Cruising along

LR and I got up early again yesterday. We played and ate breakfast and then woke Daddy up at 8am. Then I got in a quick nap. LR is trying to clap now, but it's more like pounding his fists together. He's been spending the mornings crawling in and out of his tunnel system. His newest activity is walking while holding our hands. Sometimes it's at a run and other times he's so wobbly that he has to sit down. He likes to walk into the kitchen where we've given him access to the cabinet with all the recipe books and take out menus. He pulls them out and chews on them daily. In actuality, he has access to all the cabinets. I'm still waiting for the baby proofing magnets I ordered last week. They come with magnet keys and as long as we don't lose them, everything will be okay. Magnets will also keep him from opening the cabinets just wide enough to pinch his fingers.

After playing in the kitchen he usually heads to the laundry room where there is a very small step down. We're working on negotiating the step. I want him to go over the step backward, but he disagrees with my theory on gravity and wants to go head first. We made a game of it yesterday where he would climb halfway up the stair and then sit back down. I would say "bump!" and clap for him. He did that a few times and then he lifted himself up, but didn't step up at all and sat back down. I clapped again. After that he just leaned forward and sat back down, testing how little he had to do to receive clapping. It was very cute.

He had a nice long nap in the morning and then we went out and ran some errands. He didn't nap again until later in the afternoon and only slept for 30 minutes or so. Definitely not enough and he woke up pretty cranky. We tried the pool outside which was fun, but after 10 minutes or so he got chilly and wanted to come out. At dinner we noticed a rash on his forearms and we don't know if it's eczema or if it's irritation from all the crawling and cruising. It seems to come and go with the use of a moisturizer, so I think it's eczema. Too bad we just had our 9 month appointment. I might call Dr. Nick if it gets any worse.

Dinner consisted of steamed french green beans, carrots and broccoli, oatmeal cereal, and cherries for dessert. I like that we don't have to do jarred food much anymore. It makes eating out easier since he wants to feed himself. He hated jarred green beans, but he seems to love the steamed ones. Carrots were always a favorite, but the baby ones that he can grab a hold of are much easier to clean up and don't stain as much. We ran a quick bath for him after dinner and Gigi took care of him while Daddy and I tried to clean up the kitchen. I finally washed his highchair cover which had gotten super gross. I also wiped down the plastic of the chair and it looks like new again. Then it was bedtime and Daddy put him to sleep easily with a bottle.