So there seems to be a new trend with our son that started developing over the weekend. This new trend is shyness around others. Personally, I thought this wasn't supposed to happen till nine months of age or older, but here our son is, 6 months old and starting to exhibit signs of shyness. This shyness of his is not your typical infant shyness of turning the head away, burying it in mom or dad's shoulder and refusing to look at others. Rather, it consists of our son seeing others, a pouty face developing, and then small tears sometimes until I convince him that the people he sees are OK. It happened this weekend to start with when we went over our friend's house for a play date and then again yesterday when I took our son to see our chiropractor. In any case, his pouty face is so cute that you can't help but giggle a little while trying to convince him that the world is not coming to an end and that he has seen certain people before. Maybe it is just a passing phase that will quickly disappear and then again, maybe it won't be. Whatever the case may be, he is adorable all around. Enough of the shyness, however, and on to my day off yesterday with our son. As most people who read this regularly know by now, my day off watching our son is one of my favorite days of the week and I do my best not to miss it.
Overall, yesterday was an ordinary day with nothing overly special to speak of. One of my personal highlights however is the fact that I don't have to hold our son's bottle for him anymore. Babies sure learn quickly when it comes to food. About three weeks ago, I started teaching him how to hold the bottle on his own. He would already grab the bottle with both hands while I was holding it, so I simply started taking my hand away and letting him be in charge of getting the milk from the bottle to his mouth. At first it was touch and go; he would hold it for a little, then drop it, hold it then drop until he reached the halfway point of the bottle after which he got too fidgety to hold it himself. He got progressively more adept at working the bottle, and for me, yesterday was the first day when I didn't have to hold the bottle at all for him. Don't get me wrong, his grip would occasionally slip and the bottle would drop, but all I did was hand him the bottle and he would grab it and tip it upside down to get the milk inside. It is quite funny at times to see him feeding himself. When the bottle does occasionally slip, he will sit up with his mouth wide open and his hands reaching for the bottle. After I place the bottle in his hands, he tips it up and throws his whole body back into the supine position to get the easiest flow from the bottle. What is even more hilarious sometimes happens when he is nearing the end of the bottle his bottle and he starts to slow down. At times he will spontaneously sit up, the bottle dropping and he will inspect any pillow or object around him for a few seconds, pound it with his open palm, and then realize he was eating and reach for the bottle again. It is wonderful to see him learning things.
He has an overall fascination with everything, but that fascination as I have mentioned before tends to be towards his environment rather than the toys he is given. This isn't to say that he doesn't like his toys, what few of them he has, but it seems he would much rather explore the world around him than dwell on toys for too long. I love to see the studious look on his face whenever he sees my wife or I doing something that he is not familiar with. This could range from pouring a glass of water from a pitcher, washing our hands, putting plates and silverware away, or making trail mix. As of yesterday, his two most fascinating events were trying to figure out how I clap my hands and how he can do it, and also perpetually dropping objects to the floor from his high chair. With my hands, he will stare at them as I bring them together to clap. He will watch over and over and over again. While he has yet to try clapping himself, I have a feeling it won't be too long before he figures it out. And on to the dropping. I thought he was testing gravity a while ago by dropping things to the floor, but this week gravity has taken on a whole new meaning. He will grab whatever is on his high chair, hold it over the edge, and drop it to the ground. After dropping a given object, he will then stare at that object until you pick it up for him at which point he will grab it and repeat his dropping process. I know that at some point he will start saying "uh-oh" when he drops something because I say that whenever he does. It won't take long for him to make the connection himself. In any case, I enjoyed every minute of my day off yesterday except for when I had to get boogers out of his nose and he screamed his head off. Other than that, it was a wonderful day.
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