September
Eight months already. Crazy.
This month, you started swim lessons with Dad on Saturday mornings at the Boston University pool. Dad takes you on his own, so I only get to hear about it secondhand. He says you are the youngest in your class – there was another little boy your age at the start, but he had a meltdown the second week and never came back! Everyone else is closer to 18 months old. You love the pool, even when Dad or the teacher dunk you under the water, and are especially obsessed with the rubber duckies they hand out. Your favorite seems to be jumping off the side (which isn’t so much jumping yet, because you can’t stand on your own, but at least the idea of jumping off the side…) Over Labor Day weekend, we went to Sean and Sara’s for dinner and you got to play with Kelsey and all of her toys. The next day, we went to Drumlin Farm where we saw the pigs, chickens, cows and goats and you tried chocolate ice cream for the first time (which you loved, no surprise). We went on a picnic at the Esplanade with Belle & Avery and Stacy & Elliott. I decided we could walk from Charlestown and it was a bit longer and hotter than I anticipated… and you didn’t help matters by deciding you didn’t want to be in your stroller anymore about halfway through. (I carried you for a little while, but eventually had to put you back in because you are SO heavy now – nearly 22 lbs!) We started our Movers & Groovers class. Lots of our old friends are in it (Lana & Amelia, Meredith & Grace, Bianca & Gabrielle, Courtney & James, Courtney & Skyler, Isabelle & Emilie, Meaghan & Riley and of course Belle & Avery) You LOVE the teacher, Danielle, and laugh and smile at her the whole class. She jokes that the two of you are “in love”. Your dad and I had our first night out without you to celebrate our 3rd anniversary when Ra & Papa came to babysit. We went to Figs for dinner and then to a Cake concert at the Orpheum. Your nap schedule was a little funny that day, but other than a slightly off bedtime, you did just fine without us. We went to watch a Patriots game at Peter’s house; Garrett was there too. You ate grilled chicken and sweet potato puffs on Peter’s floor and we tried not to make a mess. Belle and Avery came over for lunch and to see our new place and we did a little photo shoot of the two of you in your matching outfits. We made your favorite lamb burgers and Avery liked them too. Belle brought fruit salad and you must have eaten nearly a whole plum. (Starting with that lunch, actually, you really ramped up your solid food intake and every once in awhile, surprise me with the amount you can eat.) At the end of the month, we spent a 4-day weekend down in St. Pete Beach, Florida for Dan & Brooke‘s wedding. A. Ashlyn came with us to babysit you while we went to the wedding. We spent our days rotating between the kiddie pool and the big pool, which you loved, and eating lots of yummy BBQ. You tried ribs and brisket and shared our burgers, pickles and sweet potato fries too. The night of the wedding, you played on the beach with A. Ashlyn and stayed up late, eating hot dogs and watching TV. (She spoils you.) We had a great time at the wedding and it was nice to get a few last days of summer in before we returned to fall in New England.
You’re still not quite crawling, although by the end of the month, you were making some forward progress, mostly by pushing up on your toes and launching your upper body forward onto the floor. You seem to have moved on from trying to crawl and now only want to stand. You’re even letting go of our hands and balancing on your own for a few seconds at a time. The amount of time you are happy to play on your own has gone down drastically because you only want to stand at the coffee table and you can’t reach it yet to pull yourself up so I need to help you. You discovered you can get yourself off of the bed and couch by backing yourself up and off the edge into a standing position. (This is especially dangerous when you try to do it off of our bed which is much higher than the one in your room.) You are fearless and lunge at whatever it is you want, even if it means falling from a great height, so we have to watch you very carefully. You have had days on and off where we think you MUST be teething – really wanting those cold teething rings, chewing on our fingers, gums swollen and bulging – but still no sign of teeth. (You missed your dad’s 9/15 deadline of either crawling or teeth.) You have been in a grabbing and pulling phase – including hair, clothes, our faces – and you can get a bit rough if we don’t tell you “nice, nice” over and over. You also very aggressively give us hugs and kisses, which is cute but also sometimes painful. You wake your dad in the morning by sticking your fingers in his nose and ears or poking at his eyes. (When he finally opens his eyes, you give him a big smile, so I don’t think he minds.) You love your new little Tonka trucks and the blocks that Avery gave you as a gift. You had a high fever at the start of the month, which is the first time you have been sick (other than from shots). We’re not sure why – after a few days it went away on its own but your sleep was a mess and you were tired and punky all day. You are down to only two naps a day now – one at around 9am and one at around 2pm for about an hour and a half each, although recently you’ve been waking up during your morning nap while I am still in the shower which means I have to rush to finish and dry off so I can retrieve you from your crib. Speaking of cribs, I walked in the other day to you standing in yours, so we had to move the bed down to the lowest level. This has made it really difficult to get you down in there after you fall asleep but hopefully it will become easier with practice! The best times with you right now are before naps and bedtime when we cuddle until you fall asleep. I’m sure I’m creating a monster, where you need someone laying next to you to fall asleep, but the ten minutes before you drift off where you lay calmly next to me, patting my face and hair like you’re helping me fall asleep too, are my favorite part of the day.
