Joseph has been not exactly staying in the same place I put him down in for a good while now, though you should check with my husband because he always says “just started” when I think it’s been a while and our friend pointed out that at for months, nothings really be “ages” as I’ve claimed . . .
. . . but I can no longer question whether Joseph is crawling or not. It’s not the normal cross-pattern crawl, but he can move forward and on purpose and in a matter of minutes, not hours. This morning after we woke up and snuggled a bit, I put him on the potty (success #1 and 2!) and stripped him bare for some naked diaper-free time. It’s a sunny and warmish day here, at least for fall, so I thought I’d take advantage of it before winter has us all shivering. I placed a few strategic toys at one end of the water-proof mat and Joseph at the other and when I came back from cleaning out his potty he was already at the other end of the mat! Currently he’s not moving much because he’s pushing all the buttons on the Japanese singing dog that Daddy got him. :)
I’ve been trying to give Joseph all the opportunity and encouragement I could manage so he could learn to crawl, but I found my first reaction was, “You can crawl!!! Now what do I do?!?!?!?” Suddenly this apartment feels very small. The yoga mat with water-proof sheet is too small for him now, but if I put him on the bed he’ll crawl off and hurt himself, and even if I start keeping the floors very clean he still has a jungle of furniture to contend with.
Well, here we go, on to the next stage of adventures!
We gave Joseph a shot for his birthday. Poor guy, but he was very brave. It surely feels like he’s been a part of our family for much longer than four months, but the fog is starting to lift and I’m getting a bit more sleep and feel a bit more able to function. Bit by bit is the right direction!
Joseph weighed in at 8150grams and 66.5cm. His head grew 2cm. That's still off the "normal" charts for weight and it's now off the charts for height. The doctor was very pleased with his development, and Joseph wasn’t showing off his best. I asked about some red specks at the back of his neck and he said they were “stork bites.” I thought that was a cute way of talking about birth marks. He also said they normally go away at about seven months. I wonder if the mark under his nose is the same thing. It seems to have lighted up, and maybe it will disappear. Then he’ll start getting “Wightman” marks . . . (aka moles)
Today Joseph was spared a fall because of the foot rest on the bed he was sleeping on. I’d put him to sleep in the middle of the bed and after lunch I went to check on him and there was an empty blanket on the bed. Joseph was gone! I quickly went fully into the room and he was cooing on his back at the very foot of the bed. He had scotched and rolled to the very edge! I had a motherly heart attack and learned my lesson. I have a mobile son. There’s no going back now.
Besides the heart attack the day at my friend’s was beautiful and refreshing. Fall is a beautiful season that I haven’t seen much of since I grew up in Florida. It’s a pity it goes by so quickly!
Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. The past month has been rather difficult for me, but I am thankful for such a wonderfully supportive husband! Joseph is talking more and discovering more sounds and reaching for things with much more precision. He’s about to reach the chord to the light above the changing table, so Daddy watch out! Today he rolled over from his back to his tummy for the first time. He’s been rolling onto his side for a while, but this morning he grabbed my sweater to help him over the hump to make it all the way. There are more videos and pictures up since I last blogged. Today Grossmutti came over and took Joseph for a long walk and I allowed myself to have no responsibility for an hour. The dishes sat in the sink, the laundry stayed in piles, the computer was off, Little Precious couldn’t interrupt me, and I didn’t even pressure myself about falling asleep. It was amazing how much better I felt after that hour of rest. Everyone tells me to rest, and even though I’ve let a lot of things slide and just do the minimum of housework, I’ve been thinking that means sleep and have been go, go, go (at least mentally, if not productively) until I crash in bed. There really is something to this ‘rest’ thing and I’m very grateful to Grossmutti for giving me the chance to try it out!
Once a week Joseph and I have fun at PEKiP and aftewards I drink coffee with the other moms. It always amazes me how much this refreshes my soul. Somehow during the morning I am assured of the importance of the work I am doing and for a few hours I am with people to whom I don't have to explain myself. We all have different ideas of how to raise kids, but we respect and learn from each other and we're all going through similar trials. I've always thought having friends young and old from different walks of life was more important than having lots of peers, but there is something to be said to having friends who are living what you're living.
Iwonder when we'll start doing this at PEKiP?
Yesterday our family headed out to the Birsmatte farm where we have our vegetable co-op to fulfill our obligation of labor in exchange for cheaper veggies. We didn’t plan much how we’d work and take care of Joseph at the same time, and I think it was better that way. We just went with the flow. I think I would have been intimidated by the thought of nursing Joseph while squatting in the fields or wielding a hoe while carrying Joseph on my chest, but it all seemed to work out when it had to. At first we parked him by the well-traveled path and went into the fields almost out of ear-shot. That might have worried the strongest Free-Range Kid mom and I wasn’t so happy with it myself. We ended up carrying the stroller to the middle of the field where we were better able to check on him. After a bit he wasn’t happy and we tried putting him on my back with the wrap, but he didn’t like that much and it made the work tougher for me. Though he was tired he wouldn’t sleep so I finally put in him the wrap (in front) knowing he would sleep, which he did almost immediately. I figured out how to hoe standing straight up and squatting instead of bending to pick the weeks closer to the fennel. We actually quite enjoyed the work and finished three rows of fennel from 10am to 12:40. We were quite tired and hungry at that point and contemplated getting MacDonald’s down the road, but decided that would be too ironic given that we’d just worked on an organic farm and had organic vegetables at home that needed to be eaten.
I feel very unpoetic, but I haven’t been getting loads of sleep, so this will have to do.
But that’s not the news you want to hear about! This morning I put a naked Joseph down on his tummy and after fetching my breakfast I came back to a Joseph with his cannon pointing upwards! He seemed chill but after I heaped praise on him he seemed very proud of himself. I wish I could have been there to see how it happened. We learned at PEKiP that often babies will achieve milestones during the class because movement is easier without clothing so they simply have a better chance when they are naked in class. I keep him naked sometimes to try to figure out this EC thing, but I suppose it’s also very good for his development. I looked into the development charts to see when that’s “normal” but not surprisingly they only mention back-to-side and back-to-tummy movements. I wonder where it used to be in the charts.
Later on in the day I had him on his back playing with his mobile and wearing only a folded cloth held together by a Snappi when he rolled onto his side and back a few times. So much in one day!
He’s discovered his feet, though mostly by feel and not often by sight. Daddy was the first to see this discovery.
He has a stuffed dog named Scout that has a USB connection to the computer so he can be minimally programmed. The other day he managed to reach out and push one of Scout’s paws so that bedtime music would play. He did this five times that day! I’m not sure bedtime music is what he’s after, but the other functions are on the upper paws – poor Joseph!
He doesn’t just scoot his arm forward now, he can lift it off the floor to reach for a toy (this is all when he’s on his tummy). He can really lift his chest and head well off the ground and is mostly happy on his tummy, though he does still get tired sometimes.
I finally had the courage to try the wool diaper cover. Somehow the idea that cloth was water resistant didn’t sound like a recipe for success, but it works really well. The cloth diaper can be quite soaked but the wool cover doesn’t wick any of it out onto the bed. I haven’t tried it overnight, but it works quite well for daytime purposes.
And speaking of caring for the lower end, just when I think EC is more bother than it’s worth I have a good day. This morning I made myself get out of bed when he woke me up at 7am because I thought he had to pooh. Often I figure I’d rather change a dirty diaper then get out of bed when I’m so tired, but this time it paid off. Also during the day I noted that after eating he will pee every twenty minutes 3 times. This pattern happened twice and each time I managed to catch one of the three pees each time and I feel like I’m starting to see some signals and understand when he is too distracted to pee on the potty even though he has to go.
Feeling brave fresh off these discoveries I decided to go grocery shopping with Joseph in the sling without a diaper. I meant to bring a towel along, but I forgot . . .
Joseph went on the potty just before we left at 1pm and he stayed dry until I took him out at 2:30! He went a little on the potty but not much. A little while later I tried again and he went the full amount. I was proud to catch that one! But enough of pee.
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned that he can hang from my thumbs on his own for a few seconds now. Sometimes his hold is very strong and I can hold him up for 5 seconds or so! He loves pulling himself up from lying on his back and seems to enjoy hanging well enough. My PEKiP teacher suggested I do the same with a wooden spoon and after getting him used to the idea of gripping it he can now use it instead of my thumbs for standing and he even hung from it for half a second. Okay, Joseph is calling me. Time to play with the little guy!
