So here is an update of the last two busy weeks. Yes, my life is that important that you need an update or better yet, my son is just that cute that he is worth showing him off with all his new pictures and accomplishments.
Christopher is now in the crawler stage! He is still doing the army/mountain crawls but he is on the go & fast! He of course started the forward crawl when Tim & I were both at work but luckily he was with Aunt Kasey so she was able to capture some video for us!
I came home from work on Friday to a messy kitchen & the baby gate set-up and immediately I stopped and thought to myself, what happened here? Not in regards to the mess but what happened to my little itty bitty baby boy. He is crawling all over my house, eating various fingers foods all by himself (or dropping on the floor for the cat to eat but still, it is all in good fun & practice!)
I am sure there are so many other Mommies out there that have these exact moments as well. Whether there child is 8 months old, 8 years old or even 28 years old...it is crazy to sit back and watch your own child grow & learn so fast. I swear that song "Don't Blink" explains the life of a parent so well. You seriosuly stop to blink and next thing you know your little baby is doing things that you kept thinking about or explaining to people "no, he is not crawling forward yet but he is trying." Or "he is still eating puree food because I am a new Mommy and too scared to give him even puffs just yet."
These monumental moments that my little boy has been achieving what seems to be a new one each week really are not just changing him but also my parenting style. I will be the first to admit that I was super crazy, over-protecting, by the book Mommy when Christopher first came. I was just so nervous for him to be touched, held, fed, thrown around, etc. I am sure there are many other Moms out there that were exactly like I was. Many first time Moms are just like this. The sense of control that you have over that itty bitty baby and how he/she grows up really kicks into high gear when they are brought into this world that it really hit me head on. By this I mean that I was in need of being in control of everything in regards to my son. The way he ate, the time he ate, how to change his diaper, how he should be held, when and where he should sleep, what his favorite toy or blanket was, and the list could go on & on. Yes, I was that kind of Mom.
Key word, WAS! It is really amazing that you start out as neurotic, over-protective and even mean Mommy and as your child shows you that he/she is able to accomplish things such as eating on his own, you slowly make your way out of that shell and start allowing your baby become who he/she really is. Obviously as a Mom of an 8 month old I am not like sure go ahead, have a party, smoke a ciggarette, drink a beer but I am making progress on things like, go ahead crawl around the living room and if you bump your head, I promise I won't cry as hard as you do. Or sure go ahead Dad, feed him a little bite of your sandwich, it won't give him some "House type disease" that can/never will be cure-able. See, I am making progress...
Yes, you are seeing correctly. My child is eating a pork rib bone that did contain small pieces of very delicious & tender pork ribs with bbq sauce on them. The second picture is a pickle & he was in love. So much in love that he sucked 3 pickles dry and HAD to do it all by himself.
I call these pictures evidence that I am slowly coming out of my "new Mommy" shell and making my way into the "I am about to have another baby" shell. I am sure there are some parents that don't ever come out of the new Mommy shell or takes them a bit longer, which does not make them a bad parents. Or for that matter, me a bad parent. But our family tends to move fast on things, hence the new baby on his way in just 11 short weeks (hopefully not a day sooner!!!) So I define the "I am about to have another baby" shell as this (with the held of other Mommies with multiple children): You are about to have 2 children, which will then mean that you don't love your 2nd or 1st child more or less, you just have learned the tricks and trades of being a Mom. This meaning that rice cereal may have waited until the doctor gave the okay for Christopher, but with still nameless baby boy #2, he might be getting rice cereal a bit earlier. Or an example that many Moms may relate to very well with is: yes the doctor said to wake your healthy baby every 3 hours to eat but if he/she is sleeping, let them until 5 hours (note: I know this is only for healthy babies, I would never starve or harm my child for the joys of getting extra hours of sleep!).
