Rye, 8 months

Rye is crawling for real now, as of Sunday, and crawls less like a wounded soldier ducking artillery fire while looking for help for his wounded buddy. Well, some of the time, at least. Motivation appears to be a factor—something interesting-looking but dangerous as a target does make him move more quickly, and on all fours. Needless to say, all of the baby gates are fully installed now.

Rye has been pulling up to standing whenever he can. Sometimes he can get down by himself, but not usually. He tries to get on top of things: Steps, boxes. He takes steps while we support him, but so far it seems to be more for sport than for actual walking. He will play on his knees, now, especially to get him taller to reach something on a higher surface. He will crawl over to Mommy when he is hungry and wants to eat.

His fine motor skills are really developing. On Saturday he played with an object permanence box, and put the ball through the hole over, and over again. Although sometimes he did just suck on the ball. If the ball got stuck, he picked up the box to move it around to see where the ball was. He frequently bangs toys together to explore how they might react.

He enjoys exploring new objects, and gets very disappointed if you take something away he was not finished with. He can be distracted with a new object a lot of times, however. He has been holding his hands out when he wants to be picked up for some while.

He's mimicking words to try to speak, in addition to his babble. The other day he tried to say "butterfly." He was singing to himself while falling asleep, and it sounded like one of the songs from our music class. When I started singing that song, he got very excited and animated. I think I guessed right. He sings a lot, especially when he is tired, and we will sing with him. It sounds like a bunch of wounded seals, but it's fun.

Rye has started really noticing himself in the mirror. Before, he knew there was a cute baby in there. Now, every time we get in the car and he catches himself in the baby rearview, he smiles and checks himself out, and you can tell he's saying, "How YOU doin'?" It's pretty funny.

He's enjoying swim lessons at the Rose Bowl, and music class. He gets very excited when we drive up to the entrance of the pool. (It's too complicated to get photos for the swim lessons, but I hope to try. Stay tuned.)

Rye still enjoys riding in the Ergo with Mommy or the sling with Daddy. He also likes to ride in the stroller.

Guess who's getting a little big for the sidecar?

At Mayor's Discovery Park in La Cañada

Tent exploration at Joshua Tree

Curiosity and play

Pulling himself up and standing!

Bath time

You broke my will...oh what a thrill...goodness, gracious, great balls o' fire!

Car ride

We currently are using The Wonder Years by Tanya Altmann and The Baby Book by the Sears family to see how Rye is progressing developmentally.

Miss Lucy had a baby....

Rye regularly tastes the bath water now.

Saturday picnic in the park

The amazing Sarah and Amy helped deliver Rye.

Family photo

Junior Birdman does his thing up in the air.

Every time Rye flew forward in the swing, he tried to grab Daddy.

Gotcha!

Note there is room for a whole second baby at the back of the swing.

He wants to stand all the time, now.

...because who can resist this face?!

Belated post: Meeting Shael

I totally spaced on the post for this, but a couple of weeks ago we went up to beautiful, hilly Newhall to meet baby Shael and mama Fabienne from our birthing class (papa Juan was working). Baby love, all around! Rye loves making new friends and Shael was generous in sharing her toys. We had a lovely, fresh lunch and went on a neighborhood walk with hilly views—Shael got the luxury ride in the stroller.

Babies, just being babies

Look at her gorgeous smile!

Shael in the hot seat

Fabienne and Shael

Rye checks himself out

Cue the theme song from "Jaws..."

Guess who pulled himself up to standing today, from lying on his belly? Granted the crate gave a huge assist, but Rye is strongly motivated to be as tall as he can and run around!!

Climbing up on a step

Rye climbs one step up to get — ooh! buttons! beeps! — the cordless phone. This was his second attempt, and he's already practically a pro.

Daddy's craftsmanship*

Daddy built a frame for Rye's Montessori floor bed, and it's gorgeous! Here are some shots of Rye testing it out at nap time today. It's solid oak with box joints at the corners.

Usually the floor bed goes in a corner, but our corners are all near (drafty!) windows, which isn't too earthquake-smart. So Rye's frame has a headboard that should help keep him from going off the end in his sleep. He sometimes rolls around in his sleep, and he's loving to crawl and climb, so the pillows protect him from too much adventure when we can't get there quick enough to catch him.

"As you go through the process of preparing baby's room before birth, lie down on the floor in the middle of the room and look around, listen. Will it be safe? interesting? beautiful? calming? Will it allow for as much freedom of movement possible?

This visual, followed by tactile, exploration is very important for many aspects of human development. If we provide a floor bed or mattress on the floor in a completely safe room—rather than a crib or playpen with bars—the child has a clear view of the surroundings and freedom to explore.

A bed should be one which the baby can get in and out of on his own as soon as he is ready to crawl. The first choice is an adult twin bed mattress on the floor. Besides being an aid to development, this arrangement does a lot to prevent the common problem of crying because of boredom or exhaustion.

It helps to think of this as a whole-room playpen with a baby gate at the doorway and to examine every nook and cranny for interest and safety."

Snippets reprinted from: The Joyful Child, Essential Montessori for Birth to Three

*When Rye woke up from his nap, he started really exploring his bed, so these photos were added later in the afternoon.

Finally a very long and drawn-out video of Rye exploring the new bed. We thought some of the out-of-towners might be interested, but it's sort of average stuff, to be honest.

Please send a cake....with a file inside....

...wonder if this is what Maria Montessori really meant....

Pocket Park with Beckett and Maia

After swim lessons today, we joined Becket and Maia (not pictured) for some play at a fantastic pocket park in La Cañada.

Perfecting the army crawl...or what Jack's mom calls "the wounded soldier crawl."

Rye realized that Beck is the perfect size to climb on.

The park has a play fountain that's great for floating boats in and exploring. Holding onto Mommy for balance. He dropped his hat in the drink and it took a while to dry off.

Somehow after all this splashing, Beck was surprised his jeans were soaked.

The hunt for Trouble begins...

Guess who's going straight from army crawling to pulling up on things so he can be tall?

...and SO proud of himself!

Camping fun

Not many photos from this weekend's Joshua Tree trip, but here are a few highlights.

Playing with Daddy in the tent.

Lean, mean, army-crawling machine.

Mamas taking in some desert shade.

Rock 'n' roll first Easter*

The Easter Bunny brought luscious maraca eggs, a play silk, and softies.

Rye tastes his first carrot and practices his Jedi Knight skills.

More video here.

Rye meets Aunt Kathy and Uncle Tom! Unfortunately, somehow we missed a photo with Aunt Loretta and Uncle Steve....And, well, with everyone else. But really! It was a great party.

Aunt Kathy helps Rye find his first candy-filled plastic egg, which he immediately tried to eat.

Luckily the Easter Bunny brought him a teether duck to munch on.

During the afternoon dinner, we all suddenly started feeling a little dizzy and motion sick as a very long, rolling earthquake rumbled through. It was at least a minute long, or maybe more—it may have been two or three quakes that we felt—and felt sort of like being on a sailboat for far too long. It was a 7.2 just across the border in Baja, and was very deep (35km!), whichcontributed to the types of waves. The chandelier was swaying, and all conversation stopped as the 18 of us rode it out.....then we finished our dinner (tamales, chilaquiles, salad, ham, angelfood cake). Just another rock-and-roll holiday in SoCal!

*Easter basket and Uncle Tom photos added Monday.