"Poking the Bear." That's the text message I sent to Brandon with this picture this morning. It was John Mark's first time in the basket without his carrier/carseat. "Poking the Bear" is the phrase Brandon uses to describe a situation when I'm trying something that he doesn't think I should try because the current way is "working just fine." Below is an example of me, not "poking the bear." Don't judge: you'd do it to if you and your baby were both exhausted after work/daycare and you didn't want to risk waking him (don't worry, I didn't go far). In this case, I let the "sleeping dogs lie."
Babies grow so fast. Everyone says it and it's true, "just when you get used to one stage, something new comes along." You can never really "settle in" because things are constantly changing. While I am always eager for the new stage (mostly because it means new baby gear and new discoveries in Buy Buy Baby and the Target baby aisle), Brandon is always more hesitant. However, if we did things Brandon's way and never poked the bear, we'd have a 7 month old who still slept beside our bed in the pack-n-play. Here he is looking adorable in the nursery we worked so hard on (and didn't use for the first 5 months).
One of the biggest changes we've experienced lately is slowly letting go of the infant carrier (a nervous mom's safety net). It was necessary in the beginning when we knew he might fall asleep during dinner or quietly play with a toy, but that's no longer the case. We were so used to lugging in that heavy thing into restaurants, but even Brandon was relieved when we finally realized that he was ready for a high chair.
Even though the high chair was an easy transition, getting him into his stroller without the carrier wasn't as easy. It was a little complicated to figure out, but I'm glad we finally mastered it. I think John Mark likes his stroller more this way.
To other people who see him a few times a month, he looks like he's growing so fast, but when you see him everyday, you just don't notice it the same. Sometimes you just look down and realize it's time for the next thing and it might have been for a while, but you were so caught up in the moment you didn't even realize his feet were hanging out of the carseat, or that he outgrew that stack of clothes you were waiting on him to fit into, or that he's ready for stage 2 foods and the purees he's been eating are far too runny, or that he's ready for the next size up in diapers or that he's a little big for his sink sized bath tub (it's going to take me a long time to give up our Puj tub...I just love that thing too much! Who cares if it's for 0-6 months??).
I'm really glad I've been keeping track of milestones along with his monthly pictures, however, I've realized over time that there were things I left off. I probably left them off because they seemed so much a part of our "new normal" at the time that it didn't stand out as significant or because they happened so gradually (i.e. when he started sleeping in his crib, when he was wearing what sized diapers/clothes, and when he started playing with new toys). If these details are hard for me to remember now (and he's only 7 months), I can't imagine how cloudy things will become in the future, but I know at the same time, everything will feel like it was "just yesterday."
