Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Independent soul



Preston is such a happy kid lately. He's rarely fussy unless he's tired or frustrated, but what baby isn't? He's so fascinated with all aspects of life. We love watching him figuring out how things work. Especially things he can open and close himself like drawers and doors. (If I haven't mentioned it already, those are his absolute favorites.) He studies them for awhile, reaches for the edge and will stay focused on swinging a door open and closed for a solid 10 minutes. Same with a drawer. Opening it and closing it, make sure we are watching and oohing and ahhhing over his drawer skills is one of his favorite things to do.


His other favorite thing right now is to pull himself up. On ANYTHING. Our legs, the coffee table, the toilet, (yuck.) the couch, the bed, Ruby, the stairs, (yikes!) and pretty much anything else he can get his hands on. It's all about independence right now. His little face beams with pride when he gets to his feet and stands. It's adorable and shocking at the same time. We consistently see him becoming more of his own person, which seems to be an emerging independent and curious sweetheart.


He's also "cruising" more and more everyday now. Cruising is a pre-cursor to walking, which I'm not particularly in a rush to have him do. He holds on to something and shakily moves his cute little legs along and relishes doing it himself. It's amazing to watch him totally "get it" and try even harder to go further and faster.

Another thing he wants to do independently is feed himself. It's difficult because purees are the bulk of calories he gets in regards to solids, even though breastmilk is still about 75% of his whole diet. But since he can't use a spoon, I have resorted to finding healthy and viable finger-foods for him in the way of table food. We haven't tried meat yet, so a lot of his solid-food protein is coming from whole cheeses and yogurt, hummus, beans, etc... However, I did get a great idea from a blog Holli sent me that mentioned adding enough baby cereal to purees so that they are thick enough to rolled into balls and self-fed for little fingers. Brilliant! I've been making these with everything and freezing them. Here he is gobbling them down:





For Memorial Day, we headed to my grandma Joan's house at Lake James and Preston got to swim in the pool for the first time. The lake was freezing, but we did go for a boat ride, which he also enjoyed. (But did NOT enjoy his life vest.) Suffice it to say that he loved the water and this kid is going to be a little fish. He splashed and kicked and had a blast. I can't wait to see him in water again!




We are still attending some mom's groups and he really loves to play with the other kids. Here he is crawling out to the center of the group and making sure I'm watching and also climbing up on the lactation consultant leader. He's such a ham.




Life is busy as ever here- STILL trying to sell our house, work on the new one and get plenty of quality time in with Preston as a family. Kevin and I are loving every second with him right now. I know I say this often, but right now- at 9 and a half months- it's my favorite stage so far. :) He's so much fun and has so much personality. Chatty, outgoing and social, and generally just growing and changing every day.

2 comments:

Betsy King said...

9 months IS an awesome age!!!!! So much fun and something new everyday!!

I'm sorry I forgot to tell you about adding cereal to foods to thicken them. Didn't think about making balls though. Great idea!! ; )

MISS YOU!!!!

Holli said...

He is really becoming such a little BOY!! I can't believe how big and independent he's getting!