Friday, January 31, 2014

I'm resurfacing to tell you about my experience with motherhood - 7 months

I see it has been a month and a half  more than 2 months since I updated my blog. That's got to tell you something about my life. Basically, just read the last blog post and add a three week break from work, a revolving door of family and friends, and the giddy, tedious ambivalence of the holidays. And, since I wrote this and am now (hopefully) going to actually post this, another baby illness and a mad sprint to finish work-related projects.

I am still thoroughly addicted to my baby. Who, by the way, is now seven months old!! Babies have the ability to create micro worm holes, by the way, that cause them and those around them to move faster through time. Pretty sure that's a fact.

What I wrote 2+ weeks ago:
My baby now sits by himself, sometimes rolls places and obviously feels very brave and adventurous for doing so, loves to stand (with assistance of course), will occasionally try crawling (imagine flailing legs and a lot of squealing) before he rolls over, and has five teeth. He eats solids with wanton abandon...or at least as wanton as his abandon can be since mommy refuses to give him as much as he wants (He has never indicated he was full, ever. This kid can EAT.). He lunges for whatever catches his eye, making it important to keep a firm grip on him at all times. He has a desire to get his hands and teeth on ALL THE PAPER. He's babbling up a storm and his favorite sound is currently mama*. His feet are always soggy and he often waves a sock at us happily while yelling gu, which I believe translates to "HAHA, I have once again thwarted your attempt to imprison my feet with this hosiery!" 

An update to my update: 
He is now rolling everywhere and has almost figured out crawling. He pushes himself forward with his feet, rather than thrashing them uselessly. We are so screwed.He now has six teeth. And, the other day, I decided to see how long it took for him to give me the 'I'm full' signal. After 7 tablespoons of food he was still opening his mouth eagerly and I decided that this experiment was going to end in gastronomical disaster and cut him off. Also, screw you every single breastfeeding resource out there that claims a breastfed baby is better at identifying when he's full.

*My heart grows three sizes every time I hear it. **THIS is still totally true.

He is a reverse imagine of himself outside the house. Inside, he's loud and he never stops moving. Outside, he's a quite observer, studying everyone and everything. I swear if the kid could write he'd be taking notes on what everyone is doing...and then ripping them up and eating them.

The Little Guy gives his mama kisses. This involves grabbing me by my hair or ears, pulling my face to his open mouth, and then licking me. Sometimes he then screams in my face for good measure. R is super jealous.

I could go on and on. He almost always spends part of the day laughing uncontrollably at some mundane or unexpected thing I do (once it was saying the word "poop," another time it was laying on my back next to him and waving my feet in the air), so, of course, I do it one million times. He drools on everything I wear. I'm revising my "do not encourage the baby to move" policy and am encouraging crawling, because that's better than walking, which he really wants to do. He loves pureed kale but hates turkey. He stretches out the neckline of all my shirts. He has mommy and daddy wrapped around his pudgy, wet fingers and we love it.

Recently, I've seen a lot of "it's so hard posts" about having babies, about being a new parent, about the dramatic shift in life and identity that it brings. I'm not saying that isn't true. But for our family, our experience has been 90% positive. I realize that my husband plays a larger role than most, and that makes a big difference. We've been together a long time (13 years next month!) and I think that makes a big difference as well. And our baby is pretty easy. What can I say? We lucked out. That addendum aside, I want to add my voice to the online parent babble and say, it's not always that hard. Challenging? At times. Exhausting? Certainly. There's also poop and slobber, teething, biting, more slobber, and babies change the rules daily.

Yep. It's pretty awesome.