William (aka the Scoocher) wants to move so badly. Over the last few weeks he has developed a technique to scooch across the floor on his bottom. It isn’t rapid movement by any stretch, but he gets where he wants to go. He isn’t fond of being on his tummy, even though Daddy is trying to convince him he will be happier once he is crawling. He can get on his hands and knees (from a seated position so far) and rock back and forth, but at this time he only goes a little backward and back to sitting or splat on his tummy.
He will launch himself forward without any regard for his body at a toy or some other object he deems worthy, sometimes from sitting or from hands and knees. He hasn’t grasped that it hurts less if you put your hands out, so your head isn’t the first thing to hit.
The Scoocher can no longer be trusted in certain rooms by himself, like with the Christmas Tree. He will make it over and pull on any ornaments within reach or put his hand on the Polar Express train track under the tree. So far we have managed not to have a massive train derailment from chubby fingers crossing the track.
He is fascinated with the lights on the tree and the train. It is fun to watch him look around at all the new things around the house trying to figure out why it is all here. Jack’s first Christmas was a blur, because he had his G-tube surgery on Dec. 19th and we were very focused on that. It is nice to enjoy a 1st Christmas without things hanging over our head.
Each year we have taken Jack in his full Christmas outfit to see Santa. So this year we took both boys in their matching Christmas vests (yes, I am that mother and there is actually a 3rd matching vest for cousin Oliver) to see Santa. I wasn’t sure what to expect with Will. Jack is now old enough that he understands Santa and looks forward to going and we managed to avoid the crying Santa photo when he was a baby. He wasn’t smiling in the first couple, but there were no tears.
I was sure that we wouldn’t get a smile out of Will (it is like pulling teeth to get the kid to smile in a photo), but I was hoping to avoid the screaming baby. We went to a smaller mall to avoid the lines and lucked out with basically no line. Jack walked right up and jumped on his lap. I took Will and sat him on the other side.
Will turns and looks at Santa like “Who in the blank are you?” I thought oh, no. The photographer had a stuffed toy that she used to get the boys focused on her and he looking at the camera. No smile, but no tears either. You could tell he was trying to figure out what was going on. After she had taken the photos Jack started talking to Santa about what he wanted for Christmas. Will decided that he wanted a big handful of Santa’s very real beard. We quickly got him to let go and decided that we should quit while we were ahead.
We managed to escape the screaming child Santa photo. I guess we have one more year that Will could possibly do it, but so far so good.
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