Peek-A-Boo!

The other day I pulled out Baby 411 and was reading up on developmental milestones for 9 month olds, and was surprised to learn that he may already be able to understand the concept of "no" and other words we use, and that he may also start testing out cause-effect relationships and playing games with us. I'm always surprised to reach a certain stage of development, as they come on so fast and sometimes I feel like I'm not quite ready for him to be so advanced.

Today, I got a peek at this new baby stage. I sat down with D and in an effort to entertain him I gave him this long scarf I have. He grabbed at it with his hands, and lifted the fabric to cover his face, and then lowered it. I took the opportunity to turn it into a short game of peek-a-boo... and then he did it again. And again. And started giggling like a maniac. I ran to get the camera, and was afraid that having it recording him would distract him away from what he was doing (as so often happens). But thankfully, no. He kept at it. And when Zach came home and I gave D the same scarf, he did it all over again. My little boy has figured out how to play peek-a-boo, and OMG IS IT EXCITING.



Unfortunately after this incident he later went to take a nap, and when he awoke he was a crankomonster. We've been lucky in that I've never noticed a consistent pattern of him experiencing the famous "witching hour" (I think he prefers to spread his crabbiness around throughout the day, you know, keep us on our toes) but lately I'm noticing that he's waking up from that afternoon nap feeling kinda crummy. So after many unsuccessful attempts at cheering him up, I grabbed the stroller and we went for a walk. There's a park a few blocks away, so we went there, and D swung on the swing there for nearly an hour while I caught up with my best friend with whom I haven't talked in ages. D was happy as could be swinging there-- it's amazing how he can seem so miserable at home, but as soon as the stroller gets moving and we're out someplace else, he can be so happy. Then sure enough, as soon as we get home again he started fussing again. Oh, and when I unlocked our door I managed to break the key in the lock. We've already got someone coming out tomorrow to turn on our gas and someone else to fix a cracked window, we might as well add a locksmith to the list, huh?

It's amazing to me how quickly D's cries will drain my energy. We had a fairly good day most of today, but then just that bit of time this afternoon when he was upset and nothing would soothe him for longer than 2 minutes (other than the walk and the park) almost cancelled it out. It's sad how that works, thoughI suppose it's something I can change if I focus on it. Zach's getting D ready for bed right now (they just got out of the bath, so the getting-PJs-on-torture session should start up any minute now), maybe I'll watch the video a few times before bed so I can end the day on that positive note.