Baby 7mo to 1 year

3/28/22 7mo Baobao has gotten more mobile so we are preparing our house accordingly. He's usually very happy, and caretakers and strangers love to smile at him. The caretakers at church talk about how he never cries there. But I'm pretty sure he's going to start having stranger anxiety! This stage of life has been very pleasant for us, because of his frequent laughter and consistent sleep through the night. We also resumed several pre-baby activities recently, including sports, games, and yw's birthday BBQ celebration. These events are still a little tricky because one of us still needs to watch him at all times. Unless he's sleeping, but it's getting harder and harder for him to sleep outside.

Also last day of pumping! So relieved! Not sad at all!! So happy to be not tied and have to carry around so many things! I slowly weaned down for a month (pumping 4 times a day at 6mo, and then 3, 2, 1, after 36hr, stop). 

Now we've tried so many foods! But he's starting to eat less and less formula. Not just a little less but a lot less! 

3/30/30 shortly after turning 7 month, Baobao started crawling! Man, he learned quickly! He will crawl very fast to get his butt paste 🤣.

4/3/22 7.25mo: got his first tooth! Thought only a sliver, but I felt it when he tried to gnaw on my finger. Maybe that's why he hadn't been eating as well or having trouble going to sleep. 

4/7/22 Baobao has been shaking his head when he eats solids. And sometimes with formula. So strange. Does it mean he doesn't like it? 🤷

4/18/22 Every day he seems to do something new. He started taking a few steps while holding the fence. We were worried that he didn't talk very much for a few weeks. But it turned out he was focusing on his motor skills, and once he started crawling and pulling to stand, he started talking a lot! 

Solids have been very messy. Maybe I'm trying to increase the textures too early. He does like and eat the purees really quickly. He also seems to like toast.

Alan still can't hold him in the normal cradle hold. So strange. Yw: "I think it's because I tell you to do it, so you are rebelling."

Ab: my theory is correct that it would be easier for us when he starts crawling because he can entertain himself. We do have to watch him carefully because he tries to pull up to stand on things that are unstable.

4/26/22

Yw came back from trip to NY to visit friends while AB took care of Baobao for 4.5 days. YW was uncertain how things will go, while AB did a fantastic job. How did you do it? AB: I put baobao in the playpen so I could eat and go to the bathroom. Then we would play together for a while. I would feed him simple solid foods, then return him to the playpen while I cleaned up the mess. Last, we would walk outside or read to prepare for his nap. Fortunately, he was well behaved during these four days, and YW got food for me in advance. One time I was tired and just rested while BaoBao struggle to fall asleep. Eventually I did go up and feed him because he got hungry.  YW missed AB and BaoBao so much. 

Baobao 17.4lb. Getting closer to 25 percentile! Maybe 21? Height about 27" (10 percentile) tho...seems to be growing slower? 🤷

5/11/22 8.5 months 

Baobao is getting very good at standing without falling. He is climbing up the stairs. And he is back to talking more like "babamama." He can eat some textured foods and eats some finger foods. But he prefers the purees, which he is very well now.

5/5/22

He is crawling up stairs now! More fun at the playground because he can go up. 

5/25/22 9 months almost 

In addition to two bottom teeth, now he has to talk teeth (barely)!

Things that he finds funny include: 

"GameStop"

Making farting noises.

Throwing firewood on a fire. 

Sweeping off leaves from a play structure with my foot.

Saying "Amen" really enthusiastically in the "if you're happy and you know it say amen" song.

When AB makes the cicada sound 

Nice dog kisses 

When he's tired and you kiss him on the cheeks

We took him on a trip to HC and SC's wedding in Ohio and AB's conference in South Carolina. Boy was it hard! His sleep was all thrown off so he had a ton of trouble going and staying asleep in the hotel. He was also teething! Plus AB had to be in a conference from early morning to late at night, so I had to take care of him while he was having trouble sleeping 😵‍💫. Fortunately, he was still able to nap a bit during the day so I could catch up on sleep. And also AB's conference was at a super fancy hotel so we could put him in a semi difference section of the cottage and we didn't have to worry about him crying and waking everyone. Also I could use up endless amounts of towels. Also had to figure out how to go to the bathroom and shower myself while keeping him from getting into things.  Ended up putting him on my lap when I went to the bathroom and taking a shower with him in the shower while he poked his fingers in the shower drain holes.

6/7/22 9.25mo

Baobao got sick! We think rsv from visiting a friend who's kid was sick 😷. He has still been pretty active, but he has been getting sleepy earlier. His appetite has also dramatically decreased. Sometimes he would only drink one ounce, when in the past he would drink seven. Got some saline, Zarbees, benadryl, tylenol. But he does not like having things put into his mouth or nose.  Even though it's probably just a cold virus, it's still stressing me out! We hope he will get better soon! 

Baobao managed to climb all the way up the stairs. And he has wanted to do it more times despite being sick! Sometimes he requests us to walk him around (stands up grabbing our leg). 

He babbles sometimes, but recently mostly blowing a lot of raspberries. 

6/29-7/4 successfully went to Grand Teton and Yellowstone. It was difficult going in and out of the car all the time and scheduling around his naps. Fortunately he can have one bad nap a day. 

7/22/22 11.75mo

Baobao can take a few steps by himself and successfully squat and then take a few more steps! So cute! He also likes to open all the cabinet doors and climb on things like stairs, fence, his high chair. He loves playing with the robot vacuum but when it starts vacuuming, he gets scared. He loves playing with water. He loves splash pads and loves stick his hand out to try to grab the water spraying up at Evelyn's park. 

Baobao is starting to have memory of places. Every time we go on the walk and we turn the corner, he knows to stick out his hand to signal that he wants to touch the bushes. Whenever we bring him to the closet, he knows where the little ant bait is and makes a beeline for it, even if he can't see it. 

8/23/22 almost 1 yr

Baobao is walking like a champ!

Few weeks ago, Baobao started throwing little tantrums when he gets a toy (or our stuff) taken away. He will sit on the ground and throw his head and body forward onto the ground and cry. It's actually quite funny to watch such a little bean do this. Can't believe he already throws tantrums. 

We visited Seattle a week ago and went to a retreat at Westport. It was fun but also didn't like the traffic that made the drive 4 hours instead of normal 2.5. Fortunately he slept for a portion of the ride, however there was a long period when he had trouble going to sleep and he was crying a lot. Also being a cabin and outdoors, it was difficult to keep him from chewing on his really dirty hands, since he still falls and puts his hands down on the ground (even if he didn't fall, he would still touch everything on the ground). He really enjoyed the beach and playing with the stand, but he definitely stuck his sandy fingers in his mouth a few times. He enjoyed the waves, but the water was too cold for him to swim in. Back in Seattle, he had fun in the water and the beach. We started giving him whatever food we ate, but cut up. He really loved the food because my mom is such a good cook. He ate so much and pooped so much (sometimes 3- 4 times a day!).

Baobao likes to click the washing machine buttons and watch it spin. But sometimes when it starts, it scares him. 

He is such a good climber! He does pull ups on the freezer bar, climbs the baby fence, and recently climbed up on top of our kitchen island via his high chair. 

Occasionally he would say "Mama" when he wants me to pick him up. And he'll say "baba" too. One time he said "duck duck" - but maybe it was just a random sound to him. He does seem to enjoy searching for his little rubber duckie when I move it around. His most common noise is "onhhhhh."

Funny quotes: 

Ab (speaking for Baobao): "How do you like it when I stick my finger in your nose?". Baobao sticks finger in mom's nose. 

(This is in regards to us always trying to clean out his nose because he has such big ugly boogers.)

While changing baobao's diaper: yw: "A piece of poop just flew away in the wind."

YW: I wonder what it feels like to have teeth on the bottom and no teeth on top.

YW: When he falls, it's almost comical.

YW: One smile, and it makes it all worthwhile.

*Baobao clicks tongue*

YW: Baobao, we don't speak a language that involves clicking!

Ab: Baobao uses his head as a drill.

Baobao got stuck under the bed. And in the chair.