Social Child

Shocker, looks like Nathan and I have a social child.

I just got back from a trip to the library for infant storytime. Guess whose child crawled around and visited as many people as he could around the room? My child! We had never been before and didn't know a soul. Bradley promptly ditched me as soon as we sat down and crawled over to the woman next to us and impressed her by pushing himself up to a standing position using her leg as support. He then crawled over her foot and rolled over and crashed in his quest to get to a group of ladies and their babies across the room. He didn't make a peep after the crash, just continued over to the other side of the room where he smiled at everyone and tried to grab at a baby face or two. I got him back in time for the beginning of the organized events and he paid a moderate amount of attention to me and only tried to escape whenever we weren't singing or bouncing. At the end the lady who led the story time came up to me as I was putting on his jacket and he literally lunged for her. Stranger, never met her before. I got him back after a few minutes of chatting and he continued to lean away from me and try to get back into her arms until she walked out of reach. I think he would have been most happy if I had just had him passed around the room for the entire time we were there.

I did get him to briefly look at a couple books. The first one was fine, my child turned the pages himself and I was very proud because a couple people definitely noticed how smart and advanced my child was. But then we started going on the second book which had pictures of babies in it. Bradley made it to page three before he started trying to give kisses to every baby in the book.

This behavior didn't come as too much of a surprise. Bradley and his little friend Makayla from our parenting group exchanged their first kiss a couple weeks ago. Open-mouthed. They seemed to enjoy it quite a bit and were very upset with me and Makayla's mom the next time we met up because Bradley was a little sniffly and we didn't let them make out at all. Poor babies.

It's a good thing we didn't let them get their smooch on, Bradley got worse and has spent most of the last week being a sick little boy. He was cheerful enough while there were people around which was fine during the day and not so great at night. But at least he was mostly happy and ready to play while Colleen and Kerry were here for part two of their visit. After they left I took him to the doctor and it seems that in addition to a stuffed up nose and a cough our sweet boy also had an ear infection. He's on antibiotics now and is sleeping much better at night. We ended up just taking him into bed with us, something I swore we'd NEVER do, because the alternative was to sleep on the recliner while holding him and I really didn't see much of a difference between doing that and having him in bed with us. He spent all of last night in his crib so it seems we didn't do any permanent damage to our sleep training with him by taking him into bed with us for a few nights. Lesson learned, no need to be super strict and by the book for every little thing when you have a sick baby on your hands.

And I wish I could blame it on being sick but it seems that we have a clingy baby on our hands. Clingy is probably not the best word ... extremely social baby. Except when I'm home with him I'm the only social he's got so he just clings to me and cries if I try to put him in any of his fun toys like his exersaucer or jumperoo that allow me to do anything besides sit with him all day long. The only time he doesn't want to be around me is when he makes a break for the forbidden kitchen where he tries to get to the forbidden cat food. He'll make his move and I'll speak sternly to him and tell him to come back and he'll sit and look me in the eye and cry until he decides to make a break for it or come back to Mommy. What a kid.

We're having such a blast with this sweet boy. He's becoming more and more of a little person and it's amazing to watch.

New Achievements

There have been a few development milestones in the past few days. Literally days. He didn't do any of these things four days ago and now he does them all the time. It's amazing to both me and Nathan how quickly these new skills can be acquired and there would probably be a lot more melancholy mixed with our pride at how quickly he's growing up if it wasn't for new baby on the way. Hurray for new baby!

Bradley's favorite new achievement for all involved is his newfound ability to clap, which is adorable and he'll do on command with a little encouragement. I guess all our games of patty cake have paid off! He also waves and is growing quite adept at turning pages in books. He also lives to pull himself up into a standing position ... which is cute in theory but is also the bane of my existence at the moment.

It started out cute enough, he'd crawl over to someone and want to hold onto their hands so he could pull himself up. He would then shake his hands free from said person so he could hold on to objects or do any of the other important things that one does with ones hands and it was up to the person to hold onto the swaying baby with very little sense of balance. He generally likes to clap while standing, which is pretty funny since it looks like he's applauding himself for his accomplishment. What a cutie.

However, since then he has started pulling himself up on inanimate objects and trying to do the same thing with less than stellar results. At least I'm around when he's in the living room so I can mostly save him from himself. But he discovered this morning that he could pull himself up in his crib and has spent approximately an hour pulling himself up, chattering excitedly, and soon falling over and whacking his face and head. Repeatedly. He's generally sad for about two minutes but then he gets up and repeats the process. At least the crib mattress is cushy. This is all too exciting and I fear there will be little napping today. Especially since he can reach the curtain and let in sunshine and also turn on his mobile now. Oh joy.

He started doing these new things at my parents' house this past weekend, much to their delight.

We were visiting because my brother Thomas was in town. We don't know if Bradley really remembers meeting Thomas from five months ago when he visited in the summer but he is certainly a fan now. Our child loves everyone though and while he still prefers mommy when he's very sad or very sleepy I can still hand him off to anyone and he's pretty content. And sometimes he flat out chooses someone more fun over me, like his Grandpa Redfern who spent over a half an hour with a delighted Bradley up on his shoulders singing songs and bouncing him up and down for a good portion of that time, all the while telling us how sore he was going to be the next day. And Grandma took him over to his favorite bear carving whenever he desired which is whenever Thomas wasn't airplaning him into a foam tower he had created specifically for destruction by baby. It's good for a number of reasons that we're having baby number two sooner rather than later, Bradley is going to have to adjust to sharing some of the limelight.

Poor Layla still can't believe that she has to share Nathan with this tiny interloper.

Visit From Grandma Colleen and Kerry

A few bonus pics from Christmas time fun!

We just had a nice visit from Nathan's mom and stepdad. It's actually part one of two since they're off to Hawaii and then will be coming back to spend a few days with us before going back to Iowa.

Bradley had the best time while they were here. Plenty of company in the back seat of the car (finally!) and as much playtime and attention as he could handle throughout the day. And he can handle as much as you can dish out. We went on little outings each day and Bradley's favorite was probably the aquarium. Nathan took an amazing video of him trying to watch all the tropical fish at once as they swam around their tank.

Our little stinker kept waking up early while his grandparents were visiting but he's so darn cheery in the morning that you can't help but forgive him. I'd take him out to the living room to play and since he isn't very quiet he would soon wake up his grandma. She'd walk out in her bathrobe and he'd flail all his limbs in delight while grinning and making happy noises. It's hard not to melt when it happens to you.

Bath time with Grandma!

And I'm sorry to report that I was cruel, yes cruel, to poor Bradley while Grandma Colleen and Grandpa Kerry were here and I made him stay in a cart while we were out shopping when he obviously should have been held cozy in someone's arms. I was finally holding him when we walked out to the car but he had to cry and fuss and hold out his arms for Grandma - who melted and immediately held him. This happened twice within a short period of time. If his Grandma Colleen wasn't already head over heels for Bradley this would have sealed the deal.

They're off to Hawaii now but will be back before too long.

The day after they left I went to not one but two doctor appointments, one for each baby! Baby in my belly is doing well and we find out gender in about a month. My obgyn scored points for being able to find the baby's heartbeat as the child did a little jig in my belly - she did this one handed while holding Bradley. Quite impressive.

And Bradley's 9 month appointment went well, he flirted up a storm with anyone who would look at him including the nurse who has given him a fair number of shots in his short life. She was delighted by this, apparently most children hold a grudge. Then the doctor came in and Bradley spent most of the time I was talking to him trying to eat his own reflection in the mirror. Absolutely amazing, I tried to take a picture after the doctor left but this was the best I got.

Here are his stats: he's 21 lb 9 oz (75th percentile) and 29 1/4 inch tall (75th-90th percentile). I had to go back and ask for a copy of his sheet with his stats and explain to the doctor that I do so because my husband likes to keep track so he can compare with our friends that have kids. And that my husband and I have bets on Bradley's weight each time we take him in. He seemed amused/flabbergasted and said that this was why America had an obesity problem. Um, we just want our child to WIN at being big and awesome! Speaking of which, Nathan is definitely a little sad that Bradley is no longer up around the 90th percentile in both height and weight. He said something about blaming how mobile he is now for burning off the extra weight. Hilarious.

Our little Bradley continues to grow more dear to us every day. It's hard to imagine what life was like before he came. He cries now when Nathan or I leave the room if he feels like we're ignoring him or deserting him. And if I leave him playing in the living room and go to the kitchen and make any noise he follows me in there as quick as he can! We need more baby gates.

He's so chatty and fun these days. Which has both its benefits and drawbacks. Bradley and I went to a kid friendly showing of a movie today at noon with my friend Christine who also has a baby. My child spent the early part of the movie stealing as much as he could of my lunch of apple slices and a muffin (he would lunge for muffin bites. Sigh) and then downing his own lunch as rapidly as possible. He then spent the remainder of the movie trying to flirt with Christine which involved babbling loudly and leaning over and grinning in her face and then trying to grab her nose to make it go honk (an "adorable" game his daddy taught him). We were the loudest ones in the theater by far. Fortunately for Bradley, both Christine and I thought it was rather adorable and the movie was not too great so we didn't mind the floor show. I just hope none of the other moms were particularly interested in the movie.

We get to go to the aquarium again before our evening PEPS parenting group meeting. Bradley is having a delightful day today.