Soren update: 9 months

We have a crawler!  For weeks I've been saying I thought Soren was going to start crawling "any day now," but until last week, the most he'd do was get up on his hands and knees, lurched forward and look like he was going to crawl before finally taking a slow glide back onto his belly. 

He's still getting used to crawling and resorts to his "carpet swimming," either out of frustration or laziness, because he knows I'll eventually pick him up.  While he's still not fast yet, Oliver watch out!  Soren can already get into his toys.  And thus our pretty easy lives hanging around with a stationary baby our over.  We suddenly need to re-childproof the house and mediate the cries of "No, that's mine!" 

We now have a new set of challenges in regards to toys and sharing.  Oliver regards all the toys as his, because, at one point they were only his.  So while we're trying to teach him what "baby toys" Soren is allowed to play with and what is not safe for him to play with, we're also trying to impart upon him that the toys belong to all of us, which I know are difficult concepts for a not-quite-three-year-old to grasp, but we have to start somewhere.  Luckily Soren is still too young to know he should be offended when a toy he's innocently playing with - one that Oliver had zero interest in until Soren discovered it - is violently ripped out of his chubby little hands, because his ultra-brief attention span allows him to forget about the toy and become distracted by something else.  But we're still teaching Oliver to offer Soren something baby-friendly to play with and gently take the other object from him and are reinforcing the concept of taking turns. 

These brothers still have fun with each other.  Soren, as always, loves watching Oliver and laughing.  Oliver in turn gives him hugs and kisses and enjoys pushing him on the swing.  Some day soon they'll be able to run around together. 

We've had some hot, hot weather the past few weeks, and have already made a couple of trips to a nearby splash pad, where Soren took his first dip in the pool.  Well, dip is an overstatement.  I stood at the edge of the zero-entry kiddie pool and dipped his toes in the water and he screamed.  I set him down in the water, which didn't come higher than his ankles and he clung to my legs and continued to wail.  I tried to tell him there was nothing to be afraid of because it's just like the bathtub.  But, oh yeah, he doesn't like the bathtub either.  Chris finally had better luck getting him to enjoy the water, but we never made him get more than his feet wet.

This was another crazy month for sleep, but the good news is that we finally have a nap schedule established.  Woohoo!  We can make plans again!  Months four through eight were really tough because Soren couldn't sleep on the go anymore, but didn't have a predictable schedule and took three to four naps a day.  Around eight months he seemed to be settling on taking a second nap at the same time Oliver does and by the end of this month was taking a predictable 8:15 a.m. nap.  I've even been trying to put him down even earlier in the hopes that he'll get up earlier so we can maximize the time in the morning to get out and do something. 

His nighttime sleep, though, wasn't making quite the same progress and Soren never broke the pattern of waking up really early.  I endured weeks of waking up no later than 5:15 a.m. because I was too tired to try sleeping training with Soren, as weird as that sounds.  But when I sensed that he was starting to manipulate us, I knew I had to muster the energy to get his sleep back on track.  Soren was taking longer and longer to get down to sleep because he wanted to be rocked and sung to and then he'd scream as soon as you put him down in his crib.  Or, he wouldn't cry at first and I thought I'd succeeded in getting him to sleep, and the instant I left the room, he'd wail.  We bought a fan to help air circulate in his stuffy room and to provide white noise because he seems to be a light sleeper.  And we did yet another round of sleeping training.  He doesn't need to be rocked or sung to anymore, (a little sad, even though I enjoy being able to get him down quickly) and actually arches his back as if he's trying to get out of my arms into his comfy crib where he knows he gets to sleep. We had a week and a half where he slept until 6:00 a.m. or 6:30 a.m., although we're suddenly back to pre-6:00 a.m. wake-up times.  Sigh...

I've noticed that Soren's pincer grasp is starting to develop, where he can pick up small objects between his thumb and forefinger.  We went out to eat a few weeks ago and he happily (and quietly!) sat in the high chair and ate Cheerios while getting surprisingly few on the floor.  I'm looking forward to this next stage in development because it opens up a multitude of food choices for him.  Not everything will have to be cut in the shape of sticks or be served in large clumps. 

Soren won't be eating apples or corn on the cob anytime soon though since he has yet to sprout any teeth.  I got a good look at his gums and felt with my finger and there were no signs that I could tell that a tooth is ready to emerge. 

We served Soren an unfortunate food choice the night he ended up throwing up.  We woke up in the middle of the night to screaming and even though it was during a period where he was waking a lot during the night, it actually wasn't one his usual times, so we sensed something was wrong. We discovered he'd thrown up strawberries everywhere.  I thought for a minute about how I was going to clean him off when I realized that even though it was 2:00 a.m., Soren need a bath.  The poor little guy threw up two more times after his bath (which he screamed through), but was finally able to eat and then, exhausted, fell back asleep in my arms.  I headed down to the basement with his red-stained sleep sack, burp cloths, sheets and pajamas and did a load of wash at 3:00 a.m.   

Soren has always been an incredibly happy and social baby, but I marvel in how much he lights up when Chris gets home.  He now tries to squirm out of my arms when he sees Daddy walk through the door.  He was so excited one day that he planted a hand in my face as he tried to shove himself away from me and towards Chris.  I guess he doesn't have eyes just for Mommy anymore. In fact, the only two "words" he says are "Ma-ma" and "Da-da."  However, he only says "mama" when he's upset and "dada" when he's happy!