Standing on his own two feet

It’s been a really big month for Alex. He now has six teeth – four top, front teeth which arrived one after another in very quick succession. Alex handles teething with a little more grace than Luke did although he still has a bad night right before the new tooth pops out. He still loves to chew on things and likes to make a game of biting on fingers… ouch!

He also has a really cute habit of kissing his reflection in the mirror. I put this trick down to childcare as there is a big mirror near the play mat where Alex obviously hangs out. He gives this dark eyed stranger a huge smile and then sidles up with an open mouth and smooches him.

Alex’s BIG news is that he’s crawling. He’s been hanging out on his hands and knees for a while and I’ve caught him shuffling backwards. He had a funny habit last week of sticking a leg out to the side and then shifting his weight as he moved into a sitting up position to gain some ground. And then last Friday Alex got coordinated and is now mobile. Combined with his other favourite trick of pulling up on all the furniture and then cruising around he’s all action. This is a little dangerous as he doesn’t always remember to hang on. I recall Luke at this same age had so many falls on his well padded bottom – so that’s what nappies are for.

Alex had his 8 month check-up at the Child Health Nurse last week and here’s his vital stats compared with Luke at the same age:

UPDATED with the right names

Weight Length Head
Alex 10 kilos 73.5cm 46cm
Luke 8.4 kilos 73 cm 46cm

So close in everything except weight so now I feel justified calling Alex ‘Chubby Chops’!

Luke is very keen on the idea of being the big boy and likes to remind us that he’s “getting bigger”. I can’t help but agree and think he’s gone through a growth spurt which has left a lot of his pants looking on the short side.

Luke’s pride and joy is his “big boy bike” that Grandpa Bill bought for him when he was in Melbourne recently. The boys went off to the bike shop and by the time I got there Luke had picked out his first real bike. Luke looks pretty happy most of the time and on that morning he was beaming. He then spent the weekend riding up and down the laneway, over to the park and to visit the neighbours. The only problem for me is that he goes so fast that I’m always running to catch up or yelling for him to stop and wait. He has pretty good road sense as a result of us constantly drumming it into him.

Luke was a late convert to sandwiches for lunch – pretty much since he started at La Petite Ecole this year. I was making his a cheese (Jarlesberg) and ham sandwich last week and he told me off for not putting mustard in it. I wonder if he is the only 2 and two third year old that eats mustard.