This last month has brought about some amazing development and at an overwhelmingly fast rate. A couple of weeks ago, I got really excited that he finally figured out how to sit up from being on his belly, the next day he pulled up to standing with the help of my sewing box and two days later he went for his first solo walk with the walker. In the last couple of days he's decided that commando crawling is for little babies and has miraculously mastered proper crawling at lightning speeds! Every day he gets faster and faster and I literally have to run ahead to remove any hazardous objects in his way. Sometimes I don't make it and have to wrestle them out of his little hands.
Atticus babbles away to himself and those around all the time! So many new sounds including mama, dada, dudu, dudi, baba, up. He's started stringing syllables together and is really expressive when "talking" to us. He really loves being part of the conversation. I've noticed lately that he tries to sing along with me when I sing him our songs. He recognises the song from the beginning and sometimes starts babbling the tune of the chorus before I even get there.
When asked "what does a doggy say?" he responds with a panting/barking sound, tongue hanging out....and makes a close-lipped "moo" for a cow. He starts "moo-ing" when I open his book to the picture of a cow. These little things seem so silly but they're such a huge deal in my world! He waves "hello" and "goodbye" (when he's in the mood of course), almost claps his hands, and gives me gentle slobber kisses. oh the slobber!
We're still travelling quite slowly through the world of solids. We have identified some favourites though: strawberries, plain yogurt, bread, cheese and watermelon. Sleep is also a sensitive topic...but I keep telling myself not to get caught up in it too much; that he will grow out of it...he WILL eat food, and WILL sleep through...won't he?
No new teeth this month. Still only 4. But boy, does it hurt if he bites!
We had our first hospital emergency last week. You'll notice a little dot on Atti's left hand from the IV drip. We were having a perfectly normal day when Atti started screaming all of a sudden, kicking his legs out frantically, went pale and even green and started being really drowsy and refusing to feed. I knew something was wrong straight away. The screams were nothing I'd heard before and he had the look of fear in his eyes. Without going into it too much, we rushed to emergency and they figured out pretty quickly that it was an intussusception...where one piece of bowel gets sucked up into itself. The doctors gave him morphine! and put him on the drip. The procedure was to have air pumped into his bottom to push the bowel back out. If this didn't work, we would have to go to surgery. It was the single most horrific experience I think I have ever been through. Even all the hospital trips with Filipp didn't prepare me for this. Seeing your little baby suffering and in pain is heartbreaking. He's so little and helpless and totally dependant on you to figure out what is wrong, to look after him and make him feel better. We stayed at the hospital overnight and Atti woke up smiling and giggling and back to his old self. That was quick! I think I'm still recovering, trying to push the image of him being so sick and in so much pain out of my mind's eye.
