Yes, the joyous/dreaded moment has arrived. Gabriel started WALKING a few steps about a couple weeks ago, and now he is quite good at it. He still enjoys crawling since he can get around faster that way, and the funny knee hop is also a favorite. But he is pushing up to standing on his own and walks across our (admittedly small) apartment all by himself. Walking is not without its trials and tribulations. He falls. A lot. But he's getting good at detouring to a chair or wall to steady himself before he completely loses his balance. What's next? Hiking the Wonderland Trail with Daddy? Running a marathon? Only time will tell what Gabriel will do on two legs.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Manners
Over the past month, we have been adjusting to our new normal, a baby that eats! Gabriel has been taking all of his food by mouth and we only have to give medications and water through his tube. However, he has come up with some interesting ways of letting us know when he is done with food (whether the meal is over or not). Spoon throwing had become a daily sport in our house: how far can you fling it? Can you get it under the couch? What sort of splatter pattern can you create? And so on.
So, Mommy decided to take a stand. Spoon throwing is unacceptable behavior; you get three chances and then everything gets taken away and you get ignored for the length of time it takes me to wash the dishes. It took about two weeks, but we managed to get spoon throwing under control. In the end, I had to tell him "no" and give him a 10 second time out (turn him around and ignore him) every time he threw a spoon to really help him make the connection that the spoon-launching was the undesirable behavior. Now, he usually makes it through a meal without the spoon-toss event. He has learned to hand us the spoon if he doesn't want it or he will try to lean over and put it on the table. Now we seem to be moving on to recreational vomiting (again!). Remember that from awhile back? It used to be a great way to get Mommy and Daddy's attention in a hurry. It took us awhile to figure out that's what was going on and that we had to ignore it, mess or no mess. Anyway, he hasn't figured out the appropriate way to let us know that he is FULL and DONE, even though we use the baby sign language "all done" at the end of every meal. He has yet to present that sign to us. It's an ever changing landscape of behaviors.
We have been working on drinking and adding textures to his food, but so far no success. It's a little easier this time, since the spoon feeding had a long lead up and then one day he literally woke up and knew how to do it, I hold out the hope that if we keep introducing the ideas, he'll get it eventually.
So, Mommy decided to take a stand. Spoon throwing is unacceptable behavior; you get three chances and then everything gets taken away and you get ignored for the length of time it takes me to wash the dishes. It took about two weeks, but we managed to get spoon throwing under control. In the end, I had to tell him "no" and give him a 10 second time out (turn him around and ignore him) every time he threw a spoon to really help him make the connection that the spoon-launching was the undesirable behavior. Now, he usually makes it through a meal without the spoon-toss event. He has learned to hand us the spoon if he doesn't want it or he will try to lean over and put it on the table. Now we seem to be moving on to recreational vomiting (again!). Remember that from awhile back? It used to be a great way to get Mommy and Daddy's attention in a hurry. It took us awhile to figure out that's what was going on and that we had to ignore it, mess or no mess. Anyway, he hasn't figured out the appropriate way to let us know that he is FULL and DONE, even though we use the baby sign language "all done" at the end of every meal. He has yet to present that sign to us. It's an ever changing landscape of behaviors.
We have been working on drinking and adding textures to his food, but so far no success. It's a little easier this time, since the spoon feeding had a long lead up and then one day he literally woke up and knew how to do it, I hold out the hope that if we keep introducing the ideas, he'll get it eventually.
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