“The Boy” Can Sit!

Nikolas mastered a brand new skill yesterday. And he’s loving it. He practices all the time. Even when he should be sleeping. The Boy can sit up on his own! I haven’t actually witnessed the event, but last night, after I put Nikolas down for the night, he took a long time to get to sleep and was crying. This was unusual, and he always goes down really well at night and never cries. So, after about 10 minutes of letting him cry, I went up to check on him, and found him sitting up in his crib!

He saw me come in, and looked up at me, and has this look on his face that said “Look mama! Look at me!” and at the same time, the look on his face also said “How do I lie down again? I just want to go to sleep already!” It was pure happiness mixed with a little desperation because he wasn’t sure how to get himself out of this mess. My reaction was a little similar. I felt absolute pride and was so happy, then immediately thought “oh shit, we’re in trouble now”. After quick congratulations, I cuddled him for a bit until he fell asleep. It’s been awhile since I’ve rocked my baby to sleep, and I cherished every minute of it.

Today, he got even more practice. He sat up this morning while playing in the living room. I missed it again, because I was checking my email. Then, each nap today (all three), several times I had to go back up to his room, and each time, he’s sitting in his crib, his left thumb in his mouth, his right thumb tugging on his right ear.

During his afternoon nap, I actually stayed in his room and watched him. He didn’t know I was there, I was just sitting on the floor at the end of his crib, watching, very quietly. He was sitting up at the other end of the crib, facing away from me. His legs were hanging over the mattress, and outside the bars and he was happily kicking away. Then he noticed that he was sitting RIGHT UNDER THE MOBILE. He stretched and stretched and wiggled ever so slightly, and just BARELY was able to reach one of the jungle animals. Every so often, he’d lose his balance a little bit, and bonk his head against the railing of the crib. He’d cry out for 5 seconds, realize I wasn’t rushing up to check on him, and continued the attempt to REACH THAT CROCODILE.

After a couple more futile attempts, he gave up and remembered he was tired! How was he going to sleep sitting up? The rail of the crib must have looked like a good place to rest his head, because he’d lean forward, put his head down, and immediately started to cry because he discovered this was not the most comfortable way to sleep. He even tried putting his forearm under his head to provide cushion. Still, it just was not working out for him.

The whole time this was happening, I was sitting quietly, watching every moment. And it took every ounce of my being not to giggle. Nikolas was just trying so hard! I only let the torture go on for a short time (ok, more like 10 minutes) before I decided I’d come to my boy’s rescue and rock him to sleep.

As soon as Matt walked in the door form work, I got him to lower the mattress in the crib, and remove the mobile.

Coming soon: the crawl position. He’s so close.