This is my venture into one of the Seven Deadly Sins...PRIDE.
I have the perfect child.
That’s right, you heard me! It may seem a little presumptuous, him being barely 10 months and all, and yes, it was a little tough during the first 4 months when he wouldn’t sleep the whole night, but he has blossomed into such a delightful little person. Here is my humble disclaimer – I don’t know what I did so good in my life that I deserve such an angel.
His eating habits are incredible. He eats whatever “jarred” food I give him without a fuss. He never spits any food out. In fact, my Little Lovebug doesn’t spit up, period. He has even started eating what I call “Real People Food”, food that I make for myself and Big Daddy Lovebug. He eats pulled pork, bread, pasta and more. He doesn’t gag and is relatively a neat eater too.
My Little Lovebug sleeps from the moment I place him down in his crib at 8:00 PM to the moment we wake him up in the morning so I can feed him before work at 6:30 AM. That’s over 10 hours!!! Plus, if we want a little extra snooze time on the weekend, we place him back in his crib with a few toys for a little bit and he entertains himself!!!
He is, generally speaking, a happy baby. I won’t lie – duh, he cries – after all, it would be inhuman for him not to. But, his smile lights up a room and our room is bright often. Unless he’s tired or hungry, he allows anyone to hold him, even if he’s never met the person before. He greets everyone with a glowing smile, especially Big Daddy Lovebug!
Car rides are a joy. Maybe it’s the combination of the steady movement plus the Rockabye Baby tunes streaming out of the speakers. Either way, he loves looking out of the window at the passerby’s and trees. He is so alert and I love stretching my hand over to his car seat so I can hold his hand. Very difficult to do, by the way! If it’s a long car ride, he usually falls asleep!
Like all babies, Little Lovebug takes his share of topple overs and clunky bunks. A fantastic piece of advice I received and try very hard to follow – Never react when a child gets hurt. It’s usually the parent’s reaction that the child feeds off of, therefore creating a false sense of pain. For example – my Little Lovebug, while sitting up, timbers down. He clunks his head. A parent’s reaction is usually to freak out, go into panic mode, which in itself freaks the child out to the point where they become hysterical. I have learned that if the child is really hurt, they will start crying all on their own. So I wait, as painful as it is and as much as a parental reflex as it is to scoop him up. My Little Lovebug whimpers a bit, and then rolls back over to his toy and continues playing. Hysterics averted. Of course, there are times that call for extra doses of “mom-love,” such as the time Little Lovebug rolled right off the couch. He cried for a good five minutes. I cried for about a half an hour.
I’ve been taking him for Mommy and Me Swimming Classes at the local YMCA. We’ve been learning simple water commands. We’ve been doing this for 11 weeks and though, obviously I’m not about to let him go in the water on his own, he really has such a great time. He’s even starting to pull himself up on the pool ledge. He kicks his legs excitedly (“Run Run Run”) and loves grabbing the water toys they put out for him (“Reach and Pull.”) The only thing he’s not so keen on is the dunking under the water. I think it’s because he swallows too much of that heavily chlorinated water, so that I can understand! We’re working on it though! We’re taking these classes because we go on vacations very often and I really wanted him to be comfortable in the water. I highly recommend it to anyone.
On a slightly negative note - he has been teething badly for the last week or so. Two little teeth have broken through his bottom row and one sharp one is starting to wedge down from the top. His gums are so swollen! I feel so sad for him, because he must be in such excruciating pain. I’ve been trying some homeopathic remedies for pain relief (trying to avoid putting commercialized drugs into his little body.)
I actually can’t believe he’s almost 10 months old. I’ve been editing videos and pictures of him that I’m hoping to format into a “Little Lovebug’s First Year” DVD. He seems so small to me still that I find it hard to believe that he was once even smaller!
*sigh of pure contentment*
My little guy…
