Now Entering Parenthood...

Back when I first got my baby book, I was excited to enter in dates and stories all about Simon’s “firsts”. Little did I realize how unclear something as simple as his “first word” or the first time he ever crawled would be. Everything is a matter of opinion… childhood is not in spits and spurts, but a constant gradual (or sometimes not so gradual) process.

So with that in mind, the month of August brought CRAZY amounts of progress. And for the six days we were gone to California, I feel like I left my baby and came home to a little boy, a toddler who is becoming more independent, strong willed, and animated every day.

First Words?

So, I already know I am going to get hassled by more than one grandma on this one, but we have been waiting patiently for what we consider Simon’s “first word”. It’s soooo unclear, and a very personal decision about where you want to draw the line. A baby just doesn’t wake up one day and say “mama”.

He babbles, and sometimes he babbles things that sound like words… so either you decide the minute he babbles something that sounds like “mama” that it counts (Simon @ three months) or that he has to say it with intent, with some type of acknowledgment that he understands what he is saying (Simon @ eight months?).

Depending on who you talk to, Simon says a lot of words. But for us, he is still a work in progress. But in the last week, he has really started showing signs that he knows “mama” means me, “dada” means Tom, and “baba” has something to do with eating. Best example was a night I went into his room when he was crying and the minute I walked in, he reached up his hands and said “mumumuma”.

First, First, First and Away He Goes!!

Last month’s blog post… Simon hadn’t really officially crawled yet. Now he is threatening to walk, or at least making me nervous about it. Simon can crawl, and crawl fast. But not just on flat surfaces, he can climb stairs… he can crawl over people… and he can chase down any parents or cats that try and hide from him.

The first “pull-up” we ever saw was coming into his room to get him in the morning and finding him standing and laughing at us in his crib. Now he will pull up and stand for long stretches of time on just about anything, including things that aren’t terribly sturdy (i.e. his tricycle).

The thing about a mobile kid is that it means a lot more bumps and bruises. At first I wouldn’t let him out of my sight for even a second. But he still would get hurt anyway, and after a short bit, I saw him grow more careful… falling down on his butt rather than his head and slowly lowering himself from the standing position.

Simon is so intent on being mobile that trying to get him to sit still for a minute to change his diaper, feed him a bottle, or god forbid, put him down for a nap, has turned into tantrum time. Meanwhile, we are getting just as much bruises and rug burn chasing our little guy around the house.

First Finger Foods

Sometimes the process of childhood takes months, sometimes it takes… a day! Before we left for California, Simon could not really feed himself very well. He had not developed that necessary “pincher grip”, and instead would try and rake food into his whole hand.

Upon returning, I decided to try it out again. He was doing the “point and prod” method which is a step further, but couldn’t really pinch a bite of food and put it in his mouth. A day later, he was grabbing cheese one bite after the other and filling his mouth full like a chipmunk.

Now he is ready to eat anything and everything he can, and I am happy to let him go at it. We’ve moved on from the cubes of purees and we are ready for cheerios, cubed fruit, and whatever else his newly developed pinchers can pinch! Which I am SO thankful for, because for about two weeks straight this month, Simon decided he didn’t like eating anything but fruit, and now he wants to eat everything in the house.

Looking back at all of the photos we have taken over the last eight months, it’s shocking to see just how much he has grown and developed in such a short time. I anticipate that soon we’ll be having the very common feeling that so many parents express…. kids seem to grow up too fast!