Dexter's Frist 100 (or so) Words!

We've been keeping track for a while.  Dates represent when we wrote that word down, not necessarily when he said it.  Obviously, while he was quiet for a loooooong time, he's making up for it now and even started using 2-word phrases at the end of April (just shy of 19 months old).

3/19 - baby
           up ("puh")
           MINE!
           trash
           uh-oh!
           oops
           yay!
           shoes
           sock
           mop
           tick tock (from the book "Mr. Brown Can Moo!")
           boom (from same book)
           eye
           hi ("hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii")
           bye bye
           outside
           down
           thank you
           yes
           all done!
           cheers!
3/23 - water ("wa-wa")
           banana ("na na")
           please ("peeeeeees")
           light
           uh-uh (no)
           stuck (mostly just repeating this one)
3/25 - yellow ("yah-yoh" - at this point, everything is "yah-yoh" when you ask what color it is)
           blue ("booooo" - mostly repeated. See above how everything is yellow.)
3/28 - apple ("AP-pullllllllll")
           towel ("toww")
           teeth
3/31 - NO!
  4/2 - ball ("bah")
  4/3 - nose
           off
  4/5 - down
4/21 - spoon
           Yo Gabba Gabba  ("go gah gah")
           cookie
           bath time
           all clean!
           all done!
           all gone! (these 3 sound very much alike)
           lawnmower ("MAH-moooooh") - boy is this his FAVORITE new word!
4/24 - "bye bye dog" (2 words together! said to Mary's dog Z when we were leaving)
4/26 - circle ("shah-shuh" - and yes, he points them out sometimes all on his own)
           star
           diaper ("dah-duh")
           help (sounds like "apple," so context is key here)
           dog ("Dah! wff wff")
           car ("Tah")
           hot ("ah-tee," followed by blowing on whatever is "ah-tee")
           night night! ("nah-nat")
           bubbles (said very clearly, actually, even with the L sound)
           flower ("fah-fur" - not sure where the F in the middle comes from)
           sun (identified it on his own in a book!)
4/28 - bear (a bear says "rawr")
 5/3 -  cow ("towwwww")
           bread
           beep beep! (with motion of hand on a car horn)
           light off (two words again!)
  5/9 - march (almost always followed by marching across the room)
           hat
           dance
           ear
           eat
           pull
           red
           purple ("puh-pul")
           sip
  5/5 - seven ("sas-see" - but we know it's "seven" because it comes after "six.")
  5/6 - shower
           phone
           green ("geeeeee" - mostly repeated)
           rub rub rub (how we put on lotion at night)
           fork
  5/7 - cracker ("ca-cah")
5/13 - Butterfly
5/14 - sad ("Baby Sad" when Desmond is crying. So cute, and a 2-word phrase!)

And, since we say they count, the animal (and other) sounds Dexter knows, in no particular order:
dog (wff-wff)
car ("vm-vm")
train ("choo CHOOOOOO!")
cat
bear ("roar" with a hand as a claw. Strangely, this sound is barely whispered.)
lion (same as bear)
mouse ("squeek SQUEEEEEEK!!!")
monkey ("eee-eee-oooh!")
bird
penguin ("flap flap")
horse ("neeeeeiiiigh" with head shake)
cow
pig ("nn-NNK!")
duck
chicken ("Bok BOK!" and he tries to flap his arms, but it comes out as double fist-pumps. Freakin' adorable.)
owl
truck ("vm-vm")


So, 80 words + 17 animal noises.  97 "words," so not quite 100.  Will append with the next 3 things soon!

5/16 update - Ah! I forgot "mama" and "dada," both of which he does finally say (and mean).  Also forgot "orange" ("aahnge"). So YAY 100!

Dexter's Artwork

Well, we knew this day would come.  As usual, I just didn't expect it to come quite this soon.

That's red dry-erase marker.  He also got the tile floor in the kitchen, wood floor in the hallway/breakfast, and the freezer door. (And, we found out later, Desmond's carseat.) It cleaned up relatively easily with a combination of Magic Eraser + rubbing alcohol on a toothbrush, but that's not how I was expecting to spend any time this evening.

Even weirder? I wasn't even remotely upset about any of it. Laughed, in fact.  I think he's wearing me down.

Toddler Bed Update

Well, after Dexter climbed out of his bed on Monday night, we removed the side of Dexter's crib to make it an official "toddler bed."

Tuesday night was pretty good.  He laid down to go to sleep like normal, but it took some effort to get him to stay down.:

I sang him his ABCs and laid him down (as is our usual routine). Dexter tucked into his sleeping ball. I left the room and closed the door.

1-2 minutes elapse.

Dex: Opens door. Pokes head into hallway
Me: "It's sleep time." (puts him back in bed, closes door and leaves)
Dex: opens door. Pokes head into hallway.
Me: "It's sleep sleep time."
Dex: goes back into the bed.
Dex: gets up, closes door.  opens door. closes door. opens door. pokes head into hallway.
Me: "It's sleep time. Got to get back in your bed."
Dex: slams door.  stomps around room.  Opens door. Closes door. Opens door. Turns on the lamp. Turns off the lamp. On. Off. On. Off. Closes door. Reopens door. (repeat for maybe 3 or 4 minutes). walks into hallway.
Me: (failing in my attempt not to laugh) "Time for sleep."
Dex: Giggles and walks farther down the hallway.

Dennis intervenes.  Much of the above was repeated, except Dennis (sucker) offered to sit there until Dex fell asleep.  (I'm sure I would have similarly caved eventually. In any case, Dexter didn't take him up on his offer.)

It took maybe another 5 minutes of Dennis putting him back in the bed over and over again, but eventually he stayed.

And after that, he pretty much slept through the night!  He had one brief wake-up at 4:52, but he went back to sleep on his own.
====================
Wednesday night was awful. AWFUL.  Lots of drama putting him down, then he woke up at 1:11. I heard him cry, then I heard his door open.  I managed to intercept him in the kitchen.  I put him back in his bed.
He got up.
I put him back down and sat there with my head on his bed.  He tucked into his sleeping ball and started to go to sleep.  I told him good night and left and closed the door.

Whoah.  After that, he was REALLY upset.  Wouldn't lay back down for anything.  We went back and forth, snuggling, rocking, laying down, sitting next to the bed, you name it, until about 1:50, when Dennis took over and managed to get him to go to sleep after some rocking. (I tried that!)

Then, at 2:30, he was up again.  UP UP UP.  And not happy at all.  Wouldn't lie back down. Did consent to a diaper change. (That might have been during the first wake-up. I don't know.)  He asked for (and got) a banana and some milk.  Then we tried to go back to sleep. No way.

Thinking he might be scared (why? I don't know.) and hoping to just get some sleep that night, we offered to let him sleep in our bed.  He agreed but of course never even laid down once he got there.

Eventually, Dennis ended up going into his room with him at about 3:15.  I don't remember what happened (Dennis - can you fill in here?), but Dexter was PISSED at Dennis from about 3:30 to 4:00.  He finally fell asleep at about 4:30, and Dennis slept on the floor in his room. (Yes, we know that's wrong. But we're so freaking tired.)

And yes, Desmond stuck with his usual schedule during all of this, waking up every 2.5-3 hours to eat.
==============
We were pretty terrified of what Thursday night would bring.  But it was a lot like Tuesday night.  Dexter went straight to sleep with ZERO problems.  I think he was pretty tired.  He did wake up at about 11:20 and cried for several minutes, but he never left his room.

He woke up again at 2:30 but put himself back to sleep.

I heard a thud (I think) and 2 short cries at 4:00, but we didn't hear from him after that.

At least, we didn't hear from him until 6:30, when he woke up and came and opened our bedroom door and scared me half to death. I had heard him wake up, but I didn't hear him leave his room.

So, here's hoping for more nights like Tuesday and Thursday and no more nights like Wednesday.  He's spending Saturday night at Grandma's, which is great but also kindof bad timing since we're trying to establish this new routine.  Hopefully he doesn't climb out of the pack-and-play at Grandma's.

Dexter's New Trick

Climbing out of his crib!

Last night at about 11:30, I sneaked into his room to put away two measley shirts.  Of course, I got busted. Totally busted.  So then he was upset. I snuggled him for a few minutes, then put him back in his crib and told him it was time to sleep.  He was still upset, but typically just cries for maybe a minute and then goes to sleep.

Not last night.

He cried a little longer than usual, but we were trying to get a lot done and were still giving him a chance to settle down.  Suddenly, the crying was a little less muffled.  Wha?? As I went to investigate, sure enough, here comes our Dexter down the hallway, still crying but obviously quite pleased with himself.

Not wanting him to do it again with less success, we brought him into our bed, where he tossed and turned for about an hour. Then I tried to put him back in his crib, and he climbed out again.  (I watched through a crack in the door. He's actually very skilled at it - brace yourself on the corner, right leg up and over, left leg up, lower yourself down.)

Then we resorted to sleeping on the guest bed (and he only fell off of it twice - 1:45 and 2:15am).  We managed to get some semblance of sleep from about 3:30 until 7, with me waking up every time Dexter moved (roughly every 10-15 minutes) to try to keep him from falling off of the bed again.

(Dennis's take this morning - "I didn't even realize you guys were gone until Desmond woke up at 3:30." How can he sleep through all of this?  I was surprised when he didn't come investigate the giant "THUD" sounds at 1:45 and 2:15. Guess I know why now.)

  So, here we are, just shy of 17 months, and Dexter is getting a big boy bed!  (OK, we're converting the crib to a toddler bed tonight.)  NO clue how we're going to keep him from just getting up and roaming the house all night long.  We may have to seriously consider new doorknobs with reverse locks to keep him in his room (and out of his bathroom and closet).  That'll also mean taking a lot of stuff out of his room and crazy childproofing.  

I'm tempted to just take everything out and pad the walls and floor. Because let's face it, that's what we really need.

So, our quest for more than 2 continuous hours of sleep continues!  Really curious to see what tonight holds.

No More Pacifier?

Tonight is night 3 with no pacifier.  If this holds (and it seems that it will), then Dexter's last use of a pacifier will have been January 17, 2010.

For at least 9 months now, Dexter has had a crib full of pacifiers. We'd keep 5-6 in there at a time, so he could always find one.  (Pacifier use has been restricted to the crib since he was 4 or 5 months old.)  This weekend, during a nap, he tossed 4 of the 5 behind the crib.  We decided to take a chance and see what would happen if we didn't put them back.  That night and the next, he slept great with just the one pacifier. The next night, that pacifier, too, found its way out of the crib. 

And we didn't put it back. 

And he doesn't seem to miss it too much.

As glad as I am that this hasn't been too torturous of a transition (despite the fact that Dexter has a nasty cold AND is still getting molars), and that it's happening relatively early, it also makes me sad.  The pacifier was really the last "baby" thing Dexter had. And now it's gone. 

Also, he was really quite cute with it, especially during the last couple of months.  He knew he couldn't take the pacifier out of the crib with him, so he'd often play games with us - spitting it out, putting it in our hands so we'd get him up, taking the pacifier out so he could get out of the crib for one more book.  And oh the fun if he managed to get one out of the crib!  Sometimes, he'd reach in through the slats and grab one, then he'd run around, squealing, trying to keep it away from us.  Often, he'd tease us by holding it out and then snatching it away when we grabbed for it.  He's a little stinker. :)

It makes me think of other collateral damage from transitions.  When I traded in the Honda Accord for the Mazda5 back in August, Dexter and I had just started playing a game at red lights where I'd turn around and play peek-a-boo with him over the top of his carseat.  Couldn't do that in the new car.  I sure miss red light peek-a-boo. :(

Or when we got a new DVD player in late July. Sure, we could watch DVDs again, but we couldn't watch baby Dexter try to catch the floating "DVD" sign anymore (the new player doesn't have that nifty feature).  So sad.

Dexter Can WALK!

Today, Dexter took SIX steps all by himself! He is 10 months, 11 days old.

For several days, he's been taking one or two steps, but I felt like we needed at least 4 steps for it to count. Today, he definitely hit that mark.

His Mom and Dad both got to see it, and Granddad turned around in time to catch the last little bit.

Of course there is no video or other evidence of the actual first steps, but a few minutes later we lured him with a donut just to get some video. (We're counting this one as 14 steps.)

Dexter is TEN Months Old!

Double-digits! How did that happen?!

Dexter slept in to celebrate his month-i-birthday (~7pm - 8am!) and was all smiles when we did pictures in the morning.



Developmentally, he's making slow but sure progress. Despite our (ok, my) predictions, he is not yet walking, but he is stumbling between people who try to make him walk. :) And, of course, he's standing on his own and babbling more and more. After 5 months of our dedicated efforts, though, he still won't wave bye-bye.

Still, he's about the happiest baby you could ever imagine, despite his streak of injuries. And yes, I'm going to add an "injury" tag, since he now has *another* one - a bite from another child at daycare. They don't tell you who did the biting, but they do tell both sets of parents. I think I know who it was, though, and I can't imagine it was malicious (they are babies, after all). No broken skin, but he has some neat-o teeth marks on his wrist. I just hope I'm not on the other end of a note like that anytime soon (or, you know, ever).



Speaking of teeth, let's go over our list of current Dexter facts, shall we?

• Teeth: Dexter still has only 7, although there is a white spot where #8 will soon be poking its way through. Sometimes I think I can feel a bump, other times not so much.
• Hair: Too much! I can see a haircut in his future, but I'm trying to hold off until October. It's not in his eyes yet, so I think we're OK for a while.
• Knees: Raw, as you can see in the photos above. I keep trying to tell him that his knees would feel better if he'd walk, but he just doesn't listen (or just doesn't care?).
• Weight: 25.4 pounds, fully dressed with diaper. We feed him often, but he really just never stops moving.
  
• Height: Unknown. He's definitely getting taller, but - as one might expect - it's slowing down a bit. He can hook his arms all the way over his crib rail, though, which is something he couldn't do a few weeks ago.
• Sleep: Hit or miss. We had a pretty good month overall, because he wasn't really sick or teething in earnest, but he still often decided he needed a little hug in the middle of the night. Still, we'll take one wake-up over the 15 we were seeing back in February.
• Food: We're moving more and more to table food, but he still loves his purees. Favorite table foods include the usual suspects (bananas and cheerios) but also cantaloupe, donuts (ok, not too many of these), black beans, peas, carrots, corn, green beans, macaroni, and crackers.
• Verbal: He's still got his moments of chattiness, but we haven't yet identified a sound as being tied to a specific thing. We still read to him every night and talk to him all the time (and wrestle him to put hydrogen peroxide in his ears to get/keep them clear of excessive earwax) to make sure we continue making progress in this area.
• Gross Motor: Not much that hasn't already been said. Standing on his own (either positioned or stands himself from a squatting or bent-over position) and stumbling between people.
• Fine Motor: We are seeing continued improvement on the pincer grasp, but I'm not sure it's 100% yet. He's also stacking things and putting nesting cups/boxes within one another. I'm not sure where that fits in the motor development categories, but it's something!
• Books: No new real favorites. We added "That's not my Lion," "That's Not My Monster," and "That's Not My Car" to the repertoire. He still loves the touchy-feely books and will sometimes talk to them at night while we feel the fuzzy parts.
• New Tricks: Not many. Supervising the deck work is taking a lot of concentration.
• Personality: He's still our HAPPY Dexter! Not sure how we got so lucky in that department, but I am not asking too many questions.

Dexter can STAND!

Today, Dexter stood unassisted for the first time! He is 9 months and 2 weeks old.

He did it while holding his bottle (I guess he thought he was holding on to something?). The first time, it was just for a few seconds. I started thinking to myself "What exactly qualifies as "standing" anyway?" Almost immediately, he let go of the window ledge again and drank, standing, from his bottle for a full SEVENTEEN seconds. To me, that counted. :)

Dennis and Granddad were outside working on the deck, so I called them over to see. When Dennis came to the window, Dexter did it again, this time even dropping the bottle to clap (still standing!) because he was so excited to see his Dad. Granddad got a good look, too.

Naturally, by the time we got the video camera, he was a little bit tired of all of that standing. I caught a little bit, but of course he decided to fall over at the end. (Don't worry; our sweet baby is uninjured. I promise.)

Dexter is 9 Months Old!

This ninth month just FLEW by, probably because Dexter kept us running the whole time. He's making a ton of progress.

• Teeth: SEVEN! Four on top and three on the bottom. We even got a good picture of all 7 of them this morning (see below).
  
• Hair: TONS! I was looking at one of his 6m photos, and I can't believe how bald he is there! He actually gets compliments on his hair all the time. It's still reddish blonde and has grown in quite evenly.
• Knees: A little red and sore from crawling ALL over the place. I've started putting neosporin on them at night, just to maximize the healing. (I'd get something to cover his knees, but Dexter Thunder Thighs doesn't fit into any baby legs or jeans. Besides, it's too hot for that stuff.
  
• Weight: SKINNY! Ok, maybe not skinny. But he's not the (relative) chunker we had at 5 and 6 months. He is moving so much more now, which leaves him with little time or interest in eating.
• Height: TALL! Shocker, I know. (We should get official stats from the pediatrician later this week.)
• Sleep: Much better in the last few days. We went through something of a sleep regression for 2-3 weeks there. It's tough to say how much was "normal" vs. how much was the ear infection (or teething pain or hunger or anything else).
• Food: Dexter is still pretty much loving baby food purees, but he eats more of them now, along with some food with actual texture. He also still loves his mesh food feeders, which are usually stuffed with frozen grapes (good for those sore gums and tasty too!). He is getting plenty of bites of table food, too, and even swallows some of them. He ALWAYS wants whatever you're eating, so it's best to make sure at least part of it is Dexter-safe.
  
• Verbal: Getting there. We get lots of "gah" and "bah" and "dah" sounds, along with humming "mmmmm" sounds and the general blowing of air through pursed lips. Given where we were a month ago, we are thrilled with this progress.
• Gross Motor: Again, progress. Dexter's balance gets a little bit better every day, and he can now walk across a room using only the wheeled desk chair for support. We anticipate a few bruises from this adventure and hypothesize that he will be walking by the time he hits 10 months. In the meantime, every surface over 4 feet off of the floor (and there are precious few of them) is cluttered with things that Dexter needs to stay away from. All of the cabinets and drawers have baby locks, the electrical outlets are covered (very frustrating for adults who actually need to use one occasionally), and we even had to take the knobs off of the stove this week. Oh well, maybe we can put them back on in 2-3 years.
  
• Fine Motor: Some progress here, too. I don't know how the true "pincer grasp" is defined, but Dexter is definitely not just making fists around his puffs anymore.
• Books: It's tough to call any of them true favorites at this point, but he does seem to enjoy "Water, Water Everywhere" - a bathtime book from Baby Einstein. We still read "Guess How Much I Love You" (if Mom does stories) or "Goodnight Moon" (if Dad does stories) every night. He has also really been loving the touch-and-feel books ("That's Not My Puppy" and "Millie Moo" are 2 faves) for the last couple of weeks and has a special fondness for the very fuzziest things to feel.
  
• New Tricks: As we've already chronicled here, Dexter loves to clap! He also loves to open and close the garage door and press just about any button he can find. He is also starting to get the hang of rolling a ball back and forth to Mom or Dad. (He's got the concept better than the execution, though, and often likes to just skip to the "YAY!" part of the transaction.) Unfortunately, biting seems to be on the list of new tricks, too. So far, he's only bitten his Mom, but we are working on "no" and hoping we don't get that call from daycare.
• Personality: HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY is the only way to describe it. In fact, if he is not smiling or laughing at or with you, you can be confident that he is tired or hungry or not feeling well. (That ear infection time was a real bummer.)
  

Dexter was briefly cooperative this morning so we could have an extra-special, extra-festive Independence Day photo shoot. (It took 76 shots to get these 4 good ones. Thank goodness for digital cameras.)

Dexter Knows Cause and Effect!

Actually, we think he's had a good grasp on this for a couple of weeks. He has a cool train book where, if you push the face of the train hard enough, it whistles and says "all aboard!" and plays a little tune. He would try, but he wasn't strong enough to push it hard enough.

He IS, however, now strong enough to effectively push the button on his Fisher Price Link-a-Doos Musical Cow Teether. If you push the pink button, it plays a few bars of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." Dexter can do it and now spends the majority of his diaper changes doing just that, over and over and over again. He is SO excited and proud of himself when he gets it to work.

He also knows how to push the button to close the garage door when we get home in the afternoons. He's not always strong enough to do that, but he always tries (and often succeeds). It's too neat to watch him get excited about it. And he LOVES to watch the garage door open and close.

It's pretty awesome to watch him learning so much and having so much fun this summer.

Dexter is Cruising!

No matter what your definition, Dexter is now officially a cruising baby. :)

He is 7.5 months old, and last night, he cruised down the length of the ottoman (maybe 4 feet). Tonight, he successfully cruised from the ottoman to the sofa.

I still wouldn't say it's a skill he's mastered, exactly - he's still pretty wobbly - but since it took him all of about 3 days to master pulling up, I think we'll just call this good.

His other new trick is holding up his arms when he wants to be picked up. It's pretty darned cute.

In any case, we can only hope he takes a little break from all of this motor development to work on other things like "mama," "baba," "dada," waving bye-bye, and clapping. I am not holding my breath on that one.

Dexter's New Carseat

Well, it finally happened. Sweet little baby Dexter has outgrown his infant carseat. :(

Here he is on his first day (October 8, 2008) and last day (May 10, 2009) in the carseat:

He lasted just over 7 months in it. He's still well within the 30 pound weight limit of the carseat, but he's so darned tall that he's already at the height limit.

His NEW carseat is the Britax Marathon in "cow-moo-flage." Boy is it less convenient than the infant seat, but it's cute and should last a long time, even for our little Mr. Big and Tall. :)

Dexter's Big Week!

Well, when I posted his 7 month pictures on Monday, I never imagined we'd have so much to update only 5 short days later. Since the last post, Dexter has:

• pulled to standing on the ottoman and in his crib, as well as against several walls and doors and chairs. In fact, it's not even news when he does it anymore. (Getting back down is still tricky.)
• tried to cruise along the glider in his room and in his crib. (Depending on your definition, he may have actually done it.)
• made his first crafts for Mother's Day (see below).
• cut his first tooth! (Sadly, he would not let us get any pictures of it.)
• gone to his first parade.
• tried cotton candy for the first time.

It's too bad he did all of it at once, because a lot of those really deserve their own post. (Cruising? A TOOTH! Really.)

Here's the evidence we could gather.

Dexter pulls up by himself for the first time (May 5):


Dexter can't get down (May 8):


Dexter cruises? (You decide.)


(Did you catch this "no hands" part about 17 seconds in?)



Dexter's Mother's Day craft from day care:



The parade (Fairview Heights Homecoming)

The parade was fun. It was a nice day. Dexter got some beads to chew on. The fire trucks were loud, though, and definitely NOT fun.


The cotton candy was pretty good. and very messy.

Dexter is 7 Months Old!

That means he's closer to toddlerhood than newbornness. :(

Actually, given his physical prowess, he's WAY closer to toddlerhood than newbornness. He started pulling up on stuff maybe a week ago. He still doesn't do it very expertly, but he sure is trying. (In the crib, he can get on one foot and one knee, but can't quite pull himself to standing. For lower things, he can get all the way up on both feet.) Considering how fast he went from getting up on all fours to crawling, I expect him to be cruising before he hits 8 months.

Today was also Dexter's first day of day care. He seems to have survived unscathed. As expected, he didn't nap well in the bright, loud room full of interesting new things and other babies and consequently fell asleep within 5 minutes of getting home. He was definitely not his regular old happy self when I picked him up. I hope he adjusts soon, because we can't leave him there if he's exhausted and has all of the joy sucked out of him. (We did get some good laughs tonight after his after-daycare-nap, so they didn't suck ALL of the joy out.)

Here are his "official" 7 month photos. Note how it is SO boring to just sit there and SO much more fun to play with the paper. (I am still having trouble narrowing these down. Sorry.)



Really, there's no contest when considering the Bear or Demonjello anymore. Thank goodness Tootsie got us this giant dog!


(This set of photos was also a study in motion. As always, click to view larger.)



Remember which one was taller when we planted the tree? (One assumes the tree grew a bit as well.)



Finally, some additional recent photos for your enjoyment:

Dexter Crawls: The Video

This is the first time he's crawled since Saturday, but he did a great job! He traveled probably 5-6 feet before the whole thing was done.


(Warning: It's 3 minutes long. And, as usual, the cinematography leaves a bit to be desired.)

Dexter Can Crawl!

He did it! He is six months and one week old.

Just 5 weeks ago, he couldn't even really get up on his hands & knees. See?



He quickly mastered that and progressed through rocking and scooting just his legs up. A few days ago, he pivoted on his knees (picking up one hand, then the other to turn about 90 degrees before flopping back down on his belly).

Today, we finally saw independent forward movement of ALL FOUR limbs. It's all a blur now, but I'm pretty sure there were at least six independent movements. He was on the countertop (closely supervised) in our bathroom, trying to get his hands on a shiny chrome clock. Dennis and I both saw it. (Tootsie was visiting all week but missed this by about four hours. She says she is bringing Dexter one fewer toy on her next visit, but we think she'll probably forgive him by then.)

Hopefully we'll get this big accomplishment on video soon!

Dexter Rolled Over (We Think)

On two occasions, we have found Dexter on his stomach after we put him down on his back to play. On both occasions, though, he was in his little baby gym and was found with one leg on either side of one of the arms. So we're not 100% sure that he did it all on his own - he may have used the gym arm for leverage.

We did catch one (sortof) rollover on video. He definitely made the right motions, but he did roll off of a (very thin, but definitely present) pillow, and that seemed to have at least made it a lot easier for him.

So, he might have hit this milestone on February 3 (one day shy of 4 months), but we're still waiting for official visual confirmation.

Dexter Rolled Over!

January 14 update: Now with video goodness:




For real this time!

Front-to-back, of course. He is 3 months and 2 days old. Right on schedule, and especially impressive since his parents are such slackers about tummy time.

I do have it on video, but it's too long to upload to YouTube, so you'll just have to settle for these stills from the video until I can get my hands on a vista-compatible video editor. :) We actually got 2-3 rollovers (plus a TON of very hysterical grunting with the intense effort he's making), so it's a pretty good video for Dexter fans, even if it is 11 minutes long.