Yeah yeah yeah...so I forgot to blog about months 5-7. Whoops. Life just gets away from me so easily with a little one around! With Josiah turning 9 months old tomorrow I felt it was necessary to update the latest lessons I've learned the last 3 months before the final stretch to the 1 year mark begins.
1. He's already becoming more independent and I have mixed feelings about this. He's sitting up on his own now and it's made life a dream! I can set him just about anywhere now without the help of the bumbo. However, he's also scooting and rolling about and so close to crawling - and baby proofing the house is NOT such a dream. Worrying about him discovering some miniature morsel of something and choking on it is a new stressor I'm not relishing. Despite these irritations, I am proud to have a child who can not only sit up on his own but who can also entertain himself for stretches so I can accomplish something else...like laundry.
2. Introducing solids is an exciting adventure that produces some of the most hilarious moments of your child's first year. Some foods are readily accepted not just with ease, but with great jubilation. The moment they see you preparing them impatient banging on the highchair tray ensues until the food enters their mouth. Some foods are met with curiosity due to taste, texture and color. And then there are the ones that produce instant tears and gagging the moment they enter the orifice. Those are secretly my favorite. There's just nothing funnier than seeing his facial expressions when he finds a food particularly disgusting. This is kind of sick and I recognize that, but if you have to decide whether to laugh or cry when frustrated that your child won't eat the food you just slaved over to personally puree for them, I'd prefer to laugh.
3. With the introduction of solids comes the introduction of solid bowel movements that smell like a typical bowel movement instead of that sweet, almost pleasant smelling breast milk poop they've had up until now. That sounds disgusting to anyone who hasn't been there, but I promise you breast milk poop is the best smelling excrement and I'll take a breast milk poopy diaper over the alternative ANY DAY. However, the positive side of typical bowel movements is that they're solid, so they pretty much just roll right out of the diaper into the toilet and my cloth diaper laundry days are more pleasant.
4. Time is short. I'm already realizing that this time period is going to feel like a blink of an eye in years to come. With this wisdom, I'm focusing on enjoying the small moments when we're snuggled up nursing early in the morning and just before bedtime. I'm holding him close and nuzzling the back of his head and kissing his sweet cheeks as often as he'll allow (he's already very much like his father and is wiping off my kisses if he's had too many!). I'm enjoying the blueness of his clear eyes and the plumpness of his feet. I love taking baths with him, knowing that I won't be able to for much longer. We play patty cake and he's learned how to give me a high five. He pats me and strokes my arm all the time, as if to say, "It's ok mommy. I know you're going to miss this so lets just enjoy it," and then cracks me one of those grins that melts my heart.
5. There is NOTHING more precious than one's family. My son is the latest addition to and the newest extension of the love that is in our family. His creation was the catalyst that changed things in our marriage for the best and his birth and very existence here on earth has brought joy and healing to many. A baby is a wonderful thing and God's special way of showing us how HE feels about US:-)
Ok so enough of the mushy gushy before I start tearing up...
Things He loves at 8 months old:
- his jumparoo jumping seat
- playing rough with daddy - aka being thrown up in the air and caught, chasing after the puppies, being tossed about and tickled and hanging upside down...ya know, BOY stuff
- throwing himself backward so he can see the world upside down
- bananas!
- laughing at the most mundane, inconsequential things
- undoing shoe strings
- unzipping zippers
- opening up containers
- banging things around to see what kind of noise they'll make with a scowl on his face and blinking every time it hits something lol
- watching his friends play at playgroup (I think we have an introvert on our hands!)
- watching the puppies rough house
