Seems that this teething issue with Paul T is well justified on his part. He really does remarkably well when he isn’t over tired. But I found the source of his great discomfort just the other day, looks like he has not one but TWO bumps coming in on the bottom at the same time! Not something Andrew ever dealt with. Andrew got one at a time, every month from 5 months old to the time his first year molars were done. Fortunately for Paul (and the rest of us) the teething tablets seem to help. In fact tonight I forgot them before starting to try and put everyone to sleep and it wasn’t happening until I got them for him. He just kept whimpering, the poor baby, like he was trying to sleep but couldn’t. Gave him some tablets, nursed him some more, and he conked out. Now let’s see if it lasts!
Paul T is also getting up on all 4s now and trying to crawl forward. He goes backwards well but that doesn’t do him any good when the object of his desire is in front of him. As a matter of fact this causes quite a bit of stress to the little dear. Sometimes he works it out by rolling around and scootching until he can reach it. Sometimes he just scoots farther and farther back away until he is under Daddy’s chair or almost into another room and we have to get him. I can’t even imagine what we’ll do when he is fully mobile. Our home is well toddler proofed of course and Andrew is smart and knows what is allowed and what isn’t, but we haven’t baby proofed in a long time. I remember when Andrew was crawling and cruising, we’d block him into one area so we may have to try and work that out…. somehow.
Speaking of those old days, who remembers this?
Andrew at about 6 months or so
I was checking out our old blog posts to see when Andrew started crawling. Looks like it was pretty close to now since that post is mid-April and the video may be several days prior to the posting!
Our unschooling lifestyle struck again today. I am so pleased when I am able to let go and let childhood happen. It doesn’t work for me at bedtime and I don’t think that is the time, at this age anyway, to let our children explore and experiment fully. But in the middle of the afternoon when there is nothing going on but play, sure anything goes. Andrew says today, “belly hurts.” this is a common phrase around here lately. We all had the tummy funk a while back and then Daddy had it again recently for almost a week straight so Andrew has heard that phrase a bit more than usual. He says it a lot too and it means a lot of things. Sometimes, it means he is sleepy, sometimes, he needs attention, sometimes he has to poop! And sometimes, like today, he is just playing. I of course react a bit strongly since I cleaned up so much vomit from him I am leary of it happening again. I asked him if his belly hurt and he said “no Green Guy.” Green Guy has made an appearance in several photos and even a few videos. he’s just a goofy little stuffed thing I got when I worked retail. I found it in a tub of my old things and let him play with it and he latched on to it.
Anyway, I asked what Green Guy needed for his belly ache and Andrew said a bath. I let him take the toy in the bath tub once before. It’s stuffed and got soaked of course but it is small and it was no big deal. I thought today we’d try something new. I took Andrew to the bathroom. We cleaned up around the sink and rinsed out all mommy hairs (they are everywhere!) and I filled the sink up almost halfway with water and said, bath!
Andrew had a blast. I took the trash out of the room and got all the laundry out. Everything else was fair game. It’s just water. In fact drying up the floor was a nice easy way to clean it! Andrew proceeded to bathe Green Guy, soap and all, then throw his water logged form all around the bathroom splattering water everywhere. I stayed out. When Andrew was done, he let me know. It took less than 3 minutes to dry everything off, and 3 minutes is far less time and effort from me than the amount of joy he received from his play (and I received!). Green Guy was another story. I rung him out and draped him for a bit then while Andrew napped I threw the well loved toy in the dryer. When Andrew got up I showed him his buddy in the dryer all ready to go. Instead of being thrilled like I expected he informed me that he wasn’t dry enough yet and put him back in and let me know Andrew “do’ed” it when he closed the door! He’s so funny.
Andrew is totally in that phase of doing everything for himself. I usually love it and try to cling to the usually times in my mind when I am not loving it so much. He is even insisting on walking (running) on his own around the store with us when we go shopping. He does so well at staying close to the cart and when he gets too far he runs back when we call him. Of course he runs into people sometimes, but I dont’ see too many other 2.5 year olds that are as trusted by their parents to run free and are well behaved enough to stay close by and can handle it. I am, as always, well aware of the fact that this could change at any moment. In those cases, having food for him to eat in the cart pretty much always works!
Speaking of food, Paul T is about ready to eat. I had wanted to wait even longer with him than I did with Andrew but he is showing signs of readiness I cannot deny. he isn’t quite sitting on his own fully yet but he will for some time and if I support him and push him back up, he sits for quite a while. But his tongue thrust reflex is pretty much gone and I see his little pincers getting ready to work on things as he rolls around on the floor. So yesterday while he gazed longingly at the banana I was eating, I mushed him off a bit and put it in front of him on my finger. He grabbed my finger and pulled it to his mouth – he was in his bouncy chair – and chomped away! Loved it! I gave him about 3 or 4 bites and most of it stayed in his mouth. I gave him a bit more this morning too. Maybe in a few weeks he can have some avocado.
i dont’ plan to go to the great efforts i did with Andrew until he is closer to 8 months or so and really needing to try foods. For now he will only get to eat things I can mush and don’t have to cook. Pretty much limits him to bananas and avocados! I do fully intend to be just as strict about food intro-ing with him as I was with Andrew. There’s no need to rush things when they have a whole lifetime to eat and it’s only one short year for the sake of safety and funny developing their guts.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, so much is happening here I want to share with everyone and my opportunities to type are few and far between. I’d rather be sleeping right now even but I wanted to get these things down before I forgot.
Enjoy your weekend!