In the last month, James' mobility has increased dramatically. He first crawled on June 7. It was early in the morning, so Matt hadn't left for work and we were both witnesses to the event. He pulled himself up on the fireplace and coffee table a few days later. James can quickly and efficiently move across the room now. He has pulled himself up onto several objects--some of his more interesting attempts include: Brooks, Claire and a beach ball. He cruises back and forth on the fireplace. He is still working on getting back down to his rear end gracefully, but has improved on the maneuver. He is already confident enough to let go with one hand while standing. His favorite place to pull up is on his activity table. He gets very proud of himself and plays for several minutes with the different buttons. Other favorite toys include: stacking cups, his stuffed barn with animals, a mini piano that plays music and lights up, blocks, and whatever Claire is playing with. He loves to dig through a tub of toys and explore new objects with his hands and mouth.
Another big change for James this month is thumb sucking. He discovered his thumb about three weeks ago and goes for it just about anytime he's being held. He also sucks it when we put him down to sleep but doesn't seem to go back to it once he's fallen asleep. We know this will be an issue someday, but for now, we are glad he's found a way to self-soothe. He's been difficult to comfort and never liked the pacifier or any particular toy or blanket. Also, I'm not sure we could stop him from sucking his thumb if we wanted to; he's pretty adamant about it. The combination of increased mobility, thumb-sucking, and a wide variety of solid foods has really helped turn him into a much more fun and happy baby this past month. We're starting to have a lot of fun playing and interacting with him. We have also stopped giving him his reflux medicine.
James does very well with his solid food and eats three meals a day with us. New foods we've added this month are watermelon, apple, asparagus, and multi-grain cereal. Last night we gave him a few puffs on his tray for the first time. It was amusing to watch him try to pick them up. He did well eating them once they got there, but I think only about four made it all the way to his mouth.
Sleeping is still inconsistent for James. He wakes up
at least once every night. I try to just let him cry but sometimes it's so frustrating (he once cried for over two hours...) that I give-in and nurse him back to sleep. He goes down around 7:30 pm and wakes in the 5 am hour. If I'm lucky I can get him to go back to sleep for another hour after that. He usually takes three naps a day but those are still pretty unpredictable as far at the timing. He does well being left in the childcare at church and rarely naps anywhere except his crib or carseat. I am going to retract a previous blog post which stated that he has a tooth. It was a false alarm and no teeth have broken through yet. James is in size 3 diapers and mostly 9 month or 12 month clothes.
James' crawling has had a pretty big impact on Claire. She has become very possessive and doesn't like James to touch anything that belongs to her. She's good about not lashing out physically at him but there are multiple times every day where she screams "NO JAMES NO!!!" or "James doesn't touch my _____" or "Do you want to get him?" Poor Claire, as soon as I show her a safe place to put a toy (on the couch for example), James has figured out how to get it. She didn't know James would be able to crawl and grab her things someday and has a hard time controlling her emotions. There are frequent meltdowns in our house. I understand how she feels, but it sure makes for some tiring days.
Despite her frustration with James, they really do love each other and have some very sweet moments. He just lights up when she's around. I've actually found myself wishing she'd wake up from her nap because James is almost always in a better mood when she's around. Claire is sweet to bring him toys, read him a book, and try to make him laugh by making a funny sound.
Claire continues to amaze everyone with her verbal abilities. She doesn't just talk in sentences, she talks in paragraphs and has full conversations (and to be honest, her grammar is better than some adults!). She has started to answer "Why" questions now. A few funny things she still says are "tiviat table" instead of activity table, "gybee" (a made up word for being in just her diaper--a word that Matt and I now use too), and "May I have be excused?" to get down from the dining room table.
Claire's favorite toys are her magnet dress up dolls, her play food/dishes/kitchen, her dollhouse, Play Doh, Candy Land, Memory, coloring, dolls, and whatever James is playing with (yep... it goes both ways!). She loves listening to music and singing and has become very tender with her dolls (funny that her dolls always seem to be "crying" and need to be held... it's a wonder where she got that from). She is still a fantastic eater; doesn't like meat too much but does great with everything else. She is wearing size 5 diapers and size 2T clothing. She is not interested in potty training. We've had her little potty out for several weeks, but the suggestion of trying it out usually causes a meltdown.
The french/spanish vocabulary attempts have hit a wall with Claire and she no longer wants to name the body parts that we learned. I think she had more fun with the phrases and counting, so maybe we'll lay the vocabulary aside and learn some fun phrases. She still loves to say new words and will often repeat something we've said without us intending to. The best part about Claire repeating us without prompting is that she knows she's being funny and will scrunch her face up as she looks back and waits for us to laugh, which we usually do so she repeats it over and over as we laugh harder. These are great events at the dinner table since James often joins in with a few giggles.
