This boy. Just in the past couple weeks he's really starting to feel like one of the gang. He started the month in Oregon, came back with me to Minnesota, had a camping trip, a week spent with Dad away, his sister's second birthday, and right after his 7 month mark headed back to Oregon for 10 days.
Whew. No wonder it feels like time is slipping away, I don't have any of it to spend thinking about it all. When we were in Oregon, the first time, he met his cousin. His older cousin, by about 5 months, and she was crawling all over the place. He decided he had to give it a try, and a week before his 7 month birthday he was officially crawling. Sometime during our second trip to Oregon he started really crawling, getting himself all over the place and making sure he is always where the action is. I guess that's when he started to feel like one of the gang. If the girls are playing some crazy wild game in the other room, he high tails it in there so as to be part of it. And they love it!
His sleep is... pretty awful. He wakes up many times a night. No fewer than twice a night. Sometimes much more. We are in the midst of sort of sleep training him. He has recently started waking up often, not actually wanting anything but not really sure how to put himself to sleep. So we've let him figure it out, because it simply has to happen. If he seems particularly upset I offer him a bottle. But he seems so much more stubborn than Greta was (a bad sign, since G is pretty darn stubborn). He has not figured it out quickly (by not quickly, I mean we are on our 3rd night and, after 3 hours of sleep he has already been up 3 times). But he is falling asleep more quickly, so maybe there's an end in sight. I don't particularly mind giving him a bottle, particularly because it's summer and I don't want him to get dehydrated, and he often wakes up for at least one bottle very thirsty. But he can't rely on us to put him to sleep, that's something he has to learn.
Contributing to our problem is that he also learned to pull himself up while in Oregon. So we came back and immediately had to drop the crib after seeing him hang over the side of it. He is certainly interested in learning to walk, and if I had to bet I'd say he'll figure it out within 2.5 months. But these babies, they like to surprise! (On a side note, he actually did fall out of his crib two weeks ago... because his eldest sister decided she wanted him to stand while in his crib. Ugh. He landed on his head, and was totally not acting like himself. I called Aaron to tell him I was going to bring Teddy to the ER, so he pulled himself out of a meeting and came home. Of course, as soon as Dad walked in the door he smiled and started acting normal again. Very scary. This was also the day I feel in love with our babysitter all over again; she walked in while this was happening, and looked at Greta with a hand covered in poop. She picked her up and changed her, completely unfazed. )
He already feeds himself pretty well. His pincer grip isn't great, but he hated having me feed him, and I didn't have the time to sit there and try to coax it in, so he started practicing picking up food on his own. He paws at it, or slides it over to the edge of his try and sucks it off the side. It's not elegant, but he gets it in there. And he likes just about everything. I haven't been as aggressive with veggies as I was with the girls, but I've also jumped into real food more quickly, haven't been particularly careful with the 3 day wait after new foods, and have just basically gone with the flow. If it's healthy and seems easy for him to eat I give it to him. So he's already had eggs, cheese, meat, tomatoes, berries (loved Oregon blackberries!), wheat, and many other things, all with no issues. I feel so lucky that we haven't had to deal with allergies, I'm sure it's made me less cautious.
So that's our little boy. He lights up every time he sees me, especially when he first sees me in the morning. He's just full of glee, all the time. The world is an amazing place, part of the reason I love this age so much. He is determined to figure out why he's not allowed to get into Vito's dog food, and determined to get his hands on Vito. And determined to figure out how to crawl up stairs. He loves swinging with his sister G (who also loves pushing him). He still loves taking naps on me, in the Ergo. He never stays asleep in his car seat (never has, first kid for whom that's true!) He's getting some blonde fuzz on his noggin but is otherwise bald. He loves blowing raspberries on my tummy in the morning when it's just the two of us, before the girls have woken up. He's pretty chatty, with a wide variety of sounds.
I love that he's becoming part of the team. Greta has been much kinder to him these last two weeks (which I can't say for the month prior to that), and the two of them actually play together. She brings him toys, but she also sits on him, and he loves both of these. It's hard to teach her not to sit on him when he laughs hysterically about it. This guy. I think he's going to be another precocious one. I think about where G was a year ago, and I could have never predicted where she'd be now. Similarly, I can't even imagine what his little personality will be like, other than to say he'll probably be happy and precocious, much like his sisters.
Little man, thanks for joining us. You make our family complete. I can finally take a deep breath and start to enjoy how wonderful you are.
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