So after 2 weeks I got my day off with my son again yesterday. Being home with him now is so much more enjoyable for me than it was just a few months ago. His personality has developed by leaps and bounds and his activity level has surged intensely as mobility has increased. It seems that barely a week goes by without our son figuring out something new, either with himself or the world around him. Yesterday was no different. I had mentioned last week that our little man started figuring out how to climb stairs. While still not proficient at it, he seems drawn to the stairs like a moth to a street light. The stairs aren't all he is interested in obviously, but he seems drawn to them more than anything else besides our cat. Our cat is the one fixture in the house that he just can't resist. Regardless of what he is involved in, trying to stack blocks or exploring the nooks and crannies of our house, if the cat walks by, he excitedly follows. As soon as he spots the cat, he gets all giddy and crawls as fast as his little legs and arms can take him towards the cat. Once he gets within about a foot of the cat, he slows down and approaches slowly as if he is stalking his prey. Usually about the time he reaches the cat, she darts away in an attempt to keep her tail and dignity intact. After a couple attempts to reach the cat, our son's attention usually gets diverted to some other object around him. Even our large dogs are getting a little wary of him and keep their distance when they see him approaching. Just yesterday he approached the couch on which our younger dog, Aspen, was laying. As he got close and grabbed the cushion to pull himself up, Aspen got up and moved to the other side of the couch. Well, our son decided to follow on the floor and attempt to reach Aspen on the other side. Grabbing the cushion once more, he started to pull himself up when Aspen decided enough was enough, got up and off the couch and retreated to another room. Seeing Aspen disappear, our son merely looked for the next closest exciting object that he could get his hands on.
Despite chasing our animals at almost 8 months old, there is a lot more that our little man has been up to. In addition to learning how to climb stairs, it seems that anything sturdy enough is now considered by him fair game to use as assistance in pulling himself up. Besides crawling and exploring, pulling himself up to standing is one of his new favorite things to do. Each day its getting easier and easier for him to get to a standing position. It is funny at times to watch him as he does not have complete balance yet. Occasionally he will try to pull himself up at an angle only to slide back to the floor startled. Its not just inanimate objects that he uses to pull himself up but he also utilizes my wife and I. Where once he used to crawl up to us and flail his arms and legs as a sign he wanted to be picked up, he now simply crawls over and climbs into our lap. One day I swear I will look up and he will be walking towards me. Speaking of looking up and seeing something new, just yesterday our son was crawling along and the next thing I knew, he randomly figured out how to get himself into a sitting position. Now that he has figured it out, he gets himself to a sitting position as much as possible. Another one of his new favorite things to do is attempt to flip through books while sitting or for that matter, while laying on his belly. He can't quite separate all the pages, even on the larger, cardboard paged books, but at least he is trying. It seems the dexterity in his fingers is not quite where he wants it to be yet. Mostly it is just one page or two that he flips back and forth, back and forth, looking at the pictures. Its amazing to watch him try and figure things out, the little gears in his head turning and turning until that little light bulb goes off and he finally "gets it".
Now we move to the food, which yesterday, our son wanted a lot of (along with his mother's milk). Yesterday morning I fed him his bottle after which we sat around letting him digest for about a half hour. Figuring that he was pretty full after drinking 6 ounces of milk, I fed him some solid food. He had some leftover apples and carrots (about 2 ounces) and a small amount of prunes. I started feeding him, got through both servings, and he showed no signs of being full. Having no other prepared foods for him, I grabbed a banana which is really easy and quick to mash up. I cut off about a third figuring I would eat the rest, mashed it up and fed it to him. That wasn't enough so I cut off another third. Well, two thirds of a banana on top of more solid food wasn't enough either so I gave him the rest of the banana after which he was finally satiated. I couldn't believe that he ate that much so soon after finishing his milk. Later in the morning, I cut up some peaches for him and tossed them in the baby brezza to cook and blend. When he woke up from his afternoon nap, he polished off about 1.5 peaches. Astonishing. I would be concerned if all he was eating was cereal and carbs, but it is all pretty much fruit. Either he is going through a growth spurt or getting chubby. Personally, I am going to go with the growth spurt. I can't wait to see what this next week will hold for our son as he turns 8 months old. One thing is for certain, there is never a dull moment when he is awake and active.
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