Tomorrow Joseph turns 7 months old! He has two bottom teeth, is skilled at pulling himself up on just about anything (including stairs) and is fast learning how to get back down again without panic. He’s a super fast belly crawler but still only rocks back and forth on all fours. I think he spends about half his waking time standing up. He just doesn’t see the point of being on the floor when he can get up higher! He babbles a good bit and can say “mama” and “papa” of sorts. The jury is still out on whether he really knows what he’s saying. He still loves looking at his hands while he wiggles his figures. I find this adorable. He’s only once recently showed signs of stranger anxiety. Otherwise he still loves social situations and attention and can’t stand to sleep if something is going on! He’s started showing more interest in table food.
My notes, such as they are:
January 20th his second tooth came in and I realized that this is HIS bottom right and I’d reported that his bottom right tooth had already come in. I meant my right side, but that doesn’t make much sense for talking about teeth. So HIS bottom left came in first and now his bottom right is making its way in. It’s so cute!
January 26th Joseph pulled himself up on the diaper pail (a bit more than a foot high) and as it slid away from him he walked after it so in essence he used it as a walker to walk across the room!
Happy Birthday Joseph!
This afternoon Joseph cruised from the couch chair to my filing drawers under my desk (he’d done this before) and then as he held onto the top drawer it started sliding out so that put him in perfect position to grab the papers off of my desk. Help! What do I do now?!?! Nothing is safe!
In the cuter news, this morning I pulled out some bits. Joseph tore (on his belly) down the room to get a better look. Afterwards I pulled out the bits of Grandma and Dad-o that I’d showed him before they visited. I put both on the floor and said, “Where’s Grandma”? He crawled to her picture. Then I asked, “Where’s Dad-o” and he turned and went to Dad-o’s picture! It’s so tempting to test him further to see if it was just chance, but I believe Glenn Doman when he says kids hate to be tested so you better do it sparingly! For now, it’s cute and it’s some data in the bank.
Jan. 6th was Joseph’s six month appointment at the doctor. He didn’t like the shot, but did well anyway. He weighed in at 9250g, was 69cm long and his head had grown to 45.5cm, if it’s at all accurate. He was crawling all over the place so it was hard to pin him down. The doctor was pleased with his motor skills, but he didn’t see the half of what Joseph can do. He had some diaper rash I got in trouble for, but our routine got all messed up over the holidays, so that’s my excuse. We made sure to have lots of diaper free time after our guests had left, but we’re still fighting it. :(
Mom came with us to the appointment, which was fun!
Jan. 12th Joseph successfully peed in the potty after having refused to do so for several days (by peeing on the floor right after sitting on the potty). He celebrated by jumping up and tipping the potty all over the bed . . .
Later that day I saw he’d found an individually wrapped Toblerone in the basket on the table. I watched his second cousin Quin’s video of her grabbing a duck and then checked on Joseph again. He’d opened it and was happily sucking on the chocolate! He was not happy when I took it away. So much for not giving him sugar . . . and then a few days later on Bappe’s watch he got a hold of a sample Laeckerli package and opened it, too! No matter how vigilant you are he always gets into something!!!
Jan. 13th Joseph successfully pulled himself up to standing position using the rocking chair. This means he grabs the support bar and then the seat while the chair this rocking back and forth. This was the first thing he did that morning and completed the task while I was in the bathroom. There are surprises every turn!
Jan 16th Joseph found a lid and entertained himself a long time by picking it up and letting it drop to the floor as he watched it wobble and settle down again. I find this fascinating for some reason.
He likes dirt better than banana (that’s for you, Gina). Couscous isn’t so bad. Of course chocolate beats all . . .
He appears to remember a bit of what is not in sight. In any case, he repeatedly heads down the hall for the plant he likes to climb up on and eat. We don’t let him do this that often, and maybe that’s why he always goes to it.
Today we had PEKiP for the first time in four weeks. All the babies have grown so much and now there are three in the group who are crawling (the two 8-month-olds and Joseph). Joseph climbed the foam steps like they weren’t even there so at home I tried him on our steps by placing his feet two from the top and his hands one from the top. Once he was interested enough, he crawled up and into the hallway with little difficulty. Now if he only knew how to break a fall . . . but the PEKiP teacher did show me other ways to help him come down from standing in a way that will hopefully guide him to do it himself soon.
When we first got home from PEKiP I noticed his diaper was dry and since it had been over an hour I put him on the potty. He’s been peeing on the floor right after sitting dry on the potty lately, so this time I determined to sing and play with him until he went. At one point he chewed on my finger and I felt a tooth! Somehow this is very exciting. I think it’s on the lower right, but he won’t let me look.
We were still on the potty 15 minutes later and he started to get fussy and no pee had happened. I gave up and let him stand holding onto the hamper. I put the bowl on the floor next to him thinking “I know he has to go. Maybe he’ll start as he’s standing.” Sure enough a few second later, and much to my surprise despite thinking it might happen, he started peeing. I aimed his hose at the potty and he was a bit surprised at the noise and the stream (he had a partial view) but kept going a full amount. He’s such a boy! We both had a good laugh about that.
If placed in a sitting position (tripod) he can hold it for a while.
In the other news, Mom showed me how to bake bread while she was here. I’ve been experimenting and made Zopf for the first time yesterday. The husband approves, so I say it was a success. I’m excited to bake more!
Little Joseph amazes me. It’s rather annoying that he cries every time I put him on the floor now given how much he used to love crawling around, but now he only has eyes for standing or anything involving upward movement. I put out the fold-up mattress so that there are two levels for him to crawl on. He easily and eagerly crawled up and from there he could get onto our couch-chair and the coffee table. He still takes tumbles on the way down, so I’m back to getting hardly anything done because he needs me by his side - or at least in plain view - all the time. It’s amazing how quickly he learned to coordinate his movements to cruise in the direction of a toy he wants. It’s amazing how strong he is both in his legs and upper body. He can pull himself up with his arms and even if he slips as his legs follow he can keep holding on. So much for getting back to the routine after the holidays. I have to figure out a whole knew way to live!
Joseph made so many developments over the course of Mom and Dad’s visit. I was particularly grateful that he didn’t develop stranger anxiety beforehand. He warmed up to them quickly and he definitely misses them now. We had company yesterday and Joseph and I went to greet them at the stairs as we did every morning for Grandma and Dad-o. This time, however, upon seeing our guests he burst into tears. He wasn’t afraid of new faces and he warmed up quickly, so I think he was just expecting to see Grandma and Dad-o and they weren’t there!
Mom and Dad’s visit was just delightful. We’re so thankful that Dad-o got to meet his newest grandson earlier than expected and that we could spend Christmas and New Year’s together. Because of the baby we didn’t tour around as much, but that meant we had plenty of time to enjoy each other and play with Joseph. He got spoiled by so much attention but it also gave him so much standing practice that he is quite skilled at standing while holding something and can even cruise to the left a bit. Today I set the rolled-up yoga mat next to the coffee table, tempted Joseph with a toy to get him to come toward the table, then placed the toy on the table and Joseph used the mat to reach the table and pull himself up to standing. He doesn’t know how to get down quite as easily, so I have to watch him when he’s pulled himself up somewhere, but he’s starting to squat when he comes down so I’m sure he’ll soon be able to get up and down without trouble. Crazy!
The other exciting development for me is that he says “Mama” or “mamamama.” He done it consistently for a number of days now, so I hope he doesn’t loose it and that he connects it to me permanently. I wasn’t convinced at first, but he appears he’s starting to realize that “Mama” means I come to him. It’s precious!
He gave Grandma some “kisses” (see previous post) while she was here - so sweet!
He continues to be quite social. He would not stand to be put to bed when there were people around. Consequently he didn’t get very much sleep over the holidays, but I think it helped him sleep more and better at night, so I didn’t complain.
Of course his crawling is getting faster and faster and he pushes up into a creeping position (hands and knees) but doesn’t move that way yet. He’s so fast on his belly that’s it’s the best for transport and if he wants to do something new he wants to stand and cruise, so I hope at some point he figures out crawling on hands and knees!
I didn’t take good notes of the adventures we had or the developments Joseph made, but there were other witness of the past few weeks who can add their own memories as comments.
Thanks, Mom and Dad for a great visit, and thanks Mom-and-Dad -in-law for hosting us for Christmas and New Year’s Day!
Speaking of the new year, this is the first time in recent memory that I’ve remember and kept my New Year’s Resolution from the previous year. A year ago I started my Tickler system and I’ve checked it just about every day and it’s made a huge difference in my organization. I also had over 500 emails in my inbox a year ago and it’s been under 20 for half of the year. Considering I’ve had an out-of-control inbox since I got email, I’m pretty proud of that accomplishment. Of course the biggest accomplishment of the year was birthing a baby, but you can’t get out of that one once you’ve started so the others took a different kind of determination.
There are many more pictures up (see link to the right) and a bunch of videos are due soon.
Happy New Year!
