Nature versus Nurture

As an adoptive parent, I find nature versus nurture studies to be particularly interesting.

We were asked to participate in an infant growth and development through the University of Minnesota and I was happy to participate. We'll be interviewed at 9 months, 18 months and two years.

It was a LONG 3 hours, they put all of us through our paces.

As part of it, they gave him a new toy to play with to see how he'd respond.
The BumbleBall was a hit!

Sorry I got so behind

We were traveling and Bob had to finish setting up the new computer.

Here's a picture of Anthony and Grandpa Vince.

(My sister sent some pictures of Anthony with my parents, I'll get them up soon.)

Minnesota Zoo

Our last day in Minnesota we went to the zoo. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. Anthony slept through the morning part, including a beautiful butterfly garden. They had a lot of animal pelts that he got to pet. (Always pet the kitty nicely!) Bob got to be nose to nose with a grizzly bear.

He did get to see the bird show. At one point a white bird was cruising around overhead and totally got Anthony's attention.

Vince loves Eagles, so we were sure to get a picture of Anthony with one.

Trip to Walnut Grove

I've had a fascination for "Little House on the Prairie" for YEARS and YEARS. (I vaguely remember being disappointed by Minnesota winters as my years there were nothing like "The Long Winter".) I hated the tv show, though, it was not true to the books.

Grandpa Vince came up and joined us after reunion and we went on an excursion to Walnut Grove. Some of the historic artifacts were pretty darn neat. My favorite was actually a letter written from one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's elementary school friends to her after the books came out. She reminisces about their time in Walnut Grove.

It was a LONG drive on country roads, but I'm glad we went.

Class of 2030

Last weekend we went back to Minnesota for my college reunion.

You can't tell in the picture, but Anthony is wearing his "Future Carleton Graduate" duds. He also has a Carleton hat that he wasn't wearing at the time.

Unfortunately, Anthony had a cold, so he was far from his best. The real issue was eating and sleeping. He still had plenty of energy to flirt it up.

Friday night I took him outside for his bottle (it was cooler) and rather than eating, he "toddled" around in his diaper smiling at everyone he could find. He got to play in the sandbox a bit (our dorm had TWO sandboxes), but I declared the bouncy house too much fun for a little guy.

Visiting our cousins

We went down to Orange County Father's Day weekend to visit Anthony's new cousin Erik. It was a great visit!
We arrived Friday night and Anthony was ready to party! He spent awhile visiting with his grandparents and then we finally got him to bed.

Saturday we had a nice visit with my sister and her family. Unfortunately, Kurt really wouldn't give Anthony the time of day. Unclear if he was jealous of his grandparents playing with this strange baby or if he objected to Anthony playing with his toys. (Or if he objected to the existence of another baby.) Erik slept most of the time we were there, but he did wake up and let me give him a bottle.

Its funny how fast they change. Anthony was only 8 months old, but I had totally forgotten what the teeny little ones were like. (Erik was about 6 weeks old.)

Sunday they all came over for brunch at my parents house and we took pictures of the cousins. You can't tell, but in the bottom picture Anthony is totally pulling on poor Kurt's shirt collar. (A few seconds later Erik tried to nurse on Kurt's other arm.)

Unfortunately, while we took plenty of pictures of the boys, we didn't get any of Anthony with his grandparents.**

**Anthony certainly had lots of time playing with his grandparents--went left him with Grandma to take my Dad to the ball game, left him behind so we could see the Terra Cotta Warriors at the Bowers Museum, not to mention plenty of morning playtime so we could sleep!

Eoin's Finalization Party

This weekend was the party to celebrate Anthony's friend Eoin's adoption finalization.

Poor Eoin was sick this morning. They still had the party but Eoin didn't get to play with any of his friends! Around mid-afternoon he had some food and water and that perked him up a bit.

Anthony enjoyed playing with some of Eoin's friends, though! Eoin's mommy Saran bought a bubble machine that churned out enormous quantities of bubbles. I'm not sure Anthony quite knew what to think of them.

Teeth are growing in!

Here's a better picture of Anthony's teeth.

(It still helps to click on the photo to make it fill the screen.)

Eight Months Old!

Can you believe it????

Let's see, how has our little guy grown.

Well, to begin with, he is just over 21 pounds. I can't remember how tall he is, but he's well balanced for height and weight. He has nearly outgrown is 6-9 month sized clothes. He has some 6-12/9-12 that fit nicely and we are buying him 12-18 month currently.

He's got all sorts of new tricks, too. The biggest is that he's figured out object permanance. (The idea that even though something hides, it still exists.) Last weekend when I hid his little crab toy under a cloth he knew immediately where it was. (Unlike the previous months when he was utterly confused about what happened.)

Anthony also started babbling this month. He'll happily roll out a long stream of da-da-da-da-da. He will sort of blow raspberries, too, but those aren't quite as fun.

He's also started using body language to indicate what he wants--down is the big one, but sometimes he'll reach out to go to someone.

He LOVES water out of a real glass. I'll need to post video on it, its pretty fun to watch. He really will drink it.

And, of course, Anthony has two beautiful little teeth.

On the down side, transition to new daycare this last week has been pretty rough. He's gotten a little discriminating about who his people are. Basically, he's been screaming if he's not being held. We've had a few good moments--Thursday afternoon he was happy to play nicely, and Friday he went to Maria. (And then demanded to be held the rest of the day.) Generally Anthony is such an easy-going guy that I really hope that he'll adapt fast.



















Sorry I'm a little late posting, I was waiting to get a fresh set of pictures.

Our Little Sea Anenome

Today was Anthony's first day of swim "lessons". Anthony did really well, especially since it was his first time in a swimming pool. It took him a few minutes to decide how he felt about the water, but he took to it pretty quickly. They played "Ring Around the Rosie" and a motorboat game. And there was some general splashing. One funny thing--in the bathtub he's all about kicking and splashing, its like the Shamu show at Seaworld. Today he didn't do too much kicking.

I just love his little swim trunks with the surfboards. They go down practically to his ankles when he stands up.

A few more picnic pictures

Anthony and Caden checking each other out. They're both still learning about being gentle with their friends!






A few seconds ago Anthony was chewing on the giraffe's feet while Eoin had the head. Sophie the giraffe is Eoin's favorite toy and it was very nice of him to share.

(Everyone had a good chew on Anthony's crab, so he's learning to share, too.)

IAC Picnic

Today was our adoption agency's annual picnic. It was a LOT of fun. Most of our friends from our monthly support group were there. It was fun seeing how much all the babies have grown and watching them play together.

We mostly hung out with Caden's and Eoin's families. (We were all in group together for quite awhile, but they've finalized so we don't seem them anymore.) The boys seemed to enjoy each other. They stole (and chewed on) each others toys. They're grabby little creatures!

Everyone seemed impressed with Anthony's "walking trick". He's getting pretty darn good at it. He also wore his new sandals for the first time today. They're pretty big but he'll grow into them soon enough.

The picture on bottom is ordered youngest to oldest, but you'd never know it by size. Caden is almost 4 months older than the other two! (But, Anthony is a moose and Eoin is even bigger)

Unlike his other pals, Anthony still enjoys wearing his hat! Too bad it covers up all his beautiful hair!!!













I brought Brown Sugar Cookies to the picnic, a new recipe that is sure to be a keeper:
1. Brown 10 T butter over medium-high heat. Transfer to a bowl and mix in 4 T butter to melt. Let cool 15 min.
2. Add 1 3/4 c brown sugar and 1/2 tsp. salt, beat until no sugar lumps remain.
3. Add 1 egg, 1 egg yolk and 1 T vanilla extract, mix until thoroughly incorporated
4. Add 2 cups + 2 T flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/4 tsp baking powder, mix until just combined.
5. Roll into balls (approx 2T/ball) and roll in a mixture of (1/4 c granulated sugar and 1/4 c brown sugar)
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 11-14 minutes until cookies are browned and still puffy. Edges will have begun to set but centers are still soft. 7. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Look closely

If you click on the picture to fill the screen you can see his little teeth!!!

He's got Teeth!!!

Yep, that's right, not one but TWO!

They both broke through sometime this morning. Unfortunately, Anthony won't let me play with them. When I try and stick my finger in his mouth he clenches up his lips and turns his head away. I've learned to not press the issue because it makes him mad.

Drool production has not slowed yet. Bob's D100 did a great job with the action shot!

By the way, doesn't he look great in his size EIGHTEEN MONTH shirt and TWELVE MONTH jeans. The shirt is really quite big. The size chart said 22-28(?) pounds. Since he was already 21 pounds we went ahead and bought that size. He'll be wearing it for awhile. Orange is a great color on him!

Sing me a song, you're the Piano Man...

I bought Anthony the little piano off a neighbor for cheap! So far I'm getting my money's worth, Anthony enjoys banging on the keys. The sound is decent (for a $4 piano) and most importantly, it plays a chord. (ie it sounds okay when all the keys are banged at once.) When he gets bigger I'm going to get him a xylophone!

Remarkably Good Eater

Most of the time....

Yep, another post about food.

Most of the time Anthony is a remarkably good eater. We've had a few vegetable strikes, but they usually don't last very long. (You can tell a strike because he starts gagging when the vegetable hits his tongue.* He's still hungry and demanding food, but not the green stuff.) Green beans are the most frequent target.

Anthony is actually a big fan of broccoli, my favorite too. Zucchini was also a hit!

If he eats all his vegetables, we'll give him some fruit for dessert. In this case it was a pear/blueberry** mix. It is good! (I think so, too!)

**Its important for Anthony to get plenty of anti-oxidants. We wouldn't want to have to scrape rust off his little tushy!

*The gagging really reminds me of Tom Hanks in BIG. (Where he wipes the caviar off his tongue with a napkin.) I'm sure Anthony would be trying it if he could.

Teething

Poor little dude is teething, and it makes him crabby! (You can't tell from the picture that he fussed most of the day. Or that his entire front is drenched.) I can feel the sharp little tooth under his gum. Of course, now he won't let me reach in and touch it.

Aside from the crabbiness, he's actually doing okay. Well, he's still sleeping all right. I'm pretty sure last week's fever was from teething, not a daycare germ.

And, about his wardrobe--yes, he wore overalls all weekend. I was wearing shorts in February and Memorial Day he wore overalls. It was just a little chilly!

Hopefully it will warm up soon!

A Day in the Sky

Last month Bob volunteered with a great organization, Shared Adventures.

He was a volunteer pilot for their "Day in the Sky" program. Basically he spent the day giving airplane rides to kids with special needs and their attendants. Bob got to donate to a neat cause and get in a whole bunch of take-offs and landings while he was at it. He had a lot of fun and came home with a bunch of hand colored Thank you notes.

(Anthony and I were on our own that day. We went to the library booksale and had lunch downtown. I also babysat the two year old next door in the morning. That was a wee bit chaotic. Thank goodness for Sesame Street on Tivo to help us out!)

Chase the Cat

One of Anthony's favorite games is "Chase the Cat". I assume it is a close relative to the universal game of "Chase the Pigeon" which we witnessed many times while in Italy. Little kids of all nationalities would band together chasing the pigeons around the square.

Anthony enjoys "walking". He definitely needs a target, though. Clearly he needs to work on balance, but the motivation is there! (And, of course, like any good baby he does his best work when there isn't a video camera present.)

So far Tigger is astonishingly tolerant of Anthony's "love". Poor thing must be truly desperate for attention.

Babbling

I came home from work today to discover Anthony babbling away!

Getting some of this stuff on video is hard. Its the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle at work: the act of videotaping causes the action to change!

(I guess I might be a bit of a geek sometimes.)

Not quite ready for bed!

And this picture was taken at 8:15!!!!! Doesn't look the slightest bit tired, does he??

Anthony got a bit off-schedule this weekend. We had friends in town, the party Saturday night, etc.

Then this morning Anthony woke with a fever and spent a lot of the day asleep. Consequently, he really wasn't into going to bed tonight, especially since he was feeling better.

By the way... This was the first day of work I've had to miss because of Anthony being sick. He's been in daycare 4 1/2 months, so this is probably some sort of record.

A Perfect 20-20

Daddy thinks that he's a Perfect 20-20. The rest of us think otherwise. Yep, that's right, Anthony's old man turned FORTY on Wednesday. It was the night of our adoption group, so we weren't really able to celebrate that day. The highlight of the day was finally finishing terminating all birthparent rights. That's the biggest legal hurdle before we finalize. I thought that was a pretty neat birthday present.

Saturday night we had a little get-together at our house. Anthony had a good time "playing" with the big kids. The ring on his head is part of a stacking toy--evidently the boys enjoyed decorating Anthony.

Bedtime was pretty disasterous--someone had no interest in leaving the party. We decided not to press the issue and he was up over an hour past his bedtime until he truly melted down.

Even More Zoo Pictures

I can't believe I forgot to post this picture!

(In case you haven't figured it out yet, clicking on the image makes it full screen.)