2/25/08

Well, the fact that I’m writing this is proof that Avi survived my 36-hour absence last weekend. We weren’t sure how it was going to go, because he had yet to take more than an ounce from a bottle, but convinced he wouldn’t starve to death with his father, grandma, and brother around to take care of him, I left him without a boob for a day and a half. He survived. He took the bottle and he ate a lot of cereal, but boy was he hungry when I got home! I’m so glad I went. No one is the worse for it, and I’m better off.
Avi pulled himself up to a stand yesterday. He was playing on the laundry room floor messing around with a stepstool for the longest time. Whacking it, shaking it, sliding around it, tasting it, etc, when I looked over and he was nearly standing. He had his feet on the floor and his hands on the top of the stool and the rest of his body in the air in between. Then he toppled, but “holy cow!” I said, “You’re standing kiddo.” He wasn’t perfectly vertical, but that’s because of the height of the stool. He’s definitely crawling now. He moves fast enough that he disappears. He was playing on the kitchen floor this evening, and when I looked over, he was gone. He was making his way into the playroom/dog room (which has things unsuitable for him like dog food and small toys), so I picked him up and brought him back to the kitchen. By the time I walked back to the other side of the kitchen and turned around again, he was halfway across the threshold to the playroom again.
He certainly has a mind of his own. He inherited that from his brother apparently. God help us. He has discovered that he loves boinging the doorstop in his bedroom. He boings it until it twists off, and then he grabs it and sucks on it. Figuring that it’s not the best thing for him to be sucking on (it’s not like there’s any shortage of appropriate baby toys in the room, I propped up the large cloth playmat against the wall behind the door. Out of sight out of mind, right? He can’t have object permanence yet?!? Maybe it’s that or maybe it’s just the Scherer-Hughes-Lieberman strong willed-stubborn gene. It had been a day or two since he had last messed with the doorstop, but when I heard that distinct “boing” from the next room I came in to find him sucking on the detached doorstop having crawled across the room from where I had put him down, squeezed behind the playmat and found his favorite of favorites.
When he’s not crawling around, he is sitting up quite comfortably now. He can’t quite get into that position on his own, so he likes to be sat up, but then is happy to play with toys for long periods of time like that. Of course, he pushes the toy out of his reach and then gets frustrated that he can’t grab it anymore. Soon enough he’ll have the forward lunge and back to sit move figured out. He wants to be sitting up, but on his own he mostly just manages a sideways prop (see photo). Sort of lying on one side, holding himself up at an angle with one arm, but that makes it hard to do much else (see photo).
In other developments, Avi has learned that he can get a rise out of me if he blows raspberries while eating. He thinks it’s pretty hilarious when I say “no” with a stern voice and face. Meanwhile I’m convinced he learned these atrocious manners from his otherwise well-mannered cousin, Colin. I’m going to have to have a talk with that boy. He’s older, he should be a better role model.
Noah had a great time with Grandma Sandy here last week. When it was time for her to leave, he had a melt down and hid on the couch under a blanket sobbing great heaving sobs, saying, “I don’t want Grandma to leave.” He’s such a sensitive little guy. What a mix of stubborn, difficult, sensitive, and high feeling. Wonder where he got that from?