Getting Up To Speed

It's been a while since I've mentioned any Growth Chart Moments, though they're happening almost every day around here now.  I'm going to try to remember all of them, and get you up to speed on Jack's accomplishments. They are in order as best as I can remember.

He can now walk (assisted with our fingers) with shoes on.  He had a good solid month of walking like this barefoot, but with winter coming up, I wanted to get him used to having shoes on his feet.  He had to learn how to walk all over again the first time I put shoes on him.  But now he's back to normal, cruising and walking all the time.  Baby shoes are adorable!!!

He is now 'crawl running.'  When he sees what he wants (like the doorstop that makes LOUD noises when hit), he crawls really fast towards it.  I call it crawl running.

Bath time is now in the big tub!  We went from the baby tub on the kitchen counter, to the baby tub in the big tub, now to just being in the big tub.  He loves it.  He scoots around on his little bottom, and sometimes even tries to crawl around. 

We decided it was time to get a convertible car seat.  A friend of ours gave us her old front-facing car seat for him to use, but we don't think he's old enough to be front facing yet.  His infant seat only goes to 22lbs, and I'm pretty sure he's over 20lbs now, so we had to get something soon.  Craigslist is a wonderful thing!! 

His top teeth are coming in.  One has been there for a few weeks now, but the other one is still trying to come through.   It has wreaked havoc on nursing!  Without going into detail, I'm going to take a little break from it for a few days.  If any of you have advice or encouragement, I'll take it!!!  This is painful stuff!!

Jack finally tried to climb our stairs this past week.  And he did it on the first try!  I turned around to see him on the first step.  What did I do? I ran to get the camera of course!  And then I kept my hand behind his bottom and encouraged him to go up further.  He made it about half way before he fell and decided it wasn't for him. He hasn't tried it since.

As of yesterday, he understands what "I'm gonna get you" means.  It's so cute to hear him squeal with delight and anticipation when you say those words to him.  He crawl-runs away as fast as his little knees can take him!  It's so fun! He has yet to figure out what "come and get me" means.

Today, Jack clapped for the first time.  All it took was taking him to the PBR Rodeo!  He was sitting on Daddy's lap, and all of a sudden he just started clapping.  Every time he did it, we encouraged him.  Tonight at dinner, he clapped between every bite of chicken.  Yay for meat!

Whew! That is a lot of Growth Chart Moments!!!  I can't believe how much growing he has done in his short 9 months.  (He will be 9 months on the 14th.)  That's about how long I had him inside of me.  It amazed me how much growing he did in that short time while he was in my womb, and now it has amazed me how much growing he's done in our home.  What a little guy.  We love him so much!!

I Was Not Expecting This

We had a big day of Growth Chart Moments! And, like always, I wasn't expecting any of them.

The first moment happened after his morning nap. I was listening to the monitor while reading my blogs, waiting for him to wake up from his nap. Recently, he has been very pleasant after his morning nap, not screaming for me to get him as is his tradition after his afternoon nap. I've begun letting him have a little alone time in his crib when he wakes up from his morning naps. It's so adorable to hear him babble to the animals on the wall. After a while, I go in and get him, and it never fails - he cries as soon as I see him. Today, I was bracing myself to see him change from babbling happily to realizing his plight in the world (being in a crib, away from Mommy and his toys). What I found when I opened the door was my little baby boy STANDING there waiting for me! Now, I knew this would happen eventually, but I was not expecting this yet! He didn't cry this time. He just gave me a big grin. *We lowered his crib to the lowest setting tonight.

After his nap, we headed to the grocery store to do our weekly grocery shopping. (I even go through the same lane each time, and the woman is finally recognizing us. She thinks Jack is the cutest baby ever. Do you think she's just saying that?) As we were going down the baking aisle, I did something to make Jack laugh out loud. This was when I noticed a third tooth! I was not expecting this. His bottom two came in almost 2 months ago, and I'd been waiting and watching for the next ones to come in ever since. The thing is, I've been watching the top gums! I didn't even think the next one to come in would be another bottom one. I think it's been up for at least a week.

Recently, Jack's army crawl is getting pretty fast. I can tell he wants to crawl like a 'big-boy', but he just can't figure it out yet. He'll get up on all fours, but then as he starts going forward, he falls down to his belly. This evening, however, for about three 'steps', he crawled on all fours! I wasn't expecting this, because it was getting later in the evening, and he was getting pretty tired. (Which means he was pretty cranky and unable to keep from falling a lot). He is still mostly army crawling for now, but as of tonight, he has actually crawled 'big-boy' style.

Our little Buddy Boozle is getting so big! This 7th month has been a huge Growth Chart month. He sleeps better, cries a little less, eats a ton more, army crawls whenever and wherever he wants, pulls himself up on furniture and toys, and cruises around everything. I'm in the throes of "they grow so fast!"

We Have Teeth!

So, last night was a little rough.

But let me back up. Yesterday, Jack had an off day. It wasn't anything amazingly bad, but he was a little cranky all day long. However, he did go to bed at a normal time, and with minimal fuss.

Then he woke up at 10:30. This wasn't unusual, since it had been almost 4 hours since he had last eaten. I nursed him as usual, and when he fell asleep in my arms, I transferred him to his crib. Little did I know that I was not done spending time with my boy.

Two hours later, I'm still up with him. He had decided he wasn't tired anymore and wanted to look around and see everything in his nursery. He climbed all over me looking at every corner of his room. He chewed on his pacifier like he usually does. Basically he refused to be tired. Needless to say, after two hours, I was tired, annoyed (is that OK to say?), and ready to go back to bed.

It was at this exact moment that my son looked me in the eyes, smiled, grabbed my head to bring it close, and gave me big sloppy kisses! Well, that worked! I was rejuvenated and went another half hour without being upset at missing my precious sleep.

But finally, I'd had enough, and I brought Jack to Daddy in our bed. I said, "Tag, your turn." I laid there beside them while Daddy and Jack sat in bed having a heart to heart. Jack looked around and took everything in that he could see (no lights were on). Daddy stayed up to make sure he didn't fall out of the bed (and I think he enjoyed his time with his son).

I guess a half hour or so later, Jack decided he was tired enough to lay down. He finally fell asleep at 1:30am. I took the risk and transferred him back to his crib. The whole time I was remembering that this is how we got to this point in the first place! But the transfer was successful, and we didn't hear from him again until his early morning feeding around 5:30am.

Now, I relay all this because, in the morning, when we brought him to our bed again (to try to catch a few more zzz's), I felt his gums like I do every morning. And I felt teeth! I made Hubby check, and he felt them too!

Ahhhhh, that explains it!!! Our newest Growth Chart moment.

Do teeth poke through clear? I thought I'd see little white bumps, but these are the same color as his gums so far. But they're just the tippy-tippy top of teeth.