It's been a while since I updated on here. The little man has blown through a number of significant milestones while I've been busy not blogging about it. So, let's catch up.
Hair Styles
The advent of more significant hair happened very quickly. After it came in, when he was sitting and playing, he would absent-mindedly reach up and tug at it, realizing that there was something new up there.
It's usually a light brown colour, but sometimes it looks darker, and sometimes it looks very blonde, and sometimes it looks full-out ginger copper red. I couldn't tell you where it will end up.
Diet
So far we've gone through apples, peaches, bananas and pears, yams, beans, carrots, peas, butternut squash (yum!) and creamed corn. He really likes yams and squash and he enjoys bananas as long as they're fresh. You can give him a pretty hefty hunk of banana, one small chunk at a time, and he'll happily stuff it down.
We give him cheerios with some meals. He hasn't mastered the pincer-grip so he grabs them awkwardly with his whole fist and then tries to get the whole thing into his mouth. He can be surprisingly effective with this approach. Sometimes he will start off by rounding up all the cheerios on his tray and collecting them all into his hands, until he's holding all of them, at which point he will realize that there is no way to eat them in that state.
More recently we've gotten him started with chicken. He likes real chicken, and real beef, but the baby-food chicken is another thing altogether. I can't say I blame him as it smells quite unpleasant. He still makes terrible faces when you first give it to him, and he will usually proceed from faces, to reluctance, to outright refusal. We sometimes mix in other things with the chicken to try to get them down him.
The other day we finished the chicken and went for the next course, which was beans. My lovely wife held the spoon of beans before his resolutely closed mouth; then he caught a whiff of the odour, realized it wasn't chicken, and opened his mouth as wide as I've ever seen.
Tooth Grinding
Owen grinds his teeth. It makes a pretty awful noise. I don't know why he does it and I can't think of a way to discourage it.
Mobility
Owen has mastered the crawl.
His first forays into mobility involved squirming around on his belly, and sometimes rolling. He then worked up to pushing up with his arms and flopping forward. From there he mastered the crawling position, and then would either glide forward, Sun Salute style, or push up into a pike (bear crawl style) and wiggle his bum in the air, uncertain of how to proceed. My lovely wife suspects that he was actually trying to stand up when he did this.
Once he worked out the mechanics of proper crawling, he was off like a rocket. He now crawls all over the place and baby gates have duly been deployed.
He can get up to a standing position if he has something to hold onto, and he can conduct the operation they refer to as 'cruising', in which he moves around while holding onto nearby objects of furniture for balance. In his activity table he can, and often does, push himself all the way around its perimeter in endless loops.
He will often greet us in the morning in his crib, having lifted himself up to a kneeling position, with both hands and a smiling face peeking out over the railing.
Social Conditioning
Owen is doing a good job of learning to listen. Usually when you tell him 'no', he listens. Sometimes he chooses not to. Often he will be distracted and then get distracted back to the first thing, and will have forgotten. Still, it's pretty impressive.
A while ago my lovely wife was up with him in the morning and I was still abed, engaged in being a slothful layabout, as one does. Owen gave out a very loud LAAAAAAA sound. My lovely wife said, "Shhhhh, daddy's sleeping." Owen responded with a very soft, "laaaaaaaa ..."
Nautical Affairs
Owen recently took part in his first sail.
This was generally considered to be a success, although he was not entirely in favour of the idea. The principal objection involves the life jacket that he is obliged to wear; it is large and not particularly well suited to the types of mobility he presently has at his disposal. There is also not as much to see, in terms of the sorts of things he likes to look at, such as bright colours, loud noises, and large moving objects.
He is, however, a natural. Sitting on my lap, when the boat would heel with the wind, he'd quietly adjust his position, leaning into it as you are supposed to do. He can't yet walk but he already has his sea legs.
Hair Styles
The advent of more significant hair happened very quickly. After it came in, when he was sitting and playing, he would absent-mindedly reach up and tug at it, realizing that there was something new up there.
It's usually a light brown colour, but sometimes it looks darker, and sometimes it looks very blonde, and sometimes it looks full-out ginger copper red. I couldn't tell you where it will end up.
Diet
So far we've gone through apples, peaches, bananas and pears, yams, beans, carrots, peas, butternut squash (yum!) and creamed corn. He really likes yams and squash and he enjoys bananas as long as they're fresh. You can give him a pretty hefty hunk of banana, one small chunk at a time, and he'll happily stuff it down.
We give him cheerios with some meals. He hasn't mastered the pincer-grip so he grabs them awkwardly with his whole fist and then tries to get the whole thing into his mouth. He can be surprisingly effective with this approach. Sometimes he will start off by rounding up all the cheerios on his tray and collecting them all into his hands, until he's holding all of them, at which point he will realize that there is no way to eat them in that state.
More recently we've gotten him started with chicken. He likes real chicken, and real beef, but the baby-food chicken is another thing altogether. I can't say I blame him as it smells quite unpleasant. He still makes terrible faces when you first give it to him, and he will usually proceed from faces, to reluctance, to outright refusal. We sometimes mix in other things with the chicken to try to get them down him.
The other day we finished the chicken and went for the next course, which was beans. My lovely wife held the spoon of beans before his resolutely closed mouth; then he caught a whiff of the odour, realized it wasn't chicken, and opened his mouth as wide as I've ever seen.
Tooth Grinding
Owen grinds his teeth. It makes a pretty awful noise. I don't know why he does it and I can't think of a way to discourage it.
Mobility
Owen has mastered the crawl.
His first forays into mobility involved squirming around on his belly, and sometimes rolling. He then worked up to pushing up with his arms and flopping forward. From there he mastered the crawling position, and then would either glide forward, Sun Salute style, or push up into a pike (bear crawl style) and wiggle his bum in the air, uncertain of how to proceed. My lovely wife suspects that he was actually trying to stand up when he did this.
Once he worked out the mechanics of proper crawling, he was off like a rocket. He now crawls all over the place and baby gates have duly been deployed.
He can get up to a standing position if he has something to hold onto, and he can conduct the operation they refer to as 'cruising', in which he moves around while holding onto nearby objects of furniture for balance. In his activity table he can, and often does, push himself all the way around its perimeter in endless loops.
He will often greet us in the morning in his crib, having lifted himself up to a kneeling position, with both hands and a smiling face peeking out over the railing.
Social Conditioning
Owen is doing a good job of learning to listen. Usually when you tell him 'no', he listens. Sometimes he chooses not to. Often he will be distracted and then get distracted back to the first thing, and will have forgotten. Still, it's pretty impressive.
A while ago my lovely wife was up with him in the morning and I was still abed, engaged in being a slothful layabout, as one does. Owen gave out a very loud LAAAAAAA sound. My lovely wife said, "Shhhhh, daddy's sleeping." Owen responded with a very soft, "laaaaaaaa ..."
Nautical Affairs
Owen recently took part in his first sail.
This was generally considered to be a success, although he was not entirely in favour of the idea. The principal objection involves the life jacket that he is obliged to wear; it is large and not particularly well suited to the types of mobility he presently has at his disposal. There is also not as much to see, in terms of the sorts of things he likes to look at, such as bright colours, loud noises, and large moving objects.
He is, however, a natural. Sitting on my lap, when the boat would heel with the wind, he'd quietly adjust his position, leaning into it as you are supposed to do. He can't yet walk but he already has his sea legs.
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