A Post About Colton

I feel like I haven't been talking about what Colton is doing much lately, I've just been posting pictures of him sleeping!  But make no mistake, this little boy is learning and growing all the time.  He really is turning into his own self, which is so fascinating to see.

For one thing, he's my first child to have a shy streak.  When there are strangers in the room, he will be very quiet and calm.  He might give them a very vague little half-smile, but that's about it.  When it's just his family around him, he's crazy and goofy, so this is definitely a change.  It's weird to see, honestly.  My other kids pretty much act the same no matter who's around.  Apparently we finally have a child who will take after Craig (who claims to be shy, though I've never seen the evidence of it)!  If I'm holding Colton and someone he doesn't know walks into the room, he will bury his face in my neck and then take peeks at this new stranger, that same half-smile playing on his lips. 

He just recently relented and learned to crawl down the stairs, so we took down the baby gates!  This is a lovely thing.  It's like taking down the Christmas tree in January-- you suddenly feel like your house has a lot more space, and it's delicious.  Of course, it also means that we have to be diligent about keeping bathroom doors closed.  Bentley very helpfully made signs that say, "Warning Keep Closed."  We'll see if that does any good.  We also need to keep the pantry door closed at all times, or else Colton will find the applesauce cups, poke a finger through the lid, and splash applesauce all over himself.  This is much more likely to happen when I'm rushing to try and get everyone out the door.

Last week while we were camping, I discovered that it kind of sucks to bring a crawling baby camping.  Colton didn't mind crawling around in the dirt, but I sure hated to see him covered in dust like that.  We hosed him off in the showers several times a day, but as soon as he was toweled off and put in clean clothes, there was only one place to put him and it was, yup, back in the dirt.  Poor baby.  I had just sort of assumed when we made the reservation back in May that he'd have figured out how to walk by now...

So maybe that was why, in the evening of our second day, while the kids were all playing at the beach, he finally took his first steps.  Six of them, to be precise.  Then he sat down, and we all screamed and clapped in joy and pleasure at his accomplishment.  The other kids yelled and waved at him so much that he never managed to do it again that evening.  But now that we're home, if no one is paying attention, I'll notice him carefully taking a few steps here and there.  He gets so excited with the standing up and leaning precariously forward part of things that he often only makes it that far, landing on his hands and knees, absolutely delighted with himself.

It's a process, I suppose.  And I'm glad for any progress at all at this point.

He's not really talking just yet, either, although usually when I give him food, he will smile happily and say, "Goo gah."  So I'm pretty sure that's Thank You.  If you hold up something he wants, he'll grunt a yes for you (typical boy) and if he doesn't want it, he'll very emphatically shake his head no.  Sometimes I can get him to repeat "uh-oh" after me.  But only if he feels like it.  But he LOVES to grab a book and "read" it out loud.  This usually means yelling a strange, staccato, "Ah-ah-ah-AH-AH!" noise.  Occasionally he'll throw some "gah"'s in there for good measure, too.  It makes me wonder what exactly he's hearing when I read to him before naptimes...?  But yeah, he's communicating, just not very verbally.  And he still loves playing Peekaboo with anybody.  It's probably the easiest way to make him smile.

And finally, I present you with this video of Colton crawling back and forth.  I'm not sure if this is his way of pacing, or if this is the closest he can get to spinning around.  But either way he seemed to be having a lot of fun:





We're only a little bit worried.