Can they be pushed together?

Funny houses. They remind me of Babushka dolls. Or Matroshka dolls, or whatever they are called, the Russian dolls that fit into each other. Hihi.

After all the visitors have gone and Yannick has calmed down a little again I finally found some time to upload my photos from the last month or so.

See here for new additions:

I am not getting to do anything these last weeks, I apologise for not even having posted the solution to my baby photo quiz. It will come in due course. First let me explain what is going on in this house right now.

I have a book called Wonder Weeks (for a very good synopsis see here), this was one of the few books I allowed myself before I had Yannick. 'Allowed' because I didn't want to cloud my brain with any educational theories before I had my baby and knew what kind of child he would be, and this book seemed to be describing babies more from a observational viewpoint rather than telling you how to treat your baby in various circumstances. In a nutshell it tells you about developmental spurts that babies go through during their first year of life and describes what they learn during those weeks and how you can best support them doing that by giving you ideas for new kinds of play.

There is some info on the web about the wonder weeks (and here too). What they don't say on the linked web site, is that you have to use the corrected age for your child. Yannick was 10 days late, that means that even though by his birth date he would be x weeks old, he really is x weeks + 10 days. That puts us right on cue for wonder week 36.

These spurts can be very unsettling for both the parents and for the child and happen always at almost the same time for all babies. With some babies the phases last a number of weeks, with others just a few days. Yannick seems to be at the peak of one of them at the moment. He is really not his usual happy self and if he could he would probably attach himself to me somehow permanently. When we are alone and I so much as try to move towards the door on my own, he lunges forward (from a sitting position) trying to follow me. As he can't crawl quite yet, the end result is a baby lying uncomfortably on some toys, wailing away.

Other signs that he is undergoing a developmental spurt are that he doesn't like to eat much (apart from mummy's milk) and is very grumpy when he wakes up from sleeping. I've never seen him cry as much as he does lately. Last night he was awake from 10pm to midnight, trying to sleep but simply being too unhappy for it. As it says in the book that the brain and head is growing during these weeks, I am really wondering whether my little darling is suffering from a headache. He looks a bit bleary eyed and tires more easily than normal. He is also a bit more cuddly than he ever was, which in a way is nice. I never had my baby boy leaning against me for a rest beforehand.

I can't do anything at all without him. When I go to the kitchen I have to put him into my Maya pouch; that way he is quiet and happily watches whatever I am doing. I even have to take him to the bathroom with me. The other day he watched in amazement the funny faces I pulled doing my business. *grin*

Even with Frank helping, my little one is only really happy when I am close. If I leave the room Frank has to distract Yannick to keep him from more wailing. On the positive side we have this: when I come back I usually get a huge smile!

I just hope that this phase will be over soon. I got used to my nearly eight month old baby being a lot more independent from me and being content on his own, playing away happily. This makes this temporary step backwards even harder to deal with. At least I know what's going on. If I didn't have that information I would be a lot more irritated by his clingyness and the seemingly unreasonable crying bouts. This way I am a lot more sympathetic and patient (still no angel though) and give him extra cuddles.