The life we once knew has changed forever.....Q is officially mobile. Last Thursday, Sept. 10th (yes, this is very late), Katharine got some footage of Quin moving around. It is an awesome piece of historical filming that occurred while she was on the phone with Jenni (see post here and here), so any random comments she makes on film that don't make sense are probably part of that conversation. She is a wonderful multi-tasker, and since I had to be at work that night for an open house, it was very nice to have footage of the earliest known scooting.
To move around, Q is reaching forward with his right arm, putting his palm to the ground and pulling himself forward. Sometimes his left leg gets enough traction to push forward as well. He is getting up on all fours and rocking some, but not really making forward progress from the knees, though he does fall forward and so he can inch along that way. He finds his real speed in the pulling.
The video is a non-edited grouping of several smaller clips. I particularly love his movement under the coffee table and then the final segment where he does a three-sixty spin on his bare belly wearing his rose colored, manly, diaper.
Now that school has started, Katharine, Q, and I are working on figuring out the new routine. Between hours at work for me, and Katharine staying on top of all of the things that a working mom needs to stay on top of, there hasn't been a whole lot of extra time. We are both still loving every minute of Q time, and it has been fun as he keeps playing and moving more and more.
I did hear from a few people about the lack of recent updates. We were a little delayed in updating due to traveling over the Labor Day weekend. We were so excited to be able to see Grandma MJ and Grandpa Roy's new place and get to see Q's great Aunts and Uncle: Avis, Bill and Vangie. Q, of course, loved meeting more family: he sees the hands of people reaching to hold him and he loves it.
Q and his Great-Aunt Avis
Q with his Great-Uncle Bill.
Q smiling with his Great-Aunt Vangie
The (partial and extended) Riedlinger Clan in Granbury, Texas.
Q at his first visit to Grandma and Grandpa's new place in Frisco, Texas.
New food! Spaghetti squash! Somehow, I convinced Jared to cut the video before it hit the ten-minute mark . . . We've also seen tooth #2; sadly, it's not the other incisor (which would give him a vampire-style grin), but the lower left front tooth. I won't be surprised if three or four others arrive shortly. Hope everyone's doing well. Lots of love and slobber from the little guy!
So when I picked Quinlan up from daycare on Wednesday (this is Katharine, by the way), I talked to Andria a little about what he'd been up to. She said she'd helped him sit up by himself during the day, so I figured that trying to replicate her success would be a productive way to spend my afternoon, since Jared had a training until 7. I grabbed the video camera (what modern momma wouldn't publicize her baby's milestones?), and we got up on the bed. There were some interesting shots while we were getting set up, but he performed like a champ! He's really starting to ham it up for the camera a little more--a far cry from his used-to-be-shy-in-front-of-the-camera self. Enjoy it! We're definitely enjoying him, and we're looking forward to sharing him with my aunts and uncle this weekend and hopefully, more family during the fall!
We have been introducing different foods for a little while and learning about feeding the little man. Katharine, who does a lot of the reading and then summarizes for me, shared about experiential eating. As an adult, I love food and eating experiences; there are only few things I enjoy better than going to a new restaurant (or cooking) and enjoying fancy flavors mixed together. I love the experiences you can have with and around food. As a semi-psuedo-neurotic clean freak, I was not so sure how I felt about Q experiencing his food. He needs to be fed right?
Anyway, the book (Super Baby Food - very interesting and good, I have actually read some of it and no, we are not getting anything for free or money for endorsing the book, though we both love Amazon and will be glad to take anything they offer for advertising and endorsing them) talks about introducing new foods to Q to make sure that he is not allergic and to get him to taste different things. It also talks about how he is learning about food and eating in general - hence the experiential eating. Now, instead of trying to neatly get all the food in his mouth without ever letting any of it touch his bib, I am glad to say he happily spreads it everywhere. He even uses his own spoon to spread said food everywhere.
The video is 11 minutes. It is all of him eating. I am talking to him, too, and he talks back some, but mostly you can just watch the sweet potatoes spread out across his face. This was his first time eating, oh, excuse me, experiencing sweet potatoes, and he certainly experienced it. I know some of you don't have the time or the interest to watch 11 minutes of a baby eating; try skipping all the way to the end where I zoom in and show his happy, sloppy, sticky, smiling face.
Note: the video was from Monday evening. Katharine fed him on Tuesday, and he was just as happy to spread the sweet potatoes all over his face. Just in case anyone is wondering, this is real sweet potato, cooked, peeled and pureed, not stuff out of a cute little jar. Not knocking the little jarred food, or saying we won't ever use it, but cooking, blending, and refrigerating sweet potato was pretty easy, and we are happy to be letting Q experience good old fashioned home-cooked meals.
This video doesn't really need much of an introduction, but most people realize that I can't pass up a chance to add my own commentary. This one, to me, really shows some of the growth and changes that Q has made. He is certainly working on getting more and more verbal. He is also getting much more capable with his hands, though I am not sure his attention is growing very long; he learned to spin around pretty easily in his exersaucer, but that means he doesn't stick to any one activity for very long.
I love the look he gives me when I ask about his duck (a picture on the book). It is like I am interrupting him, and then he glares at me: hilarious.
