Thursday, October 31, 2013

9 Months Old!


Oh, are we ever mobile

 Friends?
 
 Oh mom, that's funny.
 
And they are outta here. Gotta be fast in this house.

I think the theme of this month was movement and mouthing. Because holy crap suddenly Malcolm is everywhere. Which involves gates and latches and barriers and eyes in the back of my head. Because cords are so interesting and anything that fits into his mouth is so tasty, and the dog bowl is so much fun to play in mom! He seriously squeals with glee any time he sees it on the floor and literally beelines it for the dog bowl. Malcolm also developed quite the personality this month. When you tell him no and start to chase him he laughs so happily and starts crawling in the other direction, all the while looking back to make sure you're trying to catch him. Oh this game is fun now, but once the kid can run we're in big trouble. He's liking solid foods more now and can handle some actual solid foods. Otherwise he's our happy, relaxed Malcolm. He's so mobile it's scary compared to Eliot, but he still has not cut one single tooth. Malcolm is close to standing on his own, and loves to push toys that he can walk with. 9 months. Goodness the time goes fast.

 

Eliot is smart, and funny, and preschool is just about the greatest thing ever in his world. He loves his teacher Mrs. Potter and loves going to school. He is getting better at his colors and can usually spell his name. His drawing is becoming much more representational of actual things (like a head, some legs and eyes). It's so cool to see him learn new things. Trick or treating blew his mind though. He was spider man (and did something weird with him mouth the entire time he was in the costume - see picture). We had to let him down easy and tell him that Halloween was only once a year...but that Thanksgiving and Christmas were coming up soon so that's should tide him over. Then it's a long, dark winter until this little boy's 4th birthday. Emphasis on the long.



Friday, October 18, 2013

8 Months and First Day of Preschool


Eliot for comparison now...goofball

What a happy baby!

 
 
So Malcolm is a mover and a shaker and a busy, busy guy now. His hands are always busy doing something, and if you put him on the floor in a room full of toys he will amuse himself for hours. Literally. He can crawl, get from a sitting position to a crawl, and get from the floor into a seated position. He's everywhere. He loves the dogs water bowl, so now Daly is horribly dehydrated half the time. He loves Daly and Eliot too. He also has a little temper. If there's something he wants and he's not getting it he makes this little angry noise. It's pretty cute actually. His chattering has switched from mamas to dadas. Of course. He's almost never crying, so content, as long as his hands are busy. He's a huge fan of baths too. You know what he's not crazy about? Food. Huh. He's definitely not his brother!

I think I've been talking about Eliot starting preschool for almost 6 months now. And he finally did it, he's finally in school. It's been a little traumatic for me. It's a lot, this new schedule, for him too. He seems to be enjoying it though, it wears him out a ton and makes him really hungry. He's also not one to chatter on about what happens - so I just get snippets of what may have happened. They talked about germs. He rode on a tractor. They made handprints. His teacher's dog is silly and eats balls. The first day of orientation I was holding his hand through the parking lot. When we got to the sidewalk he said, "You don't need to hold my hand any more, mama." Oh buddy, I know. Damn this growing up thing is breaking my heart. And he's still a baby! You forget about the letting go part. I get so wrapped up in the day to day baby-rearing that I forget they'll grow up and leave and I won't see them much and I'll need to fill all this time with my own wants and needs. I look forward to it and I'm so sad at the same time.

We pulled back on potty training Eliot. We had him in underwear for about a month and he was doing pretty good I guess. Or we thought. But he had never once told us he had to go to the bathroom. We had to beg and cajole him in there every hour and he would go, and keep his pants dry until the next time we begged and cajoled. If we were late in getting him there he would just pee his pants. If he had to poop he would just poop his pants. And finally he was sitting there with his head in his hands and feeling so sad he hadn't kept himself dry and I just called it off. We're going to wait a month and try again. So back to diapers and he could care less. I wish he cared a little more but Eliot is not one to like change. He's my son after all...
Eliot is a little sensitive to noise - he loved riding on the tractor once we found some ear protectors!


Showing off his super hero cape.

Standing next to a real live Frank!

Letting go...

Little overwhelmed.