Dexter has met all the expectations I had for him this month. He says "momma" a million times every day. He occasionally blurts out other words too, but they are very random. It usually happens by a quick mimic back at what someone said, but he'll never repeat it. I heard him say "ba" right after someone said ball and today he said "bye". I was told that he's said "red" a few times and is attempting "yellow", courtesy of a cool little Baby Einstein toy that he likes to play with that lights up and says all the primary and secondary color names.
He's not crawling on all fours all the time, but he's doing it more and more. He used to take maybe a step or two and now he'll take 5 or 6 on all fours. He's pretty fast now on his belly and he can grab toys and take them with him. He loves to crawl into the bottom of the exersaucer. I'm not sure what he likes about it, but I suppose it's like a little fort to him. He peeks out from under it and often takes his toys under there. He also loves crawling into the bathroom. He'll crawl around on the cold tile floor until his belly is ice cold. Tonight, when I gave him a bath, he was pulling himself up on the tub. He was soo excited to try and look over the edge. Of course, the edge of the old clawfoot tub comes up to the bottom of his eyeballs, so I don't think he could even see over. That didn't stop his excitement though - he loves baths!
The last thing I expected him to do was pulling himself up to stand. That happened really fast, like how quickly the crawling progressed. Now, every chance he gets, he's pulling himself up to stand. It's gone from taking him about 1-2 minutes to get to standing to maybe 20-30 seconds for the whole process to play out. He pulls himself up on the couch, the chair, the coffee table, the dishwasher (when it's open), the crib - those are his favorites so far. He tumbles once in a while and I let him fall, but I make sure he doesn't bang his head too hard. Falling is just part of the process of learning, so I'm trying hard to sit back and just clench my teeth when he falls over. He surprises me how well he can figure out how to re-balance and get out of uncomfortable positions. He's learning so quickly. It really won't be too long before I have to chase him down.
It seems like he hit another developmental growth spurt. He's starting to get waving bye-bye. He doesn't usually do it without waving his hand for him first, but sometimes he does. It's adorable when he does. At this point, I kind of want it to all to slow down a bit. He's growing so quickly. He was fussy and crying tonight when I put him to bed, but it didn't bother me at all. I was just thinking about how, soon enough, he won't need me to stand over his crib and sing him to sleep. Though that sounds liberating, it's also sad to think about him growing up and not needing me as much. I've gotten used to being the center of his universe. I'm sure I will continue to be that center for a long, long time, it's just that I can see him becoming a teensy bit independent now.
