to get places, but Xander is having fun…

The only draw back is that Xander is so easily distracted, by a mound of snow, by a puddle, by almost anything he sees on the ground, so it’s a challenge to keep him walking in the right direction. Oh, and of course he thinks he’s way too big to actually hold someone’s hand while he’s walking, so that’s a constant struggle in a parking lot - grabbing his hand only to have him yank it back again. Often I just resort to holding onto his hood - at least I know he’s not going to dart in front of a car, and he gets to have his hands back. It’s all about compromise…

Very soon we are planning on converting Xander’s crib to a toddler bed - our boy is getting so big!!

toddler, parent, parenting, mother, mothers, motherhood, baby boy, growing boy, developmental milestones, walking, first steps, growing up

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Lisa recently metioned in a comment that she is having a boy, and although she has 2 girls, she doesn’t really know much about raising a boy. Well, I owuldn’t call myself an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I have learned a few things (mostly through trial and error) along the way. So, here are a few suggestions I have so far, and I’m sure Xander will teach me some more as we get older.

- setting aside a baby washcloth as a “pee-pee cloth” can save you and your baby quite a few outfit changes.

- keeping your baby’s chest (and pee-pee) covered in the bathtub can save you lots of time rewashing your baby after he pees in the tub (or in his eye…)

- there are lots of cute clothes for boys, but sometimes you have to look harder for them - particularly in stores like WalMart where there are 5 or 6 racks of girl clothes and 1 or 2 racks of boy clothes…

- it’s ok for boys to smell like lavendar and chamomille - and the flowery scent doesn’t make them any less “manly”

- pacifiers may be a “crutch”, but it’s a crutch I’m willing to live with. If you’re going to use a pacifier, the ribbons made to clip them to baby’s clothes can be a huge time saver in searching for and cleaning dropped pacifiers.

- if you’re going to give your baby a bottle, try giving him a cold bottle first. He may surprise you and drink it just fine - thus saving you countless hours in heating up bottles.

- avoid diapers that have an absorbant strip near the top of the diaper (where it would rest against a belly button) (like Luvs) - if you forget to pull the diaper up high enough, you’ll get leaks every time.

- not everything has to be blue - in fact, it’s quite nice to have some yellow, green, orange, red, brown, etc.  I do stay away from pinks and purples.

So far, raising a baby boy hasn’t been so much different than I would imagine raising a baby girl would be. However, as they grow, they become more and more different. I’m sure Part II of this series will have some very different suggestions.

baby, babies, infant, infants, parent, parenting, parents, baby boy, male baby, child rearing, raising a baby

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