No More Screechy Baby!

Sweet baby Alex has returned, for the most part. He's not as screechy as he was for a while. But while the grumpy teething-ness has subsided, he has become more opinionated lately. He is very insistent that he never, ever be left alone. Not even in his play pen across the room while I try to do something else. Oh, no. It's pretty much Alex and Mommy, together, all the time. I can sometimes trick him. I will lay him on the floor outside the bathroom. I will go into the bathroom and do "peek-a-boo" several times from behind the bathroom door. I will let longer time lapse between "peek-a-boo"s. Then, I make my move. I go ahead and pee, and hope that he just thinks it's an extended "hide." Usually, this tactic works. I then quickly jump back out and say "peek-a-boo" as if nothing happened. Yeah. I have to play peek-a-boo to go to the bathroom without the accompanying sound of a crying baby. And Dan wonders why I sometimes pick him up from work and ask him to drive while I walk home.

I was going on the theory that you can't spoil a baby with too much attention, cuddling, etc. before they were 6 months old. All the experts say that no baby is going to "learn to manipulate" things, and if they are crying, they just want to be close and feel loved. OK, that's great. I want Alex to feel loved, and safe, and secure. But I think that at some point he needs to learn to play on his own. Not for hours, but for 10 minutes. He cries almost immediately, as if I had abandoned him. Dan suggests that this is left over from days past, when if a kid realized he was not being carried, that meant he was going to be left behind by his nomadic tribe, and so crying whenever he's not in contact with a human being is a survival technique. I promise, Alex, I'm not going to leave you in the play pen, pack up our teepee and move on after the buffalo herd. I just want to do some dishes. Or laundry. Or go to the bathroom.

In more cheerful news, Alex is becoming a serious connoisseur. His over-enthusiastic mother is having so much fun watching him try new things that she's not heeding the dr.'s warning to try things one at a time to watch for allergies. I don't have any food allergies and neither does Dan, maybe that's why I'm not as apt to take that very seriously. Oops. For example, if he has a reaction to a recent new food, it's either avacados, papayas, cucumbers, or peas. Yeah...all of those were new foods within the last two days. But, he's just enjoying it so much, it's hard to resist one more new experience!

And finally, Alex is really trying to get around. He likes to get up on hands and toes, and he gets into a crawiling stance and then rocks back and forth like he's winding up for something grand. Still no actual productive movement forward, but it's so close he can taste it!


I'm so close! But now what do I do with my hands?

In my Yoga Class, we call this one "Downward Dog."


Just pausing for a goofy smile after all that hard work.