July 30, 2019
First Sweet Potato (and Fit!)
Thea is five months old.
She is fascinated with everything. If it moves, she giggles at it and wants to chase it. If it makes a sound, she wants to chase it. If it is in the possession of an older sibling, she wants to touch it. If it looks fluffy or new (as in she wasn’t looking at it ten seconds ago), she wants to chase it.
For her, “chase” means raise her arms and legs like in a superman hold and shove her body forward, sideways, or backward on her tummy. I’ve seen my other six babies, remember several siblings as babies, and have had numerous little nieces and nephews over – she is the first to do this type of scoot. (But then, each one has their own unique movement method!)
Maybe she has figured out that on hard floors (her entire environment) this type of movement makes the blanket travel with her.
She has learned to roll – has been doing both of these movements since about 3 months (but she rarely wants to go anywhere, so it’s like “surprise! I want to move at this second!” she loves to do the unexpected).
Lucas will get on one side of her, giggle, and roll away. She will giggle and follow. Monkey see, monkey do! He calls this game “rolling the ball” – I’m literally making her bassinet when I hear, “Mom! Look! I’m rolling a ball!” accompanied with a river of giggles from both Lucas and Thea. He’s rolling in front of Thea and she’s following him all the way across the bed. He rolls off the end of the bed (a fall of about 9 inches) and I’m about to jump into protect-baby-from-floor-barrier when he puts both hands on Thea’s tummy to keep her from rolling the last flip and says, “can’t go that way, I can fall off but you can’t yet ‘cause your head isn’t done yet.”
Lucas is her protector, her shield from danger, her loving big brother – and the one who leads her into most new (scary for us!) adventures, like rolling non-stop or eating something new – “Look, Mom! She likes ice cream!” (*facepalm in my brain* but at least it’s Daddy’s homemade vanilla soft serve) next line is “No, Baby Thea, only big boys can eat cones, you can just taste the ice cream.” He’s letting her “taste” like we do, tapping one finger on the food and putting it on her tongue.
That backfired with the sweet potatoes.
Oh, yes, nice story:
A cute 3-month-old goes with her family to Grandma’s favorite restaurant for a celebration. She’s the epitome of baby cuteness in her Sunday best. Everyone is being so well-behaved. Mom is having sweet potato (all the others have had sweet potato as a first food) and lets baby taste it.
BABY TURNS INTO VELOCIRAPTOR!
She starts jumping forward, grabbing at the table, mom’s fork, mom’s hair, anything to get back to the sweet potato! Mom thinks she’s had enough after a few tastes, but NO! Sweet little cuteness erupts into a full blown literal tantrum! She flings herself back in frustration and screams! Daddy thinks this is funny. (Everyone else is bug-eyed, is she really throwing a fit?) Daddy says, “watch this” and gives her a small taste on the end of a spoon. Thea sees the spoon coming, instantly stops fussing, alligator tears evaporate, and she grabs the spoon with both hands and shoves it into her mouth. Once she sucked it dry, she looks up at Daddy with pleading eyes and babbles in what-adults-can’t-understand to mean “more please?” He fed her a little more to keep the peace.
Lucas was even spellbound watching Thea, his sweet, tiny, fragile-looking baby sister toss her baby fit. Mommy took this excellent opportunity to mention quietly that wasn’t very nice. He says, “I don’t like that screaming.” To which I answer, “we feel just like you do now when you drop yourself on the floor and start kicking.” (Doesn’t happen often, but it’s been a thing since I started working.) “Oh.” I think gears are turning in his brain.
And this:
is what everyone else in the world sees…
Type at you later,
~Nancy Tart