Falco’s first Halloween was a fun one. My mom sent him an adorable
skunk costume, and he seemed to actually like wearing it! He made
appearances at a costume party on Sunday, playgroup on Monday, and a
tour of Matt’s office and a couple blocks of trick-or-treating on the
actual Halloween. Through all that, he happily wore his costume
including the hat without complaint. It’s like he knew how cute he
looked and liked all the attention. Please check out the gallery for
more photos of Falco and his friends!

Today Falco and I met Lynne and Ruby for a Gymboree class in Los Altos. The class was at 1:30, which meant getting Falco up from his nap at 12:30, attempting (unsuccessfully) to get him to eat a rushed lunch, and then getting in the car for our 40-minute drive. He was pretty unimpressed with being strapped into his car seat right after waking up when he was ready to play, but we made it with minimal whining during the trip. We got there, and the place was a big room with lots of gymnastics-style mats all over the floor and various padded things for the kids to climb on, under, and through. Falco took off crawling immediately and seemed pretty excited about his surroundings. After a few minutes of playing on our own, the class started. The teacher said the theme was “off and on” and went through a couple activities focusing on that like the kids getting on and off this big rocker thing and whatnot. I felt a little silly and forced trying to emphasize saying “off and on” in a cheerful voice, but what was worse was the songs. I’m accustomed to song time at swim class, but those are real songs with a big group in a noisy pool. You can’t really hear yourself or others singing, and you’re in the water, which makes everything more fun. At Gymboree, the songs are about Gymboree, like singing about bubbles or putting toys away or the parachute or whatever. That was a little weird, and the fact that there were only five moms plus the teacher in a big, quiet room made it feel like I was singing a solo if I did attempt to sing along. Luckily, it was my first time there so I could just play dumb and keep quiet.

The equipment in the class was pretty fun, especially the parachute. At one point, the chute was laid out flat and the teacher said that the babies could stay sitting in the middle if they wanted. Somehow, all the other kids bailed except Falco. Everyone else was around the edges fluffing the parachute up and down, and Falco was just sitting there in the middle laughing and smiling like the whole thing was just for him. I was so proud of how confident he was! He was happy to try everything and had a pretty fun time.

After class, we had to get back in the car to drive home. I thought he might catch an extra nap on the way back, but he didn’t look tired a bit and just looked around and periodically whined because I think he was bored and didn’t want to have to sit still. I don’t think we’ll sign up for the class because it’s such a long drive and expensive and just doesn’t seem worth it. As much as I would like to take a class with Lynne, it would make a lot more sense for me to go to the Gymboree 10 minutes away from home. I think I’ll hold out for preschool acrobatics at the San Francisco Circus School, which he can start at 18 months. He can get on the fast track to becoming a circus freak and make us proud.

I am so thrilled that Falco is nearly to the age (12 months) when he can switch from formula to cow’s milk. Formula is expensive, inconvenient, and smells terrible, and I can’t wait to be rid of it. The formula companies try to sell the fact that toddlers should stay on “Stage Two” formula because it has more nutrients than milk, but I’m not buying it. He is already on Stage Two formula because his formula consumption went down as he started eating more solids, but I feel pretty sure he can get what he needs from food. I’d rather give him a vitamin supplement than keep giving formula. (I should say here that Falco has done really, really well on formula despite all my concerns that he could not be breastfed. It’s not the poison the lactivists make it out to be.) The plan is to start gradually adding milk to his formula during his twelfth month to get him used to it, and then make the switch on his first birthday. Somehow, it is not OK to switch him completely now, but in four weeks it’s fine…

Not only is 12 months the age to switch to cow’s milk, it’s also when he is supposed to give up bottles. I haven’t really figured out the logistics of this one yet. Right now he drinks milk in the morning, before his nap, and before bed. The morning bottle will be easy to give up because he doesn’t really ask for it or notice if we skip it. The other two, however, are ingrained in his sleep routine. Drinking his bottle is the last thing he does before getting into bed, which I realize is a problem that I have created. I guess we’ll just have to see how it goes. I’ll probably first try giving him milk in a cup beforehand and then hold him with his pacifier in place of the bottle for a few minutes before putting him to bed. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just try giving him a cup instead of bottle and seeing what he does. That doesn’t fix the association of milk before sleep though. Hopefully if we just go cold turkey it will be fine after a day or two. I have no plans to take away his pacifier since he only uses it to sleep, and hopefully that will be a good substitute for the bottle. As far as I’m concerned, he can still use it when he’s in first grade as long as it never leaves his bed.

Can you believe that I am about to have a one-year-old? I kind of can’t. Soon I won’t feel like I have a baby anymore but a kid instead. As long as he can’t walk or talk though, he’s still a baby to me!

I have had a cold for the past week, and Falco and Matt have had some kind of weird pseudo cold. I started getting sick Sunday night, and Matt got a sore throat and felt run down on Tuesday. That night, Falco cried a lot at bedtime and couldn’t get to sleep until after 8:00, which is very late for him. He had a fever that night and the next morning but never got any other cold symptoms. Matt hasn’t gotten any other symptoms either, so maybe they will get away without ever getting a full-blown cold.

Anyway, a side effect of this cold is that I kind of lost my job. In addition to my being sick, Falco has been not napping well at all for the past week or so, which means I was having a hard time getting my work done. I told my manager that I was having trouble meeting the minimum number of lines per week and asked if I could reduce my minimum, but she said that they couldn’t afford for me to produce less because they have to pay a seat license fee for me to be on the account. So, basically I was given the choice of working nights and weekends to make my line count or quit, and I opted for the latter. I am disappointed that it didn’t work out because I was enjoying the work, but I just can’t depend on having 2-3 hours of time to work every day.

As I mentioned, Falco’s nap schedule has changed yet again. It might not be a permanent thing, but for now I can only get him to take one nap a day. It’s a little early, but maybe he is ready to phase out the morning nap. So, we’re shooting for one nap to start between 11 and 12, and we’ll see how that goes. Otherwise, there is a lot of crying and fighting if I try to force the two naps, which is miserable for both of us.

Falco is crazy for standing up, and that’s pretty much all he does all day. He can’t stand on his own yet, but he doesn’t really need to pull himself up anymore. He just needs to put his hand on a wall or something to balance while he stands, and he is good at standing with just holding on with one hand. Today at the playground he let go of the wall with both hands, but I think he might have been leaning on it with his stomach. He is definitely getting close to standing on his own though, and walking will surely be soon to follow! He seems to be working hard on saying his first words too. He doesn’t actually say any words on purpose that we can tell, but I think the babbling will turn into something soon. I can’t wait for him to call us mommy and daddy!

Sorry for the delay in posting these, but here is our completed
kitchen! The only thing left is painting, which should be done next
week. We started using the space on 10/1, and it is wonderful!