Béla, week 11

So, in Béla related news this week - on Tuesday he had his U4 doctor's appointment, which is one of the obligatory pediatrician visits under the German system. He was weighed and measured, and found to be a respectable 5720 g and 60.5 cm long (12 lb, 10 oz, and 24 inches). These put him just above the 50th percentile, whereas last time he was just under it. In any case, all was well. His head circumference is still at at least the 95th percentile, at 42 cm.

He had his first vaccinations as well, which here involved a 6-in-1 shot, and an oral vaccine against rotavirus (which was optional). He wailed when he got the shot, and I found it way harder to deal with than I'd anticipated, but he had no real side effects afterward, except for maybe sleeping a bit longer that afternoon. He wouldn't talk for the pediatrician, but I assured her that he talks to us all day long, and she was impressed with how well he could support his head, and his general strength. All in all, he seems to be in perfect health, and developing well.

Over the past month and a half or so, he's become entirely obsessed with the mobile I made him, which is hanging above our bed (where he sleeps, in his little bed). It's nice to see something homemade so appreciated, but his obsession means that sometimes when he's lying in bed, still awake, and the duckies stop flying, he starts to cry, until they start to spin again. He's happy when they're spinning quickly, but there's a certain speed in the middle, as they begin to slow down, when they fill him with such joy that he kicks all his limbs and grunts excitedly. (I'm guessing it's when they're easiest for him to focus on, but I'm not sure.) When Paul and Betty Ann were here, we were playing a game in the kitchen one night while Béla was in our room, and we actually tied a piece of yarn to the mobile leading into the kitchen, so we could pull on it every time he started to get upset when they slowed down. The yarn's still there, but now it's only long enough that we can easily reach it while lying in bed. And for those of you knitters who are interested to know, the pattern is Flock, from knitty.
Also, he's continuing to love the arch thing that we got from my colleague Dietrich, but we sometimes spice it up a little by hanging other toys from it, which are easier for him to reach as well. A particular favourite is the Whoozit, which was a gift from Gloria. He's getting really good at grabbing at the legs, and it gives me some time during the day when I can work in the kitchen while listening to him happily jingling away across the hall.
In non-baby news, we bought a keyboard, so I'm able to play piano a bit again. It's not the best keyboard in the world, but it was on sale for a great price at the supermarket, and it's been really nice to be able to play a bit during the day. Béla seems to enjoy listening to it as well. (Supermarkets here have promotions of random items each week, which I still find strange. One week they'll have a variety of clothes and accessories for cycling, and maybe even a bike, and then the next week it'll be all gardening equipment. There also seems to be an awful lot of underwear for adult women with Peanuts characters on it, which I find a bit infantilizing. This particular week there was this keyboard, a classical guitar, a trumpet, and a bunch of music-related accessories on sale. As another foreign friend mentioned, you can go out to buy milk, and come home with a computer as an impulse purchase. Very strange.) Here Aeris is staking her claim to the new addition to our home.
This past week I've also been out for a couple of nice long hikes with Béla, as the weather's been really nice. Today Jeremi and I were out for a couple of hours, and remembered to bring the camera, but unfortunately not the spare batteries, and the battery was dead. Thursday I went out for a couple of hours with him alone, as it was nice and sunny in the morning, and climbed a big hill vigourously enough that I can still feel it. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the camera all together then, but I did get a picture of the very happy Béla upon our return, when I took off the sling.
Another new thing this week is that Béla has been bathing in style. Our friend Valentina wanted to get something for Béla, and decided after seeing on the blog that we'd bathed him in the sink, that he needed some bathing accessories. And so, she and Raul sent us a baby bathtub, with a cool little seat for him to sit on inside it. The seat makes it a lot easier to bathe him single-handedly, and he seems to like it, too. It took a while to get pictures though, because I kept forgetting to have the camera handy before I put him in the tub. But finally, I succeeded!
Look how chubby he's getting! I know he's not the chubbiest of babies, but I'm doing my best. He just keeps growing longer... He's got a couple of good rolls on his thighs, though.
This week was also the very last of my prenatal classes. Prenatal classes, you ask? Yes, I'm going to them all over again with a pregnant friend of mine who doesn't speak German very well, and I'm acting as her translator. We have the same midwife, who is teaching the classes, and she encouraged me to bring Béla along. The first class was very stressful, as I was worried he'd cry, and breastfeeding was still a bit hard back then, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle that stress while simultaneously translating. Luckily, he slept right through the first class, and through most of the next few classes. This past Thursday I wasn't so lucky, but I'm getting better at this whole baby-wrangling thing, so I was able to walk with him in the hall a little, get him back into the sling, and then simultaneously carry him in the sling, breastfeed, rock him, and translate for the 15 minutes it took to get him back to sleep. I was finally becoming a jedi mommy.

All the people at the classes love checking him out too, as they're all about to have babies. There was a four week break between this class and the last class as my midwife was on vacation, and no one could believe how much bigger and grown up he was. He also spent a good chunk of the class sitting up and looking around, and staring at one of the dads who has a big red beard. Hmm... I wonder why he picked that guy? Except that this guy was bald, so perhaps he was staring because he couldn't figure out what was wrong with his hair.

And here he is, hanging out with his long-haired, red-bearded daddy.
The big excitement this weekend was the visit of Jeremi's friend Guillaume, aka Coco, with whom he went to RMC. He was in the Netherlands for a conference, and drove down to visit us for the weekend. He had flights booked in and out of Brussels, but they transferred through Frankfurt, so when he checked in in Ottawa, he asked the guy at the counter if he could just get on in Frankfurt for the return trip, so he didn't have to drive all the way back to Brussels. (This makes the drive more than two hours shorter, and, importantly, meant that he didn't have to get to the airport in Frankfurt until 9:00, so he could leave early Sunday morning.) The guy said no problem, and had put a note on his file.

He got into town on Friday night, and we had a nice supper, and then he and Jer went out on the town, having giant boots of beer at one of the bars, and sampling some döner on the way home. On Saturday we went out and checked out the market, had a bratwurst (as seen below), and ran a couple of errands, before heading back home to get ready for a day trip. He had a rental car, and we were planning on driving to a nearby castle for the afternoon.

He just wanted to call Air Canada to confirm that there was no problem with the change to his flight, and was told that there was no note on his file, and he had to get on the plane in Brussels or his ticket would be invalid. Grrr... And so poor Coco had to leave here Saturday afternoon, after being in Jena for under 24 hours. Still, it was good to see him!
While we didn't get any pictures of our hike, we did get a couple nice pictures of us hanging out in bed this morning. Béla fits into a bunch of the 3 month clothes that people brought, including these adorable pants with ducks on his feet. These pants, when combined with this diaper shirt and a diaper, made him look like a little ballet dancer - the diaper made it look like he had a really muscular bum, and was wearing one of those jock/sling things that male dancers wear, and the fitted diaper shirt somehow looked like a leotard, and the duckies looked like little slippers. He was very graceful, let me tell you.

Here he is after a bout of tummy time, which he hates much less than he used to, enjoying a bit of on-his-side time with his dad.
And here he is, hanging out on my lap. He was enjoying this much more than the picture lets on, but he wasn't particularly enjoying the taste of my milk this morning, after we had popcorn with garlic oil last night. I really don't restrict my diet while breastfeeding, and he hasn't had any problem with curry, or other strong-tasting foods, but even I could taste the garlic in the milk, and his burps smelt of garlic. This might have been a bit too much... Still, he got over his initial rage, and managed to eat all the same, and it hasn't seemed to put him in a bad mood at all today (knock on wood).
And so, another exciting week in the life of Béla. Until next time!