“I think I will have the fish”

This was the month of teething. Adrian’s first tooth appeared just about a month ago. Now both bottom incisors are out, as well as the tip of an eye tooth, and (as of today) the tips of the top incisors. As a side effect there has been a lot of drooling and quite a lot of crying, too. I don’t remember Ingrid crying so much about teething. And then he blows raspberries so there is bubbly spittle everywhere.

Already he is learning to use those teeth on food. He can gnaw on a chunk of apple and scrape pieces off a bread stick. He is not very interested in the various teething rings and chewable toys. I think the only thing I’ve noticed him actually chewing on is his dummy. He has understood that our fingers are now off limits (he used to suck on them and chew them with his gums) and he’s not been biting my boobs either. He did it once, just to try I think, and didn’t like it when I cried OW.

While he was getting his latest teeth he completely lost interest in eating and has regained it only in the last few days. As a result I cannot really say what he likes to eat right now, apart from various kinds of bread (including home-made pie crust, and Havrefras). He really likes drinking water from his sippy cup, and will stretch towards him and make demanding noises until we help him drink.

He nurses often and happily. Usually he wants to nurse after waking (although not necessarily immediately) and again before going to sleep. Recently he’s been very distracted while nursing, so his most undisturbed meals are the ones before he goes to sleep in a dim quiet room, and those in the middle of the night. He likes to grip and hold my breast with both hands. When he doesn’t, his arms and hands flail around and look for something to grip. Most often they find my clothes.

“I think I will have the pink one”

He talks quite a lot more than he used to. It started with “bjäbb bjäbb”, then we had “höbba höbba”, then “däd däd däd” and now “mäm mäm mäm”. (Swedish/Estonian pronounciation for all the above.)

Mostly he talks when he is unhappy. Or perhaps all my mental images of him talking are with an unhappy tone because he is somewhat discontented much of the time. His is not a sunny disposition. He is bores quickly and loves company and new things to look at. (Sounds very much like a certain 4-year-old in this house, doesn’t it?) The absolute best way to make him happy is to either have guests, the more the merrier, or to go out. Just him and me in the house is a recipe for endless whining.

He very much likes to see what is going on. The hip seat I bought has been very useful, especially for when I’m preparing dinner.

He will not accept being left on his own for long – first there are mild complaints, then within a minute he will be crying, and soon all out screaming. It’s a good thing that he can now sit upright – I can just take him with me to whatever room I need to go to and plop him down on the floor. And really once he learned this skill, he was stable pretty much straight away: he may have fallen over maybe once a day in the beginning and very rarely now. We never had any need for pillows behind him or anything like that.

Now that he can sit, he will not accept lying down for more than brief moments, except when sleeping, or when he gets to be naked during a nappy change. He likes being naked. And the moment I take off his nappy, he will grip his genitals and pull at them. It looks like it should hurt but it obviously doesn’t.

He also likes standing. Often after a nappy change I pull him up to a seated position by letting him hold onto my fingers. Quite often he will keep holding so I can help pull him all the way up to standing. Other times he misjudges and lets go just a bit too early and falls back on his back, and we start over.

“I think I will have the pine cone”

Fine motor skills are not his forte. He can grip things and turn them in his hands and pass them from one hand to the other, but he quite often he drops them when he doesn’t want to. And he is not always able to let go when he does want to drop them. Still, he’s getting better: he can now get something like half a grape into his mouth, sometimes. He doesn’t quite seem to trust his hands/arms: sometimes he bends forwards with his body towards the toy he wants, rather than pull it towards him. He is becoming interested in smaller details like care labels on toys, but he cannot really manipulate them very well yet.

This month I also took away his dummy for nighttime sleep. He now falls asleep much more easily and sleeps so much better. It used to be that he had his best naps in the sling; now the bed is the best place. This is a very new experience for me! Usually we nurse, then I turn him over on his tummy (because he often needs to burp, still). Then he complains and refuses to lie down for maybe a minute or two (literally). Then he realizes that he is tired and sleepy, puts his head down, and I pat him for another minute or two. And then he’s asleep. When he wants to go to sleep and stops fighting it, he often makes a groaning/grunting/humming noise. At first I thought it was because he was somehow uncomfortable, but later I realized it’s his lullaby – often he will stop it when I sing for him or make a rhythmic shushing sound.

He wakes pretty regularly each night, two or maybe three times, nurses, and then goes back to sleep with no fuss. Except when he has a cold, or is teething, or in one of his must-poop-at-four-in-the-morning phases.