Dexter has been taking his nap later in the morning most mornings. He's either on a late schedule or an early one - all determined by when he gets up. Sometimes he's up by 6am and sometimes he sleeps till 7am. If he sleeps in, then I don't get the hour of peace and quiet I've come to treasure every morning. That was all last week. His morning nap was between 10 - 12. I leave for work at 10-ish, so no "me" time. No time to blog or surf the 'net and just have the weight of worry off my shoulders when he's sleeping safely, peacefully in his crib . By Sunday, I was a crazy mess for not having any time to myself. Ah, but today, he took a nap at 8am and so here I am typing away.
Dexter is getting much better with his hands. He has started pointing at everything. He's been doing it for a while, but now he's 100% accurate. He likes noses the best. He also feeds who ever is feeding him and he thinks it's hilarious. He scratches anything that will make a funny noise too like the couch or Daddy because he says "ow!" The worst part about better hand control is the pinching. When I'm giving him a bottle, he sometimes grabs my lip and pinches it. That's no fun. I've been giving him his bottle to hold when he gets out of control. That's the best way to keep his hands busy doing something more constructive.
His comprehension is becoming more and more apparent. A Daddy "no" is more potent than a Mommy "no", but he understands the word "no". As a matter of fact, I was discussing that with our nanny and when I said "no" he looked up at me quickly with a questioning look like "what am I doing wrong?" HE gets upset and throws tantrums ALL the time when he doesn't get his way. IT used to just be the "Fold-Over", but he's adding new tricks like "Hopping Mad" and the dramatic "Toy Fling". I still find it funny at times, but it's getting old fast.
So I had a horrible bad, bad, bad mommy moment that left me feeling awful for hours. We took Dexter to the park. We discovered that a really safe way to let him go down the slide was on his belly. We've been just supporting him as he sat down and slid down. He LOVES slides. The belly trick was working like a charm and he had the biggest grin on his face every time. We moved up to slightly larger slide and he loved it even more. I chatted briefly with another mom that was standing near the slide with her 8 month old daughter. Dexter decided he wanted to climb up the slide. I decided to give him a little push on his bottom to help him go up. I guess maybe I did it too hard, he wasn't ready for it, or his arm got stuck. I don't know exactly what happened except that his face hit the slide really hard. He started screaming and I tried to comfort him. Usually, the best thing to do is distract him, so I put him on the slide and he slid down, screaming. It didn't work, so I tried one more time. He was still screaming. Mr. Cobra picked him up to comfort him just as a giant drop of blood started coming out of his nose. Wow, guess who felt like the biggest asshole… Not only did I give my son a bloody nose, I also just mad him go down the slide while he was screaming in pain. To top it off, there's nothing like a senseless accident with a hurt baby to set off an argument. Yeah, that was fun times. After everyone calmed down, we took Dexter to the swings and he was back to normal. I just felt like crap for hours afterwards because he had a bloody crust around his nostril that reminded me every time I looked at him about what had happened. He's a tough baby, that's bloody nose #2 and he's just 10.5 months old. Not that bloody noses are something to be proud of.
