This weekend was a long one for our son. Not only did he decide on both Saturday and Sunday nights to stay up in his crib talking to himself for a couple hours after getting put to bed, but he also met a lot of new family members, some of which I had never even met before. So I guess we should should start with meeting new people before getting into his late night conversations with himself. Saturday was my wife's aunt's 90th birthday party. I had met most of the family members on my wife's grandmother's side of the family, but not her late grandfather's (which was the side we encountered). As is usually the case when her extended family gets together, there were quite a few people there. I was kind of interested to see how our son would react to being around so many new people and faces. Well, in short, he did really well. When we first got there and started meeting people, he pulled the whole "invisible" shy act where he would turn away from whoever we were being introduced to and stare over my shoulder as if no one in the world was around us. He quickly turned back around however to see who exactly we were talking to and if they were safe enough. After about 2-3 minutes, his shyness disappeared and he was ready to go into action. After the initial shyness, he went back to being himself, ready to grab some fingers and start walking. When I did grab his fingers and start walking with him, he kept on going and going and going, all over the yard, to new people he never met and to people he already knew. Needless to say, I am glad he wasn't phased by the 30 or so people who were gathered to celebrate the birthday party. We stayed at the party for a couple of hours before leaving in order to get him home in time to get to bed. It seems like it didn't matter because even after we put him to bed like I mentioned before (bedtime is 530), he stayed up talking to himself and moving around in his crib till almost 8.
Yesterday he met even more people at another little BBQ we went to at my parents house. My cousins were up from Florida and swung by to hang out for the afternoon. When they arrived he was napping so there was no initial shyness that needed to be overcome. It was as if people just appeared to him I am sure. When he woke up from his nap, he was ready to walk around and see who the new faces were. One of the things I love most about our son is his curiosity about everything, including new faces. It seemed like he was particularly fascinated by my teenage cousin who is about to be entering her junior year of high school. He would walk by, stare at her, move on a little before turning around and coming back to stare some more trying to figure out who this girl was. It was really cute. It seems like we have a young social butterfly on our hands thus far. On top of meeting new people yesterday, we also had the opportunity for him to go swimming for his second time at my parents pool. He really does love the water and can't seem to get enough of it. When he was walking around the pool area with whoever would walk with him, he always seemed to migrate towards the stairs descending into the pool and try to walk down them into the water. He would walk right up to the edge and extend his foot as if wanting to walk in and of course, we would oblige him partly, allowing him to at least stand on the top step that had only a few inches of water covering it. By the time we left the BBQ at around 430, he was completely exhausted both from lack of naps and all the activity he was involved in. Despite being exhausted, he once again stayed up for a while talking and moaning a little bit before finally falling asleep.
This weekend was one of those times where I wish we had one of those baby monitors with video capability just so I could see what he was doing up in his crib by himself. All we get to hear is his babbling and the occasional bang as he walks around his crib or kicks it occasionally. Those are the times where beyond simply wanting to see him, I would love to get inside his little head and see what he is thinking. I know that it is impossible, but it would be interesting. Alas, I will have to simply wait for him to start talking so he can tell us what he is doing up there...if he wants to. Skipping around a little bit, we also ran into two other 9 month old boys this weekend, one at the party on Saturday and one at church yesterday morning. What struck me about the other two boys was how chubby they were. Our son may have a little growth belly, but compared to the other two boys, he is a slender little muffin. I am guessing that it probably has something to do with the difference in diets. I can't speak to what the other boy's diets are, but I am guessing that they are following standard pediatrician procedure and eating grains and whatnot in addition to other foods. Our son has yet to experience any type of grains in his diet. He has now expanded his diet to include meats, chicken so far, in addition to all the fruits and vegetables that he eats on a regular basis. But it is what it is, the other boys looked just as healthy as our son does except with really chubby cheeks, arms, legs and torso. Such is life. So after this crazy weekend that our son went through, I hope that he is not overly tired today as my wife is home watching him. If he is overly tired (which we suspect), I hope is is able to take many naps to alleviate the exhaustion and make life a little easier for my wife.
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