portrait of a 9 month old...

Here are some of Jack's latest tricks:
* He knows how to sing along with his favorite lullaby. Well, not really sing, but at least hum. He seems to have a range of only one note right now-- but it's the cutest thing. He only does it for his nighttime song, too. We did an experiment in the car tonight and he only hummed when I sang or hummed "mommy loves her baby," no other songs.
* He loves peekaboo and will play it with any fabric he can get his hands on. He played with a pair of socks the other day, balancing them on his eyes and then giggling when we pulled them off.
* He has learned to "high five" with some practice over the last 3 days. Today he high-fived a guy at Starbucks who was saying hi to him. Now, to teach him to wave. Then he'll be freakin irresistable.
* I believe we can in fact describe him as "mobile"-- he just doesn't move in a traditional forward direction, or crawl. But he can make it an impressive distance across a room in a short amount of time, just with his reaching, going onto his knees, sitting back up routine. We have started the baby proofing-- the first of the outlet covers are in place in the playroom, as little man can now make his way to the wall when put down in the middle of the room. He is getting close to being able to pull up to stand on chair legs, and can rock back and forth on his knees.
* He's becoming more vocal. We hear distinct "mom' and "dad" sounds come out of him but I don't think they are intentional most of the time.
* He loves clapping and will do it spontaneously to show his excitement.
* He still loves being upside down and up in the air. He also loves the wind, and any animals. Tonight at the pet store he LOVED the cage of parakeets and the parrot.
* He is an amazingly huggable, soft, perfect little creature.
* He has perfected this smug little smile, all-knowing crinkly eyes, corners of his mouth turned up like the cat who ate the canary. It makes me want to gobble him up.
* He puts up with my constant kissing with great patience.

It staggers me to realize how much he has changed. I was thinking today about the first time I took him in to school, when he was about 3 weeks old. I remembered the schnazzy way his stroller looked, with his infant carrier hooked on to it. And how we put so much thought into how that would work, so much planning for that set-up-- and we used it for such a tiny slice of time. It seems like years ago that he fit in that little carrier, floppy little rag-doll of a baby. And it was a lifetime ago that I was pregnant! It was amazing to have that little budle of potential bumping around in my belly, and all the excitement of buying tiny clothes and way to much equipment, planning and planning for things we'd use for only a few months... Now we have this baby, this real, competent, mini human being with likes and dislikes and desires and affection and squishy little arms, who changes more and more each day, who has come so far yet has so much growing and changing to come...It's been a long 9 months and it's gone by in a flash.
*

9 months....

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Little munchkin-butt will be 9 months old tomorrow. Out for as long as he was in! Crazy! this means that I really have no excuse any more to be this out of shape... sigh... I've been having some nostalgia about being pregnant, recently. I don't think I miss the swollen ankles much, but I do miss being able to be "whale like" in a bathing suit with impunity. And, the amazing feeling of that tiny little being swimming around in there, always a part of me. He is so far from tiny now, so much a little person, so much more capable and solid and real...

He is growing and changing at a great rate these days. Official update on his current skills to follow soon, but for the moment, the pictures above, which illustrate the change from 5 weeks to 36 weeks old. Same swing, practically a different baby!

Memorial Day

We have just returned home from a lovely weekend in Upstate New York. We were unsure about the long drive but it was totally worth the time in the car. It felt much more like a vacation weekend, than it might have if we'd just stayed home to get things done around the house. It was also like a "teaser" for true summer. We have been home for 5 hours and I already want to be back at the lake....
We had magnificent weather and spent most of the day Sunday at Farley's, helping to open up the cottages while "they guys" put in the docks. Well, Nat helped. I mostly sat on a blanket and played with Jack.. Being the mom has its perks at times! :) Jack had a great time moving about on the blanket. We are pretty sure he is doing some "stealth crawling"-- we have yet to see any actual forward locomotion, but he can move across a space remarkably quickly for a baby who can't crawl yet.
He also seemed to enjoy getting to know his cousins. He was very interested in them, and clapped when David sang for him, and actually hugged Sarah, with both arms. He was a very sweet and endearing little fell ow all weekend and, wonder of wonders, did not sleep all that badly. Only up 2x a night (his usual) and then up for the day at 5:30 both days... guess he didn't want to miss a moment?

Mama!

I am pretty sure Jack said Mama tonight!: :)! I was getting his pj's on and we were playing the silliest game-- I was saying "mommy's hungry! I'm going to eat Jack's hand/foot/belly" and then pretending to nibble on the named part, with a dramatic yum, yum after. He was loving it, laughing and clapping for more. After a while he started making lots of mmmm noises-- then mom-mom came out a few times! I thought it was a fluke but then we were playing with a photo of Nat and I that I keep on his changing table. I pointed out mommy and daddy and then asked where's daddy, where's mommy-- and 2 times in a row he patted my face and said "mom-mom"! I was pretty thrilled and overwhelmed my poor tired boy with kisses and clapping... :) We'll see if it was a one-time thing or if he keeps it up...

In other news, on BZ one of the girls posted a “personality poll”. Here's a copy of my response for the Jackster:

Jack's personality has changed a lot since he was tiny. Thanks to his milk intolerance, up til he was 8 weeks old I would have described his peronality as moody and crabby! Luckily that changed greatly when I eliminated milk from my diet, and he felt better!

Today, at almost 9 months old, Jack is....

Curious and observant-- he looks so carefully at everything and notices details. He is very into small things right now and will work to find the smallest part of anything... the tag, a string, a crumb on the floor.

Cautious-- he's a thinker more than a do-er. He carefully prepares himself before any movement, and is not in a hurry to take on anything new. Not afraid or reluctant-- he just thinks about it first.

An animal lover-- he lights up when he sees a dog and loves to grab and pet his puppy!

Content-- he'll always find something to look at or “think about,” wherever you put him, and won't fuss for a change of scenery unless he's tired.

An adrenaline addict-- this kid LOVES to be upside down, up in the air, bounced, tossed, you name it! Always gets a belly laugh out of him!

A flirt-- he adores waitresses and reserves a crinkle-eye smile just for them!

Adaptable—he loves being in new places and seeing new things and puts up with changes in his routine like a champ (as long as he gets decent sleep!)

Dramatic-- when he does get angry or upset (usually only when he's overtired), he has the highest pitched scream, the biggest corcodile tears, and the most pitiful sad face... and they can all come and go in the space of seconds. He also loves to be the center of attention and gets such a kick out of being “cheered for”. Perhaps a career on the stage...?

little show off...

It's been a fun and busy weekend. Jack's big event was on Saturday, when his friend Gavin (in the striped shirt above) hosted the Thursday playgroup for a cookout. It was a blast, 9 babies and all their parents and lots of hamburgers. Jack had lots of fun playing with other people's toys and trying to grab and "pet" his friends in much the same way he "pets" the do-- ie, grabbing and yanking on... He also decided to show off and sat up from his belly for the first time. The second picture above was snapped mere seconds after he did it-- he'd scooted backwards all the way accross the room and then, when he had literally backed himself into a corner, he kinds of put his legs out to the sides in the splits, pushed, and sat himself up. Surprised us quite a bit! :) He did it 2 more times while we were there, and also moved around my twisting and reaching for things, and rocked on his hands and knees a few times. It was terribly exciting.

Now that he is making progress towards mobility (which is a tremendous relief to me) it seems to be progressing so fast. He did nothing but sit for over 3 months and then, in the past week, we've been adding new skills nearly every day. While I wanted to see progress I am not sure I am ready for full-on mobility to be here so soon!

The rest of the weekend was more exciting for mommy than for Jack, though he DID get to spend Saturday evening with Melinda and Will who babysat for us while we went out to the WSC benefit. We were very proud of Jack for gong to bed well, which allowed us to go out after benefit with some friends and feel like "young people" again for a few minutes. I even had 2 drinks! Crazy girl...

Today Jack was in the happiest mood after his first nap. All crinkly nosed bunny smiles. He is really starting to get a sense of humour and appreciates when we make funny faces. Another new skill/game that he plays is to pull his bib up over his face and leave it there (when he's laying on his back) so that we'll start to say "Where's Jack"-- whereupon he giggles like crazy til we pull the bib down and say "peek." Then he'll put the bib back up again!

Never thought it would happen...

Just to let you all know: Jack officially slept through the night last night.
Put him to bed at 7pm, didn't hear from him again til 6:30am. My boobs were killing me, but I am very happy with this baby right now.

Changling

Over the past week, Jack has changed considerably. Not in his appearance-- he's still got the same charming flirt-smile, same blue eyes, same giant belly. Rather, he's changed in his motivations. He now WANTS to move. This is a strange concept to us as we look at our little one who, a few days ago, could still be classified as both "sedentary" and "content". Plop him on his bottom somewhere and there he'd happily be a half hour later. no toys in reach? no problem. He'd just play with his hands or the buckle on his overalls. As he's been sitting independently for over 3 months now, we'd gotten pretty used to this state of affairs. Not to say that I was comfortable with it-- you know the constant concern I've felt over Jack's lack of mobility, as we hear tales from all his BZ friends of scooting, crawling, pulling to stand...

But this week! No, he's not crawling yet, or even making any forward movement. But he is constantly trying to get out of our arms, reaching and arching out to try and explore the world. We plop him down on his bottom and he starts leaning forward, getting up on one knee and the foot that's still trapped under his belly, sitting back up, leaning the other way... On his tummy, he immediately starts pushing backwards, which he can do with surprising speed and no accuracy at all-- invariably getting himself stuck on something. He's not always happy as he engages in these acrobatics. He appears to have a conflict of interests: he wants so much to mve, but he can't quite figure out how, so in the meantime its really not all that fun to be on his belly, stuck. But, he is certainly trying to figure it out. A big change!

In other news, Jack has slept for a 9-10 hour stretch 2 times this week. I could get used to this.

We are also planning on leaving Jack with someone else (OK, with Melinda and Will so it's only barely "someone else") at bedtime for the first time, to go to the West Shore Chorale benefit. I am sure he'll have a fine time but I am hoping I'll be alright with the fact that someone else will put him to bed. This will be the first time that someone other than me has put him down for the night. It is a melancholy thought even as it is liberating...

This train of thought makes me realize-- I have spent a lot of time recently detailing Jack's life and progress, but not so much my own progress and thoughts as a mom. The other day I found myself really thinking about how far through this "first year" we've come. How everyone was right, about how it goes so fast, even though we never beleived them back when the Jackster was small and exhausting, back when the days and nights seemed excruciatingly long and we were sure it would be like that forever... now here we are at 8 and a half months. In 3 months we'll be weaning him to cow's milk during the day, and then graduting from Baby and Me group. I feel like I am fast approaching the end of a chapter in my life as a mom. My identity as a mom thus far has been strongly influenced-- nigh, formed-- by my almost obsessive participation in breastfeeding group and baby group when I can attend. But now my baby is growing up and I won't be exclusively breastfeeding anymore and I feel like because of this I won't be quite the same person. I'll have to adjust my focus and my perception of myself as a mom...

I know there will be other chapters, each with their own excitement-- but it feels like we've just gotten the hang of this one. And I like taking my round and cute little baby to groups, being a role-model to new breastfeeding moms, a proponent of nursing in public... it will be sad to move on from this stage.

One Mother's Day down....

Jack's Mother's Day gift to me (in addition to the cute card he and Daddy made) was to be a spectacular baby all day yesterday. Not quite as dramatic as Sleeping Through the Night might have been, but we did put him through a pretty long day and he was fabulous. We went out to the West Side and went to church with my mom, then out to lunch at the Coffee Pot. Jack was up for over 4 hours and charmed everyone in his path the whole time. At lunch he was a riot, flirting like crazy with the waitress. He also really enjoyed drinking ice water from the bright pink sippy cup. He wouldn't hold it, but got SOO excited when I held it for him.

Other updates:

No 7th tooth yet, despite pink cheeks, intermittent fussiness, and lots of drool. We will continue to wait for it.
Today he started trying to pull up on a couple pieces of furniture (namely the legs on the kitchen stool and a dining room chair) and actually got his foot under him one time-- but didn't quite stand. He's starting to get super squirmy when we are holding him but then is grumpy when we put him down on his tummy-- just can't quite figure out how to move the way he wants to, I think.
He is enjoying eating black beans. In general, he is eating a lot more solids in the past week than he was before.
He is freakin adorable right now.
He is taking all of his naps in his crib as of this past Wednesday! Go Daddy, who put up with a lot of crying early this week to get him there. But right now, he is going down for naps and for bed very happily. Right now, he enjoys going around his nursery before bed and saying goodnight to everything. Then when I lay him down, he stretches out a bit and just looks up at me pleasantly while I snug him into his blanket. So sweet. Tonight he also added some of our very first real "Snuggle time"-- after nursing I turned him around to look at a book and he actually leaned back into me and just relaxed there while we rocked and hummed for a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah-- I know he spent months leaning into me all the time. But now, when he spends so much time sitting up, leaning away, looking around, squirming-- it is a choice to snuggle in and it was neat that he made that choice right then...

Mobility update

(a few fairly unrelated recent pictures... the second one shows Jack's new skill of pushing up onto his knees... the bottom one is him enjoying a bite of blue whale... the top one is just my sill face monster...)

Tonight, while we were out enjoying the spring sunshine on a blanket in the backyard, Jack rocked back and forth on his hands and knees for the first time. When informed of this news, Nat's response was "oh boy," said with more than a little bit of fear...

Jack also enjoyed pulling out handfuls of grass from the yard, this evening. He actually got a little manic about it, with a look on his face that seemed to say, "oh my, there is just so much of this stuff. If I just keep pulling I'll get it all... no, wait, there's still more.... keep pulling... keep pulling!!" Amazingly, he did not try to eat the grass. He's reserving that for Cheerios. He is obsessed with Cheerios. And, he has become quite proficient at getting them into his mouth; he can now handle 2-3 at a time and he will eat them whenever they are offered. This is not true for any other foods-- even avacado must be offered at the right time if we want him to eat more than a bite or 2. I really hope the kiddo expands his tastes at some point and that he does not become one of those children who eat only 3 specific foods that are all in the same color family.

Out of control

That's what the pace of Jack's growing up is. In t seems like he has grown in leaps over the past few days. In addition to being a very large child, he is also really becoming a more mobile child. Just like that. Right now for instance, we are hanging out in Nat's office, where i am computing and little one was planning to sit on the floor and eat Cheerios (which he can do with great aplomb now. His father notes that any time he is not eating Cheerios is wasted time, apparently.) Well, Cor came in and in an attempt to eat the dog, Jack ended up on his belly. As he wasn't too dismayed, I left him there. He proceeded to push himself backwards about 5 feet over the course of a few minutes, and then rolled onto his side to play with the keyboard. The child may be mobile yet. This development, so eagerly awaited, now makes me feel a little melancholy -- my baby is growing up!!!-- and more than a little trepidatious-- we aren't the least bit babyproofed!! Amazing the conflicting emotions this whole parenting thing can bring.

Also, speaking of growing up, Jack had his first haircut yesterday. We finally trimmed those long bits that hang past his ears on the sides. Two little tufts of hair. I saved them of course. He looks quite grown up and dapper, I must say, even with this small change.

Mommy's little helper...

Just had to share these pictures... as we were cleaning yesterday Jack was eyeing the broom and mop handles with great envy, reaching out for them each time we came by. So, I gave him the Swiffer. He proceeded to play with it for about 10 minutes. I love the look of concentration on his face, as if he's really working to get that one spot clean.

Over the past few days, Jack has been a bit more motivated to move around. Not that he's actually doing it or anything. But there is a difference to the way he holds his body, a difference in the way it feels to hold him. When he reaches, its with his whole self, not just his arms. He's squirmier. Its exciting but also makes the heavy little bugger much harder to hold.

He continues to have some nice "momma's boy" moments that make my heart melt. Last night he attended my WSC concert and ushered with daddy. After the concert, when I came out to see them, he greeted me right away with arms up and reaching, and a little whiny "Mmmmm" (which I am pretty sure is his name for me right now). That's $5 for his college fund!

In other news we are still up 2-4 times per night. Urg. We halfheartedly tried "extinction" the other night and decided we're not up for that yet. Perhaps if he has not shaped up by summer break.

And spring goes on...

I just have to say that this has been a glorious spring so far. Another perfect, sunny evening, another lovely walk through our neighborhood which was really heart-rendingly beautiful. Lacy new-leafed trees filtering the slant of the sun, a pink and white and magenta crochet of flowered branches overlaying it all...At one point a few white petals floated down in the midst and I had to catch my breath. The tulips are also out in full force, an amazing variety decorating the sidewalk gardens on Somerton. Jack and I took a most leisurely stroll this evening in order to look at them all. My favorites were the yellow ones whose petals ended in flanged spikes instead of roundness, and the pink and orange ones with fringy edges. Jack's favorites were the red ones, of course. He and I agreed that we really need to plant some bulbs in our front garden in the fall!

So Nat and I feel like we are getting pretty good at spotting new teeth coming in-- the red cheeks, overall crabby boy... and it seems like number 7 may be on its way! Unbelievable. We couldn't feel any edges yet but the other signs were there so we'll see.

An exciting development is that I think Jackster may be starting to enjoy books-- and for more than just chewing and looking at the edges (his previous favorite parts). He now has 2 "favorite" books, and he greets the sight of them with laughter, bouncing and claps: Big and Little (he particularly like the "big hand, little hand" page) and Baby's day. The baby in the book wears cloth dipes, which is kind of fun...