It's been deliciously cool the last couple of days, with a soft breeze from the southwest persuading a low ceiling of breaking cloud overhead. It's a welcome suggestion of the coming change of season.
At home, the seasons are changing, too. Andrew is becoming more and more of a toddler.
Before our evening walk, I persuaded his sweatshirt on over his wriggly hands, and then rolled his socks up to his knees. In the kitchen, as we waited for his mother, he sat on the floor and contemplated the overlong sleeve hanging over his hand with a wry smile. I eased myself to the floor facing him, and glancing up into my face, he grinned and flung his hands, the sleeve, his arms and shoulders in a wild gyrating arc while he chanted happily. With a shocked laugh, I returned the gesture and chant. Thrilled, he replied in turn. His bright eyes fixed on mine, mouth open in a static expression of glee, we exchanged silliness on the hard brown floor. Once full of this game, he stood, awkwardly rising to his feet in that strange toddler way that's led by the bottom, walked to me, and grasped my hands. His soft fingers closed on mine, and they gently but insistently brought my hands together in a clap. Then apart, then together. Celebrating our game.
Libby walked into the kitchen, and it was time to go. I rolled up his awkward sleeves, and hoisted him off the floor. Together, the three of us walked out into the sweet gray night.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Twelve Months
Just this week, Andrew started playing with his stuffed animals. He hugs them, babbles to them, and carries them around with him. This morning, his Christmas Koala was the first thing he grabbed when he woke up. I came into his room to find him sitting and hugging it.
But the biggest change of the last month or so is walking. I could not have imagined how big of a development walking is. It changes everything. Sometimes, it feels like he grew up when he started walking. He is so much more autonomous. He has so much more power over his own destiny, now. He could move himself before, by crawling, but it was always in short spurts. Now, he can cover a great deal of ground quickly!
It also has social implications. Today, we took him to the zoo, and when we put him down to walk on his own, he would wander off into other middle of other family groups. He can initiate relationships with strangers in a way he's never done before. It's hard to remember, sometimes, that he's still a baby in all the other ways. He still can't do anything for himself, and he still can't communicate what he wants or is thinking. He doesn't understand us much of the time, but he is learning, and growing!
Thursday, June 30, 2016
10 Months
A chubby arm, round and creased, directs our attention. A little index finger, knuckle dimples sunken, wrist slightly drooped, encompasses a new world. Andrew's world is expanding from the what-I-can-touch to the distant-object-of-interest. But, more excitingly, it is expanding to where he has invited us to share in his interest.
Eight Months
Life is so full eight months after Andrew's birth.
For him, the last few months have been very busy. Each milestone is an achievement of will and effort. The books suggest that these just happen, but everything has a cause. Andrew's cause is his will.
Around five months, he wanted to sit. He tried so hard to do sit-ups. He loved being sat up, and he tried to hold himself upright with his arms. He would fall over, but he never tired of sitting games.
Around six months, he mastered sitting. He moved on to trying to crawl. It took him about a month and a half of trying to learn how. He spent more and more time on his hands, knees, and feet. Super-focused on balancing and expending tremendous effort to remain upright. He learned to rock himself back and forth. He learned to move each leg independently. He learned to sit up from a crawling position. This accomplishment was a distraction from his mission to crawl as it allowed him to play with free hands whenever he wanted.
The last thing he learned was how to hold his arms directly below his shoulders and move them one at a time. We could leave him alone on the floor and he would occupy himself completely with the effort.
Now, around eight months, he wants to walk. He's nowhere near walking or standing unassisted, but he is trying so hard. At the moment, his favorite way to practice is to crawl to one of us and push himself up. He often starts on our legs, bent all the way over with his palms down on a thigh and his feet flat on the ground. Then he will stand straight up! If nothing is behind him, down he goes, but normally we will catch his hands. He will glance at you and cackle, a long thin line of drool hanging from his lower lip.
Does he love the novelty each accomplishment brings? Or is he anticipating and reveling in the fact that he has accomplished? Probably both. He loves novelty, but from a very early age he has loved to accomplish things. I remember when,in his first month, he triumphed at kicking out of a swaddle. I remember how, in his fourth month, he figured out how to pull down his car seat cover.
Other things I want to remember:
He loves to pull hair. Libby has to keep her hair in a pony tail, but I've decided to let him pull mine all it wants. Sometimes it hurts, and a few times he has managed to pull quite a bit out. But it's not just the hair on my head. If he is sitting on my lap or next to me, he will pull my leg hair. Repetitively. He will grab, pull, release. Grab, pull, release. It can be very painful.
Eating is kind of disgusting because of how messy it is. If we give him a spoon, food gets flung really far. We've seen it fly about six feet so far. It gets in under his neck folds, and up his arm past his elbow, and in his eyebrows and hair.
The hard things:
It is still hard to do anything. He won't sleep unless we hold him. He hates going to sleep. Many nights, he starts screaming and crying as soon as I take him back to the bedroom to have his diaper changed for bed. We tried to build routines to help him ease into sleep, but he hates sleep so much that he started transferring his crying earlier and earlier up the chain of routines. Eventually, we just stripped it down to the necessities to minimize the time he spends angry.
He loses self-control or something at bed-time. He becomes frenetically hyper. If you sit down, he'll try to crawl away. If you hold him standing, he will crane his neck, and lean back, or lean to the side, or otherwise try to escape. And, the whole time, he is fussing and whining.
He won't calm for me at night at all. He will only calm for his mother. Last night, after a hard day, she nursed him through his first fussiness, and then I put him in the ergo. He hated it, and squirmed and fought and cried, but he was out in five minutes. But then you can't put him down without waking him. I tried after a half an hour, and he was immediately awake.
We can get so little done because he has to be held 14+ hours a day. It's just exhausting. We'd like to let him cry it out, but it bothers the neighbors. I'm worried we've waited too long. Now, he'll get up and crawl around screaming. Before, at least he wasn't mobile.
For him, the last few months have been very busy. Each milestone is an achievement of will and effort. The books suggest that these just happen, but everything has a cause. Andrew's cause is his will.
Around five months, he wanted to sit. He tried so hard to do sit-ups. He loved being sat up, and he tried to hold himself upright with his arms. He would fall over, but he never tired of sitting games.
Around six months, he mastered sitting. He moved on to trying to crawl. It took him about a month and a half of trying to learn how. He spent more and more time on his hands, knees, and feet. Super-focused on balancing and expending tremendous effort to remain upright. He learned to rock himself back and forth. He learned to move each leg independently. He learned to sit up from a crawling position. This accomplishment was a distraction from his mission to crawl as it allowed him to play with free hands whenever he wanted.
The last thing he learned was how to hold his arms directly below his shoulders and move them one at a time. We could leave him alone on the floor and he would occupy himself completely with the effort.
Now, around eight months, he wants to walk. He's nowhere near walking or standing unassisted, but he is trying so hard. At the moment, his favorite way to practice is to crawl to one of us and push himself up. He often starts on our legs, bent all the way over with his palms down on a thigh and his feet flat on the ground. Then he will stand straight up! If nothing is behind him, down he goes, but normally we will catch his hands. He will glance at you and cackle, a long thin line of drool hanging from his lower lip.
Does he love the novelty each accomplishment brings? Or is he anticipating and reveling in the fact that he has accomplished? Probably both. He loves novelty, but from a very early age he has loved to accomplish things. I remember when,in his first month, he triumphed at kicking out of a swaddle. I remember how, in his fourth month, he figured out how to pull down his car seat cover.
Other things I want to remember:
He loves to pull hair. Libby has to keep her hair in a pony tail, but I've decided to let him pull mine all it wants. Sometimes it hurts, and a few times he has managed to pull quite a bit out. But it's not just the hair on my head. If he is sitting on my lap or next to me, he will pull my leg hair. Repetitively. He will grab, pull, release. Grab, pull, release. It can be very painful.
Eating is kind of disgusting because of how messy it is. If we give him a spoon, food gets flung really far. We've seen it fly about six feet so far. It gets in under his neck folds, and up his arm past his elbow, and in his eyebrows and hair.
The hard things:
It is still hard to do anything. He won't sleep unless we hold him. He hates going to sleep. Many nights, he starts screaming and crying as soon as I take him back to the bedroom to have his diaper changed for bed. We tried to build routines to help him ease into sleep, but he hates sleep so much that he started transferring his crying earlier and earlier up the chain of routines. Eventually, we just stripped it down to the necessities to minimize the time he spends angry.
He loses self-control or something at bed-time. He becomes frenetically hyper. If you sit down, he'll try to crawl away. If you hold him standing, he will crane his neck, and lean back, or lean to the side, or otherwise try to escape. And, the whole time, he is fussing and whining.
He won't calm for me at night at all. He will only calm for his mother. Last night, after a hard day, she nursed him through his first fussiness, and then I put him in the ergo. He hated it, and squirmed and fought and cried, but he was out in five minutes. But then you can't put him down without waking him. I tried after a half an hour, and he was immediately awake.
We can get so little done because he has to be held 14+ hours a day. It's just exhausting. We'd like to let him cry it out, but it bothers the neighbors. I'm worried we've waited too long. Now, he'll get up and crawl around screaming. Before, at least he wasn't mobile.
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