The biggest theme of the weeks since the last post is
sickness. After Toby cut his third tooth
(a week after the second, also on the bottom!) he got sick for the first
time. We had wondered if he was sick
before, but this time there was no wondering: a fever of 103ºF, a wicked drippy
nose, one sad little boy. It was hard
for us to see him feeling so shabby and have such limited tools to help him
feel better. Then, just as he was
starting to not need Tylenol CONSTANTLY, Matt got sick. And then I got sick. It was at least a week and a half before the
three of us were smiling again. But we
survived! There was a lot of
nose-blowing for probably three weeks, but Toby is back to being a happy, active, (relatively) talkative
baby.
The weekend before he got sick, Toby and I went to our birth
class reunion. There were five babies,
the noisiest gathering of that size I’ve ever taken part in. Fun!
It was clear that Toby is advanced in crawling and grabbing, and has put
comparatively little energy toward talking.
He had also made impressive strides in eating before the
mega-cold made him stop wanting to even nurse for a week. Having started to master the pincer-grasp, he
was ready to try feeding himself. We’d
been working with little rice puffs (similar to cheerios), but these big rice
crackers are really more his style.
Since recovering from the cold and getting a fourth tooth
(finally, one on top), he’s back to eating tons of solids, and has even tried
Cheerios at a friend’s house! We’ve
presented him with enough foods that we finally found something he doesn’t
like: lentils and rice. At first I
thought it was too chunky (he seemed to say that he COULD chew, but why should
he have to?). So I pureed it. After eating one spoonful, he squeezes his
lips together and turns his head sideways.
I even tried slipping it in between bites of delicious carrot. That garnered deserved but inconvenient
suspicion, so we’re giving up for now.
At least spinach was a hit.
Progress in ambulating has also been moving forward since
the pitiful days of a limp and listless sick baby are behind us. Lately he’s been hankering to crawl
faster. He’s getting pretty good at
holding himself up on hands and knees, but still needs to drop down on his
belly to move forward. He’s also
enthusiastic about moving UP, and living up to all those great monkey outfits
Aunt Margo loaned us. This earned him
his first quality head bonk, courtesy of the futon frame. And the best reason to crawl? Kitties.
Maybe it’s the extra drool and fun of feeling his teeth with
his tongue… something has definitely got Toby talking. The last few weeks he’s been making more
vowels and seems to be really communicating.
I was quite sure he said “kitty” to Violet (okay, okay, it was more like
k-k), although he only repeated it a few times.
Now he’s enthusiastically yelling “mamamamama!,” especially when he’s
upset. He even started saying just the
two-syllable “mama” to me on Tuesday. Although
I’m 90% sure he doesn’t know what it means, of course it melts my heart. We can’t wait to hear what comes out
next.
I know this blog is usually all baby, but I had to include
one tidbit about myself. I finally got
fed up with dealing with the long hair and chopped it off. As most of the readership knows, I do this
every few years. Over the last few months, I’d
been noticing my hair looked a little straighter on top… I figured it was just
that I don’t style it anymore since you-know-who arrived. But once I cut most of it off, the change was
clear – my hair is half as curly as it used to be! Hormones.
No telling if it will ever change back, apparently. My expression is coincidental, by the way –
in fact, I was perfectly happy with my tight curls and am a little weirded out
by new my hair.
Since Christmas we’ve had a proper winter here in Michigan,
thanks partly to lake-effect snow. Toby
was curious about the white stuff, so I gave him some in a bowl – he thought it
was 1) awesome 2) strangely ephemeral 3) after a few minutes, suddenly
cold! Waaah! We also took him cross-country skiing (pic
shows Matt bundled up to carry him).
This was boring bordering on lame, but we’re sure he’ll like it more
when he can have his own little skis.
In just the last few days, the babbling has gone up a notch
to multi-syllabic phrases, e.g. “mamababamawa.”
He’s also trying REALLY hard to sit up by himself. How can this be going so quickly?!
