Aiden has been making great strides lately. He’s almost 9 months old and has been sitting up on his own for a while now. That’s pretty much how he spends most of his time these days, sitting on his own, playing with whatever he can get his hands on. Most of those objects end up in his mouth, but that’s pretty typical for an infant. All this time spent in a vertical position has also worked wonders for his reflux. He rarely spits up at all anymore, and when he does it’s very little and it’s usually because he just ate (which is all the time).
While I’m confident he has the ability to crawl, we haven’t seen him do it yet. He can do a full-on push-up when we put him on his belly, but just hasn’t gotten his legs moving at the same time. We’ve been trying to put him in a crawling position while helping him make the movements which will hopefully get him moving in the right direction. The funny part is that we know he can move because we’ll put him down to sleep at one end of his crib, and he’ll be at the complete opposite end when we go to pick him up in the morning. He’s also figured out how to spin himself around while on his belly – so he can turn himself to face whatever it is that has his attention.
He’s also making great progress in the standing department. As long as he has something to hold on to to help him balance, he can stand there forever. We’ve been propping him up against the edge of the couch (with his toy remote within arm’s reach) and he’ll just stand there playing with it for as long as we’ll sit there with him. Mommy B and I have also been working on his walking with him when Alli isn’t hanging off our backs. She’ll hold his hands for balance, and I’ll help him bend his knees in a walking motion so he understands that there’s more to just standing there with your knees locked. He was a little resistant to it at first (probably out of fear since it was new to him), but he’s been doing much better at it lately. In my opinion, he’ll probably be just like me and skip crawling and go straight to walking. And why not? All he wants to do is follow his big sister around. He’s so curious and interested in everything she does, I have a feeling that he’ll get moving any day now just to keep up.
Bottles are also making their slow departure from his routine. Not by our influence, but just because he doesn’t really want them anymore. We’ve been working with him on sippy cups, and much like his sister (as always, in the food department) he’s discovered that he can get more out (and faster) by using a sippy cup. So now anytime he sees something he can eat or drink himself, he lunges for it and tries to ingest it. This means that any glass that Mommy B or I might be holding could quickly become Aiden’s next drink.
But this morning we had another breakthrough – literally. He’s been drooling a lot lately, and waking up in the middle of the night the last few nights – which he hasn’t done in months. Mommy B and I have been on this ride before, and we knew what was coming… teeth. Alli had six teeth in by this age, after all. Day after day would go by and we wouldn’t see a thing in his mouth. That was until just a couple days ago, I noticed some thinning of his bottom gums and could see something beneath the surface. We’ve been anxiously awaiting the moment when his gums will part ways and we’ll be able to feel the sharp ridges of that first baby tooth. Followers may recall that the only reason we discovered Alli’s first tooth was because she accidentally bit down on Mommy B’s finger. Well Mommy B had her turn with Alli, and it was my turn with Aiden.
As we were sitting in the kid’s play area this morning waiting for Alli to wake up, I was enjoying my morning glass of orange juice. Aiden has never really had orange juice (that I’m aware of), but seeing it in my hand was good enough for him. He got all excited and started wiggling around, then started reaching for my glass. I could tell what he was after, so I held the glass to his lips to see what he would do. Well, as if he’d been doing it for months, he put his lips around the rim and started drinking my OJ right out of the glass! He took a couple swigs, then stopped to swallow. Rinse, repeat. My kids really are naturals at this whole eating and drinking thing – weird.
On the third time he went in for a drink, I heard a sound that I’ve been waiting weeks to hear… that unforgettable “TING!” sound of tooth-on-glass. That’s when I knew the day had finally arrived – we could write it in the baby book. His first tooth had broken the surface (at last) and was making its presence felt on my glass of OJ. Just a week shy of 9 months old, Aiden got his first tooth! Thank goodness too, because he’s really been wanting to feed himself more and more lately, and there’s only so many things you can give a kid with no teeth. I’m hoping the rest of them aren’t far behind this first one, so we can get them all in and the teething over with.
Congrats on the first tooth Bubby – Dad-E is proud of you for being such a trooper through the whole process. It’ll be weird seeing Mr. Smiles with teeth in there now, but I know he’ll be much happier in the long run.
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