10 months

(I've taken yet another hiatus from this blog, but I have something in the works that I'm excited to share soon!)

-Griffin's now crawling in turbo speed.  He goes wherever he wants, whenever he wants.  My little content-to-sit-and-play-with-something-in-one-spot baby is officially gone and has been replaced by always-on-the-go explorer baby.  However, he's showing no interest in climbing yet.

-As a result he's loosing some of his baby fat.  Especially in his face.  As a result of this, he looks much older. But don't think I'm saying he's got any lighter, cause he definitely has not.

-He's a dancer.  Seriously, he's got moves.  Whenever he hears music, you can be pretty sure that he's grooving to it.  His first dance move was the head/torso front to back bob, but he's recently added the side-to-side sway.  He'll also clap or kick his foot to a beat too.  Music is running through his veins, I tell you.  While we're on the subject, he loves Dave's guitar.  He reaches for the strings.  The kid knows how it works.  He also loves to bang on the piano.  Dave bought it for Griffin while we were still pregnant, so I technically it's his.  It's the most fun toy in the house.  He plays it standing up, without looking at the keys.  He's got talent.

-He is getting a little more picky when it comes to eating.  He still eats everything, but since he's been feeding himself he leans toward certain foods.  We can tell how much he likes something by how much he shares with the dogs.  He does not share peaches.

-He wants to be a part of everything we're doing.  It hit me like a brick as I was brushing my teeth and Griffin was looking at me with his mouth open.

-He's so dang happy it's funny.  It doesn't take much to make him smile, or clap his hands, or make funny noises by blowing air through his teeth.  And cheering him up isn't much of a task at all.  I find it flattering that he finds me so funny.

-He's standing on his own more often.  We happened to have the camera pointed at him when he decided to show off for close to 30 seconds.

-On a not so fun note, he's been testing out the capabilities of his lungs.  Lately he's yelling as loud and as long as he can.  Usually this isn't a mad thing, but it can turn that way.  Its looking like he's using this as his Give ME Something to EEEAAATTTT cry.  I need to figure out how to turn this around ASAP.

-Thankfully since almost 6 weeks old, Griffin has been sleeping through the night.  I realized how lucky I was for this.  But at about 9.5 months he has been waking up during the night pretty regularly.  Mostly it's only once, maybe around 1ish or 5ish.  Before he was able to put himself back to sleep, but now, not so much.  Most of the time he just needs a hug and maybe a little rocking, but sometimes he needs to eat to get back to sleep.  I find this odd because he puts himself to sleep when to goes to bed, but needs our help when he wakes up in the night.  Maybe this is separation anxiety?  

(Any advice on this, Moms?)

-Exciting news:  Griffin said his FIRST WORD the other day!!!  First word, as in first word with possible recognition.  It was duck.  For a while I'd been saying duck over and over while playing with his rubber ducky in the bathtub.  He started clicking his tongue, mimicking the k sound.  And then, he said duuu  click a few times, and eventually that turned into duuuu ck.  I can only get him to say it when he can see the actually duck, so I'm assuming there is recognition.  

 

Stick around till the end of the video, it's worth it.  And please ignore how strange my voice sounds.

9 months

-Now he's crawling on his hands and knees, and his speed increases on a daily basis.
-He's able to sit from crawling.  This has been happening for a little while, but it's much more frequent now.
-He's very steady standing up next to things and he's doing a little couch surfing (walking against the couch) too.
-He loves to talk, saying mama, dada, baba, and you're beautiful.  (Okay, maybe not the last...but I'm pretty sure he wants to.
-The majority of the time he feeds himself and still shows signs of an open minded eater.  (Side note: this feeding himself is very handy, literally...I have my hands back during his meals.)
-His favorite meal time game is to smack his tray of cheerios and watch them fly.  He also holds food down beside his chair to beckon the dogs over to him.
-He goes CRAZY over animals.  He enjoys our dogs, but really gets excited about new dogs (and the couple of cats he's seen).  It's clear that his day is made if a dog will play with him.  And by play, I mean allow him to smack and pull their hair.
-He's doing a lot of mimicking and he's got his methods of getting your attention.  Fake coughing is his favorite.
-He smacks his lips and clicks his tongue.
-He loves to hang upside down.

His stats:
-29 3/4" tall putting him in the 90th percentile....this is still shocking me.  He's been continuing up the height/weight curve, so I'm thinking at the next doctor's visit he may be off the charts.
-22.5 lbs in the 80th percentile.
-His big ol' noggin ranks in the 90th too.  It may be close to time to buy him adult hats.

* Conclusion:  He's a really really big baby.

8 months

Month by month.

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Everyday Griffin is less and less baby like and baby steps closer to being a toddler.  Everything from the way he looks, the sounds he makes, and the way he interacts with us....what happened to my little baby?!

His biggest accomplishment (in my opinion) is sleeping without a swaddle.  Hallelujah!  I was seriously getting worried we'd need to start using twin size sheets pretty soon as he was too long for the flannel recieving blankets.  I had actually I had made some larger swaddling blankets for him out of thin muslin, and as soon as I finished them he stopped needing to be swaddled...ha!  For a while now he'd break free from the swaddle during the night, but  needed it to get to sleep.  I decided to give him a bit of a nudge toward sleeping normally, so I would just lay him down after brunch, turn on his music, and leave the room.  Thankfully it worked well and pretty soon the swaddle was just a memory.    So now I have a baby that puts himself to sleep with only a little music.  I consider this a huge blessing.

We're trying to move to three meals a day.  It's been a little complicated since he's usually napping during lunch and we eat dinner pretty early.  We'll get it figured out pretty soon.  He still LOVES to eat and we still haven't found anything that he doesn't like.  He's gotten really good at eating finger foods, which in turn keeps him occupied for good periods of time.  He's moved from mushing the food in his mouth to actually chewing it... less like a baby, I tell you.

He's still finding his inch worm crawl efficient and gets around pretty quickly.  In the last couple of weeks he's been much more interested in pulling up on whatever he can.  He had been doing it in his crib for a while, but he just started in front of us recently.  This is causing more of a watchful eye to be on him, since unfortunately we don't have many things that make this an easy task.

And lastly is something that I'd like some advise for.  He's now having a preference for Dave or me to hold him.  Before if he was upset about something anyone could pick him up and console him.  Now, he often continues to cry until either of us take him.  As a mom this feels nice that I can fix his woes, but at the same time I don't to be the only one that can fix problems.  This doesn't happen 100% of the time, but it's more and more often.  

He still continues to make me feel like the luckiest mom in the world and I really have absolutely nothing to complain about.  (Except that we're only four months from having a one year old.  Eek!!)

Seven Months

I have taken quite the hiatus from blogging.  I missed it dearly but now I'm back with a vengeance!  Enough about me though, I have a baby to tell you about.

Griffin turned seven months old at the end of May, and he has continued to surprise me daily.  (Some of the fun stuff I'm saving for later, but I'll give you a good idea of what was new from six to seven months.)  He is quite the little chunk, or as I like to say he's a substantial baby.  He's tipping the scales at about 19 lbs.  As seen in the picture, his head is now out growing his body (but in the cutest way possible).  He's stilling fitting into his 3-6 month clothes and wears a size 3 diaper.

He started eating finger foods, as in, he's eating Cheerios.  His doctor, as well as the AAP, suggested trying out some finger foods.  He didn't get the hang of green beans and the like at first, but he sure was a fan of Cheerios.  His new favorite game became Chase the Cheerio.  Grabbing the little pieces didn't come easy, but he knew he wanted to.  He is a fantastic eater and we haven't found a food he dislikes.

He loves to play and really enjoys knocking blocks over, banging around things he can get a good grasp on, and slapping away at his keyboard.  Right at seven months he started sitting like a pro.  It was like one day he was still a little wobbly, then he's just sitting there like there's nothing to it.  Funny how they do that.  Once he learned to sit, he was very happy just doing that.  He no longer really cared much about crawling around.  If a toy was away from him, he would reach as far as he could to get it but if he couldn't he'd make a bit of noise for you to get it for him.  I swear, he'd sit for hours.

Unfortunately he (and me) caught a stomach bug and we experienced the saddest thing of parenting thus far.  He started vomiting and didn't stop for about four hours.  It was terrible.  Thankfully I was at my in-laws' and had help all around, making it much less stressful for me.  One thing I did learn was that Griffin has the saddest sad face EVER.  He's not a super smiley, laugh all the time baby.  He's usually rocking the stoic cool man face, but goodness, I have never seen a face that screamed HELP ME so loudly.  It was a rough evening (especially for Dave, who fortunately miss the boat on this stomach bug), but we made it through and the next morning fared much much better for Griffin.  Me, not so much.  It kept kicking me while I was down for nearly a week, I digress.  Another thing that I learned:  spit up is NOT vomit.  That's as far as I'm going with the details.

All in all, we are reminded daily that we have a very content little baby.  I love to watch him sit and stare and just soak everything in.  Makes me want to slow down and do the very same thing.  I'm beyond lucky to be his mom, he really is the icing on my (cup)cake.

6 months

Griffin is officially six months old.  I have thought every previous month, "oh, this is a fun age." but six months really is a lot of fun.  My baby is now oozing with personality.

He is now babbling like crazy.  You can't predict when he's going to start talking, nor can you command it.  However, as soon as it starts it's hard not to watch.

He's getting around pretty well, rolling and scooting like a mad man, trying to eat everything in sight.  For the last few days he's been getting in the push up position, on his hands and toes.  He's still scooting with his head down to the ground and pushing with his feet.  He loves to stand.  He can hold himself up for a while if you stand his next to something.  He's getting close to sitting up by himself, he can do a few seconds at a time then he topples.

He's eating like he's been doing it for years and there's not too much that he loves more.  He's had avocados, peas, sweet potatoes, green beans, pears, and bananas.  I'm guessing that he's liked everything, as he hasn't spit anything out yet.  His  love of bananas is pretty intense, as he eats them at lightening speeds.  Everything else is eaten at a much slower pace.  The doctor told us today that all [mushed] foods are fair game at this point (which was news to me) and at seven months we can start finger foods.  Eating is proving pretty fun for all of us.

At the doctor today Griffin weighed almost 19 pounds (80th percentile) and was 27 1/2 inches long (85th percentile).  His head must had a growth spurt as it went from average to above average.  He had another round of shots today as well, but this time it took much less effort to calm him down afterwards.  As soon as Dave picked him up, he had forgotten all about it.

As Griffin ages, it's becoming more and more clear that we have ourselves one happy, laid back, healthy little baby, which makes me that happiest mama in the whole wide world.

5 Months

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Griffin may be slowing down a bit in the growing department.  He's been right at 16 pounds for a couple of weeks now.  His personality hasn't slowed down at all.  He is very much aware of every single thing going on around him.  He's quickly growing into his own little person.  

He finally cares about the dogs, especially Lucy.  He'll reach out for them when they're around, petting and pulling their fur.  He'll squeal at them if they're in sight.  Pretty soon he'll be chasing them around the house.  He really reaches for most everything:  my sandwich when I'm trying to eat, his toy that's he's pushed out of reach, himself in the mirror.  Oh, he loves his dad's beard.  I think I watch Dave melt as G rubs his face.

He's giggling at us now and I have a feeling my heart may explode once it turns into a full blown laugh.

He's not really mobile yet.  He's able to spin himself in a pretty wide circle and scoot a foot or two to the side.  The video shows a little of his current mobility.

G's doctor said that we could wait to start foods till six months, so that's what we're doing.  It will be fun to start feeding him, I know, but I'm not too sure how much I'm actually looking forward to it.  I feel like he'll be reaching a rite of passage once he starts eating.  Like he'll be transforming from my squishy baby who relies solely on me for nourishment to a little boy who eats food and (eventually) roams around on his own accord.   Gosh, why didn't I listen when people would say they grow so fast?  I'm thinking fast may be too much of an understatement.

This comparison made me choke.

1 week vs. 5 months