Time sure does fly… It’s hard sometimes to sit down and recollect your thoughts, but I’m sure glad I’m actively keeping this blog updated so that we can relive Summer’s progression.  As suggested in the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, happy is attained through enjoyment by simply living in the moment.  Material wealth are just external pleasures that are only temporary.  

At this point in Summer’s growth, she’s able to sign for most of her physical needs, such as milk, diapers, etc.  The biggest physical challenge I now have is her nutrition, mainly ensuring that we have enough variety in her meals while still feeding her wholesome food.  Luckily for our Blendtec blender (which my counter has shown me using 700+ times in a year), I can put almost anything I want in our morning smoothie and she will drink it, including raw kale and spinach.  

Sleeping in is pretty much out the window; but, I still enjoy waking up with Summer each day.  I have not once turned on a cartoon or TV show in the morning for Summer to watch as a baby-sitter.  I do, however, let her play with the iPad while I doze off a little.  Just be careful because you can be awaken by the thud of the iPad on your forehead.  But, it at least beats letting her watch TV because she is still interacting instead of being feed information.  Mommy watches TV, so eventually, Summer will be curious enough about it to start watching (maybe).  But for now, she’s more interested in us reading Tabbed books together (books with images that allows her to peel being tabs to find other images).  

One of the things that starts to become obvious, but no one really discusses, is the idea of the Attention, and how much our baby will soon be very hungry for it.  Once they want it, they will have it one way or another.  Like all babies, Summer does a little whine and pout when she wants attention.  The best approach I found is to disregard the whine and pouting for a bit until she’s done, which usually lasts a few seconds, then interact with her - rather then jumping on impulse thinking that she needs something.  We are right that she needs something, and she got it.  But that’s telling her that if she wants Attention, the way to do it is to whine and pout.  Therefore, I think the most important sign we should teach our baby at this juncture is the sign for Attention.  This should allow them to express themselves in needing your attention, without driving you nuts.

Finally, I want to reflect upon a few things that we all are aware of but reflect little on.  Raising a baby is not difficult, it is just demanding and challenging.  There is never any one big thing that needs to be done, just one-hundred little things that will demand a lot of time.  Getting all these things done will usually mean sacrificing sleep, and with it will be your patience.  Most of the bickering you do will be a result of the lack of sleep, not because of anything important.  Be aware of your patience level and catch yourself before you die over a mole hill.  There are many of those you will trip over, just make sure to pick your battles wisely, and make sure to question how you can be wrong.  

The most profound, if not the greatest, WORD in the human dictionary has to be “Compassion”.

Externally, it incorporates all the positive characteristics of humanity, including Love, Peace, Unselfishness, Caring, and Sharing. Internally, contemplating and reflecting on the word brings one’s self to a state of Happiness, Serenity, and a Positive mental attitude.

Having a baby can bring a lot of emotional stress. Being aware of your emotions and reflecting on it can help.

“What makes a negative emotion unjustified is that it outlasts the event that provoked it and no longer serves the purpose in motivating you to resolve the problem…”

We try to take these vitamins on a daily basis in the mornings, usually with our smoothies.

“Because infants and toddlers learn best through hands-on activities and movement, television and videos are inappropriate forms of stimulation.” -Aletha J. Solter, Ph.D. (“The Aware Baby” p.128)

And with that, we dive into Summer’s 3rd Quarterly or Nine Months report.  At nine months, life is starting to settle back to the norm again.  Summer still wakes up to feed at night, but outside of that, she plays, eat, and sleep on a normal schedule.  Her food list has greatly expanded from the six to nine month list, so we now have a large variety of foods to give her.  At this stage, she is starting to prefer finger food and eating on her own instead of being spoon fed.  While this is definitely more messy, it is nevertheless enjoyable to see your baby feeding herself while practicing her hand-eye coordination and finger dexterity (it’s not easy picking up those little bits of food).  

Nearing her six month time, I attempted to give Summer a home-based version of formula milk using the instructions from HERE.  The thought behind it was that commercial formula milk just does not have all the nutrition and fat that is needed to help a baby develop.  Summer loved the milk and she smelled like a fresh flower after drinking it.  However, it caused her slight constipation and her doctor suggested that we wait until nine to twelve months as her body is not able to process some of the content in the milk.  After her nine month visit, I decided to make the formula milk again, but Summer didn’t seem to want it.  My understanding of baby and feeding is that baby’s in general know how to regulate their body and knows what it needs, so I’m not going to force the milk on her and will continue to give her the commercial formula milk Similac Organic and will try again at ten, eleven, and twelve months.  As long as Summer continues to experiment and eat the solids that I provide her, I’m comfortable that she is getting all the nutrition she needs.

My wife and I are now considering half-day Montessori school for Summer.  While there may be a lot of information and websites on the internet to help stimulate a baby’s intellect, I feel that a personal and in-depth look at Summer may be more helpful to both her and I.  I’m interested in the tests that will be given to Summer to find out what her interests are, as well as the guidance that I can use to continue developing her intellect at home.  An example of this is my pursuit to teach Summer sign language.  While she picked up a few signs early, her sign language vocabulary has been stagnant.  When I do signs for her, I do see that she is observing the motion, but I don’t think she is making the correlation between the signs, words, and the subject/object.  This leads me to think that there may be more optimal way of educating Summer that I am not be aware of, and it definitely does not hurt to admit to my short-comings and seek the advice of those that are more familiar with the subject.  

Overall, life is starting to become more fun and memorable.  Each day is an exciting new day with Summer to see her grow exponentially, and comes with new experiences.  Not every day is a fun day of course, but on most days, I try to be aware of Summer’s development, tune into what she is doing and likes, and challenge myself to expand her experiences.

…and on that note, Happy Father’s Day to myself from Summer - but every day is a happy father’s day for me.