Week 40 - Who are these people??

Week 40 - Who are these people??

(5/18/08 - 05/24/08)

First let me say that I am now the proud mommy of a 9 month old! Holy Cow! I have a 9 month old!!

Now, what it truly means to have a nine month old! Over the past nine months (heck, even when I was pregnant) I have read many many books, magazines, online articles, etc....about babies, infants, milestones, yada, yada. The one thing that has always come up has been stranger anxiety. Jake went through a minor phase around seven months where men were a big issue. If you were a man and he didn't know you WATCH OUT! If you were a woman you could pick him up and carry him away, but be a man......NO WAY!

He only went through this phase for about a month and it was over and I thought that I was going to luck out and have a baby that would let people hold him and allow his parents to have many many many date nights and get many many many breaks from holding and "entertaining" him. Well as you can see from the red eyes, snot dripping out of his nose, and overall pathetic and sad look of the picture above yesterday was stranger anxiety OVERLOAD!

Paul and I knew that yesterday was going to be a bad day for a 9 month old, but unfortunately two major things were scheduled for yesterday and we were obligated to do both. We had my family reunion and then had a high school prom to go to. For those of you who are wondering why I would need to go to a prom, my students from last year had been emailing and texting me a few times over the past two months asking me if I was coming because they wanted to see me. Paul and I figured that since this is the last year where I would know any of the students that it would be nice to go and see them. But Paul and I honestly thought the only problem to the whole day would be that it was going to be one heck of a looooonnnnggggg day! Since strangers hadn't been a problem for two months or more it never occurred to us that in addition to the long day the strangers were going to be in abundance, and hence the snot, red eyes, and screaming/crying!

We first started to sense that this was going to be an issue when we got to the reunion. He had just woke up, was well rested, and in an overall good mood! Within 10 minutes of being there with no one even looking or talking to him he just started crying. At first we thought it was his teeth (he has gotten three teeth in three weeks...and three more are swollen and ready to pop). But the more we disected the situation it had to be the strangers. We fixed this problem by setting up our blanket and toys a little bit away from everyone and positioning Jake so that the only people near him were people he knew and was comfortable with. We got through the reunion relatively unscathed after the initial crying spell.

Then came the icing on the cake......we got to my friend Rossana's house (his godmother) and all was going well he had just taken an hour and half nap, was in a good mood, and seemed like all was going to be well for the prom. Well, the prom didn't start until 8:00pm ( I know, I know...we were crazy to even try). During dinner it started to go downhill, he was getting antsy, didn't want to eat, sit, play...nothing! We finally got to prom at 7:30.........said hello, got our picture taken......THEN......... WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

It didn't stop for 40 minutes! If you so much as looked at him crossed-eyed the water works started! But hey who could blame him, he was tired (hell Paul and I were down right exhausted), there were TONS of people coming up wanting to see him, get in his face, make high pitched squeling "OH HOW CUTE" noises.....it was SENSORY/STRANGER OVERLOAD!

So now that I know my son has a normal healthy case of stranger anxiety, I can check another milestone off of the list! Even if this milestone will be keeping Paul and I from our many many many date nights!!!

**If you haven't checked it out there is a new video up top**