By: Revanche

My kid and exploration: Notes from Month 8

October 16, 2015

Inchworm is officially mobile. Something clicked one day and ze went from struggling planted in one place, or wiggling backwards, to crawling forward in the most awkward foot-planting fashion. It’s clear that with every creep forward, ze is just preparing to stand up and walk. Often I’ll catch hir on all fours, hands and feet, butt in the air as ze tries to figure out how to get the front half in the air but fails. Not much complaining about this anymore – ze is too busy concentrating.

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Ze figured out self directed play if I’m just sitting nearby. Ze is even better at it if I’m walking around and not watching over hir. But there’s always a risk that ze will finish with all hir toys and head for Seamus or his toys. He won’t bother hir, even when ze is trying to lick him, but I don’t want him to feel tormented.

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At some point, LB quit spitting up / drinking too much too fast. A little bit before ze learned to roll over, and hold hir own bottle, ze quit needing to be burped. We just honestly forgot because ze would wiggle away to do something and then noticed ze was rolling out the burps all on hir own. Excellent! The drool continues unabated, though, and still, no teeth. I’m enjoying the gummy grins though, so I’m in no hurry. Also, as I might have mentioned before, ze BITES. And holy hell does that hurt. I have a bruise on my arm from hir chewing.

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When LB was just a speck, I assumed that I wouldn’t want to share my living AND working space with a Tiny Tyrant.  It’s really weird to realize that I am quite enjoying it right now. Ze is a lot of work, but is at a semi-ideal stage right now where I can drop hir in a play area, leave hir to get into things, and redirect hir as needed. Ze explores anything and everything, tasting everything: Seamus, our shoes, electrical cords, our toes, carpet, rugs, drawstrings. You name it, ze wants to chew on it.

Note: Seamus is not a fan.

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What’s the difference between a puppy and this baby? A puppy has dander and this baby has opposable thumbs with which to pick up electric cords for chewing.

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Unfortunately for us, LB’s mobility is not matched by hir language skills. Meaning “no!” and “no that’s dangerous” or “no that’s not for eating” or “no that’s not for you” are just amusing mouth noises we make. Meanwhile, Seamus jumps with every “no!” like he’s in trouble.

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SOMEbaby thanks it’s hilarious to chipmunk cheek hir food. We were doing our usual sharing at dinner and ze just kept cheeking hir veggies. Ze likes them, normally, but I guess learning to hide your food in your mouth is an essential baby skill? After a visual check AND a finger sweep, ze spit hir greens at me with a cackle.

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Ze caught a cold. Infant colds, from this experience, consists of 2 parts “aww you’re pitifully cute”, 3 parts “aww you’re just pitiful” and 95 parts “Ew snot bubbles!”

Our weapons of choice: infant Tylenol, nasal spray and the Snotsucker. That name, by the way, should have tipped me off to what it was but no, I just refused to use it. PiC did, and it helped a bit, but if you’ve ever wondered how an infant would react to waterboarding, we know.

P.S. There’s something very wrong with my child, ze loves the fake grape taste of the Tylenol. Gross.

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For a little while, I had the timing on naps figured out and it was amazing. Then it changed again, and ze would do that terribly miserable scrunched up You Traitor face wail when put in the crib. I started handing hir a toy and walking away. Sometimes ze would just cry til ze slept. Other times ze would get up, play for a long grumbling while, then pass out mid play. As long as sleep happens, I don’t much care how we get there any more.

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Cruising a Carter’s sale for a few things that ze didn’t get from the hand me down bag, I learned what crib shoes are. We were given some but I didn’t know what to do with them since shoes for a not-walking kid doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Shoes on an almost walking kid, though? As entertaining as putting shoes on a cat.

LB tweets

Doing my very best (but still terrible) whale sounds impressions for a wiggly grouchy LB’s entertainment.

Earlier…

Month 7: Ambulation
Month 6: Becoming human
Month 5: Toes
Month 4: Velociraptor Claws
Month 3: Growth Spurts
Month 2: Hates sleep
Month 1: Banshee

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