I know I haven’t published a blog post in between Lil’ Buddy’s 8 month update and now, but I feel like I have a good excuse this time. In the past month, seemingly EVERYTHING has slowed to a crawl due to COVID-19. Businesses have closed, services have stopped and you’d THINK that would translate to me having MORE time and energy to blog.
Well, you’d be wrong.
The truth is, I’ve been super protective of my family, time, energy and self-care this past month. My town experienced a major flood at the end of April and while my home thankfully is nowhere near the wet zone, the effects are felt right across the city. Namely, we are under a boil water advisory due to contaminants getting into our water supply, and old emotions and reactions from the 2016 wildfire have reared their ugly heads.
Even though I am no longer working for the city, I still feel that sense of constant urgency that I felt back in 2016. And if I was a betting girl, I’d bet that sense of urgency will remain in our community for months and even years to come. It’s compounded with the lingering mental health issues from having to evacuate four years ago, the threat of COVID-19 that has everyone on edge, and the knowledge that once again there are residents in our community who can’t go home and for whom intense uncertainty is a cloud that shadows every day.
My biggest worry is for my husband, who had to go back to work at his office rather than at home so he could help flooded residents in his position as an urban planner. I worry that he is being exposed to more people who could potentially have COVID-19, and I’m worried that he will experience the same burnout that I did following the fire, because even when the State of Emergency was lifted, “state of emergency” became the new de facto atmosphere at that job.
So what HAVE we been doing? We’ve been following along with Lil’ Ziggy’s homeschooling lesson plan, though that varies in adherence daily. Some days I get it ALL done and we feel great. Some days we just look up whatever interests him on the internet. Some days we watch The Magic School Bus for an hour and call it a day. One thing I always make sure to follow through on is getting him to practice reading short, simple books as well as just words around the house, labels on toys, etc. Since it’s fun for him, it’s a relaxed, informal method of learning.
I’ve also been reading a lot, working on some crafts such as baby blankets for friends and family members who are expecting, and some other hands-on stress relievers such as colouring. Believe it or not, I’ve also been keeping the house cleaner than I normally do!
And now on to Lil’ Buddy’s baby update.
This month seems to be a more transitional month for Lil’ Buddy. I haven’t really seen many NEW skills, but he has made considerable progress in his mobility and vocalization.
Moving more and more
In my last baby update, Lil’ Buddy was starting to propel himself forward. While he’s not full-on army crawling yet, he is starting to coordinate his arm and leg movements to create more intentional and directional mobility. He’s also learning that if he pushes a toy too far away, he can lean forward until he sort of goes over his legs and launches himself toward the item lol. He just hasn’t figured out that he can put himself back up again, so we’re now in a situation where I have to constantly put him back in a sitting position before he gets mad at being “stuck”.
Pulling himself up on things (sorta)
When he wakes from is nap, has a nurse and diaper change, Lil’ Buddy’s next destination is usually the living room carpet, where a box of toys and an activity cube wait excitedly for him. This usually gives me enough time to make *another* coffee and perhaps even sit down and drink it hot before he needs rescuing for one reason or another. Imagine my surprise last week when I rounded the corner from the kitchen and found him holding himself up on his knees and playing with the top of his activity cube! I know it’s only a matter of time now before he gets himself all the way up and starts cruising. This, of course, means we’ll have to put some baby gates up and do some babyproofing on the main floor.
Sidenote on baby proofing: I have a feeling that it’ll be really difficult to babyproof in the basement as that’s where most of Lil’ Ziggy’s toys are including tons of LEGO, dinky cars and other “bitty things” as we call them. I’m wide open to suggestions from any readers who have to juggle baby toys and non-baby toys in one space – how do you make sure your baby stays safe? For now, Lil’ Buddy just sits on his play mat if we’re hanging out downstairs but as soon as he’s getting around on his own, I’ll probably just have to keep him upstairs.
Making more sounds (sorta)
Lil’ Buddy is starting to make more complex noises, putting different sounds together into *almost* word-like sounds, and babbling a lot more. That being said, he’s not incredibly vocal. His favourite sounds are just laughing and yelling, with “ahdiediediethbt!” sprinkled in randomly. This seems to be the polar opposite of Lil’ Ziggy, who was a motionless potato for a lot longer but was making far more varied noises by this age. It’ll be interesting to see how different their personalities are as Lil’ Buddy gets older. So far, he seems to be much more chill than Lil’ Ziggy ever was (or is lol).
Eating solid foods (actually)
So confession here: I’ve been feeding Lil’ Buddy a LOT of baby food packets from the store, especially with everything that has been going on this past month. We’ve also unfortunately discovered that he has some food allergies, so I’ve been keeping his food offerings fairly simple and introducing things a bit more slowly than we did with his big brother. I have, however, started offering him small, soft chunks of food from whatever we’re eating (provided none of his allergens are in it), and he’s actually doing really well. He’s been practicing his pincer grasp on things like small pieces of strawberry, blueberry, beets, carrots and potatoes. Packages of Mushies, Puffies and MumMums round things out.
He does seem to be pickier than his brother was at that age, so it’ll be interesting to see if we have an easy or hard time getting him to try new foods as a toddler.
That’s pretty much it for now! See you all next month, I’m reasonably certain I’ll be chasing after Lil’ Buddy by then!
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