Our Little Stander

Brantley recent new feat is his desire to be stood up and lean on something. This can be the coffee table, where he attempts to mouth the edge of it or reach for the laptop and/or mouse or he uses one if his playmat toys as a standing ledge. Husby will hold him up and he will grab onto the ring (where the toys dangle off of) and hold on or lean on it. He has been trying to stand in our laps for some time, but this is new that he will do it on the floor. He becomes very angry with us if we do not fulfill his wishes and let him stand, but he is still not quite steady, so we must brace him and watch him like a hawk so he does not fall.

He also loves to be standing hold our fingers and then quickly squat down. If you pull him back up he laughs and giggles like it is a game. He then will continue to do these squats. It is hilarious to watch, especially with all the funny sounds and facial expressions he makes, but becomes tiring fast. His fascination with mirrors has grown to be a great mid-day break from his crankiness. He will stare into the mirror at himself for sometime in complete silence and awe. Last night, he sat on the floor in front of a picture frame we have our Christmas photo in, just cooing and laughing. It was a great occupying tool, but definitely something out of the ordinary.

Although the soothie pacifier never really took hold in our house, B is starting to use a pacifier around bedtime for short time periods. Lately he has been falling asleep at a decent hour to only wake up an hour or two later. Some of the issue is the fact that he moves in his sleep and sometimes ends up rolling himself over to his back. I think he becomes frustrated since he still has not fully mastered rolling from his back to his belly, so then he wakes up and starts crying. Once he is awake, he *expects* Husby or I to either play with him or give him another bottle. Typically we try the bottle route, which quickly turns into volcano baby since he really does not need anymore food in his little belly. A few nights ago, I experimented with another type of pacifier we had. He sucked on it for a while and then drifted off to slumberland. Unfortunately, once he gets into his crib, out pops the pacifier and if he was not fully out, then he reawakens. I wish we could teach him to take the pacifier a bit better at night, but then again I hope he never really becomes fully attached to the pacifier since they can cause more orthodontic damage in the long run and are hard to remove from a child as they age.

In some respects, I think his teeth may be bothering him, since he seems to stick EVERYTHING into his little mouth (his fists, the burpcloths, bibs, stuffed animals, teether toys, Sophie the Giraffe, our fingers, the dog's ear, the coffee table ledge...the list goes on...if it is something he can get his hands on, it is likely going in his mouth). We have yet to see any notions of teeth, but we are still a month or two early for that.

This weekend, we bought him a Fisher Price Play n Learn Puppy. Although it is half his size, he seems to like to hit the bottoms to hear it sing and talk. He plays the Baby Einstein turtle over and over, so to prevent us from losing our sanity, we introduced another sound toy (if I hear the Baby E melody anymore, I might lose it). For Valentine's Day, (yes, I know it is the Hallmark holiday and typically I do not celebrate it) I found B the Cooper doll and first book. Supposedly, Mr. Cooper will respond to you as you read his story, so I figured this may be a great experience to incorporate interaction with reading for B. Verdict is still out on it, so check back in a few weeks.

In other news, life is once again on the busy upswing here. Husby will be on 2 business trips back to back starting this Saturday. First stop is an Expo & Trade Show in Vegas (don't you feel bad for him) where he will be from Saturday until Thursday. On Friday, we will be traveling to Miami because on Saturday, I will graduate with my Master's (woohoo!). Then Sunday is Superbowl (we will be rooting for the commercials) and Monday morning he is off again to Ohio to hopefully return Wednesday afternoon. It will be a rough few days, but we shall persevere. I am praying there are no weather delays which may ruin our plans, but we shall see. I am looking forward to our minivacay for my graduation in Miami since we do not have any more travel planned until end of March. By the end of this year, B will be a seasoned traveler between trips to both grandmas, a trip to Louisiana for a wedding, a trip to Boston for another wedding and a possible travel to Iowa to see some family.