As a simple an ability as holding his head straight, turning on the floor or in your arms to look at something, completely changes the way you look at your child.
How is this not a revelation? It sneaks up on you so slowly, so carefully, it feels like waking up in the morning.
A few weeks ago I started assisting with feeding Michael solid foods. He's been eating them for months now, but Veronica wanted to make sure that (as much as is possible) he was feeding himself; at first this was essentially a mess all over the fornt of whatever he was wearing at the time, and after he got used to it he still ate very slowly. Grasping at the spoon, he'd pull the food into his mouth while getting most of it all over his mouth.
I'd get some of the food (including the bottles) ready for him every other day, either just handing off one of the pre-made jars that we'd gotten or making one from the baby-food ice cubes that Veronica had made, and he would eat it at daycare or when Veronica fed him at home. Every so often I'd feed him myself, but it felt like a slow and messy process that I didn't want to mess up by applying my approach.
At my sister's, on a trip with Veronica and Michael, I was asked multiple times to handle that part of his feeding, and he adapted quickly to my slight variation to the process (it basically involved him getting annoyed enough to grap lower on the spoon and get less of it on his face... but it also took longer).
I mention all of that, because I want to make it clear: The issue was not whether my baby son was in part feeding himself, but how he was feeding himself and how long that method took.
Now he's practically feeding himself lemons.
No, he's not crawling (though he can turn himself in a circle pretty easily and scoot forward just a tiny amount), but he'd obviously on the verge.
He's huge, he's getting bigger, and every day he's more a little boy than a baby.
It's pretty astounding.
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