November 7: Play, Christmas

I'm really enjoying watching Carter play. He is getting very good with his hands (and almost has that pincer grasp down), and so he can pick up things much better than he could just a month ago. In fact, sometimes when one of us is holding him, he will suddenly start chewing on an object we didn't even know he'd picked up -- a remote control, a cell phone, a piece of garbage, etc. He's quick!

I have to be careful drinking drinks around him now because he wants some too. He can drink straight out of a cup if I'm holding it for him, and he really likes doing that. But I am often drinking things other than water, and so not appropriate for him, which means I have to be sneaky. He also is becoming fascinated with straws, and if I have a drink with a straw in it I have to make sure I have an extra straw for him to play with, or he'll manage to get mine.

I just got him a package of plastic balls (the sort that go in ball pools), and those are the perfect size for him to grab with one hand. We keep them in his orange plastic jack-o-lantern, and he likes taking them out and holding them. As I write this, he is shaking the jack-o-lantern and watching them fall out!

He has also recently figured out how to get toys that are a bit too far away. He will pull the blanket he sits on towards him until he can grasp the toy! Of course, this only works with toys that are also on the blanket, something he has yet to realize. Sometime he will pull the blanket until it's all gathered in his lap, and then he will stare quizzically at the toy he was trying to get.

On a completely different note, we were in a store yesterday afternoon and they were playing Christmas music. All of the sudden, it hit me: this Christmas, we finally have a child. Every year for the last 15 years, I always thought about how wonderful it would be to share Christmas with a child, to start new family traditions and teach them about the old ones, to decorate the house and curl up with hot cocoa and warm cookies and watch Christmas specials. All of that stuff. And with every year that went by with no baby, Christmas lost a lot of its appeal. It was depressing to think none of those things would happen.

And so I stood there in the middle of the store, looked down at Carter who had fallen asleep in the sling, and started to cry. His sweet little face was smooshed against my chest, and I wondered what it will look like when he sees his first Christmas tree, when he first experiences the joy of watching someone else open a gift he picked especially for them, and when opens presents from Santa on Christmas morning. I hadn't thought about it in a long time, but there were many years when I never thought I would get to see those things. :-)

Weight check: 19.8 pounds. Ack, so close to 20! My wee boy will not be wee much longer.

Oh, and those little teeth are still coming. Sharp little buggers...