Nowhere is Safe

It’s 6:30am and I’ve been up for about an hour dealing with our 10-month-old. He’s changed quite a lot recently so now feels like a good time to write down what he (and parenting) is like at this point. I know full well that I’ll forget so many things about this stage (sorry other two) and so hopefully having it written down will give me a bit of joy in later years.

He’s Everywhere

Probably the most exciting recent development is that of movement. He can’t properly crawl yet (it’s a funny little commando drag) but he can move! This has already caused some problems - it means he can drag himself over to the lego on the floor and, as he’s also at the stage where everything goes in his mouth, we now have to be a lot more careful about where we leave him.

Yesterday he used his newfound powers to crawl over to a door and shut it, and then crawl back to open it again. Repeat ad infinitum. In fact, repeat ad infinitum would probably be a better title for this post. Throwing things is fun. Sure. But you know what’s better? Throwing the same thing again and again and again. I suppose he’s got to make sure gravity and the laws of motion are still all working the same way.

As well as the commando crawl, he’s now got a pretty gnarly set of head nodding and shaking and even the rudiments of waving. All of these are hilariously overexaggerated whole body experiences.

He’s just getting onto the ‘posting’ phase where the height of fun is dropping things into other things. Balls into tubs. Toys into the bath. Blocks into other, bigger blocks.

Eating

He eats like a horse. He has for a while and sometimes he has off days but generally, I’ve never known a baby eat as much. On probably a third of days, he out eats his 4 year old sister. No real dislikes. Some very strong likes though (broccoli, naan bread, dhal, pasta with creamy cheese). Also, he likes to think he’s independent so anything he can hold and eat himself is usually a good bet. He also gets upset anytime he’s eating something and everybody else is eating something else.

There’s no self-preservation mechanism either. A massive bit of clearly undigestable apple (for somebody without any teeth)? No bother - he just lobs it in his mouth and hopes for the best. Starting to choke? Better throw in some more to force it all down. Fishing food out of a baby’s mouth without accidentally forcing it further into their mouth is a skill, and one that I don’t think I’ve mastered yet.

Sound

He can’t speak but he can mimic and he is the loudest baby. Not the loudest baby I’ve ever known. Just factually speaking, the loudest baby. We went to a wedding and he shouted with such ferocity, such volume, that people sought us out to tell us just how noisy he was. He’s not angry. He just likes the sound of his own voice. His eldest brother encourages him and they have shouting contests and it feels like a scene from a sitcom.

He spends a lot of time playing with his tongue and making different sounds so I’d have guessed that he’ll end up speaking quite early but :shrug: - who knows? I’m not really hoping he speaks early, but it’ll probably undo some of his frustration if he can let us know what he wants.

Sleeping

I mentioned I’d been up since 5:30am, didn’t I? He’s not the worst sleeper ever but I do wish he was a bit better. He tends to wake up somewhere between 6 and 7, have his first nap around 9 - 10, give us somewhere between 40 and 90 minutes. Then we’ll give him 3 or so hours, and he’ll nap again for usually between 30 and 90 minutes. Bedtime is often 6 - 6:30 and then he’ll wake up between 1 and 2 times in the night.

There are good days and there are bad days. Yesterday he was a massive pain. Maybe today will be better.

He’s sort of halfway between 2 and 3 naps - he should probably be on 2 naps by now but his naps are often pretty weak and if he does two 40 minute naps then he’s really not getting enough sleep. But it’s too late in the day to put him back down again for a third so we’re on two.

We’re also in a transition where he’s starting to nap in his cot more than his pram (where previously he’s exclusively been pram napped). Last child we went too heavy on cot naps and lost the ability to nap her in the cot, so we’re hoping to keep both options available to us this time.

Fun

He likes peek-a-boo, loud noises, baths, shouting and flapping (being a dinosaur), his big brother (mainly) and big sister (slightly), grabbing things he shouldn’t (this laptop, right now), books, chewing things, and of course, the big one, mummy.

Conclusion

He’s finished his breakfast and is shouting at me and mauling me so I’ll bring this to an undignified close. He’s changed a lot and will keep on changing. I just need to try to bask in it all without going insane.