Humor at Eight Months

We've been under the weather lately but Thumper's still giggling it up - and constantly finding new things funny.  Here's some of what apparently tickles an 8-month-old's funny bone:

Bodily functions
Sneezes.  Coughs.  Other, less polite noises.  Showering one's parents with fluids.  They're all hilarious to him, and I have a feeling that's not going to stop for... well, possibly forever.

Knocking down stacked blocks
Is it cause-and-effect or mirth at destruction?  Time will tell.

Shocking his parents
It's a variation of peek-a-boo, I think.  Anything that elicits a dramatic reaction.  At one stage in our bedtime routine, I'll "turn away" and he'll crawl as fast as he can to some other spot.  Then I'm astounded that he managed to "sneak" away.  Hilarity ensues.

Making his parents laugh
One night we put a plastic bowl on his head, and he looked so hilarious and adorable - we just melted and fawned.  Now whenever we put the bowl on his head he gets the biggest grin, knowing what's coming.

I mean really

Hopefully things will be a little more normal around here this next week!

A Good Baby

Thumper got his nickname because of his unusually strong legs: first in utero, always kicking, kicking, kicking, then as a newborn, and it's still the first thing doctors and nurses comment on to this day.  But it also suited his personality: constantly moving, bouncing, high-energy.  In recent months he's finally started to get a bit more snuggly, but if he sits too long, or gets held too tight, he reacts like a cat being bathed.  He has a cousin the same age who is nearly his complete opposite, so that contrast made his wiggliness all the more noticeable.

However, you'd never know this about him to see him in public.  Whether in Ergo or stroller, he's much more still and reserved, compounded recently by the shy phase he's entered.  Some days when we get home from running errands I swear I see him breathe a sigh of relief, so I can't tell if it's because he's out of his element or just interested in the world around him.  At any rate, it's easy for me to forget that others don't see him the way I do.

Everyone likes to comment on babies, and I get tons of small talk about Thumper.  But I was surprised when the comments turned into, "He's so quiet."  "So laid-back."  "Such a good, quiet baby."

I have no idea what to say in these situations, for several reasons.  First, it throws me because I do not think of Thumper as quiet or laid-back.  Not stressed or stressful, but not docile, either.  But also, it's clearly meant as a compliment - he's quiet, he's "good."

So I have no idea what to say.  The first few times I was so surprised I blurted out something like, "Oh, you don't see him at home!  He's all action there."  But then it sounds like I'm disagreeing that he's a "good baby."  Of course I think he's the best baby.

But then I also sort of disagree with the notion of a "good baby."  As opposed to what?  He's a baby, a person, with his natural tendencies toward this or that and at this point none of them are negative.  Am I supposed to be saying "thank you" to this assessment that he's "good?"  Even if you consider his tendency to be quieter out in public being "well-behaved," it's not through anything I've done, or because he has some sense of propriety - he's just distracted or unsure.  So am I supposed to be taking credit for this "good behavior"?  Good behavior that sometimes even looks like discomfort to me?

Then again, maybe it's just all my own awkwardness.  I'm similarly unsure what to say when someone comments on his looks.  Again, "Thanks" sounds like I'm taking credit, when frankly he's cuter than either me or the Yeti.  Usually I say something like, "I agree, but I'm biased," which is probably what I'll stick with on the "good" comments too.  Because I do agree, he is a good baby.  Whatever a good baby is.  Quiet or shrieking like a pterodactyl.  He's the best.

Baby Tricks

When it comes to babies, everyone has lists of products that have worked or haven't worked for them  -this brand of baby shampoo, that diaper.  I'm no exception, but instead of a specific product, I thought I'd mention a few concepts that I've stumbled across in the last nine months - a smattering of odd tips.

Closed Captioning
When Thumper was a newborn, he slept quite a bit, and through mostly anything - the vacuum cleaner, police sirens, certainly the TV.  As he's gotten older, not so much.  We have an open-plan one-bedroom, with the bedroom right in the middle of everything, so I've learned to be a stealth rogue.  If I want to watch TV while he's asleep, it basically has to be quiet enough that I can't hear anything.

On the other end of the spectrum, if we want to have the TV on in the background while we eat, we don't expect to hear much - that's Thumper's Jumperoo time, and between the jungle music, the springs, and the happy squeals, we'd drive ourselves nuts if we even tried to add anything else.

Thus, closed captioning.  It's been an entertainment-saver.  Pre-written captions like those on Netflix are generally pretty good, and live captions like those during football games are fun in how wrong they can be.  

Dry Shampoo
Before Thumper was born I bought a can of this, wondering if I would ever need it.  Well, I'm still on the same can, but I admit I've used it several times.  Yes, it would be better to just be clean, but sometimes events conspire such that it's just not gonna happen before you have to be seen by others, checking the mail or running to the grocery store.  This makes me feel just slightly more human in those instances.  However, I must say, I'm not a fan of the smell or general feel of dry shampoo - it's strictly for those "desperate times call for desperate measures" situations.  But once that stuff is in my hair, it keeps me from forgetting and pushing the shower back even further, so I suppose it's a win-win.

Inverted Zippers
Baby footie pajamas are freaking adorable, but they're all a bit of a pain when it comes to changing diapers in the middle of the night.  The ones with snaps aren't a terrible option, but they can be confusing before you get the hang of them.   The ones that zip up seem like the answer to all problems, until you realize that whereas snaps let you isolate the lower half, with zippers you practically have to undress the baby completely to change a diaper.  Neither one of you will be amused in a cool room in the middle of the night.

Hence the best of both worlds: sleepers with an inverted zipper, that unzips going up from the bottom.  Faster, easier, puzzle-free.  Thumper's sleep sacks have inverted zippers as well, so that's handy (nothing more annoying than using the convenient inverted zipper on the sack, then having to reach up to his collar to unzip his sleeper).  You'd think every set of pajamas would have these, but I've had a surprisingly hard time finding them.  We currently have two pairs, that are the Circo brand from Target.  I went back to get more in a bigger size and they were mysteriously gone.  I felt betrayed.

The Anti-Zipper
Zippers are great on baby clothes.  However, on adult clothes?  Not so much.  I recently bought a zip-up hoodie and didn't think much of it, until Thumper tried to bury his face in my chest (he's entered a shy phase).  If it's closed, there's that uncomfortable metal lump right in the center; if it's open, he's navigating between yawning metal teeth.  I'm sticking with pullovers for now.

In other news, yesterday I randomly woke up to this:

so guess whose crib is now on the lowest setting?

Good Pain and Bad Pain

Just about every inch of me is aching.

First, there's my teeth. One thing I do regret about my pregnancy is that I  dropped the ball, before and during and after, with dental visits.  I went from a cavity-free visit, to moving, to putting off finding a new dentist for a year, to getting pregnant.

Likely the change in the PH of my saliva, and the massive amounts of Tums I consumed every night, led to massive issues.  I felt fine during the pregnancy, but almost immediately after I knew I had cavities.  And still put off doing anything for months.

So now I've just completed getting my most recent round of fillings.  I've been scheduling these appointments on the weekend so the Yeti doesn't have to take off work for the baby.  I metabolize Novocain quickly so I get extra shots.  It'll be nice to look forward to the weekend for a change.

Then there's everything else.  As I think I mentioned before, I lost most of my "baby weight" immediately but then put it almost all back on in the first few months after Thumper was born, likely in the form of cookies and Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs.  The scale has stayed put for about four months, but it's not reversing, either.

Also, my back and core have never been the same, and it hurts to hold Thumper for more than a minute.  I'm ok with being this size, holding off on dieting til I'm done nursing, but I'm tired of how weak I feel.

So I decided to go back to barre classes while Thumper is young enough that I can get the price for new moms.  I did it before getting pregnant and loved it, only stopping because I was limited to walking while I was high-risk.  It means going super early, before the Yeti goes to work, but most days I'm up then anyway.  

So now I've got two classes in a row under my belt and everything is sore.  I cough and I double up, clutching my abs.  I sit on the floor and I can't figure out how to get back up.  This is pain I anticipated, though, when I signed up.  I'm looking forward to getting fitter, and hopefully smaller too.

Speaking of smaller, there was also the pain of having to buy new workout clothes because the old ones were too small.  While trying on my old stuff to see what fit, I got stuck in my sports bra and had to jump up and down to shimmy out.  Only gravity and inertia saved me from having my arms trapped above my head til the Yeti got home.  Sadly, there is no Ibuprofen for my dignity.

The Moc Debac

A few years ago I didn't live in the city.  I lived in the middle of nowhere.  One day during the middle of a trip to Target I spotted a pair of teal moccasins. They seemed cute, and comfortable, and I'd seen bloggers online wearing mocs and they seemed cute and trendy.  For whatever reason, I didn't pick them up that day, and trips to Target were every three months or so so I never did buy them, but I regretted that for awhile.

Flash forward to a few months ago.  I saw online that Old Navy had baby moccasins.  "Perfect," I thought, "he needs shoes and they'll be less clunky when he starts to crawl and walk."  And I ordered them without thinking further than that.

They arrived but they were a little big, and Thumper thinks they're funny (I clapped them together) so he often plays with them.  But now we're starting to feel the first hints of fall, and it occurred to me that I should get him used to wearing shoes now, instead of when it's fifty degrees out.  After a few tries I wrangled them on successfully and we headed out for errands.

He wasn't a fan of having shoes on his feet (we haven't even really done socks this summer) and after putting up with his glares and muffled kicks for about 15 minutes I decided he'd had enough.  I reached into the stroller to pull them off his feet, and realized that when I pulled them off and he played with them, they'd now be plainly visible to the public.  And it was like a switch flipped in my brain.  I became incredibly uncomfortable.

Prior to then I hadn't thought much more beyond the fact that they were cute and seemed comfortable.  But I now live in a city with a significant Native American presence, something I'd never experienced before.  As in, there's a totem pole downtown (with its own history of appropriation).  I hadn't really thought of it before, but suddenly the shoes felt inappropriate.  The idea that someone could ask me about them... ugh.  Just the potential in my head was mortifying.  I stuffed the shoes down into the stroller.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I feel like now that the switch has been flipped, I can't feign ignorance.  Even if no one else would care, I do.

Later that evening, I told the Yeti about my realization.  "I still think they'd be good for walking, but I just don't think I can have him wear those in public," I said.  "He still likes playing with them so maybe they can be his..."

"...Racist house shoes?" the Yeti finished.  Such a sympathetic ear.

So I'm back on the hunt for shoes.  He probably won't walk for months so maybe warmth ought to be my priority.  Or maybe just something he'll wear for more than fifteen minutes.

Not a joking matter

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