Moriarty has been sick much of the last month. Technically it wasn't exclusively from daycare, he also got another tooth (number 7!) but otherwise he has had several fevers, some vomiting, and a scary rash that looked a lot like Fifths and cleared up quickly. He managed to get me sick several times, the worst of which landed me in the ER from extreme dehydration. I got a few liters of IV fluids and was out of commission for a while. The daycare is cheaper than a nanny and he has friends, but the sicknesses are getting ridiculous. I did get a great video of him dancing while we were at the doctor's office. I'm wearing a mask because I was still sick... Moriarty also had his first dentist appointment. He had so many teeth so early I wanted to have him looked at to make sure everything was health, and it was. Now we brush twice a day and he's pretty cooperative.
Other things are going better. He's eating a lot more solids. I've put up a video of him making a huge mess with some broccoli and another with him exploring pureed chicken. At first we were only doing baby led weaning, where we make soft but large pieces of the foods for him to eat himself, with his hands. The pediatrician said we should add some pureed foods because he wasn't swallowing much the other way. Now we do both. I think it's important for him to get his hands involved so he can explore the textures of foods, and control what's going in his mouth. That has led to some impressive messes with the purees. Now I'm doing more with the spoon since he's enthusiastic about that. Food is fun.
He's getting a lot more verbal. He is into mama and baba sounds but they're not connected to anything specific. He's just figuring it out. We mimic the sounds but also talk normally most of the time. When he's not sick he's still very smiley and giggly. Blowing on his face or belly usually elicits a giggle and big smile (with 7 teeth!). Every time his daycare teachers are alone with us they go on and on about how charming and easy he is. How he only cries when he needs something and then goes back to being happy.
He's trying to get more mobile but is having a lot of failure to launch challenges. He wants to crawl, I think, and he'll get his knees under him, and then flop back down instead of propelling himself forward. I'm trying to spend tummy time on the floor with him most nights to make sure he's using the muscles. He's gotten much better at sitting up and is now quite stable.
We took our first trip as a family. For the long Labor Day weekend we took a birthday trip to Olympia. We stayed at an Air B&B that abutted the Tolmie National Park. It's a rain forest with old growth trees and it was amazing. Moriarty did pretty well given a strange house, strange room, etc. When going on vacation it's inevitable you'll forget something, but I managed to forget formula. Completely. I had all the bottles and bottle cleaning supplies, just no milk. :-) Oops. The baby and I were also both kinda sick (we caught a sinus infection on the heels of the thing that caused all the vomiting!) so that was a bit of a downer, but we hiked and made a fire pit and it was a nice little family vacation.