The Adventures of Little Griff

Every month that goes by, I am surprised. Despite everyone’s warnings, I continue to be surprised that the time is flying and by how much Griff is changing . It has been seven months today since he was born. It is completely amazing to me that my pregnancy and his birth seem like such distant memories already. It is hard to remember just how difficult the first few months seemed, how tired and ill I was with mastitis the first week, how long our thrush infection seemed to go on. It is hard to imagine Griff being that little person who couldn’t hold his head up, grasp what he was interested in, or flip over whenever he wanted. But what is fresh is how much my love for this little guy has grown, how much fun I have trying to make him smile and giggle, and how amazed I am at his growing list of skills. It takes so many little skills and lessons to become a self-sufficient little being in this world, and to watch Griff’s learning curve at this stage is humbling and inspiring. I aspire to learn at the rate he is learning!

Griff is really focused on moving around. He wants to explore his world on his own terms. He’s not so interested in sitting up. When we sit him up, he pushes his hips forward so he ends up in a standing position. What he really likes is to be on his tummy and drag himself around and roll, in stark contrast to when we had to struggle to get him to do even a minute of tummy time. He can drag and roll himself across the floor in the blink of an eye to explore uncharted territory, interesting objects, and greet the increasingly alarmed pets. So why would you want to sit when you can do all of this? Last night and today, he has pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. And we have accelerated our baby proofing activities.

We recently picked up a second-hand jump jump and Griff LOVES it. One of his favorite activities previously was when someone would help him hop, and now he can hop to his heart’s content all by himself. He has become a ‘hopaholic,’ sometimes looking at us with a slightly horrified look on his face, asking to be picked up, as his legs continue their hopping in his jump jump. Sooooo cute, our little hopping addict!

Griff is getting more and more social as well. He smiles at people and animals in greeting, and he is starting to do the smile and then shyly hide his face in whoever is holding him. He reaches his arms out to be held when he is ready to be picked up after some hard playing. And his vocalizations are becoming more varied and distinct, using particular sounds for particular purposes. For example, he has reserved the high-pitched scream for when he is really tired.

Which brings me to sleeping. We are not alone in our difficulties with sleep with Griff, he wouldn’t sleep on his own in his own crib and he wouldn’t nap on his own. For a hilarious account, read this. I reported a few weeks ago that we were going to try a method from a book called the Sleep Easy Solution. Griff has responded really well in most regards. He is sleeping in his own crib from the beginning of the night, being put down sleepy and falling asleep on his own rather than needing to fall asleep while nursing. The same goes for naps during the day. But he still has a difficult time falling back to sleep. I tried to night wean him, but he was very resistant and it wasn’t worth being awake for over 2 hours trying to wait him out going back to sleep at 3am. So I nurse him between 2 to 4 times a night. And he is having a really tough time falling back to sleep during naps. He wakes up after 30-40 minutes, still tired, but often unable to put himself back to sleep. So, it is a work in progress, but Griff has taken great strides we are really happy with. We are sleeping much better and he is, too. But, if others’ experience is any indication, I suspect this may be an ongoing process for a long time to come.

Griff is still drooling, although not as much as last month, but still has no teeth, something I am not unhappy about. But he started on his first solid foods this week. He seemed to be moderately interested and is pretty good at getting food off of the spoon, better than I anticipated. But he seems a little indifferent about the whole thing. We are following Dr. Greene’s suggestions which call for a rapid fire of introduction of veggies, whole grains, and fruits, to help ensure that babies are exposed to a broad array of flavors and textures while they are less picky eaters. And he encourages including something green at each meal. So far Griff has tried brown rice cereal, avocado, sweet potato, and banana with no particular favorites but no rejections, either. Peas are up next.

Next week we are starting a child care co-op with Nina and Erik and Ayla and Brent and Alejandra and their little one at Nina’s house. I will be on site working while Griff is there, but upstairs so that I can get work done while he is playing. I hope to accomplish a fraction of what he has been doing!

Enjoy the videos and photos. (As usual, if you are viewing this in email, you will need to go to the blog to view the video.)

Close encounters of the feline kind.

First view of brown rice cereal -- YUMMM!

Bite from Poppa.

Wide awake looking at the video monitor during nap time.

Surrounded.