kyrens determination

Journal entry on the blob. Or Kyren Jordan Carr. He is now 11 months, it is April 18th, so really he is only a couple of weeks from being 1 year old. Which means I need to plan a year old birthday party. That’s crazy I cant believe that we are already at a year point, that means one year ago I also graduated, ITS BEEN A YEAR!!! Wow time really does pass whether you want it too or not, whether your enjoying it or hating it.
So we’ll start with his stats, he finally started slowing down as far as his growth curve, he was in the 90-95th percentile for weight and height, and has always been in the 50th for his head circumference, all the way up to his 10 month check up. Which was supposed to be his 9 month but it took forever to find a pediatrician that we liked and to get the insurance going. Anyway so at his 10 month appointment he is now in the 75th percentile for height, 70th for weight and 50th for head. Its funny cuz we started noticing the “shrinking” or actually just a lack of getting bigger when he went on formula and normal food. He started eating mostly baby food during the day with breastfeeding only around naps during the 7-8th month and then somewhere towards the end of the 9th month he stopped breastfeeding altogether. He just decided that he didn’t want it anymore and has never shown any signs since that he wants too. So I got to go through the lovely process of being engorged for a couple of weeks, lovely. Ya know women really have to sacrifice their bodies for babies. Greedy little things.  So at that point we tried giving him milk formula and he got awful bloody rashes, took us awhile to figure it out, since we were also trying out cheese and some fruits and veggies. But I had a clue since I could never drink milk while he was breastfeeding either, it gave him really bad gas and he would be super cranky. So we tried soy formula and he does great. So now he gets 8oz at 3 and 8oz before he goes to bed. Its really weird to adjust to him having a smaller appetite, the kid used to eat like a monster, he would down 4 packages of gerber baby food at each meal, he went through 9-12 a day for like a month. At 10 months we stopped Gerber food altogether, or I should say pureed food, we tried making our own baby food too and stored them in the Gerber bottles and plastic containers in the freezer or fridge until he ate them. So then he all of a sudden has become the pickiest little thing. It can get very irritating! Its funny tho cuz we noticed when we first introduced baby food he was just fascinated to be trying something new. He had no opinion whatsoever about what we fed him. He would eat every veggie the same as he would the fruits. And he loves baby oatmeal and multi grain cereals. Anyway you could tell that he just loved trying new foods. So now adays he will eat anything you put in front of him….once! He will always try it and wont ever spit it out, making all kinds of faces while he gumbs it death. The only exception is ranch dressing, he doesn’t like that to even touch his lips. But he starts getting all “high and mighty” with his opinions when it comes to the second to third bites. That’s where the battle begins, cuz he is not allowed to spit food out. But we don’t force him to eat the food, for the most part, once we have figured out he doesn’t like it. Although I think it is becoming more of a power trip for him than it is really not liking the food. Cuz he trys to spit out cookies and things that I know he likes. Its so funny to watch them push the few limits they have placed on them. He can practically do anything he wants. Lets see, so….. he is not allowed to touch pretties, like vases and a few glass things, but he really doesn’t try to touch those anyways, their pretty boring. He can’t touch or play with our wireless mouse or keyboard, he cant stand up in the bathtub, or in shopping carts. And he cant spit his food out. That’s it! Is that so much to ask? But he still indefinitely looks at me at least once every bath as hes on his knees and starts to put one foot down like he is going to stand up…just to hear me say…..uh huh blob! And then he sits down. He always reaches for the keyboard…..AS he is looking at you waiting for the flick on his little grimey hand….and pulls it away as soon as I stick my arm out to threaten to flick him. Apparently he actually succeeded in touching the keyboard today and then dodged Jordans attempts at flicking him, moving his hand all over the place. And he opens his mouth and cries allowing his food to “accidentally” fall out of his mouth, knowing that the flick is coming he winces’ but continues to let it fall out. And he loses every time, every time we sit there until he swallows it! Silly boy.
Alright on to other things besides eating. He took his first couple of steps April 8th!! Hurray! We were waiting in a waiting area…how profound…at the ultrasound place, and he walked from Jordan to me! It was really cute, he did it like 4 more times after that, and then was sick of it and didn’t want to walk anymore. He doesn’t really like walking, its funny, I think its because he is such a good crawler and loves to explore with his hands that he doesn’t really see the point in standing up. AFterall you cant touch anything if your are just walking around. But around the 12th he started to walk even farther when Jordans family was having a family reunion in San Diego for Wilmas 80th birthday. He took like 10 steps in a row in her living room and seemed to be very proud of himself. Since then he has started to just wander off objects where he is standing up until he falls, and then he goes back to crawling. So pretty soon he will be a little walker. For now he improvises by doing the monkey crawl, he crawls on his feet and hands. He does it mostly on hard surfaces where it hurts his knees.
He is becoming so obviously a BOY, in every way! He loves to explore and figure out everything. If something is new or out of place in the house he immediately goes over to it and crawls all over it or inspects it. He has no attachments to anything or anyone, he just crawls off at will, if we are at the park he will crawl forever, once in a while he will stop and look back but then keep crawling until he finds something interesting he deems worthy of his attention. At church he just goes up to everyone and demands their attention. He did that as a baby with his smiles he would make noise at a person until they looked at him and then he would smile at them. At church today adults were trying very hard to focus on the teacher and he was out to thwart them. He would crawl past and if they didn’t look at him and smile he would go up to them and tug on their shirt, he did it to one guy from the back, once they look he is done and runs away from them. They always want to hold him but unless you’re a girl and have something shiny and pretty he won’t let you get to him to pick him up. He is obsessed with peoples feet, and California is the perfect place for that. All the women have pretty toes that are painted and sparkly shoes, they all find it very amusing and some are embarrassed and some are really ticklish when he plays with their toes. I used to play like my feet were coming to get him and tug on his cloths and he would just crack up laughing.
That’s the other thing he laughs at the weirdest most random things. My mom was watching him up in WA a week ago and he put something in his mouth and she said “ EEW Yucky” and he thought it was hilarious and started laughing out loud, like a deep belly laugh, so she said it again and he laughed again. He likes to play “boo” or be surprised. Peek a boo doesn’t make him laugh but if you actually startle him he will laugh. Today he has been obsessed with pushing books around on the floor. He has three drawers that are full of misc items in the kitchen, mostly Tupperware lids and baby bottles, that if he ever gets bored he will go over there and empty them. He loves to empty bins or drawers or boxes. He picks something up and just throws it behind him with the really cute straight arm with a bent wrist. Until the drawer is empty and then he is down with it. He has started to hand things to us and sometimes he is just showing you what he has and if you get up to get it from him he dives forward and crawls away as fast as he can and puts it behind his back. He is also obsessed with opening and closing doors. He loves to shut himself in rooms and wait for you to open it at which point he immediately shuts it. He doesn’t even care if it’s a pitch black room and you wait to open the door.
He has a walker that we got for Christmas and he could slowly walk with it when we first got it, he was around 6 months but now he can run with it. Every once in a while we take it to the tennis court and he walks with it all over the tennis court, he does a really good job. And is very proud of himself. He just learned to walk to the opposite side of the walker and push it the opposite direction instead of waiting for us to come and turn it around. He also loves birds, especially at the beach, he crawls after them and watches them in the sky or whenever he can see them. He likes going to the beach and loves climbing at parks. He knows how to go up and down stairs really well. Hes really smart. He figured out stairs in the first 20 minutes…going up and then learning to turn around and go down feet first, and had them mastered by the end of the day. He learned that at Katie and Victors house. He loves them too, he will spend an hour just going up and down. So he is also really good at parks and knows to go down slides feet first but chooses to go down them head first because he likes to see where he is going. He also loves ceiling fans, wherever there is a ceiling fan he is staring at it, he just stares and stares and stares.
He has this royal decree he does with his hands, when he is done with his juice he swipes it away with the back of his hand as if to say “remove that from my sight slave, I am done with it!” And he will push you away if he doesn’t want you all up in his face or space. Its really funny to watch him do it to jordans kisses. He doesn’t cuddle, almost at all. He will for a tiny window before he goes to sleep, usually 10-15 minutes and then you just go put him in his crib and he puts himself to sleep. He is very good at putting himself to sleep and has started to really like his frog pillow. He says mamma and dada very clearly now. He says them to get whatever it is we are forcing him to speak to get. Mamma usually means food but before we pick him up when he is whining or crying he has to say dada or mamma, and he does. Other than those he just does jargoning, or jabbers all day long. Hes actually very communicative, or noisy you could say. He knows how to pass a ball to you and likes to play with his jeep and pass it back and forth. He loves to shake and wiggle everything. He also LOVES being roughed around in the love sac, Jordan throws him all around and he just giggles and looks at him wanting more. He really likes hide and seek too and to be chased. He loves to close books and turn the pages. He will listen to the stories but mostly he wants to turn the pages as fast as he can.
The other day we had a neighbor and her son over on our porch. Kyren hit his head on something and started crying which of course made the other boy cry and as soon as the other boy started crying Kyren started laughing at him. It was quite amusing, the other boy just cried more.
Hes a brute when it comes to playing with other kids, some he is interested in, and most he doesn’t really care abaout. Well I should specify that is only with other babies his age or younger, he LOVES older kids and loves to follow them around on the playground. With babies his own age he usually will go check them out and then just runs off by himself. He loves to take their toys away from them and he really likes to take off anything that might be ontheir face or head, like sun hats on girls he loves to grab it and yank it off their head. He also bats their hands and arms away quite forcefully if he wants what they have or wants on something they are on. Like a piano or his walker toy. We are of course working on that, but he really needs more kids around so we have more situations to teach him from. That’s what Parry’s for, so we will get “GENTLE” engrained into this little stubborn head. He also loves to tear glasses off faces, but we have discovered that its really just with us, he is much more gentle with strangers (adults).
He goes to bed at 8 and usually wakes up at either 7 or 8:30 in the morning. Oh and he is still all gumbs, he has no teeth yet. But we don’t mind. Except it kinda hinders what he can eat.

All in all Kyren is a very smart little boy, when he looks at you, you can tell he is studying you. He always responds to people in a very intelligent way. He is also very social and interactive, he loves to be adored by people and people love to adore him. He has the prettiest blue eyes you have ever seen! Hes a good baby, very easy and learns very quick.