Mica, Mica, Mica
Mica had his nine month check up a few weeks ago, so I should probably get around to posting an update about him already. Just for reference, he was 22.5 lbs at his check up.
He's crawling and has been for about a month now. He spent at least a month before that pushing himself backwards on his belly and getting so frustrated. He would get himself into a nice crawling pose but then instead of moving his knees he would launch himself forward onto his belly to try to reach things in front of him. Since he's pretty long (a little over 28 inches at his last check up)lying down actually worked pretty well most of the time. If the desired object stayed out of reach he would then wiggle around and end up going backwards, which moved the desired object even further out of reach. And then he would cry and yell, because he hasn't learned how to curse yet. One night in the bathtub, he managed to scoot forward on his knees while chasing a rubber duck. I think he didn't like the idea of flopping down on his belly into the water, which is good because I don't much like that idea either. After that, he kind of got the motion figured out and has been getting faster and bolder. When we were visiting maxemulien's grandmother earlier this month, he regularly climbed her entire flight of stairs (with a parent or grandparent hovering anxiously behind him) and he now climbs quite merrily over a parent lying on the floor. We've moved the couch so that it's harder to get from the living room to the dining room to discourage him from crawling under the dining room table. He's very good about spitting things out that he finds on the floor--when I tell him to spit it, he opens is mouth and usually presents the scrap of paper or piece of leaf or whatever he found on the tip of his tongue for me to remove, but he doesn't like doing that when he's found food, even if it's some nasty dried up thing that Raine dropped days ago. (We have carpet in our dining room, which very nearly drives me batty it is so impossible to keep clean)
We've also put a safety fence around the pellet stove since it was his favorite thing in the living room to pull up on. He is pulling up all the time on everything everywhere. He even tries to pull up on the cat--or rather push up from the cat since the only time Typewriter tolerates that much physical contact with Mica is when he is in a mellow lounging mood. Mica has also started to cruise a bit. Raine never did much cruising, though she loved walking around holding on to our hands. I want to say that she mastered the technique of pulling up and sitting down before she learned to crawl, which may have made her less interested in staying up once she got up. Mica is just starting to get good at sitting down after pulling up, and all I can say is that it's a relief. Not because I'm that worried about him falling and hurting himself, but because *he* seems so worried about that. He had about a week where he would pull himself up on the coffee table, throw everything in his reach onto the floor, and then cry with frustration because now everything interesting was on the floor and he had no idea how to get back down there. He's gotten pretty good at doing squats by this point, though he still gets frustrated or nervous about sitting down occasionally. He is also really into lowering himself in a slow controlled fashion. Raine is pretty nervous about heights for a kid her age, and has never been much of a climber, and I'm beginning to think Mica might be the same way. It'll be interesting to see how long he takes to walk on his own.
In other developmental news, Mica has begun to say "ta-ta-ta-ta" whenever he sees Typewriter. It seems really really early for him to actually be trying to say cat, so we'll see if he's still doing it in a month, or if he's just practicing the t sound right now. He has begun to sign a little bit, though when he signs is really hit or miss, and of course he also just waves his hands and arms around a lot so it is difficult to judge how intentional his gestures are.
We've also been having a great deal of success with ECing lately. We missed a poop a couple of days ago, which was the first one we'd missed in months, and I gotta say I'm so glad I don't have to deal with a poopy diaper on a daily basis. He pees a lot in the mornings, so we still miss quite a few pees, but we're catching enough that we've switched to cloth at home. He's growing so fast though--the diaper covers we bought for Raine and used until she was nearly two are getting too small for him.
At the other end of the ECing equation, Mica loves solid foods and is into really strong flavors. One of his earliest successes with feeding himself was sucking the juice out of a segment of grapefruit. He made the most awful faces, but he also kept putting the fruit back in his mouth to suck out more juice. Raine is much more sensitive to spices than he is these days.
I'm sure I'm missing other cute Mica developments, but it's late and I'm too tired to think.
He's crawling and has been for about a month now. He spent at least a month before that pushing himself backwards on his belly and getting so frustrated. He would get himself into a nice crawling pose but then instead of moving his knees he would launch himself forward onto his belly to try to reach things in front of him. Since he's pretty long (a little over 28 inches at his last check up)lying down actually worked pretty well most of the time. If the desired object stayed out of reach he would then wiggle around and end up going backwards, which moved the desired object even further out of reach. And then he would cry and yell, because he hasn't learned how to curse yet. One night in the bathtub, he managed to scoot forward on his knees while chasing a rubber duck. I think he didn't like the idea of flopping down on his belly into the water, which is good because I don't much like that idea either. After that, he kind of got the motion figured out and has been getting faster and bolder. When we were visiting maxemulien's grandmother earlier this month, he regularly climbed her entire flight of stairs (with a parent or grandparent hovering anxiously behind him) and he now climbs quite merrily over a parent lying on the floor. We've moved the couch so that it's harder to get from the living room to the dining room to discourage him from crawling under the dining room table. He's very good about spitting things out that he finds on the floor--when I tell him to spit it, he opens is mouth and usually presents the scrap of paper or piece of leaf or whatever he found on the tip of his tongue for me to remove, but he doesn't like doing that when he's found food, even if it's some nasty dried up thing that Raine dropped days ago. (We have carpet in our dining room, which very nearly drives me batty it is so impossible to keep clean)
We've also put a safety fence around the pellet stove since it was his favorite thing in the living room to pull up on. He is pulling up all the time on everything everywhere. He even tries to pull up on the cat--or rather push up from the cat since the only time Typewriter tolerates that much physical contact with Mica is when he is in a mellow lounging mood. Mica has also started to cruise a bit. Raine never did much cruising, though she loved walking around holding on to our hands. I want to say that she mastered the technique of pulling up and sitting down before she learned to crawl, which may have made her less interested in staying up once she got up. Mica is just starting to get good at sitting down after pulling up, and all I can say is that it's a relief. Not because I'm that worried about him falling and hurting himself, but because *he* seems so worried about that. He had about a week where he would pull himself up on the coffee table, throw everything in his reach onto the floor, and then cry with frustration because now everything interesting was on the floor and he had no idea how to get back down there. He's gotten pretty good at doing squats by this point, though he still gets frustrated or nervous about sitting down occasionally. He is also really into lowering himself in a slow controlled fashion. Raine is pretty nervous about heights for a kid her age, and has never been much of a climber, and I'm beginning to think Mica might be the same way. It'll be interesting to see how long he takes to walk on his own.
In other developmental news, Mica has begun to say "ta-ta-ta-ta" whenever he sees Typewriter. It seems really really early for him to actually be trying to say cat, so we'll see if he's still doing it in a month, or if he's just practicing the t sound right now. He has begun to sign a little bit, though when he signs is really hit or miss, and of course he also just waves his hands and arms around a lot so it is difficult to judge how intentional his gestures are.
We've also been having a great deal of success with ECing lately. We missed a poop a couple of days ago, which was the first one we'd missed in months, and I gotta say I'm so glad I don't have to deal with a poopy diaper on a daily basis. He pees a lot in the mornings, so we still miss quite a few pees, but we're catching enough that we've switched to cloth at home. He's growing so fast though--the diaper covers we bought for Raine and used until she was nearly two are getting too small for him.
At the other end of the ECing equation, Mica loves solid foods and is into really strong flavors. One of his earliest successes with feeding himself was sucking the juice out of a segment of grapefruit. He made the most awful faces, but he also kept putting the fruit back in his mouth to suck out more juice. Raine is much more sensitive to spices than he is these days.
I'm sure I'm missing other cute Mica developments, but it's late and I'm too tired to think.