Crawling - The evolution of "the squigs"

Just to clear up the title as I suspect I have never refered to Brooklyn this way but here is a quick rundown on her various nicknames... handles, if you will

- Squiggle Bottoms
- The Squigs: purely a derivative of the aforementioned
- Bro-Ro: a clever take on Brooklyn Rose using the J.Lo template
- B-Rabbit: not too sure why I called her this.. May have just watched 8 Mile or something
- B (pretty self explanitory I hope)

there are undoubtedly more but there's the back story, I digress.....

The "wee" one has now evolved into a full fledged crawling ninja. Beyond that she has also figured out that she can pull herself up to standing using her walnut crushing pipes "o" death. Needless to say the bottom 1/3 (maybe even 1/2) of the Christmas tree will be "sans" decoration. Let the baby proofing begin! Baby gates and plug covers and drawer stops and god knows what else we'll need to do in order to keep the "squigs" at bay. Though it took her awhile to get the forward motion concept, now that she's got it down pat there is no stopping her. Which means "Ky" is on amber alert at all times now. She's no longer content sitting in the middle of the room playing with her toys. She is the Sherlock Holmes of the bottom 8 inches of every floor in our house! Pick it up, inspect it, jam it in my mouth, confirm or deny edibility, wait for reaction from mom, feed item to hairy four-legged thing, disregard item and move on to the next thing. Rinse and repeat....

The one thing that we've both noticed is that there is a definite need for someone to invent a swiffer sleeper/onesie. Let me spell this out for you a little. High shed dog vs crawling baby = hairy cookie cover little hands and a little girl who looks like she's wearing a sweater vest. NOT GOOD! So where is the Slap Chop guy or Ron Popeil to invent this when you need them... Too busy "setting it and forgetting it" I guess. Since the dog won't stop shedding and Brookyn won't stop crawling and nobody has created said "Swiffer Sleeper," for now "Ky" (and to a much lesser degree myself), we'll just have to get used to having a vacuum in or near our hands. That being said, therein lies another tiny issue. No longer is the dog free to roam the house unpestered, to lay in the middle of a rug and catch a few winks, to not have baby hands in my water and food dishes. No no. Brooklyn Holmes will see to none of that. Thank god his temperment is what it is, though with any luck Brooklyn learn to let sleeping dogs lie and not let sleeping dogs have clumps of hair ripped out on his back. At least she can wash her hands in the water dish.....

All the best to those who are embarking on this stage of parenting, it is exhausting and amazing all wrapped up in one.

Cheers.

1st tooth, 1st foods, and 1st Halloween

1ST TOOTH

It was a big week in the life of the wee one. Not only is she a week older but is now sporting her very own shiny white nub of a tooth. It broke through the other day and will undoubtedly spur on some dental companions soon enough, much to the chagrin of Brooklyn. Though she handled the whole teething process like a champ she was pretty unhappy for a couple of days. But to put it in perspective, as I've been told, if we had to deal with teething at any older age then newborn we would need some hardcore pain meds... So I guess be glad you can't remember. Having said that, if I thought the drool was bad months ago, this makes that look like a joke. Poor "Ky" does more laundry now then ever before, Brooklyn just soaks through shirt after shirt, sleeper after sleeper. I am surprised she hasn't dried up like a raisin, where does she store all that fluid???

1ST FOODS

Although she's been eating food, and I use the term loosely, for quite some time now (several weeks) this is the first I've mentioned it. It really is something to watch how much they change as they move from "boob juice" to pablum aka gruel to pureed fruits and veg. It certainly impacted her digestive system. If I thought the bouquet that Brooklyn was laying down early on in her life was bad... WOW! Not only has the aroma been amplified but she now has this amazing technicolour dreamcoat thing happening in her little "b.m.'s." She is more and more like a little person. I guess it should come as no surprise however that a change in food means an adjustment period for "B's" digestive system and given what this food looks like it is no wonder. The rice/oat/wheat pablum crud looks like gruel, smells like paper mache and after it has a few minutes to "set" could be used as an industrial strength adhesive. No wonder the little one struggles to let freedom reign every now and again. Much like everything else our little angel took to eating food like she'd been doing it for years. The occassional sweet potatoe mustache and green bean eye liner for "B" but otherwise the target is hit every time. What a blast to see their expressions the first time they eat something new - they lack the tact we have when trying something new. The squished up faces, the spitting it out, the smacking of lips - Hilarious!!

1ST HALLOWEEN

Now, not that I would consider this to be Brooklyn's first real Halloween because lets be honest Halloween without trick or treating and boat loads of teeth rotting candy is like a beer commercial without bad acting and scantily clad pornstars, er, models.. So this being her first prelude to Halloween the little one was dressed up as a bumblebee. If you are anything like me you are thinking Bumblebee, sweet!!! Transformers!! Not so. She was just a regular bumblebee but having said that, she was easily the cutest damn bumblebee you've ever seen. And I do mean cute:

* I am the cutest "B" you ever did see*

At this point I would like to explain the concept of dressing a baby up in a Halloween costume despite the fact that it won't be used for the aforementioned trick and/or treating. The only reason my little munchkin is/was subjected to this punishment is so that grandparents (more overly grandmothers - love you) could fawn over there little pride and joy. It was also so "Ky" and the rest of the mom's in the area can round up all the babies and have a group costumed baby jamboroo. These poor little kids, except "B" who is such a ham that she just played up the costume for the camera, just were not happy campers. If any of them were able to talk I am sure they'd say:

"Mom/Dad, you think you can just dress me up in this ridiculous outfit and get away with it? I am gonna stay up all night crying and I might even squeeze out a big smelly poop for you! I'm Rick James bitch!!!"

But I guess our parents tortured us the same way so it is our god given right to return the favour to our kids and they shall do the same to theirs. But beware the vengeful baby, you never know when they might get that crazy look in their eye..

Cheers.