Cheerios

Sean is 9 months 11 days old today. For longer than that I've been telling myself I'll keep track of his babyhood in writing so we can remember what happened when but I've found that writing is a luxury I haven't been able to afford on a regular basis, so it exists piecemeal in a few pages of a journal, loose bits of paper, and on a word document somewhere on my computer. Maybe I'll leave these where they are, maybe I'll transfer some of these thoughts to the blog. I hope the blog will prompt me to write more. I said hope.

Here's a short and pathetically incomplete update of a few of the happenings in Sean's life so far: he's been saying "hi dada" for 4 months now, but it's directed toward lots of things, including Eric; he also says "mummm" but it's when he is unhappy, like when he wants to get out of his pack & play. I swear he said "cat" last week while pointing to the cat but I haven't heard it since. He holds vocal notes for long periods of time: "ahhhhhhh....ahhhhhhh....ahhhhhhh" which I call singing; he likes Amy Winehouse's music; he likes watching Yo Gabba Gabba! on TV (save the lecture); he has 4.5 very white, very little teeth; I've let him fall off the couch once and the bed once (a heavy thud you never want to hear, especially twice!); he rarely naps and if he does it's for a moment only; he doesn't sleep in his crib and breastfeeds all night long in our bed, forgoing liquids during the day no matter how much I try to reverse this - he refuses all kinds of formula (he knows what's good, I guess); he plays a little red piano with both hands - sometimes he just bangs on it, other times he plays gently which breaks my heart a little; for a few weeks now, he's been doing this wounded soldier's crawl, dragging his left leg behind him, which makes me worry he has hip dysplasia like I did as a baby. Time will tell.

Now to the Cheerios. For about a week I've been feeding Sean Cheerios, one at a time, holding my breath hoping he doesn't choke (I envy other mother's abandon in feeding their babies). Sean likes the Cheerios, he gets a thoughtful look on his face as he moves the little toasted circle around his mouth while it gets soft enough to swallow, though he still gags a little as he does. So...this morning after breakfaast I leave my post at the kitchen sink to wipe Sean's mouth in his high chair. And lo and behold, almost from the corner of my eye I see him place a Cheerio into his mouth successfully. Before this, the furthest he got was getting the Cheerio to stick to his fingertip before having it fall to the floor.

So this is the latest. This is our big news for today.

xo