Butternut Squash and All about the Babydays

I spent most of my day playing with the seven month old today. It is so incredibly awesome to learn about the human experience by watching him interact with his world and move through his day.

HIGHLIGHTS:

He has learned to crawl but has pretty much no interest in using this as a mode of transport. He crawls for a few feet but then he tries to get his feet under him. He straightens his right leg, his left leg. He rolls over and starts again. Super determined to get onto two feet. I'm pretty sure its because his legs are significantly stronger than his arms/core- he has spent some time in a little jumper seat workin' out those limbs. We have been working on keeping him on the floor for the past two weeks trying to strengthen the rest of his body but even though he is looking more and more like an upper body builder and his muscles are toning, he is still determined to use his legs to get around. The only time he really crawls and 'gets into it' is when he is tying to get somewhere to climb.
This baby is a climber. No kidding, he is constantly putting one hand over the other and pulling himself up on the mini trampolines, the two steps down/up from the dining room to the living room, the mantel, couches of all varieties, legs, bodies- he doesn't care as long as he can use it to get himself 'up'. Today when I was watching him crawl around he got over to the stairs up to the dining room- they go all the way across the room so there is no real way to 'block' them, so we put yoga mats on them and watch him like a hawk- anyway I thought he was doin' his typical thing trying to stand up by putting his hands on the the bottom step. Nope, continued observation showed that he was in full on problem solving mode: HOW DO I CLIMB HIGHER?????!!!! He started by lifting his knee up, like he does when he crawls- only while on two feet holding on to the stair,  and then putting it down. He did this for a while and then he scratched that and started trying to reach for the second stair with one arm. He realized that if he did this at the very same time as he lifted his leg, he could kinda hoist himself up. Unfortunately, because he is a baby and barely started crawling two weeks ago I decided to stop his exploration and move him back toward the center of the room because I really didn't want him to eat it- hes just a baaaaby!
So after he was really bummed that I stopped his exploration I took him outside. We walked around the yard and said good morning to all the trees and the sunshine. I love doing this with him- he gets so smiley and wide eyed outside. Babies are the best because they don't think I'm when I do these things- they just get excited. He crawled around on a blanket and hit the ground, felt the grass while shouting "GAAAA" "GAAAAA". I assured him, "Yes, that is green grass." about a thousand times in different ways. Then he just stared in awe at the fern tree- its a really cool tree. Then we went inside, which obviously made him fussy because he is Maui Outdoors Baby but I gave him a bottle and that soothed him.
After he had a little bottle I prepped some butternut squash and some oatmeal- the newest food we've been introducing him to this week. The first time he ate the squash, he wasn't so sure about it- but I think he was just really tired which makes it really hard to sit up and eat especially for an infant. Today, he was stoked. Totally stoked. He was gobbling it up and doing the whole body smile dance (which he also does for sweet potatoes) and HE WAS LICKING HIS LIPS. I've never seen a baby smack and lick their lips until today but it very well may be the cutest thing I've ever seen. He is just learning how to move his lips so it was super funny and awkward but he didn't let very much of that delicious butternut squash go to waste. I just love hangin' out with him.

I could detail more about the little bundle of joy but I'm sure not everyone loves babies as much as I do. Plus, I'm getting a little sleepy and I'm gonna try to get more rest than I have been in the past few days.

Aloha pumehana,

Betty