Fashion Show Debut

Steel made his Madonna Inn Fashion Show debut over the weekend and to sum it up in one word: success!

Admittedly, I was a bit worried about his first stroll down the catwalk. I was concerned that the noise, the crowd, the lights and the music would terrify him. It terrifies me (at first, then you get used to it)! I was also worried because he gets a little freaked out with loud crowds.

Two instances come to mind: around the New Year, we took him over to a couple family gatherings. Steve’s grandmother Gail passed away and the family got together at her house and grandpa Jim’s house for dinner. A lot of family packed their home and had a good time remembering the good old days…. and Steel wasn’t having any part of it. He cried and screamed basically the whole time. We would take him to a quite room, calm him down, take him back out to the family room and he just screamed some more…until we finally just called it a night. He did the SAME THING at Steve’s Uncle and Aunt’s home the next night. Then on Superbowl Sunday, we were at a party and every time our friends yelled out because of the game plays, Steel got the saddest look on his face and started to cry.

Dominic Cipolla and Steel

So, needless to say, I was a little worried about our trips down the catwalk. Well, it turned out, I needn’t be. He was a natural. This kid will smile at anyone and anything who smiles at him. So when people in the audience waved and smiled, he just ate it up, smiling and laughing while his proud dad carried him up and down the catwalk with mom on his arm. The term ‘ham’ comes to mind. My girlfriend said, “he’s so his mother’s son.” Hey, who doesn’t love the warmth of the spotlight? Ha ha!

He was the same way backstage, too. Nana Lily watched him while Steve and I modeled the beautiful clothes from the Madonna Inn “My Favorite Things” boutique. He flirted with the girls in the dressing area and laughed with the guys backstage. Tony Cipolla’s son, Dominic, just loved Steel, and vice versa. They were so adorable together.

Mrs. Madonna and Me

Mrs. Phylis Madonna told me most of the kids in the show, who put on great acts dancing and singing, were carried by their parents, too, years ago as babies. She said soon, that”ll be Steel.

So, that’s a wrap, until next year, and the year after, and the year after, and the year after….

According to the baby books, at five to six months babies learn to roll over.

Practice makes perfect

When Steel reached his five month mark, it came and went with nothing. Same with six months. He just turned seven months, and still, nothing. We have been hearing of , and witnessing with our own eyes, babies Steel’s age rolling over multiple times. Of course, we immediately think something is wrong. So, at his six month check-up  we ask Dr. Bravo if we should be concerned. He calmed our fears and said we have nothing to worry about.

What I haven’t mentioned yet, is that Steel can sit up like a king in his throne. With no help, Steel sits up straight and corrects himself if he starts to fall over, except if he’s falling backwards, that is. He’ll even try to scoot to reach a toy that is out of his reach. Steve and I have nick named him Scooter!

Dr. Bravo told us that sitting up usually comes after rolling over and that Steel likely just skipped right over this move. “It’s just not his thing,” he said. Adding that some babies start crawling before they ever roll over. This made sense because most of the babies Steel’s age that we know who are rolling over, aren’t sitting up yet.

Steel and Jai

So my fears were put to rest, that is until Steel’s BFF Jai was over visiting the other day. I was babysitting both babies, and Jai, who is two weeks younger than Steel, was just a little rolly-polly.. rolling from one side to the other, multiple rolls at times, rolling to get to a toy, rolling to get away from Steel , etc. I have no doubt he will be crawling in no time! He gets up on his hands and knees and does this inch worm technique, but moves backwards. It’s so adorable. Anyday now, he’ll figure it out and move forward… and there will be no stopping him. While I was witnessing this baby phenom in action, Steel proudly sat tall and watched. When I put him on his tummy, he tries to roll, but his arm gets in the way. He hasn’t learned how to tuck it under his body so he can continue to roll over. That’s okay, in due time, I tell myself.

Then this weekend, our family friend, Daniel, came to dinner with his son,

Steel and Cruz

Cruz, who is two weeks older than Steel. I asked the all important question: “Is Cruz rolling yet?” “Oh yeah. All over the place. We can’t take our eyes off him because he rolls everywhere,” Daniel said. “When did he start rolling?” I asked, thinking maybe Cruz had just started rolling over and Steel’s turn is just around the corner. Oh, about a month ago, you say? Uh huh, I see. I explained my worries to Daniel, and he said, “Carina, enjoy it! Seriously, once he starts, you have to watch him every second. They’re crazy when they’re mobile.” We all had a good laugh and I thought to myself, he has a point, let it go, in due time.

Until I got to work this morning I saw this comment left on my blog:

Hi Carina,

I just started reading your blog and realised my daughter Ashling is just one day older than your son Steel. She’s a great wee eater too with equally chunky thighs! She started crawling today, very exciting.

I took my love to the beach on Valentine’s Day.

It was Steel’s first time at the beach and he just soaked it all in.

First, we lathered him in sunscreen– head to toe, then put his blue, beach outfit on him that we’ve been anxiously waiting for him to fit into, and finally threw his hat on so his little head didn’t get sunburned… and off we went. It actually didn’t go as smoothly as I just made it sound. Everytime we try to leave the house for an “outing” it turns into a two hour episode of packing to make sure we don’t leave anything behind the baby might need while we’re out. All the while, Duke nervously sits at the door or follows us around with the sadest face hoping, and I’m sure doggy-praying, that he’s going with us. He almost always does, but he’s not completely convinced until we grab his leash, because that’s as good as saying, “okay, let’s go!”   

Avila Beach was beautiful and packed this Sunday afternoon. The four of  us (Steve, Steel, Duke and myself) were with our friends Christian and Kari, their son, Jai, who is just two weeks younger than Steel and their two dogs.

The major event that came out of the beach outing was when Steel put his feet in the sand for the first time. It was as if everthing around us seemingly went silent. We took pictures of his little toes sinking into the sand and got video of him trying to gobble fistfuls of sand.

I’ve got to say, I never really thought much of the pacifiers that close automatically when dropped on the ground, until now. Every time that thing popped out of Steel’s mouth, it shut closed and not a grain of sand touched the part Steel sucks on! I’m definitely now a fan!

After a while, we took the babies on a nice, long stroll down the beach, Steel fell asleep, and we called it a day.

We didn’t put him in the water this time.

We’ll save that first for his second trip to the beach!

Click on image to watch video

Steel said Da-Da the other day!!!

I was sitting in the rocker and had him standing in my lap. He was doing his normal babbling and cooing… and then… out of no where… he says Da-Da. I immediately yelled for Steve who was in the garage. He came running in, and after much prompting, we got Steel to say it again. Da-Da. Genius!

Steve runs to get the video camera, while I keep Steel “talking.” With the camera rolling to document this precious moment, Steel says it again. Da-DA. We got it on camera, Steve uploaded it onto YouTube and his first word was born!

Then, I started thinking… this is weird because we never really taught him Da-Da. Sure, we tried to get him to say it a couple times, along with mama, papa, tata, nana and Duke. But how did he remember to say DaDa?

So, Steve got on the internet and googled “baby’s first word.” Lo and behold, on www.webmd.com , it states this:

Baby talk at 6 months. At 6 months, your baby begins babbling with different sounds. For example, your baby may say “ba-ba” or “da-da.” By the end of the sixth or seventh month, babies respond to their own names, recognize their native language, and use their tone of voice to tell you they’re happy or upset. Some eager parents interpret a string of “da-da” babbles as their baby’s first words — “daddy!” But babbling at this age is usually still made up of random syllables without real meaning or comprehension.

Pop. Bubble bursted. I guess we would be the “eager parents” and Steel’s Da-Da is ” random syllables without real meaning.”

I have no doubt this is true because now Steel, who also responds to his own name, says Da-Da morning, noon and night.

Steve and I had a good laugh and the best part … ‘it was all caught on tape.’

Click here to watch the video … and please excuse my dorky reaction. What can I say??? I’m an exicted, new mom!

Happy Valentine's Day

This is the picture I sent to all my girlfriends on Valentine’s Day with a message reading.. ‘Be My Valentine– Love Steel.’

The bear, my mom got him for Valentine’s Day, and the outfit is his beach wear because right after this photo shoot we went to the beach for Steel’s first beach venture! (look for a blog on this to come soon.. cutest pictures ever!)

Of course, my girlfriends accepted his offer– how could you not??– with replies like:

‘OMG I love him, Happy Valentine’s Day!’- Rosie

‘Yes, I would love to be his Valentine!! So freaking cute!!’- Josette

“Best Valentine ever!! I love you Steel’ – Gina

‘He can be my Valentine any day of the year! Happy Valentine’s Day XOXOXO’ – Jessie

‘Good Lord, look at those thighs! So cute!’ – Sammy

And so on, and so on…..

Oh my little heart throb.

Chunkers

Rolls, rolls, and more rolls. And I’m not talking about bread.

It seems as though Steel gets a new fat roll every month. The latest ones aren’t on his legs, but on his arms. It seriously looks like we put rubber bands around his writsts, where his latest rolls have formed.

We joke around and call him our little chunkers, but when it came time for

Rubber Band Wrists

his 6-month check-up on Wednesday, I wasn’t laughing anymore. I told Steve, I hope we don’t get in trouble for feeding him too much. We both started to think, ‘oh my gosh, is he too fat?’ We’ve always known he is a ‘big baby,’ but I was sure he was going to be off-the-charts big once they weighed him.

When we got to Dr. Bravo’s office, Steve and I were anxiously waiting for Steel to be weighed and, more importantly, for the nurse to give us his percentile.

Once we got Steel down to his diaper and put him on the scale, the nurse told us he weighed almost 20 pounds. That means he gained three pounds since his 4-month check-up. His percentile? 85-percent. (that means he’s heavier than 85 percent of kids in his age group) Okay, maybe not as not bad as I thought. Still, I needed official word from Dr. Bravo that our little chunkers wasn’t too chunky. And we got it. He calmed our fears, assured us of our parenting and told us to keep feeding him whenever he’s hungry. What a load off.. no pun intended!

That’s good news, too, because Steel eats everything and anything we give him. He eats whole jars of Stage 2 foods, fruits and vegetables and bottles of juices. In fact, the other day he ate half a cup of applesauce while he was waiting to be fed his bottle. I told this to Dr. Bravo and he said Steel is the best indicator of when he’s hungry: he will let us know, and we should feed him when he is. Okie dokie. Doctor’s orders.

I know it may seem silly to some that we were worried about him being too fat, but keep in mind we are new parents and worry about EVERYTHING. I especially freaked out after hearing a report the other day that feeding babies too much food as infants can lead to childhood obesity.

‘Cause at a certain age, the rolls just are cute anymore. Sad but true I’ve learned that the hard way!

Carrots and peas and pears, oh my.

More proof Steel is growing up too fast: he’s eating solids. Everything from oatmeal and bananas in the morning to beef and vegetables in the evening.

We haven’t found one thing he doesn’t like to eat. At first he didnt’ like peaches, probably a little too tart; but, he’s over that. He’s gobbling them down just like everything else.

We can’t give him rice cereal, not that he doesn’t like it, but we think it’s linked it to a rash on his chest. Once we stopped giving it to him, it went away. We’ve been told to let him try it once more to see if that’s what gave him the rash.

Other than that, he’s a good little eater. And I hope it sticks.

Oatmeal Time

Steve and I aren’t the greatest eaters. Both of us are pretty picky. The biggest thing I hope Steel doesn’t inherit, eating-habits-wise, is our dislike for fish. Neither one of us will eat it. Well, that’s not entirely true. I do eat some sushi, like salmon and tuna. I just don’t like the taste of cooked fish..too fishy. Steve will eat crab and shrimp, but that’s the extent of it. We’ll have to work hard at getting Steel to eat cooked fish because there’s so much nutritional value I want him to get out of it. “Do as we say, not as we do (or don’t do),” right? I hated when my parents told me that, but now I see why they did! “Because I say so,” is another one I can’t wait to use. Ha ha!

For now, we’ll enjoy him gobbling up anything we put in front of him, veggies and all. And for now, it’s still cute when he gets it all over the place!

I cannot not believe six months have gone by.. in a flash might I add.

6-months-old

Steel is six months old today, January 29. SIX MONTHS! Everyone I tell, from friends to family to viewers who see me and ask how old my little one is now, just can’t believe it has already been six months. I concur.

I really do remember being in the hospital like it was yesterday. I remember our first night home with him like it was last night. It was a hell of a night, excuse my language, but there’s just no other way to put it. Steel cried all night. Steve and I really didn’t know quite what to do.  We were both running on no sleep, so tensions and frustrations were high. Somehow, we made it through that night… and the past six months.

We’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work. For example, he HATES being cradled if he’s not tired. Don’t do it, don’t even try it. He will scream until you sit him upright..and then, like magic, he stops. Through trial and error we learned, okay, he seems not to like that position if he’s not tired. What I have learned is that when he is in one of his moods, screaming and what not,  if I walk into the kitchen, viola..again magic.. he stops. I don’t know why. I just know that most of the time it’s all I have to do to make him happy again because if I can walk back into the living room he will start to cry. It may have something to do with the kitchen being really bright, plus there are three windows that he can stare out. I told Steve, I think sometimes the baby just wants a change of scenery. Don’t we all?

On his way to his 2-week check-up

He may be six months old today, but his clothes say a different story. Up until he was three months old, he was fitting into his newborn-to- 3- month clothes just fine. Then, he had a growth spurt and zipped right past his 3-month clothes onto the 6-month. There were clothes he never wore, clothes he never even tried on, because he grew so fast we didn’t have time to move onto the next stage. Now, he comfortably fits into 9-month clothes. We can squeeze him into 6-month stuff, but it gets hard to close the buttons in his little bottom area. As we try to keep up with his growing, boxing up the clothes he no longer fits into and saving them in case we have another boy, it’s just amazing to us how little he once was and how much he has grown.

In fact, we watched a video the other day that Steve had made for my dad when Steel was just a month old. We were blown away at how tiny he was in the video. I told Steve, “we had no business taking care of something so little!” My mom just laughed.

I’m sure in another six months, we’ll be doing the same thing..looking back as he’s crawling and stumbling around, wondering where did the past six months go?

Just when we started to get into a walking routine, here comes the rain.

The whole fam enjoyed the break in the rain this past weekend, mostly because we were able to get out of the house without getting drenched or nearly blown away.

Steve, Steel, myself and Duke got out for a nice walk on Saturday. Sunday we were too busy running errands that we put off during the week because we didn’t want to go out in the stormy weather.. .okay, so we watched a little football, too.

It was so nice to get out and get some fresh air. I guess we start to take things like that for granted when we’re spolied with so many beautiful, sunny days.

On our walk, as usual, Duke tried to take the lead, while Steve held him back. “We are the pack leaders, not Duke…” as Dog Trainer Cesar Millan has taught us through his TV show Dog Whisperer. As Duke fights to be first, we are all also fighting for space on the curb. Since Duke can’t be in the front, he wants to be at our side, but this doesn’t work when we have a jogger that takes up nearly all the curbside. Plus, Steve and I want to talk to each other, so we are trying to walk side-by-side. It’s just a constant battle of all of us wanting to be near each other, which isn’t a bad thing, right? It’s pretty amusing, actually.

What was also pretty amusing was our first outing in  Jeep Jogger. First off, this thing is plush! My dad got it for us, and he gets nothing but the best! Steel gets to ride in comfort, while we get to rock out to music blaring from speakers on the jogger. This way we don’t have to use our headphones, allowing us to be aware of our surroundings. The big, rubber wheels also make the bumpy ride more smooth for little Steel and makes it easy to navigate through some bad road conditions. For moms who like to take their kids out on walks, it’s worth the investment!  

Now to the funny part.  A quick back story. Everytime, we blow in Steel’s face, he’s reaction is very dramatic. He gasps for air and lets out a big laugh. It’s hysterical and very adorable. But when we took him on his first, front-facing walk, I kept hearing this little noise coming from him. I then realized, the wind was hitting his face and he was having the same reaction as when we blow in his face. Poor little guy had to learn how to breath in the wind. I guess you forget babies have to learn just about everything once.

His next lesson: we don’t go for walks in the rain. Thank goodness the sun will come out tomorrow!

This is the picture I text to all my friends and family during this week’s rainstorm.

Our little monster is all set for the stormy weather. In fact, he doesn’t seem to mind it at all. Neither the rain, nor the thunder seem to bother him. In all actuality, he probably doesn’t know the difference between the rain and the sun… but I sure have noticed a difference. Just like many of us get in lazy moods when its cloudy out, he does, too! I came home the other day after working late and I was so exhausted. My husband had to run some errands, so it was just Steel and me. Well, Steel decided to take a 2-and-a-half-hour nap! I slept on the couch, he was in his crib..and we both woke up rested and ready to eat! When Steve got home, he couldn’t believe the baby actually slept that long during the day. Steel normally takes quick cat naps and rarely sleeps for that long during the day. The trade-off is that he’s now starting to sleep through the night. Woo-hoo!

The one who is not dealing with the storms very well is our great big dog Duke! A little rain turns this beast into a little baby. He hates, absolutely hates, the rain! He refues to go outside, which makes “potty time” a bit difficult. Steve or I have to drag Duke out to the backyard and stand there while he “takes care of business.” Honestly, it’s a bit ridiculous, but what are you gonna do, right?

Well, it’s Friday and it looks like the rain is headed out of the town for the weekend. Enjoy the dry weather while it lasts everyone.

Sorry it has been a while since my last post, but I plan to start blogging again regularly, so be sure to check back in with me next week!

Have a great weekend.