Nine Months

Caleb George is nine months old. He has been breathing oxygen for as long as he cooked inside this mama. It's crazy, I tell you.

I wish I had done a better job stopping to write and reflect about this little man, at least on the blog. I think there are quite a few reasons for my lacking. But mostly it's because his first six months of life are a bit of a fog. I've spent many a day and night trying to figure out exactly why that was so. Obviously there are about fourteen dozen variables including things like sleep (he wasn't good at it, during the daytime hours at least), nursing (he did not stretch between feedings well), exercise (I dislocated my patella in May, just when I was getting into running again), sickness (someone forty yards away coughed and he ended up with a breathing treatment), timing (December is a dark, cold time to have a baby), family adjustment (big sister requires a lot of attention that she doesn't love to share), and so on.

I can see all of this on paper and it makes sense. But I think I am still processing all of it. And trying to merge all of those things with the feelings of gratitude and head-over-heels love I feel for my little guy. Sometimes it is a challenge for me to reconcile all that I love and cherish about a new baby while also realizing and admitting the things that are just plain hard. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to wrap it up in a nice little bow. What I do know is that I'm feeling like myself again. And I'm more in love with this little guy than ever. And how can I not be?

Here are just a few things about our little Calebo at the nine month mark:

*He is so sweet and smiley. It takes little to no effort to make him laugh or giggle. Clara has special skills in the "make Caleb laugh" department, but anyone who makes an effort won't be disappointed.

*He is the cuddliest little human on the planet. I'm not joking when I say he just melts into you. At night if he wakes up, I sometimes just lay him on my chest and sneak back into bed (terrible, I know - I never did this with Clara - what happened to my sleep nazi ways?!). He drapes his arms on your back when you hold him. Oh, I just want to eat him up. He's such a cuddle bug.

*He sits happily to play but hasn't done much in the "crawling department". I remember thinking that Caleb would certainly crawl early, since he'd be chasing his sister (and he's a boy - aren't they earlier movers?). He scoots around on his tummy in circles and backwards, but hasn't gotten up on all fours. I'm not worried about his development, so I'll savor this prolonged immobile stage ;).

*After months and months of trying my hardest and failing miserably, I'm happy to report that Caleb has greatly improved in the sleep department. He sleeps 11-12 hours at night and naps twice a day, following mostly the same schedule each day. He's far less flexible with sleep than I imagined a 2nd child would be (and he's a really light sleeper), but he's progressed immensely from his sleep-less ways!

*The child has never met a food he hasn't liked. This is a huge change from Miss Clara. We had to disguise certain foods with applesauce to get her to eat well. Caleb shows no partiality to applesauce over broccoli. He loves it all. Our only issue is figuring out when to stop feeding him. He doesn't seem to have a sense of what "full" feels like quite yet ;).

*Much like his sister, Caleb loves taking in the world around him, "talking" (lots of "mamama" and "dadadas"), clapping and waving, and playing with all kinds of toys and nontoys alike. He's pretty laid-back and easy to please (the Lord knows we need this around here!)

Bottom line: we are blessed beyond measure by this little guy. He is an absolute delight. If anyone figures out how to pause life for a bit and slow down the clock, please let me know!

And just in case you're curious, here is the blog post I wrote about Clara at 9 months. It's fun to see how they are similar and quite different at the same time!