Sparkles at 11 months plus
My vision of becoming a parent included lots of thoughtful musings about the parenting process and waxing lyrical about the amazing things our child was doing. The reality is that I'm always scrambling to keep up with cooking, laundry, and sometimes even cleaning the floor when I'm not actually taking care of the baby. Or I'm at work. Or I'm seeking oblivion via books and YouTube. The first 5 months were an endless blur of sorting baby clothes, both gifts and giant piles of hand-me-downs. He outgrew his clothes every 6 weeks on average. The next 5 months brought increasing mobility and, eventually, some semblance of a settled routine for all of us. (Thank goodness for that!) Details? Nope, all gone. I really really want to write about him, but I can't seem to manage anything longer than a FB status update. (Ok, lots and lots of FB updates!)
But he's almost a year old, and I wanted to spend SOME time reflecting.
I really thought Sparkles was going to be an early walker. Gross motor developments always seemed to progress first. As soon as he could sit he let go of support, fighting for balance. He started pulling up and cruising shortly thereafter, and was crawling within a month of sitting independently. We scrambled to babyproof. Jen taught him to lower himself down so he gets out of a standing position easily. He stoops to reach for toys.He has been independently mobile since the beginning of October. It feels like forever.
But, he's still cruising. He now walks forward rather than just shuffling sideways. He's willing to take a few steps between supports. He sometimes stands unsupported if he's distracted enough. He climbs stairs with increasing speed and skill. Everyone has said that he looks really ready to walk. But crawling is good enough for him.
Lately it has seemed like our little tadpole is turning into a frog. I turn around and think, "Whoa, when did his legs get so long?" He's outgrowing some clothes after his longest stretch in one size. So I'm wondering if he's working on adjusting to a new equilibrium now that he's taller.
The amazing new thing now is words. First word was "Geh" for cat, followed shortly by "Dah" for Lambda and "Daw" for Taura. He did the sign for "milk" when we left him with Grandpa for the first time. (He was given yogurt.) He started waving his arms in an approximation of the sign for "more." There things stood for a good many weeks. Sometimes he would repeat a word that we'd just said, but it didn't seem meaningful. Then, the switch flipped. One day 2 weeks ago he said "ah dahn" (all done), "nah" (no), "dah daw" (water), and "die die" (diaper) all in the space of about 10 minutes. In context, of course, or I'd never have noticed. Made my hair stand up on end. He's a person! Not only do I talk to him, but he talks back!
He's added 2 syllable attempts at the cat's names, "yeah," the sign for "change" (diaper change), "'gin" (again), and "dow" (down). He waves goodbye and hello, and sometimes he even says, "Eh-oh." He has been repeating words, but out of context so we don't think they are clearly meaningful. But yesterday he got crackers for a snack and he said "geh gah" in imitation and comprehension. This morning I was explaining that again and more are pretty similar and said, "Say 'more' if you want more smoothie" and instead of doing his arm-waving sign he attempted "Mo." He finds repetitions of relevant words highly entertaining. He watches our mouths carefully. Sometimes I even see his own mouth moving in a silent attempt to practice.
Every so often he says something that sounds an awful lot like "I do" or "I know" in an appropriate context. We know better than to think it can possibly be a real utterance, but it makes us sit up in surprise and laugh at ourselves. Sometimes a word he knows disappears for a little while as he works on new ones. I forgot that he said water 2 weeks ago until he started asking for it by name the other day.
What he doesn't seem to say is "Mommy" or "Mummy." Sometimes I think "Em," "Um," and "Mahm" are his current approximations. I tend to respond to them with "Yes, baby?" even when it seems like part of his run of babbling commentary and not direct address. Only once did he tug on my clothes and shout "Mahm!" to get my attention. So I'm not yet sure. The words are in his receptive vocabulary, but I'm not sure if he clearly distinguishes between them/us.
He's such an independent little cuss. He doesn't want to walk holding our hands, though he will accept help in steering his pushcart. He doesn't imitate to please us, only to please him. Though he thinks it is hilarious if someone imitates him, and THEN he'll imitate to prolong the game. When he wants to learn something he totally will try what we do. But if we ask him just to show off, forget it.
He grows more and more toddler-like. Once he threw his head back and shouted "Nah nah nah nah nah!" when Jen tried to leave him with me and he wanted to nurse. He has started screaming or squealing when he gets frustrated. Sometimes he howls and thrashes and takes forever to calm down - mostly around bedtime.
And it is so hard to hold onto this giant child. I'll be hanging out at the bookstore with him when along comes someone 14 or 15 months old who is walking competently. Then I pull Sparkles to his feet and it is clear that he towers over these other children. So big! My rough guess is 31 inches and 24 lbs. Both Jen and I are dealing with chronic pain on our dominant sides, which makes him even harder to physically wrangle.
He's a persistently little person too. Harder to redirect than the average baby. That will serve him really well someday, but right now it drives his mothers crazy that his baby attention span isn't shorter.
I have loved his babyhood, disgusting messes, terrifying helplessness and all. I'm rather sorry to see it slip away, even while I'm cheering all his amazing new accomplishments.
I suspect toddlerhood is going to be a rather wild ride. Speaking of which, we are scheduled to take him TO LONDON in the spring. Yikes! International flight! He will surely be walking by then. Wish us luck!
But he's almost a year old, and I wanted to spend SOME time reflecting.
I really thought Sparkles was going to be an early walker. Gross motor developments always seemed to progress first. As soon as he could sit he let go of support, fighting for balance. He started pulling up and cruising shortly thereafter, and was crawling within a month of sitting independently. We scrambled to babyproof. Jen taught him to lower himself down so he gets out of a standing position easily. He stoops to reach for toys.He has been independently mobile since the beginning of October. It feels like forever.
But, he's still cruising. He now walks forward rather than just shuffling sideways. He's willing to take a few steps between supports. He sometimes stands unsupported if he's distracted enough. He climbs stairs with increasing speed and skill. Everyone has said that he looks really ready to walk. But crawling is good enough for him.
Lately it has seemed like our little tadpole is turning into a frog. I turn around and think, "Whoa, when did his legs get so long?" He's outgrowing some clothes after his longest stretch in one size. So I'm wondering if he's working on adjusting to a new equilibrium now that he's taller.
The amazing new thing now is words. First word was "Geh" for cat, followed shortly by "Dah" for Lambda and "Daw" for Taura. He did the sign for "milk" when we left him with Grandpa for the first time. (He was given yogurt.) He started waving his arms in an approximation of the sign for "more." There things stood for a good many weeks. Sometimes he would repeat a word that we'd just said, but it didn't seem meaningful. Then, the switch flipped. One day 2 weeks ago he said "ah dahn" (all done), "nah" (no), "dah daw" (water), and "die die" (diaper) all in the space of about 10 minutes. In context, of course, or I'd never have noticed. Made my hair stand up on end. He's a person! Not only do I talk to him, but he talks back!
He's added 2 syllable attempts at the cat's names, "yeah," the sign for "change" (diaper change), "'gin" (again), and "dow" (down). He waves goodbye and hello, and sometimes he even says, "Eh-oh." He has been repeating words, but out of context so we don't think they are clearly meaningful. But yesterday he got crackers for a snack and he said "geh gah" in imitation and comprehension. This morning I was explaining that again and more are pretty similar and said, "Say 'more' if you want more smoothie" and instead of doing his arm-waving sign he attempted "Mo." He finds repetitions of relevant words highly entertaining. He watches our mouths carefully. Sometimes I even see his own mouth moving in a silent attempt to practice.
Every so often he says something that sounds an awful lot like "I do" or "I know" in an appropriate context. We know better than to think it can possibly be a real utterance, but it makes us sit up in surprise and laugh at ourselves. Sometimes a word he knows disappears for a little while as he works on new ones. I forgot that he said water 2 weeks ago until he started asking for it by name the other day.
What he doesn't seem to say is "Mommy" or "Mummy." Sometimes I think "Em," "Um," and "Mahm" are his current approximations. I tend to respond to them with "Yes, baby?" even when it seems like part of his run of babbling commentary and not direct address. Only once did he tug on my clothes and shout "Mahm!" to get my attention. So I'm not yet sure. The words are in his receptive vocabulary, but I'm not sure if he clearly distinguishes between them/us.
He's such an independent little cuss. He doesn't want to walk holding our hands, though he will accept help in steering his pushcart. He doesn't imitate to please us, only to please him. Though he thinks it is hilarious if someone imitates him, and THEN he'll imitate to prolong the game. When he wants to learn something he totally will try what we do. But if we ask him just to show off, forget it.
He grows more and more toddler-like. Once he threw his head back and shouted "Nah nah nah nah nah!" when Jen tried to leave him with me and he wanted to nurse. He has started screaming or squealing when he gets frustrated. Sometimes he howls and thrashes and takes forever to calm down - mostly around bedtime.
And it is so hard to hold onto this giant child. I'll be hanging out at the bookstore with him when along comes someone 14 or 15 months old who is walking competently. Then I pull Sparkles to his feet and it is clear that he towers over these other children. So big! My rough guess is 31 inches and 24 lbs. Both Jen and I are dealing with chronic pain on our dominant sides, which makes him even harder to physically wrangle.
He's a persistently little person too. Harder to redirect than the average baby. That will serve him really well someday, but right now it drives his mothers crazy that his baby attention span isn't shorter.
I have loved his babyhood, disgusting messes, terrifying helplessness and all. I'm rather sorry to see it slip away, even while I'm cheering all his amazing new accomplishments.
I suspect toddlerhood is going to be a rather wild ride. Speaking of which, we are scheduled to take him TO LONDON in the spring. Yikes! International flight! He will surely be walking by then. Wish us luck!