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Where can I even begin? You took four unassisted steps about a week ago, though still no signs of more steps to come. You’ve gotten more nervous when you realize you’re standing on your own.
You point at things you are interested in now. This can range from pointing at Mommy or Daddy when you want to be picked up to pointing at a box of Berry Burst Cheerios when you want a snack to pointing at something interesting you see out the back of the car window and trying to tell me what it is. You haven’t mastered the verbal arts yet, so this is such a big achievement for you to be able to let us know what you want. Unfortunately, it hasn’t really helped to cut down on your whining. Hopefully, you’ll grow out of that soon! You do say “Mama” and “Dada” and mean both of them.
You are getting worse at refusing your naps. You get very cranky when you don’t get enough sleep, but you will scream and scream when it’s nap time. You generally wake up after only an hour, which leads to you waking up still sleepy, rubbing your eyes and whining. You’ve stayed up for some 6-7 hour stretches, but not very happily. It’s hard to tell whether we should let you stay up or try to make you take a nap, because sometimes you get so upset that you make yourself get sick all over everything. We don’t want you to make yourself sick, so please give in and take your naps when you need them, buddy!
Baby food is on its way out. You prefer table food most of the time. We can get a jar of food in occasionally so it doesn’t go to waste, but you’d much rather be eating what we’re eating. You love (in descending order) Cheerios, Bug Bites graham crackers, pancakes, Corn Chex, steak, vanilla wafers, cheeseburger, and chicken. You also gobble up mandarin oranges, green beans, strawberries, and yogurt. For some inexplicable reason, you won’t touch raspberries. You’ve had them in baby food and in yogurt, but the berries themselves are enough to make you cover your mouth with both hands and turn your head away.
Grandparents and uncles have introduced you to many foods that Daddy and I would prefer you not to have had yet. But you’ve enjoyed peanut butter, cheese puffs, lemonade, and iced tea. Luckily, they were just joking about giving you Snickers bars, diet soda, peppers and onions, and other assorted things that would wreak havoc on your little digestive tract.
This month was really hard when Great-Grandpa died. You were such a good boy, even though we drove you all over town and handed you off to different people all the time. You gave out such nice hugs to people who really needed them. You seem to like hugging Grandma Debbie most of all. I’ll tell you about Great-Grandpa when you get older. He loved you so much. He didn’t hold you very much because he was afraid he would hurt you somehow. But he thought you were something really special. You were his first great-grandson.
Clothes are still pretty tricky. We’re only now retiring some of your 3-6 month pants because your legs are so short. Most of your clothes are 6-9 month size. But you’re finally starting to fill out more. Your legs are getting stronger and you’re getting a bit of muscle as you move all over the place. Your cheeks are getting rounder, too. Maybe we’ll stop getting comments about not feeding you soon!
You love to climb the stairs. You would go up the stairs all day long if I let you. But I get tired a lot faster than you do, and you throw some major temper tantrums when I don’t let you have your way all the time. I don’t think we’ll ever have to worry about you not standing up for yourself. I’ve started occasionally putting the vacuum cleaner at the bottom of the stairs; you’re still deathly afraid of it, so it works almost as well as a gate.
Boy, do you love swimming! We take you over to the pool and you just love it. Most of the time, we’ll pull you around in your yellow airplane floatie. But if we do let go for a little while, you are able to propel yourself forward by kicking your feet!
We’ve officially transitioned out of your infant car seat at last, and you’re in your big boy convertible car seat. You get to see the world so much better in there. You’ll love it even more next month when we turn you around to face forward!
Love you so much, Pookadoo.
That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.
