Flirt

Dexter started trying to wink when his Lolo and Lola were here. He manages to do so with varying levels of success, but it is still entertaining to watch. Here's the little flirt trying to wink.

He likes naan

We went to an Indian restaurant this afternoon and gave Dex his first taste of naan (an Indian flatbread cooked in a tandoor oven). He liked it! Let's see, Jon tasted his first naan at age 26 and I tasted my first one when I was 20. Dex at nine months has us beat by a long shot. What's he going to be eating by the time he's 10?!

We only had one hiccup during the meal -- that would have been when I accidentally dipped his spoon in my dhal, the one with hot peppers still floating in the soup (I was feeding Dexter peaches at the time and the two bowls were side by side). Luckily, I noticed my mistake immediately and a thorough wash of the spoon averted what could have been a serious shock to Dexter's system.

Speech class

Dex has been trying to speak for a long time. I took this video of him two months ago and I still like watching it.

He was very chatty when I was trying to feed him that day. I'd give him a spoonful, and he'd babble on. I'd give him another one, and he would stop long enough to slurp the food, but continue with the babbling. You can hear my voice in the background offering him a spoonful of sweet potato.

I realize now how limiting language can be. In retrospect, he might have wanted to discuss quantum physics, philosophy, or the symbolism of snow in modern literature (he looked to serious!), but no, there I was insisting on talking about the inane sweet potato because for some reason, I thought that was the only possible thing that could have been on his mind. Maybe babies have deeper thoughts than that.

It will be interesting to have him watch this video someday to see if he has any memory of the day and/or if he can understand what he was babbling about.

He is still a babbler, but every once in a while we catch things that sound like words. So far we've heard him say: mommy, daddy, milk, cat, kitty, shoe, hi, peek-a-boo, no.

Who loves you, baby?

Jon and I tried shushing, cuddling, feeding, whispering, and taking Dexter for a walk around our quiet, dark house between 12:30 and 3:30 am, and the poor little guy would alternately nod off and wake up in fits and starts with lots of straining and crying in between (the baby, I mean!). The transition to solid foods is stress-testing his system and sometimes he has great days and sometimes he has not-so-great-days. When exhausted hours later, he nodded off with a little whimper in his crib. I feel some relief when I finally tuck him in with his blue fuzzy blanket, pat him gently and whisper goodnight. I stretch my achy muscles and slip back into my own bed, trying to fill the warm hollows between the duvet and the mattress where I slept a few hours ago.

Before falling asleep, I remember thinking about my own mother and how she must have also comforted me in the middle of the night when I was a wee thing and I say a quiet "I'm sorry" for every time I have ever taken her for granted in my lifetime. Even though I was exhausted from trying to comfort him, I felt this surge of love for my Dex and I know in my heart that I would do anything for him -- relieve his pain and give him the best life we could give him -- something my own mother might have promised long ago while looking at her own babies.

Ninth month

I'm a little late posting Dexter's ninth month photo because we've been a little busy lately. Since we got back from Montreal, I've been struggling to put baby back on a routine.

In any case, here he is beside Stretch, his toy giraffe.

Some new things:
- He's much more animated now. More babbling and humming (I think it's related to the teething pain), as well as more amusing "rap" sounds, a rhythmic combination of sucking and kissing.
- He can play ball. While sitting in his exersaucer, he would throw the ball to us and we'd throw it back. And we'd do this over and over and over again!
- He can shake his rattle on command. Jon will sing "Shake it baby, shake it. Shake it up and down...." and Dex will look at him and move that rattle to the beat.
- He's trying to wink. Lolo showed him how to do this and he would imitate. Of course, his wink is not very polished -- more of a blink, really, but we still think he's brilliant.
- We now have a very active boy. I think I'm going to have to give up the change table because he insists on turning and squirming when he is being changed.
- He is trying to sit, but succeeds only in assuming the "sexy pose," on one hip and one elbow.
- Now doing the commando crawl and can push forward when motivated. Still not very elegant, but he can acquire targets out of reach when motivated.
- Teeth no. 7 and 8 are trying to poke through so we are not sleeping much these days.
- Thicker hair coming in, but there is still that thin spot at the back of his head, the side he rubs on the bed when he's trying to sleep.
- He tried chicken and he's not sure about that.
- He's now eating fruit combinations: bananas with apples and pears.

In terms of cognitive development, some highlights:
- I think he's demonstrating some stranger anxiety. Once, he wailed -- an inconsolable, terrified wail-- when a friend came in to visit. I think this means that he is starting to have expectations. In this case, I think he expected his dad to come in through the front door and when it was a different face/person, he got a little frightened.
- He is combining his motor and cognitive skills with some messy results. For example, with the chicken thing, he didn't like it that much so he took a hold of his spoon, looked me straight in the eye and dropped his spoon to the floor in a different version of our gravity game.

Overall, the little tyke is getting stronger and bigger. We need to buy more sleepers because he seems to be outgrowing them overnight. But, we are having a lot of fun, except, of course, for nights when his teething pains wake him up. Last night, for example, we were up three times!!!