I Try to Lift with My Legs

Camilla sat up at 6.5 months (video here) and crawled at 8.5 months, and those two months in between were the easiest time of her entire first year.  She and I spent many an hour sitting on the floor, with her chewing on something fascinating like a set of plastic keys, and with me absorbed in a book or my laptop.

Blaise mastered the skill of sitting up on his own a few weeks ago, at about the same age Camilla did.  I'd been looking forward to him mastering this because it made my life so much easier last time.

But is my life easier now that Blaise can sit up?

NO.

My little guy is not satisfied by the fact that he can stay upright on his own.  If anything, he is MORE annoyed now, since he can suddenly see all the interesting objects that he is unable to reach.

I try handing him toys, of course, but he applies to each one a harsh test of a single criterion: can I devour it whole? and when the answer is inevitably no, he discards it disdainfully and expresses his unhappiness very, very, very loudly.

I try having him lie down on the floor, but he can't roll well enough to get around, only well enough to strand himself on his belly, where he flops around like a tiny but vocal beached whale.

And though he would be a tiny whale, he is not tiny for a seven-month-old.  The only place he is happy is on my hip, where he can be carted around the house like a tiny prince and see things and ostensibly reach to grab them, although I have gotten pretty good at dancing him out of reach of fragile objects.

(Is he happy sitting on my lap?  I'll let you guess.)  (Hahahaha.)

At six months Blaise weighed 22.5lbs, so I'm guessing he's over 23lbs now, and that is a LOT of baby to carry around all day.  Really, I'm lucky that my arms and back ache only intermittently instead of constantly.

All this is exacerbated by the fact that Bryan's working crazy hours on a project with a looming deadline, and we're hardly seeing him.  It's better than July's work-travel extravaganza, but not by much.  Fortunately we just have four more days, and then Monday he'll fly out to deliver the completed project, and he'll be home before bedtime and life will go back to normal.

Really, I'm just excited about having him home so someone else can tote around our enormous baby.

Comments

[Petroni]

Blaise is so HUGE! (And hugely adorable, of course.) I really don't know how you're doing it carting him around all day. I still feel bad that I couldn't hold him more when you were down here-- but like you said, sitting on a boring old stationary lap (and a reduced-size 8-month pregnant lap, at that) simply isn't sufficient to amuse him, right?

I feel weird hoping for quick mobility for your little guy, because I know mobility generally only makes life more, um, challenging for mom. But in this case I'll send up some prayers that the buddy can scoot or crawl soon!

[AJU5's Mom]

Okay, I get tired carrying my about 25 pound 20 month old around! And she walks most places. Just pray that he learns to crawl quickly so he can get into things on his own :)

[Annika]

Wow! My skinny Sammy was 22.5 pounds at nearly a year! (I didn't weigh him at exactly a year, but I figure that's close enough.) I'm not actually certain he's hit 30 pounds at three. Kids are SO DIFFERENT.

[Elsha]

Here's hoping he learns to crawl soon!

[HereWeGoAJen]

But at least he fits on your hip now! When Elizabeth was too small to ride on my hip and had to ride on my arm, it was so much worse. She's big too, not quite as big as Blaise, but she's probably about 23 pounds now, at eight months.

[Amy F]

Aww, that's exactly how much Peter weighed at that age. He started crawling right at that point and lost weight by his first birthday.

Leo, my 2nd, learned to sit AFTER he began crawling at 6 months. So not fair.

[Tracy]

He sounds like he's the same size as my nephew was. Who started crawling and the curve slowly stopped going upwards so quickly. He was definitely over 20 lbs at 6 mos, but only 24 at a year. My SIL said it got easier when he was older - little babies don't "help" themselves be carried, instead, they lean away to look at everything.

[Lisa]

My daughter was like Blaise at that age. Not satisfied in one place! She was not quite that heavy, though!

[Amy]

My son was exactly like that! At 9 months he suddenly mastered crawling and is very curious so I find him in all kinds of strange places. People keep commenting on what a difficult stage this is but I find it so much easier than when he was stuck in one spot and always frustrated.

[Andrea]

Does Blaise like the Ergo in the hip carry position? It can be a tad more restricting for his little arms, but it may give you some relief!

Let me know if you'd like to get together soon. We were going to call you to get pizza this past weekend, but we've been dealing with a cold. Almost done...

[Marie]

Someone else who is going through this! my daughter is six months today, and she was 19 lbs at 4 months, so I'm betting she's about 22 now. All she wants is to be carried around. Sitting with toys lasts for 30 seconds. All she wants is to grab everything she is NOT supposed to. It's a fleeting stage....right? :)

[Rach]

Arwen! I have been thinking so much about you lately and just had to see how you're doing. Camilla is BEAUTIFUL! Oh, those little ringlets are just begging to be pulled by her boy cousins, I bet!

I can hardly believe how big Blaise is!

Where does the time go????????????

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[PrinceOfTheWest]

Here's my favorite Blaise & Matthew photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbfthomas/3755689011/