Moving On

Our "little" man is getting closer and closer to his first birthday...time is just flying by! I was rereading old blog posts of him the other day and it seems like another lifetime ago. I have to say, though, that I'm liking this lifetime: sleeping through the night, putting him down and entertaining himself, nursing every four to 5 hours instead of two or 3. Anyway, he's been busy during his seventh month:

* He has mastered the art of crawling on all fours. It started like an army crawl and we all thought he's go straight to walking, but we really worked on "getting on [your] his knees." He gets around quite nicely and is all over the place.

* While he has mastered crawling, he definitely prefers to stand and to scoot around furniture. He can pull himself up on things and he'll even sit down or put himself into the crawl position from standing up. Nothing is safe if it's in his path.

*...which is why we have begun working on the concept of "no." Most of the time in the beginning he'd laugh or smile at me, but more often now he takes one look at my face (on which I try hard to keep a stern expression) and he knows I'm not happy. But he'll keep doing whatever it is that he was told no to and he'll keep on getting disciplined! Sometimes he'll stop, give me a pouty lip, and proceed to bury his head in the floor with a great wail. I try hard not to laugh. The other night at Ladies' Night he wasn't going for his nap because he knew everyone was downstairs. So I brought him back down after my third attempt and put him down in the crawl position in front of everyone. I patted his bottom and told the crowd that he was being a bad boy. Mind you he was tired, so he was a little sensitive, but that didn't stop him from looking each and every person in the eye with his pouty lip and when he was sure everyone was looking, he dropped dramatically to the ground and started crying. He got the intended effect because first everyone was shocked and then they all came running over to him to comfort him. Which is when he promptly stopped crying and started chatting and crawling and dancing and smiling. He's trouble...

* He understands other words besides no like: kiss, eat, bounce, shake, dance, pull, and bang.

* He definitely gets the idea of object permanence, which kind of ruins his new favorite game, Peek-a-Boo! Or when you try taking something away and hiding it nearby but out of sight, he'll follow where it goes and try to get it back. It's not "Out of sight, out of mind" with Micah, it's "Out of sight so I need to get it back in my sight." Too smart for his own good!

* He hates, and I don't use that term lightly, the nursery at church. I think he first of all finds all the babies boring because they're just doing what they (and he!) are supposed to do: sitting there playing with a toy, sitting in their car seat, swinging, or sleeping. And he definitely has stranger anxiety, but that's been going on for at least three months already. And he's a mama's boy. Totally and completely. Mom says to enjoy it because it doesn't last long, but it can get kind of old when I have fifty million other things to be doing and Daddy wants to spend some time with him! But I do enjoy it most of the time.

* He's smiling and happy most of the time. He'll initiates game play. We tried to get it on video the other night, but of course he was a the end of his performance and we weren't able to convince him that the show must go on. We were in his room and I was doing something near his changing table on the floor. He had managed to pull himself up onto the (rocking) ottoman that goes with the rocking chair (and he didn't fall, even when it was rocking, which surprised me). He looked over me and smiled and let out an excited laugh. So I laughed. Then he did the same thing and tried to scoot to the other end of the ottoman, like he was trying to escape from me. So I crawled over to him saying, "I'm going to get you!" and he screeched with delight and tried to get away. We did this a few times, much to our enjoyment.

* Three of his four top teeth have broken through and the fourth one is visible through the gum. Why stop at two at a time, when you can get four teeth at time?

* He dances to any kind of beat (clapping, Jesus Loves Me, songs on his play car or his play table) and if he's making eye contact with you, he'll have this big, goofy grin on his face. He's even gotten daring a few times and will keep one leg straight out to the side and bounce with just one leg.

* I've got to get this on video, but I bought him a book called Animal Kisses at the library book sale the other week. It's a textured book, meaning when they say, "Do you like rubbery fish kisses?" the fish has rubbery-type lips. So I showed him how to feel the different textures on each page and he'll do that, but he'll also give the animal a kiss after I read the word "kiss." He'll lean over the book and plant a wet, slobbery one right on the animals' mouth. It's the cutest thing.

* He's really into babbling now. He makes all sorts of noises and he'll string together lots of "dadadadada"s when he's playing. Of course when he's upset or wants to get out of his crib it's "maaaamaaaa." We've heard him say "mom" a few times when he's not complaining, but those are very few and far between!

* He is continuing to do very well with eating. I've upped he ounces per meal and he'll still manage to get in three or four solid food feedings a day. Our list of Approved Foods is growing: butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, avocado, mango, blueberries, yogurt, peaches, pears, peas, bananas...zucchini and papaya are next. I've introduced snacks to his day in the form of puffs and rice rusks (http://www.babymummum.com.au/). He LOVES the rusks and it's fun to hear him take a bite and chew because they're so crunchy.

* And finally, along with eating so well, he's sleeping so well...still! I thought it'd never happen, but it's been about a month of sleeping through the night. We've fallen into a wonderful 9pm to 7am schedule that I'm thoroughly enjoying. D and I get some time to ourselves at night and I still get a good 8-9 hours of rest. Poor D has to get up at 4:45am at this point, but at least he's not interrupted anymore!