Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Milestones, pt VIII

Justin's biggest changes since the last milestone entry are: the ability to use his walker, the emergence of his laugh, and his changing diet.


Cruise Control
The walker thing started out as a fluke a few weeks ago. The first time he did it, it totally baffled us. You have to remember that we've been stashing him in his walker since 6 or 7 weeks old... and so for 5 months we got used to putting him down someplace, being able to turn away, and having him be in the same exact spot when we returned... no matter how much time had passed. And so when I put him down, turned to work on the computer for a few minutes, turned back, and he was 8 feet closer than where he started... it totally bugged me out. It was like having a piece of furniture move all by itself. Just picture your dining room table up and moving to a better spot while you had your back turned. I think it would freak you out, too.

Well, Justin is "furniture" no more. Sure enough, by virtue of moving his feet and lunging for the toys on the walker tray, he started moving around just over a month ago... but more by accident than intention. However it didn't take long for him to start putting 2 & 2 together and figure out the mechanics of it. At this point, he now has full control of his walker and can maneuver it to get pretty much wherever he wants to go... which opens up a whole new can of worms that I'm not sure we are ready for. Can you say "babyproofing the house?" Forward. Reverse. Right turns. Left turns. And u-turns. All that is missing is for him to pop a wheely and do donuts on the front lawn.

Personally, I'm still waiting on him to either crawl or roll over from his back to his stomach (you know, the "simple" stuff)... but the boy evidently has his mind set on walking. So I've learned not to hold my breath on the other two milestones. Maybe we'll just concede and get his walker fitted with some rims for Christmas so that he can at least cruise around in style. Click here for Justin's Wobbly Walker Video.

Datsofunny
This one is self explanatory. Long story short, Justin Alexander has finally added a soundtrack to that big cheesy grin of his. When he first started his giggles a month ago, I would have to throw him in the air 6 to 10 times and act the fool for 2 minutes just to get him to chucke for 4 seconds or less... but he's progressing. He still mostly just holds his breath and grins in lieu of a full-out laugh, but it is becoming just a little easier to get him to crack up. Click here for Justin's Screams and Giggles video.

Feed Me, Seymore
He has graduated from his sporadic oatmeal feedings to a consistent diet of solid foods. He has also mastered the art of eating in general, so there's barely a need for a bib anymore and also no more "face painting" at each meal (even though that was more me having fun than anything else). He still gets solely breast milk for the first and last feedings each day. However, breakfast, lunch and (sometimes) dinner are now his "big boy" meals... complete with a high chair, a spoon and a bowl or two of something good. Lunch is probably his favorite since that's the only meal where he consistently gets two entrees instead of one (peas followed by applesauce, for example).


Honorable Mentions
All in all, I think those are the big things to report this month. Other things that probably deserve a mention: He's fast approaching 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night (I think his schedule is somewhere around 7-to-5 or 8-to-6 right now). He also turns on his side now to sleep most nights. He's putting syllables together a little better each day. Still a shamelessly noisy eater. Not sitting without support yet, but making progress. No crawling. No tummy rolls. No teeth. And still no job to help pay for all of these diapers.

Did I miss anything, mom?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As always, you've done an excellent job capturing all of the important milestones. There's only one other milestone that I could think of, but it was more of a milestone for us than Justin (smile). As of a couple of Sundays ago, Justin is officially going to the nursery during our church service. Once he started competing with the pastor for mic time, we realized that we had to change something. We tried to work through his noisiness at first, but taking turns leaving the service with him started to get old (and took us away from the word, too).

Of course, after service I made the quickest dash out of the sanctuary that I've ever made in order to get to the nursery; only to find that Justin had been an angel and seemed to really enjoy himself with the other children.