One Year Plus: Food & Fun

Pike is now a year and a month old. He gets cuter and more awesome all the time. I realized the other day that it's been awhile since I did an official update post, so here it is!

• Pike is crawling for real. No more army crawling, he's got those arms straight, and he's doing things properly now - if there's a proper way to tear across the floor like a madman.
• He can't get near the stairs without wanting to climb them. Climbing the stairs is his favorite thing. Seriously.
• Still no walking, but when he doesn't notice he's doing it, Pike can stand on his own. He's just still terrified of it, so as soon as he notices it's happening, he gets freaked.
• When he's bored with eating or full, Pike starts handing his food to people. He likes most giving it to the puppies, but we do our best not to let him - so he hands it to us. Sometimes when we hand it back, he'll eat it. Sometimes when Wes pretends to eat it, he will then pretend to eat it. See the video below:
  
• He's more interested in sounds than words at the moment, though he's learning context for "mama" and "dada." He's also getting better about saying "bye bye" and waving when people leave - though he notably won't do it for me when I drop him off at daycare.
• Pike's finally learned to walk using the walker toy he got from Jeremy & Cori's little one Sylvia. And he loves it. I think once he realizes the he can have that same range of motion without mommy and daddy turning the toy and helping him steer, he'll be unstoppable.
• Though he's by and large an unpicky eater, he is learning to hate some things or just ignore them. While he loves meatballs with marinara sauce, we gave him a hamburger patty the other day and he was having none of that. 
• We're finding a schedule with potty time so he can get used to it, and he's hitting the target of peeing and pooping in the potty in the mornings and evenings pretty regularly now. I know, gross. But I'm still proud!
• Pike officially outgrew his baby carseat and is now in a convertible seat. He's still rear facing until he gets a touch bigger, but soon...
• Pike is obsessed with the Roku remote. I don't know why, but that particular remote is apparently the best thing since sliced bread.
• We're running into the clothing problem that 12 month stuff fits great except for pants, which he tends to be a little too skinny for. 

So there's the state of the Pike address for September. How are your families doing?

The Best of Baby Vomit

I was reading a list of embarrassing baby stories, and I figured that I'd share mine right here. It's not my only one, of course, but it's my favorite so far.

My best friend is in the navy, so when she was home visiting her family, I brought Pike up to see her and her parents. We went out to lunch, which I wasn't at all worried about since Pike (who was around seven months at the time, I believe) was always so well behaved. Naturally that day he was fussy. Instead of just letting him scream, I decided to distract him with his lunch.

He ate like it was going out of style and devoured everything I'd brought alone. I figured he'd drift off for a nap, but he was still a little fussy, so I picked him up to cuddle him into submission. The waiter came over and was saying how cute he was and, just as our (thankfully very nice) waiter finished the sentence, Pike puked. He didn't just spit up a little. He vomitted everything he'd eaten - right onto me. Naturally I had a change of clothes all ready for him, but I had to pass the baby off to my friend so I could go to the bathroom and clean off as much puke as I could.

It's worth noting that he's only puked like that one time since... and it was right down my back. Yep, mommy's a puke magnet. Lucky me!

Mom Thought of the Day: Vacuuming

Woman looking at the vacuum bag, originally uploaded by thefroghunter.

My floors are not so clean that I would eat off of them. Thankfully Pike's standards are lower than mine, and if I hate a guest so much that I'd make them eat off the floor, they probably wouldn't have gotten in the front door anyway.

One Year Later

Today, August 7, 2012, my baby boy is one year old. A year ago today at almost this exact moment, I was numb from the waist down and panicking because I couldn't feel it when I was breathing. The nurse calmed me down, and I was medicated enough that it wasn't hard to do. A few minutes later, I heard Pike cry for the very first time. He was swept away with Wes watching over him and cleaned up. Then I saw my little boy and got to kiss him before he was swept off all over again and I didn't see him for another 32 hours.

This year I've been more proud and tired and excited than I've ever been before in my whole life. Pike has gone from not being able to remember to breathe on his own (literally) to climbing the stairs by himself (his most recent accomplishment). He can babble and laugh and clap and high five and even wave goodbye when he wants to. The tiny little baby who couldn't figure out how to work a nipple on a bottle eats Cheerios like it's going out of style. 

Once we decided to have a baby, there were moments of doubt and fear and worry. Since Pike was born, that hasn't gone away - but it's worry and fear for and about him. We want him to have every chance and do everything he wants to do. I can't see anything but my sweet, beautiful, perfect baby boy when I look at him. He gets cuter every single day. I may miss a phase when it passes ("Oh, that's our last smile with no teeth!"), but it's always exciting to see what he's going to do and learn and how he's going to change.

I can't imagine life without our sweet little goofball of a baby, and I can't wait to see what the next year will be like.

Happy birthday, Pike Alexander Howard!

Evolving Doors

Doors, originally uploaded by ~MeeeeMz~.

Right now, the most fascinating thing in the world to Pike is opening and closing doors. Cabinets, doors to rooms, whatever. He doesn't even get upset anymore when he hits himself in the face while doing it. Apparently it's so much fun he can't be bothered to mind. Why did we buy toys for him when he has such great doors?!

Total Creeper: Pike at 9.75 Months

Time seems to fly. I can't believe that Pike is almost ten months old. I can't believe my baby can do so many things. I look at pictures of him right after he was born and am absolutely FLOORED by the fact that not only has he grown so much, he just gets more amazing all the time. So here's what he's up to:

• Still crawling. Lots. Quickly. He gets faster all the time. His technique is still the army crawl, but he's an expert now.
• Creeping. While he can't stand himself, if you put him up against something, he can now hitch himself around and is even working tentatively on transitioning between objects (our ottomans and the couch, for example).
• Sitting up. Again, he isn't sitting up on his own yet (in terms of getting into the sitting position), but if we sit him up, he's getting pretty good at staying there. He's no expert yet, but he'll get there.
• Latching onto objects. He's starting to associate certain objects or certain things with certain times or tasks. For example, Wes was entertaining him after his bath last night and he was fidgety and kept looking over the the chaise lounge - which is where I feed him before bed. He also clings to his glow horse in the morning if we wake him up before he's ready since he knows that's what sleeps with him.
• He's allowed to eat soft foods, and is starting too: mashed up banana and sweet potato are the main ones so far, but we're slowly introducing more. It's weird having him eat something so close to "real" food even if it is mashed up. 
• He's far more vocal than he was before, and we think he's slowly putting together what words belong to what objects/people, though that's not consistent yet. 
• Pike's far more aware of his environment - where people go if they leave the room, what happens to objects he throws, what the stuff around him looks like. If he's on the floor in the living room and Wes or I are in the kitchen, he'll start crying and crawl his way in to us so we can pick him up.
• Puppies! He's finally realized that he has puppies and that he can play with them, pet them, and chase them around. And he loves it.
• He's trying out a sippy cup, though the technique isn't really there yet. Still it's very entertaining to watch.
• He knows, in theory, what no means. He doesn't always entirely stop what he's doing, but he'll pause (and often grin). Sometimes after a few rounds, he'll quit altogether, sometimes we have to redirect him.
• After watching mommy and daddy use them so much, Pike really, really wants to play with computers and Kindles. Which we let him do in limited, observed amounts. It's pretty funny. He's slowly figuring out that touching the touch screen affects what's happening, and it's fascinating.
• Give him a hand! He can clap now, and we're working on high fives and patty cake. He finds them funny but hasn't totally caught on just yet. 

Wordless Wednesday

Thug Baby, originally uploaded by ToyEater.