I don’t even know how to properly quantify how amazing this month has been for us. Logan has really blossomed into his own little human this month and my heart is bursting with excitement and love as I watch him grow and develop. It is so amazing to see this little person, who (rightly so) has been my major focus for the majority of the year, go exploring on his own and look back at me with excitement at what the world has to offer. I can imagine it will only get better from here, but so far this parenting thing is by far the most amazing experience of my life and even though my pregnancy was hard, I would do it over and over my whole life long for the amount of joy Logan has already given me.
Movement
Logan has changed so much this month. Of course the biggest change is that he is now mobile! He is a proficient army crawler (no cross crawling yet) and can get places quickly. It is fun to see him have an opinion and go explore the house. He self entertains much better now since he will scoot around a room playing with everything for quite a while before needing help. He is so excited to crawl and we are just excited to watch him explore. He hasn’t crawled over to me just to say hi, but if I am on the other side of the room and start crawling toward him, he will get excited and crawl towards me as well. There is a neat park nearby, where there is a baby section with a little tunnel that Logan can crawl through. It is so fun to see him able to “play” at the park other than swinging (still one of his favorite activities on the planet).
As to how the first crawling happened…. He finally figured out rolling back to front over his left shoulder on October 3rd and with this, he could roll all 4 directions and was really learning that he could move to get whatever he wanted (between pivoting and rolling, you can accomplish a lot). However, I think mostly it taught him that it was fun to be the master of his own domain! It was only a few days later that he finally started putting into practice a combination of various tactics for reaching to get something that was close by without rolling. This involved extending his torso and reaching his hand as well as pushing off with his toes. As he got more interested in this, he spent two days slowly scooting towards objects. After two days, he realized that he could get there quicker by pulling with his arms (officially crawling on October 11th). We set up towers of cups over and over again as he scooted to get them and knock them over. He especially liked if we propped our cell phones up with the screen showing him crawling toward it. He got faster and faster, though that first week, though his legs were mostly dead weight, often being crossed as he dragged them behind. Then he started incorporating them more, at least having his toes push off. Now, he uses them more and more which has drastically increased his speed.
He remembers rooms of the house and has his favorite places and toys in each. Usually it isn’t even a baby toy, but something he has discovered (and of course sometimes things we’d rather he not have). He loves the drapes and heating vent in the living room and of course gravitates to all the electronics (especially in the living room). There are cords, mice, webcam, the router, and video game controllers. He loves them all, but especially anything with lights.
Toward the later parts of this month, he has been expanding his crawling skills and realized he can go OVER things rather than just around them. It is cute to see that as he develops more crawling skill, his world gets even bigger. He has even gotten up on his hands and feet (or 3 of them), and twisted around to see what his body can do. I wouldn’t be surprised if he transitions to cross crawling fairly soon (though he was stubbornly not crawling for so long, who knows). He certainly appears to have the strength to do it, just not the will yet.
Besides crawling, his favorite pastime this last week or so has been standing. Even earlier in this month, you could prop him against something (like the edge of the couch), and he would lean his chest against it while playing with whatever toy was on top. However, if he lost interest in the toy, he would fall to the side or back with no desire to stay standing, and would rarely use his hands to support himself. Now he very purposefully holds on and will hold himself standing. His favorite spot is a particular outside part of his jumper (the toy he is supposed to stand inside). There is a curved wire bar to slide toys along and he hold on and plays. As the month went on he has gained more confidence, holding on with one hand and using his other hand to play with the toys hanging down. He even has held himself by holding the hanging strap with a toy at the bottom. He has gotten good and balancing and adjusting. He hasn’t seemed interested in moving his feet to transition, but has leaned to try to get to other toys while standing. He still occasionally falls backwards (so we are always sitting behind), but it is generally when he wants to be done or is playing a game. No pulling up yet, but he is looking “up” more and more and trying to see what is above him to play with. This means he has pulled a few objects down onto himself (one of his books, twice), which shakes him up, but he is learning the world is three dimensional!
Communication
Logan has also advanced a bunch in the communication department. His “talking” shows a lot about his mood in general, but his new additions are the use of the “no” concept. Logan says “no” by shaking his head back and forth (no words yet). At first we couldn’t figure out why he was shaking his head so much, but slowly we realized it wasn’t random, it was when he wanted to say “no.” He uses it if he’s not ready for another bite yet, or he’s done eating all together, or if you take away a toy he likes or if you go to change his diaper when he was having fun or if you try to give him something he doesn’t want. It is really useful. I love it and I actually feel like he has been happier as we have now been able to learn from his likes and dislikes. He also communicates by “steering” us when we are holding him; he will grab ahold of our shirt on either side of the shoulder near him and pull you in the direction he wants to go. If you have short sleeves, he will grip the flesh of our arm (ouch!) It gets very strong if he is closer to the object he wants, his favorites are the thermostat, the fridge, and the glass panel on the front door.
Logan also understands the word “no” when we say it to him. When he reaches for something he shouldn’t have (usually a cord), if I say “no” he will turn and look up at me. Then about half the time he will look at me while he does it anyway, somewhat dramatically slowly, or he will do something else. I try not to overuse it, and we try to keep the no-nos away (removing him from the scene of the crime), but it is nice to see that he is understanding us. I get the feeling here and there he understands more, but hard to say for sure. We work a lot on “hello,” “goodbye,” “more,” and “all done.” I certainly talk to him plenty, so it will come soon. It is fun talking to him and imagining the day when he’ll participate in the conversation as well.
Food
Logan is a self-feeding champion now. We are far beyond the land of puffs from last month. He eats chicken and turkey (deli and shredded mostly, hated the ground meat I made for him), peas, carrots, grapes, banana, bread, cheese, mango, and some fun stuff like green beans (he likes to gnaw on them whole, he looks so cute holding it!). He was, most of the month, eating lots of yogurt as well, we would do half and half yogurt and other stuff on a spoon. That other stuff was usually something like pureed carrot, applies, squash or mango. Last few days though he has lost interest in spoon feeding, but it is possible it is a phase. The great parts about self-feeding are that it makes it more possible to eat at the same time as him, but the downside is that there is a little more daily/weekly work with food and we have to think about eventually sharing our meals, though since I now like spicy food, we are going to have to tone everything down, which is sad.
Speaking of phases, Logan also has rejected nursing for the last 10 days. I’m not ready to be done. I had originally only planned for 6 months, but now that it is so easy, I have my cycle back to have another kid whenever I want, and I’m feeling so healthy, I was planning for at least a year or maybe a few months more. I am probably going to keep pumping even if he won’t nurse, but it is so frustrating that it isn’t working. I’ve heard of it happening, but I didn’t want it to happen to me. I’m hoping that between his teething and his stomach being a bit off, that whatever is causing him to not nurse now will go away and everything will be back to normal. Each day makes that thought feel a little more delusional, but who knows.
Sleeping
Logan dropped his late afternoon third nap at the beginning of this month and over the month, his naps have also spread out a bit. It means we have a little more awake time in the morning and midday, but a little less in the afternoon (once the nap was dropped). Overall though, Logan seems happy with the schedule and has plenty of sleep and energy to do fun stuff. He still mostly sleeps through the night and naps well. Also, on days where he takes a shorter or longer nap, he seems more able to adapt than he was when he was young and following the schedule was exact and important.
House Buying!
Of course, the other big news, other than our amazing boy Logan, is that we bought a new house! We are moving a five minute drive south east toward Microsoft and into the city of Bellevue, where I grew up (though still 20 min away from my parent’s house). We are excited to have more space for a second baby and a lot of place to play indoors and outdoors.
Other
He plays with the same toys month after month, but the way he interacts with them now is so different than how he did when he was 8 months old or 6 months old. It is really fun to see these little changes. His hair also got so long that he needed his first trim and is now about ready to need a second. Overall, he is a happy kid and this month has had very few tears and whines, and far more giggles and smiles! He also “talks” a lot and it is fun to hear how expressive he is with his sounds and his voice. His favorite sound right now is “mamama” and I love hearing it, even though it doesn’t mean much.
