First Haircut

Shortly after Canon's birthday I tried to cut Canon's hair, but I couldn't get him distracted enough to NOT look over at me and the scissors.  I knew I needed someone's help so that I wouldn't cut his ear off.  When Grandma Dahl (my mother-in-law) and Auntie Colette came for a visit in early December, it was the perfect time to get his hair cut. 

Here are some pictures and a video for your viewing pleasure! :)

This free picture collage personalized with Smilebox

This is the video that Grandma Dahl (Mark's mom) took of the whole ordeal.  (Actually, the video includes more than just the haircut because I wasn't sure how to edit it from YouTube.  Have fun watching his bath and a little playtime before bed too!) It's not very eventful, but you can see how hard it would've been for me to do this alone, especially since I'm not really an experienced barber.  I'm singing to Canon to try to keep his attention on me instead of on Colette's scissors.  She did a great job!  Thanks, Aunt Colette!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGCh6F6BP9M

Canon's Sleep Un-Patterned

Canon has always been a pretty good sleeper compared to most babies.  He rarely gives me problems with putting him down for naps, and he usually goes to sleep pretty easily at night.  Apparently the babysitters who try to imitate his routine don't have troubles getting him to sleep either.  He's been sleeping through the night for a long time now, but recently he's been more fickle with his sleep.

Earlier this week Canon had a REALLY hard time going down at night.  He started getting really ornery, so I decided to get started a bit early with his bedtime.  By the time I normally would've put him down in his crib, he was in now way close to falling asleep.  I tried to get him down for about an hour (usually only needing about 15 minutes- tops), putting him in his crib with holding my hand on his back to keep him calm... but he would not let me leave his side.  I was so frustrated (and hungry because my dinner was waiting for me that whole time), I asked Mark to go up and take care of him.  Canon was crying so hard, even after Mark was holding him for a little while.  He just didn't want to calm down, at least not by anyone other than me.  Once I finished my dinner, I went up to relieve Mark, and Canon stopped crying within seconds of me taking him from Mark.  I guess he just really wanted his mommy.  (That actually hurt Mark a little, that he wouldn't accept being consoled by Daddy).  I gave Canon some pain reliever and teething tablets, and after about another half hour he was happy to cuddle with Daddy for a little while.  I finally was able to get him to sleep at about 10pm... 2 hours later than normal.  I think this time he was in pain, hopefully teething... but I would've expected him to sleep late into the morning because of it.  Nope!  He was up at 6am, and didn't want to go back to sleep.  Ugh!

His normal time to wake up is about 7am, but lately there seems to be no rhyme or reason for the times he chooses to wake.  This morning it was about 5am, and even though I could tell that he was super tired, he wouldn't go back to sleep until 6am.  I had to go get a new bottle and change his diaper, and pretend that it was his regular nighttime routine.  That seemed to work, but after going back to bed, I ended up not being able to get up in time to take Mark to work this morning.  So I'm without the car, but I'm not planning on going anywhere... so that's alright by me.

What do you think?  What can I try to get him back to sleeping normally through the night?

Definitely A Tigger 2

When Mark was tiny, his grandma would call him Tigger because he was so "bouncy" and I can tell that Canon is the offspring of Mark.  He is so active; I'm not sure if he really ever stops moving. There's no wonder that Canon is so low on the weight charts.  He burns so many calories playing and barely takes any in with his foods.  At least he does pretty well with eating snacks. In fact, as I'm typing this entry, Canon figured out how to climb up onto the couch all by himself, without a push or something to step up on.  The only times he seems to just sit calmly is when he's watching Veggie Tales... but don't expect that to last through the whole episode.  Why do you think I've not posted on this blog for so long?

I wonder if Canon's activeness is because he's a boy, or if it's just because it's his personality.  We were babysitting a friend's baby girl just before our anniversary, and Charlotte was not nearly as active as Canon.  Granted, she did seem scared of Canon and wanted to be held most of the time, but the difference between the two kids was quite obvious.  Here's a little video of when they were watching Veggie Tales: Jonah and the Whale, and they were both "dancing."  You can see a little how Charlotte was trying to get away from Canon and then he tried to catch up and touch her.  This happened a lot, Canon was curious, but Charlotte was frightened.

Canon has started "dancing" when he hears music now; he bounces up and down or shifts his weight from left to right.  It's really cute.  He's also gotten really good and climbing up the stairs.  He has learned how to go down the stairs by kind of sliding on his belly, which frightens Mark a bit.  Canon has also discovered that if he lies on his tummy going feet first, he can get off the couch, bed, or chair all by himself.  However, he has not realized that stepping off like his parents do down the stairs is not a good idea.  I need to keep a close eye on him so that he doesn't accidentally kill himself. Ha ha!