Some baby gear has already made its way into storage for future babes. Good grief! I don’t have much space to store stuff, either.

We’ve packed away:

• Bouncy seat — my mom bought this for Johnny when he was around 3 months old. He seemed to get a kick out of it and it was a safe place to set him nearby while I had my hands busy (preparing dinner, etc.). Too big for it now.
• Pack n play — he’s not too big for it, but he seems to hate being in it. He’ll scream, twist, cry and generally throw a fit. It was helpful in the early months when we used the changing table attachment, and we also used it as a safe place to lay him down for quick moments. We’ll still maybe take it with us when we travel.
• Swing — oh, my beloved swing. Lasted from 2 weeks of age through about 6 months. The swing saved my sanity early on, when he would only sleep in my arms, on my chest, or in that swing. I had to sleep too, ya know! I remember one afternoon lying on the floor next to it, pushing it faster than the motor would go since that’s all that would soothe him. I tried to doze. It was kinda pitiful.
• Edited to add: Bumbo seat. My pal Renee lent us her son’s Bumbo chair. Johnny fit in it for a short while, though he seemed confused as to why he was in the contraption most of the time. I thought it was cute.

Yowie kazowie, my baby is 7 months old. Still a baby for sure, but wow, seven sounds so big.

Movement

He’s rolling in all directions and can roll across a room to get to things. We still have some more baby-proofing to do, and we’d better stop wasting time!

He sits quite well but he still loses his balance sometimes.

He can prop himself up high on his belly, arching his back. He used to really dislike being on his belly, but now he doesn’t usually mind.

Words

He likes to babble and will ‘talk’ to anyone who will listen. His first recognizable babble was “mama!” I don’t count this as his first word, since I’m pretty sure he doesn’t associate me with it. He’s also now babbling “baba” and “dada.”

Potty!

Johnny can go potty in the toilet. On Saturday, he went in the potty five times! This is called “elimination communication” and we’re both still learning.

I pay attention to any possible cue he might have for when he needs to go potty. He usually needs to go right after waking up (don’t we all?) and he’ll also make a nasally whining sound. I take him right to the potty, squat him over it, and say “pssssssssss!” He then tinkles!

If he doesn’t go quickly, I take him off the seat.

I think this is pretty cool and I bet he appreciates not having a wet diaper.

I don’t know if this will help him be out of diapers any sooner, but it’s cutting down on diaper laundry and its pretty cool at the very least.

Diapers

We’ve made the switch to cloth diapers. Mostly, it was to save money over the long haul. Some estimate that one baby can go through 8,000 to 10,000 diapers before they’re no longer in them. At the rate Johnny fills his diapers, I think that range is on target.

Even with finding diapers on sale, we could still expect to spend $1,000 to $2,000 on diapers and wipes. That’s a lot of money for something you just throw away.

The second reason was to cut back on all the diaper garbage we were creating. It was a lot. Seriously, billions of diapers make their ways to landfills each year. That is ridiculous!

Finally, disposable diapers don’t work all that well. Most of the time, they hold up fine, but Johnny often pees through the diaper (especially for overnights, ugh) and there have been many poop explosions while he was in disposables — even the Pampers.

If I’m having to rinse out a poopy outfit anyway, I might as well use cloth.

The leaks that we’ve had with cloth have been mostly my fault. Didn’t have the diaper on quite right, didn’t change it quick enough, or not filled with enough absorbancy.

Car seat club

Johnny initiated me into the ‘car seat club’ a few weeks ago. We were on our way back from our first visit to a swimming pool.

[Sidebar: He didn't seem to love the pool too much. It was probably too cold for him. We'll try again if the weather will warm up!]

The kid pooped more than he ever pooped. It filled his diaper and when it couldn’t hold anymore, it eeked out the sides. It was a dispsoable and I think a cloth diaper would have also yielded a mess, but maybe not so bad.

This sludge was out of control. Thick. Foul-smelling. Awful.

I went to retrieve him from his car seat, saw the bright yellow everywhere, and had to pause for it to register what in the world had happened, and what I should do about it.

I grabbed a beach towel and wrapped him in it to keep his hands from touching the mess. Straight to the tub we went! It took many, many wipes to clean him, and then the bath took awhile also.

Back to the car, I just unlatched the carseat and brought the whole thing inside. The cover snapped off but it wasn’t machine washable, so I took care of it in the tub.

The cover took a full day to dry, so we were home-bound the following day.

When I was a baby, I guess I did a similar trick for my parents, hence my induction to the car seat club. Yay.

Food

Johnny is still nursing. Yay! I feel so fortunate that I can continue to provide the bulk of his nutrition, loads of antibodies, and unmatchable comfort.

He does seem to really enjoy solids. He’s now had rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, applesauce, sweet potato, squash, green beans, pears, and maybe a few others.

I do try to make as much of his food myself, but I also have some packaged organic baby food that I picked up at a good price.

Johnny really is becoming more fun with each passing week. It’s great to see him react to things we do. He’s growing so fast, seriously! We love him lots.