Baby makes three...

This month has been full of milestones!

First of all, we did of Peter's first plane travel. On his first ride, he had two 20-minute long screaming episodes and lots of pitying glances. By the last ride, he was smiling and entertaining himself the whole way - people commented on what a happy baby he was, and people even thanked me afterwards. I consider those trips emblematic of how much he has mellowed and chilled out in the past few weeks.

Visiting his Uncle Tony and Auntie Shae

Aside from travel, lots of other things have happened, even in just the past few days. First of all, we tried finger foods on Peter's eight-month birthday. I was very nervous about this, and with good reason. Peter has inherited his mother's easy gag reflex and at first he threw up after almost everything he ate. But now he is getting used to things, and enjoys cereal puffs, grapes (quartered), and banana pieces. He can really gum them down.

Playing with cousin Taylor!

Second of all, Peter got his first tooth - more or less. I say more or less because it's not even totally in yet, it's more of a process. First there was the bump, which appeared to cause great discomfort. Then the bump went away, and he recovered. Then his tooth broke the skin, but was still just a jagged ridge. It has slowly moved upwards, but I think today is the first day I can officially say it's a tooth - I can see it when his mouth is open and I'd say it's about 50% in. Either that, or he has very short teeth.

Playing with his cousins

Another exciting thing to happen in the last week was that Peter figured out how to crawl backwards. As you can see this led to him getting caught under various pieces of furniture.

For those eager for a longer viewing of how frustrating it can be when you're trying to move in one direction, and you inadvertently go the opposite way, check out this video:

After that, he figured out how to move from sitting to lying down - he did that about two days ago. And then tonight - eek, he army crawled forwards! I have a feeling it'll only be a few more days before he is motoring around, and to be honest, it frightens me a little bit! He is fascinated by everything - especially the cat dishes, the plants, and the light sockets. I think it will get way more exhausting in the next few days.

And then of course there is standing. In the past month he learned that he could stand, and would often hold himself completely rigid when we tried to seat him somewhere. He also started flinging himself backwards (occasionally knocking his head) in what I assume was an attempt to go from sitting to standing by straightening himself. Luckily he figured out that wasn't a good idea, but most recently he has clued into pulling himself up. He hasn't yet mastered that, but he's trying and he pulls on things that are highly unstable and or dirty - cat dishes, planters, the toilet - you name it.

Anyway, it's all a lot of fun to watch and experience... and I'm only covering his physical milestones here! He's becoming such a personality as well; he still loves animals and gets excited by them. He loves to watch me brush my teeth. He smiles when we're smiling and mimics our serious face when we stop. And a few times I think he has tried to sign - the most cool time was when I was signing "Daddy" and he seemed to be mimicking me and looking back and forth from me to Julian.

All in all, this gig just keeps getting better and better. Coming soon: Peter moves forward and Mum has a heart attack!