Chase the Baby!

Ethan's really got this walking thing down now. He's walking at least 75% of the time. About a week ago, he stood up without pulling up a couple of times, but he seems to have forgotten how he did it so we're still waiting on that skill before he's walking 100% of the time. But he just goes and goes and goes, pulling up on the nearest wall whenever he tumbles. He's circumnavigated the downstairs of our house without stopping, which is a decent distance for his little legs. He usually has a toy in each hand, waving them in the air and occasionally banging them together with glee. He's an extraordinarily happy baby.

"Chase the baby!" is Ethan's favorite new game. All day long, he wants to run around the house while I chase after him. Sometimes I walk, sometimes I crawl, sometimes I growl. Whatever it takes to send him into fits of laughter. Here are a couple of videos for your amusement:

First Shoes!

Since Ethan is doing pretty well with this whole walking thing, we decided to go to Stride Rite today to have him fitted for his first pair of shoes so he can safely explore the outdoors. He took after his daddy's chubby baby feet, landing him in a navy sneaker in size 4W.

As you can see, he already looks older in them, especially when paired with his haircut! Once he finished his water, it was time to try them out:

"These things make walking harder! I have to hold onto Mommy's hands"

"OK, I guess I can push my train in them, too, but I'm NOT walking in them!"

We went outside to give them a true test, since he's so far refused to do much walking in the grass barefoot (and since that's the entire reason we got shoes!):

"I would much rather just sit down and explore, Mommy!"

"What the heck is this stuff, anyway?"

Finally, we convinced him to give walking in the shoes on the grass a try:

SUCCESS!

Walking Update

Ethan is definitely on the move with his walking. He's walking from place to place about 25% of the time. I think he would walk full time if he could figure out how to get back up without needing to pull up on something after he falls. He turns like a pro, even 180 degrees, and he's working on speeding up, though he doesn't handle the turns as gracefully then. After a play date with his 17-month-old friend Addie the other day, he's even more determined to walk full-time. As soon as she left, he started walking from the coffee table in the front room all the way to the stairs, which is quite an impressive distance! While that's still his favorite trek to make (mostly because he likes climbing that first step and shaking the baby gate), he also amuses us by just bouncing from place to place like a pinball.

Here's a video of him walking around the office/playroom loft this morning:

First Steps?

In continuing his momentous week, Ethan may have started walking today. I say "may have" because I'm still not sure it counts, and crawling is definitely still his default mode of transit, but he definitely took steps.

Around lunchtime, just before his afternoon nap, I always offer him to nurse again. We're usually sitting on the ground playing, so I sign for milk and he usually comes happily crawling into my lap. Today was no different, and after he'd had his fill, I stood him up to work on standing unassisted. His train walker caught his eye, and before I knew it, he took 3-4 steps and grabbed hold of it before taking off. And yes, I was so surprised I'm not even sure how many steps he took! I extracted him from the train and stood him up again to try to get a repeat performance, but he just got down and crawled to it. So I offered him to nurse again, he did, and then I stood him back up. Once again, he took 3 steps to reach the train!

We tried to recreate the scenario this evening and get some video, but Ethan didn't want to cooperate. However, here's some of the video so you can see a shaky step or two.



What do you think? Does this count as his first steps or does he need to be walking longer distances before it really counts?

New this week...

Ethan has had a few firsts this week that don't warrant their own post independently but are still worth noting. First of all, since I forgot his sippy cup when we went out to eat last Friday, Ethan successfully drank through a straw for the first time! I was feeding him yogurt so he needed water, but he didn't grasp the concept of the straw. Per his daddy's suggestion, I filled the straw with water and had him suck it out apart from the glass. That was apparently all it took because when I offered him the straw in the glass again, he sucked it up so quickly he got choked up!

Last weekend also saw my first attempt to get Ethan to nap in the crib since he was 3 months old. On Saturday, he was fighting going down for a nap and, honestly, I was just sick of bouncing with him so I went through our usual bedtime ritual before putting him in the crib. Even though at night he puts himself down with no fussing whatsoever, he apparently hasn't translated that to naps because it took 30 minutes of fussing before he went to sleep. However, he slept for 2 hours, which is the longest he's ever napped in the crib! On Sunday, I tried again, this time for his morning nap, and it still took 30 minutes of fussing on and off. When I tried on Monday, however, he screamed for an hour before I finally gave in and wrapped him, at which point he fell asleep immediately. I gave him a break on Tuesday and Wednesday, but he took his afternoon nap in the crib today. He still fussed for about 30 minutes, but I'm hopeful it will get better with time. I just need him to be napping in his crib by the time classes start back since I'll be leaving during nap time.

Finally, Ethan is getting better at standing unassisted and at initiating standing unassisted (i.e. at letting go while standing up). He stood without holding onto anything for about 10 seconds this afternoon, which was the longest he's done yet. So he still has a ways to go, but he's learning!

It seems like almost every day brings a new discovery or a new way for him to get into mischief!

"Walking"

I finally put together another walker-like toy for Ethan that his Grandmama and Grandpapa got for him, and he loves it! He's not so sure about riding on the train, but when he gets behind it to push, he thinks that's just awesome. I was only able to get a short clip of him because I'd filled up the video camera again (oops), but hopefully this will tide y'all over for now. Once he gets that standing-independently thing down for more than a few seconds, I don't think it'll be long before he's taking off!

Cruising around the table

Ethan has been cruising for a month or two now, and he's gotten quite good. When we got back from the pediatrician yesterday, I sat him down in the front room, and he began cruising around the coffee table. Since he was still going after about five rotations, I decided to go grab the camera:

Moving on from the Army Crawl

After his initial foray into crawling on his hands and knees at the LLL gathering, he mostly stuck to his usual army crawl. However, yesterday when we had some family over to meet Ethan for the first time, he got back up on his knees, and he's been doing it ever since! Here's a video of him moving around the front room:

Stair Climber

Ethan discovered yesterday that he can climb the stairs. He's probably been able to for a while, but we always kept him away from them since we don't have baby gates yet. After he climbed the first one, he burst into laughter and has been addicted ever since. So, in short, we're in trouble.

I got a short video of him this morning. He is such a ham for the camera, and I didn't get him to climb very far before he decided it was more fun to fling himself into Mommy's arms. You'll probably notice his amber teething necklace at the end of the video, but that's a topic for another post (and don't worry, Mom: it's completely safe and made FOR babies; plus, he never wears it without supervision, and there's not a strangulation risk). Enjoy!

Busy Week!

It's been an eventful and fun week so far! First of all, Ethan's Grandmama and Grandpapa came up last Thursday for a weekend visit. Much fun was had by all! Ethan loved showing off his new mobility and linguistic skills, and Grandmama and Grandpapa were more than happy to cheer him on. He even got his first upper tooth on their last day in town, which was much less happy for him but still exciting.







Monday was a quieter day, filled with cleaning and other preparations because on Tuesday, the local La Leche League came over for an enrichment meeting/tea party/goat petting. We had 6 adults and 11 kids. Ethan was apparently motivated by the bigger kids walking around because he decided to finally get up on all fours to crawl. He made it about 6 crawls before his 18-month-old friend Donna came over and touched him on the shoulder, causing him to drop back down to his belly. Silly boy! The goats were a big hit, and all in all, it was a very fun morning!

Wednesday was another fun time because yesterday afternoon was Ethan's first play date. Our neighbor has two boys: one is 2 and the other is one week younger than Ethan. We finally got them together, and the boys were so cute together! (I don't have any pictures of either event because I don't want to put pictures of someone else's kid online). Ethan decided to learn another new skill and began babbling "Mamamama" in earnest for the first time, which he's continued to do all morning so far! Plus, we learned the eerie coincidences between us and our neighbors continue. We were married within 5 months of each other, we moved to the neighborhood within 8 months of one another, we had children within two weeks of one another, both of our husbands are tax accountants, we were both born in April, and our husbands' birthdays are a day apart. Plus, her oldest is named Nathan, which sounds pretty close to Ethan. Too funny! Hopefully we'll be able to get together a lot more as the kids are better able to play with one another.

The rest of the week will be more low-key. My friend Presian, who is due a few days before Ethan's first birthday, will hopefully be coming over this weekend to see Ethan, whom she hasn't seen since January, and so that I can see her growing belly. Other than that, we'll just be resting up after our week of fun!

My son is growing up too fast

He's already ready to start driving!



Sorry for camera-phone pictures, but that's all that was handy. The outfit was from church this morning. He's not usually that dressed up to just hang around the house!

What it means to have a curious baby (in pictures) + a video

The other day, Ethan discovered that he can pull up on our record collection. When he was crawling in the office this morning and went for the records, I went for my camera. Here's what followed (You'll notice the Roomba virtual wall appears on top of the records about halfway through. He kept getting distracted by it on the ground):



















Unfortunately, he cannot get down on his own so once he got bored, I had to lift the table up in order to get his big head out!

To show off his pulling-up skills in a different forum, here's a video from this morning of him pulling up on his walker. He started doing this all the time about a week ago, and he can even inch around it to grab the handle from the other side. What a mischief!

Baby in Motion

Here's a video of some of Ethan's latest stunts. At the beginning, we were trying to get him to lie back on his tummy, but he thought it was more fun to run to Daddy (those are laughs, not cries). You can't see it in this video, but his face always lights up in a huge grin when he sees someone offering him fingers to pull up on. Too cute!

Caught in the Act

Ever since he first discovered he can crawl up to and onto the shelf under the coffee table, that's been his go-to spot. As soon as I set him down on his quilt, if I don't sit between him and the coffee table, he's off and up. After he'd climbed up earlier today, I went and got the Flip for proof. His dismount isn't nearly as graceful as his climb up was (and despite the cries, he was totally fine, just vocal, so don't worry).

Mr. Mobility

Seriously, it feels like this was an overnight change, just like with the sitting up independently. He is crawling all over the house, getting into everything. A few minutes ago, I went to put my plate from lunch in the sink, leaving him playing with toys on a quilt in the front room. My back was turned for less than 15 seconds, and when I glanced back in there, he was gone. My heart immediately jumped to my throat (I don't know why. What did I think had happened?), and then I saw him. He had crawled to the coffee table, pulled himself onto the shelf underneath it, and was grinning at me from behind the bars on the side. What a mischief!!!

He currently has a cold, but he doesn't seem to really be feeling the effects, other than not sleeping or eating well. He's as happy as ever, and he LOVES his newest accomplishment: pulling up. He's been able to pull up while on his back for a while, but he's just discovered pulling up to standing from his belly, which means he can now use things other than us to pull himself up. He crawls up to anything in sight and tries to pull up on it, regardless of how tall it is. If I offer him a finger, he immediately grabs it and pulls to standing, at which point he beams with pride. He's even taken to standing up in the bath tub, much to my panic. He still can't stand without holding onto anything for more than a few seconds, so I think we're still a ways off from walking, but I can't tell with this little guy anymore since he seems to figure things out so quickly. He definitely keeps me on my toes!

Food and Teeth and Crawling, Oh My!

It's been an eventful couple of weeks in the Marks household. As previously mentioned, last week Ethan got his first tooth. He didn't seem to mind it as much when it first broke through, but the following few days were rough. He was fussy during the day and didn't sleep well at night. On Saturday night, he refused to be put down so I eventually put his crib mattress on the floor and curled up beside him, spending the majority of the night on the nursery floor. Thankfully, the next day he was in better spirits and proceeded to sleep all night long for three days in a row. Last night, that streak was broken by two wakings, and this morning I discovered why: My little boy has another tooth. If past is prologue, now that it's broken through, things might get rough again, but now I know the mattress-floor trick, at least =)

Speaking of his mouth, we've been working on solids for over two weeks now. I've made all of the following thus far:

- Mashed banana - Initially loved it, but yesterday he wasn't as interested as usual
- Organic sweet potato puree - Initially hated it but has taken it a few times since then. I haven't tried it lately.
- Organic brown rice cereal - Initially hated it but will eat it readily when mixed with banana and once by itself
- Mashed avocado - Hated it. And after sampling it myself, I can't blame him.
- Organic pear puree - Initially wasn't too impressed and still won't open his mouth as wide for it, but I catch glimmers of smiles occasionally, and he cleared his plate today
- Organic apple puree - Haven't tried yet
- Sweet pea puree - Haven't tried yet

On Sunday, we'll start with the apple, so hopefully that will go over well since he's already used to the texture with the pear. And here in another week or two, we'll add a second meal! I'm loving making all of his food myself. I just wish he enjoyed eating it as much!

Ethan is definitely on the move with his army crawl. As I type this, he's crawling around on the floor and trying to pull up on his Jumperoo. While I'm excited for his development, it makes the need to babyproof the house even more evident. He gets frustrated with staying in one place for too long, and he can't be left alone for a second unless he's in his pack-n-play or Jumperoo. Maybe over the next couple of weeks we can get that taken care of... As I said, it's been an eventful past two weeks so I'm afraid to see what the next two have in store for us!

Army Crawl

Apparently Ethan takes after his mommy, who also refused to crawl normally:



Sorry the video cuts off rather abruptly. We hadn't erased any videos since he was born, and the Flip was full!

Sitting Up Update

Yeah, he's definitely an independent sitter. He just sat up by himself, playing with his toys, for 15+ minutes while I cleaned the bathrooms, fussing only when Scout stopped talking to him. Then I put him on the bed, and he sat up another 10+ minutes playing with his groceries while I finished up. Both times, he was still sitting up steadily when I picked him up. Who knows how long he's capable of sitting up if he had the patience for it! I'm still in shock as to what a seemingly overnight change this has been. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if he's like his daddy and walking at 6 months. Yikes!

We have an independent sitter!

I just can't resist sharing this here, too! This was taken after church so he's still dressed up in an outfit from his Grandmama. He's doing so well at sitting up by himself, and he's still just 4 months old! A few minutes ago, he was sitting up on our bed again while playing with his toy groceries, and he was pulling the food out of the bag and up to his mouth like a pro, all while balancing by himself, and he did it for over 4 minutes! I'm a proud mommy =)

Tummy Time Developments!

On Thanksgiving, I glanced out of the kitchen while Ethan was having tummy time and saw him doing a mini push-up (propping his whole chest up with his arms) for the first time! When he gave us a repeat performance later that day, we were able to get some cute pictures, including the following:


The next day, we were able to Skype with my family, including all my brothers and my maternal grandmother. We decided to show off his new skill, and he decided to show off one of his own by rolling over for the first time! I was absolutely shocked, even though I knew he was getting close. Later that night, he did it again on the bed as soon as we put him on his tummy, so we knew it wasn't a fluke. This morning, he was in the mood to play after his first feeding since he'd slept an 8-hour stretch without stirring once. I got out a quilt and grabbed the Flip and was able to capture this:




He's growing up so fast!!!