Conversations with my Monster, part 2

*Get to the grocery store and notice the monster's hat is MIA*

Me: Where is your hat?

LM: *exaggerated shrug* 'sgone!

Me: I can see that it's gone.  Where did it go?

LM: *Mimes dropping something out of his stroller*

A Short Post About My One Year Old.

The monster is one! It really is hard to believe.  I spent much of the day before crying, saying he was going to grow up and hate me, how he won't like me when he's a teenager, how everything was terrible.  Clearly, in the last year, my hormones haven't balanced.

As for how he's doing - he's great. Right now he's sleeping horribly and still refusing most solids, but in the daylight hours, he's a happy, active baby.  He's recently worked out how to use his building blocks and loves toy cars and stuffed toys. He's also a fan of pillows.

He pretty much never crawls anymore and has a pretty decent vocabulary, spread over two languages. He's growing up too damn fast.

I could write endlessly about him, but I'll have to save it for another day because we're travelling soon and his first international flight promises to be an experience (which I'm sure will be worthy of its own post - especially because I'm eager to find out what works to keep a one year old calm on a 9 HOUR! flight and will definitely want to share my findings).  So, I'm off to finish packing and running around and losing my mind.

Mr. Steps

So, the little monster has officially taken his first (proper) steps.  He can mostly walk across the living room now, which is amazing.  And, admittedly, terrifying.  He is growing up waaaay too fast, and it's kind of bumming be out.

I'm so excited for him to be walking and talking and everything, but I'm also wishing he could stay little just a little bit longer.  I imagine that all parents feel this way.

We've been trying to get a video to show the grandparents, but every time we get the camera out, he'd rather crawl.  Way of the world, I guess.

That's it for me for now.  I don't know if I mentioned in my last post that Crystal is away until August 4th. No idea what I'm going to do until then.  Nothing good on that front - PPD is eating my brain (there should be a PPRUA - postpartum raging un-explainable anger). Anyway.  Happy post.

Oh!  Also!  His first non-mum/dad word: Duh duh - which means Duck.

And Now a Happy Post

The Little Monster just had his 9 month birthday.  He was actually in for 40+5, so he still hasn't quite been out in the world for as long as he was baking, but still.  Need to fill out his baby book for this month (have to add that to the long ass list on my fridge).

Anyway, where he is now.

He's 29.5 inches tall, and despite our bathroom scale being a huge liar and saying he's 25lbs, he's actually only 21.  He's dropped to the 60th percentile for weight and Doc says that's great, as he was a little overweight while getting ready for his last growth spurt.  Still not really eating solids.  He has 8 or 9 (or maybe 10) teeth, and given that and his size, looks older than he is.

He's taken a few (I think a total of 7-8 in his whole life) completely unassisted steps, and I suspect the only thing really holding him back now is that he's not confident with walking yet.  He can crawl really fast. He also pulls up on everything, and can climb on top of stuff (he recently pushed his push-toy over to the baby gate so he could stand on it in an attempt to climb over).  He's also pointing, waving and playing peek-a-boo.

Mostly, this monster is a super bubbly, excitable little monkey.  He babbles constantly, laughs easily and has a ridiculous sense of humour, which is so delightful and I hope he will never lose (being hit in the face with a cushion accompanied by the word "Bleb" is hilarious; having his feet sniffed is hilarious; smacking the shit out of the computer keyboard while being told "no" in a stern voice is the funniest, best thing in the entire world; hitting people in the face with water bottles is also highly entertaining)

That's not everything, but I think it's enough of an update for now, without getting overly specific.  Anyway, I think I'm in love.

Genius Baby - Part 4: The Plan

Now that he can pull himself up using furniture, the little monster only wants to stand.  Or look at the wires that hang from a ceiling socket.  Nothing else.  He just (and I do mean just) did his first furniture transfer by himself, going from using the coffee table to the couch for support.

Right now, he's in his playpen, which he actually likes and wanted to go in.  Which brings me to the plan.

Yesterday, he was standing against the coffee table, letting go with one hand and reaching for the couch.  He couldn't quite reach, so eventually he started growling and shouting "Mum, mum!" until I helped him to the couch.  Then he jumped up and down and looked meaningfully at me, then tried to climb the couch like stairs.  He's tall, but he's not that tall, so I helped him again.  He crawled along the couch to the arm (the playpen is against the couch), put his hands on the playpen and then screamed at me ("Mum!  Mum!  Mama!  Mum!"*) until I put him in the playpen.  Then he was super happy.

I just can't get over the fact that he decided he wanted to go in the playpen, came up with a 3 part plan and executed it.  

I'm always so torn at moments like this.  On the one hand, I'm so happy that he's smart and happy and developing so well, and on the other hand, I'm kind of thinking, stay a baby, damn it.  People warn you about how fast it all goes, but I don't think most of us really get it until we're there.

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