We succeeded in getting the iBert bicycle seat and mounting it on my bike. Now we can take family cycle rides! Tristan’s head is big enough for a helmet, and he looks very interesting with one on. We’re going to take it slow as he gets a little bit older (and James gets a bit more used to cycling again) but I look forward to taking him out to interesting places during the day as well as cycling as a family.

For those of you who wonder what it is actually like to ride with one of those things, I will say.. weird but not difficult. I was a bit worried at first; after mounting the seat I couldn’t get onto the bike! I took it outside with plenty of legroom and tried again successfully. The belt/harness thing is sort of ghetto-fabulous, and I don’t trust it to restrain Tristan’s little climby-paws should he decide he is done with riding. Baby’s head also sort of rested on my chest with how I ride, or what size I am (for those of you don’t know me in person, I am short and stout, sort of like a dwarf but with less of a beard), but it actually was comforting to me as I felt like I had control of him should he be a little bit unsteady. As for the ride itself, he absolutely loved it. An excited Tristan is easy to spot, with the Puntypaws ™ flailing; his entire body is compelled to jump a bit. Even as kickety as he was, the seat kept his legs in and out of my way. He can reach some of the gadgetry on my handlebars but the only thing he figured out how to fuck with was my bell. But it was nice being able to observe him instead of try to guess how he was doing.

(so yes, get this seat if you’re a bicyclist!)

Tristan can officially crawl now – I’m sure he pretty much could for a while, but either lacked confidence or motive. He’s still pretty slow, but he can creep back to any place you’ve just removed him from. He’s getting more confident in moving his body – I notice he’s changing his position from sitting to crawling a lot, and in the other direction sometimes. James has found him sitting up in the crib once now.

We’re still working on standing and Tristan is getting more confident and proficient there, too. He will either grab our hands/arms while sitting in our laps or he will grab an object with bars, such as his jumper, and then balance while holding on to the point where he’s starting to look comfortable. He falls a lot but I hear this is a trait all toddlers pretty much have while they are toddlers.

We got a new carrier for Tristan – the Ergo. It’s sort of a cross between a basic pack carrier and a Mei Tai. Anyway, the main selling points of the thing are that it’s faster to use than a Mei Tai and it supports baby in an ergonomic position. What I didn’t know about it is that the 20 lb baby I’ve been used to wearing feels a lot more like a 10 lb baby. I may not be able to wear him facing out in this carrier, which will suck, but this is a great utility and comfort carrier.

Lots of little goings on.

A couple of days ago, I lowered his crib to the lowest possible setting. I asked a community that I spend way too much time lurking at, and it seemed that the 8-month mark was a good one for that. Another guideline that I read said that when baby shows interest (not necessarily ability) in standing, to lower the damn thing. Anyway, thankfully Tristan was happy in his Exersaucer while I spent ten years lowering the crib. Now his dragon crib ruffle bed skirt thingie drags on the floor – no pun intended. Damnit, that was the last piece of the dragon set that was useful.. Anyway, the crib thing is working fine; it’s a lot like putting him in a playpen. Tristan also does not try to pull to standing or even to sitting while in the crib (that we see, anyway) but he does do both in other settings. Mostly, he just tries to crawl or lie on his back and punt his little legs around in his crib when awake.

Tristan’s crawling is getting somewhere. He’s now officially mobile but he is slow enough and not confident enough that he doesn’t get far quickly yet. I know that these are my final few moments before having a flying toddler underfoot that I will have to chase down constantly. He practices standing a lot, too – whenever one of us is holding him in a position to spot for it. He still cannot balance on two feet for more than a second for the most part, although he gets it for a good moment sometimes.

We found that the commercial jar baby food in the 3rd foods range is perfect for Tristan right now. I don’t know if he had a coincidental food strike or was just looking for more challenging foods, but since we started feeding the 3rd foods, he’s been gobbling solids. He also seems to be a somewhat thirsty baby but upon doing some research, what he drinks is close to normal. He doesn’t seem interested in self-feeding solid foods or trying to tackle the yogurt puffs and the like, although he at least recognizes them as food now. I think I will wait a few days before trying those with him again.

I don’t know if this child is gaining a lot of weight suddenly or I’m getting weak in my old age, but it’s getting very hard to wear Tristan for too long. For the most part, it had been getting easier and in some ways it still is, as I can reliably wear him for any occasion where I start by putting him in the sling (and leaving the stroller behind). But my back aches right now and the last two long walks we took in the evening left me very tired at the end. At least it’s exercise and baby likes it.

I took Tristan out to a thrift shop, which turned out to suck. Then we went to the adjacent Walgreens and walked around forever. A lady who may have been a member of the staff based on her outfit noticed Tristan in the carrier and approached him (as people often do). She had several pieces of paper in her hand and she crinkled them. That was the funniest thing that Tristan had ever seen – he giggled wildly. She continued to do this for a few minutes, and Tristan giggled nonstop until he got tired of giggling. I thought the whole scene was funny and I like seeing baby happy, so I also had the giggles. People kept coming over to watch the scene and coo at the baby. People also always comment about what a happy baby he is, just about everywhere we go. I think the secret to happy babiness in our case is: let baby sleep, when baby wakes up feed/diaper, put baby in car with lots of grabby toys, take baby somewhere he hasn’t seen or generally is excited to see and put him in the sling, have strangers coo over him and talk to him like they had never seen a baby before. He really does seem to be a social critter so far.

Tristan is now eight months old.  Highlights: 

* Can sorta kinda pull himself up (he was able to basically climb on the piano-keyboard, and on us, etc.)

* Has finally managed to chain together a series of “crawling” steps enough to make it across a short distance to get toys.  (He doesn’t really crawl, crawl.   He… sort of does the Worm and flops, but he has now twice done so in a repeated fashion to get to a toy.)

* Can sorta eat.  Started eating semi-solid solids.   Peach yogurt ball things, and weird melty puff things.  I would estimate that for every piece of food that makes it down his throat, about eight wind up on the floor.  Samurai doesn’t mind, however. 

* Still pretty much goes to bed around 11, and gets up around 9. 

* Has acquired the ability to powernap for 5 minutes in lieu of taking a proper nap sometimes (especially if he falls asleep in the car – it screws up his normal nap routine). 

* Has, really for the first time, gotten upset at being around strangers.

* Has managed to make it through a 4 hour and a 6.5 outing to the design studio, to help us select stuff for the townhouse we’re buying.   He wasn’t exactly happy about it, but he made it. 

* Still has four teeth (vampire fangs on top + front teeth on bottom)

* Hit ~20 lbs. somewhere in there, as well.

11 new pictures added to 7 – 8 Month gallery.

Yesterday was Tristan’s first time in the pool. I got the two of us packed and ready to go, slathered him with sunscreen and put him in his cute little bathing suit. I should’ve slathered myself as well – since I just didn’t think to, I now have a boiled lobster back.

Our apartment complex has a kiddie pool, and we found that we were sharing the pool with two other mommies and their babies. I was the only mom who came out in a swimsuit and really got into the water. The other babies were 9 months old and 14 months old, and they had little turtle inflatable floats designed for babies. I recognized one of the moms, as I had stopped and chatted with her when we went out for our pseudo-picnic the other day.

Anyway, Tristan loved the water. There wasn’t a whole lot he could do, since the water was only a foot and a half deep, but he got a chance to ride in one of the turtle floats and I think he was a little bit bewildered at his mobility. When I held him up in the water (it was too deep to sit, and he can’t stand independently yet), he had fun splashing, kicking, and jumping.

We stayed out way too long, but we had a lot of fun. We’ll have to go get a float and try the big-kids’ pool next time.

Yesterday Tristan and I went for a walk around the park (which we won’t have after the later part of the summer) with the intention of having us plant it in the middle on a beach blanket and just hang out. We ran into another fellow parkgoing mommy and baby and spent some time chatting for a while. Her baby was a bit older, at 14 months, and was walking around like babies tend to when walking is all novel. I put Tristan on the beach blanket and he managed to take a couple of “steps” crawling!

About this crawling thing here.. Tristan has been trying since just before he was 6 months old to crawl and for the most part isn’t getting it. He has the form correct, but something just collapses before he can move that final crawling paw into the right position. I’m not looking for suggestions unless someone has something technique-wise that absotively works – we figure the kid will become mobile soon no matter which method he chooses. We’ve made a lot more progress on his standing than his crawling lately, and he actually seems a bit more interested in the standing. This is probably because he’s not been struggling to learn to stand for the past two months. I am confused as to the crawling difficulties, since this child has the infamous Puntypaws – or, in English, he has some fuckin’ strong legs that he likes to use a LOT. And he loves to play while on his tummy, but he gets so pissed off when he tries yet again to crawl and it gives him trouble.

I’ve got Tristan’s bathing suit ready to go, but where do you get “plastic waterproof pants” that a lot of people seem to talk about? I have swim diapers, a bathing suit, and a lifejacket (we might skip the lifejacket until Tristan shows interest in me not holding him in the pool). We were about to take our first trip to the pool yesterday, but Tristan wanted his nap early instead (also read as: Tristan was fussy for no good reason so I finally put him down and he passed out).

Right now, and during the mornings for a few weeks, we’ve been putting him in the jumper while we eat breakfast and starting his reading video. He still loves the video enough to be happy viewing it every day, and we’re getting close to the point where we should see some results. Actually, he has “said” the word “hi” when seeing the word on the screen, but I only caught him once and he might’ve been just anticipating the voice saying “hi” a moment later.

The most fun thing about Tristan is that he’s developing his sense of humor and playing with us. When he’s in a good mood, he loves to be tickled and otherwise made to giggle. He also likes putting his mouth on various body parts of mine, such as my thumb while I’m holding him up to stand. When I say “Heeeeey!” he often looks up and grins.

As far as talking goes, I’ve heard him say “hi” and “heeeeeey” (the former while we greet him after a nap or if someone is greeting him, the latter while playing the sucking game). These are fairly primitive sounding, but he’s done the “hi” thing in front of enough people that I’m sure he’s trying to say it. I’m sure he has no idea what the hell he’s saying other than parroting… well, he’s almost 8 months old, he might mean it! Or he might not. But it’s fun and I’m sure that if he keeps trying, it will turn into definite speech soon enough.

New pictures and videos added to 7 -8 Months.

I managed to get a fairly accurate read of Tristan’s weight today: 19 lbs 9 oz.

He’s coming up fast to the weight where we will have to evaluate baby equipment, specifically car seats. I’m really glad Tristan doesn’t seem to mind facing rearward in his car seat, because once he figures out he can face forward, he won’t stand for that shit anymore. Our car seat is good to 22 lbs, which means it likely won’t last the entire first year. So we will need a convertible seat, preferably one that lasts through the booster seat phase. I figure we still have a good month or two before this is an immediate issue but I suppose it’s a good idea to start getting ideas together.

Also, his head circumference is JUST shy of what’s specified on infant bike helmets. I also need to find more input on that; I’d love to take him on the bicycle but I’m not sure if I need to wait until he’s a full year old or until his head circumference is appropriate for an infant helmet. Also, I plan to invest in a bike seat pretty soon and try to find out if my folding bike is ok to put the baby on.

Some content added (more to come) and some details fixed.