And, just like that, we're thirteen days from Christmas! Where has the year gone!? I'm looking especially forward to the festive season this year - I simply cannot wait to celebrate with my little man! We're heading off to Rod's folks' place in Klerksdorp for a few days to put our feet up and eat ourselves silly. And, of course, open the millions of gifts that everyone has bought for Ricky. My mom is sharing the car ride with us and I'm already starting to question where we'll put everything... But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. On the first, as per tradition, our Christmas tree went up, and the next morning over breakfast my little magpie did nothing but stare at the bright and shiny ornaments. He was quite simply enamored with it. It's going to be lovely watching him rip the wrapping paper from his gifts, before shoving it in his mouth by the fistful. The toys will come in handy in a few months, but for now the paper will be his entertainment. He can't seem to get enough of it!
This past week has been a busy one for my little man. Last Friday my mom stopped by for a visit, and so Ricky decided to show off by pulling himself to standing for the first time. *Proud mommy moment*
Since then he has done little else, pulling himself up on anything he comes across! He does so with such ease that I have to remind myself that it's only a week ago that he debuted this particular trick. He's now mastered sitting back down, so I no longer have to hurry to his rescue when he gets stuck on his feet with no solution to the conundrum of placing bum back on floor. As a result of his pedal accomplishment we had to lower the base of his crib to the lowest level. He had so much fun leaning over the rail I was sure he was going to topple right out!
Our little bee also finally made his first proper crawling strides yesterday. He's been leopard crawling around for ages now, but hasn't seemed terribly interested in conventional crawling. Truthfully, he still doesn't seem to care much for it. It's almost as though he proved he can do it, so now he'll just return to what works for him, if you please! This came on the same day as his first aided and wobbly steps. My brother, Blaine, before Ricky was even born, claimed that he would be walking by Christmas. While that's most likely not going to be the case, as much as a parent likes to think their child is exceptional, he is more than eager to get going!
It makes me chuckle, though, that my son's first attempt at walking comes on the same day as his first successful attempt at crawling. Too many people have instructed us to not let him walk until he has crawled. I would love to know how they propose we stop him. One of Rod's colleagues told him we have to make Ricky crawl because "her boys never crawled and so they sucked at math and are now chefs". Do all non-crawlers suck at math? Do all chefs have no mathematical ability? By this token, did all chefs never crawl? Should all non-crawlers become chefs? What a nonsense sentence. I never crawled. And while I am a good cook, I am no chef. Rod never crawled - he has two BSc degrees, one of which is in applied math, and his job for the past six years has been math-based... Well done, logic, you have struck again! The more likely driver behind this sentence is that the aforementioned woman is embarrassed by her sons' career choices. I say well done! Being a chef is no small thing, it takes years of practice to perfect the art and requires a certain creative flair that most do not possess. But hell, I must be wrong - it's all down to childhood patterns of development, surely?
Silly statements aside, I think it's great that Ricky is having so much fun learning all these new things, no matter what order they come in! There is no hard and fast rule, we've discovered. This is becoming clearer every day. Ricky now has six teeth. The lower medial incisors showed their faces first as expected - that's almost a given, although not set in stone. We expected the upper medials to appear next, but their hasty neighbours arrived at the party first, and our little man spent a couple weeks looking like a little vampire before the medials finally appeared. We are now eagerly awaiting the arrival of his lower laterals, although there is no sign of them yet. But I think six teeth by eight and a half months is a veritable mouthful!
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| Got to love smartphone apps! |
Last Saturday was Rod's birthday, so we headed out for a nice family lunch to celebrate the big 3-5! Ricky has a certain fondness for chewing on placemats, and this day was no different.
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| Nom nom nom nom placemat! |
In the hopes of getting a family photo to mark the occasion we had to resort to extreme measures! Ricky rarely sits still, energetic little ram that he is! Behold, a masterpiece!
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| An unconventional family photo |
And so it is that we have reached the end of my final post for the year! I'll be back in the new year with some pics of my baba's first Christmas and a spring in my step that always rolls around with the 1st of January!
Wishing all of my Christian readers a very merry Christmas! And to those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, a relaxed and happy holiday period!
Here's to a safe and fulfilling season! God bless!
Smiles,
Mommy
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