Another Milestone...

Well, as I live & breath, I never expected my youngest to have another Milestone Moment, but it happened this evening right before his going to bed! I guess referring to him as the "late bloomer" of the family might have been a bit pre-mature, but I dare not get my hopes up until a few more milestones have come & gone! So, this said, I am happy to report that... Wait, I should back up and begin this story at the very beginning - you need background on this to get the whole picture :)

Ian has determined that when the rest of the family sits down for dinner, he too should be at the table with us. Now, this might not be an issue for your family, but for ours, it is. You see, the table we currently use for our family meals is in the breakfast room. This table only has 3 matching chairs, which requires that we drag a 4th chair out of the formal dining room. Shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong! The 4th chair is considerably larger than the other 3 chairs, so one entire side of the table is taken up by it's enormity! Also, our breakfast room isn't very large, so the table & 4 chairs that currently occupy that space, occupy the whole space - there is no more room for another chair! Well, I guess that any other family might just move into their formal dining room, but that wouldn't be a good solution for us since it seems that my 2 year old cannot: (1) stay in her seat for the entire meal, (2) cannot keep her head over her plate while eating, and (3) cannot wipe her hands & face before repeatedly dismissing herself from the table! This little dilemma means that after each & every meal, I am forced to scrub the place mat she uses, the table space that she touches, the chair that inevitably ends up with food all over it, and floor that catches everything that hasn't already landed on & stuck to the place mat, table, and chair! And, since our formal dining room table wasn't designed for scrubbing, nor is the carpet underneath it suitable for sweeping & mopping, I find the thought of having a family meal in this room an unpleasant one - unless, of course, it's a holiday :)

So, all of that would bring me back to the original story! Since Ian usually eats his meal of strained foods prior to the rest of the family getting our dinner, he has, up to this point, been content to play happily in his Johnny Jumper which hangs in the doorway between the family room & breakfast room. He can see us, we can see (and hear) him. It's a win-win situation! But it seems that the situation has now changed and he would prefer to be at the table with the rest of us, and will not be satisfied (or quiet) until his demands have been met. So, in all of my brilliance, I figured out that he could sit & play in his walker (perched precariously under the bar that separates the kitchen from the breakfast room, and betwen the wall & the table), be near enough to the table that I can simply reach out and touch him, and his demand to be with the rest of the family would be solved! This has worked remarkably well up until this passed week, when he decided that if we are all eating, he should eat too - even if he's just eaten 2 whole jars of strained veggies & fruit! Well, since there has been no sign of teeth (until this morning), I've had to put off feeding him until we all sit down for dinner. Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but when you have an infant that has decided it's time to eat, expecting that child to wait until the rest of the meal is prepared and placed on the table doesn't make for a quiet, peaceful environment. So, with much noise and fanfare, we all manage to get seated at the table while Alex (the older one) and Morgann (the 2 year old) simultaneously compete to say the dinner prayer at the same time, while having to scream it over Ian's demands to eat 'right now'. So this change in procedure means that I now have to shovel in the strained food to keep him happy, remind Morgann to sit down in her chair, hold her head over her plate, and (for God's sake) use the napkin, repeatedly tell Alex to stop talking (or complaining depending on the meal) and to be thankful that he has food that he should be eating during dinner because mommy & daddy will not sit at the table for the next 45 minutes waiting for him to finish up, and, oh yeah, eat my food too! Well, as you can imagine, this scenario wasn't working well for mommy, so I had to come up with another idea! Wait, I know! I'll buy some of those Gerber Biter Biscuit cookie-type things. He can knaw on that and be happy!

So, now we're back to this evening's events :) After eating our healthy dinner of hot dogs, served only on wheat buns, (like this is supposed to make the meal so much healthier), I have decided that my very happy almost 9 month old son requires a bath. He is completely covered in drool and soggy cookie remnants. It was everywhere. There was no getting it all off with the typical washcloth to the face & hands - the only way of solving this problem was to scrub him clean with soap & water. So, upstairs we head to the bath tub while Michael cleans the kitchen & table from dinner. Now, because I have yet to buy that babygate I mentioned earlier today, and Ian has already discovered what sliding down about 4 stairs on his tummy, head first, is like (no worries, by the way! I was standing there when it happened so he literrally was stopped when he smacked head-first into my leg), I decide that my best course of action would be to strip him down to his diaper and bring him into the bathroom with me. Now, this is where the milestone moment occurs, so pay attention! While I'm sitting on the side of the tub trying to get the water to just the right temperature, I turn around to find him propped up on his knees, hands on the side of the tub, peering into the the big box to see what exactly mommy is doing. I actually did a double-take before I realized what had just happened. My reaction must have startled him, because he immediately jumped, fell sideways, and began crying since he had just bumped his head on the bucket of toys. Of course, I felt terrible about scaring him like that, so I scooped him up, kissed his head, and re-assured him that he would be just fine. This illicited a smile, and slap to the face - mine - (his way of showing happiness, I guess), and an open-mouthed kiss to my chin.

The rest of the bath was a blur because I spent almost the entire time trying to hold down both of his arms & legs - he has also discovered that when you move your apendages quickly back & forth while in the water, the resulting splash soaks (and upsets) mommy! This new game is apparently loads of fun for him because he laughs and wriggles free from my grasp, awaiting me to catch his arms & legs again. This cycle is repeated over & over again, all while mommy tries to scrub his little fat body clean :)

I think it's time for bed now! Just re-living this whole event has exhausted me :)