10 Months!
How did we get here? How can I possibly have a 10 month old child?
We've had a rough couple of weeks, but it's all a blur now so you don't have to hear me whinge about much of it.
It must have been shortly after the last post that after another cranky day Bub suddenly developed a fever in the afternoon, which got quite high between Panadol doses but not quite so high that we couldn't continue to wait and see until morning. Come morning, he was fine. I, alas, was not nearly so bright and enthusiastic as I had hoped to be for the first fencing session of the year.
The next day he broke out in a rash, which cleared again by the following day. I'm guess it was Roseola, matches the description and this is about the age they mostly get it. So we can tick that off his to-do list.
There was a lot of moody behaviour either side of that incident, I don't know if it was the illness or if it coincided with a Wonder Week, but combined with other stresses and regular night wakings it was doing my head in. He'd be happily pottering about on the floor, then suddenly stop, sit up, and start crying. Nothing less than half an hour of active cuddling would make his world right again.
By contrast, the last few days have been exceptionally good for the most part.
He's happy to spend a lot of time crawling about and amusing himself, especially in the mornings. This is good, because continued night wakings mean I'm not much of a morning person right now.
He only chases the cats nine times out of ten when he sees them in reach. Apparently the cats think these are good odds and have taken to just lying there while he approaches, just in case they can avoid moving. This has lead to him actually grabbing them a few times, amazingly they sometimes just lie there and take it until I arrive to rescue them. Today he had Ella's whiskers in his fist, along with a chunk of fur, but all she gave him was a stern look.
I'm trying to teach him that the cat beds are off-limits and he has to leave the cats alone if they're in those. It's pretty clear at this point that he understands - as he crawls up I usually call his name and remind him, he sits and gives me an innocent smile "I'm just looking", looks at the cat for a long moment, then can't help reaching for her.
If I don't say anything he used to just power up and reach in, but now he stops and sits to watch her, maybe glances my way to see if I'm looking, but eventually will-power fails and he has to grab the kitty.
He can let go of things when he wants to, and seems pretty pleased with himself about it. We've had some long sessions of passing things back and forth just because he can.
He's also very chatty for much of the day, getting quite loud at times. Mornings often see him buzzing about the play area and shouting a running commentary through to me as I sort out my breakfast in the kitchen.
We found him a cup with a straw after Xmas, he took to it straight away. Now if I leave it on the floor he can crawl up, sit next to it, pick it up and have a drink anytime he feels like it. Sometimes he still takes too much and chokes a bit, today he appeared to get cross with the bottle for not cooperating and sounded like he was telling it off.
He plays peek-a-boo with me when I sit on the sofa or a chair, which is interesting because I haven't played it with him, that's David's department. Bub stands up looking over the armrest of the sofa, smiles cheekily at me, then sidles off around the back of the sofa. After a short pause in which I have hopefully noticed and expressed concern as to the whereabouts of my baby, he sidles back into view and laughs gleefully before repeating the process. He'll keep it up until he gets too distracted with laughter and falls over, I try to pounce on him before that happens.
Then we have variations, where he goes around the chair to pop up on the far side, or starts crawling around the sofa then doubles back to surprise me at the original point of departure.
And of course there is the ever popular game of chase-the-baby, with new around-the-sofa variation.
I've borrowed a walker from the toy library for him. He was a bit unimpressed at first with something that kept moving under his hands, but on the second day I think he could see the potential when I stopped hovering behind him and went out front where he could see me. He quickly mastered making it go and stop, he can now get down ok but mostly needs me to hold it steady while he gets up. (Unless it is currently parked at one end of the hall, in which case I arrive to find him pushing it against the wall trying to make it go). He's just started trying to turn it himself.
Now, when I hold his hands to walk I can feel that he's already started holding his weight more upright instead of leaning forward all the time when he tries to walk. This was the desired effect, but it's still a scary development.
Sometimes when standing he pushes away from his support with both hands in the air for a moment, "Look Ma, no hands!".
He has mastered the squat, able to get up and down from standing using it, and also sit there on his feet as he contemplates whether to crawl after the cat or stand up again.
He has also worked out how to step over things. On the plus side this results in less falls. On the down side he managed to step into an empty box and get stuck there twice, then step into it and out the other side - getting trapped in the corner the box was placed to keep him out of. Basically, he can now get pretty much anywhere he wants to go.
Today he has been learning how to open and close drawers - and what happens when you leave you fingers in them while closing. Yesterday he managed to shut himself into the Walk-In-Robe, Abby came to get me while Ella kept watch at the door. Exciting times.
We're starting to eat together a little more often, mostly because he's staying up later (this is where the Thermomix is really becoming handy). I think we both enjoy sitting down and eating together. The other night I made Butter Chicken for myself and offered some to him - apparently it was very good. At one stage I was beginning to wonder if he was going to leave any for me. He spent the next 2 hours buzzing around, a very happy bundle of energy. We've also shared scrambled eggs and toast for lunch, there was a great mess as he tried to feed himself, and risotto was another big success.
He's starting to want to try and feed himself a little more often, but when really hungry he still prefers me to do it for him. Often after trying to feed himself something like soggy weetbix with his hands he'll admit it's better if I do it and let me feed him whatever remains.
And then he'll so something odd like decide he's going to pick up the strawberry pieces, pass them to me, then I'm expected to pop them into his mouth.
When he finishes eating I normally wipe the chair tray with a cloth before wiping his hands (so he doesn't immediately mess them up again playing with the tray). So now when he's had enough he starts sweeping his hand across the tray in a wiping motion, knocking any remaining food to the ground.
Clever... but not quite clever enough.
He's become good at picking things up, then standing up with them in his hand. This means he can put blocks back on the activity table after knocking them down. Alas, he usually only picks up one block after knocking all 16 off, so not quite self-cleaning yet. Yesterday he put a book back into the bookshelf (again, after tossing rather more than one off the shelf). Then he passed one to me, I gave it back, and he put it on the shelf again. Progress!
The change table has become a battleground, he wants to assert himself and roll over, sit and stand up on the change table. Obviously, I do not approve. Distracting him with things stopped working early, sometimes he will still lie still if I sing him the 5 little ducks song but that is losing its charm. I think I just have to get better at putting his nappy on while he stands up.
He loves his baths. I was going to switch to only doing them every second night, but now in the evening he crawls into the bathroom, stands up by the bath and pats it while look at me with big bright eyes. How can I possibly not pour him a bath?
The other night he became obsessed with the plug, he wanted to pull it out. Eventually I gave up and let him grab it, so he sat in the bath watching as the water went down the plughole. Is there anything so sad as a baby sitting in the bath, clearly not done yet, but recognising that there is a lack of water to splash in now?
He left the plug alone completely next bath time.
The routine has shifted to one nap (usually long) around the middle of the day. He can't quite make it from there to bedtime though, so there's a short nap at 4ish to help get him through, even though all the sleep advice is to not let him sleep after 4pm. This means he isn't ready for bed until about 8pm, but he's also sleeping until about 8am, so that works. I'm still adjusting to life with a child who is awake so much of the day.
During the night, we unfortunately seem to have settled into a regular pattern of 2 wakings at midnight-1ish and 4-5amish. I look forward to the unpleasantly warm nights because those are the nights when he actually sleeps through.
I don't really feel ready for sleep training, I hate letting the cries get worse. But on the other hand lack of sleep is catching up with me again and I can't keep this up indefinitely.
Update: Wrote that yesterday. Then he mostly skipped the afternoon nap, and slept with only 1 waking at 3am. Maybe there's something to the "no naps after 4pm" rule. Alas he woke at 6am, I am a zombie, and he's having a 2 nap day so who knows what will happen tonight.
We've had a rough couple of weeks, but it's all a blur now so you don't have to hear me whinge about much of it.
It must have been shortly after the last post that after another cranky day Bub suddenly developed a fever in the afternoon, which got quite high between Panadol doses but not quite so high that we couldn't continue to wait and see until morning. Come morning, he was fine. I, alas, was not nearly so bright and enthusiastic as I had hoped to be for the first fencing session of the year.
The next day he broke out in a rash, which cleared again by the following day. I'm guess it was Roseola, matches the description and this is about the age they mostly get it. So we can tick that off his to-do list.
There was a lot of moody behaviour either side of that incident, I don't know if it was the illness or if it coincided with a Wonder Week, but combined with other stresses and regular night wakings it was doing my head in. He'd be happily pottering about on the floor, then suddenly stop, sit up, and start crying. Nothing less than half an hour of active cuddling would make his world right again.
By contrast, the last few days have been exceptionally good for the most part.
He's happy to spend a lot of time crawling about and amusing himself, especially in the mornings. This is good, because continued night wakings mean I'm not much of a morning person right now.
He only chases the cats nine times out of ten when he sees them in reach. Apparently the cats think these are good odds and have taken to just lying there while he approaches, just in case they can avoid moving. This has lead to him actually grabbing them a few times, amazingly they sometimes just lie there and take it until I arrive to rescue them. Today he had Ella's whiskers in his fist, along with a chunk of fur, but all she gave him was a stern look.
I'm trying to teach him that the cat beds are off-limits and he has to leave the cats alone if they're in those. It's pretty clear at this point that he understands - as he crawls up I usually call his name and remind him, he sits and gives me an innocent smile "I'm just looking", looks at the cat for a long moment, then can't help reaching for her.
If I don't say anything he used to just power up and reach in, but now he stops and sits to watch her, maybe glances my way to see if I'm looking, but eventually will-power fails and he has to grab the kitty.
He can let go of things when he wants to, and seems pretty pleased with himself about it. We've had some long sessions of passing things back and forth just because he can.
He's also very chatty for much of the day, getting quite loud at times. Mornings often see him buzzing about the play area and shouting a running commentary through to me as I sort out my breakfast in the kitchen.
We found him a cup with a straw after Xmas, he took to it straight away. Now if I leave it on the floor he can crawl up, sit next to it, pick it up and have a drink anytime he feels like it. Sometimes he still takes too much and chokes a bit, today he appeared to get cross with the bottle for not cooperating and sounded like he was telling it off.
He plays peek-a-boo with me when I sit on the sofa or a chair, which is interesting because I haven't played it with him, that's David's department. Bub stands up looking over the armrest of the sofa, smiles cheekily at me, then sidles off around the back of the sofa. After a short pause in which I have hopefully noticed and expressed concern as to the whereabouts of my baby, he sidles back into view and laughs gleefully before repeating the process. He'll keep it up until he gets too distracted with laughter and falls over, I try to pounce on him before that happens.
Then we have variations, where he goes around the chair to pop up on the far side, or starts crawling around the sofa then doubles back to surprise me at the original point of departure.
And of course there is the ever popular game of chase-the-baby, with new around-the-sofa variation.
I've borrowed a walker from the toy library for him. He was a bit unimpressed at first with something that kept moving under his hands, but on the second day I think he could see the potential when I stopped hovering behind him and went out front where he could see me. He quickly mastered making it go and stop, he can now get down ok but mostly needs me to hold it steady while he gets up. (Unless it is currently parked at one end of the hall, in which case I arrive to find him pushing it against the wall trying to make it go). He's just started trying to turn it himself.
Now, when I hold his hands to walk I can feel that he's already started holding his weight more upright instead of leaning forward all the time when he tries to walk. This was the desired effect, but it's still a scary development.
Sometimes when standing he pushes away from his support with both hands in the air for a moment, "Look Ma, no hands!".
He has mastered the squat, able to get up and down from standing using it, and also sit there on his feet as he contemplates whether to crawl after the cat or stand up again.
He has also worked out how to step over things. On the plus side this results in less falls. On the down side he managed to step into an empty box and get stuck there twice, then step into it and out the other side - getting trapped in the corner the box was placed to keep him out of. Basically, he can now get pretty much anywhere he wants to go.
Today he has been learning how to open and close drawers - and what happens when you leave you fingers in them while closing. Yesterday he managed to shut himself into the Walk-In-Robe, Abby came to get me while Ella kept watch at the door. Exciting times.
We're starting to eat together a little more often, mostly because he's staying up later (this is where the Thermomix is really becoming handy). I think we both enjoy sitting down and eating together. The other night I made Butter Chicken for myself and offered some to him - apparently it was very good. At one stage I was beginning to wonder if he was going to leave any for me. He spent the next 2 hours buzzing around, a very happy bundle of energy. We've also shared scrambled eggs and toast for lunch, there was a great mess as he tried to feed himself, and risotto was another big success.
He's starting to want to try and feed himself a little more often, but when really hungry he still prefers me to do it for him. Often after trying to feed himself something like soggy weetbix with his hands he'll admit it's better if I do it and let me feed him whatever remains.
And then he'll so something odd like decide he's going to pick up the strawberry pieces, pass them to me, then I'm expected to pop them into his mouth.
When he finishes eating I normally wipe the chair tray with a cloth before wiping his hands (so he doesn't immediately mess them up again playing with the tray). So now when he's had enough he starts sweeping his hand across the tray in a wiping motion, knocking any remaining food to the ground.
Clever... but not quite clever enough.
He's become good at picking things up, then standing up with them in his hand. This means he can put blocks back on the activity table after knocking them down. Alas, he usually only picks up one block after knocking all 16 off, so not quite self-cleaning yet. Yesterday he put a book back into the bookshelf (again, after tossing rather more than one off the shelf). Then he passed one to me, I gave it back, and he put it on the shelf again. Progress!
The change table has become a battleground, he wants to assert himself and roll over, sit and stand up on the change table. Obviously, I do not approve. Distracting him with things stopped working early, sometimes he will still lie still if I sing him the 5 little ducks song but that is losing its charm. I think I just have to get better at putting his nappy on while he stands up.
He loves his baths. I was going to switch to only doing them every second night, but now in the evening he crawls into the bathroom, stands up by the bath and pats it while look at me with big bright eyes. How can I possibly not pour him a bath?
The other night he became obsessed with the plug, he wanted to pull it out. Eventually I gave up and let him grab it, so he sat in the bath watching as the water went down the plughole. Is there anything so sad as a baby sitting in the bath, clearly not done yet, but recognising that there is a lack of water to splash in now?
He left the plug alone completely next bath time.
The routine has shifted to one nap (usually long) around the middle of the day. He can't quite make it from there to bedtime though, so there's a short nap at 4ish to help get him through, even though all the sleep advice is to not let him sleep after 4pm. This means he isn't ready for bed until about 8pm, but he's also sleeping until about 8am, so that works. I'm still adjusting to life with a child who is awake so much of the day.
During the night, we unfortunately seem to have settled into a regular pattern of 2 wakings at midnight-1ish and 4-5amish. I look forward to the unpleasantly warm nights because those are the nights when he actually sleeps through.
I don't really feel ready for sleep training, I hate letting the cries get worse. But on the other hand lack of sleep is catching up with me again and I can't keep this up indefinitely.
Update: Wrote that yesterday. Then he mostly skipped the afternoon nap, and slept with only 1 waking at 3am. Maybe there's something to the "no naps after 4pm" rule. Alas he woke at 6am, I am a zombie, and he's having a 2 nap day so who knows what will happen tonight.