Updates on the Malster

Okay, so it's been a while, and this kid is growing by leaps and bounds!

Last night, we went to see a model apartment in our complex, one that shows what our upgrades are going to be when we renew. I was walking the stroller up to the street, but it looked like Mal was rarin' to go, so I put the stroller away, and he walked (mostly ran) to the building. After, we came home a different way, and he decided he wanted to walk up the hill toward the office. It seemed like a good time to part company, so James stayed with him and I literally ran home to get a shower. James said he walked up the hill, came back down, ran back up, came down again, and ran up it a third time before fully realizing I wasn't there and wanting to come home. I mapped it, and that kid walked/ran over half a mile. If this is the kind of energy he has, no wonder he doesn't sleep very soundly for very long! Holy cow!

Mal loves to have books read to him. I read through most of his board books about 2-3 times per day. However, he's gotten to where he now has favorite parts in each book, and often will just jump up after we read his favorite part and get the next book he wants to enjoy. Also, he's taken to trying to find certain things in several books, and since I don't know what he's looking for, I can't help him. Often, he can't turn the pages to where he wants to be, so he'll get very frustrated. It's neat that he remembers the books, but I'm sorry I can't help him get to the part he wants!

Tonight, we laughed so hard at this sweet boy, and probably shouldn't have. But after dinner, I looked and saw that we had maybe 1/8 of a cup (like a small home scoop) of Ben and Jerry's ice cream left. I got it out to eat it, and Mal wanted to share. I tried to give him tiny bites, and give myself tiny bites, so that it would last a while, but it was gone too soon. I showed Mal that the carton was empty, and I even scraped out the melty parts that I could. But then I said, "It's all gone." He burst into tears and started stomping around. I told him that's exactly how I feel about ice cream. He then begged me to magically make more appear in the carton, and cried again when I couldn't. Such a cutie. It was then that we decided bedtime was imminent.

Mal went through something for a couple of weeks and he just didn't eat much food. He sometimes has periods like that, when his diapers will look like they used to look at 4 months or so: breast milk diapers. Well, he had some allergy stuff earlier this week, and was coming off of the not eating much, and he was nursing ALL of the time, with last night being the absolute worst... He pretty much nursed the whole night, waking up crying and climbing all over the place ten times or so.

Anyway, when I was telling James what Mal ate today, I realized that he's back on track with the solid foods, I think: slice of Dave's Killer Bread toast, Clementine orange, grapes, fruit and yogurt smoothie (literally banana, strawberry, unsweetened yogurt) pouch, freeze-dried grapes, 1/4 serving pumpkin cheesecake, slice of turkey sausage with cranberry sauce, turkey and dressing potato chip, sample cup of apple pie (all three were samples at Trader Joe's), veggie nugget, 1/4 cup macaroni and cheese, pouch of applesauce and carrots, graham cracker, 1/4 cheese quesadilla, 2 Tbsp. ice cream.

Oh, that list reminds me; I was at a different grocery store earlier this week and saw a very pregnant lady carefully selecting her organic vegetables. I think her eyes might have bugged out a little bit when I passed her and she saw Mal reaching into a McDonald's sack and come out with three fries, all of which he tried (unsuccessfully) to shove into his mouth at the same time. Whatever. It all balances out over time.

That's it for now!