"Imp" - ressive Accomplishments

So, yesterday Wiggle turned 9 months. When he was 8 months, I felt like it couldn't have been that long, he couldn't be 8 months already, yada yada yada. Now, at 9 months, he seems so much like a little boy and not like a baby, that it makes total sense that he's 9 months old.

He has a whole new bag of tricks as of late. He just started playing peek-a-boo by actually holding something over his face, waiting for you to ask where he is, and then pulling the big reveal. He'd been pulling things away from our faces to find us for ages, and he also had hidden by alternately standing and crouching next to the coffee table to play, but holding an object to hide himself is new.

Also, that standing thing I mentioned in the last post, it's not a fluke. He still does it mainly by accident when he's so involved in looking at or eating a toy that two hands seem necessary. When he realizes he standing on his own, he generally gets startled and falls onto his butt, but he keeps on doing it more and more everyday.

Another new thing is that he can get down from the bed on his own. When he crawls to the edge, I say "remember, feet first," and he turns around and slides over the edge on his own. The first few times he would look at me when I was saying it, but now he just goes about his business, and I don't even have to say it every time. I think I will try to see if it works on stairs too.

But how is his mood, you ask? He has been all imp, all the time. Just call him Mr. Wiggle Mischief. He climbs, pulls things down, bangs things around, puts everything in his mouth, and can now evade capture by hiding under the dining room table and escaping out the other side when I move a chair to reach him (I think he learned that one from the cats). All with a big mischievous grin on his face often accompanied by much giggling and snorting. Overall, he's a lot of fun, even if he is a lot of work.

Also, in spite of his impishness, now that he understands things and is more independent, it feels like we can actually work together, even if it means we are doings separate things. When I move around the house during the day, I can wave him into next room, and he will come after me. If I don't call to him, he will just explore on his own. Sometimes when I'm trying to get dinner together before C comes home, I can give Wiggle a bottle, put him in his bouncer in the super-reclined position, and work in the kitchen while he feeds himself. Now, he won't stay there for long, but it generally gives me enough time to drain the hot pasta, cook the shrimp, wash the onions off my hands, etc. On good days, it even allows me to wash a few dishes.

One area I wish we had a little more distance from each other is the bathroom. He is hyper-fascinated by the whole room and everything in it. He goes crazy if I close the door, and I don't want to put him in his crib each time I have to pee because it's very important that he thinks of his crib as a place he likes and not as a prison. Plus, I would prefer, for my own mental health, not to associate relieving myself with crying babies. What I need is a magic toy that only comes out when it's bathroom time and will keep him occupied from pants down to hands washed. Any tips from the moms out there? I will try any and all advice.

I would say that in this picture Wiggle is only about one quarter imp. Full imp is very hard to capture because as you would imagine, an imp doesn't stay still for pictures. Plus he uses the time that Mommy has her face turned toward the camera to cause more mischief. Perhaps a wolf suit is in order?

Impressive