Bumper Parents

So Ben reached two milestones yesterday. First, Mark and I agreed he had his first official "crawl." He's not going too far yet, but he did get his butt up in the air and make it about 18 inches across the bed to his beloved Wiggle Giggle, so Mark and I decided that it would count as his first crawl. We were delighted to both be there for it.

Secondly, he sat up on his own. He did this at about 1 AM last night- and it must have been really exciting for him, because he refused to sleep afterwards. Mark went in there to get him, and he was sitting in the middle of his crib wailing. First Mark, then I tried to sit in his room with him to get him to go to sleep on his own, but after 45 minutes of non-stop screaming, I caved and brought him into our room. I nursed him for the third time in an hour, and then he spent another 45 minutes rolling in between Mark and I . Seriously, we felt like a couple of bumpers, boxing him in with our bodies and legs so he couldn't roll off the bed. We both pretended to be asleep, so at least we wouldn't be encouraging his wakefulness with parental attention. He rolled, sat up, scooted, tried to nurse on Mark's elbow, and then finally settled onto his belly and made "ggg" sounds (which actually sounded quite a bit like the fake farting noises you make using your elbow. Mark and I had trouble not laughing as he carried on all these antics, happy as can be. You would not have guessed he spent the previous 45 minutes howling. Fortunately, as his "ggg"s got farther apart, Mark took him back to his crib, where he managed to sleep another couple of hours, got up for another feeding, and then slept until 7:15, when he woke up cooing in his crib as if nothing had happened the night before.

On another note, I'd like to sing the praises of the YMCA> We discovered recently that our YMCA has childcare, so Mark and I had planned on taking him this morning so we could both get in a workout. I had surprsing energy when Ben woke up at 7:15, so Mark slept in a bit while Ben and I went to the YMCA. Mark's already taken him there a few times, but this was my first. It was SO awesome!! The two women who worked the childcare were super friendly and nice, and I liked that both they and many of the children there were non-white. We are sadly limited in our friends to caucasian middle-class, so I like that he can be exposed to different ethnicities. Plus, working out was actually fun! Who would have thought?! Granted, this is my first work out there in quite a while, but to have a few moments to work out and not have to worry about Ben felt really good. I've been doing some exercises at home using an exercise ball and resistance bands, but I usually do them while trying to entertain Ben, so this was much less stressful. Yeah for the YMCA!! They also have an infant swimming class in the summer, and Mark and I are really looking forward to taking Ben to that as well.

Okay, got to go - I have a whiny baby behind me who may or may not have just pooped his diaper. Let's hope he didn't poop it - as changing a 8.5 month old diaper is no easy affair (why, you ask for non-parents out there - because IMMEDIATELY upon being set on his back he tries to roll over - and he's quite good at it!)...

Until next time - Happy Thursday!