Dog owners know that different breeds require different levels of exercise. Sporting dogs like retrievers need to have a lot of time to run around to get rid of all their energy. Toy dogs, like the kinds everyone in LA seems to tote around while running errands, are just fine being carried. Baby Gabe is a sporting dog. He can calm down enough to sit quietly flipping through books for about 5 minutes. Then he’s off running to do something else. He’s a bundle of energy, and we sometimes struggle to keep up with him. It’s no wonder we haven’t been to the gym since he was born, and we’re maintaining our weight. He gives us all the exercise we need.
For the first time, Baby Gabe beat his dad in a wrestling match, bringing his lifetime record to 1-54. The victory was not without controversy. After a powerbomb and elbow drop, Baby Gabe looked down for the count. But just as his dad went for the pin, Baby Gabe thrust a thumb to the eye (blatantly illegal). His dad rolled over to recover, and Baby Gabe took full advantage with a forearm smash to the throat (another illegal manuever) and a knee drop to the solar plexus. He then pinned his dad 1-2-3.
It seems like all books on infant development assume that by nine months, an infant is sleeping through the night. At four to five months, parents are supposed to move the baby into his own room and force him to get to sleep on his own. It’s called “Ferberizing” after the doctor who advocated it. Basically, parents put a baby into the crib drowsy but still awake. Once you put him down, you don’t pick him up. You check on him every 10 – 20 minutes, rubbing his back or holding his hand to calm him down, but you let him cry. Eventually, he’ll get so tired that he has no choice but to fall asleep. This process normally takes a week or two, but after that, the baby should sleep 9 – 12 hours without parents having to wake up to soothe him.
We’ve never tried this method, partly because we think Baby Gabe is so persistent in everything he does that he’ll just keep crying all night and partly because we figure it’s our job to make sure we’re there when he needs us. He always cries for a reason — hunger, diaper, temperature, hives, etc. Once we figure out what he needs, he usually quickly drifts off to sleep. We have friends, though, who swear by it. Of course, when we’re bouncing him back to sleep at 3 AM, the Ferber method does sound enticing. In the end, we figure all babies are different. Some are great sleepers, and others aren’t. Baby Gabe isn’t. It’s a small price to pay. His Uncle Jeff came for a visit and said, “You either take a lot of pictures, or he’s just a really happy baby.” At the end of the week, he concluded Baby Gabe was just a really happy baby.
Gabriel just hasn’t had much luck with viruses. He has been waylaid by Herpangina, a particularly nasty little virus that causes sores in the soft palate and back of the throat. He had a fever as high as 102.5 last night. Although it’s nice to know what’s wrong, it’s cold comfort because there’s really nothing we can do about it besides giving him some motrin to control the pain. He has the most expressive eyes and mouth so it’s really heart-wrenching to see him in pain as he clutches his throat. Still, he’s been a trouper. He’s playing right now. Expected recovery is 5 days.
We had a picnic in Griffith Park yesterday to celebrate Nyella’s first birthday. She was born exactly 6 months before Gabriel. While his parents suffered from some allergies, Baby Gabe enjoyed himself. As you can see from the first picture, he really is a chick magnet — even when he’s sleeping.
Dog owners know that different breeds require different levels of exercise. Sporting dogs like retrievers need to have a lot of time to run around to get rid of all their energy. Toy dogs, like the kinds everyone in LA seems to tote around while running errands, are just fine being carried. Baby Gabe is a sporting dog. He can calm down enough to sit quietly flipping through books for about 5 minutes. Then he’s off running to do something else. He’s a bundle of energy, and we sometimes struggle to keep up with him. It’s no wonder we haven’t been to the gym since he was born, and we’re maintaining our weight. He gives us all the exercise we need.
