Baby Boy Knight’s blog

Yesterday, Milo attended his first reading group at the library -- a half-hour story time for babies 12 months and younger. Jonah was the only daddy there (all other babies came with their mommies), and both he and Milo enjoyed the outing.

Milo has not really spent a lot of time with other babies, so this is a great opportunity. We have some friends with toddlers, and my brothers both have kids, so Milo's been around many kids of all ages, but not consistently, and not really anyone his own age. Jonah said that Milo really watched all the other babies -- the boy next to him, specifically (they kept making each other giggle, which sounds great!), and a girl in a yellow dress who crawled by, and several of the babies who were walking.

Jonah said Milo really watched the walkers, and then the most interesting thing happened yesterday -- story time was in the morning, and for the rest of the day, Milo seemed to be trying to figure out how to walk. He'd sit on his knees and try to pick one foot up. I saw him do it last night, too. I was sitting on the floor with him, and he leaned on my leg and was trying to tuck one foot under him, like you do when you stand up from a sitting position. How cool is that -- it's like a moment when we could actually see his mind working, trying to figure out how to do what he saw the other babies doing. (Believe me, he's not close to walking or anything, but he was trying to pick up his feet in a way that he never had before. It must have been from watching the other babies in the morning!)

So anyway, back to story time: They read Goodnight Moon (a classic) and the librarian also passed out little shaker toys and sang a song with the babies. Jonah said Milo was perhaps more interested in trying to eat his shaker than to actually shake it, but oh well, at least he participated. :-)

What a fun adventure! The library offers this session once a week (Tuesday mornings). And it sounds like Jonah and Milo may become regulars.

So we started to crawl! Yay! :-)

Wednesday (June 11), I came home from work and Jonah said he thought Milo was really close to crawling. So of course I promptly spread a big blanket on the floor and we all plopped down. And Milo started crawling! We were so excited, and our excitement made him laugh and laugh. It was so cute.

He's a little shaky but getting the hang of it. Several "steps" (what do you call a crawl segment?) and then he'll pause or fall down. We've had lots of fun in the past few days, as he's been getting the hang of it ... I can see that everything will change now.

And on Friday morning, I left for work right before Milo got up, and Jonah called me midmorning to tell me that when he went into Milo's room in the morning to get him, Milo was standing upright, holding onto the side of the crib. AAAA! He hadn't pulled himself up at all before then, but since Friday, he's done it every chance he caught. Even tonight, I had him on my lap on the couch and he wriggled around to face me and then pulled himself up to a standing position on my lap, with his hands first on my shoulders and then on the back of the couch behind me. I can see that we have a very antsy little guy on our hands. I'm a little worried about him bumping into things (and I see lots of bumps and bruises in our future), but I'm also excited for his world opening up. Hooray for you, Milo.

Saturday Milo said his first word ... if "uh-oh" counts as a word. He was mimicking us, of course, but he said "uh oh" very clearly and repeatedly. Continued on Sunday. So cute. I love it!

Milo had his 9-month checkup at the doctor's in the last week of May. He weighs 18.5 pounds and is 28 inches long. Everything checked out OK, and he got only one shot. Jonah told the doctor about our new experiment with cloth diapers -- we're using them for overnights, with success -- and she sort of made fun of us. Said she thought cloth diapers were too much work, but good for us if we could do it. Clearly she hasn't investigated the current range of cloth diapers -- you can find some that are really quite easy, and low hassle. I'm really glad that we're investigating ways to keep chemicals away from Milo (cloth diapers, glass bottles) because clearly the doctor will provide no guidance on this topic. Which is too bad, really. Doctors should keep up.

Also in the last week we've had two toy casualties. Watson got hold of Mr. Bear and Alligator, both small stuffed animals that Milo liked. Watson liked them too, and very much indeed ... but his version of "liking" stuffed toys is that he tears them to bits. Oh, well. In 9 months we've only lost two toys, so that's a pretty good track record. Milo and Watson both seem satisfied, so all is well in our household. :-)

So we drove to Connecticut over Memorial Day weekend to visit Jonah's mom. It was Milo's first road trip, woo hoo!

The drive is normally about 7 hours, give or take. With Milo, it took 9 hours. We stopped several times on the trip to feed him, change him, or just get him out of the car seat to wriggle around a little. He slept a little and was generally pretty happy on the drive (thus, we were all happy); only got a little cranky during the last hour or so (each way). So we count it a success ... altho those driving days felt so very long.

Milo got to meet his great-grandparents (Jonah's mom's parents), which was awesome. And we celebrated Jonah's mom's birthday, which was fun. Plus she graciously watched him one afternoon to let us escape to the movies, a very nice treat. All in all, a very good trip. Altho whew, it was tiring. Traveling with the little guy is a lot different from traveling without him. Not that that's a surprise! :-)

So now we officially have two teeth. Visible, cut through the gums, teeth, on the bottom, right next to each other. Hooray for Milo. :-)

I'll try to post a photo but it's kind of ridiculous for two reasons: (a) the teeth are so small (well, Milo's face/mouth/etc. are so small) and (b) it's difficult to take a photo of the inside of a baby's mouth. I know, I've been trying. But I've got a few pix in which you can sort of see what's happening, so I'll put one into the photos page.

He's doing this great, adorable thing now too -- feeling the gum line (and probably his new teeth too) with his tongue. His mouth hangs open a little and you just see his tongue rolling around and poking out. Very, very funny.

Sailing right into 9 months, we are. I thought for sure by now I'd have reported that he's starting to crawl, but nope. Altho he's so darn close -- gets up on his hands and knees and rocks a little, and then usually falls onto his side and just rolls in the direction he wants to move. He can certainly get to where he wants to go, via multiple hilarious rolling and turning maneuvers. Good show; and it will certainly be something when he's actually crawling!

Last night we had one of those rain storms that start suddenly, where in the span of a few minutes it goes from no precipitation to a downpour. It occurred right about the time we were putting Milo to bed, and he was fussing in his crib because he didn't want to be going to bed ... well, as soon as that rain started pouring, Milo's whole demeanor changed -- he sighed, settled himself, and turned onto his side and promptly fell asleep. It was amazing -- that he would find the sound of the rain so comforting. Unless it was a total coincidence, of course.

We'll have to try one of those sound machines that plays different nature sounds, to see whether it will help him settle at night. We've been playing music for him at bedtime, but this might be worth experimenting with. :-)

Last night we had one of those rain storms that start suddenly, where in the span of a few minutes it goes from no precipitation to a downpour. It occurred right about the time we were putting Milo to bed, and he was fussing in his crib because he didn't want to be going to bed ... well, as soon as that rain started pouring, Milo's whole demeanor changed -- he sighed, settled himself, and turned onto his side and promptly fell asleep. It was amazing -- that he would find the sound of the rain so comforting. Unless it was a total coincidence, of course.

We'll have to try one of those sound machines that plays different nature sounds, to see if it will help him settle at night. We've been playing music for him at bedtime, but this might be worth experimenting with. :-)

Today Milo has big news to share ... his first tooth is cutting through the gums. Yay!

We've suspected teething for a while, and he's been drooling, and making funny sucking faces and twisting his tongue around, and his gums have looked a little swollen -- Well, today, we see signs of a first tooth cutting through on the bottom. A very exciting day in our household. (Seriously: Jonah called me at work this afternoon to share the news. It was that exciting for us.)

Even with this new development, the little guy was sweet and happy all day (no crank). We'll see if and when he gets fussy about this ... I'm sure it will become uncomfortable. For now, so far so good. Hooray for you, Milo.

Milo learned a new sound on Friday ... it goes like this: buh buh buh. Or sometimes, bah bah bah. He spent the whole weekend making these great little B sounds, and it continues today as well. We love it. It cracks me up, actually. He's very determined and focused as he goes buh buh buh buh.

Other news from the past week: On Tuesday night, Milo met his first bona fide politician. She held him for a while, actually. :-)  ...Jonah went to a volunteers/organizational meeting for the Congressional campaign for a past mayor of Frederick, and he took Milo along. Jennifer (the past mayor in question) picked up Milo and walked around the room with him a little bit, getting him to laugh and smile some (not so hard to do with this kid; he'd be a politician's dream baby to meet at a campaign stop).

A few months ago we had been joking about the upcoming Maryland primary election (it was early February), and Jonah said that if any of the presidential candidates -- at that point in time they were greater in number than now -- did a campaign event close to Frederick, he would bundle Milo up and go see the stump speech or whatever. But it didn't work out, and Milo didn't meet any national-scale politicians (which, really, wouldn't have impressed him anyway). You think about things you want your child to do and opportunities you want him to have, and you probably don't think about something like meeting a future president of the United States. But it would be pretty cool to do, wouldn't it?

Sorry I haven't posted for a few weeks!

There's one milestone to note -- Milo had his 6-month checkup on February 28, and everything went A-OK. He now weighs 17 lbs (at the appt, weighed in at 17 lbs 1 oz), and is 24 1/2 inches long, wow. :-)  The doctor told us he could be eating larger quantities of veggies/fruits than what we're serving him, so we're going to gradually increase the solids (doc told us we can buy the larger size container; we've been feeding him the smaller size). He got four immunizations, and was a cranky pants for a day and half but then back to his normal angelic self.

Now it's March! Wow! Time is surely flying. Milo's getting better at sitting up -- needs assistance, but can sit for a few seconds on his own before falling over. We've also started Cheerios, yay. He sort of gums them until they dissolve. It's more of an eye-hand coordination game at this point -- we throw a handful of Cheerios on the high chair tray and he tries to pick them up and get them into his mouth. (Most don't make it.) The dogs have now assumed regular stations under the high chair because Cheerios regularly fall from the sky, which delights them. I suspect it's just the first food of many to come that Milo will inadvertently feed to Moxie and Watson.

I am so happy that the weather is getting slightly warmer -- last week or so, it's been in the 50s -- because we'll be taking more frequent walks, and with the time change to daylight savings, the daylight lasts longer now so we can even walk after I get home from work. I look forward to it!