The little man is now well capable of sleeping through the night, although getting him used to not getting his soother back if he loses it partway through the night is still a work in progress. He continues to sleep in almost as long as mom and dad do, and when he wakes up closer to 7 than 8, he's usually content to hang out in his crib and talk to himself until we come and get him. For a not-quite-six-month-old, he is surprisingly accommodating regarding requests to please, please just let mom and dad get another twenty minutes of sleep. He's a naturally happy and accommodating little guy.
Owen's introduction to solid foods has been a smashing success. After we had gotten past the hiccup around rice cereal and his mysterious rash, and moved on to first oats and then barley cereal, he was off and running. The first few attempts were mostly just a big mess but we (and by we, I mean my lovely wife) have figured out ways to get the food delivered, and Owen has figured out how to eat it with only a small quantity finding its way onto his chin, forehead, cheeks, bib, and chair. He eats with all signs of relish but I don't know if that's due to taste, texture, or just a satisfied desire to eat the way mommy and daddy eat.
We've recently started giving him water in a real (plastic) cup. This, too, he's figured out quite quickly, although he spills as much water as he drinks.
Owen's a big boy already. He's in the mid-ninetieth percentile for length and almost eighty for weight. He's bigger than kids four months older than him. When my Aunt saw five-month-old him she thought he was two months older than that. He's huge. It really strikes me when I look at older pictures of him. My lovely wife has a curved glass picture of him with Pooh Bear in his car seat and it's amazing how much smaller he was then. He doesn't even fit in that car seat anymore.
Sitting upright on his own is now a skill in his repertoire. He can do it for quite a while, before gradually starting to sink to one side. He can sometimes throw out an arm to stop himself but then is mechanically unable to right himself, with his disproportionately large cranium. He takes this situation in stride and trusts that mom or dad will help him shortly.
His motor control is much better than it used to be, as well. He's gone from flailing in the general direction of things he wants to carefully reaching for them and manipulating them. When we give him the blue rubber teething butterfly he can pick it up and keep its wings in good chewing position. When playing with his rattle-ball, sitting on the chair, he figured out that he could toss it up to but not beyond the edge of the seat cushion and it would roll back to him, and then did that for a while before getting bored with it.
It's hilarious to me how much smoother his motions are when he's asleep, or falling asleep. He normally sleeps with a blanket on him and Cow, with a stuffed-animal head and a soft blanket body, at his side. When he's falling asleep and you give him Cow he wraps his arm around it gently and exactly. Sometimes we go in and see him sleeping on his side, cuddled up with Cow. Sometimes he grabs the blanket-part of it and pulls it over his face, or ends up with a Cow-hat.
A lot of that fine motor control is dedicated to the pursuit of independence, for Owen is already a very independent little boy. When he gets his vitamin D drops, he wants to grab the dropper and manage it himself. When he's eating, he wants to hold the spoon and feed himself. The look of satisfaction he gets when he's lying one way and manages to roll over, without needing someone to flip him, is sublime.
Once he figures out how to walk we're going to be in some real trouble.
Owen's introduction to solid foods has been a smashing success. After we had gotten past the hiccup around rice cereal and his mysterious rash, and moved on to first oats and then barley cereal, he was off and running. The first few attempts were mostly just a big mess but we (and by we, I mean my lovely wife) have figured out ways to get the food delivered, and Owen has figured out how to eat it with only a small quantity finding its way onto his chin, forehead, cheeks, bib, and chair. He eats with all signs of relish but I don't know if that's due to taste, texture, or just a satisfied desire to eat the way mommy and daddy eat.
We've recently started giving him water in a real (plastic) cup. This, too, he's figured out quite quickly, although he spills as much water as he drinks.
Owen's a big boy already. He's in the mid-ninetieth percentile for length and almost eighty for weight. He's bigger than kids four months older than him. When my Aunt saw five-month-old him she thought he was two months older than that. He's huge. It really strikes me when I look at older pictures of him. My lovely wife has a curved glass picture of him with Pooh Bear in his car seat and it's amazing how much smaller he was then. He doesn't even fit in that car seat anymore.
Sitting upright on his own is now a skill in his repertoire. He can do it for quite a while, before gradually starting to sink to one side. He can sometimes throw out an arm to stop himself but then is mechanically unable to right himself, with his disproportionately large cranium. He takes this situation in stride and trusts that mom or dad will help him shortly.
His motor control is much better than it used to be, as well. He's gone from flailing in the general direction of things he wants to carefully reaching for them and manipulating them. When we give him the blue rubber teething butterfly he can pick it up and keep its wings in good chewing position. When playing with his rattle-ball, sitting on the chair, he figured out that he could toss it up to but not beyond the edge of the seat cushion and it would roll back to him, and then did that for a while before getting bored with it.
It's hilarious to me how much smoother his motions are when he's asleep, or falling asleep. He normally sleeps with a blanket on him and Cow, with a stuffed-animal head and a soft blanket body, at his side. When he's falling asleep and you give him Cow he wraps his arm around it gently and exactly. Sometimes we go in and see him sleeping on his side, cuddled up with Cow. Sometimes he grabs the blanket-part of it and pulls it over his face, or ends up with a Cow-hat.
A lot of that fine motor control is dedicated to the pursuit of independence, for Owen is already a very independent little boy. When he gets his vitamin D drops, he wants to grab the dropper and manage it himself. When he's eating, he wants to hold the spoon and feed himself. The look of satisfaction he gets when he's lying one way and manages to roll over, without needing someone to flip him, is sublime.
Once he figures out how to walk we're going to be in some real trouble.
No comments:
Post a Comment