Pulling Up

Sam is starting to pull up on things. He can pull himself up to where he is standing on his knees, and he can pick one foot up, but he hasn't quite figured out how to shift his weight to that foot to stand up. He doesn't want to go in his exersaucer any more. He wants to stand up on the outside of it and play with the toys from there. He also figured out how to sit up on his own a few weeks ago. He's been sitting since he was 6 months old, but that was when we put him in the sitting position. He started going from tummy to sitting right at 8 months. If he doesn't want to take a nap, we'll find him sitting up or pulling up and fussing. I had to remove his mobile from his crib today because he was using it to stand up and he pulled it over on himself.

(I wrote this post on Thursday but just now got around to finishing it, so today=Thursday. I was waiting to publish some videos, but Chris has been trying to backup our Mac for a few days in preparation for our new Mac Pro. So, I'll just have to post those videos next time.)

So of course it's time to baby-proof the house now. We called Dr. Babyproofer that I met at the Mom's group through Medical Center of Plano (MCoP). He had a lot of good information. We have 22 cabinets, 29 drawers, 33 outlets, 18 doors, and 14 windows to secure along with other miscellaneous stuff. The single most expensive is the fireplace hearth gate, but it all adds up to around $1,000 uninstalled!!! I also met with Katch-a-Kid about installing a pool cover/net. It seems to be a better option than installing a fence. Both Dr. Babyproofer and our pool company Riverbend Sandler recommended them. That's going to be another $2,250. Here is a picture of Sam sitting on one of the leather cubes that we bought to replace the coffee table which was not child-friendly. Look at that red hair -- it's really coming in now!



We went out to eat to Joe's Crab Shack on Friday with Brad, Jennifer, and Jackson. We put Sam and Jackson next to each other in their high chairs. They wanted to take each others' food and toys and poke each other with messy, food-covered hands. They also just smiled and laughed at each other a lot. It was a fun restaurant to go to because they have lots of lights everywhere and the waiters dance to the music.

We went to a birthday party for four of the kids from our MCoP Mom's group on Sunday. It was a circus theme. There were a lot of people there and the room was pretty crowded, so Sam didn't get to crawl around and play very much. We took pictures with a clown doll which Sam liked very much. They had a bunch of stationary toys which he liked too, like a Leap Frog table, a Leggo type table, and a lady-bug rocker. It seems like when you get babies that are this age together, they mostly want to poke each others' eyes or bite each other. We got a big laugh out of the number of cameras in the room, so we took a picture of everybody else taking a picture.




I took the day off from work today, and Sam and I went to the Plano Library Rhyme Time. It's a storytime for children birth to 23 months. They had books, songs, rhymes, peek-a-boo, bubbles, and other stuff like that. We met a few of the moms and babies from the MCoP Mom's group there. Sam loved to watch the other babies and especially liked the bubbles. After most people left Sam was crawling around the wide open room like crazy. Then we left and met Daddy for lunch.



I bought some fruit and veggie puffs and wagon wheels for Sam to practice his pincher grasp and eating finger foods. He can pick them up and put them in his mouth, but then he makes a face and spits them out. Eating has been hit or miss lately. Some days he'll take 35 oz or more of formula then the next he'll only take 22 oz. Some days he'll eat three jars of baby food and others he doesn't want any. It still seems like not eating coincides with teething, but I can't be sure. I check every morning and evening to see if those top teeth have come in yet, but still nothing. Sam is also learning how to drink his bottle by himself. It's a skill that he needs to learn to move up to the next class in day care. It's also a stepping stone to learning how to use a sippy cup.



Bathtime has been funny lately. Sam has started doing this thing where he puts his face in the water and tries to swallow it. He ends up breathing it and choking on it sometimes. We try to stop him, but that doesn't work. Somehow I don't think he's going to be scared of the water in the pool this summer. I can't wait! I already bought him some swim trunks and rashguards (swim tops) from Old Navy.



We are also going to have to move him to the bathtub for baths this weekend because he is starting to make a huge mess with all of the splashing!



-- Emily